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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Cait Kelly and Emily Wind (earlier)

Bob Carr urges New Zealand not to join Aukus – as it happened

Bondi Queensland United States Chris Minns Julian Assange Stella Assange
Joe Biden, Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak after a trilateral meeting over the Aukus pact in San Diego last year.
Joe Biden, Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak after a trilateral meeting over the Aukus pact in San Diego last year. Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters

What we learned: Wednesday 17 April

With that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:

Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We will be back tomorrow to do it all again.

Updated

Child bitten by dingo on K’gari

Rangers are searching for a dingo after a child was bitten on K’gari, AAP has reported.

The child sustained minor injuries on Wednesday after the dingo bit them on the Queensland island formerly known as Fraser Island.

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service rangers are trying to identify the animal involved.

They say they will speak with the child’s family to understand what led to the attack and have increased patrols at Eli Creek, where the incident occurred.

Rangers have warned visitors to be vigilant around dingoes, keep children within arm’s reach, never to walk alone on K’gari and to carry a stick at all times.

Updated

NTEU says university governance needs overhauling after JCU self-reports further wage theft

The National Tertiary Education Union has called for a national overhaul of university governance after James Cook University admitted further wage theft.

James Cook University is conducting a new review after identifying “historical compliance concerns” with casual staff payments.

Early indications are that more than 7,500 current and previous staff are affected, but it is not clear how much has been underpaid.

In 2022, JCU found 2,000 staff had been underpaid superannuation benefits worth a total of $1m over an 11-year period.

University staff have suffered more than $170m in wage theft across Australia in recent years, with rampant casualisation and a broken governance model fuelling the shameful conduct.

NTEU JCU branch president, Dr Jonathan Strauss, said:

It’s essential that every cent owed to JCU staff is paid back in full.

Any underpayment is unacceptable. The NTEU will do everything in its power to ensure this money is fully recovered.

JCU is a major employer in Cairns and Townsville. It’s critical that the entire community has faith the university is paying staff, particularly their lowest paid staff, properly.

Updated

LNP in Queensland are ‘nuclear reactionaries’ who want to put off work on wind and solar, PM says

At a press conference in Queensland’s Gladstone earlier today, Anthony Albanese had the opposition’s nuclear push squarely in his sights.

The prime minister, alongside the resources minister, Madeleine King, and the Queensland premier, Steven Miles, was there to spruik a new announcement offering $400m in loans for industry projects as part of its Future Made in Australia program.

But when asked about the opposition’s criticism of relying on renewables, such as wind and power, rather than firing up nuclear reactors around the country, Albanese vowed to fight the plan at the “next election and beyond”.

“We know that [the Queensland Liberal National party’s] agenda is to put off the work that’s needed on solar and wind and renewables for this nuclear reactor plant. These people are nuclear reactionaries, [who] have taken control of the Queensland LNP and what they want is a nuclear reactor in places like here, Gladstone.”

Miles said Queensland would “not to embrace nuclear power”.

“When we have investors come to see us, they want to leverage off those renewable energy resources so that the products that they then sell to the world can have a lower carbon footprint. None of them are coming here demanding that we build nuclear reactors to deliver them nuclear power. That isn’t what these investors are looking for, and it isn’t what will attract and create jobs here.”

It follows an announcement today by Queensland’s shadow environment minister, Sam O’Connor, who announced the state Liberals would support the state Labor government’s clean economy bill, which legislates an emissions reduction target of 75% by 2035.

Updated

Analysis: is Labor’s $50bn defence overhaul in fact a spending cut as claimed by the Coalition?

Given the claims and counter-claims that are flying around today about defence funding, it might be worth taking a moment to step through the announcements.

The Labor government is saying it’ll spend $50bn extra on defence over the next decade, while the Coalition is denouncing $73bn in cuts. How can they both be true?

Well, on a big-picture level, defence spending is definitely increasing. At the moment, defence spending as a share of Australia’s entire economic output stands at 2.1%. Labor says its plans (including Aukus) will see that increase to 2.4% as a share of economic output in 10 years (2033-34).

But there is also a funding shuffle going on, partly because Labor says it is focusing on what it sees as the main priorities for defence, and partly because it is trying to rein in excessive levels of “over-programming” of the defence budget. What’s that mean? Well, Labor says the Coalition left it with a defence budget that had far more defence projects committed than funding was actually budgeted for.

So Labor is pursuing cuts, delays or scope changes to a range of defence projects (under the bland banner of “reprioritisation”) to unlock about $73bn in funding over 10 years, including $22.5bn in savings over the next four years.

These include a $10bn saving over 10 years from the previously announced decision to scale back the purchase of new infantry fighting vehicles for the Australian army; $4.1bn by not proceeding with the acquisition of two large navy support vessels; and $1.4bn from planned upgrades to Defence facilities in Canberra.

Even after these cuts are taken into account, however, the government says it has committed an extra $50.3bn for defence over the next 10 years, which includes a net increase of $5.7bn over the first four-year budget cycle.

Updated

More children and young people becoming homeless, advocates say

Australia’s housing shortage and other crises are leaving more children and young people teetering on the edge of homelessness, as campaigners call for an end to the vicious cycle, AAP has reported.

There were 122,494 people experiencing homelessness on census night in 2021, with 23% aged 12 to 24 and 14.4% under the age of 12.

Based on the figures, more than 43,000 Australian children and young people could be without a home each night.

Eamonn McCarthy, chief executive of youth homelessness charity Lighthouse Foundation, said the number of homeless youth was growing:

Mental health issues among children and young people are on the rise.

Family violence has increased and the higher cost of living, paired with the housing crisis, is pushing more children, young people and families to the brink of homelessness.

Some 268 lifesize cut-outs were placed on the steps of Victoria State Library on Wednesday to represent the most recent figure of people under 25 sleeping rough in the City of Melbourne area.

Updated

New Zealand has ‘been less gullible’ than Australia over US alliance: Bob Carr

The former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr has urged New Zealand not to acquiesce to American interests and join up to Aukus as an associate member, AAP has reported.

Carr is visiting Wellington this week to be part of a foreign policy symposium at New Zealand’s Parliament House alongside former prime minister Helen Clark.

The pair are strident critics of Aukus, the military alliance between Australia, the UK and United States that will see Australia kitted out with nuclear-powered submarines.

They also oppose New Zealand’s involvement in pillar two of the pact, which aims to bring together a broader clutch of like-minded nations – like Canada, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand – with Aukus members to share advanced military technologies.

After arriving in New Zealand on Wednesday, Carr said he admired New Zealand’s free-thinking international outlook, and Kiwis should not give it up.

I think New Zealand has showed more independence and realism in its foreign policy and been less gullible about American blandishments than Australia.

Why you’d surrender that, I don’t know.

Updated

More than 500 horses found slaughtered on property in Wagga Wagga

More than 500 horses have been found slaughtered on a property near Wagga Wagga in regional New South Wales.

Wagga Wagga city council, which led the joint investigation into the incident, said it had received reports that horses had been butchered at a private property and their carcasses left in a dry creek bed.

In a statement, the council said:

Once the inspection of the property commenced it became clear that the slaughtering of horses had been occurring for a long period of time.

Numerous separate dumps of carcasses were discovered at locations throughout the property.

It is estimated that there are in excess of 500 horse carcasses. Some of these carcasses were no more than skeletal remains while others were killed relatively recently.

Racing NSW, NSW police, the NSW Food Authority, Local Land Services and the department of primary industries also joined the investigation and “began collecting evidence for possible offences and regulatory actions under a range of NSW State Government legislation,” the council said.

Updated

‘Weakness is provocative’: Hastie says Labor’s $50bn ADF plan amounts to spending cut

Andrew Hastie said the Coalition was committed to more defence expenditure than the Albanese government, and claimed the ADF would be worse off under this plan.

Australia needed a big defence budget, Hastie said:

Weakness is provocative. If you want to defend Australia, you’ve got to be strong. You’ve got to make people think twice about having a crack at Australia. And, you know, Richard Marles today made the point that we are a maritime island trading nation.

A lot of our imports travel across the ocean, as do our exports. And so what happens in the Red Sea does matter. We can’t just pretend that we live in the Indo-Pacific, and the rest of the world has no impact on us. Of course it does.

Updated

Shadow defence minister says Coalition will commit to more defence spending than Labor

The shadow defence minister, Andrew Hastie, has been talking in Canberra about the government unveiling a $50bn increase to defence spending over the next decade. While some projects have been deferred or cut, the Labor government says overall defence funding will rise to be worth 2.4% of gross domestic product within 10 years.

Hastie said:

Defence funding will be higher under a Dutton-led government than under an Albanese government.

Pressed to clarify whether that meant the Coalition was now committing to match the 2.4% of GDP target within a decade, Hastie said:

Yes. We are committing to more defence expenditure than the Albanese government …

If it is true that we are living in the most dangerous times since the end of the second world war, then we need to be investing more in defence, not less. And what [Albanese] announced today was an additional $72.8bn worth of cuts.

Updated

Deportation bill breaches rights and requires extensive amendment: committee

Parliament’s joint committee on human rights has issued a report bucketing the Albanese government’s controversial deportation bill.

The committee is chaired by the Labor MP Josh Burns, and includes on its membership Labor MPs Alicia Payne, Graham Perrett and senator Jana Stewart.

The committee said that although the “intention” is to protect the integrity of the migration system “by requiring certain non-citizens to do things that would facilitate their removal from Australia, non-compliance with which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of one year imprisonment” the bill “engages and limits numerous human rights”.

Mandatory minimum sentences of a year in prison for refusing to comply with a direction are “incompatible with the rights to liberty and to a fair trial, as mandatory sentencing removes judicial discretion to take into account all of the relevant circumstances of a particular case and may lead to the imposition of disproportionate or unduly harsh sentences of imprisonment”.

The bill may also breach rights to privacy, assembly, association, expression and flow on to other rights including protection of family, rights of the child and risks “that some individual cases may engage the absolute prohibition against non-refoulement”.

The committee noted the bill has already passed the lower house, but is yet to be considered by the Senate.

It recommended extensive amendments to:

  • Remove mandatory minimum sentences for non-compliance with a removal pathway direction.

  • Remove the section qualifying what a “reasonable excuse” may constitute for the purposes of the offence of non-compliance with a removal pathway direction.

  • Remove the power of the immigration minister to prescribe further visa classes for the purposes of non-citizens on a removal pathway.

  • Amend proposed section 199C to further limit the things which the minister may direct a person to do (or refrain from doing) pursuant to a removal pathway direction and establish a maximum period of time a direction may be in force.

Updated

Many thanks for joining me on the blog today. Cait Kelly will be here to take you through the remainder of our rolling coverage today. Take care.

Updated

‘My job is to bring the nation together,’ PM says

Speaking to the media, Anthony Albanese said he would travel back to Canberra this afternoon for a face-to-face national security meeting after the stabbing attack in western Sydney on Monday night.

As for what has occurred in Sydney on Monday night, violent extremism has no place in this country. Violence has no place in this country, our police need to be respected at all times, and people should allow them to go about their job. These are men and women who put themselves at risk in order to keep us safe, and we should respect them.

The prime minister said he was “very concerned about the lack of respect that we saw on Monday night in Sydney” and would continue to monitor and receive reports from police.

At a time like this my job as prime minister is to try to do my best to bring the nation together, to make sure that we concentrate on what unites us, not what divides us. Every person should be able to go about their shopping, or express their faith, without any risk being involved with that.

Updated

Albanese outlines $400m in loans for industry projects in Queensland

The prime minister has been speaking to the media from Gladstone in Queensland alongside the state’s premier, Steven Miles, about $400m in loans for industry projects.

For all of our non-early risers, Josh Butler covered the specifics of the deal earlier in the blog here.

Updated

Continued from last post:

James Trezise, director of the Biodiversity Council, countered Graeme Samuel’s position with a “dose of reality”, pointing to one example of a critically endangered fish in the Snowy River system, the yalmy Galaxias.

The species was thought to have about 2,500 individuals left before the 2019-20 bushfires. A post-fire survey detected only two individuals, one male and one female:

We don’t know if that species is still there. We don’t know if that species has gone extinct or not. It was listed as critically endangered last year.

Trezise said, theoretically, an improved set of nature laws would mean there was a threat abatement and recovery planning system “that tells us in real time and immediately what we need to be doing to stop that species disappearing off the brink”.

We don’t have that. And we don’t know when that system is going to be fixed. And that is deeply problematic.

Updated

Environment groups respond to argument they should ‘take a chill pill’

At the hearing of the Senate’s extinctions inquiry, environment groups have responded to earlier statements by the former competition watchdog head Graeme Samuel, who said they should “take a chill pill” about the pace of the government’s changes to nature laws.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Brendan Sydes reminded the hearing that groups had been consulting with governments about the state of Australia’s environmental protections since 2019.

We’ve got a state of the environment report, we’ve got a nature positive plan – promise, after promise, after promise … about the urgent need for these reforms.

And yet, here we are, being told that it needs to be delayed, or it’s not happening now or in one chunk like was originally promised, it will come at some stage as part of ‘stage three’.

I think it’s completely understandable why we’d be frustrated and disappointed with the progress.

Updated

More details on vigil for Bondi Junction victims this Sunday

Local politicians are now speaking to the media from Bondi, after the announcement that a candlelight vigil will be held this Sunday.

Queen Elizabeth Drive will be closed from the Saturday night before, Waverley mayor Paula Masselos said, and there will be “quite a lot” of security:

Because we could have two or three thousand people to 20,000 people, we just don’t know how many people will want to come. But we are planning for a large number of people, and I can assure people we are working to make it as safe as possible.

All tiers of government are working together on the event, with NSW police working alongside Waverley council to ensure the event will run safely and smoothly.

Updated

Candlelit vigil for Bondi Junction victims to be held on Sunday

A candlelight vigil will be held to pay tribute to the victims of last weekend’s stabbing attack in Sydney’s Bondi Junction.

Six people died and many more were injured when 40-year-old Joel Cauchi went on an unprovoked stabbing rampage through the busy Westfield shopping centre.

Waverley council and the New South Wales government have arranged a vigil to honour the victims, at 5.30pm this Sunday at the Dolphin Court at Bondi beach.

There will be a minute’s silence in honour of those whose lives were lost. Attenders are asked to bring their own candle to take part in the vigil and take candles home at the end of the event.

The government says it will work with families affected by the tragedy at a later date regarding a formal memorial service and a permanent memorial site.

The premier, Chris Minns, announced plans for the vigil this afternoon. In a statement, he said:

This has been a devastating attack that’s touched everybody in the state, whether you knew one of the victims or not.

This vigil will be an opportunity for the community to stand together to support and honour the victims and survivors of this horrific tragedy.

I hope they can draw some strength from the fact that there’s many people that are standing with them during this time.

Updated

James Cook University identifies historical compliance concerns around payments to casual staff

James Cook University is conducting a payroll review after identifying “historical compliance concerns” with payments of casual staff.

The review follows an assessment of the university’s payroll systems and processes which found JCU had not upheld its enterprise agreement for minimum hours worked by staff.

In a statement, the university acknowledged “some employees may not have been paid correctly”, while not disclosing specific amounts.

The university’s vice-chancellor, Prof Simon Biggs, said the university was committed to resolving the issue and had self-reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman:

As the review is in its initial stages, further details including the number of staff members affected are still to be determined. I can confirm that unfortunately, some historical issues have been identified and we deeply regret these. I’d like to assure impacted staff that any required remediation is considered a matter of urgency by the university.

Updated

Climate council calls for ‘climate trigger’ to be embedded in Australia’s nature laws

The climate council’s head of policy and advocacy, Jennifer Rayner, has criticised the Albanese government’s decision to delay large parts of its promised environment legislation, telling the Senate inquiry into the extinction crisis that “glaciers are literally melting while this reform moves forward at a glacial pace”.

Rayner reiterated earlier calls from the conservation movement, as well as the Greens and crossbench, for climate change to be embedded in Australia’s nature laws through mechanisms such as a climate trigger:

The biggest gap in these reforms at the moment is that there is no substantive proposal to deal with climate change.

The existing laws fail to adequately address the climate effects of developments.

Rayner said this meant the creation of a new agency to enforce compliance with the law, as the government has proposed, “doesn’t help the climate when there’s nothing in the law that companies would be complying with”.

Updated

Groups want environmental law overhaul delivered in this term of government

Environment groups have called on the Albanese government to announce a timeline for when it will finalise and introduce legislation to overhaul Australia’s failing national environmental laws and ensure it will happen in this term of government.

It follows the government’s announcement yesterday it was carving up its planned legislation and would introduce laws to establish two new bodies – an environment protection agency and an environment information agency – in coming weeks. A broader package of reforms, including national environment standards, has been delayed.

The groups told a Senate inquiry that the government’s plan to introduce legislation for the new agencies would, on its own, not deliver on the government’s commitment to zero new extinctions.

Brendan Sydes from the Australian Conservation Foundation said:

We need the comprehensive reforms that have been promised and they need to be progressed urgently … because we know that things change after elections.

Alexia Wellbelove from the Australian Marine Conservation Society said the two new bodies would represent a “good start” but on their own they “are not what nature needs” and “will not enable the government to meet its commitments to protect the reef or prevent the extinction of species like the Maugean skate”.

Updated

Returning to Victoria’s Indigenous truth-telling inquiry

Going back to Victoria’s treaty discussions at the Indigenous truth-telling inquiry, co-chair Rueben Berg is outlining future negotiations for a statewide treaty agreement.

Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly is expected to begin negotiating a statewide treaty with the state government in the coming months.

Asked about how the state government could deal with potential redress, Berg says a position has not been determined but it is an “ongoing part of considerations”.

Berg says the state’s treaty process will create a “path forward”:

There is a path forward through treaty and that will lead us to that treaty future that I aspire to, which is where our community and our culture is at the heart of our daily lives.

Updated

Indigenous businesses worth $16bn to Australian economy, new research shows

A new report shows that revenue from the Indigenous business ecosystem is worth at least $16bn, equivalent to the national timber industry.

The Indigenous Business and Corporation Snapshot 3.0 was released today and said the Indigenous business sector employs 116,795 people (as many as the Coles group) with a wage bill of $4.2bn.

A statement from the University of Melbourne said the report was the “most comprehensive longitudinal research project to date exploring the breadth and impact of Indigenous entrepreneurial activity”. The latest report is based on data collected in 2022.

The report authors say despite the large sample size of almost 14,000 businesses, there are still many enterprises that have not been captured in this latest report, and the research reveals the enormous potential of the Indigenous business sector.

Associate professor Michelle Evans, lead researcher and director of the Dilin Duwa Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership, said:

… The contribution of Indigenous businesses is not just the monetary amount – there is also the story of Indigenous self-determination through the vehicle of business, the local benefits of businesses especially in regional Australia such as employment and contribution to infrastructure, and the sharing of cultural knowledge which is crucial to the world’s oldest continuing culture.

Updated

French ambassador praises citizens who assisted during Bondi Junction attack

France’s ambassador to Australia, Pierre-André Imbert, has released a statement following the mass stabbing at Bondi Junction at the weekend.

He expressed his condolences to the victims, their families and friends and commended the two French citizens who stepped up to protect shoppers:

The horrific events that took place in a Sydney shopping centre on Saturday, claiming the lives of six people and injuring a dozen more in Westfield Bondi Junction, were a senseless act of violence.

Our thoughts, compassion and solidarity are with the victims, their families and friends.

That two French citizens, Damien Guerot and Silas Despreaux, attempted to prevent the assailant from approaching shoppers during the attack is commendable.

I praise both men for showing courage in the face of violence and have personally conveyed my gratitude for their bravery to them.

Updated

Race discrimination commissioner urges unity in wake of Sydney attacks

Australia’s race discrimination commissioner has urged communities to embrace compassion and reject division following the two stabbing attacks in Sydney this week.

​Giridharan Sivaraman said, like the rest of the country, he has been “left numb and broken by the tragic events that have occurred” and extended his condolences to all impacted.

Sivaraman also expressed concern over reports of racism, divisive rhetoric, and mis- and dis-information around the attacks:

With incidents of the nature that we have seen, there is a heightened risk of racism. Following the Bondi tragedy, I was very concerned by the antisemitic and Islamophobic commentary that flooded parts of social media – as some, ignorantly or even malevolently, attempted to wrongly apportion blame for the attacks.

Communities shouldn’t be tarred by the actions of individuals. There is no place in our country, or anywhere, for racism of any kind. I urge all Australians to reject those who try to divide us and find ways, in our common humanity, to rise above.

Updated

Lifeblood sees increase in appointments across NSW following tragedy at weekend

New South Wales health minister Ryan Park said teams at Lifeblood have seen a large influx of appointments across the state since the Bondi Junction mass stabbing on Saturday.

In a post to Instagram, Park said:

Over the last few days, I’ve been touched by the remarkable outreach of warmth and connection within our community, with many people coming together asking how they can help.

Donating blood is always an easy, free and constructive way to lend a hand to our frontline workers and provides a lifesaving resource for those impacted by incidents like these.

I met with the wonderful team at Lifeblood on Monday who have already seen a large influx of appointments in NSW as people respond to the weekend’s tragedy.

Updated

Marles points to previous governments when questioned on timeline for ADF improvements and acquisitions

Another reporter has honed in on Richard Marles’s 10-year window comment, and pointed out that 90% of the funding outlined today doesn’t come in for half a decade.

Ben Westcott from Bloomberg asked:

The Aukus subs don’t get here until the 2030s, neither do the six large optimally crewed surface vessels … Only in 2031 and beyond do we find the delivery of an ADF that’s fit for purpose across all domains. How can we afford to wait so long?

Marles points to former governments and responds with: “The best time to have acted on all this would have been 10, 20 years ago, but the second best time to act on it is now.”

That’s the reality of what we face.

He says the best people to answer this question were previous governments and says, “we inherited the circumstances that we found and we are dealing with them now”.

Too often what we’ve seen in the past is procurements where people seek to have all the bells and whistles put on top, and that’s a recipe for ensuring we go beyond budget and beyond time, and we don’t have a capability at all. So we’re doing minimum viable capability. There’s no waiting. We are getting this done as quickly as humanly possible, given the mess we inherited.

Updated

Marles: government 'utterly committed' to following through on Brereton recommendations

Our very own Daniel Hurst has asked Richard Marles about the Brereton inquiry – he noted that on 15 May last year the defence chief provided advice around holding commanders accountable, including the potential to cancel any honours or awards.

11 months later, why has it taken so long to make a decision on this?

Marles said the Brereton report was a “hugely significant piece of work in response to appalling allegations”, with recommendations offering a “defining opportunity for our nation to do right in the face of wrong”.

Marles said the government is “utterly committed” to following through on the recommendations to the fullest extent.

You’re right in the timing you have described. Those are on my desk now and are very much front and centre and we’ll complete that work.

Timing, in respect of that, is not as important as thoroughness and getting those decisions right. So that’s what I’m focused on. We’ll take the time to do this thoroughly to get it right, but we’ll get it done. Because history will judge us on the extent to which we follow through on Brereton and we mean to do that fully.

Marles could not say whether that work would be completed this year.

Updated

Marles expands on ‘10-year strategic window’ comment

A reporter asks Richard Marles about a comment he made during his speech, that Australia “no longer has the luxury of a 10-year window of strategic warning time for conflict.”

Marles said new capabilities, specifically nuclear powered submarines in the 2030s and beyond, “will be the single most important military platform that we bring to bear.”

But what about the next 10 years, he is asked?

The answer to your question is we need to be doing this as soon as we can, but none of this happens overnight. But in preference to extending existing platforms today versus acquiring new platforms that we can have up and running in the next 10 years, we choose the latter, we choose the latter because it is that strategic problem we are trying to solve.

Updated

Marles calls for bipartisan support around defence funding

Back at the National Press Club where Richard Marles is continuing to take questions.

Regarding the amount of funds allocated for defence, Marles says “this is the biggest commitment, in terms of increasing the defence budget over the forward estimates, in decades”.

He claims this stands in “stark contrast” to what the Albanese government inherited, and calls for bipartisan support when it comes to defence:

The decision really is now for the Liberals, because these things happen over a long period of time. For the people in this room, for the Australian public, have a sense of confidence that that will occur, there needs to be bipartisan support around it and right now there is not.

Updated

Body found after search for missing snorkeller

A body has been found after a snorkeller went missing off Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, AAP reports.

A 60-year-old Reservoir man planned to go snorkelling at Sorrento Ocean beach on Saturday morning. He was seen near the water but did not return, triggering a major search.

A beachgoer found a body at the beach this morning, with police confident it is that of the missing man.

A report will be prepared for the coroner but the death is not being treated as suspicious.

Updated

Marles on ‘the strategic cat that we are trying to skin’

Richard Marles says Australia, as a medium power, is “never going to bring to bear the kind of military capability that exists in the United States or China”.

He said trying to be their peers is not the goal of the defence strategy, but instead:

The strategic problem that we are trying to meet, that we’re trying to solve, is making sure that in a much less certain world in the future, we are able to resist coercion, and maintain Australia’s way of life. That is the strategic cat that we are trying to skin.

Updated

Richard Marles says government has taken Aukus ‘from a concept into a reality’

Turning to the Aukus pact, Richard Marles says the government has taken it “from a concept and turned it into reality” over the last two years.

He said the acquisition of Virginia-class submarines from the US, a decade earlier than planned, had “closed the capability gap on our future submarines”. And he said the decision to operate the same future class of submarines as the UK means “we will be sharing the risk of the biggest industrial endeavour in our country’s history”.

Marles says:

Infrastructure at HMAS Stirling in Perth and the Osborne naval shipyard in Adelaide is being built today. The Australian submarine agency exists today. Australian submariners are being trained to operate our future nuclear-powered submarines in the US today. Our industrial workforce, which will maintain and build our submarines, is being trained in the US and the UK today. And the sovereign submarine partners that will build and maintain our future submarines have been chosen and are up and running today.

Marles’s speech has wrapped up and he is starting to take questions from reporters.

Updated

Marles outlines defence cuts and says it’s a ‘fantasy’ that ‘we can do it all’

Back to the press club, where defence minister Richard Marles is continuing to outline the national defence strategy.

He has outlined a number of cuts to defence, stating:

Just as important as what we are doing are the decisions we have taken about what we are not. Meaningful change and meaningful focus cannot happen without meaningful choices. To proceed on the basis that we can do it all, where no government has ever funded it all, is both a fantasy and it’s dishonest. But most critically, a weakness in not being able to make a difficult decision fundamentally compromises strategic planning.

Here is what Marles outlined:

  • The number of infantry fighting vehicles has been reduced from 450 to 129 following last year’s defence strategic review.

  • $1.4bn has been taken from planned enhancements to defence facilities in Canberra to be reinvested in operational bases, such as RAAF bases in Darwin and Townsville.

  • Defence was going to acquire two large support vessels but Marles said the focus has shifted and the vessels are no longer a priority, leading to savings of $120m over the next four years and $4.1bn over the decade.

Updated

Queensland LNP will support state government's clean energy bill

Queensland’s Liberal National party will support the state government’s clean economy bill which legislates an emissions reduction target of 75% by 2035.

Shadow environment minister Sam O’Connor has told parliament he “recognises the threat of climate change to our environment.”

We must do all we can to become more sustainable so Queenslanders for many generations to come can continue to enjoy the unrivalled natural beauty our state is defined by.

Updated

ASF17 hearing continues in the high court

After the morning break in the high court Craig Lenehan, counsel for AZC20 who also represented NZYQ, submitted that there is “no duty” of detainees to cooperate with deportation in the Migration Act.

Lenehan accepted that an “intransigent” detainee who it “can be predicted will be intransigent into the future” will have to be released.

Lenehan said that Justice Craig Colvin and the commonwealth were relying on a “new legal rule not to be found” in NZYQ about a duty to cooperate, but the question of whether deportation is possible is strictly a factual one.

Lenehan faced a barrage of questions about what would constitute a “good reason” and how courts could decide such factual questions. He submitted that mental incapacity and fear would both be a “good reason” to refuse to cooperate with removal.

This is significant – as it may indicate the high court does not accept the primary argument that people can refuse to cooperate for any reason, and may decide the case on the secondary point of what is an acceptable reason to refuse.

The solicitor general, Stephen Donaghue, is now up presenting the commonwealth’s case. Donaghue submitted that NZYQ had not dealt with the issue of uncooperative detainees.

Donaghue said the commonwealth should be able to detain people “who it would be practicable to remove” if they cooperate and the detainees “are capable of cooperating with that removal” but they nevertheless refuse.

Updated

Daniel Hurst’s article on the national defence strategy is now live, which you can read below for all the details:

Marles: national defence strategy transforms ADF to ‘survive in much less certain world’

More than a year ago, the defence strategic review warned that the ADF was structured for “a bygone era” and the security environment was “radically different”.

Richard Marles says the national defence strategy will transform the ADF and equip it “to survive in a much less certain world”.

Marles says Australia’s national security “actually lies in the heart of our region”, because “the defence of Australia does not mean much without the collective security of the region in which we live”.

He says the national defence strategy reaffirms the complexity of our strategic circumstances:

The optimistic assumptions that guided defence planning after the end of the cold war are long gone. Our environment is characterised by the uncertainty and tensions of entrenched and increasing strategic competition between the United States and China, large-scale war has returned to the European continent and conflict is once again gripping the Middle East. This competition is accompanied by an unprecedented conventional and non-conventional military build-up in our region, taking place without strategic reassurance or transparency …

Australia no longer has the luxury of a 10-year window of strategic warning time for conflict.

Updated

Richard Marles unveils national defence strategy, including extra $50bn spending over 10 years

Defence minister Richard Marles has just begun speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, where he is announcing the national defence strategy.

Australia will pour an extra $50bn into defence spending over the next 10 years as part of the overhaul, which the federal government says will ensure the military can project power further from its shores.

Marles has also flagged plans to recruit non-citizens to serve in the Australian defence force to address workforce shortages.

Releasing two major defence planning documents, Marles said the Albanese government would be spending $50.3bn extra on defence over the next 10 years, when compared against the trajectory inherited from the Coalition.

That includes an extra $5.7bn over the first four-year budget cycle, in a sign that most of the funding is for the medium to long term. The Coalition has repeatedly argued the key test for Marles is how much funding he can secure in the looming budget.

This immediate funding includes $1bn over the next four years for long-range strike, targeting and autonomous systems. The Aukus nuclear-powered submarines are another key spending area for defence.

Updated

Graeme Samuel says he still believes regional forest agreements should be axed

Still at the hearing, Graeme Samuel was critical of “naysayers” in Western Australia, including the state’s mining industry, that had been running a campaign of “negative publicity” against improved environmental protections.

He said the mining community and Western Australia “need to understand” that the reforms his review proposed were designed to protect and recover Australia’s threatened species and ecosystems while also simplifying the assessment process businesses had to follow.

Samuel also gave evidence that he remained of the view that Australia’s existing nature laws were an “abysmal failure” and said he still believed regional forest agreements (RFA) - which provide an effective exemption for the native logging industry from federal environmental laws – should be axed.

It seems to me that if we don’t deal with this, and deal with it long before 2030, we are neglecting a fundamental element of the habitat for species, whether they be threatened or whether they’re going to go on to the threatened species list

The government has not proposed doing this but has said it would require RFAs to be consistent with national standards, when they are introduced.

Updated

Graeme Samuel says new national environmental standards ‘essential’

The centrepiece of Samuel’s recommended reforms, new national environmental standards, as well as a broader suite of laws, have been deferred to an unspecified date, prompting accusations the government had broken a promise to bring a single package of legislation to parliament. Tanya Plibersek could not guarantee the wider reforms would be introduced in this term of government.

Samuel backed the splitting up of the bills and said he believed the proposed EPA would improve enforcement of the law. He felt other aspects of the reform were being considered as part of an “orderly” and “really complex” process.

He was pressed by Liberal senator Jonno Duniam on whether the government’s new approach was consistent with the recommendations of his own review.

The review recommended three tranches of reform, with the final tranche to be a full rewrite of Australia’s national laws.

But the establishment in law of new national environmental standards was recommended as an immediate priority in the first tranche of reforms.

Samuel told the hearing he understood for “legal reasons” standards had been pushed back to a later stage.

We put some draft NES (national environmental standards) into the report, but they clearly needed further work and they’re being developed.

Asked by the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young whether he still felt the standards were central to new nature laws, Samuel said:

I think they’re essential, Senator.

Updated

Ex ACCC chief Graeme Samuel to conservation groups: ‘Take a chill pill’

Graeme Samuel, the former ACCC chairman who led a review of Australia’s failing national environmental laws, has told a Senate inquiry that conservation groups concerned about the pace of the Albanese government’s changes to environment laws should “take a chill pill”.

While appearing at a hearing of the Senate’s inquiry into the extinction crisis, he said:

I would say, just sit and wait, take a chill pill.

I think you will find that what we’re going to get will satisfy all their aspirations as set out in the nature positive plan that the minister [Tanya Plibersek] announced some time ago.

On Tuesday, the environment and water minister Tanya Plibersek confirmed the government would split up its proposed legislation and would introduce bills for a new environment protection agency and an environment information agency in coming weeks.

Updated

Victorian First Peoples’ Assembly says treaty negotiations to discuss financial redress

Victoria’s First People’s Assembly has flagged financial redress will be on the table when the body begins negotiating a statewide treaty with the state government in the coming months.

The assembly – the democratically elected Indigenous body – is appearing at Victoria’s Indigenous truth-telling commission. The assembly will begin negotiating a statewide treaty with the Allan government this year.

Ngarra Murray, co-chair of the assembly, says financial redress will be discussed during treaty negotiations:

No amount of money, and I don’t want to tally it up either, can compensate for the pain and suffering that our people have felt but that will be a discussion for negotiations.

Updated

Queensland treaty minister accuses LNP of ‘turning backs’ on First Nations people

Queensland’s treaty minister, Leeanne Enoch, has accused the Liberal National party of “turning their backs” on First Nations people after the party backflipped on its support for the path to treaty.

Enoch’s fiery response in state parliament today came after LNP MP John-Paul Langbroek asked whether tax exemptions would be included in the government’s path to treaty process.

Enoch slammed the LNP, claiming any question the party asked about treaty was “about undermining treaty”.

The member and all those opposite voted in favour ... and then backflipped on treaty and turned their back on the First Nations peoples of this state.

Enoch said bodies of work were underway, including the establishment of a treaty institute and a truth-telling and healing inquiry.

Those two bodies of work that are being finalised currently will help to guide what treaty will look like in this state.

Updated

That press conference with Westfield Bondi Junction’s management is wrapping up, so here were the main points:

  • The shopping centre will reopen from 11am to 5pm tomorrow for a community reflection day.

  • There will be a dedicated spot for people to leave tributes, which will remain for some time.

  • The shopping centre will reopen for normal trading hours on Friday, however some retailers may chose not to reopen on that date.

  • There will be an increased police presence on both Thursday and Friday.

  • A more long-term memorial will be discussed with victim’s families.

Updated

Part of Westfield Bondi Junction centre to be allocated for tributes

The community reflection day will occur from 11am to 5pm, management confirmed.

He said “a part of the centre” will be cordoned off for people to leave tributes, wreaths and flowers. This will remain “for a considerable period of time” so people can pay their respects.

In terms of a longer term memorial, the spokesperson said this would be considered in conjunction with victims’ families in time.

Westfield management honour staff member Faraz Tahir

The Westfield spokesperson has acknowledged Faraz Tahir, the security staff member killed on Saturday.

He said Tahir’s family is on their way from overseas.

Our team member came to this country as a refugee from Pakistan seeking a safer life and it’s with great tragedy and sadness that in our country … he hasn’t been able to experience that.

We’re working with [his] family, we’re working with all the victims’ families, in how we support, both financially and non-financially, in how they grieve and move forward from the tragedy that occurred here on Saturday.

‘Very emotional experience’ as victims families visit Bondi Junction Westfield

The spokesperson acknowledged that the family members of victims were provided the opportunity to visit the centre yesterday.

It’s a private matter for those victims’ families in choosing whether they would come and I won’t go into the specifics of who came, but I will say [that some] did come.

I was with those families yesterday. It was a very emotional experience. We have had that opportunity to provide that reflection moment while the centre remained closed for the families of the victims that tragically passed here.

Updated

Westfield trade to resume Friday

The Bondi Junction Westfield spokesperson said tomorrow’s reflection day would be quiet, allowing for community reflection.

Those quiet settings will continue on Friday.

The centre will reopen for normal trading on Friday. Both tomorrow and Friday there will be an increased security presence, the spokesperson said.

Updated

Bondi Junction Westfield to reopen tomorrow for community reflection day

The operators of the Westfield shopping centre at Bondi Junction said the centre would reopen for a community reflection day tomorrow.

The shopping centre was the site of a mass stabbing attack on Saturday, where six people were killed by Joel Cauchi.

There will be no retail trade tomorrow. Instead the centre will be open for members of the community to visit the centre, to walk through the centre, and to pay their respects. There will be counselling services available on site in order to provide resources to all who need.

Updated

Three teenagers to face court after fatal stabbing in western Sydney

Three teenage boys will appear in court today charged with murder, after a fatal stabbing in Doonside last week.

Last Friday afternoon emergency services were called to reports two teenagers had allegedly been stabbed on Power Street. Before police attended, two men aged 18 and 19 presented to Blacktown police station with stab wounds.

They were treated by officers until paramedics arrived, however the 18-year-old died at the scene. The 19-year-old was taken to Westmead hospital and underwent surgery, and has since been discharged.

Following inquiries two boys, aged 16 and 17, were charged and remain before the courts.

Meanwhile three boys – two aged 15 and one 16-year-old – were arrested after attending Blacktown police station overnight. They have each been charged with murder and causing wounding/grievous bodily harm to a person with the intent to murder.

They have all been refused bail to appear at a children’s court today.

Updated

Farm gate price trial introduced as part of Queensland supermarket inquiry

Queensland farmers will be offered practical workshops around negotiating with the supermarket giants amid the state’s supermarket inquiry, AAP reports.

Premier Steven Miles says an industry-led farm gate price monitoring scheme will be trialled across the top 20 products from farmers and growers.

The financial performance, weekly wholesale price and retail price data of farmers will be monitored under the scheme, in a bid to give farmers information and skills to effectively negotiate better deals with Australia’s supermarket giants.

Miles said workshops for farmers will be held in each major growing region and a production cost best practice model will be established for growers to better understand profitability and risk.

The state government’s supermarket pricing inquiry has had its submissions deadline extended to 19 April.

Updated

Judicial pushback on uncooperative detainees

Back at the high court, where ASF17’s counsel Lisa De Ferrari is getting some serious pushback from the bench.

Justice James Edelman distils the case down to two points: “Anyone for any reason can refuse to be removed anywhere, and nothing in the act prevents that for whatever reason they want – they would have to be released.”

And the second argument that, if cooperation does matter, the person can’t be detained if they have a “good reason” for refusing removal.

Justice Jacqueline Gleeson suggested that the conclusion of ASF17’s argument is that “any detainee could manipulate the system by rejecting a removal – [and] that would lead to the result that their detention is punitive”.

De Ferrari rejected the characterisation “manipulation of the system” but agreed if a detainee refuses to cooperate the constitutional limit will be reached and they have to be let out.

Gleeson said this meant “a detainee can make a choice to [reject removal and thereby] affect the characterisation of detention and render it punitive”.

Earlier, chief justice Stephen Gageler drew De Ferrari to the central paragraph of Justice Craig Colvin’s reasons:

In determining whether there is a real prospect of a detainee’s removal from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future, there is to be regard to all voluntary actions that may be undertaken by the detained person to assist in their removal irrespective of whether the detainee is refusing to undertake those actions in respect of removal to a particular place because of a genuine subjective fear of harm if removed to that place.

Updated

Thunderstorms possible for northern inland, coast of New South Wales today

As we flagged just a moment ago, the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting severe thunderstorms for parts of New South Wales today.

Severe storms with heavy rainfall and large hail are possible in the north-east, while thunderstorms are possible across much of the northern inland and coast, the Bureau said.

Updated

‘We pride ourselves on being a very safe community’: Fairfield mayor

The mayor of Fairfield has described the mood in his community after the stabbing attack at a Wakeley church on Monday night.

Frank Carbone spoke to ABC News Breakfast earlier this morning and said to have this happen “really does knock us about”.

No-one takes it harder than the Fairfield community where we’re hardest on ourselves, because we pride ourselves on being a very family-orientated, very safe community and many people that live in this area have actually … come from overseas for peace and quiet. We pride ourselves on that.

Carbone said the church leaders in his community from different faiths are united and condemn what occurred. He is also planning to sit down with the council and see what can be done to support the community during this time.

Updated

BoM forecasts severe thunderstorms for Cape York Peninsula

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting severe thunderstorms with heavy rainfall over the north-east Cape York Peninsula in Queensland.

Thunderstorms are also possible in the far north and north-west, and in southern Queensland, the Bureau said. It also flagged possible severe thunderstorms in NSW.

Updated

New research shows why young Australian women reluctant to enter politics

For many young women the appeal of becoming a politician is diminished by a belief that parliament maintains a masculine, misogynistic culture, new research has found.

The research from Monash University found that women were also more likely to doubt their ability to participate in politics than their male counterparts.

Dr Zareh Ghazarian, head of politics and international relations at the university, said:

Our research shows that young women feel parliament is not a place for them. Social constraints, sexism and toxic parliamentary culture is contributing to entrenched gender disparity.

The research used data from the Our Lives longitudinal research study, following a cohort of young Queenslanders from adolescence into adulthood. They were interviewed in the weeks prior to the May 2022 election.

Participants expressed concern about how safe the national parliamentary workplace was, particularly for women. The research also found participants were less likely to tackle the issues from within, preferring to avoid the environment altogether.

The report concluded greater efforts need to be made to advance the political ambitions of women, through confidence building and opportunities for participation. Ghazarian said:

Without addressing these entrenched issues, women’s political under representation and an exclusionary masculine culture will continue to mar young people’s political ambitions and the practical operation of Australia’s liberal democracy.

‘Take me to Gaza’: appellant willing to go anywhere but Iran

Back at the high court where Lisa De Ferrari, ASF17’s counsel, is developing her submission that her client was willing to go anywhere but Iran.

She notes that in the federal court, ASF17 had said he would be prepared to go anywhere, including the high seas. Under cross-examination he had even challenged the commonwealth to “take me to Gaza” and insisted this wasn’t a rhetorical flourish, he said he had “a better chance there than Iran”.

Justice Robert Beech-Jones summarises the argument that ASF17 is being “characterised as uncooperative” because the commonwealth focused only on one country, but “if we looked at a broader range of countries ... [he] could’ve gone to Canada”. De Ferrari agrees.

De Ferrari is rejecting the idea that ASF17 was in “three-walled detention” because he could have agreed to return to Iran. She argues that, because Iran doesn’t accept involuntary removals, her client “would’ve had to lie and say he was a voluntary returnee”.

De Ferrari summarised the commonwealth’s case:

If we put you in detention on 1 January, 2015 and 1 February it becomes clear you’re not going to assist us with going to country X, and country X is the only country by policy we’re going to look at. The constitutional limitation is not reached and will never be reached, because we know you’re not going to change your mind. That’s the logical conclusion of the argument put below.

Updated

El Niño is over, but what comes next?

We’ll find out within a few months, but we might get the first three La Niñas, then an El Niño, and back to La Niña, over a five-year period.

If so, it would be the latest run of “climate firsts” as the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases keep rising ever higher.

Here’s a look at how this is playing out in Peter Hannam’s piece from yesterday:

Updated

Government failed to look for third country resettlement for ASF17: counsel

The high court has begun hearing the ASF17 case, on whether the commonwealth must release immigration detainees even if the reason they cannot be deported is, in part, their own lack of cooperation.

After the political fallout from the NZYQ decision, which saw 152 people released from detention, the attention on the case and the stakes are high. I spotted Clare Sharp, the general counsel of the home affairs department shuffling into court this morning.

Those challenging immigration detention have had an early win, as chief justice Stephen Gageler confirms that AZC20 has been granted leave to intervene. AZC20 is an Iranian asylum seeker, like the appellant ASF17, who is represented by Craig Lenehan, the barrister who represented NZYQ.

Lenehan will have 20 minutes for oral submissions and whatever time ASF17’s barrister Lisa De Ferrari cedes to him.

De Ferrari has begun oral submissions with criticism of the fact the government has only ever considered removing ASF17 to Iran:

The commonwealth effectively interprets the duty to remove as removal to Iran ... We say no, ‘you have a duty to remove me [ASF17] from Australia, and I’m not required to assist you, and if you want to remove me to anywhere but Iran and you need assistance, I will give it to you’.

It’s not enough to ask ASF17 every three or six months if he has changed his mind about returning to Iran, De Ferrari said.

Updated

Anglican priest details what ten years of detention has done to high court litigant AZC20

An Anglican priest has spoken out in support of an Iranian asylum seeker known as AZC20, one of the high court litigants challenging indefinite detention.

ASF17’s case is being heard in the high court today, and is being supported by an intervention from AZC20. You can read more about this earlier in the blog from Paul Karp, here and here.

Reverend Gemma Baseley of St Paul’s Anglican church in Beaconsfield said she met AZC20 four years ago while he was detained in Perth, and by that time he had already been held in detention for seven years.

He came to Australia in 2013 to seek safety from Iran, and our government held him for nearly eleven years while considering his claim for asylum. They just forgot about him in detention, because that is what our laws allowed.

Baseley said legal cases can often “confuse the reality of an issue through complicated language and arguments” and we can forget that, “at the end of the day, cases like this are about people”.

Baseley said in a statement:

We know what ten years of detention have taken away from our friend. He lost his ability to speak and his health. He lost the ability to see a future for himself in the world. He lost an entire era of his life that nobody can give him back.

This should not have happened to our friend, and it should not happen to anyone else. It should not be possible for any government to take away a decade of someone’s life. And it should not be necessary for us to say that here today.

Updated

$48m for infrastructure projects across Victorian public schools

The federal government has announced $48m to install infrastructure projects at 67 Victorian public schools in the latest round of Labor’s Schools Upgrade Fund.

The $215m commitment to capital works for public schools was announced in the 2023-2024 budget.

The schools, prioritised on high numbers of low socio-economic, First Nations and students with a disability, will receive at least $250,000 to upgrade classrooms, replace demountables, install new playground equipment or upgrade sporting facilities.

Among the beneficiaries are Geelong high school, Mallacoota P-12 college, Mornington secondary college and Seymour college.

The education minister, Jason Clare, said the announcement was “another important step in building a better and fairer education system”.

In 2017, the former Coalition government scrapped its recurrent capital works contribution to public schools, placing the onus on states to increase infrastructure funding. The commonwealth continued its recurrent tax concessions for private school building projects.

The Australian Education Union has urged Labor to restore a recurrent funding pool to fill infrastructure gaps in the public education system.

Updated

Olympics review chief says politics behind decision to kill stadiums plan

Graham Quirk has told an Olympics Senate inquiry that politics are behind the reluctance of the Queensland government to commit to a new stadium for the 2032 games.

The state government rejected his key recommendation for a new $3.4bn, 55,000 seat stadium in Victoria Park, the day he handed down the inquiry.

The former Brisbane Lord Mayor was asked if he thought the imminent October state election was influencing decisions. He told the senate inquiry:

Any observer would come to the conclusion that the cost of living crisis - so called - we’re going through at the moment is driving decisions that perhaps would not normally be the case. There is a fear that building a new stadium would be seen as extravagance.

But he said that even in the Great Depression people looked for hope in symbols like Phar Lap:

People need to know that there is something coming in this city to be proud of … that is part of the thing that has driven us in all our recommendations.

Quirk revealed he’d briefed the responsible state minister a week before issuing his report, last month. The state government said at the time they’d received the report just three days earlier.

Premier Steven Miles rejected his key finding, for a new multi-billion dollar facility in Victoria park, the day his findings were announced. That was “completely blindsiding for us”, Quirk said.

“We didn’t know that they had been doing work” on an alternative plan, he told the inquiry.

Olympics supremo John Coates will testify to the Australia’s preparedness to host Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic Games inquiry via videolink later today.

Updated

Students to disrupt Melbourne’s CBD in strike for Palestine

High school and university students will continue their disruption of Melbourne’s CBD as part of an international week-long economic blockade for Palestine.

Tomorrow, the students will gather outside Melbourne’s State Library to block key choke points in the city, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and for Australian universities to cut all ties with weapons companies that provide to Israel.

It is the sixth student strike for Palestine to take place in Melbourne, with the last strike including a temporary occupation of Melbourne Central.

Students for Palestine Victoria co-convener Jasmine Duff said the group was not asking for peace - it was “demanding it”.

We will disrupt the economy until we force Albanese to cut ties with Israel.

School student and rally chair Gisele Nayef said it was “up to every student” to show the world it would not stand by while the occupation continued.

We see through our government’s shallow statements for peace.

Mohamad Alameddine arrested after police allegedly found bundles of cash in apartment

Mohamad Alameddine has been arrested and charged after allegedly breaching his serious crime prevention order (SCPR).

He was charged as part of New South Wales' police’s Operation Talon, which targets organised crime networks and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

According to a statement from police, a firearm prohibition order compliance check was undertaken at a unit in Sydney on 9 April – belonging to 40-year-old Alameddine who is subject to a SCPR.

During the compliance check police allege they found around $13,000 cash and a mobile phone hidden in two separate fire extinguisher cupboards. Police returned yesterday and arrested Alameddine, after forensic analysis of the items.

He was taken to Day police station and charged with two counts of contravening a serious crime prevention order and failing to comply with a digital evidence access order direction.

He was refused bail to appear before Downing Centre local court today.

Updated

Condition update on Bondi Junction stabbing victims

Six people remain in hospital after the Bondi Junction mass stabbing at the weekend.

As of 8pm last night, two patients remained at St Vincents hospital – one male and one female – both in a stable condition. The female patient remains in the ICU.

Two patients remain at the Royal Prince Alfred hospital. A woman is in the ICU in a serious but stable condition, and a man is in a stable condition.

One female patient is at the Royal North Shore hospital in a stable condition.

The nine-month old baby is in a serious but stable condition at Sydney Children’s hospital.

Updated

Webb still ‘absolutely confident’ in assessment that Monday’s stabbing attack was terrorist act

Karen Webb said she is still “absolutely confident” of her assessment that Monday’s stabbing attack should be viewed as a terrorist act.

Responding to those in the community who believe that judgement was too hasty, she told ABC RN she can understand their concern because “we’ve got just as many questions about what was on the mind of the young person”.

… The declaration of the incident being a terror event is one incident, but whether he’s going to be charged with terrorism offences will be another. So they are two separate things and and they shouldn’t be conflated.

Asked whether the alleged offender was radicalised online, Webb said it would be “premature to jump to that” and would form part of the investigation.

Updated

Webb says alleged offender’s previous knife charge ‘will be subject to the investigation’

Yesterday the ABC reported the alleged offender, aged 16, was on bail for a knife charge until January and then given a good behaviour bond.

Karen Webb is asked if police opposed that order?

That will be subject to the investigation … the investigation will delve into his history, his background and that will form part of what was on that individual’s mind … on Monday night.

Updated

Police working ‘painstakingly’ through footage and evidence of people who attended riot

Karen Webb said NSW police believe the action outside the church after the stabbing attack was a result of it being livestreamed, and because the alleged offender was arrested inside the church “some people turned up to get access to him”.

We [also] believe that people not associated with the church have turned up as an excuse and become a riot.

Webb said police are working through who was in attendance and there are some people they have already identified who “can expect to be arrested in the next day or so”.

Police have reports of up to 600 participants but Webb said not all were rioting against police.

Those people who were, they can expect to be identified and arrested and put before the court …

We have crime scene officers fingerprinting and DNA testing police vehicles to identify people from that … There’s certainly a lot of CCTV footage, there’s certainly a lot of police body worn video and police helicopter video that [we] will compile and go through painstakingly to identify those who have broken the law and assaulted police.

Webb could not say how many of the 600 could face possible arrest, but said some people could be arrested starting today.

Updated

Webb calls for unity, says this is ‘not about one community versus another’

NSW police commissioner Karen Webb says the community needs to come together after the stabbing attack at a church in Wakeley early this week.

The premier, Chris Minns, had previously warned against a “tit for tat” response, and Webb said there had been no evidence of this overnight. Instead, community members attended the church to pay their respects.

In an interview with ABC RN earlier this morning, Webb said:

Of course there’s still a risk, because it’s a very emotive issue and emotions run high at these times … the community actually needs to come together and just really consider this [was allegedly] one person acting alone and this is not about one community versus another.

Updated

Lebanese Muslim Association reiterates call for unity after church stabbing

The Lebanese Muslim Association has condemned Monday night’s stabbing attack inside a Wakeley church and called for Australians to remain united.

Secretary Gamel Kheir told ABC Radio early this morning he is “concerned” about potential retribution by “some youngster”:

That’s what scary, that these young kids who are impressionable are seeing acts like this, or possible acts, as a form of martyrship and we have to condemn it and we have to be very strong and vigilant to make sure that it doesn’t happen.

Are we concerned [about the threat of violence]? Yes we are. Thankfully, the police have been brilliant … I can’t thank them enough … Under such trying circumstances they were absolutely commendable.

Kheir said he had reached out to the Assyrian community and hopes to meet with them this week to foster a closer relationship, and “then hopefully the tensions will die down”.

Updated

Police ram stolen car to prevent risk to public

Police have rammed a stolen car and arrested five boys who allegedly committed robberies and cigarette burglaries across Melbourne while armed with machetes, AAP reports.

Officers spotted the BMW sedan in Boronia about 10.25pm last night and assisted by the air wing tracked the vehicle as it drove erratically and dangerously through the city’s CBD and eastern suburbs.

Police said the car was seen travelling at more than 190km/h on the East Link and posed a significant risk to the public.

Officers brought the BMW to a stop by ramming it on Wellington Parade, East Melbourne about 11.20pm to prevent further serious risk to the community.

Five boys were arrested and taken into custody and are assisting police with their inquiries.

One of the boys sustained minor injuries. Police said in a statement today:

It’s alleged the males armed with machetes committed numerous armed robberies and cigarette burglaries across the southern and eastern suburbs of Melbourne yesterday afternoon and Monday night.

Tanya Plibersek encourages people to switch off social media during this time

Environment minister Tanya Plibersek has reflected on the “shocking” events in Sydney throughout the past few days and says locals are reeling, with many personally impacted.

Speaking on ABC News Breakfast earlier, she said:

Many of us know one of the victims or [know someone who was] there at the [Bondi Junction] shopping centre … This is really reverberating throughout our community. Our focus is on the victims, their families, their friends, those who have been impacted.

And when it comes to the attack in the church, I mean, obviously [it’s] a place of worship, you think that people would be safe. There’s a lot of concern. It’s an important time for community leaders I think to provide as much reassurance as we can and to remind people that we have a strong and cohesive community.

Plibersek also called on the community to switch off from social media if they are able:

I really don’t think that the social media companies are doing as much as they ought to be, to support the police in their efforts to keep calm in the community. We know there are people deliberately trying to stoke division on social media, deliberately lying to create that social division. Switch it off, if you can. Switch it off.

Updated

‘No point pretending everything is as normal’, says NSW premier

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, says Australia’s largest city is in a combustible and abnormal situation and there’s no point pretending otherwise.

Speaking to Sunrise after the two stabbing attacks in Sydney, he said:

I can understand people’s concern and anxiety in what has been an incredibly difficult week in Sydney. It is a combustible situation, there’s no point in pretending that everything is as normal.

Minns said police now had enhanced patrols, “particularly in western Sydney, particularly around religious institutions, for the rest of the week and the weekend”.

The public has been urged to come together and act reasonably. Minns said:

Take the heed from the civic and religious leaders of this state who are calling for calm and an absolute repudiation of all kinds of violence.

- from AAP

Updated

Hastie wants ‘clear’ national defence strategy from government

As we flagged earlier, defence minister Richard Marles is due to speak at the National Press Club today and unveil the national defence strategy.

Shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie said he wants a “clear strategy” after last year’s defence strategic review, which he labelled a “deferral of decision making”.

There was no strategy in it and there are also cuts and cannibalisation to capability. So today, in clear plain English – which is not Richard’s strengths when it comes to strategy – he needs to articulate the threats we’re facing, he needs to articulate how we’re going to defeat them and how we’re going to build a defence force that will keep Australia safe over the next decade and beyond.

Asked how much more the government should be committing to defence, Hastie said clear strategy comes first and would dictate spending. He also said he is “concerned” about potential defence cuts.

We know inflation is eating into families, budgets around the kitchen table. It’s also eating into defence’s budget too. And what we’ve seen over the last two years is Aukus – which was supported on a bipartisan basis – and so we’re seeing increased defence expenditure required and this government has yet to commit to it.

Updated

‘Most severe test for social cohesion’ since federation, shadow defence minister says

Shadow minister for defence Andrew Hastie says Australia is facing its “most severe test for social cohesion” in 123 years, since federation.

Responding to the two stabbing attacks across Sydney in recent days on ABC RN, Hastie argued that the prime minister, Anthony Albanese’s, leadership is “so important” amid this “test” for social cohesion.

We are under immense pressure. People are scared, and particularly in Sydney where I grew up … We have many different people from all parts of the world and it’s very diverse too. There’s Christians, Muslims, Jews and other religions in between, and we need to be able to live together.

And so this is why Anthony Albanese’s leadership is so important and I think he can be stronger in articulating the values that we all share, and insisting that we all adhere to them, and that there is no place for religious extremism in this country.

Host Patricia Karvelas asked how much stronger Albanese can be, because “didn’t he just say that yesterday”?

Hastie said Albanese needs to “send a few signals that he’s serious about national security” and called on him to restore the director generals of Asis and Asio to his national security committee of cabinet:

I think that the current threat levels that they are, with the strategic disorder that we’re seeing in the Middle East – and also in this region – it’s really, really important that those two individuals have a seat at the table and are advising the national security committee of cabinet regularly.

Updated

Chalmers accuses Greens of ‘confected outrage’ during supermarkets inquiry

The treasurer was also asked about the ongoing supermarkets inquiry, which yesterday threatened to hold Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci in contempt during a fiery hearing.

Being found in contempt carries a penalty of up to six months’ imprisonment. Nick McKim, who chairs the Senate committee, said Banducci was engaging in spin, “cherrypicking” facts and “bullshitting the committee”.

You can read all the background on this below:

Responding to this on ABC RN, Jim Chalmers said Banducci would be providing some information on notice and said “the Senate hasn’t jailed anyone before and I don’t think they’re about to”.

He accused McKim and the Greens of displaying “confected outrage”.

There is a real issue here about people’s concerns about the prices they pay at the checkout. We share those concerns. The difference between the way that the Greens go about this and the way that the Labor government goes about this is [McKim] does what he does for the cameras, and we do what we do for the consumers …

We think the best way to get at these real issues, which are genuinely felt as people are under pressure around the country, is to do it in a methodical and considered way and to get real change and take real action. And I think that’s a contrast with the kind of confected outrage we saw from senator McKim.

Updated

Unemployment ‘might take up a little bit’ when new numbers released later this week

Q: Given the economic conditions we’re seeing, what should households with mortgages expect?

Treasurer Jim Chalmers did not answer directly regarding any potential rate rises, but said inflation has “come off pretty substantially”, unemployment was down in the most recent data, and real wages are growing.

[Inflation] won’t necessarily continue to come off in a perfectly straight line, but [it] is a fraction of what it was a couple of years ago when we came to office. That’s a good thing.

He flagged unemployment “might take up a little bit on Thursday when we get new numbers on the jobs market”.

So we’ve got a whole bunch of things going for us in Australia, but enough to concern us as well about the global conditions about the way that people are still under considerable cost of living pressure.

Treasurer flags ‘real premium on responsibility’ in upcoming budget

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is on his way to the United States for G20 talks, and has been speaking with ABC RN about the state of the global economy – and what this means for the government’s third budget.

He said there was a “tricky balance of risks” in the global economy currently, and in Australia’s, with inflation still causing impacts and growth slowing.

The way that I would describe it to your listeners is we’ve got inflation lingering in parts of the world, we’ve got growth slowing in China and elsewhere, we’ve got tensions rising in the Middle East and the war in Europe. We’ve got supply chains which are straining and we’ve got a global economy which is fragmenting and transforming and so all of these factors are really important to us as we finalise the government’s third budget.

These are going to be these global conditions are going to be a really big influence on our budget, so the trip to DC which will be a pretty quick and make the most of it but it’s a good opportunity to take the temperature of the global economy.

Because in the budget, what you’ll see is a real premium on responsibility and these conditions, but also a real emphasis on economic security.

Updated

Motorcyclist seriously injured in crash in Sydney CBD

An intersection in Sydney’s CBD is expected to remain a crime scene for some time today after a serious crash took place early this morning.

Around 4am, emergency services responded to reports of a crash between a utility and a motorcycle at the intersection of King Street and York Street.

Paramedics treated the motorcycle rider at the scene who was taken to St Vincent’s hospital in a critical condition. The driver of the utility, a 36-year-old man, was uninjured and taken to the same hospital for mandatory testing.

Officers have established a crime scene and the intersection is expected to remain a crime scene for a “considerable amount of time”. Motorists are urged to avoid the area.

According to Live Traffic the road was closed in an eastbound direction, however it seems to have returned to normal just after 7am.

Marles to address National Press Club and unveil national defence strategy

Defence minister Richard Marles is expected today to unveil cuts to programs in a bid to fund crucial areas under a shake-up of the Australian military, AAP reports.

In an address to the National Press Club in Canberra today, Marles will release a new national defence strategy.

The government released the defence strategic review in April last year, which found the Australian Defence Force was no longer fit for purpose.

It’s expected new missiles and drones will be prioritised under the recalibration.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said for the defence minister to pass the test of leadership, the new plans “must be more than just vague language, vague promises and vague time frames”.

Writing ahead of the announcement, Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the government should prioritise the “rapid deployment” of an integrated air and missile defence system for the ADF to protect critical northern base infrastructure.

Human Rights Law Centre to argue a person’s reason for refusing to consent to removal must be considered in whether detention is lawful

Continued from last post:

ASF17’s case before the high court is that there is no “general exception” to the rule that where deportation is not possible immigration detention is unlawful simply because of the “noncooperation” by an alien.

ASF17’s lawyers submitted:

It would only emphasise the punitive—and thus constitutionally invalid—nature of the executive detention if parliament were to purport to extend it in respect of a ‘non-cooperative’ person for the purpose of detaining them until and unless they cooperated with their removal, in circumstances where the constitutional limitation would otherwise be reached (with the result that cooperation may be forthcoming only under the threat of further, and possibly indefinite, deprivation of liberty).

ASF17’s case is supported by an intervention from AZC20, another Iranian asylum seeker, who is represented by the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) and barrister Craig Lenehan SC, who won the original NZYQ case in November.

The HRLC will argue:

  • Indefinite detention is unlawful under any circumstances

  • A person’s reasons for refusing to consent to their removal must be considered in determining whether their detention is lawful

  • Detention is not lawful when the primary barrier to the removal of people is another country’s refusal to accept the forced return of its citizens.

Sanmati Verma, legal director at HRLC, said:

Other countries around the world have recognised there must be limits on detention in all circumstances. Yet our government is still trying to use indefinite detention to coerce people into returning to danger. Instead of trying to find legal workarounds to keep people locked up, the Australian government should support people to rebuild their lives in freedom and safety.

Updated

High court to hear appeal on uncooperative immigration detainees

The high court is today hearing the case of ASF17, an appeal that could extend the NZYQ ruling that indefinite detention is unlawful. At stake is whether people in immigration detention must be released if their refusal to cooperate has prevented them being deported.

ASF17 is an Iranian man who has said he “fears for his life if he is removed to Iran” because he is bisexual, Christian, a Faili Kurd and because he had opposed “the mistreatment of women by the government in Iran”.

In January Justice Craig Colvin ruled ASF17’s detention was lawful. He said:

Where ongoing detention is to arrange removal from Australia as soon as practicable, that lawful purpose is served for so long as there is a practicable way that the person may be removed, even if it requires cooperation from the detainee for it to be achieved.

When ASF17 appealed, the Albanese government applied to send the case to the high court to settle the legal uncertainty. It will argue for the right to continue detaining those who refuse to cooperate.

In March Guardian Australia revealed a leaked internal estimate that more than 170 could be freed if the commonwealth loses the case, although the government is confident it will win the case.

In its submissions the commonwealth highlighted the primary judge’s findings that “the appellant’s refusal to undertake voluntary actions to assist in his return to Iran was not because of a genuine subjective fear of harm if returned there”.

It said:

The primary judge was correct to conclude that it is necessary to take into account the ability or capacity of a non-citizen to cooperate in achieving their removal, irrespective of any demonstrated unwillingness to cooperate, and irrespective of any subjective reasons for refusing to cooperate ...

The fact that it is within the power of such a non-citizen actually to bring their detention to an end by cooperating with their removal answers the [question] ... A non-citizen in that position is in ‘three-walled detention’ only.

Updated

Albanese to announce $400m loans for industry projects

The federal government will offer $400m in loans to an alumina facility in Queensland and fast-track support to a graphite project in South Australia, as part of its Future Made In Australia industry program.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese will make the announcement in Gladstone in Queensland today. Alpha HPA will deliver “Australia’s first high-purity alumina processing facility”, the PM’s office said, a mineral which is needed for LED lighting, batteries and semiconductors.

The Gladstone project will support around 200 jobs on an ongoing basis, and nearly 500 in construction.

The money will go out under the government’s $4 billion Critical Minerals Facility, one of the programs which will be rolled under the Future Made In Australia push.

The government is also announcing plans to help “fast track” a graphite project from Renascour Resources on the Eyre Peninsula. A $185 million loan for stage one of that development has been “conditionally approved” by the Labor government - it follows a restructuring of the company’s plans to develop that site, which were originally approved in February 2022 under the former Coalition government.

That project will support 150 construction jobs and 125 positions ongoing. Albanese said:

The global race for new jobs and new opportunities is on. Our Government wants Australia to be in it to win it.

These two critical minerals projects will help secure good and secure jobs in manufacturing, and clean, reliable energy.

Updated

However the assurances were immediately challenged by Assange’s team.

Assange’s wife Stella, whom he married while in prison in London, said the guarantees did not satisfy their concerns, describing them as “blatant weasel words”:

The United States has issued a non-assurance in relation to the First Amendment, and a standard assurance in relation to the death penalty. It makes no undertaking to withdraw the prosecution’s previous assertion that Julian has no First Amendment rights because he is not a U.S citizen. Instead, the US has limited itself to blatant weasel words claiming that Julian can “seek to raise” the First Amendment if extradited.

The diplomatic note does nothing to relieve our family’s extreme distress about his future - his grim expectation of spending the rest of his life in isolation in US prison for publishing award-winning journalism. The Biden Administration must drop this dangerous prosecution before it is too late.

- AAP

Updated

Assange 'would not face death penalty' in US

The United States government has provided assurances requested by the high court in London which could finally pave the way for WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange to be extradited from the United Kingdom, AAP reports.

Last month, the High Court ruled that, without certain US guarantees, Assange, 52, would be allowed to launch a new appeal against being extradited to face 18 charges, all bar one under the Espionage Act, over WikiLeaks’ release of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables.

Those assurances – that in a US trial he could rely on the first amendment right to free speech, that he is not “prejudiced at trial” due to his Australian citizenship and that there was no prospect of new charges which could result in the death penalty being imposed – have now been submitted by a deadline which fell overnight.

The document, seen by Reuters, stated that Assange would be able to rely on US first amendment protections and says “a sentence of death will neither be sought nor imposed”.

These assurances are binding on any and all present or subsequent individuals to whom authority has been delegated to decide the matters.

Judges in the UK are expected to consider the submission from the US authorities as well as any response from Assange’s lawyers.

Updated

Welcome

Good morning. Thanks for joining us again for our rolling news coverage of the day. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be highlighting some of the main overnight news lines before my colleague Emily Wind picks up the news baton.

After five tumultuous days, NSW premier Chris Minns is considering tightening the laws surrounding the possession of knifes in the wake of the Bondi and Wakeley attacks, and also a fatal stabbing in Doonside on Friday. Minns and other political leaders, along with religious leaders, pleaded for calm amid what the premier called a “combustible situation” set off by the stabbing of Orthodox bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel on Monday night and subsequent street unrest. More coming up.

The nine-month-old baby who was seriously injured in the Bondi Junction knife rampage has been moved out of intensive care at Sydney Children’s hospital in Randwick, according to overnight reports citing an NSW health official. Harriet Good, whose mother Ashlee was killed in the attack by Joel Cauchi on Saturday, had surgery after suffering chest and arm injuries. Her condition had been critical but has now improved to serious but stable.

Anthony Albanese is to announce his government will loan $400m to an alumina facility in Queensland and fast-track support to a graphite project in South Australia, as part of its Future Made in Australia industry program.

Three of Sydney’s wealthiest private schools received double the federal funding they were entitled to last year under the official resource standard, new data shows, despite the introduction of reforms to tackle overfunding. Northern Beaches Christian school, St Augustine’s College and MLC school, all in Sydney, were funded at 171%, 160% and 158% of the SRS respectively, about double the 80% they should have received from the commonwealth.

And coming up: the US has continued its push to extradite Julian Assange from the UK, providing “assurances” requested by London’s high court about his legal rights – which Assange’s wife Stella Assange immediately criticised as “weasel words”. More on that too, soon.

Updated

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