What we learned, Monday 20 November
And that’s it for Guardian Australia’s live news blog today. It’s been a busy start to the week:
The Optus CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, resigned after the company’s nationwide outage almost two weeks ago.
Anthony Albanese says he’s “very concerned” at Australian navy personnel being targeted by a Chinese sonar pulse. The divers affected have been cleared to return to duty.
Both DFAT and the department of defence offered their sympathies to the family for a former Australian soldier who was killed in Ukraine.
Cameraman James Rose was identified as a passenger on the jet that crashed into waters off Melbourne’s Mornington peninsula on Sunday afternoon. The search for the second aircraft downed after the mid-air collision continues.
The man who allegedly killed the son of South Australia’s top police officer by hitting him with his car has been released on bail.
The New South Wales government vowed not to accept the federal government’s infrastructure funding cuts announced last week.
And Richard Marles used his taxpayer-funded jet to make a 2,000km round trip to attend the Cricket World Cup final while on a trip to India for ministerial talks.
Thank you for joining us – and see you tomorrow morning.
Updated
Marles used taxpayer-funded jet to attend Cricket World Cup final
Richard Marles has used his taxpayer-funded jet to make a 2,000km round trip to attend the Cricket World Cup final while on a trip to India for ministerial talks.
The reported six-hour detour to Ahmedabad in India’s west from talks in New Delhi, as first reported by news.com.au, allowed the defence minister to attend the sporting event, where he presented Australian captain, Pat Cummins, with the World Cup trophy after Australia’s win against India.
A spokesperson from his office said all travel arrangements were made in line with the “relevant guidelines and security procedures”.
It comes amid criticism over the lack of transparency around the cost and flight plans of the special purpose flights.
The Defence department has stopped publishing its biannual reports about the use of its RAAF “special purpose” jets, which are used by the prime minister and senior ministers and their staff to travel for official reasons.
The department has declined to publish the details on “security grounds”.
Earlier, Guardian Australia reported the flights are thought to cost about $4,600 an hour and the defence reports were the only way for the public to know how they were being used.
Separately, the reporting system run by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority remains inactive, and has not reported MP expenses since October last year.
Updated
