What we learned today, Thursday 6 July
That’s about all we’ve got time for today. Here’s a bit of what we learned:
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was “more interested in culture wars than he is in helping on issues of the economy” after being asked to respond to Dutton’s accusation that Albanese is so “obsessed” with the voice that he is taking his eye off the economy.
Liberal MP Matt Kean slammed the “no” campaign over what he called “the racist trope of Thomas Mayo” in an ad run in the Australian Financial Review this morning. Nine, the publisher of AFR, later issued an apology for the advertisement, saying it should not have run.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe says she expects to be shut out of contributing to the “no” essay in the official referendum pamphlet, despite opposing the Indigenous voice and campaigning against its success.
The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, slammed Donald Trump Jr on Twitter - in tweets she has since deleted - as “a bit of a sore loser” and “a big baby” after his tour to Australia was postponed.
Australia should stand up for the “fair go” by recognising Palestine as a state, according to the head of the Palestinian delegation in Australia, Izzat Abdulhadi.
The chief of the defence force, Gen Angus Campbell, said thorough action in response to allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan was “utterly critical” to restoring Australia’s moral authority, both at home and with allies.
The Australian government’s detention of a refugee in Melbourne hotels was legal, a court has ruled, in a blow to humanitarian campaigners who argued it was cruel and unnecessary.
Delays hit international flights out of Australia due to a technical outage of the system processing passengers, leaving airlines forced to process passengers manually.
Fire and Rescue NSW crews have extinguished the fire at a detention centre at Villawood in Sydney’s west today, during which detainees on the top floor had to smash windows and jump onto mattresses below to escape the smoke.
A fire has erupted from a building in the inner Melbourne suburb of Southbank, with smoke pouring over the city.
And Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has launched its rival to Twitter – Threads – claiming five million people signed up for it in the four hours after its launch on Thursday.
Thanks so much for your company. See you tomorrow.
Updated
Protesters arrested as bulldozing begins at NT Gouldian finch habitat site
Traditional owners in Darwin have made an emergency application urging the federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, to order that bulldozing of native forest near the NT capital be stopped on cultural heritage grounds.
Video posted on social media shows bulldozers clearing savanna woodlands at Lee Point, less than 20km from Darwin city, to make way for a defence housing development.
Binburra/ Lee Point, right now. pic.twitter.com/1TBqo0Z2G2
— Martine Maron (@martine_maron) July 6, 2023
Plibersek approved the clearing last month, but acknowledged there was a significant risk to more than 100 endangered Gouldian finches spotted in the area. She said it could go ahead with some changes to the original proposal, including a 50 metre buffer around the known finch habitat near a waterhole.
Ten people were arrested in a protest at the site today and dozens of scientists attending an ecology conference in Darwin were headed to the site late this afternoon.
Traditional owners said the area, also known as Binybara, had trees that dated back to 1759. They said they feared the site’s history and culture could be lost in the next few days.
The organisation Environmental Justice Australia lodged the application with the minister to halt the clearing under section 9 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act.
Larrakia Danggalaba elder Tibby Quall said her people had been living off the Binybara land “since time immemorial”:
I’m 74 and I’ve been living here and taking family to Binburra my whole life. It’s a sacred place.
Why are they building in a place where thousands of people enjoy fishing, hunting and exercising every day of the week?
Plibersek’s office has been asked for its response.
Updated
