What we learned today, Monday 29 April
That’s a wrap for today, people, thanks for sticking around. Here are today’s main takeaways:
The rise of autism and ADHD and the effects on children, parents, and schools is investigated in a new Guardian Australia series.
In devastating news, a ten-year-old girl died after allegedly being stabbed by a 17-year-old girl in NSW.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese brushed off accusations he lied about the speaking arrangements at a violence against women protest.
Billionaire Clive Palmer is hoping to top up his coffers with the profits from a conference featuring controversial rightwing journalist Tucker Carlson.
Paleontologists say the abrupt extinction of the short-faced kangaroo is a reminder about the importance of protecting the environment.
And Mr Squiggle – the puppet with a pencil for a nose – has a new home in the National Museum of Australia.
We’ll be back here tomorrow morning to keep you in the loop. Until then!
Updated
Ten-year-old girl dies after alleged stabbing in NSW
A ten-year-old girl has died after allegedly being stabbed by a 17-year-old girl in New South Wales’ Hunter region on Monday.
In a statement, NSW police said that at about 3.45pm, emergency services responded to reports of a stabbing at a home in Boolaroo, approximately 20km west of Newcastle.
Police said:
NSW Ambulance paramedics treated a 10-year-old girl at the scene for multiple stab wounds; however she died at the scene.
Officers from Lake Macquarie police district arrested a 17-year-old girl at the home, and she was taken to Belmont police station and is currently assisting with inquiries.
The girls are believed to be known to each other.
Updated
Military history of Townsville mayor under investigation
The military history of Townsville’s controversial new mayor is under investigation by an independent local government watchdog that assesses complaints about Queensland councillors, Eden Gillespie writes.
The former One Nation candidate and Townsville mayor, Troy Thompson, laid out his military history on Facebook earlier this year:
Updated
Uncle Paul Kabai, from low-lying Saibai Island, said in an affidavit read to the court in Cairns on Monday that he was scared of having to leave his country:
My country would disappear.
I would lose everything; my country, my culture, my stories and my identity. Without Saibai I do not know who I am.
You’ve read the story, now see the video – prime minister Anthony Albanese responds to accusations he lied about requesting to speak at a weekend protest about violence against women:
'Poor Australian' Clive Palmer says he anticipates profits from Freedom Conference with Tucker Carlson
AAP reports that mining billionaire Clive Palmer has revealed he is looking forward to reaping a profit from his national Freedom Conference tour starring rightwing journalist Tucker Carlson.
In a 40-minute press conference on Monday, the former federal politician said Carlson, a former Fox News commentator who continues to argue the 2020 US presidential election was rigged, will not be paid for the series of interviews.
Palmer said he was looking forward to receiving the profits from the tour’s tickets, which start at $200 a head, because he was “needing the money”:
I’m a poor Australian, you know, I can’t cope.
Business is bad in Australia this year, isn’t that right?
That was before the man who is building a life-sized replica of the Titanic said he thought the series, which kicks off in June, said the tour was about free speech and that it “will be a non-profit operation, but I think many profits (will be) made out of it”.
“Freedom of choice or difference of opinion is what we’re really talking about,” he said.
The conference will also include American filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza and Queensland GP Dr Melissa McCann.
But Carlson is undoubtedly the star of the show given his massive profile in the US where he has even been touted as a possible running mate for former president Donald Trump.
Carlson now runs his own media outlet and broadcasts on X, formerly known as Twitter.
While he recently became the first western journalist to interview Russian president Vladimir Putin since the Ukraine war started, he was also roundly criticised for his soft line of questioning.
Palmer will host the series as the lead interviewer, saying he intended to hold Carlson to account on a number of issues:
I’ll be challenging. I’ll have to come up with some hard questions for him.
I’ll be a lot harder on Tucker Carlson, than he was on Vladimir Putin, I promise you that.
Updated
Rugby Australia has declared a $9.2m deficit for last year is not unusual, Jack Snape writes.
And it warned 2024 will be “another challenging year” as the governing body is forced to stump up growing interest payments:
Faruqi's racial discrimination case against Hanson is politically motivated, lawyer suggests
Pauline Hanson’s lawyer has accused Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi of targeting the One Nation leader with legal action for racial discrimination because she is a political opponent and not because Hanson’s comments telling Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan” were any worse than others she had faced.
Hanson’s lawyer Sue Chrysanthou SC put to Faruqi during cross-examination in the federal court this afternoon that she had overlooked what Faruqi acknowledged as examples of racism within her own party, the Greens, but chosen to sue Hanson to make “a political point”.
“You’ve come here to use the witness box as a soap box to give speeches to further your political ends,” Chrysanthou put to Faruqi.
Faruqi disagreed with the proposition.
Faruqi has accused Hanson of breaching section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act with a message she posted on the social media platform Twitter, now called X, on the day Queen Elizabeth II’s death was announced in September 2022. Hanson’s message was responding to one that Faruqi had posted offering condolences to those mourning the Queen but declaring:
I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples.
“Your attitude appalls and disgusts me,” Hanson posted, referring to Faruqi’s tweet:
When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country. You took citizenship, bought multiple homes and a job in parliament. It’s clear you’re not happy so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.
In the federal court today, Faruqi has described Hanson’s tweet as racist and said it had prompted a barrage of other abusive messages and caused her severe distress.
“I understood this to be particularly pointed at me, that I don’t have the same rights to have the same benefits that Australia offered every other citizen of this country,” Faruqi said.
Chrysanthou accused Faruqi of hypocrisy, saying she had already received a barrage of criticism of her initial tweet before Hanson had posted her quote-tweet in response.
Chrysanthou also said Faruqi had continued to make public comments about colonialism since Hanson’s tweet, despite arguing before the court that it had caused her serious hurt and led to “self-censoring and self-doubting”.
“I always think carefully when I make public comments but when it gets to a state where it’s actually stopping you from doing your job, then I do feel that is self-censorship which has been forced on me because of the racism that was targeted towards me [by Senator Hanson],” Faruqi said.
Chrysanthou put it to Faruqi that there was no racial comment in Hanson’s tweet.
“It’s pretty clear when you are referring to Pakistan that you are referring to a brown person who is a Muslim,” Faruqi replied.
Chrysanthou asked Faruqi if she had ever heard the phrase “bite the hand that feeds you”. Faruqi said she had. She said Hanson’s tweet was a version of “go back to where you came from”.
“What I understand from this tweet is that Senator Hanson has targeted me with a racial slur which has a very long history in this country and in other countries,” Faruqi said.
Updated
The Victorian chief health officer has just issued this alert about mpox cases in the state.
Three new locally acquired cases of mpox have been reported in Victoria.
— Victorian Department of Health (@VicGovDH) April 29, 2024
Free mpox vaccine continues to be available for eligible people through certain sexual health clinics, hospitals, GPs and pharmacies.
Learn more about mpox: https://t.co/uhDoUZpIcL pic.twitter.com/uHL4TBC68d
Updated
Crown to cut 1,000 jobs
Casino operator Crown Resorts is cutting about 1,000 jobs as part of a major overhaul it has blamed on weak economic conditions.
The cuts represent about 5% of its 20,000-strong workforce. Crown, owned by US private equity giant Blackstone, operates casino complexes in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
“The challenges at Crown reflect greatly reduced foreign tourism, a sharp decline in local workers in the city centres, and restrictions on gaming play in Sydney and Melbourne,” Crown chief executive Ciarán Carruthers said.
“This was a difficult decision, but we are focused on repositioning the business for long-term success.”
Casino operators in Australia have been grappling with a series of inquiries and related operational restrictions due to widespread misconduct.
Tourism from China, an important market for Australian casinos, has also not returned to pre-pandemic levels, while the number of city workers remains muted due to flexible work arrangements.
Updated
Queensland university students join Gaza war protests
Students at the University of Queensland have become the latest to set up a permanent encampment on campus to protest the war in Gaza.
Hundreds of university students marched on the uni’s Boeing research and technology Australia centre on Monday, issuing demands that the university kick the engineering firm out.
Protesters claimed researchers at the centre develop technology like the scramjet which can also be used for military purposes.
They’ve set up about 15 tents and plan to continue a rolling protest in the great court, where they plan to sleep tonight. Organisers said the protest will continue “indefinitely” until their demands are met.
Senator Penny Allman-Payne and former mayoral candidate Jono Sriranganathan were among the Greens figures to attend the rally.
Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown – whose Ryan electorate covers UQ – said she didn’t mind if the rally disrupted studies at her alma mater.
It may well disrupt the university, but it’s fantastic, just to foreground this issue. And to make sure that every person who comes to the university actually witnesses this.
It’s absolutely critical to get that message out
Updated
Bob Brown to fight forestry protest trespass charge
Veteran environmentalist Bob Brown has pleaded not guilty to a trespassing charge stemming from an anti-forestry protest in southern Tasmania, AAP reports.
Dr Brown is accused of remaining inside a logging coupe in the Styx Valley on 19 February. The 79-year-old former Greens leader appeared briefly in Hobart magistrates court today, entered a plea of not guilty and had his bail continued.
Fellow activist Colette Harmsen also pleaded not guilty to one count of trespassing from the same protest. The pair will next appear in court on 5 July ahead of an expected hearing.
“We’ve pleaded not guilty because we’re not guilty,” Dr Brown said outside court, accusing Tasmania’s major parties of backing “outrageous misuse” of state forests.
We’ve got government backing a job-losing industry and environmentalists backing job-gaining industries and the beauty of Tasmania.
The leaders of the government and the opposition ... I’m very happy to take them out there.
A third activist, Syed Ali Imran Alishah, has pleaded guilty to one court of trespassing relating to the 19 February protest. He also pleaded guilty to trespassing after illegally remaining on land in the Styx Valley three days earlier and was listed to face a disputed facts hearing on Monday.
Alishah has been in custody since being arrested at the protest and conducted a hunger strike in prison.
Updated
Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, Nino Bucci will guide you through the rest of today’s coverage. Take care.
Continued from previous post:
Sue Chrysanthou SC cited some examples of racism which Mehreen Faruqi had described in her biography, Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud, and asked Faruqi if she would agree that she frequently pointed out when those with whom she was interacting were white. Faruqi:
I’m not sure if I do that all the time, but racism on me has been perpetrated by white people in Australia.
In her line of questioning, Chrysanthou is challenging Faruqi’s suggestion that she is opposed to racism, citing her support for tweets posted by her journalist son, Osman Faruqi, which suggested that white people “don’t belong in Australia” and that they “should be in the bin but instead they own everything and are every fucking where”.
Faruqi said her son’s tweets were not racist because racism is also related to a power imbalance. She said:
Racism is racism no matter who it is perpetrated against. My belief and understanding is that calling, I guess targeting or being offensive against white people in a sense is not racism .. It is because racism is very closely tied to a power structure.
She said that saying something about people who have the power in the country “could be something that is strong comment, it could be abusive, but it is not racism”.
Updated
Faruqi cross-examined in racial discrimination case against Hanson
The federal court is just resuming from its lunch break in the racial discrimination case that Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has brought against One Nation senator Pauline Hanson.
Faruqi is the first witness and is part way through cross examination. She has given evidence on her experience of racism in Australia and since she became an elected official.
Under cross-examination by Sue Chrysanthou SC, on behalf of Hanson, Faruqi has been asked for her definition of racism. She responded that it could cover ethnic origin, skin colour, cultural heritage – “a multitude of things”.
“Is it your view that white can be a race?” Chrysanthou asked. Faruqi responded, “Yes, it can be a race”.
Chrysanthou asked Faruqi if she had sometimes made public statements with the intention of offending others. “No, I have not,” Faruqi said, though she agreed that people may have sometimes been offended.
More to come
Updated
Cold front to move across south-east Australia in coming days
The Bureau of Meteorology has released a national weather outlook for the week ahead.
The Bureau says a cold front is expected to move across the south-east, while WA is in for patchy rain and storms.
Here's your national weather outlook for the week.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) April 29, 2024
Video current as of 12:00pm AEST 29 April 2024.
For the latest forecasts and warnings visit https://t.co/4W35o8iFmh or the BOM Weather app. pic.twitter.com/04KsurU1aL
Updated
Jacinta Allan says she is prepared to apologise to Indigenous Victorians
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, says she is prepared to deliver an apology to First Nations Victorians for injustices suffered due to government policies.
Allan is providing evidence at the Yoorrook Justice Commission today, marking the first time a state leader has appeared an Indigenous-led truth-telling inquiry.
In a witness statement tendered to the commission, Allan says she is prepared to make an apology on behalf of the state after the inquiry concludes:
To move forward as a society, and to mend wrongs and heal wounds, the state needs to publicly reckon with its role in perpetrating injustice.
Allan says a potential apology would take place after the inquiry hands down its final report next year and would be negotiated with the First Peoples’ Assembly – the state’s democratically elected Indigenous body.
The state’s chief police commissioner, Shane Patton, and government frontbenchers have previously delivered apologies to First Nations Victorians at Yoorrook.
Large parts of Torres Strait Islands could be uninhabitable by 2050, federal court hears
Torres Strait islanders could be forced to leave their homes within the next 30 years if urgent action is not taken on climate change, the federal court has been told. The court also heard this would mean a loss of country, sacred sites and culture, AAP reports.
Uncle Paul Kabai, from the low-lying Saibai Island, said he’s scared of having to leave his country, in an affidavit read to the court in Cairns today:
My country would disappear. I would lose everything; my country, my culture, my stories and my identity. Without Saibai I do not know who I am.
Kabai and Uncle Pabai Pabai are leading the first climate class action brought by Australia’s First Nations people. You can read more earlier in the blog here.
Large parts of the islands could be uninhabitable by 2050, forcing Torres Strait islanders to leave their ancestral homelands, lead counsel for Kabai and Pabai, Fiona McLeod, said in closing submissions:
This case concerns an Incontrovertible truth ... our First People in the Torres Strait will be brutally impacted by climate change and they will have and will continue to suffer devastating losses.
Potentially in the lifetimes of these two elders Pabai Pabai and Paul Kabai ... they will face the losses of their precious lands and waters, their ancient and proud traditions, the mass extinction of species including totemic creatures, their ability to practice ceremony on country and the resting places and the remains of their ancestors.
The federal court will sit in Cairns until Friday, with the commonwealth’s closing submissions expected to follow McLeod’s.
Updated
Pro-Palestine encampment established at Australian National University
Students at the Australian National University in Canberra have established a pro-Palestine encampment on campus today.
This follows separate encampments at the University of Sydney (started on 23 April) and the University of Melbourne (started on 25 April).
Student media has shared footage from the encampment on Instagram, showing a number of tents set up on the Kambri lawns. The Canberra arm of Students for Palestine has also posted about the encampment on Facebook.
The three encampments established in Australia follow similar protests in the US. You can read more about these below:
Updated
Queensland to boost funding for domestic violence services by 20%
Queensland will boost the funding of domestic and family violence services by 20% following a surge in demand.
The premier, Steven Miles, said existing services in the sector will receive an additional $36m in funding. Miles said ahead of national cabinet on Wednesday “one of the things the federal government could do is match the funding here.”
The state’s police commissioner, Steve Gollschewski, said domestic violence was a gendered issue and men needed to play their part in reducing violence against women.
[A] primary focus is to make sure our community is safe and feels safer.
Updated
Man in hospital after accidentally shooting himself with homemade gun
A man has been taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after it’s believed he accidentally shot himself with a homemade gun.
Emergency services responded to reports of a short fired at Dandenong in Victoria early this morning. Police located a 37-year-old man with a gunshot wound in an alley off Scott Street around 1.15am.
He was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and it is believed he accidentally discharged a homemade firearm at himself.
The homemade firearm was located at the scene and a crime scene has been established. Police will continue to investigate the incident.
Updated
Victoria Legal Aid struggling to meet remand demand: review
A review of services provided by Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) to people on remand has found it is struggling to meet the demands of its growing number of clients.
The Centre for Innovative Justice review, released on Monday, made 20 recommendations to VLA. The service facilitates legal assistance to every person brought before court after being arrested and taken into custody, a cohort of more than 13,000 people each year.
The review occurred after legislative changes in 2018 drastically increased the number of people held on remand, with a particular impact on the proportion of women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
It largely made recommendations relating to three key areas: the lack of time for lawyers to properly advise, support and communicate with clients; meeting the non-legal needs of people in custody; and better support for the remand service workforce.
Lawyers working in the remand context simply do not have adequate time with clients to provide an appropriate service, to fully understand and respond to their client’s needs and circumstances, or to communicate effectively with them.
Updated
Victorian premier tells truth-telling commission that school curriculum needs work
Circling back to the the Yorrook justice commission, where Victorian premier Jacinta Allan has been giving evidence (see earlier post).
Allan said the government has a role to ensure the wider community has an understanding of the state’s history and the injustices experienced by First Nations people:
It’s not just an academic understanding ... it is making sure it is understood across the community more broadly. It’s about understanding why in local communities there are concerns about the gold royalties that have not been returned to First Nations people.
In my personal view, not enough of us know that story.
Allan said there is also more work to be done in the state’s education system:
The work of the commission will give us a wealth of material that we can look at how we embed that into our curriculum.
Updated
Ancient landscapes point to Australia’s initial human migration paths
A new study of landscape evolution has cast new light on migration paths of the first humans to Sahul – the expansive single landmass including Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania that existed up to 75,000 years ago.
A team from the University of Sydney, Southern Cross University, Flinders University and Université Grenoble-Alpes used a newly developed landscape evolution model that accounts for climatic evolution from 75,000 to 35,000 years ago to conduct the study.
Researchers considered two entry points for migration routes: a northern route through West Papua (entry time: 73,000 years) and a southern entry point from the Timor Sea shelf (entry time: about 75,000 years). They produced a map showing the most-likely visited regions in Australia, which suggests people spread across the continent quite quickly.
The model indicated a high likelihood of human presence near several already-proposed pathways of Indigenous movement (called super highways), including those to the east of Lake Carpentaria, along the southern corridors south of Lake Eyre, and traversing the Australian interior.
Researchers hope the new model can pinpoint areas of archaeological significance and provide an indication of how much specific sites may have eroded or received extra sediment.
Updated
Jacinta Allan begins giving evidence to Yorrook Justice Commission
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has begun giving evidence at the state’s Indigenous truth-telling commission.
The Yorrook Justice Commission is the nation’s first formal truth-telling inquiry and is holding public hearings investigating land injustice. Allan is Australia’s first state leader to provide evidence at a formal truth-telling inquiry, which has the same powers as a royal commission.
In her opening comments, Allan says it is an “honour” to be the first Australian government to participate in a truth-telling commission.
She acknowledges that government policies have contributed to the disparity that exists today between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Victorians:
Truth is about listening to First Peoples’ experience of injustice and treaty must be about listening, genuinely listening so this can be addressed.
NZ’s central bank says climate change is contributing to rising insurance premiums
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (formed almost a quarter of a century before Australia copied the name for its central bank) has issued a report about rising insurance premiums.
It’s a subject of some interest to Australians, not least because many of the same dynamics are at work on this side of the ditch (with the same insurers and reinsurers at play). In the March quarter, insurance prices rose 16.4% from a year earlier in Australia, the largest jump since 2001.
Anyway, the RBNZ has been monitoring similar increases there, particularly in the wake of the 2023 floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. Claims have topped $NZ3.7bn ($A3.3bn) since.
Insurance premiums are soaring in many parts of the world, with climate change a key factor. Reserve Bank of NZ looks at some of the costs for that country here: https://t.co/Uzw5dxixR8 pic.twitter.com/zpUcZDPbpO
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) April 29, 2024
New Zealand has, not surprisingly, a bigger seismic risk than Australia, given the earthquake risks to both main islands from its geographical location on the ring of fire. Interestingly, up until to now “all perils” have typically been included as standards – something that is starting to change as insurers and those wanting insurance get more picky.
RBNZ notes that in Australia, flood cover has gradually increased from about 3% of policies to about 93% by 2020. However, “owners of high-risk properties continue to opt out of flood cover given the very high premiums they would need to pay to obtain it”. Instead, they are banking on their own savings and “potential government assistance” to come to the rescue.
Anyway “climate change has increased the underlying risks of flood, storm and other weather events in many areas of the country, a trend that may accelerate in the future with additional warming”, the RBNZ says.
Banks need to be conscious of the ongoing insurability of the properties against which they lend. This will require more scrutiny in their lending decisions than currently.
It’s a message that looks like be relevant across the Tasman (where most of NZ’s banks are based) and pretty much everywhere else.
Updated
Couple’s house deliberately lit on fire in case of ‘mistaken identity’, police allege
NSW police believe a couple whose house was allegedly deliberately lit on fire last month were targeted in a case of “mistaken identity”.
Detectives from the arson unit have released CCTV footage today, appealing for more information into the house fire. Just after 2.10am on 23 March, emergency services were called to Fairfield following reports of a house fire.
The property was destroyed in the blaze. The occupants – a 28-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman – escaped after being awoken by the fire and treated for second and third degree burns to their hands and lower bodies.
The pair were taken to hospital in serious condition but have both since been released.
Initial inquiries revealed the fire was deliberately lit, police said. However, it is believed the couple were targeted in a case of mistaken identity because they had only moved into the house less than a year ago.
Police have released CCTV of two men dressed in dark clothing appearing to douse the home in petrol before setting it alight. The men then flee the scene in a white Honda HR-V, with damage to the bumper bar on the back left-hand side.
Anyone with footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Updated
‘Context is key’: Faruqi v Hanson racial discrimination case hearing
Continued from last post:
Saul Holt read some of the messages that were posted on X, then known as Twitter, and sent by email and text message to Mehreen Faruqi following Pauline Hanson’s quote-tweet. Holt said:
Twitter is extraordinarily effective at amplifying the dog whistle, creating the pile-on, and there’s volumes of it.
Faruqi is arguing that Hanson breached Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act in her response to Faruqi’s tweet and the verbal attacks she says it provoked.
Holt argued that Hanson had a history of making derogatory remarks about migrants and that he would present, on Faruqi’s behalf, evidence from experts in psychology, public health and the study of rhetoric on the deep impact of racism, which he said resulted in “acute and chronic” mental, physical and emotional harm.
Sue Chrysanthou SC, for Senator Hanson, said “the chronology and the context is key” in the case. Chrysanthou said Hanson had sworn allegiance to the Queen in taking her position in the Senate in 2016 and that Faruqi had done the same in 2018. She argued this is relevant to her client because Faruqi “had engaged in hypocrisy, yet again in my client’s mind, such that she needed to be called out for it”.
Chrysanthou told the court:
One might think, on reading that tweet at the time, on the day that it was posted, that it was intended to elicit a reaction. One might think, just on reading that tweet ... that it was intended to provoke, that it was intended to offend, that it was intended to upset those who read it.
Chrysanthou said that “merely referring” to someone’s race or ethnic background “is not sufficient to prove that the act was done because of that fact”.
Chrysanthou argued that the provisions in section 18C potentially impeded the implied constitutional right to freedom of political communication. The commonwealth attorney general is also being represented because of the issues arising around the constitutionality of Section 18C.
Updated
Faruqi v Hanson racial discrimination case begins in federal court
The federal court has this morning begun hearing the racial discrimination case that Greens senator Mehreen Farqui is bringing against One Nation senator Pauline Hanson over a 2022 tweet Hanson posted in which she urged Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan”.
Appearing for Faruqi, Saul Holt KC has told the court in his opening remarks that the tweet was “littered with references to Senator Faruqi’s status as a migrant”. He told Justice Angus Stewart:
‘Pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan’ was a version of - just a version - of the well-known anti-migrant, racist, nativist phrase ‘go back to where you came from’.
He said the tweet was made in public, was “reasonably likely to offend, humiliate or intimidate” and was made “because of race, colour or national or ethnic origin”.
Hanson’s tweet was in response to a tweet Faruqi had posted on 9 September 2022, the morning that the death of Queen Elizabeth II was announced. Faruqi’s tweet said:
Condolences to those who mourn the Queen. I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples. We are reminded of the urgency of Treaty with First Nations, justice & reparations for British colonies & becoming a republic.
Hanson quote-tweeted that post to her followers, replying:
Your attitude appalls and disgusts me. When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country. You took citizenship, bought multiple homes, and a job in a parliament. It’s clear you’re not happy, so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.
Updated
Sydney Metro breakthrough as station housing plans set down
Sydneysiders now have their first look at 18 housing accelerator zones, AAP reports, but the future for other station-centred precincts will be in limbo for many months.
A key plank of New South Wales’s solution to the housing crisis – the transport-oriented development zones – are due to bust through local council controls and deliver more than 170,000 new homes in mid-rise dwellings around train stations.
Maps showing the new planning controls for 18 of the 37 zones were released today. It opens the door to developers lodging plans from 14 May.
Under the new rules, councils cannot prevent developments for height reasons but retain all other assessment powers.
The other 19 zones will progressively come online between now and June 2025, with most in place by December.
Updated
AusNet enters $12m undertaking after website crash left storm-affected customers in dark
The Essential Services Commission has accepted a court-enforced undertaking from AusNet, after it failed to provide adequate power outage information to customers during the Victorian storms this February.
Around 255,000 AusNet customers were left without power after the storms on 13 February. AusNet’s outage tracker webpage crashed due to the traffic and was not fully restored for more than a week.
While the outage tracker webpage was unavailable, customers calling AusNet’s phone number also experienced excessive wait times, a statement from the commission said.
Commission chairperson and commissioner Kate Symons said AusNet has acknowledged its failure to provide timely service interruption information to customers was a contravention of Victoria’s energy laws:
The commission has accepted a court enforceable undertaking that represents a legally binding obligation for AusNet to directly contribute $12m to provide remediation to its affected customers and to improve community energy resilience to extreme weather events.
In addition, AusNet has committed to a Compliance Improvement Action Plan through which it must improve its systems, issue a formal public notice acknowledging its contraventions and apologising to customers, pay for independent consultant reviews, and report to the commission regularly on its progress.
AusNet has also agreed to issue an additional $2m to its previously announced Energy Resilience Community Fund. The undertaking requires AusNet to distribute the full $12m by the end of 2026, with any remaining amount donated to charities approved by the commission.
Updated
Craig McPherson leaves Seven network
The head of news and current affairs at Seven, Craig McPherson, has resigned after weeks of bad publicity for the network about Spotlight’s dealings with Bruce Lehrmann and the naming of an innocent man on air as the Bondi Junction killer.
McPherson, who joined Seven in 2015, said it was a decision he had been considering for a while and believed “now is a good time for all to have a fresh start”.
Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media has appointed the editor of the West Australian, Anthony De Ceglie, to the new role of director of news and current affairs and editor-in-chief, Seven West Media.
The moves at the top of the media company have made way for the return to editing of Christopher Dore, who lost his job as editor-in-chief of the Australian after an incident at a Wall Street Journal event in Laguna Beach, California in 2022.
Dore, who has been writing for a new publication The Nightly, has been appointed acting editor of The West Australian and other West Australian Newspapers titles.
Updated
Measures to control crown-of-thorns starfish in Great Barrier Reef successful
In some positive Great Barrier Reef news: years of work to control crown-of-thorns starfish in the reef has led to an increase in coral cover, according to new research.
The data, led by the Reef Authority, found a six-fold reduction in starfish numbers and a 44% increase in coral cover across regions that received timely and sufficient control efforts.
While crown-of-thorns starfish are native to the Great Barrier Reef, outbreaks can cause broad-scale coral loss and reef degradation, a statement said.
Reef authority chief scientist Dr Roger Beeden said this long-term data demonstrated that suppressing outbreaks of the coral-eating starfish has great benefits:
Unlike other major causes of coral mortality, crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks can be directly managed by targeted manual control — it is an effective, efficient, and scalable management action that is critical for the Great Barrier Reef’s long-term health and resilience.
Climate change remains the biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef and management actions that support the Reef’s resilience are vital.
The full study can be read here.
Updated
Portrait-mode, Instagram-able shopfronts touted as way to revitalise city centres
There are many opinions around how to best revitalise city centres and shopfronts – the latest being they should be designed in “portrait” mode, not “landscape”, to make them more Instagram-able.
New research from a major retail and dining precinct in China – Wuhan’s Jiang Han Road, similar to Melbourne’s Bourke Street or Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall – shows retailers adopting the new trend are reinvigorating the main streets of cities.
The research also found visual merchandisers were changing their shopfronts to mirror smartphones, displaying their goods on the vertical axis to fit inside the frame of shoppers’ smartphone cameras.
Researchers from the University of Melbourne, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Wuhan University compared data between 2016 and 2022 and found while digital-savvy shoppers were buying online, they were also visiting main streets to take photos and videos for social media.
Prof Sun Sheng Han from the University of Melbourne said:
What Australia can learn from our research in China is that while the number of retail shops has dropped significantly, small businesses who embraced influencers and digital platforms by adapting their shopfronts to be more social media-friendly can succeed.
Updated
Uncle Pabai Pabai speaks ahead of today’s climate change class action hearing
As we flagged just earlier, the final hearings in a landmark climate class action brought by First Nations people will begin in Cairns today.
Uncle Pabai Pabai, co-lead of the class action, spoke to ABC TV from Cairns and explained the current situation in the Torres Strait in terms of climate change:
Torres Strait is very, very low-lying islands. My island is surrounded by mangroves and mud. So it’s very emotional, [the] climate impact [on] my islands, and it’s damaging the properties and damaging my community.
This is why I’m taking the government back to the courts to get the motion to come to the end of the closing arguments, because I care about the Torres Strait, I care about my community – my island home.
The group is being supported by a number of climate-affected communities across Australia. Uncle Pabai Pabai said:
It’s not for my own betterment. It’s for the betterment of my people, my country and all of the world … It’s very emotional that they are helping us and pushing this climate change [class action] through.
Updated
Police investigating after St Kilda palm trees set on fire
Victorian detectives are investigating after St Kilda’s iconic palm trees were set alight overnight, with one destroyed during the blaze.
In a statement, Victoria police said officers were called to reports of four trees alight along Marine Parade about 7.15pm.
No one was injured, but one tree was destroyed and three others sustained minor damages. Footage posted to social media showed the fire:
In St Kilda right now near the marina! pic.twitter.com/8KxifUxFzX
— Adam & Symon (@AdamandSymon) April 28, 2024
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Updated
Final hearings in landmark climate class action to begin in Cairns today
The final hearings in a landmark climate class action brought by Australia’s First Nations people will begin in Cairns today, AAP reports.
Over a few decades Torres Strait Islander elder Aunty McRose Elu has seen her ancestral lands inundated with water. Dr Elu was born on one of the outer islands of the Torres Strait – the low-lying Saibai Island, 4km south of Papua New Guinea.
As you go through the area when you fly over it’s very frightening. Now you can see more water than land but people live there.
Dr Elu is part of the first climate class action brought by Australia’s First Nations people.
Led by Uncles Pabai Pabai and Paul Kabai, they’re arguing the Commonwealth owes a duty of care to Torres Strait Islanders to take reasonable steps to protect them from the harms caused by climate change.
Pabai and Kabai launched the federal court action in 2021, faced with rising sea levels and fearing their communities could become Australia’s first climate refugees. The court held on-country hearings on Badu, Boigu and Saibai islands in 2023, while scientists and other expert witnesses gave evidence in Melbourne in November.
The final hearings in the landmark case will begin in Cairns today, with legal teams to make their closing arguments throughout the week.
Dr Elu said at the heart of the fight was the continued existence of Torres Strait Islander people and their homelands.
Updated
NSW premier’s father in coma after heart attack
The father of NSW premier Chris Minns is in an induced coma following a heart attack over the weekend. A spokesperson for the premier said in a statement:
John Minns had a massive heart attack yesterday and is in an induced coma in ICU at St George hospital.
The family are by his side and are thankful for the care he’s getting from health workers and doctors.
Updated
Victorian premier to appear at state’s Indigenous truth-telling commission
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, will appear at the state’s Indigenous truth-telling commission this morning.
Allan will become Australia’s first state leader to provide evidence at a truth-telling inquiry, which has the same powers as a royal commission. Allan’s evidence is due to begin at 11.15am, local time.
The Yorrook Justice Commission is holding public hearings investigating land injustice. Speaking to Guardian Australia ahead of her appearance, Allan said she was “deeply humbled” to appear before the commission:
The truth-telling process is such an important part, indeed, a critical part of treaty, of the treaty process.
At times, that truth-telling has been challenging – challenging for governments, challenging for organisations and institutions – but it must be done because we can’t have treaty without telling the truth about how our state was colonised.
Updated
Civil liberties council says legislative change, without cultural change, leaves women ‘unsafe’
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties says the “scourge” of violence against women occurring across Australia will “not be solved by knee-jerk legislative responses … under the guise of making women safer”.
In a statement, the council stated that “the rising rate of domestic violence has not abated in NSW, even after new laws and tougher penalties were introduced over the past six years”.
President Lydia Shelly argued changes to bail laws or increasing penalties for particular crimes, such as domestic violence, won’t solve the problem but will “provide a false sense of reform and security and arguably, continue to expose women to harm and violence”.
If we are to reduce the occurrence of … horrendous crimes, we must ensure that structural failures within our criminal justice system and our communities are appropriately understood, addressed and funded.
Without appropriate resourcing and funding, laws are rendered impotent. Legislative changes, without making any structural or cultural change will always leave women unsafe and at risk of violence.
Shelly said a royal commission into family violence is “violently overdue”, and the council has written to NSW attorney general Michael Daley “with respect to the structural and cultural changes that need to be made as a matter of urgency”.
Updated
Australian Council of Trade Unions calls for 9% gender-based pay rise
Workers in key feminised industries should get at least a 9% pay rise in the annual wage review, according to the nation’s largest union, AAP reports.
The ACTU says the boost would be a critical step in achieving equal pay for workers in occupations historically undervalued based on gender including care and degree-qualified work in early childhood education, education and health support, veterinary care and disability home care.
The union’s submissions filed with the Fair Work Commission say the 9% rise is based on the 5% increase it is advocating across all awards supplemented by at least an additional 4% in key low-paid feminised industries.
If accepted, a full-time care worker could see their pay boosted by $90 a week – a step towards equal pay, pending a full assessment. A similar assessment in aged care recently found workers required up to 23% pay increases to achieve equity, the union said.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said achieving equal pay for women “requires systemic change and targeted pay rises in industries traditionally dominated by women and historically very low-paid”.
A 9% pay increase will not only support families with cost-of-living pressures, it will also be a vital first step to properly valuing the work of working women doing critical work for our community, such as educating the next generation and caring for our loved ones.
Updated
'Full suite' of policy measures needed to change culture of male violence, PM says
The prime minister said Australia’s bail laws will be one of the things on the agenda at this Wednesday’s national cabinet.
In case you missed it, Anthony Albanese has announced an urgent national cabinet meeting on men’s violence against women for Wednesday. He provided some more details around this on ABC News Breakfast:
State premiers approached me about the convening of a meeting. I wanted to do that as well.
I’ve spoken directly with a range of premiers and chief ministers. We need to look at the full suite of policy measures that can make a practical difference here. There’s longer-term issues of culture change that we need to engage in so that people teach respect. And it’s not just women and children who will gain from that, men will gain from that as well, if we have respectful relationships across our society, the whole society benefits here.
But at the moment, women are feeling – quite rightly – frustrated and angry, and I understand that that is the case.
Updated
We need ‘concerted plan’ to end violence against women, not national emergency declaration: PM
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been making the rounds on breakfast television this morning, currently speaking on ABC News Breakfast.
He is asked why the government won’t declare violence against women as a national emergency?
When we declare a national emergency, things kick in [such as] one-off payments for people – for a bushfire, for a flood, for something like that. I don’t really want to get into a debate here that misses the point over whether it’s a national emergency or a national crisis. But an emergency declaration by state or territory governments kicks in immediate one-off actions by the federal government. What we need here is not one-off actions. What we need here is a concerted plan.
Updated
I was happy not to speak, or to speak: PM on rally controversy
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has appeared on Channel Nine’s Today, addressing controversy around yesterday’s rallies against gendered violence.
One of the organisers of the rallies, Sarah Williams, has accused Albanese of lying about asking to speak and being told no (see previous post).
Asked “what happened” Albanese replied:
The organisers throughout the country deserve credit for organising these rallies. I was happy not to speak. I was happy to speak, it was about raising awareness of the issue, but a call to action by all governments, quite clearly, we need to do more.
It’s not enough to just have empathy. The fact that one a woman dies every four days, on average, at the hand of a partner, is just a national crisis. So I’ll be convening the national cabinet on Wednesday. We’ll talk about what more we can do. Clearly governments need to do more, but as a society as well, we need to acknowledge that we need to change behaviour. We need to change attitudes. We need to change culture, because it is completely unacceptable.
In response to the claim he had lied, Albanese said:
I’m focused on the issue, Karl. It was an emotional day for people and I get that, on what is an emotional issue. Because women were saying yesterday, enough is enough.
Updated
Was the prime minister invited to speak at yesterday’s rally in Canberra?
Finance minister Katy Gallagher says she is “not aware” of an invitation for her and the prime minister to speak at yesterday’s rally to end male violence against women in Canberra yesterday.
Speaking to ABC RN, Gallagher said the government was working with organisers for an opportunity to speak but “we weren’t on the speaker’s list”.
We weren’t able to land that by the time the rally started … I think the rally expected to hear from their prime minister so he stood up and spoke… He wanted to show that he was deeply interested in [and] cared about the matters that were being raised at that rally.
So was the government invited to speak? Gallagher said:
I’m not aware of the invitation for the government to speak …
There was some concern about the demands, you know, the five key asks that were being sought at that rally and, you know, a commitment that they were seeking from from us and we weren’t able to reach agreement on how to proceed. So in the end, we decided to just walk and attend the rally and as a sign of respect, and as the sign of solidarity with women around the country.
In a statement last night, rally organiser Sarah Williams from What Were You Wearing said Anthony Albanese’s office told her he was interested in walking, but not speaking:
Representatives from Gallagher and Albanese’s offices both said this morning that they were sure Katy would be happy to speak. Not the prime minister … Myself and WWYW never denied him from speaking. He never asked to speak.
Updated
Gallagher rejects notion that government’s 10-year plan to end violence against women isn’t working
Finance minister Katy Gallagher has also been speaking to ABC RN, where she repeated her view that “people want to see change happen faster than it’s been happening” around addressing violence against women.
Host Sally Sara noted that “gender violence is worse this year than it was last year”, but Gallagher rejected the notion that the government’s 10-year plan to end violence against women isn’t working.
I mean, we’re two years into a 10 year plan that had months and months of consultation and involvement from everybody who works in the sector, and we’ve all signed up to it …
Certainly from our government’s point of view, we are very open to having discussions with anyone about areas that they see require more focus or better interventions. And I think it’s upon us to continually review that because violence against women and children is changing all the time.
Updated
‘We need to find better ways to protect women against epidemic of violence’: Katy Gallagher
Katy Gallagher said while she was at the Canberra rally yesterday she spoke to a number of young men who expressed concern about the way women are treated and “some of the toxic masculinity that they see around as young men”.
She told ABC News Breakfast:
I guess a very strong community sentiment of ‘enough is enough’. Everyone’s over it, and we have to work out better ways and more ways to protect women and to make sure that we can end this epidemic of violence against women in this country.
Updated
Government has ‘open mind’ to new prevention measures to address violence against women: Gallagher
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, said the government has an “open mind” around introducing new measures to prevent violence against women, but doesn’t believe there is a lack of resources or commitment from government.
She acknowledged people are wanting to see change “happen faster than it’s been” and said violence against women is a “deeply embedded cultural problem in our community” that one government – or eight – cannot solve alone.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, she said there “wasn’t a lot of interest” in the issue outside of the sector when the government launched its 10-year national plan just over two years ago.
I don’t think there’s any shortage of resources and commitment going into this. When we launched the national plan just over two years ago, there wasn’t a lot of interest in it outside of the sector.
We’ve got this 10-year plan that’s two years in, and all the governments and the commonwealth, state and territory, are all working to implement that plan. But I think we always need to look at whether things are working, whether we need to shift focus or, you know, look at new ways – particularly in the area of prevention – about how we provide support and services.
From our point of view, we have an open mind. We understand that people are wanting to see change happen faster than it’s been. And I think we all feel that. But we’ve also got to acknowledge that this is a very deeply embedded cultural problem in our community, and it isn’t one that one government or eight governments can solve. It’s a whole-of-community problem.
Updated
Government releases consultation paper on review into Online Safety Act
A review of federal rules on online behaviour will focus on increasing penalties and ensuring the tech industry considers the safety of children, as the government steps up its rhetoric after recent social media misinformation concerns.
The federal government is today releasing a consultation paper on its ongoing review into the Online Safety Act, the rules that govern bodies like the eSafety Commission and the powers it has to pull tech giants into line. It comes as the commission fights X, formerly Twitter, in a federal court case over footage of the Wakeley church stabbing.
The review, announced last year, is set to report back by October. Public consultation on the review opens today.
The consultation paper raises numerous questions including whether the act’s remit should be widened, whether complaint schemes should be reformed or simplified, whether the eSafety Commissioner has “the right powers” to address violent content online, and whether penalties are high enough for misbehaviour.
Communications minister Michelle Rowland said:
The Government is considering a range of matters, including the strength of penalties, ensuring industry acts in the best interests of children, and taking the lessons from overseas.
Rowland said the potential for “emerging harms” around technology like artificial intelligence showed online safety laws should not be “set and forget”.
Online misogyny working against efforts to tackle violence against women: Plibersek
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has said an “incredible amount of violent misogyny online” is actively working against any policies aimed at tackling violence against women.
Speaking to Sunrise early this morning, she listed a number of government policies aimed at tackling the issue but said despite these, “I’m not surprised that those people at rallies across the weekend are still furious that the behaviour continues”.
There’s this smorgasbord of violent misogyny that’s being fed to, particularly, adolescent boys. And so society is trying to fix it on the one hand and, on the other hand, we have the exact opposite force happening, working against us trying to improve things.
We need to look at what governments are doing, what police are doing, what courts are doing, what emergency services are doing, but we also need to look at what is happening particularly to young men online that is supporting these misogynist attitudes.
Updated
Australians lost $2.74bn to scams last year, new report shows
Australians lost $2.74bn to scams in 2023, a decrease from the previous year and the first time since 2016 the annual figure has gone down.
The federal government says its National Anti-Scam Centre is helping raise awareness about frauds the public should be aware of, but says it has more work to do in order to stop more investment, romance and phishing scams.
The annual Targeting Scams report is out today, showing the type of crimes Australians are getting sucked into. The 2023 figure of total money reported lost to scams was 13% down from 2022, where the figure was $3.15bn.
A release from the office of assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, said:
This reverses a long-term trend that saw scam losses double year on year, demonstrating that the government’s tough anti-scam agenda is working.
His office says investment scam losses were down 13% between 2022 and 2023, with romance scam losses down 4%, phishing scam losses down 13%, and payment redirection scams decreasing 59%.
But the government is also sounding an alarm on the changing face of scam activity. While scams originating on phone calls or texts were down, social media scams were up 17%. The government says it will soon be introducing new industry codes obligating banks, telecommunication companies and online platforms to detect, prevent and respond to scams.
Jones said:
We want Australia to be a world leader in combatting scammers and our mandatory codes will put us well ahead.
While the report shows positive early signs, scam losses remain far too high and we urge Australians to remain alert to the threat of scammers and report any suspicious activity.
Welcome
Good morning, and welcome back to a new week on the Australia news live blog. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll bring you our rolling coverage today.
Thousands of Australians took part in rallies across the country over the weekend, marching to end men’s violence against women. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and a number of senior ministers participated in the Canberra rally and confirmed an urgent national cabinet meeting on men’s violence against women will be convened for Wednesday, but stopped short of announcing new violence prevention policies or funding. Josh Butler and Adeshola Ore have the full story below:
The environment minster, Tanya Plibersek, has told Sunrise that an “incredible amount of violent misogyny online” is actively working against government initiatives aiming to tackle violence against women.
She told Sunrise just earlier:
There’s this smorgasbord of violent misogyny that’s being fed to, particularly, adolescent boys. And so, society is trying to fix it on the one hand and, on the other hand, we have the exact opposite force happening, working against us trying to improve things.
Meanwhile, Australians lost $2.74bn to scams in 2023, a decrease from the previous year and the first time since 2016 the annual figure has gone down. This is according to the annual Targeting Scams report, released today, showing the type of crimes Australians are getting sucked into. More on this shortly.
See something that needs attention on the blog? You can get in touch via X, @emilywindwrites, or shoot me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
Let’s get started.
