What we learned, Thursday 12 March
It’s time to wrap things up for the day. Here’s what’s been keeping us busy:
The federal energy minister, Chris Bowen, announced a temporary downgrade in Australia’s fuel quality standards.
Dennis Richardson says his decision to resign from the royal commission into antisemitism had nothing to do with the government, but says he came to the decision that he was “surplus” to the needs of the body.
Increasingly ugly abuse in federal parliament has prompted a group of independents and the Greens to call for an urgent intervention from Labor to change the rules
The sealed section of the robodebt royal commission report has been made public almost three years after the final report was handed down.
Australian shares suffered heavy losses today over concerns the oil market turmoil caused by the Middle East conflict could get worse.
Software provider Atlassian said on Wednesday it would lay off around 10% of its workforce, or roughly 1,600 positions, as part of a restructuring plan to push into artificial intelligence and enterprise sales, Reuters reports.
Foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said most of the Australians who were caught in transit in airline hubs in the Middle East have now returned home on several dozen flights that have made it out in recent days.
A Liberal candidate in South Australia’s upcoming state election has dropped out of the race after his “shocking and extreme” views on abortion, same-sex marriage, gender transitioning and feminism were aired by his Labor rival.
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SA candidate who made ‘shocking and extreme’ comments on podcast no longer running for Liberals
A Liberal candidate in South Australia’s upcoming state election has dropped out of the race after “shocking and extreme” comments on abortion, same-sex marriage, gender transitioning and feminism were aired by his Labor rival.
The leader of the SA Liberals, Ashton Hurn, yesterday stood by Carston Woodhouse, running for the seat of Wright in Adelaide’s north, after his appearances on the evangelical Christian podcast ElijahFire surfaced.
Today, Hurn said Woodhouse “will no longer be the candidate”:
I stood here yesterday, and I made myself clear that I did not support the comments made by a particular candidate. That remains true today, and that person is no longer a candidate for the Liberal Party at this state election.
I still maintain very strongly that people are entitled to have their view.
In videos of the podcast conversations, Woodhouse describes feminism as “demonic”, says there is “this illusion that you can somehow change your sex” and adds “who knows what demonic realms we’ve opened up to the world … by accepting homosexuality”.
Hurn originally stood by Woodhouse, saying she did not hold the same views, but that she was “not going to stop someone from having an opinion”.
Today, she would not say whether Woodhouse was disendorsed or had resigned, adding he remained under contract with the SA Liberal party.
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Why did the 2022 Optus hacker never release all the data? Singtel doesn’t know
While the alleged Optus hacker in 2022 had access to the personal information of nearly 10 million customers, it only released 10,200 records as part of ransom demands, and then apologised and deleted their posts. No further records have been released since.
The West Australian reported today that Optus’s parent company, Singtel, was suspected to have paid another ransom since the 2022 hack.
It was an allegation Singtel’s board members John Arthur and Gail Kelly strongly denied had occurred when asked during a Senate inquiry on Thursday.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young asked the pair about the West Australian report, and then asked why when the Optus hack occurred, the alleged hacker suddenly had a change of heart and didn’t post the data when the ransom wasn’t paid.
Kelly said:
We just don’t know. It’s clearly a question we asked ourselves … We don’t know who that was, whether the person who asked for the ransom was the same person who was the hacker … No ransom was paid. No ransom was contemplated being paid.
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Dennis Richardson says interest in his resignation from royal commission will be ‘one or two-day wonder’
The former spy chief Dennis Richardson is appearing on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing after his surprise resignation from the antisemitism royal commission.
Richardson says he doesn’t think anyone “in their right mind” would attempt to convince him to return to the role and you can’t unscramble an egg that has been scrambled.
He says he didn’t advise the federal government about his exit in advance because a royal commission sits outside government and it would have been improper to tell them.
Asked why he would quit when the report was “half done”, Richardson says that would be an “exaggeration”.
My resignation, I understand the interest it arouses, but at the end of the day and in the bigger scheme of things it will be a one or two day wonder. The royal commission will move on as it should … I have no doubt they will produce a report on intelligence and law enforcement matters which go to the heart of the issue …
Once the royal commission was formed and my report was rolled in to the royal commission, it became the royal commission’s report and became a matter for the royal commissioner, advised mainly by her senior counsel, and as time went on, I felt the value I could add to all of that was fairly limited.
Asked who should replace him, Richardson raises independent national security consultant Tony Sheehan and Peter Baxter, a former deputy secretary at the Department of Defence, as top candidates.
Read more here:
Updated
ASX suffers heavy losses as Middle East worries intensify
Australian shares suffered heavy losses today over concerns the oil market turmoil caused by the Middle East conflict could get worse.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.3% to close the day at 8629 points, wiping about $43bn in value from the market. Brent crude prices surged again today to tip over the US$100 per barrel mark.
The ASX has been pulled around by sharp moves in the oil price, with rising energy prices fuelling global inflation, which drags down equity markets.
Investor hopes of a quick resolution to the Iran conflict have evaporated in recent days amid ongoing disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit passage for the global oil trade.
Senior Iranian officials have warned of a long “war of attrition”.
The National Australia Bank’s markets research team said today a “tense reality” had taken hold in the Middle East.
“The US-Israel Iran conflict remains tense with a low probability for a resumption of vessels travelling through the Strait of Hormuz any time soon,” NAB said.
A growing number of economists expect the Reserve Bank will increase the cash rate to 4.1% next week. Rate hikes, used to tame inflation, tend to weigh on stock markets.
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Bowen says he is ‘considering’ voluntary call from IEA for oil reserve release
Bowen was also asked about the federal government’s response to the International Energy Agency’s decision to release oil from global energy reserves.
The world’s energy watchdog said its 32 members had agreed unanimously to release about 400m barrels of emergency crude, a third of the group’s total government stockpiles and more than double the IEA’s previous biggest release.
Bowen said it was “appropriate” the government took some time to “think this through”.
It is a voluntary call, and my focus and my response will be focused on Australia’s best interests … We are good members of the IEA, we are good citizens, we are taking the voluntary call very seriously but I am considering it.
Read more about the decision here:
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Bowen: ‘get as much fuel as you need but not less or more’
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, is fresh out of question time and over to ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.
He told the program there was “no doubt” Australians road-tripping over Easter would be affected by the “international crisis” on petrol prices but that didn’t mean they should panic-buy now.
It is important … that we say to people [to] get as much fuel as you need but not less or more because we are seeing a doubling of demand for fuel since the bombing of Iran and that has caused real, unacceptable supply chain pressure in Australia.
Bowen said the government wasn’t considering a temporary change to the fuel excise and measures announced today should help with supply measures.
Australia’s supplies are good and secure and at this point all the ships we were expecting have arrived, our strategic reserve is in place. When we say our fuel supply is secure, we mean it because it is true.
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Elizabeth Struhs inquest hears eight-year-old’s return home against objection of doctors
A coronial inquest has heard eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs, who was killed by family in 2022, was released back to them over the objection of her paediatricians.
The court is holding a pre-inquest hearing into the case today. Struhs, a type 1 diabetic, died as a result of being denied insulin by her family, who believed that God would intervene to save her.
She was hospitalised in 2019 as a result of her illness before being returned to her family. Her mother, Kerrie, openly refused to provide her medical care.
Counsel assisting Simon Hamlyn-Harris told the court:
The decision in August 2019 to return Elizabeth to her family home was in the face of strongly expressed opposition from the consultant paediatrician at the Children’s hospital, the child protection and forensic medical service at the Queensland Children’s hospital.
He read out a contemporaneous email: “It is the opinion of the CPFMS - that is the child protection and forensic medical service - and the endocrine team at QCH that Elizabeth cannot safely be cared for in a home where her mother resides, due to the strong beliefs that she’s expressing”.
Hamlyn-Harris said child safety clearly did not agree with that assessment, perhaps because her father, Jason Struhs, committed to provide her the insulin she needed to live. He did so for two years.
The inquest continues.
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Police discover bodies of mother and baby after man hit by car in Queensland’s south-east
A mother and her baby daughter have been found dead, while a man covered in blood was hit by a car close to the grisly crime scene.
The tragedy was discovered after reports of the injured man being struck by a vehicle near a supermarket in Queensland’s south-east. The man with neck wounds was hit in Logan, about 30km south of Brisbane, on Thursday morning.
Police were trying to reach the man’s next of kin when officers discovered the bodies of a 38-year-old woman and her one-year-old daughter in the family’s nearby home.
Both died from critical injuries from an edged weapon, Detective Superintendent Chris Ahearn said:
We believe the three of these people live in a family unit at that house - child, mother and father. Our investigations are focusing heavily on the nature of their relationship and living arrangements at that house.
Witnesses raised the alarm after seeing a man covered in blood running along a footpath before he was hit by a black utility about 300m from the family home. Evidence markers have been placed along the footpath, marking a trail of blood leading from the house.
The man remains in a serious condition and is under police guard in hospital. There were no domestic violence orders involving the couple, police said, adding there was no further threat to the community. The home remains a crime scene as detectives appeal for anyone with information or dashcam footage to contact police.
-Australian Associated Press
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Singtel not considering divesting from Optus after triple zero outage
The Senate inquiry examining September’s Optus triple zero outage has brought before it this afternoon Singtel board members John Arthur and Gail Kelly to answer questions about its support for its Australian company, Optus.
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson asked the board members about whether Singtel remains committed to Optus, or whether it has considered divesting after the ongoing issues with the telco.
Kelly said:
We, Singtel, want Optus to thrive. We want Optus to fulfill its obligations to its customers and fulfill its obligations to the Australian people more broadly.
Arthur, who is also the chair of Optus, said “Optus will continue to be a significant part of the Singtel group” and Singtel is “committed to Australia” through continued heavy investment in Optus.
Kelly said foreign-owned companies, when there is an issue, tend to reign back in control to the parent company, but in Singtel’s case, the company has invested more in Optus and worked to strengthen the board and the company in the wake of the outage.
Arthur said Optus had changed the way it had worked in the past, trying to be as transparent as possible, noting the Dr Kerry Schott report on the outage was released “without a word redacted”.
Following Optus’s 2022 cyberattack, the company fought to keep the report on the hack a secret.
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Circling back to question time, and there were a number of personal explanations after formalities wrapped up.
The member for Warringah, Zali Steggall, refuted an allegation made by the prime minister in his response to a question from Sophie Scamps that
there was no reporting of personal staff allocations to crossbenchers in the Morrison government.
That is incorrect.
The prime minister’s words were: ‘Not only did the Morrison government not report that or come to the dispatch box, they were pretty quiet about that in that corner about it too, Mr Speaker.’ Those figures are reported at Senate estimates every time. There was no non-disclosure.
The prime minister stated: ‘The greatest number of representations that I had from crossbenchers in the House and in the Senate isn’t about health policy, isn’t about education policy or housing — it’s about their staff.’ … Again, that is not correct. The largest number of representations that I have made to the prime minister and the government is to accelerate climate action and truth in political advertising.
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What we learned from question time
There you have it. The foreign minister for Estonia was in the house today, so let’s hope he had a good time. Here’s a recap of what happened:
The federal energy minister, Chris Bowen, announced a temporary downgrade in Australia’s fuel quality standards, a move designed to put an extra 100m litres per month into the system for the next 60 days.
Labor was consistently pressed on whether Australia was in a crisis over fuel supplies and stockpiling, leading to quite a bit of conjecture in the chamber. The message from the prime minister was “don’t panic”, while Bowen acknowledged that war, by definition, is a crisis.
The independent MP, Sophie Scamps, pressed the federal government on whether it promised extra staff for the Coalition in exchange for support on Labor’s Freedom Of Information bill. Anthony Albanese said they didn’t, while adding it was unreasonable for crossbench members to have more staff than some MPs.
And independent MP Dr Monique Ryan questioned the treasurer on if the government would impose a windfall tax on oil and gas profits from conflicts such as in Iran. Jim Chalmers neglected to answer directly, instead saying Labor had already made some changes to the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT).
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Question time ends
Question time concludes with a dixer to the prime minister from the member for Moore, Tom French, on how the government is “delivering for Australians and working in the national interest”.
Albanese uses it to run through a laundry list of accomplishments, including assistance being given to the Northern Territory and Queensland amid ongoing flooding events.
We’ve been dealing with these issues in the context of the fact there is a war … that is having an extraordinary impact on the world.
And those opposite have asked questions of when will the war end and they’ve asked, ‘Is there a crisis?’ when the whole world - whether they be in Australia, in the United States, in the Middle East or anywhere else, knows this is a massive challenge for the entire world and the global community.
Dan Tehan hops up in anger, and Albanese instructs him to “sit down”.
He’s been on TV enough this week.
And that’s a wrap.
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Sophie Scamps on personal staff and FoI amendment bill
The independent MP Sophie Scamps is back, and she’s got a bone to pick.
My question is to the prime minister: was personal staff used as a way to encourage the Coalition to support the Freedom of Information Amendment bill?
The speaker, Milton Dick, says the question is “barely within standing orders” but he will allow it, while allowing the PM to be “broad” with his answer.
Albanese is brief.
Well, they didn’t, much to their shame, because this is an area that needs reform.
Updated
The Labor member for Calwell, Basem Abdo, has been booted from the chamber after the speaker was unable to hear a question from the shadow minister for scrutiny of government waste and accountability, and shadow minister assisting for fisheries and forestry (what a mouthful), Tony Pasin.
Surprising no one, it’s about fuel.
Can the minister rule out making any changes to the diesel fuel credit arrangements, noting that any changes will slug farmers and miners with a tax increase of roughly 20 cents a litre, which will flow directly through to Australians in the form of higher fuel and grocery prices in this national crisis?
Chris Bowen jumps up and ooh, he’s angry!
I thank the honourable member for his question.
I seem to recall he was excluded from the House earlier in the week, that’s why he didn’t hear my answer to the member for Mackellar, where I said the government’s policy has not changed and pointed out it provides strong support for farmers. That’s what I said earlier in the week to the member for Mackellar. That’s what I say to the honourable member.
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Albanese is asked about crossbench staff allocation
Independent MP Sophie Scamps is up next, and asks a question to the prime minister on the freedom of information amendment bill.
To avoid perceived conflict of interest, will the prime minister commit to ensuring personal staff allocations [by an] independent body rather than awarded at the discretion of the prime minister of the day?
Anthony Albanese says when he became prime minister, he was “somewhat surprised” to hear, under the Morrison government, members of the crossbench had double the number of staff as members of the Labor party, the Liberal party and the National party.
With respect, I’m not sure what those arrangements were, but they were double …
I thought it was a bit unreasonable electorates - such as Bennelong, next to the three seats that are now occupied by Independents – should have half the staff, and the people of Bennelong should get the capacity to just have half the representation of people who were independents. That just failed the commonsense test. And that was my view …
I think it’s been more than fair. And I make this point - that the most number of representations that I have had from crossbenchers in the House and in the Senate isn’t about health policy, it isn’t about housing policy, it’s about their staff.
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Bowen pressed on fuel supply in regional Australia
The Liberal member for Durack, Melissa Price, presses Chris Bowen on whether he can guarantee that members of Western Australia’s Country Health Service will be able to access a secure supply of fuel after it told its staff: “Please make sure all cars are not left below three-quarters of a tank at all times.”
It follows a strange dixer to the education minister, Jason Clare, on university reforms from Labor MP Jess Teesdale, who he describes as the “beloved member for Bass”.
Bowen says he is a “little surprised” by the question since he has just announced an additional 100m litres of supply and the opposition “has not asked a question about it”.
I will work closely with the Western Australian government and health services, and there are some honourable members who have been to see me over the last 48 hours from that side of the House … and have asked me to address them.
Bowen is again pressed on whether he can guarantee supply for regional areas, as members of the opposition shout “where is it”.
Western Australia is connected to the rest of the country. We’re part of the same country.
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Monique Ryan asks if government will impose windfall tax on oil and gas profits from conflicts such as in Iran
The member for Kooyong, Dr Monique Ryan, puts a question to the treasurer on oil and gas profits.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Woodside doubled its profits. The PRRT fails to capture windfall profits from conflicts like those in Ukraine and Iran.
In a cost-of-living crisis, will you impose a windfall tax on the excess profits of oil and gas companies profits from conflicts like those in Ukraine and Iran?
Jim Chalmers says he acknowledges there are a “range of views” about windfall taxation.
For our part in this government, we’ve already made some changes to the PRRT, which will ensure that Australians collect more tax, sooner, from the export of offshore gas.
And we made those changes because we know that there is an expectation in the Australian community that PRRT, that companies who pay the PRRT, need to pay their fair share of tax … That’s not often acknowledged when people call for more to be done - we acknowledge and respect those calls to do more but we’ve already acted in a fairly substantial way.
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Bowen continues to say that a crisis, whether international or otherwise, is a chance for “both sides of the house to provide leadership”.
The fact that you choose to make politics in a crisis says more about the opposition than it does about the government.
There are calls from the opposition, and the speaker issues a “general warning”.
There is just too much noise. So, we’ll take action.
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Bowen is asked ‘are we in a national crisis?’
The member for Nicholls, Sam Birrell, addresses the minister for climate change with an alarmingly similar question to Tehan’s.
Are we in a national crisis?
Chris Bowen does not mince his words:
It may have escaped members opposite but there’s a war going on. Do I regard a war as a crisis? Yes, I do.
Do I regard the implications of that war, Mr Speaker, when it comes to fuel, internationally, as a crisis? Yes, I do, Mr Speaker.
That’s why the International Energy Agency cast implications of that war, Mr Speaker, when it comes to fuel internationally, as a crisis … And I tell you what, Mr Speaker, if I think a farmer can’t get fuel, is it a crisis for that farmer? Yes, Mr Speaker.
And so on, and so forth.
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Coalition continues attack over fuel security
After a dixer to the treasurer, the manager of opposition business in the house, Dan Tehan, puts a question to the minister for resources, Madeleine King, again on fuel.
Can the minister for resources guarantee Australia won’t run out of fuel due to the ongoing Iran war? Minister, is this a national crisis?
King begins to thank him for his question but trails off as she bungles his title. Anthony Albanese interjects with a laugh:
It’s hard to keep up!
King replies “it really is”:
What I will guarantee to the Australian people is they will be far better placed to withstand the international shocks caused by the conflict in the Middle East with this government … always acting in the national interest than if those people, those MPs on the other side, were on these benches.
The treasurer has just highlighted exactly what those opposite have done - voted against important reform to make sure the Australian people can have access to the stockpiles of fuel that the minister for energy and climate change has made sure exist.
While the leader of the opposition made sure it was in Texas, or somewhere, I don’t even know, stockpiles of fuel that the minister for energy and climate change has made sure exist.
Updated
After much conjecture, there is a brief interlude from the speaker to welcome the foreign minister of Estonia, who is up in the gallery visiting question time. Everyone waves up to him.
Milton Dick:
I promised the foreign minister today he would witness democracy in action and here you are.
The ‘big message’ for Australians is don’t panic over fuel supply, Albanese says
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, again presses the prime minister on fuel supply.
The minister for energy has just informed the House that Australia is in, I quote, ‘A national crisis on fuel’. Is the minister correct?
The PM says the “big message for every Australian is: Don’t panic. The supplies are there”.
There is a point of order on relevance, which the speaker rejects.
Albanese continues:
Petrol 36 days. Jet fuel 39 days. Diesel 32 days. And what others have deemed as the ‘minimal level’ is, depending on the fuel type, 24 days for petrol, well, we’ve got 36, 24 days for jet fuel, well, we’ve got 39 and 28 for diesel, well, we’ve got 32 …
Yesterday, they asked a question … ‘when will the war end?’ and today, they come to the dispatch box, and say, ‘is there a crisis?’
There is a war in the Middle East. It is having an impact. And if those opposite want to wish it away and pretend that that is not happening, then what they show is that they are simply unfit not only to be a government, not only to be an alternative government, no wonder they’re barely an opposition and being led by the bloke up in the corner.
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Federal government adjusts fuel quality standards to boost supply
As we mentioned, the federal energy minister, Chris Bowen, has just announced a temporary downgrade in Australia’s fuel quality standards, a move designed to put an extra 100m litres per month enter the system.
Bowen has told parliament that in order to assist with getting more supply into the system and to try and put downward pressure on prices, the government will allow a 60-day change to allow higher sulfur levels in fuel.
The petrol supply will be prioritised for regional areas. It would otherwise have been exported to countries overseas.
Bowen says:
While Australian fuel consumption has not changed, this will help relieve pressure on distribution chains disrupted by elevated demand.
The government has been unequivocal – this additional supply must help the people who need it, including farmers, fishers and regional communities.
Bowen has also activated the national coordination mechanism to work with fuel producers and retailers during the growing conflict in the Middle East.
Updated
Chris Bowen announces temporary downgrade in fuel quality standards to shore up supply
The minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, hops up next.
He says Australia currently has 36 days of petrol supply on hand and 29 days of jet fuel, and announces further actions to shore up fuel security, including a temporary downgrade in fuel quality standards to put an extra 100m litres per month enter the system for a period of 60 days.
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Andrew Hastie gets up next for the Liberals and asks if the prime minister can guarantee we won’t run out of fuel in Australia.
Albanese describes his question as a “rhetorical upgrade” to the previous one from Angus Taylor, of which he says he gave a “comprehensive answer”.
We are prioritising fuel security and supply … our reserves aren’t in Texas, they’re here, and available.
The Coalition attempts to make a point of order, but the speaker, Milton Dick, is not having it. He says the PM has only been speaking for about 15 seconds.
If it were two-and-a-half minutes in … but it is completely unreasonable.
Taylor pushes Albanese on Australia’s fuel supply
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has kicked off proceedings with a question to the prime minister and, unsurprisingly, it’s about fuel.
On the ABC this morning, the minister for resources twice refused to guarantee that Australia won’t run out of fuel as a result of the ongoing Iran war. Prime minister, was the minister for resources correct in refusing this guarantee?
Anthony Albanese says the federal government is looking at “every practical measure” to ensure farmers, regional communities and Australian services can rely on fuel at the “quantities and frequencies we expect”.
He says if the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, that will have “ongoing consequences” around the world and notes the International Energy Agency’s messaging overnight that the challenge facing the global market is unprecedented in scale.
Today the minister has directed more fuels into the Australian market … I note that in response to a question on a previous occasion of ‘Do we have to swing by the army now and get our jerry cans?’ One of the members of this place said: ‘It is incredibly important people don’t do this’. It is not necessary. It’s also not helpful. At the end of day, there is a lot either in the supply chain or coming.
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It’s question time
I’m handing over to Caitlin Cassidy, who will guide you through question time and the last hours of parliament this week. You’re in good hands.
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Independent Helen Haines to miss parliament due to illness
Independent MP Helen Haines says she will miss a couple of sitting weeks of parliament due to illness.
She is not in Canberra this week, on doctor’s orders, but expects to be back at the end of the month. It is the first time she has missed parliamentary sittings since winning the seat in 2019.
“Over the past month I’ve been managing an illness which has interrupted my usually busy schedule,” Haines posted on social media.
I love working for the people of Indi but for the next couple of weeks I know I need to recuperate.
My condition isn’t life threatening, and I’m hoping to be back on deck by the end of March.
Haines said her staff will continue to work for the people of her electorate while she is on leave.
While my social media may be a little quieter than usual, the work of representing Indi never stops.
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Want to travel to Europe this summer? How will your plans be affected by the war in Iran?
Qantas flights on European routes are closer to capacity with non-stop Perth to London flights temporarily flying via Singapore to add extra 60 seats
Australians planning to fly to Europe in the northern summer face uncertainty over routes, insurance and even safety, as well as rising prices, as a result of the Middle East war.
Major airlines operating through the region – including Emirates and Qatar, both popular choices for Australians heading to Europe – are still reeling amid the war between Israel, the US and Iran. Both carriers are only operating limited flights as they work to alleviate a backlog of passengers stuck in Dubai or Doha.
But with European summer on the horizon, Australians are questioning how they may get overseas, and what it might cost.
Read the story here:
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Labor-led parliamentary committee recommends further resourcing to monitor Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps activity
A Labor-led parliamentary committee says the government should consider whether enough is being done about Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps activity in Australia, including harassment of citizens who are critical of Iran’s ruling regime.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has, as expected, backed the government’s decision to list the IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism. But their report encourages the government to consider more action, including better communication in languages other than English about how security reports are being dealt with.
The PJCIS today tabled its report into the government’s IRGC listing, which makes it an offence to display symbols affiliated with the group, to be a member of the group, or provide support in a number of ways. Noting IRGC “atrocities” overseas and terrorist acts in Australia, including at a Jewish business in Sydney and a synagogue in Melbourne, the PJCIS supported the listing and said it found no reason to disallow the listing by the government.
The committee is led by Labor senator Raff Ciccone.
Additionally it recommended the government take further action, including considering “whether sufficient resources have been allocated to law enforcement and security agencies to enable them to appropriately respond to information about Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) activities in Australia”. Particularly, the PJCIS raised this in the context of “financial flows, the display of prohibited symbols and intimidation and harassment by the IRGC of Australian residents who are critical of the Islamic Republic regime”.
The committee also recommended the government “consider how communication can be improved, including in relevant languages other than English, to provide assurance to the community that reports to the National Security Hotline are acted upon by relevant authorities”. The report also called on the government, in considering offences under the terror listing, to “distinguish between genuine members and supporters of the IRGC and persons who were involuntarily conscripted into the IRGC as part of compulsory service in Iran”.
Thorpe, Payman and Faruqi push to update Senate rules to counter racism
Earlier today, independent senators Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman, and the Greens’ Mehreen Faruqi held a press conference on their push to update Senate rules in order to tackle racism and abuse in the parliament.
Guardian Australia reported today the senators had written to Senate president Sue Lines yesterday morning after Faruqi had attempted to move a motion on the “dangerous normalisation and escalation of anti-Muslim hate in political rhetoric, media commentary and public discourse” but was shut down.
Today, Faruqi said “racism just doesn’t exist at neo-Nazi rallies or One Nation press conferences. It is well and alive in the Senate”. The Greens senator said the senators weren’t asking for much, just a “safe working place for women of colour like us.”
Thorpe added: “No other workplace allows people to be racist, except this place. And when we do call it out, we’re the wild crazy, black women with mental health [issues]. We’re demonised for simply standing up against racism.”
Payman, a former Labor senator who left the Labor party over a rupture about Palestine in 2024, accused her former party of being “very hypocritical” for claiming to seek social cohesion but not yet implementing the Human Rights Commission’s anti-racism framework, delivered in November 2024.
Read more:
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Julian Leeser says students, families and teachers ‘deserve answers’ over Naplan disruption
The shadow education minister, Julian Leeser, has said the technical error put a “cloud over the integrity” over this year’s Naplan data.
Leeser wrote to the education minister, Jason Clare, on Wednesday asking how he would ensure fairness for students whose test was interrupted compared with those who completed it normally.
He said he was yet to receive a response.
This debacle means anxiety and concern for students and their families, more work for teachers, and puts a cloud over the integrity of the data. Since yesterday I have heard stories from parents, teachers and children around the country about how different their experiences were.
Some students did the whole test twice with the same prompt. Some did it once. Others started the test, stopped, and continued after a break. Still others had their tests rescheduled and will now do it with different prompts. Some were advantaged, others were not. Students, families and teachers deserve answers.
In a statement on Wednesday, Clare said he had rebuked Acara for the situation and the “bottom line” was that “this is not good enough”.
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Authority that runs Naplan still unable to confirm how many schools were affected by Wednesday’s major technical issue
The authority that runs Naplan says students have been able to log in and get on with testing after a technical issue on Wednesday technical issue stopped some students from logging on to the online platform for their writing assessments.
The chief executive of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (Acara), Stephen Gniel, reiterated his apology for the disruption to testing, which was paused between 9.20am and 11.30am AEDT yesterday and said students were “successfully logging in and getting on with testing”.
Our NAPLAN technology provider Education Services Australia (ESA) is currently conducting a full and thorough investigation of the issue. Once this has been completed, we will have a fuller picture of the incident, including the number of students and schools impacted.
Gniel said Acara understood there were “knock-on impacts” after the disruption and was “working through these” with test administration authorities.
He said the writing tests included more than one writing prompt, so students who restarted their tests today would receive a different prompt.
We understand from ESA that any writing that students had begun before the system malfunctioned has been retained … Schools are also able to give students extra time to complete their tests due to the disruption. For those students who did not start yesterday, schools are being advised for students to complete those writing tests today or as soon as possible.
We’re also aware of concerns from schools, students, parents and carers about the potential impacts of this disruption on the results. Once the tests have been completed and the data from the assessments reviewed, ACARA will work with states and territories to consider any additional measures needed to ensure fair reporting of the results.
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Students for Palestine speak after activist arrested in Queensland
Students for Palestine Queensland have spoken at a brief press conference this morning after the arrest of Liam Parry, one of their members, on Wednesday.
Parry was charged for saying “from the river to the sea” at a rally yesterday, and will face court next month. Another protester was arrested for wearing a shirt bearing the phrase, but has been given a caution.
Ella Gutterid, convener of Students For Palestine Queensland, said the arrests “show the real intent of these laws, which is to intimidate and silence peace activists.
She said Parry would defend himself “on the basis that the speech given was educational and it was in the public interest, because what could possibly be in the public interest if not for speaking out against a genocide that our government is supporting?”.
The organisers wouldn’t confirm if the group planned future rallies to challenge the laws, which ban two phrases when they “intimidate, harrass or offend”.
Gutteridge compared the laws to Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s ban on protest marches during the 1977 tour by the all-white apartheid South African rugby union team. He also declared a state of emergency.
But Connor Knight, another convenor of the group, said there were “tens of thousands of people around Australia who are outraged by what’s happened to Liam, and there will be a mass campaign to have his charges dropped”.
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Payman, Thorpe and Faruqi demand Labor change parliamentary rules to counter ‘overt’ racism
Increasingly ugly abuse in federal parliament has prompted a group of independents and the Greens to call for an urgent intervention from Labor to change the rules, warning that allowing racism and bigotry to “fester” is corroding democracy.
Guardian Australia can reveal independents Fatima Payman and Lidia Thorpe, and the Greens’ Mehreen Faruqi are demanding Senate president, Sue Lines, take the problem seriously with a new inquiry and mandatory anti-racism training for politicians.
In a five-page letter sent to Lines on Wednesday morning and seen by Guardian Australia, the senators expressed their deep concern about the “overt and insidious” racism they say they’ve felt and experienced in the upper house.
“When we speak out against racism, we are punished for it,” the senators said.
This patronising behaviour publicly undermines women of colour, like us, seeking to speak to an issue that directly impacts them and their community.
Read more here:
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US spent nearly $16bn on Iran war in first week
The US Department of Defense told Congress the first week of the Iran war cost $11.3bn (AU$15.9bn). The Pentagon provided the estimate in a briefing earlier this week, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting, the Associated Press reports.
The military reported spending $5bn (AU$7bn) on munitions alone in the first weekend of the war.
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Dennis Richardson says he felt like a ‘fifth wheel’ in royal commission
Dennis Richardson is speaking on Sky News about his decision to leave the royal commission into antisemitism.
He elaborated that he was doing a review before the royal commission was started that was then rolled into the commission when it began. A royal commission, he said, is a “very different animal”.
He told Sky:
I felt it had reached a point where I was adding relatively little value and I wasn’t getting a lot of satisfaction out of it, quite frankly.
I have no doubt that the royal commission under Virginia Bell is going to do an excellent job, I have no doubt about that at all.
Very simply I felt I was the fifth wheel. It’s a very legally driven process. The way it’s structured, and the way it proceeds is such that there’s not much need for someone like myself.
Richardson said his decision was no fault of the government.
Quite frankly I didn’t believe I was adding a lot to the value, and I felt that the contribution that I could make was over time being limited. Not in any destructive or any bad way. It’s just the way the process works. The need for someone like me becomes less obvious.
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Sealed section of robodebt royal commission report released
The sealed section of the robodebt royal commission report has been made public almost three years after the final report was handed down.
The 56-page document contains the names of public officials royal commissioner Catherine Holmes referred to various bodies, including the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the Australian federal police and the Australian Public Service Commission, for further investigation.
Those names have now been revealed after the Nacc released its final report yesterday into the six individuals it examined for potential corrupt conduct. Ultimately, the Nacc found two former public servants – Serena Wilson and Mark Withnell – had engaged in serious corrupt conduct. However, the Nacc didn’t recommend referring the two for charges because there was “not sufficient admissible evidence to establish either of those offences beyond reasonable doubt”.
Another four referred to the Nacc, including former prime minister Scott Morrison and former agency head Kathryn Campbell were cleared.
The sealed chapter reveals Withnell was also referred to the AFP for potentially giving false evidence at royal commission hearings.
In July 2024, the AFP said its investigation into Withnell “did not identify sufficient admissible evidence to prove the alleged offender intended to mislead the royal commission”.
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Wong says ‘you can’t sustainably impose regime change from outside’
Wong says the Australian government has been “very clear” about the objectives it supports when it comes to the Iran war, including opposition to Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
We have said we are not going to take action to strike Iran, we’re not going to be part of that, and we are not going to be deploying ground troops in Iran.
I think that the challenge here is, whatever you think of the Iranian regime … history shows us that you can’t sustainably impose regime change from outside. And so ultimately the decision about who runs Iran and how they run it has to be in the hands of the Iranian people.
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Minister says Victorian plan will help alleviate some of the stress of buying a home
The Victorian consumer affairs minister, Nick Staikos, says consultation will begin this year with stakeholders and the ACT government, which is the only jurisdiction that currently mandates the reports.
He says standards will be mandated to ensure the reports are consistent:
In an ACT report, [there are] things that any buyer [will] want to know – is the property structurally sound? Do the stumps need to be redone? Is the property leaking? Does the property contain mould? Does the property contain termites?
They’re the really basic things that people want to know before they make the biggest purchase of their lives, and our government wants to support Victorians who are looking to buy a home because … it is already a very stressful process, and things like shelling out thousand of dollars for these reports, even when you don’t end up buying the property, just adds to that stress and expense.
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Most Australians caught at Middle East travel hubs are now home, but Wong urges those living there to try to leave
Foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said most of the Australians who were caught in transit in airline hubs in the Middle East have now returned home on several dozen flights that have made it out in recent days.
Wong told Sky News that there are still around 13,000 Australians who have registered for assistance in the region, with more than 100,000 others believed to be living in the Middle East. She said it was “good” that those stuck in transit had been able to leave, but stressed the government was urging anyone able to secure a seat out of the region to do so. She said:
To the Australians who are living in the region: our advice is that you should, if you can secure a seat, you should leave. Please don’t wait until it is too late.
If you can secure a seat, we believe people should be leaving. We don’t want to see a situation where commercial flights that are in operation … where they dry up. We hope that will not happen, but, don’t leave it too late.
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Victoria premier speaks on mandatory building and pest inspection scheme
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, held a press conference to announce a plan to develop a mandatory building and pest inspection scheme, if re-elected in November.
Under the plan, vendors would be required to organise and pay for the inspections and make the reports available to all potential buyers.
She said:
When you’re selling a car, the seller needs to provide a roadworthy certificate to all of the interested buyers. The same approach needs to be taken for interested buyers looking at buying a home …
We’re also making this change because we know for interested buyers, many people are having to purchase multiple building and pest inspections that can add up to thousands and thousands of dollars, and that’s money that could instead be being put into the home deposit for the purchase of the house.
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Barnaby Joyce said he still plans to run for a Senate seat, but plans could change
Joyce said he still plans to go after a seat in the Senate, but those conversations could change depending on what the party, or the country, needs. He told Sky News:
If I’m in a party, if circumstances change as we get closer, where the party determines that what we need is to have a crack at a lower house seat, I suppose that’s what I’ll try.
You try to do what’s best, obviously, for your electorate. But you do what’s best for the nation as well.
If you’ve gotta change course for the betterment of your nation, then you’re highly selfish if you don’t.
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Joyce says he thinks One Nation will regularly be on the ‘same page’ as Matt Canavan
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said he thinks he will regularly be on the same page with newly minted Nationals leader Matt Canavan, saying the pair have many similarities when it comes to policy.
Joyce told Sky News this morning:
I wish Matt Canavan … all the best. I think it’s incredibly important for the nation that you play the game on the balls of your toes … I’ve got nothing bad to say about them.
At times, I believe strongly, that Matt, myself, Pauline and One Nation will all be strongly on the same page. It’s just that the Coalition won’t be.
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Anthropic promises to match US commitments on power, water use
After Anthropic said this week it was establishing a Sydney office, and was looking towards local infrastructure in Australia, independent senator David Pocock asked Anthropic’s head of external policy and partnerships, safeguards, Evan Frondorf, about Guardian reporting on expected AI water demand in Australia to be projected to be the equivalent of the ACT’s drinking water supply.
He asked Frondorf what Anthropic was doing to make sure there wasn’t a spike in emissions, water use and electricity costs with its data centres.
Frondorf said in the US, Anthropic has committed to cover the full costs of grid upgrades and bring net new power generation to meet its demand, reduce the draw of power at peak times and deploy water-efficient cooling. He said the company would expect to adopt a similar approach in other markets.
At the end of the hearing, One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts said One Nation had “phenomenal growth, staggering growth, and we get so many compliments for our work” and complained the ABC “which is notorious for propaganda” was saying the party’s popularity was due to “Vietnamese bots”.
He was referring to an ABC report that examined a trove of foreign-owned Facebook accounts that were promoting One Nation using deepfake AI images.
“Is AI often blamed for things that are quite natural and truthful?” Roberts asked.
Frondorf:
I’m not familiar with this particular situation and so can’t speak to that. But I would say we take seriously our responsibility to make the benefits of AI and maximise the benefits of AI for the world.
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Anthropic says it’s aware of risk chatbot could be used to automate influence campaigns
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, told a Senate inquiry on climate misinformation that its risk for the AI chatbot to generate misinformation was lower than those that offer image or video generation, but the company was alert to the risk Claude could be used to automate influence operations online.
Anthropic’s head of external policy and partnerships, safeguards, Evan Frondorf, told senators that Anthropic took a “layered approach” to tackling misinformation with training guardrails and monitoring of potential malicious use.
He said:
We train Claude to be factually accurate and honest about the limits of its knowledge, but also to engage with a wide variety of perspectives and provide balanced commentary on political topics. Our usage policy explicitly prohibits Claude to create or spread misleading and deceptive content, and once our models are deployed, we run automated detection systems and staff a dedicated threat intelligence team that investigates coordinated misuse and includes influence operations that we’ve detected, disrupted, and reported on publicly.
Frondorf said Anthropic reported in March 2025 that it had detected Claude being used for a coordinated social media campaign:
This was less even about the generation of the content itself, but a really novel attack where our systems or Claude was misused to dictate posting schedules to dictate who needs a to interact with and that sort of activity is, is a concern, and is a focus for our team. And when we detected that, we shut that campaign down and it influenced, you know, our monitoring capabilities going forward, to, to detect that activity earlier.
On climate change misinformation, Frondorf said Claude is trained on decades of scientific research, and is trained not to be swayed by just one new piece of information it might be given on a topic.
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Animal advocates call for speedy re-entry amid Iran war
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) has urged the federal government to relax some quarantine regulations for animals caught up in the Middle East war.
As Australian citizens and permanent residents rush home from Gulf states, the group has written to the agriculture minister, Julie Collins, asking for family pets to be allowed into the country with their owners.
“Animals don’t start wars, yet they are often the victims of them,” spokesperson Mimi Bekhechi said.
Separating animal companions from their guardians will only result in more heartbreak and unnecessarily lost lives. PETA is calling on the Australian government to offer a solution to help humans and animals safely escape being caught in the crossfire.
Peta says it usually takes at least six months to bring an animal into Australia from the United Arab Emirates, due to quarantine controls and checks for rabies and immunisation requirements.
There were about 24,000 Australians living in the UAE before the war.
Bekhechi said countries including Austria, Belgium, Hungary and Croatia had temporarily relaxed animal import rules to allow returning citizens to bring their animals home.
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Dennis Richardson says he was ‘way overpaid’ for royal commission role
Richardson called into the ABC to clarify his remarks on his salary for his work on the royal commission, saying it was actually too large for the work he was doing. He told ABC Radio Canberra:
It would be quite wrong to suggest that a royal commission is bogged down in legalese that is unnecessary. But it does take a certain amount of time and at the end of the day, to be very blunt, I was being way overpaid for what I was doing.
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Atlassian to lay off about 10% of its workforce in shift to AI
Software provider Atlassian said on Wednesday it would lay off around 10% of its workforce, or roughly 1,600 positions, as part of a restructuring plan to push into artificial intelligence and enterprise sales, Reuters reports.
The company said it expects to incur total pre-tax charges between US$225m and $236m related to the layoffs and office space reductions.
The move comes as the company seeks to “rebalance” its resources to focus on the “future of teamwork in the AI era”, according to a regulatory filing.
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Richardson said he didn’t believe he was being paid ‘consistent’ with his work on royal commission
Back to Dennis Richardson’s interview on RN earlier this morning. The former spy chief said he didn’t believe he was being paid “consistent” with his work on the royal commission into antisemitism. He told RN:
I came to a view that, quite frankly, what I was being paid wasn’t consistent with the work I was doing.
When host Sally Sara asked what Richardson meant by that, he said simply:
Just that. I think most people would understand that, Sally.
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A quick update on Australians returning home from the Middle East
More than 3,200 Australians have arrived in the country on 23 direct flights since 4 March, with more scheduled to arrive this morning and others expected to depart from Dubai today.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, will speak about those repatriation efforts later this morning.
Emirates and Qatar Airways are still only operating limited flights from the region.
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Richardson says he felt he was ‘surplus’ to needs of royal commission
Dennis Richardson says his decision to resign from the royal commission into antisemitism had nothing to do with the government, but says he came to the decision that he was “surplus” to the needs of the body.
He spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying:
I think probably there wasn’t enough discussion right at the beginning about the precise way things would work, and ultimately I came to the [decision] that I was surplus to requirements.
Richardson says he believes the royal commission will do a “highly professional job”.
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Resources minister says agreement to release oil reserves ‘really important’ and Australia ‘well insulated’ to withstand pressures
Madeleine King, the federal resources minister, is speaking about an order by the International Energy Agency that ordered the largest release of government oil reserves in its history yesterday.
The world’s energy watchdog said its 32 members had unanimously agreed to release about 400m barrels of emergency crude, a third of total stockpiles, to help calm the oil price shock triggered by the war in Iran.
“It’s a really important announcement from the IEA,” King said. “What I want to make really clear to everybody listening is all that fuel remains in Australia, like it doesn’t go anywhere because of this request.”
King was asked why Australia didn’t meet the recommended 90 days of fuel supply in reserve. She said it would be “enormously” expensive and cost about $20bn to store that amount.
What we have in the billions of litres of fuel that the government has under its minimum stockholding obligation is more than sufficient for this nation. And I would point out that shipments of fuel are arriving as scheduled …
There will be disruption the longer this conflict goes, but our government believes we are well insulated to withstand it.
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Chalmers ‘really sad’ former spy chief quit royal commission into antisemitism
Chalmers said he was “really sad” to learn about Dennis Richardson departing the royal commission into antisemitism. Richardson resigned without explanation on Wednesday, just a fortnight after its opening hearing.
Chalmers told RN he hadn’t spoken to Richardson after the decision, adding:
Ultimately it’s a matter for him and the royal commission …
From a personal point of view I was sad to hear it because he is a person of such immense experience and knowledge.
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Chalmers says Australia well-placed to deal with the ‘worst’ of the economic fallout from Middle East conflict
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said this morning the government is not considering a cut to the fuel excise amid the turmoil in the Middle East, but maintained the country is well placed to weather the economic impacts of the ongoing war.
Chalmers spoke to RN Breakfast this morning
I can assure people that we have enough fuel in total and where there are issues in particular regional areas or different pockets of Australia, we work closely with the industry and the ACCC to try and ensure supply to those areas. … Obviously we share that concern about developments in the Middle East flowing through to our own economy.
We won’t be immune from these developments, but we are incredibly well placed as a country and as an economy to deal with the worst the world can throw at us.
Chalmers said there was no doubt the war was putting strain on Australians, but re-upped the government’s efforts to address cost of living pressures.
This conflict in the Middle East is already putting additional pressure on Australians. We understand that.
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Good morning, Nick Visser here to take things over. After the morning headlines, it’s time to dive into the day in politics. Stick with us.
Victorian plan to see homebuyers given free pest and building reports
Buyers would no longer have to foot the bill for costly building and pest inspections, under a plan to be announced by the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, later this morning.
Allan will announce that if Labor is re-elected in November, it will develop a mandatory building and pest inspection scheme, with legislation to be introduced to parliament in 2027. Under the plan, vendors would be required to organise and pay for the inspections and make the reports available to all potential buyers.
The government pointed to data from the Consumer Policy Research Centre, which found building and pest inspection reports can cost up to $600, with almost half of all buyers paying for multiple inspections in the process of finding a home. The centre also found that 17% of buyers were “buying blind” with no reports, due to the cost and hassle involved.
In a statement, Allan said the “status quo isn’t working”:
Some buyers spend thousands on multiple reports. Some roll the dice and go without. When you buy a car, the seller pays for the roadworthy. It should work the same way when you look for a home.
Currently, the Australian Capital Territory is the only jurisdiction in Australia with such a scheme. There, vendors pay for inspection reports, which must be completed within three months before sale – though they aren’t required for new builds. After the contract is signed, the vendor can recover the report costs from the buyer.
Allan said she would consult with the ACT and with industry to draft its own scheme.
The minister for consumer affairs, Nick Staikos, said:
Doing the due diligence for your big purchase should be as simple and affordable as possible. We’ll do the work to make sure our scheme is watertight and protects buyers from conflicts of interest.
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Vehicle belonging to missing tourists found
A vehicle was located last night in the search for two missing tourists in the Kilkivan area, Queensland police said.
The 26-year-old man and 23-year-old woman were travelling in a Silver Subaru Forrester from Brisbane to North Burnett when they failed to make their destination.
A search commenced yesterday involving police, SES, helicopters in the Kilkivan to Mundubbera area.
A silver vehicle was then located at Kilkivan Tansey Road, near McArthur Road and police remained at the scene last night.
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of the two missing tourists was urged to contact police.
The area has been inundated by rain leading to severe flooding.
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Earthquake felt near Boorowa
A 4.4 magnitude earthquake hit around 110km north of Canberra just after 7pm last night.
More than 4,000 people reported to Geoscience Australia that they had felt the earthquake within 45 minutes of it hitting.
The epicentre of the earthquake was near Boorowa and was recorded at 7.09pm.
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NSW anti-slavery commissioner questions handling of Iranian football squad's departure
The NSW anti-slavery commissioner has questioned the Australian federal police, Sydney airport and Qantas’s role in facilitating the departure of the Iranian women’s football team from Australia, despite “the widespread concern about threats, intimidation, and coercion”.
Dr James Cockayne said in a statement that he was pleased that players and some support staff were given a chance to meet privately with a home affairs official and an interpreter. After the meeting, two more squad members decided to stay in Australia, however one later changed her mind.
But Cockayne said he still holds doubts over whether the women made their decision free from duress.
He said:
This was an extraordinarily tough and traumatising decision to have to make – whether to return home to a war-torn country and face the wrath of a highly repressive, misogynistic regime or stay with a very uncertain future far away from family and supports, possibly placing family back in Iran at greater risk.
So the key questions we must ask now are: were these decisions truly made free from duress? And did these women have all the information they needed and were entitled to?
I have my doubts.
He said a number of questions need to be answered, including if the Iranian athletes received independent legal advice, if the AFP interviewed the women to determine if they were being coerced, and what Sydney airport and Qantas did to “address this clear and highly publicised risk of exit trafficking”.
He said:
Like many Australians, I look forward to these urgent questions being answered. I certainly do not want to believe that our national police force, or the businesses that run our national flag carrier and our busiest airport, may have turned a blind eye or even unwittingly contributed to exit trafficking.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.
The New South Wales anti-slavery commissioner has questioned the Australian federal police, Sydney airport and Qantas’ role in facilitating the departure of the Iranian women’s football team from Australia, despite “the widespread concern about threats, intimidation, and coercion”. More coming.
And buyers would no longer have to foot the bill for costly building and pest inspections under a plan to be announced by the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, later this morning.
More coming up.
