What we learned today, Thursday 23 April
Thanks for staying with us today. We’ll leave our live coverage of the day’s news there for this evening. Here were Thursday’s top stories:
Microsoft has announced a $25bn AI investment in Australia but wouldn’t detail where, how numerous or how expensive its new datacentres would be.
The CEO of Westpac said people shouldn’t be so “negative” about AI and the CEO of Telstra revealed the company was using AI to handle 30% of customer queries.
Anthony Albanese has said Donald Trump “would always be welcome” in Australia.
Albanese also said his mother would have been among those eligible for his trimmed-down NDIS, as people on the scheme wait to learn whether they will be cut off.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has predicted about a third of those expected to be cut from the NDIS would be in his state.
Queensland’s parliament has passed new “adult crime, adult time” laws
Radio station Kiis FM saw its ratings in Melbourne after Kyle & Jackie O’s show came to an end.
Ben Roberts-Smith won a variation to his bail conditions.
Australia’s stretched housing market is seeing cheaper homes continue to record rapid price rises, while the rental market is at its tightest on record as rents rise $25 a week.
RSL Australia has welcomed a $200m donation from Gina Rinehart’s company to buy housing for homeless Australian veterans.
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Man facing court over alleged threats that shut down Perth airport
A man is facing up to 10 years in prison after being charged over alleged threats after Perth airport was shut down over an unattended backpack.
Perth airport’s Terminal 1 was closed for almost two hours yesterday afternoon as police investigated a reported unattended bag.
The Australian federal police have now revealed their officers received a report of a man entering the international terminal and allegedly making threats towards the safety of the airport.
Police allege the 57-year-old was related to the backpack, left unattended outside the terminal. Officers established an exclusion zone and the backpack was declared safe by the Western Australia police bomb response unit before the airport resumed operations, the AFP said.
WA police located and arrested the man in Perth’s CBD later that evening before being transferred to AFP custody, the AFP said. He was charged with one count of threatening to destroy, damage or endanger the safety of a commonwealth aerodrome and was set to appear before Perth magistrates court this afternoon.
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