What we learned: Tuesday 5 December
And that’s where we’ll leave you this evening. Here’s our Tuesday wrap:
The Reserve Bank has delivered a pre-Christmas reprieve for Australia’s borrowers, leaving its cash rate unchanged at 4.35%.
Greenpeace activists have scaled a 140-metre crane next door to Woodside’s headquarters in Perth, dropping a banner than reads “Stop Woodside”.
Israel has upgraded travel warnings to multiple countries, including Australia, citing a rise in antisemitism stemming from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Brittany Higgins was back in the witness box in her fourth day of testimony. Higgins was challenged by Lehrmann’s barrister, Steve Whybrow SC, over her account of the alleged rape that took place at Parliament House, including casting doubt over how drunk she was. “Are you kidding?” Higgins said through tears. “I hadn’t been raped yet but I was skipping in the middle of parliament with no shoes on so it indicates someone is pretty drunk, yes.”
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, personally approved the Australian Human Rights Commission’s intervention in the high court to argue that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful.
More Australians than ever before are buying electric vehicles, according to VFACTS monthly vehicle sales data. Year-to-date sales of battery electric vehicles have reached 80,446 – compared with 28,326 at the same time last year.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released today have shown education added a further $12.1bn to the economy in the September quarter, outperforming coal exports and other minerals, while total exports have declined.
Updated
Victoria police cancelled ambulance for handcuffed Noongar man who collapsed and later died, court hears
A Noongar man who died in police custody was handcuffed while unconscious, came to and then collapsed again before a cancelled ambulance was called again, AAP reports.
A directions hearing into the death of Jeffrey Winmar, a 28-year-old Aboriginal man who died after being arrested in Melbourne’s west last month, began on Tuesday before the coroner, Sarah Gebert.
Winmar was wanted on burglary offences and was believed to be at a property in Werribee, where police, including a dog handler, were sent on 9 November.
He was seen leaving the house after police knocked at the front door and climbed over several fences before being found in a clump of trees behind a nearby property.
The court heard police handcuffed Winmar and placed him in the recovery position before calling an ambulance. The request was cancelled when he came to.
A short time later Winmar again lost consciousness and stopped breathing, as police requested another ambulance and did CPR until paramedics arrived.
More on this story here:
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