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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Stephanie Convery and Emily Wind (earlier)

Senator gives evidence at defamation trial – as it happened

Pat Anderson Australia Uluru Anthony Albanese Labor Mehreen Faruqi Andrew Norton Lukas Coch Murray Watt Peter Dutton
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds is at the WA supreme court giving evidence at her defamation trial against Brittany Higgins. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

What we learned: Monday 5 August

And that’s where we’ll leave you this Monday. Here’s a recap of today’s headlines:

Thanks so much for your company today. We’ll be back with you bright and early tomorrow morning for another day’s news.

Updated

Day two of Linda Reynolds’ trial against Brittany Higgins has wrapped up and we’ll be bringing you day three from tomorrow at 10.30am Perth time/12.30pm AEST.

In the final minutes of the hearing on Monday, Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, raised another social media post by Higgins that had been published while Reynolds was on the witness stand.

The Instagram story shared a post by Julian Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robertson, promoting her latest book, How many more women? How the law silences women. Higgins’ post included the words “Pertinent reading”.

Bennett said it was “extraordinary aggravating conduct” by Higgins, that she needed to “give up” on the commentary and that Reynolds’ case would amend the statement to include the latest post.

Outside court, Bennett said it was “strange” that as soon as Reynolds began her evidence, Higgins posted on social media.

Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young, said she would try to let Higgins know but added the post wasn’t related to the hearing.

Updated

Reynolds says Higgins appeared ‘very upset’ when they spoke

Linda Reynolds is now recounting her discussion with Brittany Higgins following her alleged rape in Parliament House in 2019.

Reynolds said she met in the room with the couch where Higgins later publicly alleged her then fellow staffer Bruce Lehrmann had raped her.

Reynolds said she did not know at that stage a sexual assault might have occurred and there was “nowhere else private to have meetings” within the ministerial suite.

The Liberal senator, who will not recontest at the next federal election, said she didn’t get any “vibes” from Higgins or see her glance at the couch.

Reynolds said Higgins appeared “very upset”, “embarrassed” and “mortified”, but was grateful when the senator told her she could keep her job. Higgins wanted to continue working for her and took responsibility for her actions, said Reynolds, who insisted she was not aware of any sexual assault allegations at the time.

Updated

Reynolds tells court she ‘felt a bit sorry’ for Higgins after security report

Linda Reynolds said she felt “sorry” for Brittany Higgins when she first received a security report about what happened in her Parliament House office during the early hours of 23 March 2019.

Reynolds said she had been told a few days later about the security breach but had not been told a sexual assault might have occurred.

Reynolds recalled being initially “very angry” that two of her junior staffers had gone back to her ministerial office after a night of drinking, given the office had classified defence documents.

A few days later, her chief of staff, Fiona Brown, said she had spoken to Bruce Lehrmann, who claimed he had gone to the parliamentary office with Higgins to drink some whisky.

The Department of Parliamentary Services handed Reynolds’ office a security breach report on the Wednesday following the security breach. Reynolds said she learned additional details of what happened, including that Lehrmann had left Higgins in the suite in a state of undress.

Reynolds said, noting Higgins’ age and that she was a new staffer:

I felt a bit sorry for her.

Reynolds recalled being “very embarrassed” about the security breach because she had only been the minister for the defence industry for less than a month at the time.

Updated

Police shoot man in Toowoomba

A man was shot by police at a residence in North Toowoomba about 5pm this evening, according to Queensland police.

The man was taken to Toowoomba Hospital for treatment.

A crime scene has been established at the residence and investigations are ongoing, a police spokesperson said.

Updated

Reynolds tells defamation trial of ‘odd things’ about her encounters with Lehrmann

Linda Reynolds held strong suspicions around her former staffer Bruce Lehrmann, including that she and her chief of staff had already decided he was “not fit” for a role in her office, a court has heard.

On Friday, Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, had told the court Reynolds was as “sharp as a tack” and viewed the young staffer as “shifty”.

In her own words on Monday, the former defence minister said there were initially “odd things” about her encounters with Lehrmann in the short time they worked together.

When asked to expand, Reynolds said he “boasted” about people he knew and things he had done.

In one example, Reynolds said she had been told by her former chief of staff Fiona Brown that Lehrmann claimed to be friends with the then Asio chief, Duncan Lewis.

Brown called Lewis to check if that was the case and Lewis denied knowing him, Reynolds said.

Reynolds told the court that Lehrmann had left a “highly classified” document unattended in her office that he had “no business” in having.

Reynolds said she and Brown both formed a “very strong opinion” that Lehrmann was not fit to work in the defence portfolio, let alone in a ministerial office.

Updated

Reynolds ‘not unfamiliar with what can happen' at Parliament House, she tells defamation trial

The Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has revealed a number of close friends and family have been raped or the subject of predatory behaviour.

The former defence minister is giving her evidence as part of her defamation action against Brittany Higgins.

Higgins’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, questioned Reynolds about whether she had experience with victims of sexual assault.

Reynolds said a friend in her teenage years was raped and fell pregnant while a family member of hers had also been raped. In both cases, Reynolds said she helped support them through the experience.

The Western Australian senator said other friends had also been subjected to predatory behaviour within Parliament House over the decades she worked there.

She said:

I’m not unfamiliar with what can happen in that building.

Updated

Linda Reynolds begins giving evidence in defamation trial

Linda Reynolds has begun giving her evidence in the defamation trial against Brittany Higgins.

It has only been about half an hour so we are still dealing with Reynolds’ early life and experiences before her former staffer Higgins went public with her alleged rape in Parliament House in early 2021.

Reynolds detailed her career across the army and in political offices, including her time as a chief of staff to the Howard government minister Chris Ellison.

In that role, which she held between 2001 and 2003, Reynolds said she worked with the Western Australian Liberals Christian Porter, Mathias Corman and Dean Smith.

But it was her experience visiting the site of the Bali bombings that impacted her time there most, she said.

Reynolds talked about the smell of dead bodies and how it still haunts her:

You crack on until you don’t … When I talk about it, I can still smell it … I still dream about it.

The hearing continues.

Updated

‘There is no place for extremism,’ Payman says as terror threat level lifted

In her interview with ABC TV, Senator Fatima Payman was asked about the announcement that the terrorism threat level had been lifted from “possible” to “probable”. The interviewer mentioned university protests and asked whether she was planning to “pull back on that sort of advocacy, considering the current climate”.

Payman began by saying she did not think that citizens exercising “their civil right and their freedom to civil disobedience is a threat to our social cohesion and harmony in our country”. But she added that it was important to ensure “that those protests are made in a respectful way and are conducted in a respectful way”.

Payman said:

There is no place for violence and extremism on our shores.

The interviewer asked Payman about her use in May of the politically charged phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

It was put to Payman that the phrase was “seen by many Jewish people as threatening”.

Payman replied that context was important. She said her intention in using the phrase was to call for “freedom from oppression, freedom from violence”. Payman has previously made similar points here.

Payman said it was time to “end the genocide”.

Updated

Payman says governments should pay closer attention to regional Australia

The former Labor senator Fatima Payman has been speaking to ABC TV about her tour of “12 towns in 12 days”.

Payman remains a senator for Western Australia, but quit the Labor party to sit on the crossbench in protest at what she saw as the government’s inadequate response to the Israeli assault on Gaza.

She said she wanted to hear from locals about the challenges they face and their ideas for solutions. Payman said state and federal governments must “pay closer attention to the regions” and added that locals did not “want politicians to just come out and take photos but to actually listen to the concerns of everyday Western Australians”.

Payman said she would advocate on behalf of WA residents, including by writing to the relevant ministers. She said it had “been one month since I became an independent senator” and she was examining how others have previously been strategic in being “an effective independent senator for their states”.

Payman underlined that she had told locals “that I am a Western Australian first” and would be an independent voice for people all over the state.

Asked by the ABC whether she was seeking to “pivot” from a former focus on the war in Gaza, Payman said immediate recognition of the state of Palestine and the need for the federal government to do more was “not the only issue” she had advocated for, but described it as “the trigger point” for her to leave the party.

She said speaking up for Gaza was “about the universal principles of justice, fairness, equality and freedom that everyday Western Australians want to see upheld”.

Updated

Linda Reynolds in witness box at WA supreme court

The Western Australian Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has stepped up to give evidence in her defamation trial against her former staffer Brittany Higgins.

We’ll update you as the hearing continues.

Updated

BoM sticks to its ‘no La Niña this year’ prediction

My colleague Peter Hannam has been posting on X about the Bureau of Meteorology’s prediction that there will be no La Niña climate pattern this year, with neutral conditions in the Pacific more likely.

The BoM continues to forecast a positive phase of the Indian Ocean Dipole, which tends to indicate drier weather in Australia, but that prediction has also been out of step with most international counterparts, he says.

Updated

Menopause leave must not be just ‘a box-ticking exercise’, expert says

Back to Prof Martha Hickey’s evidence before the Senate inquiry into menopause, where she is being asked about the effect of menopause on work.

As well as the health impacts on women, the inquiry has also been set up to investigate the economic consequences of menopause on Australian women, including on workforce participation and productivity.

In a statement this morning Senator Larissa Waters, who set up the inquiry, said:

What we have heard overwhelmingly so far in these public hearings is that people experiencing menopause need workplace flexibility rights – and many say also leave entitlements – to ensure women aren’t forced out of the workplace by their symptoms, or by stigma and stereotypes about menopause.

Eliminating stigma is essential to making workplaces menopause-friendly. You can’t solve discrimination – gender, pregnancy, menopause, or any other kind – by continuing to ignore it.

However, experts have already told the inquiry there is no evidence that exists around what policies would be effective. Sarah White, the CEO of Jean Hailes for Women, also raised the concern that a lack of evidence-based policies could also risk stigmatising older women in the workplace.

Asked whether menopause leave could be a help or a hindrance, Hickey said:

After 30 years of working in menopause, if I don’t know the answer to a question, I stop trying to make it up. Because we actually need to go to the people who are affected and ask them what the right answer is. And I think the intersectionality issue comes in here. If you’re in unstable employment and you’ve got to wear a uniform made out of nylon material and you’re working people around as a carer, a couple days a year are not going to help you in those circumstances. I think we need to look at a diversity rather than a disability model.

I agree with Sarah [White]. I’m worried about menopause leave being a box-ticking exercise that doesn’t help necessarily.

You can read more about the inquiry from our earlier reporting, here:

Updated

Linda Reynolds chose ‘deliberately’ not to sit through defence’s opening, her lawyer says

We’re breaking for lunch in Perth as the defamation case by the Liberal senator Linda Reynolds against her former staffer Brittany Higgins continues in a Western Australian supreme court.

Just before the break, Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young, said the idea that Higgins and her now husband, David Sharaz, concocted a conspiracy solely to cause Reynolds harm or injury was a “bold allegation”.

Young continued to outline the four reasons she believed Reynolds’ legal team will have trouble proving that claim. Young said it was a high bar to prove, she would have to establish serious injury and harm beyond her pre-existing conditions, she was out of time in bringing the case within its statute limitations and the damages she seeks were of a small sum – around $4,200.

In addition to the issues, Young said, Reynolds’ reputation had already been “baked in” by the time Higgins made the offending social media posts in July 2023.

Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, told the court the senator chose “deliberately” not to sit through the defence’s opening legal arguments on Monday morning.

Reynolds is expected to give evidence after the lunch break on Monday afternoon, which will likely continue until the end of the week.

Updated

Victoria’s chief health officer, Dr Clare Looker, says the department is confident the legionnaires’ disease outbreak has reached its peak, as there has been a continued reduction in notified cases compared to last week.

No further deaths have been reported, Looker says.

Updated

Likely source of legionnaires' disease outbreak in Victoria identified

A cooling tower in Melbourne’s west is the likely source of the state’s legionnaires’ disease outbreak, Victoria’s chief health officer has announced.

Two people have died from the outbreak and 77 cases have been confirmed.

Speaking to reporters, Dr Clare Looker says a cooling tower in Laverton North is the likely source.

She says it is a “preliminary result” but is believed to be linked to the majority of the cases.

Updated

The cases for and against an RBA rate rise

The Reserve Bank of Australia will probably only weigh up two cases – to hike or to hold its cash rate – before revealing its verdict at 2.30pm on Tuesday (AEST).

The central bank appears unlikely to lift interest rates after weaker than expected inflation figures came out last week, but it will consider the price rises as well as labour figures and GDP in its decision.

Despite the cash rate remaining at a 12-year high of 4.35% since November, the inflation dragon hasn’t entirely been smote. Here are the cases for and against hiking rates tomorrow:

Updated

Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, I’ll hand over to Stephanie Convery who will take you through the rest of our rolling coverage. Take care.

Greens accuse PM of politicising increase in terror threat level

The Greens have accused Anthony Albanese of politicising the increase in the terrorism threat level, saying such a decision needed to be “handled with care”.

A statement issued by the Greens’ spokesperson for multiculturalism and justice, David Shoebridge, argued that the prime minister had “used this announcement to dismiss well-founded community concerns and conflate them with a rise in the terror threat level, while minimising the real threats created by far-right agitators”.

During the press conference in Canberra earlier today, Albanese responded to a question from a reporter about the Greens’ accusation that the Labor government was complicit in genocide in Gaza:

My message to political leaders is that words matter. And it is important that people engage in a way that is respectful, that people don’t make claims that they know are not right in order to try to secure some short-term political advantage, which is what we have seen. Australia, for example, is not directly involved in what is occurring in the Middle East and yet, if you look at the comments that have been made by some senators and members, you would think that that isn’t the case.

Some of that is designed deliberately to encourage a partisan response in a way that isn’t appropriate. It’s not appropriate for people to encourage some of the actions outside electorate offices and to dismiss them as being just part of the normal political process. It is not normal to have people in occupations for months outside electorate offices, where the work of those electorate offices is to assist people in social security and health and other areas. They’re not participants in the Middle East conflict.

Shoebridge took issue with Albanese’s comments, and pointed to Australia’s ongoing role in the F-35 aircraft global supply chain. Shoebridge said:

It was deeply irresponsible for Prime Minister Albanese to use this moment as a platform to air his political grievances and conflate good people concerned with specific actions of his government with far-right conspiracy theorists.

So many communities right now feel like the government is not listening to them, not acknowledging the pain they are experiencing and failing to enact policy that addresses these issues.

Updated

Gap in services for supporting women with cancer through menopause symptoms

NSW, South Australia and Queensland lack public services to help women with cancer going through menopause, the inquiry has heard.

Martha Hickey established the first menopause and cancer service now in practice worldwide, as women who have suffered from cancer often have rapid onset menopause and more severe symptoms. However, they often cannot take menopause hormone therapy and need other options.

Hickey also runs a service supporting women with any cancer through menopause symptoms in Western Australia and Victoria. However, she says services for women with cancer going through menopause are uneven and NSW, South Australia and Queensland do not have any public services available.

I think that’s a huge gap.

Updated

Menopause symptoms not reviewed by National Institutes of Health since 2005

Asked about the lived experience – the inquiry has heard of women struggling to get help from their general practitioners – Martha Hickey says there is a recurring pattern where women are not trusted when going to a doctor with all kinds of health issues. However, when it comes to menopause specifically, Hickey says we don’t have clarity on what symptoms menopause actually causes:

That hasn’t been reviewed since 2005 by the National Institutes of Health where they said hot flushes, night sweats, vaginal dryness – that’s it. Since then, I could google it and come up with 200 symptoms of menopause including things like brain fog, which aren’t even defined or measurable.

Hickey says it would help everybody if a woman could go to her general practitioner and together distinguish between what is and isn’t a menopause symptom, which can be appropriately treated with hormone therapy, and what might be a condition separate to going through menopause.

At the moment it’s really muddied up.

Updated

‘If we give message it’s going to be awful, some women will have worse experience,’ menopause inquiry hears

The Greens senator Larissa Waters asks Martha Hickey: what is the harm in overdiagnosis and overtreatment versus the harm when women need help and they don’t get it?

She responds:

If we give the message that this is a disease and it’s going to be awful, then the evidence shows some women who have that message will have a worse experience. It will be like saying to women who are planning a pregnancy all these terrible things could happen. Of course, they may happen but that’s not how best to go about preparing. So we need to take that balance that maybe is normal, but may be problematic. And if it’s problematic, this is where you go and this is how you can get help.

Hickey says there are also potential physical harms that come with overtreatment of women with hormone therapies which could expose a greater number of women to the small but important risks including breast cancer and stroke.

Updated

Senate inquiry into menopause holding fifth public hearing today

The Senate inquiry into menopause is today holding a fifth public hearing in Adelaide. (You can catch up about what hearings in Sydney and Melbourne heard here.)

First up are representatives from the Royal Women’s hospital in Melbourne including Prof Martha Hickey, the director of its Gynaecology Research Centre, who has published more than 300 papers on the subject of menopause including leading the first Lancet clinical series on menopause. Hickey says it’s important menopause isn’t catastrophised as a disastrous event for all women:

Menopause isn’t a disease – it’s something that happens to everyone born with functioning ovaries. The important thing is those who need help get help.

The evidence shows us that a relatively small proportion of women – 14% of women – have severe hot flushes and sweats, and about 30% have either moderate or severe hot flushes and sweats. Those are the people who really need the focus of attention. And it’s not necessarily helpful to take the position that menopause is a disastrous event for all women, because it isn’t. Like pregnancy, for example, there are a diversity of experiences. The point is to focus on those who need the help.

Updated

Brittany Higgins’ lawyer raises Linda Reynolds’ submission to Sofronoff inquiry

Circling back to the defamation trial hearing against Brittany Higgins:

Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young, has pointed to a submission to the ACT board of inquiry to allege Linda Reynolds was trying to “silence” sexual assault victims.

Young said Reynolds’ submission to Walter Sofronoff, who headed the board of inquiry into how the criminal trial was run, had the effect of trying to “silence” sexual assault victims from speaking on their own terms.

Reynolds’ submission, shown to the court, read:

Individuals should be deterred from using the media and or parliament forums [sic] to advance their own interests in relation to an alleged criminal offence that ought properly to be the subject of the criminal justice processes.

It recommended an offence be created in the ACT to prevent complainants from going to the media.

Young alleged its effect would be in “silencing sexual assault victims from talking about their experience publicly if they wish to speak in that way”.

Updated

Monique Ryan to hold community forum regarding Kew rezoning plans

Earlier, Benita Kolovos reported that the Victorian government would be rezoning land at the old VicRoads head office in Kew for the construction of 500 homes.

The independent MP for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, said the state government had “missed a golden opportunity” with Kew, which sits in her electorate. She wrote on X:

The Victorian government’s proposal will mean only 10% of the new homes on the VicRoads site are affordable – an insult to those struggling through the housing and rental crisis …

The government should have come and discussed this proposal with the people of Kooyong before it made a big decision about us.

I’ll be holding a community forum and will be asking the premier or her housing minister to attend to explain their proposal to the people who will live with its consequences for decades.

Updated

In case you’re just joining us: here is the moment the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced Australia’s terror threat level would be raised from “possible” to “probable”.

Updated

NSW public servants told to stop working every shift from home

New South Wales public servants will have to return to the office after new advice from the premier’s department putting a stop to working from home in most circumstances.

The department secretary, Simon Draper, wrote to government employees today to inform them of the new arrangement.

In the email, seen by Guardian Australia, Draper notes that the NSW public sector is the “largest workforce in the country” and that its employees “all have a higher purpose in building and replenishing public institutions”.

Draper said:

I am sure that there will be mixed views.

Some will need to make changes to workplace attendance and others will experience no change at all.

The “circular”, or government memo, stipulates that public sector employees should work “principally in an approved office, workplace or related work site”.

However, it says it “does not strictly prescribe patterns of attendance and many workplaces allow for ad hoc variations according to the needs of employees and organisations”.

Updated

Weather check: BoM says showers set for NSW and Queensland

The Bureau of Meteorology says a cloud band crossing eastern Australia will bring showers and isolated storms to parts of NSW and southern Queensland today.

It says the wet weather will start to ease tomorrow.

For Tasmania, a cold front will increase showers from later tomorrow, the BoM said.

Updated

Australian Conservation Foundation has X account suspended for the second time

The X account of the Australian Conservation Foundation has been suspended for a second time, with little explanation.

A spokesperson confirmed with Guardian Australia that the account was suspended for “breaking” the X rules – but were not told which tweets in question did so.

The account had recently posted about nuclear energy – with similar posts on Instagram here and here – and the spokesperson noted that some pro-nuclear accounts on X had seemingly been celebrating its suspension.

On 22 July, ACF’s X account was also suspended for violating X rules following a user report – but again, the details were scant. The spokesperson said:

Neither time have we received any warning or notification that our account was going to be suspended.

Following the 22 July suspension, the ACF appealed and got in touch with an Australian-based contact with X, and it was switched back on that night – “but we never received any explanation as to what led to the suspension”.

The ACF’s engagement director, Jane Gardner, has tweeted this following the suspension:

I believe we’re being report bombed by pro-nuclear groups. This is not isolated: factual nuclear info from [Renew Economy and Climate Council] has also been removed from Facebook and TikTok recently.

(“Report bombing” is the practice of submitting large volumes of user-based reports to a platform saying a particular user’s content should be removed. It is often weaponised to try to remove content.)

Updated

Dutton raises pro-Palestine protests after terror alert level change

Circling back to Peter Dutton’s press conference: commenting on the terror threat level change, Dutton argued there should have been a stronger response to a protest outside the Opera House in Sydney shortly after 7 October.

I think we should be very clear about the fact that in our country, we adhere to a strong set of values, we adhere to the rule of law, we have respectful debate.

Dutton also argued that pro-Palestine camps on university campuses were “allowed to go on for way too long” and labelled them “a hotbed of hatred towards people with Jewish faith”:

Whether it is lunatics on the far right as neo-Nazis or people who are talking about the chants from the river to the sea … it has no place in our country, no place whatsoever, and it should be condemned.

Asio’s chief, Mike Burgess, said the decision to raise Australia’s terror threat level was not made based on the conflict in the Middle East alone but also pointed to an increase in online radicalisation among minors, for example.

Burgess said that the “threat is across the board”, and that “there’s plenty of antisemitism but there’s plenty of Islamophobia at the same time”.

Updated

Power discrepancy ‘palpable’ between Higgins and Reynolds, defamation trial told

Continuing with Brittany Higgins’ defence to her former boss Linda Reynolds’ defamation trial against her: Higgins’ lawyer is now disputing evidence provided on Friday. To recap, Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, alleged Higgins had misled the commonwealth during her personal injury settlement.

Bennett had showed a series of text messages, smiling pictures and meeting invitations to show Higgins was a “vivacious” young woman and not isolated in a hotel room in the weeks after her alleged rape.

Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young, said these were “selected text messages” and ignored others that supported Higgins’ claims that she was “isolated”, “depressed” and “confused”.

In one text message, the court was shown Higgins wrote she was feeling “super angry” and “pissed at people in the party” in the month after her alleged rape while she was campaigning for the federal election in Perth.

In another, Higgins wrote she was “beyond shitty” with how her boss, Reynolds, was dealing with the alleged sexual assault, adding “I was literally assaulted in [Reynolds’] office and I collectively maybe took 4 days off/was offered jack shit in terms of help.”

Young said Higgins was a 24-year-old at the time and had limited job security compared with the senator, who was then the defence industry minister in the Morrison government.

The power discrepancy is palpable.

The hearing continues.

Updated

Dutton weighs in on change to Australia’s terror threat level

The leader of the opposition, Peter Dutton, is speaking to the media from Kalgoorlie in WA following news Australia’s terror threat level has been raised.

He said:

A lot of Australians don’t obviously see on it day to day basis, the work that Asio and the Australian police force to to keep us safe. We need to support the work they do and [I’m] pleased to hear the advice from Mike Burgess, because we do live in a precarious time. The national security risks that we have because of our values and what we believe in will always be there, and we need to make sure that every support is provided to Asio and I will make sure that we do that.

Defence gives opening arguments in defamation trial against Brittany Higgins

We’re opening with the defence’s opening arguments in the defamation trial by Liberal senator Linda Reynolds against her former staffer Brittany Higgins.

Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young, starts by answering Reynolds’ lawyer’s question: “Why are we here?” Young says it is because Reynolds believes “one of her most junior staffers” was raped by another of her employees and later posted three social media posts.

Young says the event has “never been a fairytale” for Higgins in response to comments made by Martin Bennett, Reynolds’ lawyer, on Friday. The comments are “misplaced, harassing and retraumatising”, Young says.

Higgins’ defence will aim to show that the focus should be on the social media posts published by Higgins in 2023.

Young said she will present a case demonstrating the claims Reynolds was not aware of Higgins’ alleged rape by 1 April 2019 were “not credible” and that claims of a conspiracy to ambush her were wrong.

Reynolds is not in the court but her partner, Robert Reid, listens on from the front row of the gallery.

Updated

Opposition supports Asio’s assessment of Australian terror threat level

The shadow minister for home affairs and cyber security, Liberal senator James Paterson, said the opposition offers bipartisan support for Asio’s assessment to raise the country’s terror threat level.

He wrote in a post to X:

The decision to increase the terrorism threat level from possible to probable is sobering but unsurprising given recent events. The opposition has sought a briefing but of course offers bipartisan support for Asio’s assessment.

Paterson argued that today’s announcement “highlights the chaos and confusion on national security under the Albanese government” and criticised the fact the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, was not present for the media conference:

This is as a direct result of the Albanese government’s unnecessary [and] harmful dismantling of the home affairs portfolio. It’s absurd the minister allegedly responsible for national security policy was absent from such a major national security announcement.

Burke was appointed home affairs minister on 29 July last month following a cabinet reshuffle.

Woodside still working with regulators after WA EPA rejects Browse gas project

Woodside Energy says it is still working with “relevant regulators” amid reports its proposed Browse Gas project had been rejected by the Western Australia EPA.

As we flagged earlier, the EPA rejected the project due to a wide range of major concerns about environmental, nature and pollution impacts. You can read more about the proposal below:

A Woodside spokesperson told AAP:

We continue to work with relevant regulators to progress environmental approvals for Browse.

Browse is an important resource that could help address the shortfall of domestic gas in Western Australia forecast from the early 2030s and support energy security in Asia.

Browse was also aligned with the federal strategy that acknowledged the role of gas in Australia’s energy transition to 2050 and beyond, Woodside said.

Greenpeace Australia is urging the state and federal environment ministers to “urgently heed” the advice of the EPA and and rule out the project, arguing that “this singular decision will come to define Labor’s legacy on environmental protection”.

The independent MP for Curtin, Kate Chaney, said earlier today claims Browse would help domestic gas shortfall are “cheeky” because “WA exports 90% of gas extracted”.

Updated

Second day of hearings into Linda Reynolds' defamation trial against Brittany Higgins begins

The second day of hearings into the defamation trial against Brittany Higgins has now started.

Before entering the court, Linda Reynolds, who has brought the case to the Western Australia supreme court, said she was looking forward to “having the opportunity to tell the truth” after three-and-half years.

On Friday, Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, told the court the senator had not been able to tell her side of the story during Higgins’ personal injury settlement in December 2022. The federal government agreed to provide Higgins with $2.4m in compensation.

Reynolds said:

I’m very glad the attorney general does not have any reach into the supreme court in Western Australia.

We’re expecting to hear from the defence’s opening arguments today and directly from Reynolds herself.

It’s anticipated Reynolds’ evidence will run until Friday.

Updated

Melbourne’s community housing project that is saving lives

For Theodore, it’s the little things: watching the AFL on the couch, cooking a green curry, closing the front door of the small community apartment he rents in Melbourne’s inner north, knowing he is safe.

He says:

It’s the first time in three years I’ve lived anywhere.

Teo, as he likes to be called, has been homeless, living mostly out of a van in that time. He is 45 years old and six feet tall – a large presence with a soft voice.

It was hard in the van. You can feel the cold of the earth go through you. I was just drifting … I was belligerent. I didn’t want to deal with anyone.

It’s not where you want to be.

Teo sits on a couch in a repurposed aged care home in Fitzroy in Melbourne’s inner north. It’s a unique facility, offering wraparound housing and healthcare for six months to those experiencing chronic homelessness. Teo says the place saved his life.

Read more about the program helping Teo out here:

Updated

Threatened species nearly a quarter of animals caught in NSW shark nets

There were 240 “non-target” marine animals including rays, dolphins and turtles caught in shark nets off New South Wales beaches over the past summer, and most of them were killed.

The NSW government has today released its report for the 2023/2024 shark meshing season, which reveals that of the 255 marine animals were caught, only 15 were “target” white and tiger sharks.

Nearly a quarter of the animals caught were threatened species including grey nurse sharks and loggerhead turtles.

Ninety-two animals or 36% of those caught were released alive, according to the report.

The proportion of non-target animals caught in the nets increased by 5% from the previous shark meshing season, during which 89% of the 228 marine animals caught were non-target species.

NSW Greens MP Cate Faerhmann said the latest figures were “distressing” and called on the government to remove the nets altogether.

The premier, Chris Minns, recently announced that the next shark meshing program would run for seven months instead of eight. But he said he wasn’t confident enough alternative technologies were advanced enough to replace the nets.

You can read more about NSW shark nets here:

Updated

Our own Paul Karp asked the prime minister why the government was opting for a cap on gambling ads rather than a blanket ban, and Anthony Albanese responded:

Don’t believe everything in the paper.

We’ll announce what our preferred solution is when we announce it. I don’t comment on speculation.

And with that, the press conference has wrapped up.

Gaza ‘not the cause’ but ‘significant driver’ in raising of terror level: Burgess

Taking questions, Mike Burgess reiterated that “Gaza is not the cause of this rising” – but said it was a “significant driver”.

Speaking about the ongoing protest movement in Australia, he said “it’s driven more emotion and heat into society”.

Responding to a separate question, Burgess later added:

The youth are vulnerable to be radicalised. In terms of where this is going, it’s across the board. There’s plenty of antisemitism but there’s plenty of Islamophobia at the same time. It’s almost equal treatment, not quite, but almost equal treatment.

Updated

Mike Burgess is asked if sustained economic hardship may be playing into a general sense of anger or grievance in the community. He responded:

It is not something we have seen in the cohorts we’ve been looking at, but yes, it is a potential factor.

Parents should ‘be aware of what their children are consuming online’: Burgess

The Asio chief, Mike Burgess, weighed in on the content children are consuming online, and what role parents should play:

In terms of minors or youth, absolutely it is an important thing … parents should seek to be aware of what their children are consuming online. Young adults need to make their own decision, but perhaps having a conversation about what they are looking at online while they make their own decisions.

Updated

Q: What is your message as prime minister to political leaders and to families, parents, teachers, the community at large?

Prime minister Anthony Albanese:

My message to political leaders is that words matter and it is important that people engage in a way that is respectful, that people don’t make claims that they know are not right in order to try to secure some short-term political advantage. Which is what we have seen.

Australia, for example, is not directly involved in what is occurring in the Middle East and yet if you look at the comments that [have been made] by some Senators and members, you think that is not the case…

It is not appropriate for people to encourage some of the actions outside electorate offices and to dismiss them as being just part of the normal political process … By all means engage in different political discourse, [I’m not] suggesting that people should have conformity to particular views. But the way things are expressed is important and it is important also that people stick to facts and that they are not prepared to encourage misinformation.

Updated

It’s a ‘matter for everyone’ to be careful with words: Burgess

Taking questions from reporters, Mike Burgess was asked what the change to the terror level means on a practical level, and how resources would be allocated?

He said Asio and law enforcement agencies were reviewing its caseload of assessed violent extremists, with “many of those we have assessed to have awful ideologies that are unlikely to go to violence”.

In this environment it is important to retest those assessments … to make sure we’re paying attention the people we know about. Of course, it’s the people we don’t know about that I worry the most.

He said beyond this, it’s “a matter for everyone” to be careful with their words because “there is a direct correlation between inflamed language and inflamed tension and violence”.

Updated

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, was next to speak and said:

As the director general and prime minister have said, it does not mean that there is any imminent threat of terrorist attack in Australia. Rather it means that Asio’s experts … made a decision that reflects our current security environment.

Updated

‘Be aware but not afraid’

Mike Burgess reiterated that “probable does not mean inevitable” and ended on this note:

Australians should be aware but not afraid. If you believe a person you know is going down a dark, extremist path, please talk to someone or call the national security hotline.

Asio and our law enforcement partners are working hard to detect these terrorist threats and are well practised at defeating them. Since 2014, together we have successfully disrupted 24 attacks.

Updated

Terror level change not a response to events in Middle East: Burgess

Mike Burgess said the decision to change the terror level is “not a direct response to the tragic events in the Middle East”.

At this stage we do not believe any of the terrorist plots we have investigated in the last year have been inspired by Gaza. Terrorist leaders offshore are not inspiring attacks on shore. This is why we did not raise the threat level and immediate aftermath of the 7 October …

After the 7 October I [warned it] could lead to contentions. Unfortunately this is what is playing out.

Because of these conflicts dynamics it will also be inaccurate to suggest the next terrorist attack or plot is likely to be motivated by a twisted view of … a particular ideology. The threat is across the board.

Updated

Asio anticipates increase in political violence ‘including terrorism’

Mike Burgess said anti-authority beliefs are growing as trust in institutions is eroding, while inflammatory behaviours “are being normalised”.

This trend increased during Covid and gained momentum after the terrorist attacks on Israel, and accelerated during Israel’s military response …

Individuals are embracing anti-authority ideologies, conspiracy theories, and diverse grievances. Some are combining multiple beliefs to create new hybrid ideologies. Many of these individuals will not necessarily show violent views but may still see violence as legitimate way to affect political or societal change. All this creates a security climate that is more permissive and violent.

He said that as this increases, Asio anticipates an increase in politically motivated violence “including terrorism”.

Across all ideological spectrums, attacks are likely to occur with little or no warnings and will be difficult to detect.

Burgess said that in 2022 when the threat level was lowered, he said there was almost a guarantee it would need to be raised at some point in time.

That point is now.

Updated

Australia seeing spikes in political polarisation and unpeaceful protest: Asio chief

The director of Asio, Mike Burgess, is now speaking to reporters in Canberra.

He said that Australia’s security environment is “more volatile and more unpredictable”, seeing “more extremism” and more Australians “being radicalised and radicalised more quickly”.

More Australians are embracing a more diverse range of extreme ideologies and more Australians are willing to use violence to advance their cause. Politically motivated violence now joins espionage and foreign interference is our principal security concerns.

Politically motivated violence comes as terrorism, but is broader than that and covers any violent act or any violent threat intended or likely to achieve political objective. This includes violent protest, riots, and attacks on a politician or democratic institutions.

Political differences and debates on political protests are an essential part of a healthy democracy. Unfortunately, here and overseas, we are seeing spikes in political polarisation and intolerance, uncivil debate and unpeaceful protest.

Updated

The terror levels, explained

Australia’s terrorism threat level is rated by security officials on a five-level scale, with “not expected” the lowest rating and “possible” the second-lowest rating.

Today’s change moves the rating to the mid-level of “probable”. After probable, the more serious levels are “expected” and then “certain”.

The prime minister said a range of factors were driving “this global trend towards violence”.

Governments around the world are concerned about youth radicalisation, online radicalisation, and the rise of new mixed ideologies … When the temperature of the security environment is rising, we must lower the temperature of debate. Something I’ve been saying for some time, because our words and our actions matter. Living in a country as stable and open as ours, social [cohesion] must be cherished as a national asset.

Updated

‘Probable does not mean inevitable’: PM on threat level change

Speaking to reporters, Anthony Albanese says he wants to reassure Australians that “probable does not mean inevitable, and it does not mean it is intelligence about an imminent threat or danger”.

But the advice that we have received is that more Australians are embracing a more diverse range of extreme ideologies and it is our responsibility to be vigilant.

To be clear, this is the same threat level that was in place in Australia for more than eight years before it was lowered in November of 2022. At that time, we said as a government, it’s does not mean the threat from terrorism is extinguished.

Since then we have seen a global rise in politically motivated violence and extremist. Many democracies are working to address this including our friends in the United States and in the United Kingdom.

Updated

Government raises terrorism threat level to 'probable'

The Australian government has raised the country’s terrorism threat level from “possible” to “probable”, reversing a change made nearly two years ago.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is making the announcement in Canberra.

Intelligence sources said the decision to raise the threat level was not triggered by any single issue or ideology, but noted an overall increase in polarisation in Australia and other western countries.

The sources said social cohesion was under strain and Covid-era grievances were being exacerbated by the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The terror threat level was last changed in 2022 when it was lowered to “possible”.

More to come.

Updated

South Australia sets new winter energy demand record

Milder winter temperatures and clear skies across South Australia at the weekend saw the state set a new winter minimum operational demand record, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator.

The minimum record of 304MW was set at 2pm on Saturday, a 15% fall on the previous record set on 28 August 2022.

Operational demand is the electricity demand of the power system, which needs to be met by grid-scale generators such as wind, solar, gas and coal. It goes down when consumers use less electricity and when they generate more of their own electricity through devices like rooftop solar.

Updated

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is due to give a press conference at 11.30am, in about 10 minutes’ time. We’ll bring you the latest from that as soon as we can.

Updated

Market turmoil at home and abroad seems to be gathering pace

The Reserve Bank board are in the midst of their two-day meeting today to decide on interest rates and may be surfacing about now for morning tea – and won’t be happy with what they see in financial markets.

Australia’s benchmark index has dropped another 2.75% in morning trade, adding to Friday’s 2.1% decline, or the worst two-day slide in more than two years.

Other markets around the region are faring worse, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 index down more than 6%. The US has been among the prompts for the sell-out with Friday’s fall of its main indices of between 1.5%-2.4%, and a 2.7% retreat in the Euro Stoxx 50 benchmark for that region.

There are always plausible reasons for markets changing from one direction to another. In the latest case, a realisation the US economy might start shrinking and the US Federal Reserve‘s now expected September rate cut should have happened last week.

Japan lifting interest rates last week also looks to have been a misstep given the fragility of that economy.

Renewed tensions in the Middle East, where Iran is expected to respond to Israeli assassinations of a Hamas leader in Tehran and multiple attacks on Hezbollah forces it backs in Lebanon, are also pushing up energy prices.

And the bubbles that appeared around artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies also seem to be deflating (again).

What does that mean for Australia? Well, people who check the value of their superannuation funds regularly won’t be too happy and it would seem even less likely that the RBA board will think lifting the cash rate tomorrow is a good idea.

Anyway, we’ll see over the next few days whether the pullback in investor confidence turns out to be temporary or the start of a bigger rout.

Updated

Second day of hearings in Perth in defamation trial against Brittany Higgins

It’s the second day of hearings in Perth in the defamation trial against Brittany Higgins.

To recap, her former boss, the Western Australian Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, is taking her to court over claims Higgins damaged her reputation by claiming she hadn’t offered her adequate support in the months following her alleged rape in Parliament House.

Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, on Friday claimed Reynolds had also experienced deteriorating health conditions as a result of the case.

Today from 10.30am local time and 12.30pm east coast time, we’re expecting Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young, to open the defence’s arguments before hearing from Reynolds herself this afternoon.

Reynolds’ evidence is expected to last the entire week until Friday. The former prime minister, Scott Morrison, could appear next week to offer his account.

We’ll bring you more updates once the hearing kicks off.

*This post has been updated to correct a name and the time.

Updated

The Bureau of Meteorology says a cloud band is moving across southern Queensland today, with patchy rain and the chance of a thunderstorm in the far south.

Scattered falls of 5-25mm are expected in the south, the bureau said, with isolated totals up to 30-40mm in the far south.

Updated

Chaney weighs in on gas project news

Independent MP for Curtin, Kate Chaney, has weighed in on the news surrounding Woodside’s proposed Browse Gas project – which has been rejected by the EPA.

Chaney wrote on X just earlier:

As well as threatening an extraordinary [and] fragile ecosystem in Scott Reef, emissions from gas extracted at Browse would far exceed Australia’s annual emissions. Saying it will help domestic gas shortfall is cheeky- WA exports 90% of gas extracted.

We had more on this earlier in the blog, here and here.

Updated

Victorian government to release prime land in Kew for homes

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, is holding a presser at the Convention Centre, where the government is holding a “housing summit”. She has told reporters:

We need to build more homes for more Victorians, because if we don’t, we will see a growing inequity between those who can afford a home, who can find a home close to where they want to live, and those who can’t, and that’s not fair.

As first reported in the Age, Allan has announced the government will be rezoning land at the old VicRoads head office in Kew:

We’re going through the zoning changing process so we can see the construction of 500 homes on that site, with at least 10% being affordable homes for Victorians.

Jeroen Weimar, who has been appointed a deputy secretary of housing implementation in the Department of Premier and Cabinet, said the government would unlock more land.

We have at least 45 sites now in active negotiation development.

Updated

Hazard reduction burns being conducted north-west of Brisbane

Parts of north-west Brisbane are being advised to avoid smoke, as hazard reduction-burns take place.

The advice covers Draper and Eatons Hill, plus the Samford Valley, Cedar Creek and Closeburn.

The burns are being conducted at Morrison Road in Cedar Creek, and in the Bunyaville conservation park.

People are being told to stay inside and close their windows and doors, as smoke could be harmful.

Updated

Thousands of children homeless in ‘national shame’

Tens of thousands of Australian children are finding it hard to find a place to call home even after seeking professional help, AAP reports.

A lack of funding for affordable homes and frontline support services is exacerbating an already dire housing landscape, according to a report from Homelessness Australia.

Of the 76,000 children who sought housing help between 2022 and 2023, 60,000 did so with their families, while 16,000 arrived at homelessness support centres unaccompanied, the report found.

Meanwhile, an inquiry revealed hundreds of children as young as six are living in hotels and caravan parks after being taken into state care.

The number of children who were still homeless at their last contact with support services had increased to more than 25,000, while nearly 20,000 were turned away without receiving help between 2022 and 2023.

Homelessness Australia chief executive, Kate Colvin, said the figures should ring alarm bells for politicians:

Family and child homelessness is a blight on Australia. It’s a national shame that in a wealthy, developed country like Australia, we have tens of thousands of families and young people – many of whom are grappling with domestic violence – without a safe place to call home.

Updated

Greenpeace urges ministers to rule out Browse Gas project after EPA rejection

Earlier, we brought you news that the Western Australian EPA had rejected fossil fuel company Woodside’s proposed Browse Gas project. Adam Morton has all the details on the proposed project below:

Greenpeace Australia is urging the state and federal environment ministers to “urgently heed this advice” and rule out the project, which forms part of Woodside’s Burrup Hub proposal – which Greenpeace labels the “most climate-polluting fossil fuel project currently proposed in Australia today”.

CEO David Ritter said:

The Burrup Hub is an irredeemably bad project. These revelations today make clear what we’ve long known to be true – that Woodside’s disastrous Burrup Hub project, including its Browse site, is likely to be a disaster for our precious environment, our reefs and threatened species …

Federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, should now put this project out of its misery, for once and for all. What will [her] legacy be? Protecting our environment, or doubling down on gas well into the 2070s? This singular decision will come to define Labor’s legacy on environmental protection.

Updated

Cheap fares kick in across Queensland

The first morning of Queensland’s nation-first trial of 50-cent bus and train fares appears to have gone off without a hitch.

As we flagged earlier, the premier, Steven Miles, told media this morning they have not been overwhelmed by new commuters or been forced to deploy reserve buses.

He said it’s been “a little busier than usual on some lines”.

The state hopes service demand will increase to pre-Covid levels as a result of the $150m spend.

Updated

Here are the Australian athletes to watch out for today, as we enter day 10 of the Paris Olympics:

Updated

Opposition criticises government aviation inaction

The opposition has criticised the Albanese government for only attempting to address anti-competitive behaviour from major airlines after Rex and Bonza’s operations competing with Qantas and Virgin collapsed.

Today, the transport minister, Catherine King – less than a week after Rex entered administration and ended its jet operations between major cities – released a competitive tender for the Sydney Airport Slot Manager.

King said the move addresses concerns that the current system – where a company majority owned by Qantas and Virgin administers the scarce, lucrative access to Sydney Airport – has fostered a duopoly in the industry and higher air fares for travellers.

These concerns have included allegations levelled by Rex, Bonza, airport chiefs and the competition watchdog, including its former chair Rod Sims, that Qantas group, its budget carrier Jetstar, and Virgin, have been scheduling more flights than they intend to operate and strategically cancelling them to block new entrants from launching rival services.

The tender news follows King’s announcement of an audit program of Sydney airport slots in February which has so far provided no apparent results. This has led industry observers to be pessimistic that the government’s much-anticipated aviation white paper, due imminently, will bring about any real change to boost competition.

Responding to King’s announcement, the opposition transport spokesperson, Bridget McKenzie, said the government “has allowed two airlines to collapse before finally acting to address anti-competitive behaviour”, but said without strengthening rules that allow the strategic cancellation of flights, the measures wouldn’t reduce Qantas and Virgin’s “stranglehold”.

It will now be many months before a tender system is completed and sadly too late for the hundreds of airline workers who have lost their jobs in the meantime.

You can read more about Rex’s turmoil and competition in the aviation industry here:

Updated

More on the health star rating commitment

Dr Alexandra Jones, the program lead for food governance at The George Institute and senior lecturer in the faculty of medicine at UNSW, said:

The slow and selective adoption of the Health Star Rating system by food manufacturers has steadily eroded its value. There is nothing in their performance to date to suggest industry can reach the 70% target by the end of 2025.

Food for Health Alliance executive manager, Jane Martin, said three in four Australians want the government to mandate health stars being displayed on all packaged food and drinks, according to their research.

This commitment by Ged Kearney and food ministers to mandate the system is an important step to empower consumers to make more informed decisions for their health.

Updated

Public health groups welcome health star rating commitment

Public health groups have welcomed Australia’s food ministers’ commitment to make health star ratings mandatory if the food industry continues to fail to meet voluntary targets.

Health promotion foundation VicHealth, Food for Health Alliance and The George Institute for Global Health have released a statement this morning applauding the decision that food regulators will make the rating compulsory if the industry fails to reach 70% uptake by November next year.

Public health experts say it comes after a decade of inaction by the food industry unwilling to implement the front of package label which would help consumers cut through the marketing spin which can convince Australian shoppers that food lacking nutrition is healthy.

When the ratings were introduced in 2019, 40% of intended foods carried a rating but that percentage has gone backwards with only 32% of products carry a rating as at May this year according to the ministers.

The percentage is also far below the targets set by the industry which was to achieve half of all products carrying the rating by the end of 2023 and is almost half of the 60% target for the end of 2024. VicHealth CEO, Dr Sandro Demaio, said:

Major food companies have had 10 years to comply with their own voluntary targets and have failed dismally. We welcome moves by food ministers to prioritise thef health and wellbeing of Australian consumers and make industry accountable.

The Health Star Rating system is designed to help Australians cut through marketing spin to make healthier choices for themselves and their families. But the system can’t effectively inform consumers unless it’s mandatory across all product categories.

Updated

Dozens of suspected engineered stone samples seized following ban

WorkSafe Victoria says it has seized more than 65 samples of suspected engineered stone in the past month, after a ban came into place this year.

Australia became the first country to announce a complete ban on engineered stone last year. This followed a years-long campaign – driven by doctors, trade unions and workers – as silicosis cases rose among those involved in its cutting and handling.

Silicosis is a debilitating and potentially fatal disease that has affected more than 680 Victorian workers since 2018, including 20 fatalities.

WorkSafe said its dedicated silica field team visited 52 industry sites in the past month, issuing 25 compliance notices and seizing more than 65 samples of suspected engineered stone.

Executive director of health and safety, Sam Jenkin, said most businesses are doing the right thing and moving away from engineered stone, but “unfortunately we have found a small number have continued to put workers at risk.”

Manager of earth resources and silica, Ben Wright, said his team had already referred two duty holders for investigation for suspected supply and processing of engineered stone products after 1 July.

Updated

Some context for the Israeli embassy response …

Further to our last post, let’s bring some more context.

The former Australian defence force chief Mark Binskin – in his report released on Friday – found IDF controls failed, “leading to errors in decision making and a misidentification, likely compounded by a level of confirmation bias”. But Binskin said he did not believe the strikes were “knowingly or deliberately directed against” the World Central Kitchen.

When Penny Wong released the report on Friday, the foreign affairs minister told reporters in Adelaide:

I want to start by saying the deaths of Ms Frankcom and her colleagues were inexcusable. We condemn the Israeli strikes that caused them.

Zomi Frankcom and her colleagues from World Central Kitchen were killed in an intentional strike by the IDF. It is clear that these deaths were a consequence of a failure of IDF controls, errors in decision-making and misidentification, a failure to comply with senior command direction and a violation of IDF procedures and rules of engagement. As the IDF itself has said, this incident should not have occurred and was a grave mistake.

The Israeli embassy statement today insists that the IDF fully engaged with Binskin “in order to contribute to the Australian peoples understanding on how this incident occurred and how it has been investigated”.

The statement said Israel would “continue to work hand in hand with the international community to coordinate and assist the activity of aid organizations”. The statement is silent on the call for an apology.

Updated

Israeli embassy responds to report into drone strike on World Central Kitchen workers

The Israeli embassy in Canberra has taken issue with aspects of how the Australian government characterised a report on the killing of the Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six of her colleagues in Gaza.

A report by the former Australian defence force chief Mark Binskin – released on Friday - found “a significant breakdown in situational awareness” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) when the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid convoy was hit by Israeli drone strikes on 1 April.

In a statement issued moments ago, the Israeli embassy said the Israeli government “takes with utmost seriousness the grave incident” and use this moment to again extend our deepest condolences to the Frankcom family, as well as to the families of the other six aid workers”. The statement added:

The Australian government’s statement about the report regrettably included some misrepresentations and omitted crucial details with respect to the manner in which the report was conducted, the degree of cooperation and openness exhibited by the IDF, and even with respect to certain aspects of the tragic incident itself.

The report explicitly reaffirms that the IDF is a professional and disciplined army, with similar legal views, standards and controls in place to mitigate the risks of war, like the ADF. The report also confirms that “the IDF strike on the WCK aid workers was not knowingly or deliberately directed against the WCK,” and that “It is likely that the presence of armed locally-contracted security on the WCK aid convoy, not notified or approved in the detailed WCK-CLA coordination process, which gave the appearance of the presence of Hamas.” It cannot be ruled out “that WCK inadvertently contracted security for the aid convoy with an entity that had links to Hamas.”

More details soon.

Updated

Man allegedly caught drinking wine at wheel of car over quadruple the legal limit

Victorian police said a man can expect to face court after allegedly being caught driving with one hand on the wheel, and the other tipping back a bottle of wine.

According to a statement, the driver was caught at more than quadruple the legal alcohol limit on Sunday.

Highway Patrol officers were patrolling the Mitcham area when a Toyota Yaris drove past them about 12pm, police said:

Officers were stunned to watch the 24-year-old man [allegedly] driving with one hand on the steering wheel and the other tipping back a bottle of wine.

The Ashburton man was intercepted nearby on Cochrane Street where he underwent a breath test, returning an alleged reading of .234.

Police said his vehicle was impounded and his licence immediately suspended. He can also expect to face court on drink driving charges, police added.

Updated

Environmental groups welcome EPA's rejection of Woodside's proposed Browse Gas project

Leading environmental groups have welcomed the Western Australian environment protection authority’s (EPA) rejection of fossil fuel giant Woodside’s proposed Browse Gas project.

Scott Reef, off the coast of Western Australia, is described as ecologically extraordinary with more than 1,500 species documented across its formations, many unique to the area.

But the ocean around the reef is also prized for what lies beneath it: Australia’s largest untapped conventional gas basin. As Adam Morton reports, Woodside wants to drill into the Browse basin – particularly, its Torosa gas field, where wells are planned within 3km of the reef:

According to the Conservation Council of WA, the EPA rejected Woodside’s proposed project due to a wide range of major concerns about environmental, nature and pollution impacts. Executive director Jess Beckerling said:

This is a major blow for Woodside’s plan to develop the biggest new gas field in Australia. The WA EPA has recognised the unacceptable threat posed by Browse to the magnificent Scott Reef and the marine life off the Kimberley coast…

The EPA has now said what we knew all along – the Browse project would be devastating for WA’s environment, and no government should let it proceed … It is now incumbent on the WA and federal governments to respect this independent scientific advice and expert opinion, and refuse Woodside’s application to develop Browse.

Updated

‘We have better options than that’: Miles on using Brisbane River for Olympic triathlon

The Queensland premier, Steven Miles, has said a triathlon in the Brisbane River, as part of the 2032 Olympics, is not likely to happen.

Speaking on Sunrise this morning, Miles said:

I think we have better options than that. The Brisbane River will be a majestic backdrop for many of the events.

Last week, the Brisbane lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, said the river should play a role in the Olympics celebrations, but was reluctant to copy what Paris has done with the famous Seine – saying that its width could pose a challenge.

Miles also said that the Paris Olympics had “broken” the “old model of needing to have an oval stadium for athletes to come in and out of”, touting the existing Suncorp Stadium:

We got an opportunity to use what is already an iconic Stadium in Suncorp Stadium. Let’s not forget we’re building a new arena at Roma Street. That will be a fantastic venue. That’s where the swimming is held … A lot of people are saying we’re doing this on the cheap, we aren’t. It’s a big endeavour.

Updated

Four charged over another huge methamphetamine haul

A bid to import $283m worth of methamphetamine into Australia has been thwarted with four Melbourne men charged over their alleged involvement, AAP reports.

Australian federal police officers charged the group after 306kg of the drug were located concealed in a six-tonne hydraulic press.

Australian Border Force officers found the drugs in June during a search of a consignment sent from the United States.

AFP commander, Raegan Stewart, is expected to share more detail on the bust this morning. It follows a near $1bn methamphetamine shipment seized from two large machines in a shipping container at Sydney’s Port Botany in July.

That shipment was also sourced from the United States before authorities removed the drugs and delivered the machines to a premises at Warwick Farm, in the city’s west, leading to the arrest of two men.

Updated

More than 2,000 crypto wallets compromised, AFP says

The Australian federal police says it has identified more than 2,000 compromised crypto wallets belonging to Australians.

As part of a collaboration with a blockchain data platform Chainanalysis to target criminal cryptocurrency scammers worldwide, the AFP targeted those using “approval phishing” – used to steal more than $4bn in crypto globally since May 2021.

As part of the scams, alleged criminals deceive victims into signing a malicious blockchain transaction, and once signed, they can access the victims’ crypto wallet and spend specific tokens.

This method allows the criminal to drain the victim’s wallet of those tokens at will, which is similar to giving someone permission to transfer money from your online bank account, the AFP said.

“Approval phishing” is commonly seen in investment scams, where people are offered high returns on investments, and romance scams.

Updated

Electoral commission calls for workers

The Australian Electoral Commission says more than 100,000 paid workers will be needed for the next federal election, set to be held sometime in the next nine months.

In a statement this morning, the electoral commissioner, Tom Rogers, said the AEC becomes “one of the nation’s largest employers ever so briefly”.

You don’t need election experience to work for us, but you do need to be able to take an impartial and neutral approach to your work – that is not negotiable… It can be difficult to find staff in regional and remote areas so we really need people to put up their hands, get involved in their communities and make sure people in their areas can vote.

Each state is appealing for people in specific areas. For NSW this is in Dubbo, Armidale, Inverell, Scone and Tamworth, and in Victoria it is Mallee, the Wimmera, Bendigo, Geelong, the Great South Coast, Sale and Warragul – which have been “have been historically challenging to recruit workers in”.

In Tasmania, the AEC state manager, Hannah Brown, appealed to people to travel and help out, if they’re able:

Even if people don’t live in a particular area where we need workers, we hope they’ll consider travelling a short distance to help us give all Tasmanian communities the opportunity to vote locally.

Updated

50c public transport trial kicks off in south-east Queensland today

The Queensland premier, Steven Miles, was on ABC RN Breakfast earlier to discuss the state’s six-month trial of 50c public transport trips in the south-east.

The trial kicks in from today. Miles, speaking from Brisbane Central station, said it was busier than normal but “we’re not seeing any kind of excessive crowding”.

We have an operation centre that’s monitoring very closely that uptake. That’s ultimately why we didn’t make it free, why we kept it at 50 cents so that people still need to tap on and top off. That means we can monitor usage across the network in real-time…

Of course if people don’t use it then it will be hard to justify and so I’m saying to everyone that if you want to keep almost-free public transport, you need to use it – you need the get on the train, the bus, the ferries, and if you do we’ll be able to keep it.

Updated

PMs comments on Makarrata taken further than what it was intended, McCarthy says

Pressed on whether or not the prime minister misspoke with his comments regarding a Makarrata commission, Malarndirri McCarthy said:

I’m saying that the interpretation of what the prime minister said has been taken completely further than what it was meant to. The prime minister was very genuine in his return to the Yolngu people. He was given a sacred totem, which is not to be smeared at, not to be laughed at, and not to be disrespected. The Yolngu people were very strong about the fact that he was strong as a prime minister to take the voice to the people of Australia. It did not work, it failed, and the prime minister still returned to the very people who were deeply disappointed and shattered…

I’m not sure how many times I can say that the principles of the Uluru statement from the heart are very much supported by our government.

Updated

Indigenous Australians minister says First Nations people 'need time' after voice defeat

The new minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, spoke with ABC News Breakfast just earlier following fears the government may ditch its promise to establish a makarrata commission.

Karen Middleton brought us all the details earlier in the blog here.

McCarthy said she had been reading the papers, but when she was in Arnhem Land beside the prime minister “that’s clearly not what I heard”.

He certainly gave very strong principle support for the Uluru statement from the heart. He’s maintained that in terms of the voice, having taken the referendum to the people last year, and the values around makarrata, treaty and truth-telling are still very strong for our government.

Asked about the comments from Pat Anderson, McCarthy said she has seen the word “confusion” in headlines and can understand there would be confusion, because “the question is purely around one element”.

I would caution everyone to just calm down, that this has been a significant weekend at Garma. We are not moving away from our commitment to the Uluru statement from the heart in terms of our love and our support for all of those who gathered there in 2017. What I would say to all Australians is that First Nations people need time.

This was clearly a soul-shattering event, as was said to us in Garma on the weekend. People are still recovering from that. I know in my new role as the minister for Indigenous Australians, I now have to make sure I canvas right across the country where other First Nations people are at.

Updated

For more on this, Daniel Hurst looked into the issue yesterday. A spokesperson for the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, had said the government was “firmly committed to minimising harms from online wagering”.

The government continues to engage with stakeholders regarding the recommendations from the online wagering inquiry as we formulate our response.

You can read the full report below:

Q: Do you think Labor is a risk here of betraying Peta Murphy’s legacy if they do not follow the recommendations of the committee that she chaired?

Kate Chaney:

I hope that’s not the case. I hope the long consultation is because the government’s actually going to do the right thing and make gambling ads history, just like we did with tobacco. We live in hope it’s not too late, but the rumors are not encouraging.

Kate Chaney, who was part of the committee chaired by late Labor MP Peta Murphy, was asked what Murphy would think of the role sporting bodies and administrators are “playing behind the scenes time trying to prevent these changes from coming in.”

Chaney responded:

Peta did a great job as the chair of that committee and and pretty unusually, we had unanimous recommendations. So people on the committee from all parts of politics backed all 31 recommendations.

There’s no additional comments or different opinions. So it was a pretty unusual situation, and Peta’s passion about sport and the need to remove gambling as a normalised part of sport really came through and and was reflected by the rest of the committee as well. So I don’t think she’d be thrilled to see that the resistance to keeping gambling out of sport was coming from our sports codes.

Independent MP Kate Chaney: partial gambling ad bans 'just don't work'

Independent MP for Curtin, Kate Chaney, is speaking with ABC RN about the government’s upcoming response to a proposed ban on gambling.

At the weekend, the Nine papers reported the government would shun the blanket ban and propose a cap of two gambling ads per hour on each channel until 10pm, and banning ads an hour before and after live sport.

Chaney acknowledged the reports were “a rumour at the moment”, but said:

What the evidence showed in the hearings was that partial bans just don’t work. It just moves ads around from one spot to another… but there’s still a lot of gambling ads. And certainly when you speak to parents of young kids who can quote the odds and know an awful lot about gambling, I think it wouldn’t really address the normalisation of gambling in sport, which is a massive problem I’m hearing from constituents.

The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, was contacted to appear on the program “but a spokesperson said she wouldn’t be commenting on the speculation”, ABC RN reported.

Updated

Australia claims more olympic medals overnight

Anthony Albanese has congratulated the Australian olympians awarded medals overnight, including Meg Harris, Nicola Olyslagers, Eleanor Patterson and the women’s relay team:

You can have a read of what you missed overnight from the Olympics, thanks to our sports editor Mike Hytner in Paris:

Australia is currently sitting in fourth place, with the United States first, China second and France third.

Police culture ‘must shift’ after apology to Indigenous Australians

A historic apology for police injustices inflicted on First Nations people will lose its significance if not matched by a cultural shift within the NT force.

As AAP reports, the race discrimination commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman, made that claim after the NT police commissioner, Michael Murphy, said sorry for the harm caused by officers throughout history.

The apology came on Saturday at Australia’s largest Indigenous gathering, the Garma festival in north-east Arnhem Land. Sivaraman acknowledged it was a vital step towards improving police relations in the territory, but added “words can only go so far”.

Change must now be embedded throughout the entire police force and the structures set up within it ... I hope this cultural shift is being driven by the very top of the police force.

A commitment must be made to independent investigations of recent actions by serving members of the NT police, such as the coming review into systemic racism by the NT’s anti-discrimination commission, Sivaraman said.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, Katie Kiss, agreed the apology was “necessary and symbolic”, but said the force also needed to reckon with the injustices that have continued “to this day”.

If the apology’s promise to never again repeat the mistakes of the past is to be realised, then it must be underpinned by honesty and accountability about what is still happening in the NT today.

Updated

Greens tell government to scrap student caps bill

Further to our last post on the proposed limits on international student numbers: the Greens have called on the federal government to “read the writing on the wall and scrap the caps”.

The deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, said the majority of submissions to a Senate inquiry into the bill had raised concerns. Hearings are due to begin in Canberra on Tuesday.

In a statement, Faruqi sought to tie Labor to the opposition leader, Peter Dutton:

Labor is crushing universities in a bid to look tough on borders and compete with Mr Dutton on cruelty.

Using international students as cash cows and then scapegoats for the Labor government’s failure to provide affordable housing is pure racist dog whistling which targets and harms international students and migrants.

When Faruqi previously likened the policy to a “racist dog whistle” in the Senate chamber on 2 July, the Labor minister Murray Watt responded that the Greens were “never very far from a wedge motion, never very far from a wedge political statement”.

Watt told the Senate that the government was seeking to “restoring quality and integrity to the international education sector after the shonks in the sector were left untouched for the last decade”.

Updated

International study caps will 'cause damage', warns ANU expert

The federal government’s crackdown on international students will cause “damage” and harm Australia’s reputation, a leading higher education analyst has said.

On Tuesday the Senate’s education and employment committee will begin an inquiry into the government’s higher education legislation. The bill includes a measure giving the government the power to cap the number of overseas students that may be enrolled with a provider or a class of providers for a year.

Andrew Norton, an Australian National University professor in the practice of higher education policy, takes aim at the bill in a report published today:

On its current trajectory, the government will cause much more damage than is necessary to achieve its policy goals. Its mistreatment of people hoping to study in Australia will harm the country’s reputation.

Some education providers will close and others will shrink. Thousands of people working in the education sector will lose their jobs.

Other industries relying on international students as workers and customers will go into decline. International education policy needs a period of pause and reflection, not the current poorly thought through plan to cap international student numbers.

Norton notes that “pent-up demand caused by closed borders in 2020 and 2021 and Australia’s popularity as an international student destination led to a record number of onshore student visa holders, 673,981 in May 2024”. But he notes the government has made a series of changes, including more than doubling student visa application fees and tightening the tests for awarding a student visa, which will probably be “enough to achieve population moderation”. He says:

Caps will be very difficult for education providers to administer without risking either under-enrolling relative to their cap or cancelling offers and confirmations of enrolment. Both will damage the providers and the students who want to study as these providers.

Uluru co-chair fears prime minister is ‘rolling back’ Makarrata promise

A co-chair of the dialogues which led to the Uluru statement from the heart, Pat Anderson, fears Anthony Albanese is abandoning his promise to create a Makarrata, or Indigenous truth-telling commission and trying to reduce it to “a vague vibe or a series of casual conversations” instead.

In a statement last night, Anderson challenged Albanese to clarify whether he is still committed to a Makarrata after he appeared to distance himself from the concept he had previously agreed to fund.

Anderson suggested the prime minister needed to clarify comments he made on ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday morning that makarrata meant “coming together after struggle” and government talking to Indigenous leaders about the way forward after the failed referendum on an Indigenous Voice to parliament fulfilled that definition.

The prime minister’s comments are confusing. Is he rolling back on the Labor election commitment to the Makarrata commission? We understand that a constitutional voice didn’t get up but the Australian people didn’t vote on truth or treaty.

She suggested Albanese was reducing the idea of Makarrata to something less than what was intended and promised:

Makarrata is not a vague vibe or a series of casual conversation. The Makarrata called for in the Uluru statement was a bricks and mortar body and a clear election promise.

In the Insiders interview, Albanese cited the Yolgnu definition of the word “makarrata”:

Obviously, there has been a struggle for First Nations people. That’s why we talk about closing the gap, or what is really a chasm in some areas. And coming together is a principle of walking together. That engagement. It’s not a moment in time. It’s a process of coming together after struggle.

Updated

Welcome

Good morning, and welcome back to another week on the Australia news live blog. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be with you this Monday as we go through our rolling coverage.

Overnight, co-chair of the dialogues which led to the Uluru statement from the heart – Pat Anderson – said she fears Anthony Albanese is abandoning his promise to create a makarrata, or Indigenous truth-telling commission.

In a statement on Sunday night, Anderson challenged Albanese to clarify whether he is still committed to a makarrata after he appeared to distance himself from the concept he had previously agreed to fund. Karen Middleton will have more for us shortly on Anderson’s statement.

Meanwhile, a leading higher education analyst has warned the federal government’s crackdown on international students will cause “damage” and harm Australia’s reputation. We’ll have more on this from Daniel Hurst in a moment.

As always, you can get in touch with any questions or story tips via X, @emilywindwrites, or you can send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.

Let’s get started.

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