The day that was, Wednesday 2 August
We will wrap up the live blog here for the night on another busy day in parliament.
Here’s what made the news:
Labor is not ruling out raising the amount people can earn before it affects their jobseeker payments.
This was something voted down in the Senate, proposed by the opposition instead of the $56 per fortnight increase in payments, which passed the parliament today and will come into effect in September.
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, announced that Tim Crakanthorp, the minister for skills, Tafe and tertiary education and the Hunter, resigned after Minns found he was allegedly in breach of the ministerial code over family land holdings in the Hunter that were not disclosed.
The NSW premier has referred the incident to the Independent Commission Against Corruption for possible investigation.
A written bomb threat sparked an evacuation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s office in Canberra, but after a sweep no suspicious items were found and staff were able to return in the afternoon.
The National Gallery of Australia’s independent investigation into allegations of non-Indigenous interference in the works of First Nations artists working in central Australia has cleared the APY Art Centre Collective of wrongdoing.
Woolworths is facing more than 1,000 charges for allegedly failing to pay more than $1m in long service leave to Victorian employees.
The NSW government will move to strengthen information sharing between state law enforcement agencies and is calling for an urgent meeting of state government agencies after a Queensland childcare worker was charged with 1,623 child abuse offences.
Housing minister Julie Collins reintroduced legislation to set up the $10bn housing Australia future fund this morning, after the first try at passing the bill was held up in the Senate.
Until tomorrow, enjoy your evening.
Updated
Peter Dutton was briefed five times about sensitive discussions between the United States and Australia over whether war crimes allegations jeopardised military cooperation, Guardian Australia can reveal.
Australian officials also privately raised concerns with the then-defence minister that the issue might be mentioned in the US state department’s annual reports on human rights around the world.
Warning that the issue was likely to become public, the defence department prepared “talking points” to play down the potential friction with Australia’s top security ally.
Updated
