What we learned — Wednesday 27 August
That is where we’ll close the blog for tonight, but keep your eye out for an image gallery of the best-dressed at the midwinter ball – Canberra’s night of nights - later.
The PM said “all Australians are mourning” the slain Victorian police officers killed in an attack in Porepunkah in the state’s north-west. Sussan Ley also paid tribute.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said there is “no reason to believe” the perpetrators of a series of attacks on synagogues in Melbourne and Sydney knew Iran was allegedly directing them. Penny Wong defended the timing of the move to expel Iran’s ambassadors, saying ‘a line has been crossed.’
The PM said national security settings have not changed despite the Iran revelations.
Richard Marles has met with senior Trump officials, including US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth.
Labor promised to wipe debts of up to $250 in “social security debt reform”.
Linda Reynolds was awarded almost $350,000 in damages after winning her defamation case against Brittany Higgins.
Jim Chalmers has blamed the end of energy rebates, rising travel prices and fuel for a big leap in inflation.
Have a good evening.
Updated
Aly also spoke to what concerns her about the sovereign citizen movement:
I think what it demonstrates is the changing nature of terrorism and violent extremism in not just this country but worldwide as well. It used to be that you could attach terrorism to a particular ideology in a kind of a linear way. And now what we have is a different landscape of terrorism where it might not be aligned to a singular ideology ... The thing that I find particularly disturbing is that the sovereign citizens movement is largely … embedded in conspiracy theories.
Terrorism in all its forms, historically and most recently, has always an element of conspiracy theories, but in a world where we have rising misinformation, disinformation, the capacity of AI to emphasise and increase misinformation and disinformation, conspiracy theories are more and more becoming part of a radicalising narrative for people.
So I’m very concerned about the sovereign citizens movement and I think it speaks to the much more complex environment in which our security agencies work in because these people are much, much harder to detect and you cannot [trace] them linearly to a particular ideology or political stance.
Updated
