What we learned; Tuesday 10 February
We will wrap up the live blog here for the evening. This is what made the news:
There was ongoing criticism of the police handling of the protest against Israel’s president Isaac Herzog in Sydney. The Greens said the police action amounted to “summary physical punishment against legitimate and peaceful protest”.
Dozens of Muslim organisations across Australia have condemned the NSW police disrupting a Muslim prayer and the use of force at the protest.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, defended police, saying they were “put in an impossible situation”.
Anthony Albanese says all views on Herzog’s visit should be expressed “peacefully”, and that the Israeli president’s visit is appropriate.
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said the protests last night were a “disgrace”.
New South Wales police say nine people have been charged after yesterday’s protest.
Labor backbencher Ed Husic has questioned the police actions.
Demonstrators gathered outside Surry Hills police station to protest what they have characterised as police brutality at last night’s protest.
First Nations Australians will be able to make submissions to the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion, and the minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy is encouraging the community to do that.
Sussan Ley survived a party room meeting with her leadership in tact, while her supporters have called for those wanting a spill to sign their names to a motion if they’re making a move.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull accused his own party of abandoning the centre for an ideological “la la land”.
The Australian government should take stronger action against the Laotian government over the deaths of two Australian women, Sussan Ley and the shadow foreign minister, Michaelia Cash, said.
We’ll be back tomorrow with all the latest.
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Leader of prayer group moved on by police at yesterday’s rally addresses Sydney protest
One of the men who led the prayer group moved on by police at the Sydney town hall protest yesterday has addressed the crowd outside Surry Hills police station.
Sheikh Wesam Charkawi says the group had decided to move away from the road while conducting the prayer.
We didn’t want to instigate anybody. We weren’t baiting anyone. We wanted to find that private space. And anybody that knows our tradition is that when the time of prayer comes, you pray. And the prayer literally takes about three or four minutes. We conducted ourselves in the prayer. And naturally people, when they see a congregational prayer, they join. And so as we there was one line, a second line, and there was a third row of women.
He alleges this first line of women was the first to be “attacked by police”.
I saw one of the young men, and we have an 18-year-old with us today, who said he was kneed in the back by New South Wales Police, and one of the other men who dropped us off here today, he was too traumatised to get out of the car and be with us today, because he was that guy that went flying about two metres after he came up from the most holiest position when he had his face in prostration and prayer.
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Herzog visit will ‘stoke the fires of division’, Victorian Greens say
The Victorian Greens say Isaac Herzog’s visit to Melbourne will “stoke the fires of division”.
In a letter sent to the premier, Jacinta Allan, on Tuesday, Victorian Greens MPs said the Israeli president’s visit to Melbourne should not go ahead, pointing to a United Nations commission of inquiry which found Herzog had “incited the commission of genocide”:
As we have seen from scenes in New South Wales yesterday, his arrival in
Victoria is likely to spark heightened community distress, increased police violence, the erosion of democratic rights and diminishing trust in the government.
Herzog has denied the accusation and says his words were taken out of context.
It comes after Allan today warned protesters ahead of Herzog’s visit to Melbourne on Thursday.
Allan told protesters not to “bring hurt or pain” to the streets of Melbourne and said Herzog’s visit was to provide care to the Jewish community in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
On Monday, thousands of demonstrators in Melbourne protested against Herzog’s upcoming visit.
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NSW Greens MP calls for charges against protesters to be dropped
The NSW Greens justice spokesperson, Sue Higginson, addresses the crowd next, telling the crowd, “I am so sorry that we had to experience this.”
Higginson reiterates a call to drop nine charges against protesters after yesterday’s protest.
I have written to the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission. It’s the one accountability body we have at the NSW police. It’s not perfect, but it’s the one we have. We are calling on them to establish an independent investigation, and we want every charge withdrawn from every individual.
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Sydney protest will be ‘peaceful, static’
Josh Lees draws attention to people allegedly assaulted by police, including NSW Greens lower house MP, Abigail Boyd, prompting a chant of “cops bash women”.
Lees reiterates that tonight will be a peaceful, static protest.
It’s a chance for us to get together to … debrief whatever, share the stories that have happened and all the rest of it, but of course, also to recommit ourselves to the fight for a free Palestine. We have to redouble that commitment that we absolutely will not be intimidated.
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‘We have the right to demonstrate,’ Sydney protesters tell police
Josh Lees, organiser for the Palestine Action Group, has addressed the crowd of at least a thousand, after leading them in chants of “Say it loud say it clear, Herzog is not welcome here” and “This is not a police state, we have the right to demonstrate”.
He says:
What happened last night was, on the one hand, it was wonderful, because 20,000 of us came out on a national day of protest that [Isaac Herzog] that should never have been invited to this country.
But he goes on to address the violent clashes yesterday, laying the blame at the premier, Chris Minns, whose name is booed by the crowd.
“I’m sure for many of us what we saw we was reminiscent … of Donald Trump’s America,” he says.
An impromptu chant of “Chris Minns, in the bin” interrupts Lees’ speech.
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Optus says 35,000 devices still not connected
Following yesterday’s Optus mobile outage we reported in the blog yesterday, Optus says 35,000 customers have yet to restart their phones to fix the software issue.
An Optus spokesperson said:
Optus is continuing to see a reduction in the number of mobile customers impacted by a software issue however 35,000 customers remain impacted and have not yet restarted their mobile device.
We have identified all remaining affected customers and are currently contacting them directly via email with instructions to restart their device. This will restore their service immediately.
Emergency calls to triple zero remain unaffected and available at all times.
We again sincerely apologise to customers.
‘Sustained, coordinated national action’ no longer optional, antisemitism envoy says
Jillian Segal, the special envoy against antisemitism, is appearing at Senate estimates this evening, where she is appearing for the first-time since the Bondi attack last month.
Segal begins with this:
My central message is this: antisemitism in Australia has reached a point where sustained, coordinated national action is no longer optional. It’s essential for community safety, for social cohesion and for the integrity of our democracy.
The events at Bondi marked, I think, a profound turning point for the nation. They brought growing antisemitism into sharp national focus and made visible what Jewish Australians had been saying for many months – that fear, intimidation and exclusion are no longer abstract concerns, they are lived realities.
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Hundreds protest police in Sydney
There are now several hundred people gathered in Harmony Park outside the Surry Hills police station.
Many carry signs referencing yesterday’s violent clashes, reading “Stop Police Brutality” and “No to state violence”.
The atmosphere is calm, with many sitting on the hill overlooking the park. A man has led a call to prayer in Arabic and several men and women have started to pray.
A video of officers allegedly pulling away a group of men from prayer yesterday has been the subject of significant concern, with the premier, Chris Minns, rejecting the idea it showed police were disproportionately targeting the Muslim community.
Police are watching on from a distance.
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Haines concerned after Australia slides on corruption perception index
Helen Haines, the independent MP for Indi, says it is concerning that Australia is at its lowest point in a decade on the latest Transparency International corruption index.
One of the architects of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), Haines said Australia should be a world leader, expressing concern the country has fallen out of the top 10 in the new rankings.
Australia has slipped in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.
We were just in the top 10, now we’re out of it. We’re back to being only a few points away from the record low of 2021.
We should be a world leader. Australians value honesty, a fair go, accountability.
This index reinforces the need for parliament to progress changes to lobbying laws, ending the culture of jobs for mates, deliver fair election donation and spending reforms, more oversight on the NACC and whistleblower protections.
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Protesters gather outside NSW police HQ in Sydney to protest violent scenes yesterday
Demonstrators have started to gather outside Surry Hills police station to protest what they have characterised as police brutality at last night’s protest against the visit by Israeli president Isaac Herzog.
There are at least 100 officers lined up directly in multiple rows outside the front of the station, with protesters gathering inside a cordoned off area in Harmony Park about 50 metres away. There are smaller groups of officers on the entrances to the park, and mounted officers patrolling as well.
Police outnumber demonstrators currently, although the protest does not start until 5.30pm.
A senior police officer approached Palestine Action Group organiser Josh Lees a moment ago, who confirmed the demonstration will be static.
“We’re outside the zone,” says Lees, drawing attention to the fact the police station is not covered by the major events and public assembly restriction declaration which covered the area where protesters gathered yesterday.
“Is this really necessary after last night?” says Lees to the officer, referencing the significant police presence.
Here’s what the scene looked like earlier:
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Australia slides backwards on corruption perception index
Australia has gone backwards on a leading indicator of international corruption, dropping out of the top 10 countries.
Transparency International’s latest annual Corruption Perception Index, out on Tuesday, gave Australia a score of 76 out of 100. It saw Australia fall from equal 10th to equal 12th place on the global ranking.
Australia’s score is nine points below a high of 85/100 in 2012 but still above the country’s record low of 73 in 2021.
Transparency International Australia chief executive, Clancy Moore, said the score reflects the risks of big money in politics and weaknesses in areas including whistleblower protections and the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
Despite the Albanese government’s strong reforms since 2022, this result shows integrity reform in Australia needs renewed commitment – not complacency.
It’s time for the Albanese government to shine a light on lobbying, shut the revolving door between industry and politics, and finish the job on political donations and spending laws.
This year 31 countries improved their rankings, 50 went backwards and 100 stayed put.
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Husic joins criticism of police actions against Muslim prayer in protest
Labor backbencher Ed Husic has questioned the police actions moving on Muslims praying at the protest of Israeli president Isaac Herzog in Sydney yesterday.
Video showed that, as the men prayed, police officers descended on the group, grabbing those at the edge of the prayer group and dragging them along the ground.
Husic posted on Instagram:
How is it that people engaged in peaceful prayer can be moved on faster, more forcibly than black-shirted neo-Nazis standing outside NSW parliament?
At least 38 Muslim groups criticised police actions at the protest. They’ve called for an apology, and investigation, and the resignation of the police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, who defended the actions of police.
The NSW premier Chris Minns, said police were in an “impossible situation”.
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Shoebridge and Watt clash over Herzog visit
Greens senator David Shoebridge has described protests in Sydney against Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s visit yesterday as “predictable and certain”, urging the Albanese government to cancel Herzog’s visa.
In a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday afternoon, the Greens senator asked home affairs department officials why Herzog was issued a visa to visit Australia – and why the home affairs minister hadn’t cancelled it.
The minister holds discretionary powers to cancel a person’s visa if their visit incites discord or threatens the good order of the Australian community – a threshold, Shoebridge said, has been met.
Shoebridge said:
Sydney erupted into violence because your prime minister invited President Herzog to this city. It was predictable and certain.
Murray Watt, the minister representing the government in this committee, dismissed Shoebridge’s comments as “outrageous” and the hearing moved on.
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Fiery NSW question time after Sydney protest clashes
Returning to question time in NSW state parliament, the government has faced a series of questions about the violent scenes that unfolded between police and protesters yesterday.
Fielding a government question on the police response, the police minister, Yasmin Catley, echoed comments by the NSW police assistant commissioner Peter McKenna that “this has been the most violent, volatile and precarious situation he has ever seen”.
“Police were faced with an incredibly difficult situation as tensions rose amongst protesters. Mr Speaker, none of us go to work every morning expecting to face violence, but our police do,” Catley said.
The Greens Newtown MP, Jenny Leong, interjected: “I did last night.”
Leong, who attended last night’s protest, telling Guardian Australia she had helped people affected by pepper spray sheltering in a Subway, was asked to leave the chamber, which she did while staring down the government benches.
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‘Enough is enough’: Kovacic backs forcing Liberal MPs to sign spill motion
The Liberal senator Maria Kovacic has confirmed on ABC Afternoon Briefing our earlier reporting on Liberal moderates calling for a spill petition naming those who want Sussan Ley to go.
She says “transparency is important” and those wanting a spill should be accountable.
I think we’ve all had enough of what’s been going on over the past couple of months. It has spiralled out of control in the last few days and enough is enough. If you want this, put your name to it and get it over with.
She notes no one in the shadow ministry has yet resigned – which they will need to do if they want a change of leader. Kovacic says “enough is enough”.
If you don’t have confidence in the leader and you want to spill the leadership, then do it. Otherwise let’s all get back to work. Enough is enough.
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Coalition questions ABC boss about Silenced documentary
The ABC has confirmed the new documentary Silenced, about the way defamation laws are weaponised against women seeking justice, will screen on the public broadcaster after a cinema release.
The film is based on a book by the human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson and features interviews with Brittany Higgins and actor Amber Heard about their defamation cases.
The film, which was funded by Screen Australia, was selected for the 2026 Sundance film festival and Higgins attended the screening.
The Coalition senator Sarah Henderson questioned the ABC managing director Hugh Marks at Senate estimates about why the ABC was involved in a film which featured Higgins when she was involved in ongoing legal proceedings with the former minister Linda Reynolds.
Marks said the ABC played a minor part in the film’s production and contributed about $350,000.
The Australian has reported that Reynolds sent a letter to the film’s producers threatening defamation action should the documentary suggest the former minister, who was Higgins’ boss, prevented her from airing her complaint.
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Queensland government rejects key recommendation of Wieambilla inquest
The Queensland government has rejected a central recommendation from a coronial inquest into the Wieambilla police shooting.
Two police, Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow, and a neighbour, Alan Dare, were killed on a remote property in December 2022.
Coroner Terry Ryan found Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey Train were suffering from a shared psychotic disorder and found that at least some of the firearms and ammunition used by the Trains was lawfully obtained.
Ryan recommended last year that the government consider the feasibility of adopting mandatory mental health assessments for weapons licence holders.
The government has decided not to do so.
Instead the government will adopt a mandatory mental health reporting scheme. Professional carers in the public health system will be required to report any high-risk patient to Queensland police.
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Asio sent Four Corners criticism to wrong ABC email
The ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, has told Senate estimates that Asio sent an email to the wrong email address when trying to contact him about last night’s Four Corners program.
Four Corners broadcast the program on Monday despite a highly unusual and pre-emptive claim by Asio that the episode contained “significant errors of fact”.
Hugh Marks:
Asio released a very strong statement about that particular program. They wrote to me. They didn’t seek to call me or contact me. They did get my email address wrong.
Sarah Hanson-Young said:
Asio got your email address wrong? … I think that says more about Asio if they can’t even get the email address of the managing director of the ABC right. How closely [are] they’re looking at detail?
Marks said the program was transparent and “raised matters simply in a way that I think warranted further discussion”.
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‘Not realistic’ that Herzog visit would not cause division and distress, Steggall says
The Liberal MP Julian Leeser has praised the government for inviting the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, to Australia, but independent MP Zali Steggall says she disagrees with the invitation because he is the head of a foreign nation whose actions over the last two years has caused “mass casualty to civilians … ignoring international law and restricting humanitarian aid and medical aid to get in to children and innocent civilians”, which has caused great distress to hundreds of thousands of Australians.
Steggall tells ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:
And so it is just not, I think, realistic to say that the head of such a nation can come here and not further cause division and distress to people within our community.
Herzog’s comments praising the use of force on protesters were “highly offensive” and the Liberal party has “lost their moral compass” in trying to point-score against the government, she says.
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Leeser reiterates support for Ley as Liberal leader
The shadow education minister, Julian Leeser, is on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing and is asked about the reports Sussan Ley’s rivals might be forced to put their names to a spill petition.
He will not be drawn on it, and reiterates his “unequivocal” support for Ley.
I unequivocally support her because of her actions around Bondi. It was Sussan that called for a royal commission. It was Sussan that called for parliament to be returned to deal with issues. It was Sussan that ensured we passed legislation to kick out hate speech and kick out radical organisations.
She showed herself to be a great leader in a national crisis and that’s why she has my unequivocal support.
He says it is a matter for those thinking about the leadership of the party.
Leeser says the polling numbers reflect people unhappy with the Coalition split.
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Ley allies demand Taylor backers put their names to spill petition
Sussan Ley’s allies want the Liberal leader to demand her rivals put their names to a petition calling for a spill, forcing Angus Taylor’s backers to publicly out themselves as plotting to oust her.
The push has been discussed in private talks on Tuesday and has echoes of the tactic Malcolm Turnbull used after Peter Dutton launched a leadership coup in 2018.
Under Liberal party rules, MPs can request the leader call a special party room meeting to consider a leadership spill.
If Ley refuses, Guardian Australia understands Taylor would need a petition endorsed by the majority of Liberal MPs and senators to force the leader’s hand.
A group of Ley’s supporters – including leading moderates – want the leader to insist that Taylor’s backers sign their names to such a petition.
One Ley supporter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Guardian Australia:
Those that want to support the greatest act of misogyny in recent times, cannot be allowed to hide in the shadows of the party room. Cowardice cannot be tolerated.
In 2018, Turnbull demanded that Dutton’s supporters present him with the names of the majority of the party room – then 43 signatures – before convening a meeting to consider a spill.
Dutton secured the 43 names but ended up losing the leadership ballot to Scott Morrison.
Ley’s office has been contacted for comment.
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Victorians warned to brace for extreme fire danger conditions
Fire danger warnings have been issued across most of Victoria for Wednesday due to high temperatures and hot, northerly winds.
The Country Fire Authority chief officer, Jason Heffernan, announced total fire bans for the high-risk districts of Mallee, Wimmera, Northern Country, north central, north east, and West and South Gippsland.
While a total fire ban had not been declared for the East Gippsland and south west districts, fire danger ratings remain high and elevated, he told a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
The Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Kevin Parkyn said Victoria has had “the driest start to the year since 2009”, but temperatures were forecast to drop after Wednesday.
The emergency management commissioner, Tim Wiebusch, said rainfall deficits across Victoria had dried out bush and grasslands, increasing the “real” risk of contained fires in Longwood, Walwa and Otway reigniting.
He urged at-risk communities to be alert, recommending they visit www.emergency.vic.gov.au for latest updates and download the VicEmergency app to set up a “watch zone” for tailored warnings.
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Nine people charged after Sydney protest
New South Wales police say nine people have been charged after yesterday’s protest. Police had previously said 27 people were arrested, including 10 for allegedly assaulting police officers.
In a statement, police say the nine people who have been charged in relation to the protest include:
A 28-year-old man charged with assaulting a police officer in the execution of duty, causing actual bodily harm. He was refused bail to appear before bail court today.
A 19-year-old man charged with two counts of assaulting a police officer during public disorder, causing actual bodily harm. He was granted conditional bail to appear before local court on 24 February.
A 31-year-old woman charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm. She was granted conditional bail to appear before the local court on 4 March.
A 67-year-old man charged with behaving in an offensive manner in or near a public place or school. He was granted conditional bail to appear before local court on 4 March.
A 24-year-old man charged with hindering or resisting a police officer in the execution of duty. He was granted conditional bail to appear before local court on 5 March.
A 23-year-old man charged with assaulting a police officer in the execution of duty without actual bodily harm. He was granted conditional bail to appear before local court on 5 March.
A 25-year-old woman charged with assaulting a police officer in the execution of duty without actual bodily harm. She was granted conditional bail to appear before local court on 5 March.
A 25-year-old man charged with refusing or failing to comply with directions and hindering or resisting a law enforcement officer in the execution of duty. He was granted conditional bail to appear before local court on 5 March.
A 21-year-old man charged with throwing a missile at a police officer in the execution of duty with no actual bodily harm. He was issued a court attendance notice to appear before local court on 24 August.
Police say there are in the process of issuing an additional six people with future court attendance notices for refusing or failing to comply with a police direction, to appear before court on a later date.
Officers are continuing to investigate the actions of protestors with investigators reviewing body camera footage and social media vision from the event.
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Just a correction to an earlier post: the LNP MP who crossed the floor to vote against his own government was Nigel Dalton, from the electorate of Mackay, not Nigel Hutton as we said earlier.
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Thanks for joining me on the blog today, it’s been a big one – and there’s still plenty more to come!
I’ll leave you with the excellent Josh Taylor for the rest of the afternoon and will see you here bright and early tomorrow.
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Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time
There’s been tension in the building over the protests seen in Sydney and Melbourne last night, and question time was no different today, with the prime minister twice calling for members to turn down the heat.
Anthony Albanese defended the visit by the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, despite the protests.
The opposition changed tack today, and probed the government on inflation as well as taking action against Laos over the poisoning deaths of two Australian teenagers, and the protests. The Nationals stuck to energy prices.
The Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown was shouted down by opposition members over her question on police violence during the protests. That led to the speaker, Milton Dick, issuing a stern warning over language use in the chamber at the end of question time.
The independent MP Allegra Spender also challenged Jim Chalmers on what the government’s actual plan is to tackle inflation.
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Broadcasting regulator promises to stop letting companies review its draft media releases
The broadcasting regulator has told Senate estimates it will stop giving companies it regulates draft media releases to approve after criticism they allowed Optus, the Commonwealth Bank and Sportsbet to “sign off on their own homework”.
The ABC revealed in December the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) changed a draft media statement announcing a then record fine of $2.5m for Sportsbet after lobbying from the gambling giant.
The fine was for breaching Australia’s spam laws.
At Senate estimates today, the ACT independent senator David Pocock asked multiple questions of the Acma chair, Nerida O’Loughlin, about the practice of sharing media releases.
Pocock was critical of Acma for agreeing to change the date of a press release after a request from the Commonwealth Bank, which wanted it to be scheduled after its AGM.
Pocock: This enormous company was asking you to delay a media release where you had found very serious breaches until after the AGM and you didn’t think as the regulator, one, it’s probably a bit fishy and, two, if we do, it could be a bad look if people find out?
O’Loughlin: Senator, we didn’t ask people to sign off on our homework. We were merely going through a procedural fairness process of advising those companies on which we were making public statements of the facts of what would be in the release.
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Sydney lord mayor calls for police review after protest
The lord mayor of Sydney has called for an independent investigation into “police activities” at Sydney’s protest last night against Israeli president Isaac Herzog, and also an urgent review of the policing of protests more broadly.
Clover Moore said in a statement that the premier, Chris Minns, was right to say that “we shouldn’t rely on individual clips of video shared on social media to make an assessment”.
But, she said, that’s exactly why “there should be an independent investigation into police activities last night, and an urgent review of policing at protests to ensure people’s right to protest without harm”.
We cannot simply say the images aren’t a good look, or that police were just doing their jobs in trying conditions, or play a blame game – the community needs to be able to trust police, and that trust relies on transparency and accountability.
She said that governments must ensure “communities are permitted to gather – to reflect, to mourn, to voice opposition to violence and war – safely and freely”, saying:
Both our state and federal governments have committed to addressing the terrible rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia in our communities and that is most welcome … As is any effort to achieve ‘social cohesion’.
But we should be careful not to erode civil rights or chill genuine protest in the process. That doesn’t unite us, or make us feel safe.
If we truly value inclusion and diversity we must ensure all our communities are permitted to gather – to reflect, to mourn, to voice opposition to violence and war – safely and freely.
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Minns challenged on protests during question time
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has been challenged about the violent scenes at yesterday’s protest during question time in state parliament.
The leader of the opposition, Kellie Sloane, has asked Minns about the decision by four Labor backbenchers to attend the protest. Earlier, the opposition called for the MPs to be removed from parliamentary committees posts.
Sloane says: “If your MPs won’t listen to you, how do you expect the people of NSW to listen to you?”
Minns responds:
One of the misconceptions that’s been repeatedly expressed by opponents of the government is that protest is illegal in NSW. They’ve said that after 14 December in relation to the government’s legislation over and over again. Well, the truth is that’s not correct. It is not illegal in NSW, there were restrictions in place for protest marches and restrictions in place for places of assembly during, Mr Speaker, the major events designation from the minister. Now, members from the government did attend that protest. The truth of the matter is, I wish that they hadn’t attended, but they didn’t breach the law. They didn’t break the law.
Minns goes on to defend the police response in answer to a government question, but is subject to several interjections from the Greens MP for Balmain, Kobi Shetty, who attended the protest.
“They [police] were punching members of the community,” interjects Shetty at one point, before she receives a warning from the speaker of the house.
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Speaker warns of ‘deeply concerning’ language heard in QT
At a very early 2.58pm, Anthony Albanese calls time on question time. He’ll be travelling to Sydney to meet with Herzog.
Before everyone else leaves, the speaker, Milton Dick, tells everyone in a very serious voice that he is “deeply concerned” about an exchange that happened earlier.
To recap, the Nationals MP Colin Boyce was heard saying “rip her apart” to Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown when she asked the prime minister about police violence at last night’s protests.
At the time, Dick said he hadn’t heard the comments and said Boyce could withdraw if he wished to (which he did).
The speaker says he had continued to reflect on the exchange during QT.
He says:
There simply cannot be that sort of language that we heard used in the house. Nowhere. I ask all members to reflect on how they engage in proceedings.
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PM warns Coalition not to seek ‘political opportunities’ out of Bondi tragedy
The shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, asks whether the prime minister will condemn the former Australian of the Year Grace Tame for chanting “globalise the intifada” at the Sydney march against the Israeli president’s visit.
That gets a huge groan from the Labor benches.
Anthony Albanese tells the opposition to stop looking for “political opportunities” from a tragedy.
We need to not continually look for political opportunities from what is a devastating situation. We need to turn the temperature down.
He keeps the answer short.
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Crossbench notches up the pressure on Chalmers to act on inflation
What will the government do about inflation, asks the independent MP Allegra Spender.
She says (rightly) that there’s been a lot of blame-gaming and finger-pointing about whose fault inflation is, but wants the treasurer to say exactly what measures are being taken to bring it down.
Jim Chalmers says the plan is to deliver cost-of-living relief “in the most responsible way” through the tax system, getting the budget in better condition and increasing productivity in the economy.
There will always be a range of views about the best way to go about addressing this challenge, but I think the three ways that the government is going about it strikes the best balance.
He keeps his answer fairly high level.
If you want a read on why productivity is important to the economy, dig into this piece from my colleague, Patrick Commins, here.
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95,000 on aged care national priority system waiting list
During a dixer, the aged care minister, Sam Rae, says the number of older Australians on the waiting list for a support at home place has dropped by nearly 30,000 over the last quarter.
He says that as of 31 December, there are now 94,963 people on the waitlist.
He adds:
Median comprehensive assessment wait times have dropped by eight days, with the median wait time just 24 days from request to completion of assessments in the July-September quarter.
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Bowen points out an arithmetic issue with Nationals’ renewables line
We’re back to the Nationals and Colin Boyce asks Chris Bowen how many wind turbines and solar panels it will take to get to Labor’s 82% renewable target. It’s a pretty straight question until he describes the policy as an “expensive and reckless renewable energy-only” plan.
Bowen is quick to point out Boyce’s personal views around climate change and renewables (which you can read more of here) and points out an arithmetic issue in his question.
Bowen says:
I thank the member for the question and, given the member denies the science of climate change, I am not sure he is interested in how we get renewable energy, given he doesn’t accept the scientific consensus of 99% of scientists across the world.
I make this point, firstly, we don’t have a renewables-only energy policy. We have a policy to get to 82% of renewables, backed by gas peaking or firming for the rest of it. 82 is not 100.
We don’t get an actual number of how many solar panels or wind turbines would be needed, but safe to say it’s a fair few.
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Labor and Coalition spar on government spending
Sussan Ley is back at the dispatch box and asks why “Australians have to skip meals in a cost-of-living crisis caused by this government’s reckless spending”.
The prime minister says he acknowledges there are Australians all over the country feeling the cost-of-living pain.
He asks what exactly the opposition would cut.
I am not sure, when speak about spending, what it is that they oppose? Do they oppose what they did in July, which was to cut student debt by 20%? They said they were against that for 3 million Australians. Do they oppose what they did in August when we legislated to protect penalty rates for weekend and overtime pay?
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Bowen won’t say how much government’s energy policy has cost taxpayers
The question time theme of the sitting fortnight has been that the Liberals have been pressing Jim Chalmers on inflation, while the Nationals have been trying to push Chris Bowen on high energy prices.
Sticking to that theme, the Nationals MP Michelle Landry asks Bowen how much the government’s “reckless renewables-only energy policy” has cost taxpayers.
Bowen says that the question is very broad, that there’s been a lot of private investment, and that some of that information is “commercial in confidence”.
The shadow minister Dan Tehan says the question was very specific, which the speaker, Milton Dick, actually agrees with but says that while the opposition would like a number, he can’t compel the minister to do that.
Bowen treads a very fine line and gets another warning from Dick to stay on point. He doesn’t give us an actual dollar figure, but says again:
The vast majority of investment in the cheapest form of renewable energy will come from the private sector.
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Angus Taylor ‘not the solution’ to improve Liberals’ economic credibility, says Chalmers
The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien, is back on the Jim Chalmers attack, and asks when inflation will come down (citing the Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, who has said inflation will remain “out of band and above target for six years”).
Chalmers says the RBA forecast says inflation will peak in the middle of this year and then start “trailing away”.
He once again pins blame on the opposition, who saw inflation rise to 6% when they lost the 2022 election.
That is why we are cutting taxes, again those opposite said they would repeal those tax cuts.
That is why we delivered surpluses and we are demonstrating spending restraint and banking upward revisions to revenue in ways that would be unrecognisable to those opposite, who didn’t do any of those things.
Chalmers then takes a big swing at Angus Taylor (the government has been taking every opportunity possible to hammer the Coalition on their looming leadership spill).
Half of the party room supports the member for Hume [Taylor] and the other half have met him. The other half have met him and they know that when it comes to their lack of economic credibility, the member for Hume is part of the problem not part of the solution, Mr Speaker.
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PM defends Herzog visit and urges Australia to ‘turn the temperature down’
To the crossbench, the Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown says the prime minister’s invitation to the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, to visit Australia “has undermined unity and social cohesion in this country” and calls on Anthony Albanese to condemn the police violence seen on Monday.
She can’t even finish the question as members of the opposition shout “absolute rubbish” and “have some respect” at her.
As she finishes, the independent MP Kate Chaney stands up and says she heard the Nationals MP Colin Boyce say “rip her apart” to Watson-Brown, which receives a very audible gasp from the chamber. Boyce withdraws the statement.
Albanese defends the invitation to Herzog and says the temperature needs to be turned down.
We need to turn the temperature down in this country – we need to turn it right down – including in the rhetoric that just took place in that exchange in this chamber.
We will continue to understand that there is a need in this country as well for some nuance in this debate. The debate is not advanced by people thinking it’s like a football team, where you have to support 100% one side or the other side. That does not advance peace.
Albanese says we must engage with Israelis and Palestinians towards a two-state solution.
Again he says the violence seen last night was “devastating”.
I note that many people who saw the footage, particularly of the people who were praying and then action was taken, will want to know all of the circumstances around that. I will allow the police to do their job.
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It’s question time!
Sussan Ley takes a different tone today and asks the prime minister about what action the government will take over the deaths of Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles by methanol poisoning.
Workers responsible for the poisoning which killed six people including Jones and Bowles have only received fines of A$185.
Albanese says the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has apologised “unreservedly for their failure to ensure that the families were informed”.
Albanese continues:
The foreign minister’s [Penny Wong] made it clear to her counterpart in Laos that Australia expects full accountability and the charges should reflect the devastating seriousness of this incident. We will continue to engage Laos authorities on these cases.
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New radio rules on artificial intelligence use
Radio broadcasters will have to disclose when an AI voice is used, under a new code of conduct registered by the media authority.
In other new rules in the commercial radio code of practice 2026, broadcasters will have to exercise “special care” when airing content from 8-9am and 3-4pm on school days, when children are more likely to be listening.
The special care rule follows the repeated broadcasting of “vulgar” and “deeply offensive” content by Kyle and Jackie O’s program on the Kiis network.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) has announced a notice of intention to impose an additional licence condition on Kiis, a regulatory tool not imposed on a licensee since 2Day FM’s infamous royal hoax call in 2012 to a London hospital where Kate Middleton was a patient.
“Listeners are also worried about inappropriate content at peak travel times when families listen together,” the Acma chair, Nerida O’Loughlin, said.
Acma registered the updated rules for commercial radio broadcasters today.
O’Loughlin said:
Listeners want greater transparency about when AI is being used. We welcome the commitments by the radio industry to address listener concerns.
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Larissa Waters defends Grace Tame against critics
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, has defended former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, who took part in a protest in Sydney on Monday night, after calls from Barnaby Joyce to have her title stripped.
The One Nation MP said on Tuesday that Tame’s use of “globalise the intifada” at the protest should see her honour revoked. The Liberal MP Tim Wilson also publicly criticised Tame.
Waters told journalists in Parliament House a little earlier that if Joyce thinks that Tame is the problem, “that says a lot more about Barnaby Joyce than it does about Grace Tame”.
The gender dynamics of that call are pretty apparent, aren’t they, two extreme conservative men who have a terrible track record of standing up for women’s rights anyway, now calling for a brave Australian Grace Tame, who has every fibre of her being defined as a social justice warrior, and this is the response that she gets.
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‘I’m not resigning today,’ Liberal frontbencher McIntosh says
It’s getting harder and harder for Liberals to try to bat off questions around Angus Taylor’s prospective leadership spill.
On Sky News, Kieran Gilbert gives it a red hot crack, putting to frontbencher Melissa McIntosh that the spill “looks like it will come to a head this week. Is that your understanding?”
McIntosh tries not to bite and says “it’s still unknown to be honest, as nothing has happened yet”.
She adds that she hasn’t received any phone calls today.
Gilbert asks whether she’s interested in the deputy leadership role, with her name having been mentioned as a possibility. McIntosh has made it known in the past she’d one day like to be leader.
And then in either a slip of the tongue or genuine mistake, she says:
It’s a pretty long and extensive list of who could or could not be a deputy leader. So no, I’m not having any of those conversations with colleagues. I’m still in shadow cabinet, I’m not resigning today from that position.
Gilbert notices the qualification of “today”, to which she has to backtrack slightly and says she has no intention of resigning, “unless something surprises me”.
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Queensland LNP MP crosses the floor to vote on abortion motion
The Queensland LNP MP Nigel Dalton has crossed the floor to vote against his own government on an abortion motion.
The issue dogged the party during the 2024 state election.
The government implemented a gag on any debate about abortion on its first regular sitting day. It bans any “motion or amendment” seeking to have the house “express its views” on abortion and also prohibits any amendment to the termination of pregnancy act.
On Tuesday, the Katters’ Australian party MP Robbie Katter asked for leave to move a motion without notice to overturn the gag.
The government opposed the motion. Labor MPs called across the room for LNP MPs to join them as the bells rang.
Labor has always opposed the gag order, which it says prevents expansion of abortion rights in Queensland.
Dalton voted for it, crossing the floor to do so.
Despite Labor, most of the crossbench as well as Hutton voting together, it still failed 50 votes to 35.
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eSafety hasn’t told government the breakdown of accounts removed in ban
Officials in the communications department say the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has not disclosed the number of accounts removed on each of the 10 platforms required to comply with the social media ban.
In Senate estimates this morning, Liberal senator Jane Hume asked whether the figure of 4.7 million accounts removed in the days following the 10 December start date was now “discredited”. It is understood that the figures include duplicate accounts and accounts that were never used in YouTube’s case.
Officials were unable to give a breakdown for each platform, confirming Inman Grant had not provided the breakdown to the department citing her investigation into the platforms’ compliance.
eSafety refused to provide the breakdown when requested by Guardian Australia, also.
So far only Meta and Snap have provided their individual figures.
Questions on the figures were directed to eSafety, which is due to appear before the estimates hearing this afternoon.
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The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, has visited a Jewish school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, speaking to students and teachers.
Herzog is meeting with the Jewish community, including survivors and families impacted by the Bondi terror attack.
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Authoritarianism and fascism ‘happening right here’: Greens
The Greens deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, is hounding the state and federal Labor governments over yesterday’s protests against Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s visit.
Faruqi, speaking to reporters in Parliament House, says it “beggars belief” that the NSW premier, Chris Minns, and NSW police are justifying the actions of police.
The senator for NSW, who is Muslim, says the Muslim community has “known that we are second class citizens in this country for a very long time.”
Now everyone can see that Muslims are not just gaslighted, they are not just scapegoated, but they are actually assaulted by the very people who are supposed to protect us and under the Labor government. It is really an upside-down world.
Authoritarianism and fascism isn’t just happening over there in Trump’s USA. It is happening right here in Minns’ New South Wales and in Albanese’s Australia.
New South Wales now is well down the path of a violent police state.
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House passes bill to establish Australian Tertiary Education Commission
Things have been moving fairly quickly already in the House this afternoon, which just started sitting at 12pm, due to all the party room meetings. Over in the Senate, estimates is still going on, and public servants are still facing a grilling.
The House has just voted to pass a bill establishing the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC) which is a body that will be charged with designing university reforms, following the university accord.
The ATEC will also look at more contentious policies like the Job Ready Graduates Scheme and possible ways to fix it.
The body was supposed to be established last month, but the bill was only introduced on the last sitting day of last year.
Coalition calls for government to take action against Laos over methanol-poisoning deaths
The Australian government should take stronger action against the Laotian government over the deaths of two Australian women, Sussan Ley and the shadow foreign minister, Michaelia Cash, have said.
In a statement, the pair said the Laotian ambassador should be brought in to give a formal explanation over revelations that workers at a hostel responsible for the deaths of Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles by methanol poisoning have only received fines of A$185.
Ley and Cash said Australia makes a “significant contribution to Laos through our foreign aid program and other development assistance”:
A year ago we learned the Laos government was refusing Australian Federal Police assistance in the investigation. A year ago Australians were told by the Albanese Government that the matter was in hand.
We now know there has been no meaningful justice for Holly and Bianca, and their families did not learn of these outcomes from their own government but via the British woman’s family.
The Albanese government should remind the Laotian government of the important contributions Australian taxpayers make to key programs in Laos in line with the friendship between our two countries.
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Climate groups say big emitters should pay for disaster recovery
Climate groups are calling for a pollution levy to be paid by major emitting companies, including gas and coal producers, as communities are hit by the costs of increasing global-heating driven disasters.
Climate Action Network Australia (CANA) and Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action said data from the Insurance Council of Australia showed fires, floods, heatwaves and storms had resulted in about $1.6bn in insured losses in Australian communities this summer so far.
The groups said Australia’s biggest emitting companies should “pay their fair share for the damage now being caused” via a levy that could fund disaster recovery in hard-hit communities, adaptation measures, and accelerating the clean energy transition.
Jan Harris, the co-chair of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, lost her home to a bushfire in 2018. She said “it is families just like mine who are shouldering the burden of climate change and we are close to breaking”.
Barry Traill from CANA said:
Communities are paying for this savage summer with their homes, livelihoods and, in too many cases, their lives ... It’s time our parliament made those profiting from climate pollution help pay for the cleanup and the protections we need.
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How many people attended last night’s protest in Sydney?
Police have so far declined to provide an estimate an how many attended last night’s protest, although as Guardian Australia has reported, police and organiser estimates can differ significantly.
When the Palestine Action Group unsuccessfully sought to challenge the government’s invocation of “major event” powers at the supreme court this week, organisers said they expected about 5,000 people to attend the protest at Town Hall square, which they said had a capacity of about 4,500.
The NSW upper house Labor MP Stephen Lawrence who attended the rally, told the ABC this morning he thought about 20,000 to 30,000 people had been present, a number echoed at a press conference by the Palestine Action Group and the NSW Greens a short while ago.
Police have confirmed there have been charges laid among the 27 protesters arrested yesterday, but are yet to identify the alleged offences.
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Albanese thanks Labor MPs for discipline and ‘dignity’ in party room meeting
Anthony Albanese has thanked Labor MPs for their discipline and “dignity” in recent weeks, using remarks to a caucus meeting in Canberra to highlight ongoing instability in Coalition ranks.
The prime minister told the closed door meeting on Tuesday that Labor must continue to be “the adults in government” as the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, looks set to be challenged within days.
Albanese said the Coalition was a circus but government MPs should talk up their record on economic matters, on schools funding and a new agreement with the states and territories to fund hospital services and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Albanese also mentioned his successful visit to Indonesia alongside the foreign minister, Penny Wong, last week.
Ahead of the May budget, Albanese said Labor would work to strengthen the government’s fiscal position and provide assistance to households with the high cost-of-living, and reminded Labor MPs of the week’s closing the gap report on Indigenous disadvantage.
He said the annual Closing the Gap statement would be delivered in the wake of an alleged terror attack against Invasion Day protesters in Perth on 26 January. Albanese restated his view that it was time to “turn the temperature down” in Australia.
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Lots of parents would like us to ban Roblox, Wells says
The communications minister, Anika Wells, is holding a press conference outlining the government’s concerns with gaming platform Roblox.
Wells said she believes “many of you I think, like me, were probably disgusted by the fact that children as young as four or five are seeing graphic and gratuitous violence on this platform”.
She confirmed she has written to Roblox to seek a meeting, and asked the eSafety commissioner for any other measures she can undertaken to stop kids from seeing this type of content on Roblox. Wells has also asked for Roblox to assess again if it should be classified at PG, given it was last classified in 2018.
Wells said lots of parents would like to see Roblox banned under the social media ban, but noted the ban “is not there to cure the internet, cannot cure all the ills of the internet and it is designed specifically to [target] predatory, persuasive algorithms features and functions that kids experience”.
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Watt complains about ‘absolute explosion’ of Senate estimates questions
Greens senator David Shoebridge and minister Murray Watt have had a tense stand-off in senate estimates, over the timeliness – or lack thereof – of answers to questions about the department of home affairs.
Watt, the environment minister, claimed opposition and crossbench senators were being “over the top” and seeking to “jam up the system” in how many questions they’re asking at Senate estimates.
Senate estimates always gets a bit tetchy, and when ministers or public servants can’t or won’t answer questions at the table, they’re often asked to take them “on notice” (to respond later in writing).
Shoebridge was asking the department of home affairs about previous questions he’d asked – about the Dural caravan bomb hoax, and the department’s contracting arrangements around offshore detention – saying he’d been waiting a long time for responses.
Watt, representing the minister for home affairs, explained there had been “an absolute explosion of questions on notice” in this parliament and the last one, compared to the last time Labor was in opposition, and that Labor had been more “responsible” with their questions. He claimed the department had responded to about 90% of the questions on notice put to it, and hit back: “Senators need to take some responsibility for the sheer number of questions being asked”.
Shoebridge responded:
These are matters of public interest and they deserve timely answers.
Watt:
With respect senator, every senator thinks their questions on notice are significant … it takes time to resolve in addition to the important work this department does.
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Gloomy Aussie households ‘bracing for more rate rises’
Australian households “are bracing for more rate rises”, according to Westpac’s latest sentiment survey which revealed a deepening pessimism among consumers.
The mood among Australians has soured over the past couple months as a rebound in inflation sealed the case for tighter monetary policy.
Matthew Hassan, a senior economist at Westpac, said the first Reserve Bank rate hike in over two years “has put renewed pressure on finances, dented attitudes towards major purchases and raised concerns about medium-term prospects for the economy”.
Eight in ten respondents said they expected the RBA to hike again in the next 12 months, after the central bank lifted its cash rate target to 3.85% last Tuesday.
Just over a third of those surveyed even expect mortgage rates to climb by 1 percentage point or more over the next 12 months - a far more gloomy prediction than the one-and-a-bit RBA rate hikes priced into financial markets.
Despite this rates outlook, Australians are incredibly bullish when it comes to house price expectations, as the index tracking this question lifted to a 15-year high.
In contrast the “time to buy a dwelling” gauge dropped to its lowest since late 2024.
Muslim groups call for NSW police commissioner to resign
Dozens of Muslim organisations across Australia, including the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, the Lebanese Muslim Association, the Muslim Vote and Stand for Palestine have condemned the NSW police disrupting a Muslim prayer and the use of force at the protest in Sydney on Monday.
The groups said in a joint statement:
What occurred was completely unacceptable. Police officers knowingly intervened in a moment of religious observance, forcibly interrupted prayer and used physical force against individuals who posed no threat to public safety.
The use of force against people who were stationary, peaceful and engaged in prayer cannot be justified by vague references to public order. Interrupting prayer mid-act demonstrates a lack of respect for religious freedom and raises serious concerns about discriminatory and heavy-handed policing.
In addressing the police actions earlier at the protests, against the visit of Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, the NSW premier Chris Minns said it took place during “riotous behaviour” but clarified he was not suggesting those praying were doing that.
The groups have called for an apology from the premier, the police minister and police leadership and the resignation of the police commissioner “whose leadership bears responsibility for a policing culture in which such conduct was permitted to occur”.
They are also seeking an investigation and the police officers involved to be held accountable.
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Turnbull stops short of endorsing Taylor for Liberal leadership
Malcolm Turnbull has stopped short of endorsing his former cabinet colleague Angus Taylor for the Liberal leadership.
In a well-timed visit to Parliament House, the former Liberal leader said Taylor should front up and state his intentions on a possible challenge against Sussan Ley.
“I think it is important to stand up and be counted. This is a place where we vote in public,” he said.
If Angus wants to be leader of the Liberal party, he should stand up and say so, and say why, which is exactly what I did in the Senate courtyard nearly 11 years ago.
Asked if Taylor, the shadow defence minister, was fit to be leader, Turnbull chose his words carefully.
He is absolutely fit to be leader, because the only qualification for being leader of the opposition is to be member of the House of Representatives.
Angus has rather unenlightened views on energy nowadays but I remember when he worked for Rod Sims, years ago, when he was a young economist at Port Jackson Partners. He was very strongly in favor, and very eloquently in favor, of an economy-wide price on carbon, as the most efficient way to reduce emissions, but I gather he no longer shares that view.
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‘It’s a rough business’, Turnbull sympathises with the Liberals
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has weighed in on the Liberal leadership saga slowly unfolding at Parliament House this week, accusing his own party of abandoning the centre for an ideological “la la land”.
Turnbull was in Canberra to speak about hydro-electricity, but took a series of questions about the fight between Sussan Ley and Angus Taylor for the opposition leadership.
Asked if a challenge against Ley would be unfair less than a year on from the election, Turnbull said politics is a rough game.
“Everyone gets treated badly in parliament,” he said. “Look, it’s a rough business.
I sympathise with all of my former colleagues. They are in a terrible state. The Liberal party is facing an existential crisis.
Turnbull said the party had to face up to hard truths about who it seeks to represent.
This is the inevitable consequence for the Liberal party of imagining that the goal of politics is to seek the approval of the Sky News audience.
Now that may well represent many of the members of their branches, but it does not represent Australia.
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Queensland parliament holds minutes’ silence for Bondi massacre victims
Queensland parliament has held a minutes’ silence for the victims of last year’s massacre at Bondi, on its first sitting day of the year.
The premier, David Crisafulli, moved a motion that the parliament “convey its deepest sorrow” for the massacre, condemn antisemitism and express its admiration and gratitude for the heroism of those who responded to the shooting.
Crisafulli said the attack, on 14 December 2025 “will forever be remembered as one of our nation’s darkest days” and was “an act of terror driven by antisemitism”.
“Hatred, fear and extremism must never be allowed to fracture the values that bind us. Queensland is a diverse state. Our strength comes from this diversity; people of different backgrounds, beliefs, cultures, identities and they choose to live here,” Crisafulli said.
No one should have to second-guess their place based on faith; no-one.
My message to Queensalnd’s Jewish community is – you matter, this is your home. We’re determined that you can go and worship, you can go to school, you can go to the shops, to university, without looking over your shoulder.
Both party leaders read out the 15 names of the people who were killed in the attack and vowed to do everything they could to prevent it happening again.
All MPs then stood for a minute to remember their lives. The government is expected to introduce legislation allowing the attorney general to ban slogans – including pro-Palestine phrases such as “From the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada” – later today.
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Confrontation between Greens MP and NSW police commissioner
NSW Greens upper house MP Abigail Boyd, who has alleged she was assaulted by police at yesterday’s protest, has just confronted the NSW police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, at NSW parliament. Lanyon was giving a press conference alongside the premier on yesterday’s protest a short while ago.
The interaction was witnessed by media outlets who had come down from the press conference, including Guardian Australia. Boyd, who posted a picture of herself in the neck brace this morning, has alleged she was pushed and shoved by police at the protests last night, despite telling them she was a member of state parliament.
“It’s not OK,” said Boyd, after describing her alleged assault to Lanyon.
“Are you happy for me to get a police officer to come and speak to you?” said Lanyon.
We’ll take it seriously.
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NSW Greens MP says community can no longer trust police to handle protests
Following Chris Minns, pro-Palestinian protesters are addressing the media this morning, and say the NSW police can no longer be trusted to deal with peaceful protests.
Greens MP Sue Higginson says NSW police created a “literal pressure cooker” by surrounding protesters from being able to disperse.
There is a large part of NSW now that does not, cannot and should not trust the NSW police under the current NSW premier to be able to deal with … peaceful protests
What we saw last night was a monumental failure. You only have to look at what took place. The police created a literal pressure cooker. They surrounded people at Town Hall. There were no safe avenues of dispersal.
Higginson says she has asked the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission to establish an investigation.
She says there was no “compromise” and no movement from police.
I thought we would never return to this [as in] 1978 when a state and police thinks they can suppress, oppress and control a mass peaceful movement.
I dealt with police officers last night who I know themselves were shocked at what took place and that some of those police officers were emboldened ...
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Independent MP says protests were ‘entirely foreseeable’
The independent MP Zali Steggall says last night’s protests were “entirely foreseeable” and that any instances of excessive police force must be investigated.
Steggall told Sky News she understands that Jewish Australians are feeling vulnerable and that Palestinian Australians are also feeling hurt and angry at the “continued killing of innocent civilian lives”.
Host Laura Jayes, pushes Steggall on whether phrases like “globalise the intifada” are damaging. Stegall says:
I don’t dispute that it is damaging, but what I am really disappointed that at no point am I hearing anything in relation to what is to happen to the Palestinian people. We are seeing today the announcement that the Israeli government has further passed laws to legalise taking occupied [Palestinian] territories.
It was entirely foreseeable, considering the last two years and the issues and the damage this has been social cohesion, that events like last night were going to happen.
Why are we having the leader of a foreign state here causing social disruption and impacting our social cohesion … inviting the head of another state that has highly foreseeable consequences on our social cohesion is something the prime minister should have taken much greater care in considering.
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Sussan Ley survives Liberal party room meeting
Jumping back into parliament, the Liberal party room meeting has wrapped up and as anticipated there was no leadership challenge from Angus Taylor.
It means Sussan Ley has survived another day.
As reported earlier, a motion to spill to the leadership was not expected to be brought at Tuesday’s meeting because Liberal senators were busy with Senate estimates hearings.
However, some senators did attend the closed-door meeting - including the Victorian backbencher Jane Hume.
After warning on Monday that the party would be “wiped out” without an urgent change in direction, Hume directly challenged Ley at Tuesday’s meeting to outline how she planned to turn things around.
In response, Ley told the room words to the effect of “disunity is death”, according to two Liberal MPs present at the meeting.
Supporters of Taylor are certain of a spill at some point this week after the latest Newspoll showed the Coalition’s primary vote had collapsed to 18% - nine percentage points below One Nation.
Taylor is reportedly planning to quit the shadow cabinet as soon as Wednesday, clearing the path for a challenge on Thursday or Friday.
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Media organisations call on public for protest videos
Members of the public can send videos from last night’s protests in Sydney to media reporting the competing narratives from the police and protesters.
Labor backbench and Greens MPs say the police response was “wildly inappropriate,” but the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, urged people not to judge the police action from a 10-second clip.
Journalist Lucy Carter from ABC News Verify told the ABC News Channel:
What our team is really asking is for the audience to send as much material as possible to us at ABC News Verify.
Do you have video from the Sydney protest? Email guardian.australia.video@guardian.co.uk
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Wong takes question over bulldozing of Australian war graves in Gaza on notice
At estimates on Monday, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong,, was asked about Israel’s bulldozing of Australian war graves at the Gaza War Cemetery.
The Guardian revealed the systemic destruction of Commonwealth graves at the site last week using satellite imagery and witness accounts. On Saturday, Guardian Australia spoke to Wilma Spence, whose father Albert Kemp, an Anzac, is buried there.
Independent senator David Pocock asked Wong whether the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, plans to raise the destruction of the graves with Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, during his visit here.
Wong said questions about the matter were better directed to the Department of Veterans Affairs, but said:
As a matter of principle, the graves of fallen Australians are sacred to us and we would always make clear the priority we attach to the resting place of Australians. But I will take on notice the remainder of your question.
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Essential that protesters and mourners were kept ‘apart’: Minns
Minns says protesters did not breach police lines last night, which would have been a “disaster”. Continuing to defend the police conduct, he said there are “established process for investigation” but urged the public “not to look at a 10-second clip without the full context”.
Minns said if lines had been breached, there would have been clashes between protesters and up to 7,000 people who were mourning at an event at the International Convention Centre:
One of the things I didn’t see last night, because it didn’t happen, was protesters breaching police lines, and as Mal [Lanyon] said, choosing your own adventure through the streets of Sydney, that would’ve been a disaster for our community.
That set of circumstances, where you’ve got 7,000 mourners with the president of Israel, alongside protesters, it was absolutely essential that New South Wales police were able to keep groups separate and apart.
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NSW police commissioner says police 'showed remarkable restraint'
Chris Minns has doubled-down on his defense of NSW police officers after clashes with protesters on Monday night, again saying police were put in an “impossible situation”.
Minns is addressing the media in Sydney, following last nights’ protests, alongside the NSW police commissioner Mal Lanyon, who described the events as “simply unacceptable”.
Lanyon claims the speakers at the protest were “inciting the crowd to march”, where he had previously said that would not be acceptable.
Our police showed remarkable restraint. During the first part of the speeches, it was peaceful. We were working continuously with the organiser. However, speakers were inciting the crowd to march. We had made it clear throughout the week march through the CBD was not acceptable.
We wanted a respectful and responsible protest. That’s not what we got last night. Our police took action to disperse that protest.
There has been widespread criticism of the NSW government and NSW police this morning, with footage of the clashes raising concerns.
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Nationals deputy claims Islamic extremists feel ‘validated in the violence of Jewish people’ by pro-Palestine protests
There’s been huge reaction to last night’s protests in Sydney and Melbourne, which saw clashes between police and demonstrators.
Anthony Albanese said this morning he was “devastated” by the scenes, and others have expressed shock and outrage by the conduct of police.
But deputy Nationals leader, Kevin Hogan, has tried to draw a link between the protests and validating the feelings of extremists.
He told Sky News this morning:
People may think the protest they went to is okay, chanting that slogan is okay if those people themselves don’t have certain opinions. But Islamic extremists in this country, and we saw two of them last December, when they see that they feel validated in their opinions and they feel validated in the violence of Jewish people in this country.
NSW premier, Chris Minns, has also previously tried to link demonstrations to extremism.
Minns, when trying to justify a crackdown on protests in December that “the implications” of marches could be seen in the Bondi terror attack.
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Continuing from our last post …
First Nations women are 27 times more likely than other Australian women to be hospitalised due to family violence, and more than seven times more likely to be victims of intimate partner homicide.
SNAIC has also welcomed the launch of the report saying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community driven approach will ensure Indigenous children and families are supported and strengthened.
Catherine Liddle, CEO of SNAICC, says the report is informed by expertise and experience.
When families are supported to be safe and strong, children are safer too.
We know that child removal is often a consequence of unaddressed harm so preventing violence is an important factor in reducing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children entering the out-of-home care system.
Plan to end violence against First Nations women and children ‘will bring about real change’
The minster for social services, Tanya Plibersek, has just finished speaking at a press conference on the federal government’s response to tackling domestic, family and sexual violence targeting First Nations women and girls.
The ten-year plan from 2026-36 will come with $218m of funding over four years in the budget, which the government says will fund a national network of up to 40 Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to deliver community-led specialist support services.
Plibersek acknowledged that the plan has come off the back of “decades of advocacy” from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, saying that this was the result of careful consultations with communities. She told reporters:
This plan builds on decades of work, and it builds on decades of calls from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, who have told us that solutions that are designed by them and delivered by them in their communities will make the biggest difference.
Aunty Muriel Bamblett, co-chair of the steering committee which led the report, told reporters that the plan is the first of its kind and hopes that it will transform systems supporting First Nations women and children.
“This plan is the first plan that’s actually written by us, for us,” the Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Taungurung and Boon Wurrung elder and CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency said.
That will bring about real change. Systems have to change, the core processes, the policing, the way justice is implemented, the way that housing and homelessness, child protection systems, all of those things have to change.
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‘This was state violence’, says Greens leader
The federal Greens leader, Larissa Waters, says footage of protests out of Sydney on Monday night is “abhorrent”.
In a post to X, Waters says this was “state violence” and lays blame with the NSW Labor government and federal government for inviting Isaac Herzog.
Peaceful protesters set upon by an arm of police, punches thrown at people with raised hands, people praying ripped from their knees. Is this violence the social cohesion that Labor wanted?
This was state violence, and the blame lies with the NSW Labor government for attempting to shut down legitimate protest, and the federal Labor government who invited the head of a state committing genocide to our shores.
Shame on Labor. Shame on the NSW police.
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Ley never given a chance: Plibersek
The senior Labor minister, Tanya Plibersek, says Sussan Ley “hasn’t really been given a chance” by her Liberal colleagues as the push to replace the party’s first female leader gathers momentum.
Plibersek says she’s never witnessed as much “chaos, back-biting, backgrounding (and) briefing” as that which is currently playing out as Angus Taylor plots to unseat Ley.
That’s quite the statement from a Labor MP who lived through the chaos of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years.
Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Plibersek said:
It’s a very typical approach. What happens is the disgruntled alternative candidate to the leadership causes chaos, and then they point to the chaos and they say, oh, there’s a reason for leadership change. I think it’s very disappointing that she [Ley] hasn’t really been given a chance to do her job, but it’s a matter for the Liberal Party. What’s important in our Australian democracy is that there is a strong opposition. I think it’s healthy for our democracy to have that. And at the moment, we’ve got an opposition that’s just focused on themselves.
Duniam tells Taylor to come clean on leadership intentions
Senior conservative Liberal, Jonathon Duniam, has called on Angus Taylor to make his intentions known – spill or no spill.
Speaking to Sky News earlier, Duniam said leadership speculation is part and parcel when it comes to bad polling, which the Liberals are currently facing.
Newspoll yesterday put the Coalition’s primary at a pretty dire 18%.
Duniam said:
Every time a political party, be it Liberal or Labor, find themselves at the position we’re at in the polls right now, it is accompanied by heated speculation around leadership. So this is not some sort of new, surprising territory. It just goes with the territory we’re in now and god willing we can get through it quickly and get on with the job.
A spill or people declaring that there is not going to be a spill. I can’t speak for other people. If there is an intention for leadership to change, then people need to make their views clear. If they’re not going to, they need to rule it out.
Social media ban has ‘exceeded our expectations', PM says
Anthony Albanese says the eSafety commissioner is looking into reports of child grooming on gaming platform, Roblox, with a review being undertaken into its PG rating.
Albanese spoke to Triple M Hobart a bit earlier this morning, and said they’re asking the eSafety commissioner for “her advice on what powers and tools can be ramped up to protect kids on this platform.”
The safety of children online is non-negotiable. We want kids to be able to be kids. We don’t want kids being exposed to graphic content on Roblox or anything else.
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Roblox responds to government concerns following reports of child grooming
Roblox says it is looking forward to meeting Anika Wells to talk about their child safety measures, saying it is committed to keeping users safe.
As we reported earlier, the communications minister, Wells, has requested an urgent meeting with the gaming platform after reports of child grooming and vile content on the service.
A Roblox spokesperson shared a statement with us this morning, after the story was published.
We look forward to the opportunity to inform the minister of the steps we take to help keep our community safe. Roblox has robust safety policies and processes to help protect users that go beyond many other platforms, and advanced safeguards that monitor for harmful content and communications.
We have filters designed to block the sharing of personal information, our chat features don’t allow user-to-user image or video sharing, and we recently rolled out age checks globally to limit kids and teens to only chatting with others of similar age by default.
We also work closely with Australian law enforcement to support their investigations. While no system is perfect, our commitment to safety never ends, and we continue to strengthen protections to help keep users safe.
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Minns claims video of NSW cops dragging praying men away took place amid ‘riotous behaviour’
Returning to the NSW premier, Chris Minns has been asked about videos circulating on social media of last night’s protest, including a video showing a number of men kneeling to pray before some were dragged away by police.
Asked about the incident, he told ABC Radio Sydney:
It’s incredibly important that the police’s decades-long association in relationship with the Islamic and Muslim community in New South Wales should take precedent over a clip of what happened last night. And context is important.
There is no way NSW police would have caused or intended to cause offence with the Arabic or the Islamic community under any circumstances.
The host, Craig Reucassel, said: “I think lifting up in the middle of prayer is going to cause offence.” Minns responded:
The context is incredibly important, and the context here was in the middle of what was a riotous behaviour. Now I’m not suggesting that those who are engaging in prayer were conducting that behaviour, but police are left with a difficult situation when they’ve asked people to clear the area.
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Nationals party room ‘toxic’ after ‘juvenile theatrics’, says former member
Nationals MP turned independent Andrew Gee says he’s hearing that the Nationals party room is “toxic” and says some Nats feel as though they’re “trapped” in the party.
Speaking to ABC RN Breakfast earlier, Gee, who represents a regional NSW seat, doesn’t hold back in his criticisms of his former party in their conduct during the breakup.
He says that just because David Littleproud and others have said they’ve conducted themselves “professionally” doesn’t mean anyone else has seen it that way.
I’m hearing that it’s toxic in there quite frequently. Frankly, it’s appalling. And there are people in there that just wish they weren’t.
I can’t imagine sitting there and just watching this vainglorious lunacy unfold, these ridiculous, petty juvenile theatrics that we’ve been seeing over the last few weeks?
I was listening to all of these National party descriptions that they’ve acted professionally and with maturity and on matters of high principle. I can tell you that is not what people out there in the real world are thinking about it. They know that it is a shambles because they’re coming up to me on the street and telling me that they’re appalled and disgusted by the whole show.
Gee encourages Nats unhappy in the party to come over to the crossbench and says, “a better life awaits you!”
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Tim Wilson claims protests show ‘really disturbing priorities’
Wilson says Australians should be protesting against the Iranian regime, in response to yesterday’s march against the visit of Israeli president Isaac Herzog.
He also criticises the use of the phrase ‘globalise the intifada’.
I think it shows some really disturbing priorities, you know, we’ve currently got about 30,000 people being murdered by the government of Iran for wanting to stand up and be self determining. I don’t see that group of people protesting for Iranians to be able to live their lives freely. Iran has engaged in state sponsored terrorism in Australia and is actively financing Hamas.
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‘Middle finger voting’ says Wilson on polling
Liberal MP Tim Wilson says he believes there’s some ‘middle finger voting’ taking place, because there hasn’t been enough focus on the Australian community.
As the internal Liberal dramas continue, and their popularity sinks in the polls, Wilson implores his party to focus on policy (like his colleague Andrew Bragg on RN earlier).
Speaking to Sky News, Wilson says he backs the leader of the party.
I’ve said consistently, I back the leader, and that’s not going to change, because my focus is precisely on how we advance the best interests of the Australian people.
Things go up and down political cycles, but the what the Australian people and what the polls are showing to me is that there’s a bit of middle finger voting going on where Australians are looking at their parliament, and people are not focused on the Australian community.
Liberal party room to meet as leadership speculation continues
The Liberal party room is due to meet at 9am on Tuesday as speculation that Angus Taylor will soon launch a leadership challenge to Sussan Ley continues to swirl around Canberra.
A leadership spill is considered unlikely at Tuesday’s meeting for a few reasons:
Firstly, the 23 Liberal senators aren’t expected to attend the meeting due to Senate estimates hearings. Liberal party conventions dictate that MPs must be present to vote in the leadership ballot.
The second reason is that Taylor is yet to resign from the shadow cabinet, which he would be required to do in order to challenge Ley.
Supporters of the shadow defence minister were on Monday, certain of a spill at some point this week after the latest Newspoll showed the Coalition’s primary vote had collapsed to 18% - nine percentage points below One Nation.
Senior moderates remain supportive of Ley and are refusing to do a deal with Taylor to engineer her exit, meaning the right-winger will need to woo centre-right and unaligned MPs to secure the leadership.
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Stop playing games, says Bragg to Liberals
Jumping back to Andrew Bragg on RN Breakfast, the Liberal senator says his party needs to come up with alternative policy to the government rather than playing games.
The opposition has been plagued by rumours of a leadership spill for months which have crescendoed in recent days. The question now is more a when, rather than if, Angus Taylor will make a move.
Bragg, a moderate, says the public will continue to mark his party down if they don’t start coming up with credible policy. Asked if he supports Sussan Ley continuing as leader, he says:
Yes, I do, and we’ve been sent here by the taxpayers to work hard to hold the government to account and to develop alternative policies, not to play games.
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‘I feel just absolutely shocked,’ says Greens MLC injured in protests
NSW Greens MLC Abigail Boyd says she was pushed and shoved by police, despite telling them she was a member of state parliament at the protests last night, and says she was “absolutely shocked” by the police’s actions.
Speaking to ABC RN Breakfast, Boyd says police surrounded the area meaning protesters couldn’t leave and says “but then they decided we couldn’t stay either and they just started assaulting people”.
Boyd says she only got home a few hours ago after being medically treated and posted a picture to social media wearing a neck brace.
My neck is okay. Other parts of my body are incredibly sort of battered and sore, but there’s nothing sort of permanent, I’m told, at this point.
Describing how she was injured, she says:
[An] Officer just pushes his fist into my chin. And then another one, as I’m recovering from that, another one pushes me in my shoulder. It is, I mean, I feel quite naive, but I didn’t know that this was what police could do in our state. I feel just absolutely shocked.
And then for there to be this peaceful prayer, it was prayer. How are these people a threat to anybody? They’re praying and to be just then, they grab them and they’re throwing them, they’re picking them up off of their prayer mats and throwing them to the ground.
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Protests against Herzog a ‘disgrace’ says Bragg
Staying on RN Breakfast, Liberal senator Andrew Bragg says the protests last night were a “disgrace”.
Bragg is highly critical of the marches, and is asked whether people have a right to protest when it might be offensive to another group. He says “of course” but adds that the Herzog visit follows a “religious massacre”.
I think it’s been in terrible taste to be protesting against something that the Jewish community has asked for after they have been severely affected by Australia’s worst religious massacre. They’ve asked for the of the Jewish state to come to provide comfort, and people have protested against that. I think it’s a disgrace.
Bragg is also asked about video footage of police and protesters clashing, which Tanya Plibersek earlier said was “very concerning” Bragg says the protesters should have stayed away.
They were told to stay home. I mean, they were told to stay home. I mean, I think most Australians think this is ridiculous. That it’s offensive to the Sydney Jewish community.
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State MLC questions if repressive protest laws are making community safer
Stephen Lawrence – a NSW MLC and barrister – says he’s also concerned about the fact that civil liability has been “extinguished” under the Major Events Act Declaration.
Known as the public assembly restriction declaration, it gives police the full suite of their move-on powers under the Summary Offences Act for offences such as obstructing traffic.
Lawrence told RN Breakfast in practice, the events of Monday night should be “food for thought” for politicians.
Anyone that was the victim of a civil wrong, so negligence or any sort of other tortious act from the police last night won’t be able to sue the state. That’s a consequence of the Major Events Act Declaration.
But look, this is another event that will be food for thought, I’m sure, for politicians in terms of do you fundamentally achieve public safety by trying to repress protests, by trying to prevent street processions, by creating a legal regime where there’s no independent arbiter or are in fact those things potentially quite dangerous to community safety?
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NSW MP says removal of ability to have peaceful protests has created ‘a pressure cooker’
NSW MLC and barrister, Stephen Lawrence was at yesterday’s protests but did not march, and says the state should have facilitated peaceful protest.
Speaking to RN Breakfast, Lawrence said he was concerned NSW was heading down a path towards “a repeat of the 1978 Mardi Gras.” You can read about the 78-ers here.
Lawrence says:
I think it rests on this very wrongful and pernicious idea that the Bondi terrorist atrocity was caused by lawful and peaceful protest, is we’ve removed that capacity to have those sorts of processions and protests authorised. This was a pretty much inevitable consequence of that.
I don’t like to be right about a thing like this, but it’s been repeatedly said in Parliament and in different places, we’re basically creating a pressure cooker and we saw that last night.
And look, I condemn any police brutality. Things will have to be determined in terms of what occurred last night.
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Police 'had to react', NSW police official says
A NSW police official says officers showed “restraint” at the protest before it turned violent.
Peter McKenna, the assistant commissioner of NSW police, said he was not going to judge the actions of police officers last night because he “saw what they were up against” while covering the protests at Sydney’s Town Hall.
He said before action was taken to disperse the crowd they showed restraint “for not minutes, not seconds, but I would say up to over an hour”.
McKenna vehemently defended the actions of officers amid concern about videos of violence and aggressive tactics, including pepper spraying. He told ABC Radio Sydney this morning:
Every police officer will have to justify their own actions, there’s no doubt about that.
But what I’ll say is what happened last night was one of the most precarious, volatile situations I have seen. … The level of aggression and violence by the crowd was palpable. ...
Any type of powers were utilized because we kept trying to do it peacefully, until it became violent. As you said, the police had to react.
McKenna added that police had tried for hours to coordinate with protestors. When asked about a video that appears to show officers grabbing and pushing Muslim men praying outside Town Hall, McKenna said:
If their decisions were right wrong or otherwise, I’m not going to sit here and judge them this morning, because I saw what they were up against last night.
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Plibersek says voices of Aboriginal women ‘not been heard sufficiently in this debate’
ABC News Breakfast host, Bridget Brennan asks Plibersek why Sophie Quinn, who was allegedly shot to death by her former partner Lake Cargelligo last month, was not given a national mourning day, or why politicians aren’t speaking widely about her life and legacy.
Quinn was seven months pregnant when she was killed. Her aunt and friend were also killed.
Plibersek says a lot of people would say that the voices of Aboriginal women and communities have “not been heard sufficiently in this debate.”
When we talk about the issues of family, domestic and sexual violence, the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have been talked about less than they should’ve been … the statistics are shocking. An Aboriginal woman is seven times more likely to die in a domestic homicide. 27 times more likely to end up in hospital, 41 more times to end up in hospital if she’s in a rural or remote community. That’s not acceptable.
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PM ‘devastated’ by scenes at protests in Sydney and Melbourne
Anthony Albanese says all views on Herzog’s visit should be expressed “peacefully”, and that the Israeli president’s visit is appropriate.
Speaking to Triple M Hobart, the prime minister is asked about the clashes between protesters and police during last night’s marches. Albanese says he was “devastating” and said that causes are “undermined” by these sorts of scenes:
I’m devastated by it. These are scenes that I think shouldn’t be taking place. So people should be able to express their views peacefully, but the police were very clear about the routes that were required if people wanted to march to go a particular route, and for to ensure that this was done peacefully. But the causes are not advanced by these sort of scenes, indeed, they’re undermined.
Albanese says again the community don’t want to see “conflict” brought to Australia and that people should discuss issues peacefully and with respect.
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Minns claims police opposed Town Hall protest for security of Jewish community event
Returning to the NSW premier, Chris Minns has said the reason police and the government opposed protesters marching from Town Hall to parliament last night was because of the area’s proximity to a Jewish community event at the ICC last night and the hotel where the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, was staying.
Minns is speaking to ABC Radio Sydney about the violent scenes at yesterday’s protest. He says:
NSW police were desperate for the protest not to take place there because [Town Hall] is the closest transport link to the ICC, right? ...
The second point here, is that NSW parliament house was within blocks of where the president is staying for his official visit. And if NSW police were to take at face value the protest organiser’s word that they would go to parliament house then not breach police lines, and the rest of Sydney would have been safe, I think that would have been tactically irresponsible in the circumstances ...
Now I realise this looks very easy in hindsight, and the circumstances and the decisions police make are really straightforward, but in the circumstances of a dynamic police situation, they had to make tactical calls to keep people safe.
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Palestine Action Group calls for another protest tonight against ‘disgusting police state’
The Palestine Action Group plans to hold another protest on Tuesday night after a violent, chaotic scene outside Sydney Town Hall on Monday evening saw dozens arrested after police deployed pepper spray into the crowd.
The group called for another event on Instagram, urging people to “be there tomorrow to stand up against Minns’ disgusting police state”:
To demand all charges against protesters be dropped, and to demand accountability and charges be laid against violent police.
The protest will take place outside NSW police’s Surry Hills police station, which lies outside the protest restriction zone.
Josh Lees, an organiser for Palestine Action Group, said last night’s events were the “worst” he’d seen after attending many pro-Palestine protests in recent years. He told ABC Radio Sydney:
We should have had the right to march. If police had just facilitated what we called for all along, a peaceful march from Town Hall to either the New South Wales Parliament or Hyde Park, as we were trying to negotiate with police on the night last night, then all of this could have been avoided.
Lees added he believed police “were absolutely off the chain”, saying they “just kept charging” and “pepper spraying everyone”.
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Government plan to end violence against First Nations women and children detailed
The ten year plan from 2026-36 will come with $218m of funding over four years in the budget, which the government says will fund a national network of up to 40 Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to deliver community-led specialist support services.
Tanya Plibersek says the services will include:
Crisis responses including mobile teams in remote areas to work with families after a violent incident,
Planning support to help victims leave violence safely and receive continued support,
Community support programs including playgroups for mums and children to connect with Elders, and
Behaviour change and education programs for men and boys.
On ABC AM, Plibersek said:
[The plan] says that solutions that are locally designed, locally driven, locally staffed, locally delivered are going to make a greatest difference in the remote communities in particular.
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First Nations experiences to be included in royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion
Tanya Plibersek has moved across to the other side of the ABC office in the press gallery, and is speaking to the AM program on the plan to end violence against First Nations women and children.
She says First Nations Australians will be able to make submissions to the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion, and the minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy is encouraging the community to do that.
Plibersek says racism against First Nations people has been growing, and the terms of reference of the royal commission will allow those experiences to be considered.
The recent terrorist attack in Perth has led to enormous fear and anxiety, I know, amongst many Aboriginal people and in Aboriginal communities. But this comes on top of years now of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people telling us that racism against them is increasing …
The royal commission terms of reference already allow the commissioner to look at best practices and approaches to de-radicalisation and strengthening social cohesion.
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Minns says police ‘put in an impossible situation’
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, is making the first of multiple appearances across the media this morning following the violent clashes between police and protesters yesterday evening.
He has told Channel Nine’s Today program that police were “put in an impossible situation last night”:
It’s worth remembering they did everything possible to avoid that confrontation, starting last week when they begged protest organisers to have it in Hyde Park, where it was safe and a march could take place.
I know that some of the scenes on media are short clips, but people have to understand the circumstances where protesters breached police lines and ran amuck in Sydney would have been devastating.
What we can say today what we couldn’t say yesterday is that we had 7,000 Jewish mourners in the same city at the same time, and police had to keep those two groups apart.
Asked about comments from NSW Labor backbencher Sarah Kaine that the police response were disproportionate, Minns says:
No. She’s wrong. I’m not going to throw police under the bus this morning. This is a situation that’s incredibly combustible. And the circumstances that weren’t shown on the news this morning or on TV last night because is what would have happened if protesters breached police lines ...
It would have dangerous … as difficult as the scenes were to watch, it would have been infinitely worse if NSW police didn’t do their job last night.
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Protest videos ‘very concerning’ says Plibersek
Plibersek is asked about the protests against Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s visit on Monday night, and says the government has always understood that the visit might be “controversial in some quarters”, including within the Jewish community in Australia.
The social services minister asks the community to take a deep breath and reflect on the reason for the visit. They’re similar to the words the foreign minister, Penny Wong, used last week, who said everyone should consider the context of the visit, which is to comfort the victims and families of the Bondi terror attack.
But Plibersek adds that people “absolutely” have a right to protest in Australia.
I think the - the protest organisers, when both the police and the courts said to them, yes, you can protest, but you can either do it in a stationary way here in Town Hall, if you want to march, you can march through a different part of the city, should have heeded that advice.
But of course, some of the videos that we’ve seen have been very concerning. And I expect they’ll be investigated.
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Labor releases plan to address violence against First Nations women and children
The government has announced a dedicated ten-year national plan to address violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children.
The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, who is in charge of the plan alongside the minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, is doing the media rounds this morning.
The standalone plan comes four years after the release of the broader national plan to end violence for women and children which was released in 2022.
Plibersek tells ABC News Breakfast the work for this plan has been ongoing and this is an “important next step”.
It also comes with over $200m of additional funding that will make a real difference on the ground as it begins to flow out from 1 July. That means programs like literally being able to go to an Aboriginal woman who is in a situation of domestic violence and say, how can we help you safely leave?
In a city area that’s hard enough, but if you’re in a tiny remote community and you need to fly in to help someone stay safe, you can imagine how much more complex that work is.
Plibersek says the plan is not just for the commonwealth government, but has also been signed on by the states and territories, and covers policing, justice, child protection and frontline services.
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Good morning
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
There will be significant reaction to protest scenes out of Sydney and Melbourne last night.
Meanwhile, the agony continues for Sussan Ley as speculation continues over when Angus Taylor may mount a challenge against her, despite her reuniting the Nationals over the weekend.
There’s plenty to come, I’ve got plenty of caffeine, let’s get into it!
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Police action was 'corporal punishment of peaceful community', Greens say
The Greens said the police action amounted to “summary physical punishment against legitimate and peaceful protest”.
Sue Higginson, Greens MP and the party’s spokesperson for justice, said it was “corporal punishment against a peaceful community” caused by the “inflammatory actions” of Chris Minns.
She said she would be referring the “wildly inappropriate” police actions to the law enforcement conduct commission.
A lawful and peaceful public assembly was set upon with state violence because arbitrary and excessive special powers were granted to the police, via a rushed regulation made on a Saturday, with no good cause and in defiance our implied constitutional rights to engage in political expression.
I saw with my own eyes something I had hoped to never see, but the video footage that is spreading across social media is all the evidence that any of us need to see the descent of NSW into a police state. We saw people of the Muslim faith who were praying set upon, dragged, assaulted and thrown to the ground. We saw dozens of armed police charging at peaceful members of our community.
Charging horses, chemical weapons, unprovoked assault and severe police violence. These should never be the tools of law enforcement and their presence on Sydney streets must be a wake-up call to all of us.
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After chaotic scenes at a Sydney rally opposing Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s visit last night, assistant police commissioner Peter McKenna faced the media and accused the speakers at the rally of “inciting the crowd to march”.
“It was really something that was quite inflammatory,” he told reporters last night.
“In fact, it got to the point that I believe the crowd really took part in some type of contagion of group think.”
He also said that some officers had been assaulted amid brawls with the protesters.
“I had 10 police officers assaulted, and I’m really upset about it,” he said.
Asked if the protest would have been less violent had the police allowed protesters to march, he said: “It wasn’t a matter of us letting protesters march. There was legislation in place to say they couldn’t march.”
He also said that videos widely shared online and also posted by the Guardian had been taken “out of context”.
Those officers are in a very vulnerable, precarious position. Then when they have laws to enforce and violence is coming towards them, if that happens over a prolonged, sustained period of time, and then you take 30 seconds here or 30 seconds there of what looks like on its own merits … a violent confrontation.
Well, you’re not judging the whole night … the whole situation of what those officers have just been through.
Police deliver statement on protest arrests
In a press release issued late last night, NSW police explained their actions at the protest. In part, the statement said:
Thousands of participants gathered at Town Hall and at the conclusion of the speeches, the crowd assembled on George Street indicating an intention to march.
The crowd were issued a number of directions by police to disperse in accordance with the Public Assembly Restriction Declaration (PARD) and Major Events Act.
When participants failed to comply, officers moved to disperse the crowd, including anyone who had stopped and was blocking pedestrian access.
A number of scuffles broke out with 27 people arrested, including 10 for assault police, and are being dealt with by officers.
Paramedics treated a number of participants after OC spray was deployed. There have not been any reports of serious injuries.
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Police condemned for ‘disproportionate response’ to Sydney protest
There has been a great deal of reaction to the police handling of the Sydney protests, not all of which we could squeeze into our news story.
The Australian Democracy Network says it has raised serious concerns about the police response days after the organisation and other civil society organisations wrote to the NSW premier, Chris Minns, expressing concerns about further restrictions on the right to protest.
ADN protest rights campaigner Anastasia Radievska said the events highlighted a broader and growing threat to protest rights in New South Wales.
What we have seen tonight appears to be a disproportionate response to people seeking to express their democratic right to protest. Heavy-handed policing of peaceful assembly undermines democratic participation and escalates, rather than resolves, community tensions.
Peaceful protest is a core democratic right. It cannot be treated as a public order problem to be managed through force or intimidation. Governments and police have a duty to facilitate protests and protect those exercising their rights.
Restricting or repressing protest does not improve community safety. It suppresses political expression and erodes trust in public institutions.
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NSW police’s handling of Sydney protests under scrutiny
NSW police’s handling of protests in Sydney last night against the visit by Israel’s president will be under the spotlight this morning.
We have a full report, including claims by NSW Labor backbencher Anthony D’Adam that he saw police punching and throwing someone to the ground.
We also have videos showing scores of police charging protesters, and one of police dispersing Muslims as they prayed near the scene of the protests around Town Hall and the city’s convention centre, where Herzog was speaking.
Updated
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the big breaking stories before Krishani Dhanji takes the helm.
Anthony Albanese’s decision to invite the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, to Australia to promote “unity” after the Bondi terror attacks will come under scrutiny today after police used pepper spray and mass charges on protesters opposing Herzog’s visit in Sydney last night.
The Greens described the police action as “wildly inappropriate” but the police claimed last night that speakers at the protest had “incited” the crowd to march. We have news, reaction and videos of the shocking scenes coming up.
No sooner had Sussan Ley made another peace with David Littleproud than reports have emerged that she faces an imminent leadership challenge from Angus Taylor. We have a full report and we’ll be bringing you developments in the Liberal saga when they happen.
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