What we learned, Tuesday 12 March
Thank you for joining us on the live blog today – hear is a wrap of the main news:
Police hold “serious concerns” for seven people – including four children – who are missing in Western Australia, which has recorded heavy rainfall and flooding.
Older farmers are leading an attack on practices used by the major supermarkets that they say are sending the fruit and vegetable industry broke.
Labor’s longest serving foreign minister, Gareth Evans, has urged the Australian government to “get off the fence” and immediately reinstate funding to a key UN agency to help avert mass starvation in Gaza.
Older Australians with more wealth should have to pay more for the cost of their aged care, a government-appointed expert panel has recommended, potentially from their superannuation balances.
Western Australia will receive $6.2bn more GST this year as a result of a Turnbull-government era deal backed by Labor, triggering $5.2bn in payments to other states to ensure they are no worse off.
The Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi will be able to use statements from X users on how a tweet by Pauline Hanson made them feel, as well as examples of alleged racially charged statements from Hanson’s 30-year political career, in her racial vilification case against the One Nation leader.
A man has been charged with murder after being accused of a fatal stabbing in a Gold Coast shopping centre car park.
Thanks for sticking with us today. We’ll be back with you, bright and early, tomorrow.
Updated
Western Australia police have provided an update on the seven people – including four children – who have been missing since Sunday.
According to police, two vehicles left Kalgoorlie Boulder on Sunday between 10am and 2pm. Officers believe the group were returning to the remote community, Tjuntjuntjarra, 650km north-east of Kalgoorlie.
The force’s Mick Kelly said police believe the seven people are family members and members of the Tjuntjuntjarra community:
Concerns are held due to the fact that we’ve had severe weather and rain and more has been forecasted over the next 24 hours.
We are unsure of what food and water resources they have on board.
These are local members of the community of Tjuntjuntjarra and we are actively trying to communicate these people.
Kelly said efforts to find the group have been affected by the weather conditions. The group were travelling on an unsealed track.
A helicopter search for the group was abandoned earlier today due to poor visibility.
Updated
