What happened Sunday 9 November
We’re going to wrap things up for today. Here’s what happened:
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has said he can’t see Australia leaving the Paris agreement and has urged his party to recognise “the Australian people are worried about climate change” ahead of a crunch week of meetings to determine the Coalition’s position on net zero emissions.
Natural disaster-prone councils in south-east Queensland say the Bureau of Meteorology’s decision to axe its free real-time flood forecasting tool is a “cost-shifting” exercise with “potentially deadly consequences”, with New South Wales emergency services also affected.
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, has said the relationship between his government and the federal government had soured over a hospital funding deal. Crisafulli declared an end to “cannoli diplomacy” – riffing on the fact both he and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, are of Italian descent – to demonstrate a willingness for his LNP government to work with Labor in Canberra.
Princess Anne has her first full day in Australia as part of a royal tour that comes less than two weeks after King Charles announced he was stripping their brother Andrew of the title of prince, due to the ongoing fallout from his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Updated
Reported gunshot a new line of inquiry in Freeman manhunt
A reported single gunshot has sparked a fresh line of inquiry in the long-running manhunt for alleged police killer Desmond Freeman, AAP reports.
Police conducted “firearms testing” near Barrett Lane and Rayner Track in Porepunkah, about 300km north-east of Melbourne, on Wednesday as part of their search.
The testing was triggered by reports of a gunshot in the vicinity about 11.45am on 26 August.
Freeman had allegedly opened fire on police moments earlier, killing Det Sen Const Neal Thompson and Sen Const Vadim de Waart-Hottart, and wounding a third officer.
They were among 10 officers serving a warrant at Freeman’s Porepunkah home when allegedly confronted about 10.30am.
“The area has since been searched by police, however no trace of Freeman was located,” Victoria police said in a statement on Sunday.
“Investigators are hopeful that the firearms testing may assist police with the ongoing search.”
Police want to speak to anyone who may have heard the gunshot, including any members of the public who may have been in the area at the time and believe they could be the person responsible.
There have been no confirmed sightings of Freeman since he fled into dense bushland despite detectives investigating more than 1,700 tip-offs.
Hundreds of officers and specialist resources, including interstate and international crews, have scoured the area and surrounds.
The search was scaled back to more than 200 police in September and Mount Buffalo national park reopened to the public in late October.
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