Read the national news blog for rolling updates on today’s top stories.
Read the national news blog for rolling updates on today’s top stories.
Thank you for joining us today for the national blog. This will be our final blog post for the evening. Join us again early tomorrow morning when we’ll bring you rolling updates on the biggest stories.
Here are some of the main developments that made news today:
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a national cabinet meeting a looming cyclone was an imminent threat to heavily populated areas on the southern Queensland and northern NSW coastlines. It will put Brisbane, the Gold Coast and other densely populated areas at risk.
- The federal government has promised to build dozens more urgent care clinics if it is re-elected. It is promising to deliver a $644 million expansion of the scheme.
- Independent MPs and Special Minister of State Don Farrell have traded accusations of sexism in an escalating feud that threatens to damage Anthony Albanese’s hopes of being returned to the Lodge with teal backing.
- Opposition Leader Peter Dutton described Volodymyr Zelensky as a “modern-day hero” following the Ukrainian president’s televised argument with US President Donald Trump.
- Antoinette Lattouf sought up to $150,000 in compensation from the ABC in addition to any penalties, written submissions in her unlawful termination suit against the national broadcaster revealed.
Staying in NSW, police have laid drug charges against 23 festival goers who attended the Yours and Owls Festival in Wollongong on Sunday. The event was the first in NSW to feature a pill testing tent.
A high-visibility operation was conducted by police who reported 51 drug detections (mainly related to MDMA), issued 24 court attendance notices, 21 drug criminal infringement notices, 18 cannabis cautions, 2 infringement notices and ejected six patrons from the venue.
The Minns government committed to a 12-month trial of pill testing following a 2024 drug summit where the premier conceded that a high-police presence does contradict the drug-testing process.
Pill testing tents allow revellers to test whether drugs they planned to take were actually what they thought they were. The process is anonymous.
The trial follows a string of music festival deaths that sparked a coronial inquiry. Deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame urged then-premier Gladys Berejiklian to introduce pill testing and end the use of sniffer dogs at music festivals.
Health Minister Ryan Park said the service could be the first opportunity for a young person to speak with someone who was able to give them accurate information about the substance they were about to take.
To NSW, where the state government has revealed the population of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park is now close to its target of 3000.
Environment Minister Penny Sharpe told budget estimates today that there were between 3000 and 4000 horses in the “retention area” of the park where the government is legally required to maintain a brumby population of 3000 for heritage reasons. The official numbers from the last count in October 2024 were yet to be released because the report is still going through peer review, she said.
The target of 3000 is an arbitrary number legislated by the previous Coalition government under a compromise with then Nationals leader John Barilaro who championed the brumbies.
In the rest of the park, where the government is not obliged to retain horses, the population is now believed to be zero.
Sharpe said brumby advocates initially claimed there were only 2000 horses in the park, but the government had shot 8954 horses through the control program.
She said NSW would not return to a “boom and bust” cycle where it let the horse numbers get out of control and then had to take drastic measures. The ongoing management would include rehoming, ground shooting and fertility measures.
“Aerial shooting of course remains an option within Kosciuszko National Park, but we’ve reduced the numbers significantly,” Sharpe said.
“We are close to reaching the target that was legislated three years early, it’s an important milestone.”
Aerial shooting was still being used for feral pigs or deer and for horses in other areas such as the Blue Mountains and Barrington Tops.
Australian shares have bounced back, with all 11 sectors closing in the green after the market hit an eight-week low last week.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index lifted 76.7 points, or 0.94 per cent, to 8,249.1, while the broader All Ordinaries gained 77.7 points, or 0.92 per cent, to 8481.6.
The Australian dollar has recovered slightly after losing more than 3 per cent last week and is buying 62.2 US cents.
It could be a volatile week for currencies as the US prepares to impose new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.
AAP
University of Melbourne students could be expelled for protesting indoors after its recently appointed vice-chancellor used special powers to restrict protests to outdoor areas.
Students will be banned from indoor protests from today after the university introduced a rule that ensured protests on campuses, protests that obstructed building entrances and protests that unreasonably disrupted university operations were prohibited.
Vice chancellor Emma Johnston, who commenced in the role last month, used her power to set rules for using university premises and for participating in university activities to make the change. Such rules are separate to university policies and their supporting processes.
Students who fail to comply with the directions face disciplinary action, including suspension or termination.
The University of Melbourne policy change follows a parliamentary committee’s report into antisemitism on campuses, which has come under the spotlight since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack and Israel’s subsequent ground invasion of Gaza.
The inquiry made 10 recommendations, including that universities adopt a contested definition of antisemitism, which the University of Melbourne adopted in 2023.
Johnston said there was more work to do to address antisemitism on university campuses in a letter to staff on Monday, co-signed by provost Nicola Phillips.
“The report is sobering, documenting the antisemitism experienced on our campuses and more broadly across Australia. We thank our Jewish students and staff for sharing their experiences with us and the committee,” they said.
“Much of the work already underway is aligned to the committee’s recommendations, but there is certainly more to do. With the backing of the university’s leadership, work to adapt our practices and review our policies continues.”
The University of Melbourne is currently being investigated over a potential breach of privacy laws, after it used CCTV images to identify protesters who occupied a building on its Parkville campus during widespread campus protests in May.
China’s ambassador to Australia has warned that a decision to ban artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from government systems and devices risks further politicising trade and technology ties between the two countries which only recently stabilised bilateral relations.
Ambassador Xiao Qian’s comments came as a Chinese naval task force continued to skirt Australia’s territorial waters in an apparent plan to circumnavigate the island nation. The warships 10 days ago held live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand.
Writing in The Australian newspaper on Monday, Xiao said the Chinese-developed AI program would “greatly benefit the world in various aspects” and encouraged Australia to work with Beijing to jointly develop new technologies.
“Taking restrictive measures against it under the pretext of ‘security risks’ is an attempt to overstretch the concept of national security and politicise trade and tech issues,” the ambassador said in his article.
In early February, Australia’s centre-left Labor government became one of the first countries in the world to ban DeepSeek from official devices, a decision that it justified on national security grounds.
On Monday morning, the ships were 565 kilometres south-east of Western Australia’s state capital, Perth, according to the Department of Defence.
Bloomberg
Antoinette Lattouf is seeking up to $150,000 in compensation from the ABC in addition to any penalties, written submissions in her unlawful termination suit against the national broadcaster reveal.
The freelance journalist was taken off-air three days into a planned five-day stint on ABC Radio Sydney’s Mornings program in December 2023.
She is suing the ABC for unlawful termination, claiming the decision to axe her was influenced by her political opinion over the Israel-Gaza war and her Middle Eastern race.
Lattouf claims the broadcaster bowed to pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists in removing her from the airwaves. Her views about the war were not expressed on radio.
The parties delivered closing submissions in the Federal Court in Sydney last week and Justice Darryl Rangiah will deliver his decision at a later date. On Monday, the court released written submissions in the dispute.
Lattouf’s barristers, Oshie Fagir and Philip Boncardo, say Lattouf should receive up to $150,000 in compensation for non-economic loss.
“In the circumstances and [having] regard to the extent of the pain, hurt, humiliation and distress experienced by Ms Lattouf, as well as the fact the contravening caused an exacerbation in a pre-existing psychiatric condition, an amount of between $100,000-150,000 should be awarded for non-economic loss,” the submissions say.
This would be separate to any figure awarded as a penalty. Lattouf had initially sought an order reinstating her “to a commensurate position to that from which the [ABC] dismissed her”.
This order is no longer sought. In submissions filed in court, the ABC’s barristers, Ian Neil, SC, and Vanja Bulut, said it could be “inferred that she dropped the claim for reinstatement because she belatedly recognised that it was hopeless”.
The national broadcaster denies that it sacked Lattouf. It says her contract ended as planned after five days but that she was not required to work her final two shifts.
Speaking of Cyclone Alfred, a Lithuanian rower was rescued off the Queensland coast this morning after getting caught in the tropical cyclone’s 130km/h winds and monster waves.
Aurimas Mockus ran into trouble about 740 kilometres east of Mackay while attempting a 12,000-kilometre Pacific Ocean crossing from San Diego to Brisbane in his solo rowing boat.
HMAS Choules, a 16,000-tonne Royal Australian Navy landing ship, rescued Mockus this morning.
He is on his way back to Australian shores after a two-day wait in the turbulent ocean waters due to Tropical Cyclone Alfred, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.
AAP
And to wrap up our coverage of Peter Dutton’s press conference in Queensland, the opposition leader had a message for those in the path of Cyclone Alfred, which is expected to make landfall anywhere between Bundaberg in Queensland and the NSW Northern Rivers later this week.
“It’s always hard because we don’t know exactly where this thing is going to track, and hopefully it runs out of steam, but that doesn’t seem to be the indication at the moment,” Dutton said.
“So I just say to people – listen to the advice that’s been offered by authorities at the moment and, please, act and prepare and make sure that you [have] got in place other plans that are necessary to deal with an event.”
Dutton noted that it was unusual for a tropical cyclone to come so far south.
The Chinese flotilla saga that dominated the news last week continues to make headlines, and today it’s over a stop-over by three Chinese warships in Sydney Harbour six years ago.
After suggesting the PM was out of his depth, and that Australians could “sense” he was “scared” amid the presence of the three Chinese warships off the coast, Dutton used a Queensland press conference to attack a comment the prime minister made before a national cabinet meeting this morning.
Albanese was responding to former prime minister Scott Morrison’s criticism that he had been too “passive” in his reaction to the Chinese flotilla, when he took the opportunity to remind the public that when Morrison was prime minister in 2019, three Chinese warships visited Sydney Harbour, spending a four-day stop-over at the Garden Island Navy Base near Sydney’s CBD.
“[Chinese warships] were in Sydney Harbour docked at Garden Island when he was the prime minister,” Albanese said of Morrison.
But Dutton took issue with Albanese’s comment.
“What he has tried to do is suggest that when the Coalition was last in government the warships turned up into Sydney Harbour unannounced, that is a complete lie,” Dutton said.
“The fact is the Chinese certified with the then government in April that year, and there was planning in relation to the ships turning up,” Dutton continued.
“It was not this prime minister, who had no idea about the presence, he did not know what to do, he had to rely on the Virgin pilot and other sources to inform them about the training exercises taking place.”