Gina Rinehart and Pauline Hanson seen dining together in Thailand – as it happened​on January 6, 2025 at 4:11 am

Many thanks for joining me on today’s blog – we’ll leave things here for today. This is what made the news:

• The federal government announced a $7.2bn funding injection for the Bruce Highway in Queensland – which will fund about 80% of the upgrades needed to make the 1,600km stretch safer.

• Etihad flight EY461 travelling from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi had to abort its take-off amid “technical reasons”. Melbourne airport temporarily operated with just one runway as the plane was repaired.

• Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, was spotted with One Nation’s Pauline Hanson at a restaurant in Thailand.

• The prime minister Anthony Albanese said there was “no tolerance for antisemitism in Australia” amid reports of antisemitic graffiti in Sydney’s east.

• After three weeks, the bushfire in the Grampians national park has officially been contained. More than 76,000 hectares has been burnt.

• The search for Hadi Nazari, 23, entered its 12th day after he went missing in the Kosciuszko national park on Boxing Day.

Northern Territory loses appeal against requirement to provide safe drinking water

The Northern Territory government has lost its bid to overturn a landmark court ruling which found it was legally required to provide safe drinking water to its tenants in remote Aboriginal communities.

The decision is the latest development in a five-year legal stoush between the NT government and residents of Laramba, an Aboriginal community 205km north-west of Alice Springs, who took the government to court over elevated levels of uranium in their drinking water.

The case hinged on whether a landlord’s obligation to ensure a tenant’s home was “habitable” extended to external factors such as the provision of running water.

The NT government had sought to appeal a 2023 verdict in which the NT supreme court ruled in favour of the residents, setting a precedent that could open the door for compensation for similarly affected communities.

Last month, the NT court of appeal upheld that decision, agreeing that the quality of drinking water supplied to the homes was “an issue of habitability”. The judges said in their ruling:

If the uranium levels in the water supplied to the premises posed an actual and appreciable risk to the health and/or safety of the tenants in their ordinary residential day to day use of the premises, then those premises would not be habitable.

Lawyers for the residents say they intend to seek compensation in the NT civil and administrative tribunal.

A skull found in Springbrook national park on the Gold Coast may belong to a child and appears to have been deliberately placed.

As AAP reports, police are investigating after a bushwalker made the gruesome discovery about 10m off a track in the park on Friday morning. Police say the skull is small and may belong to a child or a person of light build and a crime scene has been declared.

“Initial suggestions are that the skull has been placed there,” the chief superintendent Craig Hanlon said today, adding that further examinations, including DNA and carbon dating, could take months.

Forensic pathologists and the Queensland police service’s bone expert are examining the skull. There is no evidence of a recent death or foul play in the area. Hanlon said:

The skull looks like it has been in the conditions for a long time … it wasn’t submerged or buried; it was lying on the ground.

Springbrook national park is a popular tourist destination known for its lush rainforest and scenic hiking trails. Police are probing how the skull came to be in the park, with investigators exploring possibilities ranging from it being a misplaced museum artefact to a prank.

No other bones or evidence of criminal activity have been found in the area after a thorough search involving about 100 State Emergency Service volunteers.

A teenager has been taken to hospital in a serious condition after allegedly riding on the outside of a train in western Sydney and falling.

Emergency services were called to the rail corridor between Seven Hills and Blacktown train stations about 10am. NSW police officers were told a 14-year-old boy had allegedly been riding on the outside of a train, before falling.

He was treated by paramedics for serious arm and torso injuries and taken to the children’s hospital in Westmead in a serious condition.

Police are investigating the incident, it said in a statement.

Spender ‘absolutely appalled’ by antisemitic graffiti in Sydney’s east

The MP for Wentworth, Allegra Spender, says she is “absolutely appalled” by reports of “yet another antisemitic attack on our community”.

Images supplied to News Corp show graffiti on a car in Sydney’s eastern suburbs reading “fuck the Jews”.

In a post to X, Spender said:

Antisemitic hate has no place in our society. We will be meeting with the NSW Police shortly to discuss this incident and what more needs to be done to protect Wentworth’s Jewish community.

Earlier, Anthony Albanese said there was “no tolerance for antisemitism in Australia, from my government, nor should there be tolerance from anyone else”.

Severe storms possible as cool change pushes through NSW

The Bureau of Meteorology has shared a weather update, with severe storms possible in NSW amid a cool change:

WorkSafe Victoria charges health service over patient’s death

Victoria’s work safety regulator has charged a health service over a patient suicide in a Geelong hospital’s psychiatric unit in 2022.

In a statement, WorkSafe Victoria says Barwon Health faces two charges in breach of the Occupation Health and Safety Act. The regulator alleges the health services failed to ensure that people beyond employees are not exposed to health and safety risks.

The death occurred at the University hospital Geelong.

Barwon Health is due to appear at Geelong magistrates court on Tuesday for a hearing.

Russell Crowe has described suggestions he is looking to sell out of NRL club South Sydney as “bullshit”, AAP reports.

Reports emerged today the Hollywood actor was in the market to sell his 25% stake in the Rabbitohs, which he bought with businessman Peter Holmes à Court for $3m in 2006.

But in a statement provided to AAP, Crowe advised journalists to make the most of the Australian weather rather than concern themselves with his business dealings:

Just tell them all it’s bullshit, and advise them to enjoy the summer sun.

The Rabbitohs declined to comment publicly when contacted by AAP.

South Sydney finished the 2006 season in last place after Crowe and Holmes à Court bought the team early that year, but returned to finals in 2007 for the first time since 1989.

Holmes à Court sold his share in 2014, the same year Souths notched a fairytale grand-final victory over Canterbury. It marked the Rabbitohs’ first premiership since 1971.

Today, Crowe owns a 25% stake in the Rabbitohs, with James Packer, tech mogul Mike Cannon-Brookes and Souths members each owning a quarter.

After three weeks, the bushfire in the Grampians national park is officially contained.

It began on 17 December after dry lightning started multiple fires in the southern part of the park. With a circumference of 422km, more than 76,000 hectares has burned. The fire claimed four homes in Moyston and Mafeking, and 40 outbuildings in surrounding suburbs.

A statement from the State Control Centre said preliminary data shows livestock losses at 775 sheep, one horse, one head of beef cattle and 1,285 beehives. More than 13,538 hectares of farmland, including 10,053 hectares of pasture, was burnt, and 540km of fencing was damaged.

There is no active or running fire now it is contained, and the perimeter is within control lines. Halls Gap and the Grampians national park remain closed to visitors.

Incident controller Peter West said the fire represents “a significant environmental and social incident and one that deeply affects people connected to the national park, including traditional owners, tourism operators and visitors.”

Coinciding with what is typically the busiest season for tourism in the area, the fire has resulted in considerable hardships and financial losses for local businesses and communities.

Declaring the fire contained allows us to begin the process of reopening Halls Gap and areas of the national park.

Firefighters will continue to monitor and patrol the fire; this could still take a number of weeks. It is likely we will still see smoke and small flare-ups in the area, but we will continue to be present to deal with these when and as they arise.

Albanese accuses reporter of reading out question from LNP

The prime minister also accused a reporter of reading out a question sent from the LNP.

At the press conference in Brisbane earlier, a reporter asked whether Labor’s slogan “build back better” was pinched from US president Joe Biden.

Albanese said Labor wasn’t using that slogan, but is using “building Australia’s future”.

It is our slogan, if you like. It’s been there. We’ve done a launch in Adelaide, and then another launch here in Brisbane, where we launched our childcare policy. So I’m not sure which LNP member has sent you that question to ask, but they should pay attention, and you should be cautious about just reading out things that are sent from the LNP government.

PM responds to reports of antisemitic graffiti in Sydney’s east

Anthony Albanese was asked about reports of an antisemitic incident in Sydney’s eastern suburbs overnight.

Responding to this, the PM said there is “no tolerance for antisemitism in Australia, from my government, nor should there be tolerance from anyone else”.

Antisemitism is a scourge, and any event such as this targeting people, who they are, is not the Australian values that I hold dear, and the Australian values that are held dear overwhelmingly by Australians.

Images supplied to News Corp show graffiti on a car reading “fuck the Jews”.

Albanese takes questions from reporters in Queensland

Let’s circle back to Anthony Albanese’s press conference in Queensland, where he has been taking questions from reporters.

Asked if Labor has failed to convince Queensland voters that it has something to offer outside its comfortable seats, the PM said the party’s vote went forward “across just about every seat of this entire state at the 2022 election, compared to where we were [in] 2019.”

On working with state premiers across the country, Albanese said:

I don’t regard premiers as being either Labor or LNP, I regard the Queensland premier as representing the state of Queensland, and I will cooperate with people across the political spectrum, just as I cooperated with Dom Perrottet when he was the minister [sic] for NSW, when we implemented coal and gas price controls, in spite of the opposition of Peter Dutton and his team.

Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has been spotted with One Nation’s Pauline Hanson at a restaurant in Thailand.

A video uploaded to TikTok by user Akira Zay appears to show the pair dining with another unidentified woman. It was posted with the caption:

When you’re in Thailand and you spot these two while having a nice lunch.

Guardian Australia has tried to contact the pair to find out what was on the agenda and the menu, with no luck so far.

It’s been a busy time for Rinehart, who has partied with the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and the US president-elect, Donald Trump, and helped make her own portrait world famous.

Hanson had a typically tumultuous 2024, winning an apology from independent senator Lidia Thorpe (who mistakenly described her as a convicted racist), and losing a bid to pay less to Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi over Faruqi’s successful racial discrimination case. Hanson had tweeted at Faruqi to pack her bags and “piss off back to Pakistan”.

King says investment will bring Bruce Highway up to three-star rating

The infrastructure and transport minister, Catherine King, is also speaking to the media, and said the announcement would “change lives [and] it will save lives”.

Tragically, we saw two people lose their lives not that far from here at the start of this year. Enough is enough. We want to get this road fixed once and for all.

This investment will get this road up to three stars, and what that actually means is you will see more overtaking lanes, you will see a larger central divider, you will see barriers to prevent traffic crossing over lanes, and you will also see straightening out of some of the more dangerous sections and resealing, as well.

This will make a significant difference to road safety but also for productivity, [for] the many trucks that carry freight along the spine of this road.

Anthony Albanese is making an election pitch to voters amid the announcement, saying that the 2025 election will be “a clear choice [between] Labor building Australia’s future, or a Coalition determined to return Australia backwards and costing more under Peter Dutton”.

Someone said to me, ‘Why you are making the first announcement of this year in the electorate of White Bay? It’s not a target seat.’

That’s because I’m determined to represent all Australians regardless of where they live.

The PM said the Bruce Highway is 42% longer than the Pacific Highway and services 62% of Queenslanders.

That is why the figures are quite horrific. Forty-one fatalities on the Bruce Highway in 2024. There’s been two fatalities already in an accident, already this year.

He said today’s announcement of $7.2bn of additional funding for the highway “will save lives”.