Australia news as it happened: Four guilty verdicts for Patterson in mushroom murder trial; NT Police react to ‘institutional racism’ findings in Walker death inquest; Taskforce following Melbourne synagogue alleged arson

That was a massive day of news, thanks for joining us. We’ll be back tomorrow with more live coverage. Here’s the upshot:

• Victorian mushroom cook Erin Patterson has been found guilty of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, following a marathon nine-week trial in eastern Victoria that captured the world’s attention. Check out our dedicated liveblog here.
• The NT Police force has reacted to the coroner’s report on the shooting death of Indigenous teen Kumanjayi Walker by one of its officers. The report found it was “an organisation with hallmarks of institutional racism”. “We are determined to ensure that what has been learned is not lost,” Acting Commissioner Martin Dole said in a statement.
• Australian airlines are once again cancelling flights to Indonesia after a volcano north of WA erupted for the second time in a month.
• Speaking of airlines, Qantas says it has been approached by what it labelled a “potential” cybercriminal group, a week after hackers stole data on up to six million customers.
• And Victoria will establish an anti-hate taskforce to combat anti-semitism, after a weekend where several such incidents occurred including the alleged arson of a Melbourne synagogue.

Major party leaders have refused to buy into a new poll after it indicated an incumbent state Labor government was on track to secure a fourth consecutive term in power.

More Victorian voters believe Opposition Leader Brad Battin would make a better state premier than the incumbent, Labor’s Jacinta Allan.

Premier Jacinta Allan and Opposition Leader Brad Battin.Credit: Various

But the Liberal Party leader’s preferred premier status, at 41 per cent to Ms Allan’s 36 per cent, doesn’t appear to be enough to convince voters to re-elect the Coalition, according to a Newspoll.

Labor’s primary vote is now even with the opposition at 35 per cent. On a two-party preferred basis, Labor is ahead 53-47.

Ms Allan, whose government has increasingly been on the nose with the public, said she was focused on issues important to voters instead of the “disarray” within the Victorian Liberal Party.

Mr Battin highlighted his party’s policies around crime and housing and took credit for the government’s changes to their reforms on bail and a machete ban.

The next Victorian state election is due November 2026.

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The owners of a zoo where a woman was mauled by a lion are yet to determine what led to the attack.

The woman, in her 50s, was airlifted to Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital on Sunday after being bitten by the lion at Darling Downs Zoo in Pilton, a small town in Queensland’s Toowoomba region.

The victim, who remains stable in hospital, lost an arm in the attack that has shocked staff and the local community where the family-owned park has operated since 2005.

The zoo said late on Monday the woman, a relative of the owners, remained in hospital “and is surrounded by members of our extended family”.

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Returning to one of our top stories today now, which is a coroner finding that the NT police had hallmarks of being an institutionally racist organisation.

The coroner Elizabeth Armitage handed down her findings into the 2019 death of Indigenous teenager Kumanjayi Walker on Monday, which also found Zachary Rolfe, the Northern Territory police officer who shot and killed Walker, was racist.

Kumanjayi Walker (left) and Zachary Rolfe.

Marion Scrymgour - the member for Lingiari which covers most of the Northern Territory - told ABC News’ Afternoon Briefing the onus was now on the NT government to respond.

“There are good men and women in our Northern Territory Police Force, and unfortunately, there are some very clear lines that have been drawn in the sand here,” she said.

“It is on the Northern Territory government that they need to come to the table, work with the community, work with the federal government to get a good pathway through, so that we can get good resolution.”

Labor MP Marion Scrymgour.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Scrymgour said Walker’s death had led to a distrust towards police amongst the territory’s Indigenous community that has continued to grow in the six years since the incident.

“There has to be some solution to this, and it is on the chief minister and the government to show leadership in this.”

The territory’s government is yet to respond to the report.

The NT’s Police force has also reacted to the coroner’s findings this afternoon.

“The Northern Territory Police Force will now carefully consider the Coroner’s recommendations in full,” it said in a statement.

“As the inquest progressed, the Northern Territory Police Force initiated a number of internal reforms in direct response to the issues that were raised.” It said these included an anti-racism strategy, and ongoing delivery of Cultural Awareness and Anti-Racism Training.

Indigenous Australians are one of the most incarcerated groups in the world.

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If you are an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person seeking culturally safe support, Call 13YARN (13 92 76).

The prime minister has found an ally in a recent predecessor – Malcolm Turnbull – in a recent speech he gave.

In his John Curtin Oration on Saturday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese suggested Australia’s global allies would not dictate how it acts on the world stage.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Credit: Fairfax Media

“We are not shackled to our past. We draw from it, we build on it and we learn from it,” Albanese said in Sydney.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley quickly questioned the wisdom of emphasising Australia’s foreign policy independence while US President Donald Trump’s administration reviewed the future of the AUKUS defence pact.

But today, Turnbull said on X that the fault was with her, not Albanese.

Victorian senator James Paterson has told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing he believes there is an “ongoing, profoundly series antisemitism crisis” in Australia, following an arson attack on a synagogue and several other incidents in Melbourne.

“[That] we have people in this country that believe it’s appropriate to set fire to a synagogue … or who think it’s appropriate to protest very vigorously outside Jewish businesses just shows how serious this problem is.

Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“The Albanese government must take a very different approach ... to what it did in its first term. It must be much more proactive, ensure the law is enforced and that we have a comprehensive plan of this cancer in our society.”

Asked what the Coalition’s plan was to address antisemitism, Paterson said his leader Sussan Ley had recommitted to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s 15 identified priorities, as the government did not.

In response to the attacks, Victoria’s state government has set up an anti-hate taskforce to help frame laws giving police more powers to tackle violent protests.

Paterson was also asked about the outcome of the mushroom murder trial, which he said he didn’t follow closely.

“All I can say is I hope [the verdict] brings some small measure of comfort and justice to the families of the victims. It is a tragic thing that people lost their lives and another person almost killed in what really was a bizarre episode,” he said.

Paterson was also asked for his thoughts on a national truth-telling process, which Indigenous Affairs Minister Malandirri McCarthy said she was interested in this morning.

“The Albanese government did not take to the election a policy for a truth telling – or Makaratta – process,” he said.

“When asked about this during the election campaign they said it was a Liberal Party scare campaign to suggest that any element of the Uluru Statement from the Heart was something the government was committed to.

“I think it is important from the prime minster, who has denied many times he has any intention of pursuing other elements of the Voice proposal, [to say] what exactly the government has in mind, given the minister has opened the door here.”

Paterson also reacted to the Climate Change Authority chairman Matt Kean saying the Coalition should adopt stronger climate policies following its election defeat, rather than debating this idea.

“I couldn’t more profoundly disagree with what he says,” he said.

“[He] is a political appointee of a Labor government and he’s got a task to do there, but the Liberal Party cherishes debate.”

The chairman of Australia’s Climate Change Authority has said a devastating algal bloom killing marine wildlife in South Australia is a “wake-up call”.

Matt Kean said increases to ocean temperatures were leading to more common blooms, which were also affecting fishing and tourism industries.

The chairman of Australia’s Climate Change Authority Matt Kean.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

“We need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions further and faster than we are currently doing,” Kean said on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

“We are pouring more CO₂ into the atmosphere, which is causing this heating effect. In South Australia, we are seeing for the 12 months ended in June the hottest temperatures on land and in the oceans since the Bureau of Meteorology was started over a century ago.”

Earlier today, Kean wrote in The Australian Financial Review the Climate Change Authority was “presently working on advice for the Albanese government on setting as ambitious a 2035 goal as possible for reducing Australia’s carbon pollution”.

The Nationals’ leader has warned against politicians making commentary on the outcome of the mushroom murder trial, after he was asked to make such commentary himself.

Earlier today, Victorian woman Erin Patterson was found guilty by a jury of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, after a nine-week trial in the regional town of Morwell that captivated the world.

David Littleproud.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Asked on ABC News’ Afternoon Briefing if Patterson’s actions were “part of a broader framework of domestic violence and coercive control”, Littleproud replied, “I think it’s important politicians don’t delve into commentary on this without understanding the deep motives of why this was undertaken”.

“There are always lessons, and I think we should be proud of not only our court system but also the police in the way they have been able to professionally put forward a case to Ms Patterson’s peers.”

Littleproud was also asked about the outcome of the coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker in the NT. He said he hoped systemic racism wasn’t playing a role in how Indigenous Australians were being treated by police.

“I think most of our country is blind to colour, to race and religion,” he said. “It’s important that we don’t allow our country to slip, and where there are those elements, we need to call them out. Those leaders within those institutions that society relies on should be very firm, very swift in making sure it has no place.”

Littleproud also denied that the Nationals opposition to the now-failed Voice to Parliament referendum set back efforts to achieve reconciliation. This week marks NAIDOC week 2025.

Earlier today, federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Malandirri McCarthy suggested now was the time for a national truth-telling process. Littleproud dodged several questions on whether he was open to the idea.

A “shock jock” who made a prank call to a British hospital caring for Princess Catherine claims he was not supported by his employer in the fall-out of a nurse’s death by suicide.

Michael Christian and Mel Greig were presenting on 2Day FM on December 4, 2012, when they made the phone call to the King Edward VII Hospital in London.

Sydney-based 2DayFM radio announcers Michael Christian (left) and Mel Greig made the fateful prank call to Jacintha Saldanha in 2012.Credit: Reuters

Princess Catherine, the then-Duchess of Cambridge, had been admitted to the hospital for severe morning sickness ahead of her first child’s birth.

Christian alleges 2Day FM’s production team ordered him to make a prank call to the hospital and impersonate Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth to try to gain access to the duchess.

Nurse Jacintha Saldanha died by suicide days after the prank call, leading to widespread backlash against the radio hosts and 2Day FM’s broadcaster Southern Cross Austereo (SCA).

Almost 13 years later, Christian has sued SCA in the Federal Court, claiming the firm promised to provide support if the content put out by its “shock jocks” ever went too far.

Jacintha SaldanhaCredit: Facebook

The former radio host – made redundant in February – said he believed these claims, but was let down by the organisation.

The broadcaster did not “step in” but rather let its radio presenters take the blame, negatively impacting their careers, court documents allege.

Christian and Greig called out SCA and tried to prevent the company from crossing the line but were left in the cold after the suicide, the documents say.

“SCA did not immediately take public accountability for the incident, but rather allowed Mr Christian and Ms Greig to be left exposed to relentless public vitriol, harassment and abuse, including death threats,” his lawyers wrote.

The matter is yet to appear before the Federal Court. SCA has been contacted for comment.

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The number of deaths on Victorian roads has jumped to nine in four days, following a further two serious crashes today.

Police said two people died in the northern Melbourne suburb of Templestowe about 9am, when a silver SUV veered onto the wrong side of the road and collided head-on with a small hatchback. The two people in the hatchback died at the scene.

The Templestowe collision.Credit: Nine News

Earlier, a motorcycle and car collided on Mountain Highway in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Wantirna, with the motorcyclist dying at the scene.

The Wantirna collision.Credit: Nine News

It followed six deaths on Victorian roads across the weekend.

On Sunday, Jordan Emery, the new chief of Victoria’s ambulance service, urged drivers to take care.