Australia news as it happened: Architect of PNG NRL team bid stands down from board after corruption allegations; Trump diagnosed with medical condition

Thanks for reading the national news blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage. We’ll be back soon with more live coverage.

To conclude, here’s a look back at the day’s major stories:

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was en route back to Australia today after his week-long trip to China. His office said his meeting with high-ranking officials in Beijing, including an expansive conversation with President Xi Jinping, was the “centrepiece” of the visit.
• The man who led Papua New Guinea’s campaign for a new NRL team has stood down from its board at the request of the country’s prime minister as a corruption scandal engulfs the Albanese government’s $600 million venture to counter China in the Pacific.
• The Australian sharemarket rally set a new 100-day high after Wall Street rose to records following better-than-expected updates on the US economy.
• Clive Palmer’s political party has been hacked in an attack the organisation fears has led to the theft of its emails, documents, and electronic records, threatening the personal data of all those who have been in contact with it online.
• In Tasmania, Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff and Labor leader Dean Winter made their last pitches to voters ahead of tomorrow’s state election, which is expected to return a hung parliament.
• In NSW, a body was found in wreckage in the Snowy Mountains after a multi-day search was launched for a plane that went missing during a flight from Victoria.
• A regiment of Tiger helicopters have been grounded, and an investigation launched, after one was damaged in the Northern Territory during the Talisman Sabre military war games this week.
• In world news, US President Donald Trump has been diagnosed with a chronic but non-serious health condition after swelling in his lower legs caused alarm during a recent appearance at a major sporting event.

Thanks again for joining us. This is Cassandra Morgan, signing off.

The Australian sharemarket rally set a new 100-day high after Wall Street rose to records following better-than-expected updates on the US economy.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index on Friday gained 118.2 points, or 1.4 per cent, to 8758.2, while the broader All Ordinaries rose 116 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 9006.

The gains were the ASX 200’s biggest since a 4.5 per cent rally on April 10, as well as its first time crossing 8700. For the week, the index rose 3.4 per cent, its best weekly performance since a 3.4 per cent gain in mid-December.

The Australian dollar was trading for US65.02¢, from US64.71¢ on Thursday.

Click here to read your full five-minute recap of the trading day.

With AP, Bloomberg

Tasmania’s Liberal Premier, Jeremy Rockliff, and Labor leader, Dean Winter, have made their final pitches to voters on the eve of the state election, which is tipped to return a hung parliament.

Speaking to voters in Tasmania’s north today, Rockliff – who lost a parliamentary no-confidence vote in June - said the state’s parliament “needs the leadership of a government with a clear plan, a united team, and a leadership to get on with the job”.

“I am confident that we have that plan. We do have that united team. We’re committed to making a positive difference for the Tasmanian people. We were elected to do a job back in March 2024,” Rockliff said.

Winter homed in on promises for the health sector, and said it was time for a “fresh start” for the state.

“That means access to free bulk-billing GPs in a town and suburb near where Tasmanians actually live. That means a plan to fix the budget. It means a plan for more housing and plan for real action on cost of living relief,” Winter said.

Saturday’s poll is the second in 16 months for Tasmania, called after the minority Liberal premier lost the no-confidence vote.

The latest opinion survey suggests the Liberals will pick up more seats than Labor but neither will reach the 18-seat mark required for a majority.

Both major parties have ruled out doing a deal with the Greens to form government but say they are prepared to work with “sensible independents”.

Polling suggests 20 per cent support for independents, with the Liberals on 35, Labor on 25 and the Greens on 16.

With AAP

The UK’s move to lower the voting age to 16 is interesting but not something the Australian government is open to right now, Assistant Foreign Minister Matt Thistlethwaite said.

Speaking on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Thistlethwaite said: “It’s interesting. I think a lot of nations would be looking up what the United Kingdom is exploring doing, and see how it does go.”

However, he confirmed the Australian government was “not open to it at the moment”.

“Here in Australia our party does not have any policy or plan to lower the voting age, but I would point out that at the last election we had a record enrolment for younger Australians participating in that election,” Thistlethwaite said.

“That reflected in the way that the election went and the voting patterns – particular issues like housing affordability, like student debt, and cost-of-living pressures on young Australians were talked about on a daily basis.”

The Australian government has rebuffed suggestions Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is prioritising engagement with China over the US, insisting the defence relationship with the latter has never been stronger.

Assistant Foreign Minister Matt Thistlethwaite was asked to respond to criticism from Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce that Albanese should show the US the same “enthusiasm” as he had shown China on his week-long trip.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visiting the Great Wall of China.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“I don’t think it is about trying to score points with one partner or the other. Australia wants to maintain strong relations with all of our partner nations, and including the United States,” Thistlethwaite told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

“The prime minister sought a meeting with Donald Trump. That meeting was arranged at the G7 but unfortunately Donald Trump [had] to cancel that as a result of Iran.

“We are reaching out to the United States to attempt to arrange an alternative meeting.”

Discussions between Australia and the US, Australia’s most important security ally, were ongoing, Thistlethwaite said.

“The relationship with United States military and the Australian Defence Force has never been stronger,” he said. At the same time, the government was clear in its stance the US’s sanctions were not the act of a friend, he said.

Albanese is set to return to Australia this evening.

In world news, Indian authorities in charge of investigating the crash of Air India flight 171 have issued an appeal for global media to stop publishing “premature narratives” on the disaster.

“It has come to our attention that certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting,” the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said in a statement, released on Friday.

The mother of Clive Kunder, co-pilot of the Air India flight that crashed, mourns during a prayer meeting for Air India crew in Mumbai.Credit: AP

The bureau called the reporting “irresponsible, especially while the investigation remains ongoing”.

“We urge both the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process.”

The appeal comes a day after The Wall Street Journal published a report that the plane’s captain, Sumeet Sabharwal, had cut off the fuel after the plane had taken off.

Aviation experts speculated first officer Clive Kunder had asked Sabharwal why he had turned off the fuel, seconds before the plane plunged into a neighbourhood in Ahmedabad, killing 260 people on board and on the ground.

Indian authorities have been under pressure from the public since the accident to explain whether the crash was caused by the pilot, or there was a mechanical failure of some sort. Full investigations generally take a year or more.

The bureau’s preliminary report, released on July 11, was to provide information “about ‘WHAT’ happened”, it wrote on July 18.

“The preliminary report has to be seen in this light,” the bureau said. “At this stage, it is too early to reach to any definite conclusions.”

As we reported earlier, senior Labor minister Tanya Plibersek says her party is discussing removing rogue MP Mark Latham’s portrait from its wall of former leaders.

Labor is being forced to grapple with the reality of its past after Latham, once a federal opposition leader who ran against John Howard, was accused by his former partner Nathalie Matthews of a “sustained pattern” of abuse – claims he strongly denies.

The portrait of former leader Mark Latham in Labor’s caucus room, as photographed in 2017.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Plibersek, speaking to the ABC, said she cried when Latham became Labor leader in 2003.

Here’s what she said: “Do you know I’ve been a member of parliament for a long time, and the only time I remember going home and having a little cry after work was the day that Mark Latham was elected as leader of the Australian Labor Party.”

This masthead does not suggest the claims against Latham are true, only that they have been made and will be contested in court.

Latham has described leaked messages to media outlets, including sexually explicit messages allegedly sent by him while at parliament, as part of “some personal or political campaign to try and damage me”.

You can read more from Jessica McSweeney here.

In case you missed it earlier, Clive Palmer’s political parties have been hacked in a ransomware cyberattack that they fear have led to the theft of their emails, documents and electronic records, threatening the personal data of all those who have been in contact with them.

In a statement published on the United Australia Party and Trumpet of Patriots websites yesterday, the parties revealed that on June 23 there had been “unauthorised access to our servers resulting in access to, and the possible exfiltration of, certain data records”.

Clive Palmer after the election campaign launch of his Trumpet of Patriots party in April.Credit: Getty Images

The parties said the leak may “potentially include all emails to and from the political parties (including their attachments) and documents and records created and/or held electronically by the political parties at any time in the past”.

They also said the personal information of people who communicated with them, including email addresses, phone numbers, banking records, employment history and confidential documents, may have been leaked.

Click here to read more from Nick Newling.

A regiment of Tiger helicopters have been grounded, and an investigation launched, after one was damaged in the Northern Territory during the Talisman Sabre military war games this week.

The army Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter experienced a “hard landing”, according to Defence, at Timber Creek in the Northern Territory on Wednesday.

An Australian Army ARH Tiger helicopter during exercises in June.Credit: Tadek Markowski

Two crew on board were unharmed and able to exit safely, Defence said in a statement.

“The aircraft sustained damage during the incident,” Defence said.

Click here to read more from Cloe Read and Josh Bavas.

A body has been found in wreckage in the Snowy Mountains after a multi-day search was launched for a plane that went missing during a flight from Victoria.

Police confirmed the body had been located after wreckage of the light plane was spotted by a rescue helicopter near its last known GPS location over Khancoban on Thursday afternoon.

Pilot David Stephens with his 1966 Beechcraft Debonair aircraft.Credit: Lynda Leigh

Bega man David Stephens, 74, was the plane’s sole occupant. His family raised the alarm after the experienced pilot failed to arrive at Moruya Airport after departing from Wangaratta in Victoria.

Police are trying to access the crash site, and are yet to formally identify the body.

“It was a lot of very steep overgrown terrain, so it was difficult to locate initially and also due to those weather conditions,” Riverina Police District Commander Andrew Spliet said today.

“But when that cleared, we were able to get those air assets over the co-ordinates … and that’s when the crash site was identified.”

Click here to read more.