Australia news LIVE: Former foreign minister says Australia should demand Assange release; Omicron wave was twice the size of recorded cases

That's all for today, thanks for reading our live coverage. Here are some of the headlines:

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he stands by comments he made last year about Julian Assange’s situation but will continue lobbying behind the scenes instead of publicly. In December Albanese said “enough is enough” and that it was time for Assange to be returned to Australia. Australia should demand the freedom of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange by citing the precedent set when the United States pardoned others for revealing state secrets, former foreign minister and NSW premier Bob Carr has declared.
• World swimming’s governing body has effectively banned transgender women from competing in women’s events, starting from Monday. FINA members widely adopted a new “gender inclusion policy” on Sunday that only permits swimmers who transitioned before age 12 to compete in women’s events. The organisation also proposed an “open competition category”.
• NSW Treasurer Matt Kean says former deputy premier John Barilaro’s appointment to a plum posting in New York was the result of a “proper process,” despite the position not being presented to cabinet.
• Senate results for both NSW and Victoria have been released by the AEC, with Clive Palmer’s well-funded $100 million election campaign delivering a last-gasp parliamentary position, with UAP candidate Ralph Babet claiming the final spot in the Senate for Victoria.
• An Australian woman has allegedly been hacked to death with an axe by her father-in-law in northern Pakistan following an argument about bringing her children back home to Australia. She had wanted to return to Australia to give the children a better education but her parents-in-law had confiscated the family’s passports and opposed the move.

We'll be back early tomorrow morning. Have a good evening.

The ASX 200 has closed in the red for a seventh consecutive session, closing 0.6 per cent lower at 6433.4 points, with energy and mining stocks the biggest drag on the market.

Mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto both slumped by more than 5 per cent as iron ore prices dropped. But it was Fortescue that posted the biggest fall among the major miners, declining by 8.6 per cent, as the materials sector shed almost 5 per cent during the session.

Energy stocks were the worst-performing sector as oil prices edged lower, with Woodside 4.9 per cent lower and Santos dropping by 6 per cent.

The fall in oil and iron ore prices comes as central banks around the world begin to lift interest rates to tackle inflation, which some investors fear could trigger a recession and limit demand for key commodities.

Read more here.

Here are a few other highlights from the PM's radio interview:

Energy

• “The situation is looking better today than it was five days ago.”
• “These have been difficult times, but we will examine in an orderly way if there needs to be any policy changes.”
• “There is nothing to have stopped a coal-fired power station being built over the last decade or more, except for reality, except for the market. The market is determining the direction and the direction of new energy policy in Australia is that overwhelmingly it is going to renewables because that is ... the cheapest form.”
• “If we could wave a magic wand and have 100 per cent renewables tomorrow, with firming capacity, with battery storage and all of that, then great. But the truth is that that's not possible.”

Albanese tries out some augmented reality glasses, used to simulate tunnelling equipment, during a tour today. Credit: Justin McManus

Economy

• “I'm confident that the economy will continue to grow, which means that we won't be in that circumstance [of a recession].”
• “The Reserve Bank have made it clear, as have the Fair Work Commission, that they don't see any evidence of a wage-price spiral developing. What we had last week was a decision by the Fair Work Commission of a 5.2 per cent increase for people on the minimum wage. They essentially said that if you're one of the poorest paid workers in Australia, you shouldn't have a real wage cut and good on them for doing so.”
• “I'm optimistic about Australia's future ... and I feel determined to do everything I can to realise the vision that I have for a government that leads a country that's making more things here, that's providing opportunities for people to not be left behind, for the disadvantaged and to look after vulnerable people and bring them along with us, but also to look after aspiration and opportunity.”
• “We have an opportunity to be a renewable energy superpower if we get it right, if we seize those opportunities which are there before us right now.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he won't publicly pressure the United States to release Julian Assange, the Australian publisher and activist behind Wikileaks.

The UK on Friday agreed to extradite Assange to the US to face charges under the Espionage Act relating to the leaking and publication of the WikiLeaks cables a decade ago.

“These issues are sometimes, of course, best dealt with diplomatically and I intend to do that. I don't intend to make any further comments. The Attorney-General and Foreign Minister put out a very clear statement, consistent with what I said last year, in the last few days,” Albanese told ABC Radio Melbourne.

“I have no intention of conducting the international relations I hold as prime minister according to Andrew Wilkie’s tweets or comments.

“I intend to represent the nation in a way that the nation I think overwhelmingly would expect - and certainly world leaders do.

“I've got no problem with Andrew Wilkie saying whatever he wants to say as a crossbench independent member of parliament. That's up to him, but I have a different responsibility and I intend to conduct myself in an appropriate way.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, while still opposition leader in December, said “enough is enough” and that it was time for Assange to be returned to Australia.

Top Australian swimmers are divided on FINA’s decision to restrict the participation of transgender athletes in elite women’s swimming.

Madeline Groves, a former national champion swimmer who won a butterfly silver medal at the 2016 Rio Games, took exception to former teammate Cate Campbell’s comments and was scathing of FINA’s ruling.

Madeline Groves has voiced her dismay at the decision.Credit: Getty Images

“You’re okay with ostracising an already marginalised group? Real accepting,” the 27-year-old Australian said on social media.

“Shame on everyone that supported this discriminatory and unscientific decision.”

Earlier, four-time Olympic champion Cate Campbell told FINA’s extraordinary general congress that she supported a restriction on transgender athletes competing in women’s categories and urged people to “listen to the science and experts”.

“Women, who have fought long and hard to be included and seen as equals in sport, can only do so because of the gender category distinction,” Campbell said before delegates voted in favour of the ban.

“To remove that distinction would be to the detriment of female athletes everywhere.”

Read more here.

Former federal MP Gladys Liu has confirmed she has nominated for Liberal Party preselection to contest a Victorian upper house seat, saying she had “fire in my belly” after losing her ultra-marginal seat of Chisholm last month.

Liu said the state opposition needed an experienced team to take on Daniel Andrews and the Labor Party at the November election, and announced she had nominated to represent the Liberal Party in the North-East Metropolitan Region.

Gladys Liu with Scott Morrison during the federal election campaign. Credit: James Brickwood

“My political career was terminated prematurely due to a massive national swing against the Liberals and the fact that my seat was heavily and unfairly targeted,” Liu said in a statement to The Age.

“I believe I still have a lot to offer. I started as a state candidate in this upper house region and progressed to have a career as an adviser to the then-premiers Ted Baillieu and Denis Napthine. I am now coming back with a lot more experience under my belt.”

Read more here.

The “fear of missing out” that characterised so much of the investing landscape over the past two years is disintegrating into another, much simpler emotion: fear itself.

For Nikole Vicente, that meant watching her crypto portfolio plunge about 50 per cent since November, wiping away $US30,000 ($43,250).

Bitcoin fell below $US20,000 on the weekend.Credit: Bloomberg

The 30-year-old Canadian had been investing in crypto on the side, but when the wellness company where she worked was sold in February she decided to take the opportunity to move exclusively into crypto. She moved to Mexico using her earnings, which came primarily from the DeFi space and alt coins.

Now, she’s pivoted to helping people market their crypto projects on Twitter, and is positioning her portfolio more toward stablecoins and “blue chip” cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

“With the recession looming and inflation, everyone has this fear and everyone in the crypto market also reacts to that fear,” she said. “That’s scary when holding on for dear life.”

Read more here.

Bloomberg

Queensland is about to become the most expensive state for rule-breaking motorists.

But while the state government defends its efforts to lower the road toll, there are warnings the fine hike will disproportionately affect those already disadvantaged by poverty and rising cost-of-living pressures.

From July 1, Queensland will have by far the nation’s biggest fines for handling a mobile phone while driving and not wearing a seatbelt.

At the same time, through what the government called its Queensland Road Safety Strategy 2022-31, speeding fines will also skyrocket.

Driving up to 10km/h over the limit will attract a $287 fine, up from $183. For 11-20km/h over the limit, the fine will rise from $275 to $431; for 21-30km/h, $459 to $646; for 31-40km/h, $643 to $1078; and for more than 40km/h, from $1286 to $1653.

Read more here.

The Australian Electoral Commission has confirmed the Senate results for Western Australia, the last state to be declared.

The six successful candidates, in order of election, are:

• Sue Lines – Labor
• Michaelia Cash – Liberal
• Glenn Sterle – Labor
• Dean Smith – Liberal
• Dorinda Cox – Greens
• Fatima Payman – Labor

Earlier today United Australia Party candidate Ralph Babet snagged Victoria's final spot, beating the Liberal Party's Greg Mirrabella.

The tally of the Senate’s 76 seats is now complete and includes 32 for the Coalition, 26 for Labor, 12 for the Greens, two for both One Nation and the Jacqui Lambie Network, and one for the United Australia Party and independent David Pocock.

With AAP

Thanks for reading our live news blog today. Here’s a recap of what has been making headlines:

• The consumer watchdog has kicked off an investigation of the energy market following a dramatic spike in electricity prices. ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the investigation would include an assessment of the prices power companies are charging for electricity and any regulation changes that may be needed to improve market function.

• World swimming’s governing body has effectively banned transgender women from competing in women’s events, starting from Monday. FINA members widely adopted a new “gender inclusion policy” on Sunday that only permits swimmers who transitioned before age 12 to compete in women’s events. The organisation also proposed an “open competition category”.

• Australia should demand the freedom of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange by citing the precedent set when the United States pardoned others for revealing state secrets, former foreign minister and NSW premier Bob Carr has declared.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he stands by comments he made last year about Julian Assange’s situation. In December Albanese said “enough is enough” and that it was time for Assange to be returned to Australia. Assange’s wife Stella Moris, a human rights lawyer, told ABC RN Breakfast this morning she felt there had been a positive “shift” in Australian government sentiment in favour of her husband since the federal election.
• NSW Treasurer Matt Kean says former deputy premier John Barilaro’s appointment to a plum posting in New York was the result of a “proper process,” despite the position not being presented to cabinet.
• Senate results for both NSW and Victoria have been released by the AEC, with Clive Palmer’s well-funded $100 million election campaign delivering a last-gasp parliamentary position, with UAP candidate Ralph Babet claiming the final spot in the Senate for Victoria.
• States will gain the right to decide whether coal and gas will be part of a national scheme to reward power generators who can meet the urgent need for new electricity supplies, with the peak energy regulator saying Australia must build 50 times the capacity of the original Snowy Hydro scheme by 2050.
• But Greens leader Adam Bandt says the new scheme to potentially reward coal and gas businesses for generating reliable supply would “prolong the transition to renewables” in Australia after they held the energy market to “ransom”.

I’m off for the day, Pallavi Singhal will be taking over our live blog for the rest of Monday. Thanks again for your company and hope you have a lovely start to the week.