As it happened: Labor fast-track social media ban; Richard White apologises at WiseTech AGM

Thanks for reading the national news blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage.

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

• Australia has tip-toed around the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.

• Australians have been charged billions of dollars in illegal merchant fees for federal government services, in a major financial scandal uncovered by the Albanese government.

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers has challenged billionaire Elon Musk on his criticism of the government’s plans to block children under 16 from using social media, saying it is not Australia’s job to please the X owner.

• In NSW, a Sydney teenager has filed a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission after he was banned from attending his school formal because he wore a Palestinian scarf to his graduation.

• In Victoria, prominent neo-Nazis joined a rally hosted by two state Liberal MPs to protest against a lack of consultation over the renaming of a lake in Melbourne’s outer south-east.

• In Queensland, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has confirmed the long-awaited panel to decide on the state’s Olympic venues will be in place by next week.

• In Western Australia, an emperor penguin that swam almost 3500 kilometres from Antarctica to WA in the longest recorded journey for the species has been returned to the wild.

• In business news, the Australian sharemarket rose sharply on Friday to close the week on a new high.

• In world news, far-right Republican Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his bid to become Donald Trump’s attorney-general amid ongoing revelations of alleged sexual misconduct involving an underage girl.

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A federal government push to stem the flow of deliberate lies online is dead in the water after the Greens said they wouldn’t support it.

Labor’s proposed laws don’t effectively address the social media algorithms that fuel misinformation and put the onus on technology giants to decide what is true and false, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young at Parliament House earlier this month.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“We know that mis- and disinformation, and the prolific spread of harmful content is doing harm across the world,” the party’s communications spokeswoman said in Canberra on Friday.

“[But] this was not in the interest of the community. The bill fails to tackle the real problems: the profiteering of the big tech companies on the very content that harms and creates distress for parents and young people.”

If the government wanted to tackle the issue, it must focus on the business models of social media companies, she said.

Under the proposed laws, the communications watchdog would be given powers to monitor and regulate content on digital platforms. Social media companies would be put on notice for failing to address deliberate lies spread on their platforms.

However, the regulator wouldn’t have the authority to issue take-down notices for individual posts as the bill focuses on systemic issues in the online sphere.

The legislation has already been lashed by the opposition and members of the crossbench as an attack on free speech. But the Greens’ decision to block the bill puts the final nail in the coffin, sending another Labor proposal into political purgatory.

AAP

Australia has tip-toed around the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.

As the United States rejected the warrants, and Canada said it would abide by them, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia respected the ICC’s independence but did not endorse or oppose its decision, or say what the government would do if any of the men set foot here.

“Australia respects the independence of the International Criminal Court and its important role in upholding international law,” Wong said in a statement posted to X on Friday.

Read the full story here.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has taken the Coalition’s argument for nuclear power to South Australian airwaves, comparing the Albanese government to “a student guild at a university” and joining Liberal elders in attacking the move to use the Future Fund for government priorities.

In an Adelaide radio interview on Friday morning, Dutton largely spruiked his plan to use public money to build seven nuclear reactors at the sites of former coal power plants across the country. The Coalition has not said how much the plan will cost, but a CSIRO report has found a single reactor would cost $16 billion and take nearly two decades to build.

Peter Dutton in conversation on the floor of the House of Representatives this week.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“If you look at the latest technology that’s being adopted in the Middle East, if you look at what is happening around France, around Europe, otherwise, the rest of the world, I just think we’re embarrassing ourselves on the world stage at the moment,” Dutton said today about Labor’s opposition to nuclear energy.

“The federal government seems to almost be akin [to], more like a student guild at a university than a prime minister and cabinet that is acting responsibly.”

Dutton has largely dismissed concerns about the high cost of nuclear by pointing to the expense of the extra poles and wires needed to connect renewables to the grid. On FiveAA on Friday, he conceded that nuclear reactors would include “a big upfront capital cost, and we’ll release that detail shortly”.

He also backed the criticism led by former prime minister John Howard and former treasurer Peter Costello of the federal government’s proposal to have the $230 billion Future Fund favour investment in housing, renewable energy and cybersecurity infrastructure.

Earlier this afternoon, Chalmers accused Costello of being trapped in the past and being rolled into a “deliberately unhinged” attack.

Earlier on Friday, Dutton said: “The government now is accessing this money for political reasons and I think it’s a disaster.”

Australians have been charged billions of dollars in illegal merchant fees for federal government services, in a major financial scandal uncovered by the Albanese government.

Fees amounting to billions of dollars have been charged over two decades, dating back to the Howard government era, for the use of debit cards to pay for services such as passport renewals, visa applications and tax bills.

The use of Visa and Mastercard debit cards to pay for government services has been illegally attracting merchant fees since the Howard government era.Credit: Christopher Pearce

However, government sources say there are no plans to refund people charged extra for using their debit cards, due to the challenges of auditing tiny fees across government services over so many years.

Read how the scandal was uncovered in the full exclusive story here.

A man has died in a helicopter crash in south-west NSW.

In a statement, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said it had responded to a distress beacon signal about 10am on Friday from a US-registered Super Puma helicopter with two people on board, on a flight from Broken Hill to Albury.

A Victorian Air Ambulance helicopter from Bendigo and an AMSA rescue aircraft launched a search, leading at noon to a crash site near One Tree, about 40 kilometres west of Hay in the western Riverina.

NSW Police said a passenger, a man believed to have been aged in his 40s, was treated by ambulance paramedics, but died at the scene.

The pilot, a 39-year-old man, was treated for minor injuries and later flown to hospital in Melbourne in a stable condition.

NSW firefighters and police have attended the scene. NSW Police said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) would now investigate the cause of the crash.

The head of the federal anti-corruption watchdog has come under fire over the fallout of the former Coalition government’s unlawful debt collection scheme.

National Anti-Corruption Commission head Paul Brereton has just faced a parliamentary inquiry after the watchdog decided not to investigate six people associated with robo-debt.

Inaugural National Anti-Corruption Commission chief Paul Brereton.Credit: AAP

In October, the National Anti-Corruption Commission Inspector Gail Furness found the commissioner engaged in misconduct as he had ties with one of the six in question but did not adequately recuse himself from the decision.

On Friday, Brereton said he recognised he had “prior professional associations” with one of the subjects of referral but wanted to balance his responsibilities as a commissioner with a perception of bias, so he delegated the final decision to the deputy commissioner and excused himself from the meeting at which the decision was made.

“I considered it would have been irresponsible and negligent for me, as a leader of the organisation, to abandon any involvement, provide no guidance, walk away, say it was ‘not my problem’ and leave everyone else to their own devices,” he told the inquiry on Friday afternoon.

“I accept that, through the lens of the legal notion of apprehended bias, I have been found to have made a mistake, for which I am solely responsible. I got that balance wrong. We’re now setting about putting that right.”

Brereton maintained there was a difference between real bias and the inspector’s finding of “apprehended bias”, where a reasonable observer might believe a decision maker is not impartial.

“There is no suggestion of actual bias, nor of any intentional impropriety,” he said. “There is no reflection on my integrity, the mistake is characterised by the inspector as an error of judgment.”

Watch live below to see NACC Inspector Gail Furness testify from 2.45pm.

AAP

Google-owned online video platform YouTube says it is hopeful it will be exempt from the government’s social media ban for children.

In a blog post, local executive Rachel Lord said the tech giant was one of the first to offer a specific platform for children, YouTube Kids.

“Kids’ content creators like the Wiggles and Bounce Patrol entertain and educate through their catchy songs and vibrant videos, while education creators like Eddie Woo have supported many young people in their home learning through the challenging period of COVID-19,” she said.

“We appreciate the government’s recognition that YouTube ‘operates with a significant purpose to enable young people to get the education and health support they need’ and that there needs to be a pathway to preserve access. We also know that details matter and want to ensure that this intention is reflected in the bill itself.

“We understand the complexities of regulating digital platforms, and welcome the government’s intention to adopt a nuanced approach to different services. We will continue to work with the government through collaboration and open dialogue, and are hopeful they will reflect their intention to exempt YouTube in the final bill.”

A testy exchange between a senior Coles executive and the ACCC’s deputy chair has been the highlight of the final day of the consumer watchdog’s supermarket inquiry hearings so far.

Earlier on Friday, ACCC counsel assisting Naomi Sharp, SC, was frustrated in her attempt to clarify a crucial detail with Coles’ chief commercial officer Anna Croft regarding the supermarket’s order volumes with fresh produce suppliers.

Naomi Sharp grills Coles executives at the ACCC hearing on Thursday.

Croft said the supermarket was heavily focused on delivering on its “commitments” to buy from suppliers.

“When you say commitment, what you really mean is ‘non-binding forecast’?” Sharp asked.

In response, Croft said: “We endeavour to deliver our forecasts with all of our suppliers and, where we would not deliver that, we would seek to understand what that is. We go to great lengths to try and understand where we think individual categories will be, but we don’t always get those forecasts right.”

ACCC deputy chairman Mick Keogh then interrupted and said Croft had not answered the question.

“The question was quite specific about the nature of the contractual obligation. You talked about a lot of factors that might be the reason why Coles doesn’t meet that commitment, but you didn’t answer the question about whether it is a legally binding contractual obligation on Coles,” he said.

Croft said she couldn’t add anything more. Coles’ lawyer, Michael Borsky, SC, jumped in, and pointed out the ACCC already has the contractual documents, and that Croft isn’t a lawyer.

Sharp continued her questioning, and Croft started responding by saying Coles has long-term partnerships, but was interrupted again by Sharp, who tried many times to ask if a “commitment” meant something legally binding. This back and forth went on for a while. Sharp asked: “Why won’t you answer my question, Ms Croft?”

Borsky interrupted again. “Chair, I object to the continuation of this line of questioning. It’s impossible that the answers could be of assistance to the inquiry.”

Keogh said this was noted. “I also note that it is an obligation on the witness to answer questions. Perhaps we’ll leave it here for the moment, but we may come back to it.”

The inquiry has adjourned now for lunch, and will return at 2pm AEDT.

Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta has joined billionaire Elon Musk in criticising the government’s social media age limit legislation, warning there may be unintended consequences of enforcing age limits.

A Meta spokesman said the tech giant would respect any age limits introduced by the government, but that the legislation should be consistently applied across apps used by young people, including YouTube and online games.

“We are concerned the government is rushing this legislation without adequate consultation or evidence and there are still many unknowns with respect to its implementation,” the spokesman said.

“The legislation as drafted seems out of step with available research and expert opinions, including those from within the government, academia, industry, mental health organisations, and Australian parents and young people.

“Furthermore, the government’s approach will likely require each app provider to collect personal identification or biometric data from all Australians in order to prevent under 16s from accessing their services, an inefficient and burdensome process for everyone.”

The spokesman said parents need clear, efficient ways to oversee the many apps their children use.

“That’s why we’ve proposed legislation that requires parental approval and age verification at the operating system and app store level, which reduces the burden and minimises the amount of sensitive information shared.”