Australia news LIVE: Perrottet, Andrews to team up on Medicare and hospital funding; robo-debt probe told of dole bludger strategy

Thanks for joining us today. Here’s a brief recap of some of our main headlines today:

• The tiny radioactive capsule missing in Western Australia’s outback has been found. WA Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson confirmed the capsule was found after 11am just south of Newman on Wednesday.

• Police have withdrawn a court challenge to a LGBTQ protest which will take place on Thursday near the funeral for cardinal George Pell. Campaign group Community Action for Rainbow Rights applied for police permission to march through inner Sydney for their “Pell go to hell” protest. A new route was negotiated which will see the protest approach College Street, but not go on it.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will deliver the keynote address at Asia’s leading defence summit in June. The organisers of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue announced on Wednesday that Albanese would be the main speaker at the event, which is held each year in Singapore.

• The coffin containing the body of late cardinal George Pell was carried into Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral ahead of tomorrow’s funeral to lie in state today.
• Australia’s wealthiest individuals and biggest companies poured cash into political parties last year in a boost led by mining billionaire Clive Palmer, who dominated campaign finance by giving $117 million to his own political party to secure a single seat in the Senate at the last election.

The tiny radioactive capsule missing in Western Australia’s outback has been found.

WA Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson confirmed the capsule was found after 11am just south of Newman on Wednesday.

Dawson said it was an extraordinary result by for Western Australians and Australians.

The missing radioactive capsule has been found.

The hunt for the 8 millimetre-long silver capsule containing the harmful radioactive substance caesium-137 has been ongoing since January 25 and spanned the 1400-kilometre route the piece of equipment the capsule was contained in took when it went missing earlier this month.

The search involved the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, the Australian Defence Force, and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, which arrived in WA on Tuesday with specialised car-mounted and portable detection equipment.

Authorities believe the capsule fell out of a bolthole in a piece of mining equipment sometime between January 12 and January 16 while in transit to Perth along the Great Northern Highway from Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri iron ore mine in the Pilbara.

The radioactive capsule lost in the West Australia was found this morning. The WA government said it was found in a remote location south of Newman. It will be secured tonight before being sent to a WA health facility tomorrow. More to come.

The Senate’s foreign affairs committee has urged the federal government to take a tougher line against the Iranian regime by expanding sanctions, taking steps to list the much feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation and minimising diplomatic relations with the nation.

On the eve of the report’s release, the Department of Foreign Affairs revealed it had received advice from the Attorney-General’s Department that it was not possible to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation under Australia’s Criminal Code.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age revealed this week that the committee was poised to recommend the revolutionary guard be listed as a terrorist organisation, even as international law experts questioned the legality of such a move.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong pre-empted the report on Wednesday morning by announcing the government would impose Magnitsky-style sanctions on 16 Iranian individuals and one Iranian entity, adding to a previous round of sanctions on Iran in December. Among those being sanctioned are senior law enforcement, political and military figures involved in the violent crackdown on protests following the death of Mahsa “Jina” Amini last year.

The sanctions allow the government to revoke visas, ban travel and seize property from individuals who might try to hide assets in Australia.

The West Australian government is considering beefing up fines and mulling how it can recover costs for the 1400 kilometre-long search for a tiny radioactive capsule which went missing in the state’s outback during transport earlier this month.

The hunt for the 8-millimetre-long silver capsule containing the harmful radioactive substance caesium-137 now involves the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, the Australian Defence Force, and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, which arrived in WA on Tuesday with specialised car-mounted and portable detection equipment.

Experts are using radiation detectors to try and find the unit and may have to perform tests along the entire 1400 km transport route to find it.

Authorities believe the capsule fell out of a bolthole in a piece of mining equipment sometime between January 12 and January 16 while in transit to Perth along the Great Northern Highway from Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri iron ore mine in the Pilbara.

WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said the state had asked its Chief Health Officer Dr Andy Robertson to investigate increased fines for incorrect transportation of radioactive materials, as well as the potential for cost recovery. She said the current $1000 fines, which were written into laws in the 1970s, were “unacceptably low”.

“It probably was a lot of money in the 1970s and this sort of technology wasn’t even imagined,” she said.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke will meet with unions and business leaders next week over industrial reforms being legislated in the second half of this year, following criticism the government didn’t consult enough on its landmark Secure Jobs, Better Pay laws last year.

“The agenda for this year for workplace relations will involve a lot of the election commitments that we hadn’t dealt with last year,” he said, adding that while some legislation would be put to parliament early in 2023, the more “controversial” legislation would be dealt with later.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.Credit: James Brickwood

“The consultation will start next week, so next week I’ve now called a meeting for Wednesday, with both the leading business groups and unions ... to be able to start the consultation now on legislation that won’t be introduced until the second half of this year.“

He said that consultation would with workplace reforms to the gig economy, an overhaul of laws relating to the labour-hire industry, wage theft, and a need to address the major health risks associated with engineered stone.

Australian Industry Group head Innes Willox welcomed the consultation and urged Burke to revisit the practicality of the controversial multi-employer bargaining reforms legislated last year.

Burke also said there was “no doubt” aged care workers would be paid significantly more this year due to the change of government, despite uniform criticism from the industry that the government’s proposal that an interim 15 per cent pay rise for those workers should be staggered over 12 months from July.

Police launched a court case to oppose a protest outside the funeral of cardinal George Pell partly because they feared there would be clashes between mourners and protestors, a senior police officer has said.

The protest by Community Action for Rainbow Rights will proceed from 10.30am on Thursday in Hyde Park, opposite Pell’s funeral in St Mary’s Cathedral, after police reached a compromise with organisers and withdrew the case.

Victims tie ribbons outside St Mary’s Cathedral, where George Pell lies in state.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Organisers initially planned to march on College Street, outside the cathedral, however they have now agreed to stay in the park.

Speaking on Wednesday after police withdrew the case, acting Assistant Commissioner Martin Fileman said it was never the intention of police to stop protest activity, only maintain safety.

“I’m pleased to say today that those negotiations have continued with protest organisers ... a reasonable outcome has been achieved,” he said.

Asked if police were concerned that demonstrators could clash with mourners, Superintendent Fileman said: “yes we are”.

He said thousands of mourners were expected to congregate in the cathedral square, “so it was always a risk”.

“Having that buffer zone in College Street mitigates that risk,” he said.

Kim Stern, one of the protest organisers, said police initially wanted the group to march away from the church and cited safety concerns including ambulances being able to get through.

He said if that had been agreed to, the attendees of the “political spectacle” at the cathedral would have been “very happy”.

“We’re now able to march up, right opposite the church, and have our voices heard -- have a loud, visible, angry rally,” Stern said.

Survivors of abuse in the Catholic Church will be among those to speak at the rally, which will also feature placards and chants.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke says the government isn’t contemplating overturning laws banning unions from charging non-members fees for pay deals brokered on their behalf, despite growing support for the overhaul within the movement.

“There’s been no discussion within government about this issue at all, and we will be flat out on the different issues that we’ll have to deal with to be able to get wages moving,” Burke told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

“In terms of priorities, it’s not in this year’s list, it’s not on next year’s list. It’s not on any lists that I have.“

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.Credit: James Brickwood

The issue is likely to be discussed in a meeting between national union executives this week, after multiple union leaders called for the Howard-era laws to be scrapped amid historically low membership.

Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union secretary Steve Murphy said last month: “Imagine walking into a fishing club or a footy club and demanding all the benefits without being a member. You wouldn’t even get through the door.“

Burke said on Wednesday: “I am not critical of the unions for making that argument. I’m simply saying there is no government policy about to happen, [or] happening.”

One of the Liberal Party’s most respected campaigners has thrown his support behind the Indigenous Voice as part of an expanded board at the peak group that wants to pour millions of dollars into the Yes campaign.

The party’s former federal director, Tony Nutt, went public on Wednesday afternoon about his support for the campaign after joining the board of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition.

Tony NuttCredit: Alex Ellinghausen

The peak group also expanded its board with the addition of Catherine Tanna, a company director and former Reserve Bank board member well known to political leaders in both major parties.

The Liberals are yet to decide whether to allow a conscience vote on the Voice while conservatives in the party room argue for a No vote while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton calls for detail on the proposal.

Nutt was one of the closest advisers to former prime minister John Howard in government and later served as federal director and NSW director of the party, a role that included leading election campaigns.

His move adds a significant figure to the Yes group within the party when politicians such as NSW Senator Andrew Bragg want the party to support the reform at the referendum later this year.

Nutt said in a brief statement that he supported Indigenous recognition at the time of the 1999 debate on a preamble in the constitution and now backed the Voice.

“While the Preamble proposal - which included other material - was not passed by electors, that did not change my personal support for the constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our nation’s Constitution,” he said.

“There will be plenty of public debate and advocacy in coming months and that is as it should be in a great democratic country like ours. In joining the board of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition, my hope is that this advocacy and debate results in a successful Yes vote.”

The AICR is co-chaired by Indigenous film-maker Rachel Perkins and the group’s founder, Danny Gilbert of law firm Gilbert and Tobin. Its board also includes Indigenous leader Noel Pearson, Liberal Party pollster Mark Textor, former Labor adviser Lachlan Harris and business leader Michael Chaney.