Thanks so much for reading the national news blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage.
Here’s a quick look back at the day’s major stories:
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has asked the Labor Party to suspend the CFMEU from the state branch and to bar all political donations from the construction division during this period, following the investigation by this masthead which included unprecedented details of senior bikie figures and criminals being parachuted into lucrative union roles. She said the rotten culture needed to be “pulled out by its roots”.
Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto called Allan’s response “pathetic”, calling for the CMFEU to be pulled off major taxpayer-funded projects and removed from the Labor Party permanently.
- In NSW, Premier Chris Minns called for the state’s CFMEU secretary, Darren Greenfield, to step down from his position and flagged that he was prepared to launch an inquiry into the union if any specific allegations came to light in his state.
- Former union boss and federal minister Bill Shorten told ABC Radio the CMFEU revelations provided a once-in-a-generation chance to “straighten out” the union movement, noting unions should not use “middle men and hack gangers” to secure better conditions for workers.
Donald Trump says he’s “supposed to be dead” as a sprawling investigation began into his attempted assassination and how a 20-year-old gunman was able to get within firing range of the former president, Farrah Tomazin writes. Investigators were still trying to work out what motivated the gunman, nursing home worker Thomas Matthew Crooks, to carry out the attack.
Australia is facing an unprecedented threat from three different strains of bird flu. The CSIRO revealed on Monday genetic sequencing had revealed three different strains of H7 – a highly pathogenic avian influenza – had hit Australian farms at roughly the same time.
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that King Charles III and Queen Camilla will visit Australia in October, with New South Wales and Canberra on the itinerary.
- The embattled Star Entertainment Group switched off all electronic gaming machines and electronic table games in its three casinos after planned upgrades to its systems ran into performance issues.
- Former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins announced she is expecting her first child with husband David Sharaz.