As it happened: Linda Burney and Brendan O’Connor retire; PM says cabinet reshuffle imminent

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:

• Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor have quit Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s frontbench and will retire from politics at the next election. A cabinet reshuffle to fill their vacancies will be revealed on Sunday.

• Foreign Minister Penny Wong today announced seven Israeli individuals and one entity, a youth group called Hilltop Youth dedicated to establishing settler outposts in the West Bank, would have Magnitsky-style financial sanctions imposed on them.

• A Federal Court judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit alleging weed-killer Roundup causes cancer, but said he could not rule out the possibility that further scientific research could reveal a compelling link.

• In NSW, a Sydney mayor has told police her property director partner pinned her to a bed, knocked her off her feet and smashed several pieces of furniture.

• In Victoria, a Melbourne teacher who used fake qualifications to gain positions as a principal was motivated by the desire for attention and authority, a court has heard today, but he will not spend time behind bars.

• In Queensland, a new government survey has found sports betting has soared in popularity in Queensland and now rakes in more money than all the poker machines in all the clubs across the state.

• In Western Australia, two men died today after their helicopters collided just after taking off on a cattle station in the Kimberley region.

• In business news, Australian shares dived today after a plunge on Wall Street overnight, with tech stocks leading the decline following hefty losses in US giants Tesla and Alphabet.

• In world news, US President Joe Biden spoke for the first time after sensationally withdrawing his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, declaring the defence of democracy was “more important than any title”.

Thanks again for your company. Have a lovely night.

Federal MPs are continuing to pay tribute to the service of retiring Labor ministers Linda Burney and Brendan O’Connor, but the Coalition has questioned the strength of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s leadership as a cabinet reshuffle looms.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with the retiring Brendan O’Connor (left) and Linda Burney.Credit: AAP

Burney, the minister for Indigenous Australians, and O’Connor, the skills and training minister, both announced their retirement from politics at the next election earlier today. The prime minister said a cabinet reshuffle, the first in Labor’s term, will be revealed on Sunday.

This afternoon, Education Minister Jason Clare wrote on social media that he was “privileged to call Linda and Brendan my friends.”

“They have changed the lives of so many Australians for the better and I wish them all the best.”

Shortly before 3pm, Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said: “Brendan O’Connor and Linda Burney are both titans of Labor and fine Australians. They are also great people with wonderful values.”

Agriculture and Emergency Services Minister Murray Watt said: “They are also two of the kindest, most thoughtful, hardest working colleagues you could ever hope to work with.”

Shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham also joined the chorus, saying the outgoing ministers were “put their values front and centre, worked hard, and they are good people”.

“But for Anthony Albanese,” he said, “the test really here is: Does he have the courage to get rid of Andrew Giles as immigration minister? Will he make the changes that are necessary?”

Simon Birmingham, the opposition’s foreign affairs spokesman, has questioned the consistency of the federal government’s sanctions regime after Labor unveiled measures to penalise Israelis involved in expanding territory inside occupied Palestinian areas.

Moments ago on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program, Birmingham was asked whether he supported Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s decision to impose Magnitsky-style financial sanctions on seven Israelis and one entity, a youth group called Hilltop Youth dedicated to establishing settler outposts in the West Bank.

Liberal senator Simon Birmingham.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“We have consistently offered bipartisan support for the government for the use of Magnitsky-style sanctions in targeted, careful ways,” the Liberal senator said in response.

“These are important legislative abilities for governments to send messages and take action, that we put in place as a government. The use of these sanctions is a matter for the government of the day, but ... today’s use highlights some of the inconsistencies of the way the government has applied these sanctions.”

Birmingham said it was for the government to explain what spurred it to announce sanctions today, rather than doing so alongside the United States or the European Union, who did so in February.

“I can’t necessarily see what today’s prompt is for the government,” he said.

“It is one for them to answer. Just as it is for them to answer [why], three years ago, Penny Wong was calling for sanctions and action to be taken in relation to human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region of China.

“Two years ago, a damning human rights report was issued highlighting those human rights abuses. Yet, no such action has been taken by the Albanese government, even though international partners have.

“So again, why the inconsistency? Why has the government chosen to take this action in relation to Israel, but has never taken any action in relation to Xinjiang in China.”

Birmingham later said the Coalition did “recognise the difficulty that those settler activities have created in relation to the pathway to a negotiation two-state solution”.

“Israel is a country with a rule of law, with independent judiciary,” he said. “We have seen charges been laid at different times in relation to settler violence. And our expectation is that Israel should apply the full force of the law in relation to settler violence, or any other violence against individuals.”

A Federal Court judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit alleging weed-killer Roundup causes cancer, but said he could not rule out the possibility that further scientific research could reveal a compelling link.

In a decision delivered on Thursday, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said that the evidence, viewed as a whole, was “not such as to sustain” a causal connection between Roundup, containing the active ingredient glyphosate, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Bottles of Roundup weed killer move along the production line at the herbicide manufacturing facility.Credit: Jasper Juinen

“One thing is plain: the science is not all one way,” Lee said. “One cannot foreclose the possibility that further research may reveal a compelling link.

“It suggests hubris and defies common sense to assume further scientific research and analysis could not mean more definitive conclusions may be able to be drawn … including buttressing the notion that Roundup products are possible carcinogens.”

Kelvin McNickle, who was not present in court, was the lead applicant in the case. The 41-year-old alleged he developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after using Roundup as a child and at work in NSW, and later in Darwin. He was diagnosed in May 2018.

McNickle was unable to attend the trial after his non-Hodgkin lymphoma recurred following a period of remission.

Lee said the key question was whether McNickle had discharged his legal onus of proving on the balance of probabilities that the use of or exposure to Roundup products could increase a person’s risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma or cause them to develop it.

This was “not proven in this proceeding on the balance of probabilities”, he said, but this was “not the same thing as saying affirmatively that it does not”.

He stressed that he was deciding the case on the evidence before him as selected by the parties.

Monsanto, the manufacturer of Roundup, maintained that “glyphosate, glyphosate-based formulations and Roundup products are not carcinogenic at all, and do not cause or increase an individual’s risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma,” Lee said of the company’s position in a preliminary judgment last year.

McNickle alleged that from July 1976 to July 2022, “glyphosate, glyphosate-based formulations and Roundup Products (which have glyphosate as a component) were carcinogenic to humans”, Lee said in that judgment. Monsanto’s primary position was to “reject this contention completely”, Lee said.

In a statement, Monsanto’s owner Bayer said: “Bayer remains committed to supporting Australian farmers by ensuring safe-for-use and effective products such as Roundup continue to be available.”

It said the decision was “consistent with worldwide regulatory and scientific assessments”.

Six Victorian ambulance service workers have been stood down and are under investigation over an alleged $3.5 million embezzling scam.

Ambulance Victoria on Thursday confirmed the staff members were suspended after allegations of serious misconduct.

Chief executive Jane Miller was tipped off to the accusations by an employee in early 2023. The matter was then to referred to Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog and Ambulance Victoria launched an internal investigation.

“This process remains under way,” an Ambulance Victoria spokesperson said in a statement. “As this matter is under investigation, it is not appropriate to provide any further comment.”

The suspended members of the payroll department have been accused of claiming overtime for hours they did not work and not logging on for rostered shifts, multiple outlets report. The Herald Sun reported the workers allegedly embezzled $3.5 million from the government agency.

Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill confirmed the accused workers were not paramedics or operational staff.

“Sadly, paramedics responding to emergencies have reported being abused by members of the public this morning with reference to this story,” he said. “They have absolutely no involvement in this matter and deserve to be treated respectfully.”

Premier Jacinta Allan said she was made aware of the allegations on Wednesday and slammed the implicated staff.

“I’m deeply concerned about ... the allegations of this disgraceful behaviour,” she told reporters on Thursday.

AAP

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says international students “shouldn’t be in the line” to access food hampers for those struggling to afford food amid a cost-of-living crisis, arguing instead that Australian citizens should be prioritised.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, right, and Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor outside Canberra July 4.Credit: James Brickwood

Earlier today, Sydney radio station 2GB host Ben Fordham claimed some international students with “expensive watches and cameras” were filming “unboxing” videos for YouTube using free Foodbank hampers.

“Surely, the university should be explaining to these students, these food hampers are for people who can’t afford to feed themselves?” Fordham asked Dutton.

The Liberal leader responded: “Well, of course Ben. We’ve got to take care of Australians first.”

Fordham later asked Dutton specifically: “[S]hould the universities be educating the foreign students … to understand exactly what these food hampers are for?”

In response, Dutton said:

But Ben, they shouldn’t be in the line in the first place.

The food hampers are being provided to Australian citizens who are in need – pensioners, people who have lost their jobs, people who are victims of domestic violence, people who, at the moment under this government, are working as hard as they’ve ever worked, but they still need Foodbank assistance because they can’t afford to pay their mortgage or their insurance bill.

So that has to be the priority, particularly where taxpayer funds are going into providing extra support to Foodbank, not for international students.

Remnants of an Italian military jet are being recovered from a remote area south of Darwin after a pilot had a narrow escape yesterday during a major military training exercise.

RAAF Air Commodore Pete Robinson today said preliminary investigations showed there was an “issue” with the Eurofighter 2000 Typhoon and Wednesday’s crash during the biennial Exercise Pitch Black event did not involve another plane.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with the wider Pitch Black construct or another aircraft involved in the exercise,” he told reporters in Darwin on Thursday.

Participants from all 20 countries taking part, including those from Italy who were participating in the exercises for the first time in their 43-year history, resumed flying on Thursday after planes were grounded for nearly 24 hours.

The pilot was released from Royal Darwin Hospital after precautionary scans confirmed he had sustained no injuries, despite ejecting from a plane at “hundreds of miles per hour”, Robinson said.

The pilot slowed the plane before ejecting over an area of pastoral land 220km south of Darwin, near Daly River.

Robinson said foreign pilots were briefed about snakes and crocodiles across the Top End, so the Italian aviator who ejected “had some time thinking in the parachute on the way down.”

“But he has actually hit the ground in good condition and our ability to recover him quickly has got him back into hospital,” Robinson said.

The pilot steered the plane away from any built-up areas before it plummeted into pastoral land, causing a small fire 12km south of the remote community of Nauiyu.

AAP

A Chinese state-owned multinational food-processing giant has been accused by Australia’s corporate watchdog of manipulating the nation’s wheat market prices dozens of times.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has sued local subsidiaries of China Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO), accusing it of manipulating settlement prices and driving up costs for consumers.

A farmer operates a combine harvester as a tractor hauls a grain cart during a harvest at a farm near Gunnedah, New South Wales.Credit: Bloomberg

The alleged manipulation took place on 34 occasions between January and March 2022.

A wheat trader at China Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation International Australia, named in ASIC filings to the Federal Court as Nicholas McGaw, allegedly made a series of offers late in the afternoon as the ASX24 derivatives market approached its daily close.

ASIC alleges the offers were not genuine trades and were instead designed to affect daily settlement prices.

The regulator alleges McGaw told investment bank JP Morgan in an email the company was protecting its short position on the contracts from another party bidding to push the price up.

About a third of the offered trades were completed and had the desired effect of causing the daily settlement price to be calculated as lower than it otherwise would have been, ASIC alleges.

The trades were allegedly worth almost $100,000.

The corporate watchdog is seeking pecuniary penalties and declarations of contravention in the court.

AAP has contacted China Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation’s Australian office for comment.

The company is yet to file a defence and a court date is yet to be scheduled.

AAP

Australian shares slid deeper into red at lunchtime following a plunge on Wall Street overnight, led by hefty losses in US technology giants Tesla and Alphabet.

The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 79.6 points, or 1 per cent, to 7884.1 about 11.50am AEST amid a broad sell-off across all 11 sectors.

Tech stocks fell sharply (down 2.7 per cent), while energy stocks (down 0.1 per cent) steadied as oil rose 1.3 per cent to $US82.06 a barrel after four days of declines.

Mining giant Fortescue tumbled 4.2 per cent after its latest trading update missed investor expectations.

The slide in the local market comes after US stock indexes had their worst losses since 2022 after profit reports from Tesla and Alphabet helped suck momentum from Wall Street’s frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology.

Keep updated with our market wrap here.

How easily can an e-scooter be tampered with to make it go faster? A coroner is grappling with this question as he investigates a rider’s death in Melbourne.

Moustafa Abou-Eid, 28, was travelling 50km/h, more than double the legal e-scooter speed limit, when he hit a speed bump in the city’s north and crashed in September 2022.

An e-scooter rider on Southbank Promenade in Melbourne.Credit: Penny Stephens

Speed limiters on e-scooters are supposed to prevent them from travelling at more than 25km/h and the current legal limit in Victoria is 20km/h.

Abou-Eid, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from the standing platform of the scooter with his head hitting the bitumen. He died in hospital from injuries sustained in the crash, about eight days later, on September 30.

Coroner Paul Lawrie is investigating the circumstances of the crash, Abou-Eid’s scooter riding experience and the design of the Kaabo Mantis 10 Elite e-scooter he was using.

That model was capable of travelling up to 60km/h, the Victorian Coroners Court was told on Thursday.

Lawrie is also examining the design, power output and top speeds of the Kaabo Mantis scooter and similar e-scooters, to look at opportunities to prevent further deaths. This includes an area of “significant interest” around speed limiting devices, he said.

Laws regulating e-scooter use vary across Australia.

Last week, the Victorian government announced e-scooters would be legalised in October following a two-year trial. In NSW, a trial was introduced earlier this year for a small part of the Georges River Council area around Kogarah and five other zones outside Sydney.

E-scooters are already legal in many countries and in Western Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT. In South Australia, the state government revealed laws to legalise privately owned e-scooters in June, proposing a speed limit of 25km/h on roads.

AAP with Lachlan Abbott