As it happened: Wong hits back at Keating over birth country ‘lecture’; Optus pays $1.5 million fine for emergency service breaches

Thanks for joining us for another day of live blogging. To wrap up today’s coverage, here’s a quick run down of what made news.

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the latest national accounts figures showed economic growth was subdued but steady, as the economy grappled with higher interest rates, high – but easing – inflation, and global uncertainty.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers came to the defence of Foreign Minister Penny Wong against attacks from former prime minister Paul Keating.
• Qantas Airways has been fined $250,000 by the NSW District Court which found it unlawfully stood down a former worker who raised COVID-19 concerns.
• The Greens unveiled their housing plan, which they claim would allow 360,000 affordable homes to be built over five years, in a proposal the Property Council boss called a ‘dystopia’.
• In Victoria, the upper house will debate whether to appoint an independent arbiter who could force the Allan government to publish a report into a possible second safe injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD.
• Overseas, three days of negotiations with Hamas over a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages failed to achieve a breakthrough, less than a week before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
• And in the US, Donald Trump and Joe Biden were the winners of their respective party’s Super Tuesday contests, with the results almost guaranteeing a rematch of the 2020 election.

Thanks again for joining us. The blog will be back first thing tomorrow.

Iconic swimwear brand Tigerlily has collapsed into voluntary administration for the second time in four years.

External administrators were appointed this week. The brand was founded more than two decades ago by Jodhi Meares, the former wife of James Packer, and sold to Billabong International.

Retailer Tigerlily has fallen into administration for the second time in four years.

Private equity firm Crescent Capital bought the company for $60 million in 2017.

Crescent Capital appointed Deloitte to help sell the business last year.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he is ‘very concerned’ about recent events in the South China Sea his final press conference of the ASEAN-Australia summit in Melbourne.

On Tuesday it was reported vessels from the Philippines and China had collided in disputed territory in the South China Sea, injuring four sailors.

Chinese militia ships are seen as Philippine ships conduct a resupply mission to troops stationed in the South China Sea on Tuesday.Credit: Getty

“Australia is concerned about any unsafe and destabilising behaviour in the South China Sea,” he said.

“It is dangerous, and it creates risks of miscalculation, which can then lead to escalation.”

Albanese called on nations to abide by the UN Convention on the Law of Sea.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has come to the defence of Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who today became the longest serving female cabinet minister in Australia’s history, against attacks from former prime minister Paul Keating.

Paul Keating took aim at Foreign Minister Penny Wong.Credit: Screenshot/Rhett Wyman

On Tuesday, Keating renewed his criticism of Wong, and accused Anthony Albanese of being at odds with South-East Asian leaders as the prime minister hosts a special ASEAN summit in Melbourne.

When asked for his thoughts, Albanese began by heaping praise on Wong.

But he was then asked more directly if he would “urge Paul Keating to stop using the personalised language against Penny Wong?”

This is how he answered.

I know Paul and respect him. Paul, I think doesn’t need advice from myself. It is up to him but people are accountable for what they say. Paul is accountable for what he says. He knows that. On Penny Wong, I think quite clearly he is wrong.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held and unexpected press conference after delivering a speech at the ASEAN-Australia special summit in Melbourne.

He touched on a number of topics, including the discussions of the conference and the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza.

Australia Anthony Prime Minister Albanese speaks at his final news conference at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit.Credit: Getty

On the latter issue, Albanese was asked if he would follow Canada in re-instating funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, known as UNRWA, after various countries paused funding following claims employees participated in the October 7 attacks.

Albanese’s answer was as follows:

We will make an assessment at an appropriate time, but we have input and when it comes to UNRWA, we doubled the funding. More than $20 million going forward, has been provided for UNRWA.

We have expressed our deep concern about the humanitarian crisis that we see ongoing in Gaza. We remain concerned about that. We want as we have said on numerous occasions, we want humanitarian assistance to be able to be delivered to the people of Gaza. This is a dire and catastrophic circumstance that we see and we want people to have access to appropriate support and just the essentials of life.”

A marathon mediation hearing in the defamation row between Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds and her former staffer Brittany Higgins has so far failed to yield a resolution, with a second day of planned peace talks abandoned.

Brittany Higgins (centre) arrives at the Perth Supreme Court alongside lawyers Leon Zwier and Teresa Ward for a mediation session with former boss Linda Reynolds.Credit: Trevor Collens.

The ex-Liberal staffer, her fiancé David Sharaz and the senator spent more than nine hours in a mediation hearing at the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Tuesday at the request of Justice Marcus Solomon, who has been determined to stave off the need for a trial.

The trio had been due to return to court on Wednesday afternoon for a strategic conference, but that hearing has since been vacated.

It is understood the mediation has been postponed until a later date.

Click the link to read the full story.

Three days of negotiations with Hamas over a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages failed to achieve a breakthrough Tuesday, Egyptian officials said, less than a week before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the informal deadline for a deal.

The nearly five months of fighting left much of Gaza in ruins and created a worsening humanitarian catastrophe, with many, especially in the devastated northern region, scrambling for food to survive.

“We must get more aid into Gaza,” US President Joe Biden said Tuesday. “There’s no excuse. None.”

Palestinians rescue survivors after an Israeli strike in Rafah.Credit: AP

Aid groups have said it has become nearly impossible to deliver supplies within most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent weeks trying to broker an agreement in which Hamas would release up to 40 hostages in return for a six-week cease-fire, the release of some Palestinian prisoners and a major influx of aid to the isolated territory.

Two Egyptian officials said that the latest round of discussions ended on Tuesday. They said Hamas presented a proposal that mediators would discuss with Israel in the coming days. One of the officials said that mediators would meet Wednesday with the Hamas delegation, which didn’t leave Cairo.

Hamas has refused to release all of the estimated 100 hostages it holds, and the remains of around 30 more, unless Israel ends its offensive, withdraws from Gaza and releases a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including senior militants serving life sentences.

US officials have said that they are sceptical that Hamas actually wants a deal, because the group has balked at a number of what the US and others believe are legitimate requests, including giving the names of hostages to be released.

AP

A former immigration detainee and convicted sex offender wrongfully arrested by police last week is exploring taking legal action after he spent the night in prison over allegations which proved to be false.

Victoria Police could be taken to court over the high-profile wrongful arrest.Credit: Darrian Traynor

Alfons Pirimapun was arrested on Wednesday last week in Richmond, in Melbourne’s inner city, and charged with stalking and sexual assault. Pirimapun, wearing an ankle bracelet and subject to a curfew, was held in custody overnight.

Read the full story here.

As Foreign Minister Penny Wong makes history as Australia’s longest serving female cabinet minister, Matthew Knott has written a great piece of analysis on Wong’s career and what’s led her to being one of our most popular and enduring politicians.

Below is an extract from Knott’s article. Click here to read the full story.

Two thousand, seven hundred and sixty-nine days. That’s how long Penny Wong has served in cabinet, a record that on Wednesday saw her overtake Amanda Vanstone as the longest-serving female cabinet minister in Australian history.

Wong’s staying power at the highest levels of Australian politics could not have been predicted when she entered the Senate in 2002, a time when John Howard-style conservatism was in ascendance. Being a Malaysian-born, openly gay woman hardly seemed like the ticket to political longevity or popularity – yet she has achieved both.”

Penny Wong is Australia’s longest-serving female cabinet minister.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has defended his decision to fly to Perth to drop in to billionaire Gina Rinehart’s birthday party, before returning to the east coast one hour later.

“I was very proud to be a Gina Rinehart’s 70th birthday, I consider her to be a dear friend,” Dutton said.

A promotional video from Hancock Prospecting shows Opposition Leader Peter Dutton with Gina Rinehart and Roy Hill CEO Gerhard Veldsman.Credit: Hancock Prospecting

The very brief visit was first reported by the Australian Financial Review on Sunday. The AFR noted Dutton went from question time in Canberra on Thursday afternoon to Rinehart’s party in Perth on Thursday night, and yet was in Melbourne on the Dunkley campaign trail by Friday morning.

Dutton also clarified that he had paid for the travel.

“She’s a friend of mine, and I was happy to go [to Perth] at my own expense to her birthday and I don’t resile from it at all,” he said.

“If people in the Labor Party want to trash Gina Rinehart, as Australia’s most successful businesswoman, let them instead of making background comments come out and say that.”