As it happened: PFAS parliamentary inquiry announced; new laws to stop pets being weaponised in divorce

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:

• ABC managing director David Anderson has announced his resignation from the public broadcaster 3½years before the end of his second term in the role. The announcement came five months after new ABC chairman Kim Williams took up his post, a period in which he has been critical of the organisation. Anderson told ABC Melbourne radio the greatest challenge he’s faced as the broadcaster’s leader is protecting his staff as they do a “public service for all Australians”.
• Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Leanne Close told the West Australian Supreme Court of her shock after discovering she was “in the middle of a potential crime scene” midway through a meeting with Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds about Brittany Higgins′ alleged rape.
• Federal parliament will hold a broad-ranging national inquiry into the dangers posed by cancer-causing “forever chemicals” to the Australian public. The announcement of the probe follows months of sustained pressure over revelations from this masthead that the substances are circulating in Australian drinking water and hundreds of household products.
• The Tongan government has invited mercurial billionaire Elon Musk to attend the Pacific Islands Leaders forum in Tonga next week. If he chooses to accept the invite, offered in recognition of the role his Starlink satellite internet service plays in providing telecommunications services to Pacific Islanders, Musk will rub shoulders with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and an array of leaders from across the Pacific.

• And in business news, the local sharemarket has finished higher for a tenth straight day, its longest winning streak since December 2015, after US stocks ticked higher overnight on the back of better-than-expected company earnings.

Thanks again for joining us. This is Cassandra Morgan, signing off.

Chief political correspondent David Crowe writes that Treasurer Jim Chalmers managed to get under Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s skin during question time this week:

Treasurer Jim Chalmers had a sharp line in parliament this week when he ridiculed the Opposition Leader for asking so many questions about Palestinians. Chalmers had good cause for some targeted mockery: while Australians are caught in an economic crunch, Peter Dutton spends all his time talking about a foreign war.

“All we get from those opposite is another day of doubling down on divisiveness and diversion,” Chalmers said at the end of question time on Tuesday. The treasurer highlighted a demonstrable truth: that shadow treasurer Angus Taylor had been mostly silent while Dutton had made every question about people fleeing the war in Gaza. That followed an earlier jibe from Chalmers – that Dutton will not even give Taylor a turn on the dog whistle.

“Every single question was on the Middle East and not one single question was on middle Australia,” Chalmers said on Tuesday. He was right. The Coalition has barely mentioned the cost of living in parliament this week.

Read David Crowe’s full opinion piece here.

The Australian sharemarket has finished higher for a tenth straight day, its longest winning streak since December 2015, after US stocks ticked higher overnight on the back of better-than-expected company earnings.

The S&P/ASX 200 rose 16.50 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 8,027.00, with most sectors in the green, led by information technology (up 1.9 per cent), while healthcare and financial stocks tracked down slightly, and utilities dropped 0.5 per cent.

Wall Street is higher across the board.Credit: AP

WiseTech was the biggest large cap advancer yet again, climbing 7.8 per cent following its gains on Wednesday, when the logistics software developer reported a 28 per cent jump in revenue. The stock hit a record high of more than $122 during the session. CEO Richard White, who owns a 35.2 per cent stake, saw his personal wealth leap by some $3.4 billion to more than $14 billion over two days.

You can read our full five-minute recap of the trading day here.

The Greens fear Labor is working towards “even more of a user-pays” aged care model as the government keeps up talks with the Coalition.

Leader Adam Bandt told ABC Afternoon Briefings his party would look to tax reform to overhaul aged care, sticking with the principle that, “in a society where one in three corporations pays no tax and a nurse pays more tax than a multinational, something is wrong”.

Here’s what Bandt had to say:

“One of the things we have seen this week is that as the election gets closer, Labor is choosing to work much more closely with the Liberals than the Greens to rip money out of the NDIS, and now if the reports are correct, working with the Coalition to move aged care towards even more of a user-pays model.

“The more and more that Labor and the Liberals do these deals to say we are going to shift the costs down onto everyday people, instead of taking on the big corporations who are paying no tax or reining in the unfair tax breaks for those very wealthy and the billionaires, I think people will wonder, what kind of society are we going to end up living in?

“If we make the big corporations pay their fair share of tax, we can fund things … but it seems that Labor would much rather work with the Liberals.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is heading to the Pacific Islands Leaders forum in Tonga next week. So is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, alongside an array of leaders from across the Pacific.

The ostensible heavy hitters at the summit, however, could be overshadowed by the arrival of the world’s richest man: the mercurial billionaire and Tesla tycoon Elon Musk.

Elon Musk has been invited to the Pacific Islands Leaders forum.Credit: Bloomberg

The Tongan government has invited Musk to attend the leaders’ forum, in recognition of the crucial role he plays in providing telecommunications services to Pacific Islanders through his Starlink satellite internet service.

While Musk has not formally accepted the invitation, there are tentative hopes among organisers that he may be tempted to make the trip.

In 2022 Starlink offered a free high-speed internet service to connect remote villages in Tonga that were cut off from undersea cable services following a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Vanuatu have granted licenses for Starlink to operate in their nations, and in July Tonga offered Starlink a “provisional temporary permit” to operate in the country.

Pacific leaders will discuss climate financing initiatives and efforts to boost regional policing services at the leaders forum next week.

Outgoing ABC managing director David Anderson says the greatest challenge he’s faced as the broadcaster’s leader is protecting his staff as they do a “public service for all Australians”.

“Whether it’s holding people [to] account, or they’re reporting on stories that will get a lot of public feedback, [you have to consider] is the organisation doing its best to protect them while they do their work,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.

ABC Managing Director David Anderson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“That is a constant challenge that has happened over that period of time.

“There were particular challenges that relate to that throughout the last six years, and started when I stepped into the role when I was acting after the former managing director and chair left abruptly.

“Soon after that, we had the [Australian Federal Police] raids, we had certain pressure on certain staff … we needed to protect not only them, but the concept of public interest journalism.”

When asked about who would be next in the role, Anderson said his successor would be determined by an independent recruitment process.

However, he said there were people within the organisation who would be candidates for the role.

The opening date of the Parramatta light rail has been delayed again after the government’s latest tests on the nearly $3 billion project, which began in December last year, uncovered power supply problems and issues with Opal card readers.

The light rail, stretching 12 kilometres from Westmead to Carlingford through the Parramatta CBD, was due to open in the middle of this year after earlier being delayed from late 2023.

But Transport Minister Jo Haylen confirmed this afternoon the project would most likely open towards the end of the year.

The Parramatta light rail was due to open in the middle of this year after being delayed from 2023.Credit: Kate Geraghty

She said the government was “ironing out the kinks in the system” but that there was “a bit more work to do”.

“The testing process has identified some issues for the contractor and Transport for NSW to fix, which is the whole point of the process,” Haylen said.

WA Premier Roger Cook wants Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to apologise to WA farmers for a brief off-the-cuff joke he made about the export of live sheep his government has banned from 2028.

“We had dinner, beautiful Australian beef – not the live export – we made sure it was dead,” Albanese told the AgriFutures Rural Women’s Awards at Parliament House on Tuesday.

Roger Cook in May this year.Credit: Ross Swanborough

Albanese paused after saying “live export”, perhaps realising he had erred and put a fellow Labor leader offside.

“We’ve all had jokes that have fallen flat, me included,” Cook told a press conference on Thursday.

“But this is a joke which would have particularly touched a raw nerve in Western Australia, as farmers are coping with the Commonwealth’s decision to end live sheep exports,” Cook said.

The vast majority of live sheep exported from Australia come from WA, where, for decades, the trade has been an important source of revenue for farmers.

The revelation in 2018 that 2400 sheep travelling from Fremantle to the Middle East in 2017 had died unleashed a furore of concern about animal welfare, and led to the introduction of stricter regulations and exposure of other incidents.

Labor won the 2022 federal election with a ban on the trade as part of its platform.

“WA farmers are feeling wounded as a result of the government’s decision, and this would have rubbed salt into those wounds, so I want the prime minister to apologise,” Cook said.

As the last question time for this parliamentary sitting fortnight ends, every question asked by the Coalition was once again about Gaza.

A lacklustre energy fell over the chamber for the hour, as at one point when Labor MP Graham Perrett rose to ask a question the opposition shouted out “aye” – likely because he announced his retirement before the next federal election.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton during question time on Thursday.Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at one stage forgot it was his turn to rise for a question as MPs looked around the rarely quiet chamber, lost with confusion.

Finally, when Dutton did rise, all sides of the House erupted with laughter.

Dutton asked: “Over the last two weeks, the Prime Minister has dodged about 30 questions on the government’s handling of people coming from terrorist-controlled Gaza since October 7. It’s now clear that by cutting corners and concocting the visa-for-votes scheme, this government has put domestic political considerations ahead of national security and Australians are now less safe.”

The imputations in Dutton’s question were then put under the spotlight as unparliamentary by Speaker of the House Milton Dick.

“I’ve spent a bit of time overnight dealing with imputations in questions and I know yesterday we had this issue raised, and I want to deal with this so the house is clear with my position,” Dick said.

Dick relayed precedents set by former House speakers who found they were “not comfortable with a language that just makes assertions”.

“So for consistency, from Speaker [Neil] Andrew to speaker [Tony] Smith … to myself, I’m just going to rule that part of the question out,” he said.

Albanese used the final question asked to him to declare to the House that, “over the last two weeks, despite the negativity and the nastiness of those opposite and the pointless noise coming from across the chamber, this government has got on with the job of delivering, delivering for Australia”.

Listing his policies, Albanese was supported with regular shouts of, “hear, hear”, by his party.

Finishing his answer to a slightly more lively chamber – while Dutton was on his phone the entire time texting – Albanese promoted his policies and attitude to governing.

“We seek to unite rather than seek to divide, we try to work with people rather than target individuals in a cynical exercise aimed at targeting a whole group of Australians,” he shouted proudly.

Turning to the WA Supreme Court, where Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Leanne Close has told of her shock after discovering she was “in the middle of a potential crime scene” midway through a meeting with Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds about Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape.

While giving evidence in the former defence minister’s defamation suit against Higgins, Close told the court she texted Reynolds to arrange a meeting at her ministerial office on April 4, 2019.

Linda Reynolds in the Senate last week.Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald

It was there that Close informed Reynolds she and her colleague were there to discuss an alleged sexual assault, which prompted Reynolds to request her chief of staff Fiona Brown join them.

But Close told the court it wasn’t until she was inside the office that she became aware that was where the alleged incident had occurred.

“Senator Reynolds pointed to the couch and said, ‘it happened right there’,” Close told the court.

“I was shocked ... I was thinking, ‘we’re sitting in the middle of a potential crime scene that hasn’t been examined’, and I was concerned about the security implications of two staff having sex on a couch in the office, and that they had been intoxicated.

“I didn’t understand how they obtained access and the security implications of that, let alone a young woman being found on that couch.”

While poring over contemporaneous notes that have since become evidence in the defamation trial, Close recalled her concern for Higgins’ welfare as Reynolds told her the former staffer did not wish to report the incident over fears for her job.

Close told the court she was equally concerned about the fact the office had since been cleaned.

The meeting with the AFP occurred just three days after Reynolds and Brown met with Higgins in the same office regarding what was then being treated as a breach of parliamentary security.

When grilled by Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett, Close conceded she was unaware at the time that other AFP personnel knew about the security breach as early as March 28, 2019, and that police had offered Higgins assistance after lodging a complaint on April 1, 2019, which she ultimately opted not to pursue.

Higgins alleged she was raped by colleague Bruce Lehrmann at the office in Parliament House on March 23, 2019 after a night out.

Lehrmann has maintained his innocence since his 2022 criminal trial was aborted.

However, the Federal Court found the rape allegation to be true on the balance of probabilities in a separate action Lehrmann is now appealing.