As it happened: Split on Voice referendum remains; Senator breaks down over Nazi debate

A Liberal senator broke down in tears during a bid by the federal opposition to ban Nazi symbols, following Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s failed attempt earlier this week.

Crying, Victorian senator Sarah Henderson accused Labor minister Murray Watt of saying the “most disgraceful thing” after both sides of the chamber erupted in mudslinging while Simon Birmingham, opposition leader in the Senate, tried to bring on a debate over Nazi symbols in the upper house.

“I am disgusted in you!” Henderson said.

Watt withdrew his remark, explaining: “I referred to the text messages that Senator Henderson sent, that’s what I said.”

Watt was referring to an article by the ABC this week that reported the organisation understood Henderson sent Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto messages urging him against taking action against Moira Deeming, a state upper-house member who attended a rally crashed by neo-Nazis.

Comment has been sought from Henderson about the alleged message.

Making a statement on the issue at 1.30pm in the Senate, Henderson accused Watt of pointing “directly towards me”.

“He said words that I will not repeat and that no other person should repeat. They were abhorrent and offensive,” she said.

Watt said he didn’t intend to offend Henderson.

“For the clarity of all senators, this morning, in response to Senator Birmingham moving the suspension motion, I asked Liberals why they were not condemning their own senators who are texting Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto to support Victorian MP Moira Deeming, who recently stood with neo-Nazis,” he said.

“It was consistent with my view that, as senators, we are all accountable to each other for our actions.”

Birmingham told media outside the chamber that said Watt “engaged in a way that Senator Henderson found very offensive, deeply offensive, and that caused her emotional response.”

He then accused Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus of politicising the issue in parliament earlier this week, when Dreyfus accused Dutton of staying silent on the rally last Saturday attended by Deeming.

This prompted Dutton to condemn the attendees, accuse the government of politicising the issue, and offer his support for any future legislation to ban Nazi symbols.

Australians will soon have better access to the UK jobs market and exporters of goods from wine to beef will benefit from the removal of $9.2 billion worth of tariffs.

The Australia-UK free trade agreement has passed the final UK hurdle by gaining royal assent, meaning the countries just need to exchange diplomatic notes confirming in writing that all domestic requirements have been completed.

The agreement will come into force 30 days after that final hurdle is passed.

Trade Minister Don Farrell.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Trade Minister Don Farrell said the agreement will remove “unnecessary barriers to trade” and open up new markets and opportunities for Australian goods and services.

“We are ready to bring the Australia-United Kingdom free trade agreement into force as soon as possible,” he said.

“We want Australian exporters, businesses, workers and consumers to reap the opportunities and benefits of more open trade with the United Kingdom.”

The UK is Australia’s fifth-largest two-way trading partner, and the trade relationship was worth $30.3 billion in 2018-19.

The trade deal was signed by the previous government in December 2021 but its implementation has taken time to ratify following lengthy parliamentary processes in both countries, political upheaval in the UK, and the death of the Queen.

Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson, who broke down in tears during parliamentary mudslinging over Nazism today, has accused Labor minister Murray Watt of misrepresenting what he said to offend her during the exchange.

Henderson accused Watt of saying a “disgraceful thing” as the opposition moved to suspend normal parliamentary business to debate banning Nazi symbols, following a similar failed attempt in the lower house on Wednesday.

“He said words that I will not repeat and that no other person should repeat. They were abhorrent and offensive,” she said.

Victoria senator Sarah Henderson breaks down in tears. Credit: Nine News

Watt said he didn’t intend to offend Henderson.

“For the clarity of all senators, this morning, in response to Senator Birmingham moving the suspension motion, I asked Liberals why they were not condemning their own senators who are texting Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto to support Victorian MP Moira Deeming, who recently stood with neo-Nazis,” he said.

Shortly before 5pm, Henderson alleged in a tweet that, in his explanation, Watt “improperly misrepresented the abhorrent and offensive statement he made about me in the Senate this morning.”

“I will now be referring this matter to the Senate President,” Henderson tweeted.

The government has been contacted for a response.

The local share market has endured its seventh consecutive losing week as interest rate hikes and fears about the stability of the global banking system weigh on sentiment.

Its seven-week losing streak is its longest such stretch since nine straight weeks of losses during the Global Financial Crisis in mid-2008.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index did manage to close near the highs of the day today, finishing down 13.4 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 6955.2, after having been down as much as 0.65 per cent in the first 15 minutes of trading.

The broader All Ordinaries finished down 11 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 7137.6.

For the week the ASX200 lost 39.6 points, or 0.57 per cent.

The Australian dollar was buying 66.86 US cents, from 67.39 US cents at yesterday’s ASX close.

AAP

As we head into the state election in NSW tomorrow, more than one in five voters have already cast their ballot, according to the NSW Electoral Commission.

Overall, about 5.5 million people are enrolled to vote in NSW, of which nearly 1.2 million have voted early in person.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet on the campaign trail in Eastwood on Thursday with Liberal candidate Jordan Lane (left).Credit: Brook Mitchell

That’s a lot, but it means we should expect millions more ballots to come through tomorrow.

Meanwhile, there was a record 540,208 postal vote applications this election. All postal votes must be received by the NSW Electoral Commission by 6pm on Thursday, April 6. So far, just over 92,000 postal votes – or about 17 per cent of the total applied for – have been returned.

The Manhattan District Attorney, who could soon make history by charging Donald Trump over alleged hush money paid to a porn star, has hit back at Republicans who branded the inquiry a political witch hunt and demanded he testifies before Congress.

On Monday, after Trump posted a social media message suggesting he was about to be arrested over the case, senior Republicans from the House of Representatives wrote to District Attorney Alvin Bragg requesting documents and testimony, while criticising the grand jury probe into Trump as an “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority”.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels.Credit: AP

However, in a rare public statement about the investigation, Bragg’s office fired back, slamming the request as “an unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty” and calling out Trump’s false claim he was about to be taken into custody.

“The letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene,” Bragg’s general counsel Leslie Dubeck wrote in her response to the Republican congressmen.

Read more on the issue here.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called on Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to declare his stance on the Voice to parliament, warning the request for detail was a well-worn tactic.

Albanese released the wording of the referendum on Thursday along with the draft constitutional amendments.

Speaking to reporters in Melbourne on Friday, Albanese said Australians now had more than enough detail on the issue to make an informed decision.

Here’s what he had to say:

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has lashed Victoria’s Liberal Party over its division about expelling a controversial MP.

“The Victorian Liberal Party here are a shambles, we’ve seen them fighting each other,” he told reporters in Melbourne today.

His comment follows a bid by the state’s Liberal leader, John Pesutto, to eject MP Moira Deeming from the parliamentary party after she appeared at an anti-transgender rally in Melbourne last Saturday.

The heated event made headlines nationwide after neo-Nazis lined up and made a salute outside parliament.

Deeming was present but has denied any Nazi alignment and denounced the salute.

Pesutto accuses her of “conducting activities in a manner likely to bring discredit” to the party over her association with rally figures with alleged links to extremists.

He presented a 15-page dossier of supportive “evidence” detailing Deeming’s involvement in the rally.

Deeming has since denounced Nazism and denied any ties to far-right groups but refuses to condemn British anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, who headlined the event.

A Victorian Liberal Party caucus meeting on Monday is due to vote on a motion to expel Deeming.

Albanese was in Melbourne campaigning alongside Labor’s candidate for the federal byelection in Aston on April 1.

PM Anthony Albanese at Penrith Westfield today.Credit: Nick Moir

A push to ban Nazi symbols has reached federal parliament following Saturday’s rally, with emotions running high in the Senate today.

As debate continued in Canberra’s upper house, Liberal Victorian senator Sarah Henderson started crying over mention of text messages she sent Pesutto in support of Deeming.

Labor senator Murray Watt later withdrew his remarks about the text messages, which Henderson described as “offensive”.

“He said words that I will not repeat and that no other person should repeat. They were abhorrent and offensive,” she said in parliament.

“The precise words uttered by Senator Watt will be seared into my memory for a very long time. Any attempt to distort and re-characterise his interjection only compounds the damage.

“The only words Senator Watt should be saying are, ‘I unconditionally apologise’.”

AAP

The US military has carried out multiple airstrikes in Syria against Iran-aligned groups which it blamed for a deadly drone attack that killed a contractor, injured another and wounded five US troops, the Pentagon said.

The strikes were in retaliation for an attack against a US-led coalition base near Hasakah in north-east Syria on Thursday, it said.

The US intelligence community assessed that the unmanned aerial vehicle was of Iranian origin, the military said.

Authorised the strikes: US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.Credit: AP

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the “precision airstrikes” targeted groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

“The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC,” Austin said in a statement on Thursday night (US time), Friday AEDT.

Austin said he authorised the retaliatory strikes at the direction of President Joe Biden.

“As President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing,” Austin said. “No group will strike our troops with impunity.”

You can read more about the strikes here.

Reuters, AP

Thanks for reading our live coverage this morning.

If you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know:

• Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney says the treatment of independent senator Lidia Thorpe at the hands of the AFP was “disturbing and concerning”.
• Emotions have been running high in federal parliament during a debate on whether to ban Nazi symbols including the salute.
• Vape flavours would be banned, and individual products would have warning labels under a crackdown the Therapeutic Goods Administration has recommended.
• Ahead of the NSW election tomorrow, both Premier Dominic Perrottet and Labor leader Chris Minns are spending their day working to sway voters with the prime minister joining the latter.
• Funding to build Victoria’s $35 billion Suburban Rail Loop will hinge on whether a reformed Commonwealth infrastructure advisor deems it good use of federal dollars.
• In the US, the Manhattan District Attorney has fired back as the Trump probe goes quiet.

My colleague Sarah Keoghan will be anchoring the blog this afternoon.