As it happened: Another earthquake near Dutton’s Hunter Valley nuclear site; Albanese heckled by protesters

Thanks for following along. We’re wrapping up today’s live coverage.

Here’s some of what we covered:

• Yet another earthquake has shaken the Upper Hunter community in NSW, where Peter Dutton’s opposition plans to build a nuclear reactor if they form government after the upcoming election, due to be held by May next year.
• President-elect Donald Trump has made several key appointments, including Tom Homan, his former acting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, will serve as “border czar” in his incoming administration.
• Embattled regional airline Rex has been thrown an operations lifeline after the federal government earmarked up to $80 million to keep its regional routes running.
• Victoria has introduced a licensing scheme to regulate tobacco sales, bringing the state into line with the rest of Australia after dozens of firebombings.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was heckled by protesters during a press conference in Tasmania, where Albanese unveiled Rebecca White as the candidate for the seat of Lyons. Protesters chanted “shame Albanese” while the prime minister and then White spoke.
• The Westpac-Melbourne Institute measure of consumer sentiment jumped by 5.3 per cent this month and is now up 14.4 per cent since the middle of the year. It’s the highest level since early 2022.

A former kickboxer has been charged with murdering his partner after her body was discovered with multiple stab wounds inside a Penrith hotel room.

Officers from Strike Force Marree on Tuesday charged Darren John Berry, aged 53, with one count of murder after the body of Shirley So was found at the Pullman Hotel on Sunday.

Darren John Berry has been charged with the murder of Shirley So.

Berry, who fought under the moniker “Hacksaw”, was found in the same room as So, 50, with cuts to his arms. He was taken to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition but has since recovered.

The hotel is located in the Panthers Leagues Club precinct.

NSW Police on Monday successfully applied in Penrith Local Court for an interim order to perform a forensic procedure on Berry, who was then charged.

Read the full story here.

Cuts to international student numbers have already cost the economy $4.3 billion, Universities Australia chief executive officer Luke Sheehy says, with universities taking the biggest hit.

“Just before Christmas last year, the then Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neill took a sledgehammer to international student visas with her ministerial determination 107,” Sheehy told ABC.

Education Minister Jason Clare.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“We know in six months this year alone, 60,000 fewer visas have been issued in higher education.

“That is a $4.3 billion hit to the economy and much of that is hitting university bottom lines.”

Education Minister Jason Clare alarmed the higher education sector earlier this year when he announced new caps to return international student numbers to pre-pandemic levels. Each provider received its own numbers – with enrolments capped at 270,000 across the industry.

Sheehy said universities were in a “world of pain”.

“The parliamentarians have a choice, do they continue the chaos or provide some certainty?” he said.

“We have to make sure there is settings in place for the future of this sector beyond 2025.

“I have been right across this country this year to visit 38 of my 39 members … and they are all in a world of pain.

“Twenty five of my universities are in budget deficit.”

A change to Sydney Airport’s flight slots would encourage greater competition among airlines and benefit customers, Australia’s competition watchdog says.

Proposed reforms for flights at the nation’s busiest airport would penalise airlines for deliberately cancelling services to maintain valuable slots at terminals.

Qantas executives were grilled on allegations the airline was misusing its slots, with the carrier denying it had behaved improperly.

Qantas Group and Virgin Australia currently service 98 per cent of domestic passengers.Credit: Bloomberg

Matthew Shroder, from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said the level of competition at Sydney Airport was “less than we would like”.

“Sydney’s the main international gateway, but it’s also the main domestic gateway to a lot of routes. So access to Sydney is critically important,” he told Tuesday’s hearing.

“That’s why we support the reforms for the slot regime, because we think that will be more competitive.”

Qantas Group and Virgin Australia currently service 98 per cent of domestic passengers.

Sydney Airport Chief Executive Officer Scott Charlton said the current rules were contributing to problems.

“We’ll see more people home to their families, sooner, fewer missed appointments and less cancelled meetings,” Charlton said.

Changes put forward would limit delays and cancellations and improve performance across the entire national network, he said.

-AAP

A former Home and Away star who led police on a three-day manhunt after stomping on a woman’s head in a “disturbing” attack has been spared more jail time.

Orpheus Pledger, 31, faced the Victorian County Court on Tuesday where he successfully appealed the seven-month prison term he originally received in August.

He was jailed after pleading guilty in Melbourne Magistrates Court to assaulting a woman on two separate occasions in March.

Former Home and Away star Orpheus Pledger.Credit: AAP

The first time, he kicked and punched the victim in the face after she raised concerns about his drug use and declining mental health.

He then attacked her a second time, dragging her by the hair and stomping on her face while she was on the ground.

Pledger was arrested but bailed on April 22 on the condition he underwent a court-ordered mental health assessment. He absconded from a hospital the next morning.

A warrant was issued for his arrest, with the actor on the run from police for three days before he was remanded in custody again.

Pledger’s barrister Jonathan Barrera on Tuesday conceded his client still could not explain why he attacked the woman but said he had since shown remorse.

Pledger’s early guilty plea, limited criminal history and good prospects of rehabilitation should also go towards a lighter sentence, Barrera said.

The barrister argued Pledger had already served 97 days of pre-sentence detention so he should be released on a community corrections order instead of being sent back to prison.

Judge Michael Tinney agreed, finding Pledger had spent enough time behind bars.

The judge set aside the magistrate’s decision and re-sentenced Pledger to 97 days in jail, reckoned as already served, and a two-year community corrections order.

Under the corrections order, Pledger will have to complete 150 hours of unpaid community work and treatment for drug abuse and mental health issues.

AAP

Wellington: New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon made a “formal and unreserved” apology in parliament on Tuesday for the widespread abuse, torture and neglect of hundreds of thousands of children and vulnerable adults in care.

“It was horrific. It was heartbreaking. It was wrong. And it should never have happened,” Luxon said, as he spoke to lawmakers and a public gallery packed with survivors of the abuse.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

An estimated 200,000 people in state, foster and faith-based care suffered “unimaginable” abuse over a period of seven decades, a blistering report released in July said at the end of the largest inquiry ever undertaken in New Zealand. They were disproportionately Maori.

“For many of you it changed the course of your life, and for that, the government must take responsibility,” Luxon said. He said he was apologising for previous governments too.

In foster and church care – as well as in state-run institutions, including hospitals and residential schools – vulnerable people “should have been safe and treated with respect, dignity and compassion,” he added.

“But instead, you were subjected to horrific abuse and neglect and in some cases torture.”

The findings of the six-year investigation believed to be the widest-ranging of comparable probes worldwide were a “national disgrace,” the inquiry’s report said.

Yet another earthquake has shaken the Upper Hunter community in NSW, where Peter Dutton’s opposition plans to build a nuclear reactor if they form government after the upcoming election, due to be held by May next year.

The 4.1 magnitude earthquake was recorded by Geoscience Australia at 12.12pm today, at a depth of three kilometres and located several kilometres away from the Liddell coal-fired power station, where the opposition intends to build a nuclear plant.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is pushing nuclear power.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, Getty Images

Today’s earthquake is the fourth event over magnitude 4 since August. A 4.7 magnitude earthquake hit Muswellbrook on August 23, damaging homes and businesses.

Four of the opposition’s seven proposed nuclear sites are located near active fault lines: Port Augusta in South Australia, Lithgow in NSW, Collie in Western Australia and the Latrobe Valley in Victoria – an area that has had seven seismic events this year ranging from magnitudes of 2 to 4.3

Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien has said that a Coalition government would establish an independent authority to study proposed nuclear sites, which would not proceed if deemed dangerous

WorkSafe is investigating the death of a worker who was crushed by a wind turbine blade in Victoria’s west on Monday.

The 36-year-old man was working on Bells Road in Rokewood, a small rural township in the Golden Plains Shire, when the incident occurred.

Police and emergency services on the scene of the fatal industrial incident in Rokewood.Credit: Nine News

A number of blades were believed to have been at ground level, being prepared for a lift, when one of them dislodged from a supporting platform and struck the man, WorkSafe said.

Investigators, technical experts and dedicated renewable energies construction inspectors remained at the site on Tuesday afternoon.

WorkSafe said the death was the 38th confirmed workplace fatality in Victoria for 2024. There were 62 work-related deaths at the same time last year.

Washington: Elon Musk has sought to influence the battle to replace Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, using his new-found clout in Donald Trump’s orbit to try to install a MAGA loyalist to the job.

Ahead of McConnell’s long-awaited retirement when the new US Congress begins in January, Republicans are set to choose a new Senate leader on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) from three contenders: South Dakota senator John Thune, Texas senator John Cornyn and Florida senator Rick Scott.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.Credit: AP

Trump has yet to publicly declare his preference, as backing a candidate who could end up losing would be an embarrassment for the president-elect. The wait comes as the House of Representatives is projected to remain in Republican hands, giving Trump’s party control of both houses of Congress.

Musk – who spent tens of millions of dollars to help elect Trump – put his weight behind Scott, endorsing the Florida Republican and declaring that the next majority leader “must respond to the will of the people” to implement Trump’s agenda.

Read the full story from Farrah Tomazin here.

Earlier we reported that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had announced a multimillion-dollar plan to improve water quality in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour.

The $28 million plan, which includes $21 million to scale up oxygenation to offset the effects of salmon farming on the Maugean skate, has come under fire from industry and environmentalists.

There are an estimated 40 to 120 adult skates left in the wild, according to environmental campaigners, who labelled the prime minister’s announcement as a green light for the polluting salmon industry.

The Maugean skate.Credit: Neville Barrett

About $5 million of the funding will be invested in skate breeding programs and $2.5 million will go towards monitoring the skate population and compliance in the community.

Conservation group Neighbours of Fish Farming accused the government of pork-barrelling and subsidising the polluting multinational salmon industry.

“The prime minister’s announcement of a $21 million handout to the salmon industry is in flagrant disregard for the science that shows the Maugean skate’s plight is directly linked to the industry’s polluting practices,” vice president Lisa Litjens said.

Tasmanian Industry Minister Eric Abetz welcomed the funding but said it didn’t provide certainty for hundreds of families whose livelihoods rely on the salmon industry.

-AAP