As it happened: Rate rise on RBA agenda after inflation bump; Julian Assange returns to Australia

Thanks for reading today’s live national news blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage.

To conclude, here’s a look back at the major stories today:

• Julian Assange woke up in Australia today for the first time since the WikiLeaks saga began almost 15 years ago. But partisan fight has erupted over his return, with the opposition accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of giving Assange an overly warm welcome.

• Penny Wong has slapped down first-term Labor senator Fatima Payman for crossing the floor to support a Greens motion to recognise Palestinian statehood. This afternoon, the foreign minister pointed out she had had to vote against same-sex marriage before Labor changed its position.

• Network Ten has agreed to pay less than a third of the $1.8 million in legal costs Lisa Wilkinson had originally asked her employer to cover following Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation suit, as a court ordered Lehrmann to pay $2 million to Ten.

• In NSW, a teenager arrested over an alleged failed terrorist attack in Newcastle vowed to behead a Labor politician, planned violent attacks against the public, and professed admiration for the Christchurch mass killer according to a hateful manifesto allegedly released in encrypted extremist groups.

• In Victoria, Melbourne Airport’s owners are preparing to fight for an underground rail station after a federal government report found it should not be built below ground unless the operators could show it made commercial sense.

• In Queensland, two teenagers armed with a cane-cutting sickle who broke into the Brisbane home of Wallabies star Toutai Kefu have been jailed.

• In Western Australia, three years after two workers were nearly killed by a massive steel platform swinging wildly over their heads, the state’s safety regulator today decided not to prosecute any of the companies involved.

• In business news, 7News’ YouTube channel – which boasts 1.71 million subscribers – was hacked and used to live-stream an AI-generated Elon Musk cryptocurrency scam today.

• In international news, armoured vehicles rammed the doors of Bolivia’s government palace on Wednesday (local time) in an apparent coup attempt, but President Luis Arce vowed to stand firm and named a new army commander who ordered troops to stand down.

• In sport news, the Australian men’s soccer team was handed a tough World Cup qualifying draw this afternoon.

Thanks again for your company. Have a lovely night.

A case of bird flu has been confirmed at an ACT poultry farm, making it the 11th Australian property to be hit.

Tests revealed the property had tested positive for the strain of the virus that has affected eight farms in Victoria and two in NSW, with one million chickens needing to be destroyed.

A quarantine order has been set up around the poultry farm, which will include a 10km radius of the affected site.

ACT Environment Minister Rebeccca Vassarotti said the virus had been traced to one of the affected properties in NSW.

Woolworths customers have been limited to two cartons of eggs in NSW, the ACT and Victoria to manage stock delays as the bird flu outbreak stifles supplies.

“Their supply is expected to recover over the next week as they ramp up operations at their other sites,” a spokesperson for the supermarket said.

Coles introduced a similar policy earlier in June.

AAP

Last hour, the Australian sharemarket closed for the day.

Real estate investment trusts and utilities dragged it sharply lower, after Wall Street struggled for direction in the final stretch of a strong quarter in which a small group of high-flying technology shares led the way.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index recovered most of its earlier losses but dropped 23.4 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 7759.6 by the close.

Resmed was the top performer with gains of 4.1 per cent, followed by WiseTech (up 2.5 per cent) and BlueScope Steel (up 2 per cent). Information technology (up 0.7 per cent) and healthcare (up 0.4 per cent) were the best-performing sectors.

Iron ore heavyweights Fortescue and Rio Tinto were also holding up against the wider market, gaining 0.2 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively.

Read more here.

Warning: Graphic and distressing content

A Tasmanian judge has praised the “brave and desperate” actions of a teenager who intervened to save his mother as his father stabbed her in a brutal crime that ended the life of her new partner.

In the Tasmanian Supreme Court today, Justice Tamara Jago sentenced Kerry Lee Whiting, 47, for the murder of Adrian Mayne and the attempted murder of Natalie Harris, at their home in the Launceston suburb of Ravenswood, on November 25, 2021.

Imposing a jail term of 38 years, with a non-parole period of 24 years, Justice Jago told Whiting the crimes were the result of his “controlling, possessive and jealous attitude”.

“You were not willing to allow her to move on in her life and you resented the presence of Mr Mayne in your children’s lives, so you determined to kill them,” Justice Jago said.

“Tragically, you achieved that in respect to Mr Mayne, but your plan was thwarted in respect to Ms Harris by the brave and desperate actions of [her 16-year-old son] T, who was awoken by the screaming and intervened, dragging you away from his mother. That, and the first aid he later provided to his mother, undoubtedly, in my view, saved her life.”

Whiting had been abusive and violent during their 20-year relationship, which ended in June 2021, Justice Jago said. After moving out, Harris met Mayne online, and they had been living together for four months with two of the children she shared with Whiting, T and K, then aged 16 and 14.

In the weeks leading up to the crime, Whiting made threats to injure or kill Mayne, which were heard by the children.

Justice Jago said Whiting rode a bike to the couple’s home and entered it in the early hours of November 25, going to their bedroom with a kitchen knife.

“You immediately started stabbing Mr Mayne. You launched an attack on a vulnerable and defenceless person,” she said.

Mayne tried to protect Harris, throwing himself over her body and yelling “don’t stab her”, she said.

“She got out of the bed and you continued stabbing her. At one point when you were attacking Ms Harris, she said to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ You responded by saying, ‘You caused this’.”

Her screams woke the children, and T rushed to protect his mother.

“Even after his intervention, you continued to stab Ms Harris,” Justice Jago said.

“T pushed you up against a wall and challenged you. He said he would grab the knife and hurt himself if you did not drop it. He said to you, ‘You’re my Dad, why are you doing this … I don’t ever want to see you again’. You replied. ‘Oh, it’s not like you message me anyway’.”

“It is difficult to envisage a more arrogant and cold-hearted act,” Justice Jago said.

AAP

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

Sexual assaults in Australia have reached the highest level on record, new data has revealed.

Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday confirmed the number of sexual assaults recorded by police rose by 11 per cent in 2023.

This marked the 12th straight annual rise in sexual assaults and the highest level the ABS has seen in more than 30 years of records.

In total, there were 36,318 victim-survivors of sexual assaults recorded by police across the country in 2023.

Head of crime and justice statistics at the ABS, Samantha McNally, said records of assault increased across almost all states and territories.

“Accounting for population growth, the rate of recorded sexual assault victim-survivors has gone up from 126 per 100,000 people last year, to 136 victim-survivors per 100,000 people,” she said.

“This is the highest rate of sexual assault victim-survivors recorded in our 31-year dataset.”

AAP

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham has doubled down on his criticism of Anthony Albanese for phoning Julian Assange when the WikiLeaks founder arrived in Australia, calling for the prime minister to disclose what was said, while warning Assange against monetising his story.

Speaking on ABC News 24’s Afternoon Briefing moments ago, the Liberal senator said it was right for Assange to pay for his flight back to Australia via the Northern Mariana Islands – the US commonwealth where he formalised a plea deal with the US Justice Department yesterday.

Liberal senator Simon Birmingham.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Assange’s wife, lawyer Stella Assange, told Reuters on Wednesday that this week’s chartered flights cost $782,334. Already, an Assange supporter has made a bitcoin donation worth almost $740,000 to help cover the jet hire costs.

Birmingham said the government needed to disclose all costs related to Assange’s repatriation.

“The Albanese government needs to be transparent about what costs it has incurred,” he said.

“And the prime minister needs to be transparent about his homecoming welcome call to Mr Assange, and whether it was all just small talk, or whether he put the national interest first and actually said to Mr Assange: there are expectations that he will not be promoting misinformation in the future, or publishing classified and sensitive documents in the future – which, of course, he’d just only yesterday pled guilty to under the US Espionage Act.”

The Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesman was then asked whether Assange should be put on notice about any attempt to monetise his story, given the Commonwealth previously prosecuted Schapelle Corby’s family for receiving proceeds of crime when the convicted drug smuggler was paid for writing a book about her story.

“I think that many Australians would find it pretty distasteful if he did go off on some profit-driven motive to seek advantage out of what are crimes that he pled guilty, finally, to doing,” Birmingham said.

“Now, this whole saga could have been dealt with potentially much, much sooner if he had engaged with the US justice system much, much sooner.”

Birmingham later hit back at suggestions that Assange was a journalist.

“Of course, we’re all for transparency and accountability,” he told ABC host Greg Jennett. “But it’s an insult to journalists like you, Greg, to suggest that what Julian Assange did was journalism, when in fact it was a data dump – and a reckless data dump at that.”

Thousands of additional businesses will be protected under an updated banking rule book, which will increase the borrowing limit to qualify as a small business from $3 million to $5 million.

On Thursday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) approved an update to the Banking Code of Practice, a self-regulatory initiative by the peak banking body.

The update widened the scope of Australian businesses covered by additional protections granted to small businesses under the code.

In an address to the Australian Banking Association conference in Melbourne on Thursday, ASIC chair Joe Longo said the code needed to be responsive to community needs based on circumstances, citing cost-of-living pressures as a recent example.

Read more about the changes here.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the government is moving towards possibly establishing a federal whistleblower protection authority amid a broader slew of integrity reforms, but won’t explicitly commit to it.

Independent MP for Mackellar Sophie Scamps asked Dreyfus whether he remained committed to creating the whistleblower body after he promised it before the 2019 election.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The attorney-general began by listing Labor’s reforms to improve government transparency and tackle corruption, such as via establishing the National Anti-Corruption Commission. But Scamps soon rose on a point of order, asking Dreyfus to directly address whether a federal whistleblower protection authority would be established.

“The government is now progressing a second, broader stage of reforms, which has included the release of a consultation paper,” Dreyfus said.

“There has been public consultation on additional supports for public sector whistleblowers, which may include a whistleblower protection authority. There have been submissions received as part of that consultation process, and they are being used to inform the government’s next steps for reform.”

Crossbench MPs have previously criticised the government for the “glacial” pace of its integrity reforms, and have called for a whistleblower authority to protect the release of information in the public interest.

Mackellar MP Sophie Scamps.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has previously called on Dreyfus to intervene to drop prosecutions against David McBride and Richard Boyle for revealing state secrets in the name of the public interest.

Boyle went public in 2018 as part of an investigation into the Australian Tax Office by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and ABC’s Four Corners that revealed heavy-handed debt collection tactics, after his internal complaint was dismissed.

McBride, a former military lawyer, was jailed earlier this year for leaking a cache of documents to the ABC that formed the basis of its “Afghan Files” investigation into potential war crimes.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten used a Dorothy Dixer in parliament to criticise senators for delaying a vote on the government’s reforms to the national disability scheme.

On Tuesday, this masthead reported that Shorten claimed the delay would add $1 billion to the cost of the scheme, saying savings would be delayed while some headed overseas for “cocktails in Copacabana” when they should be doing their jobs in parliament.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten in parliament today.Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald

His claims triggered a rebuke from Senate NDIS committee members who said they needed to hear from participants in the scheme at two more public hearings and consider potential amendments to the draft law.

But in question time, Shorten reiterated his criticism:

The Greens are not a party of government. And the Liberals opposite know we could do anything in this bill, and they will never vote for it.

But what makes this delay even more pointless and wasteful in a cost-of-living crisis, is deep down the Libs and Nats know they’re probably going to vote for the bill in August.

So why are we having a $1 billion ego vanity show?

That billion dollars that you’re willing to waste … could pay for the packages of 60,000 children on the scheme in a year.

The average taxpayer in Australia pays $20,000 net tax. The Coalition and [their] Green allies are willing to say to 54,000 taxpayers that your tax you pay in a year doesn’t matter …

This is such a dumb thing to do. I ask, more in hope than experience: Don’t hide behind this notion that you want to consult. Just get on and save the money for the scheme.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has dubbed the Greens and Coalition the “No-alition” after they joined forces to delay the government’s build-to-rent scheme in the Senate earlier today.

As reported in this blog earlier, they split the government’s proposed laws off from buy now, pay later reform and sent it to a Senate inquiry, which won’t report until September 4.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in question time today.Credit: James Brickwood

In question time moments ago, the prime minister was particularly critical of the Greens, taking the unusual step of tabling their press release about the vote.

“When it comes to housing, there’s been a vote over there in the Senate this morning where, once again, we seem to see ‘No-alition’ – and the Coalition and the Greens get together once again,” he said.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather earlier criticised the build-to-rent scheme for handing out money to property developers, who “helped create the housing crisis in the first place”.

Albanese mocked this notion: “The reason why the Greens say they oppose it is because developers will build the new housing. And they voted for that proposition! Who do you think built houses?”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers later got stuck into them as well.

“The consequences of your vote could be 160,000 fewer homes for homeless people and young people to rent,” Chalmers said.

“Now, if you really gave a stuff about homelessness in this country, you would vote for the policies that would build more housing supply in this country. And you wouldn’t conduct this ridiculous, underhanded, hypocritical campaign, which sees you vote more frequently with them [the Coalition] than with us.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers in full flight during question time.Credit: James Brickwood

The speaker soon told Chandler-Mather to cease interjecting as back-and-forth barbs were exchanged between Labor MPs and the Greens housing spokesperson.

Two MPs have previously made complaints to the Speaker of the House of Representatives about “vicious” attacks from Labor MPs towards Chandler-Mather.

The first-term MP has led the Greens’ efforts to force the government to adopt more radical measures to improve housing affordability, often claiming Labor’s solutions don’t go far enough.

His approach has made him a particularly loathed figure among many Labor MPs, who see him as a grandstander.