AAP Rolling News Bulletin for June 2 at 1830
Legal: Mother (SYDNEY)
A mother accused of killing her two children left a note asking for forgiveness, a court has been told.
The mother was charged with the children's murder after they were found dead in the family home in NSW years ago.
The trio cannot be identified for legal reasons.
The mother appeared in NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday for a hearing over whether she should be found not criminally responsible for the deaths due to mental impairment.
The course of action was endorsed by both the woman's lawyer and the prosecutor, but Justice Richard Cavanagh questioned the strength of the evidence about her mental health impairment.
The mother's internet search history, a suicide note and seemingly contradictory psychological reports cast doubt on the extent of her impairment, he said.
AUKUS (CANBERRA)
A Labor MP has broken ranks to call for a rethink of the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal as a former party minister launches a "people's inquiry" into the agreement.
After asking whether Labor's original commitment to the deal still stood during a private caucus meeting in Canberra on Tuesday, Labor backbencher Ed Husic went public with his reservations about the military pact after it was announced Australia would only get second-hand submarines from the US.
"You do wonder whether or not we will get the deal, even the reconfigured one that we have got," Mr Husic told reporters at Parliament House.
Originally, Australia was set to get a mix of new and used Virginia-Class vessels before eventually building its own in Adelaide, but now the defence force will only get used submarines.
Legal: Jones (SYDNEY)
Ex-shock jock Alan Jones has had a minor win in court as one of the dozens of abuse charges against him was dropped as he prepares for a lengthy court fight.
The 85-year-old faces a four-month-long hearing in August having pleaded not guilty to 26 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching.
But prosecutors indicated one incident from 2013 would no longer form part of the case.
A charge of indecent assault was to be withdrawn, the prosecutor said in court on Tuesday.
The charge arose from an event in Tamworth in northwest NSW where Jones was alleged to have grabbed the complainant's bottom.
"The director (of public prosecutions) has indicated there will be no further proceedings on (that charge)," prosecutor James Staples told Downing Centre Local Court.
Legal: RobertsSmith (SYDNEY)
Former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith will not know of the full suite of war crimes allegations against him for months due to classified information included in the case.
The 47-year-old was arrested in April and charged with murdering or ordering the murders of five unarmed detainees while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
But the case against him is mired in delays stretching to September due to national security issues, Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court was told on Tuesday.
Crown prosecutor Chelsea Brain said Roberts-Smith could not be given the full brief of evidence against him until certain orders protecting sensitive information were made by the court.
The application over this top secret material was made by the federal government.
Legal: Catalano (MELBOURNE)
Media mogul Antony Catalano can return to his Byron Bay home after his bail conditions were varied to allow interstate travel.
Catalano, 59, watched the Melbourne Magistrates Court hearing on a video link from his Victorian home on Tuesday, two months after he was charged over an alleged attack against his wife Stefanie.
The co-owner of Australian Community Media is accused of intentionally choking, strangling or suffocating the woman at a St Kilda property in the early hours of March 13.
It's also alleged Catalano unlawfully imprisoned his wife and detained her against her will.
Catalano is facing eight criminal charges, including recklessly cause injury, making threats to kill and assault.
His lawyer Tony Hargreaves on Tuesday sought an adjournment to July, telling the court the case had yet to resolve.
Wages (CANBERRA)
Workers deserve a decent pay rise, the treasurer says, as the industrial umpire prepares to hand down its decision on how much the minimum wage will increase by.
The Fair Work Commission's decision, to be revealed on Tuesday, sets the increase for minimum and award wage scales from July 1.
With the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz exacerbating already high inflation pressures, unions have been pushing the commission for a bumper pay rise to ensure workers don't go backwards.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said while the federal government does not nominate an exact figure for how much wages should increase, workers should still experience a tangible benefit.
"Workers on the minimum wage and on awards need and deserve a decent real wage increase," he told ABC TV on Tuesday.
Ebola (KINSHASA)
The head of the World Health Organisation has concluded his visit to Democratic Republic of Congo by briefing the president on the response to the Ebola outbreak, which an aid agency warns is likely much larger than official figures show.
The outbreak, already the third-largest on record, persisted for weeks undetected, say health officials, who are now behind the curve and struggling to bring it under control.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for more international support to stop the disease's spread before he travelled to Congo's Ituri province where the first cases were confirmed.
There he said he saw some encouraging signs - including five certified recoveries - as well as the need to ramp up testing and treatment capacity and promote trust in health workers.
Hantavirus (AMSTERDAM)
A cruise ship that was at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak has been disinfected and is ready to set sail again with passengers, its operator says.
The Hondius is to depart on Saturday for the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
From there, it is due to set off on June 13 on a voyage through the Arctic Ocean, the Dutch cruise line Oceanwide Expeditions said.
Specialists from Dutch health authorities carried out a comprehensive cleaning and disinfection of the ship.
Authorities cleared the vessel for service over the weekend, and there is no longer any risk of infection, the company said.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the hantavirus was brought aboard by passengers and did not originate on the ship, Oceanwide Expeditions said.
In finance ...
Legal: Rex (SYDNEY)
The corporate watchdog's case against regional airline Rex and its former directors over an optimistic and ultimately incorrect profit forecast has major evidence gaps, a court has heard.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has alleged four former Rex directors misled the market in statements claiming the board was confident of a strong financial result, months before handing down a $31.7 million operating loss.
In delivering his closing argument for two of the directors on Tuesday, barrister David Thomas SC argued the commission's case leaned heavily on evidence against the company rather than the board itself.
"I'm drawing attention to a notable and unexplained gap between the course of expert evidence against the company and the complete absence of it against my clients," he told the NSW Supreme Court.
TPG (SYDNEY)
Thanks to a big expansion of its network, Vodafone is emerging as a legitimate threat to Australia's incumbent mobile phone operators, its corporate owner says.
In January last year, a network-sharing agreement between Optus and TPG Telecom went live, giving Vodafone customers access to Optus' network towers, more than doubling its coverage area to one million square kilometres.
"It's fair to say for Vodafone, it's a business that has fundamentally changed in the past year," TPG chief marketing officer Bec Darley told investors at online an information day on Tuesday.
"The business has undertaken a multi-year transformation program on network coverage and experience, and the headline on that is Vodafone is back."
It now has the same network coverage as Optus and is just one per cent away from Telstra, after solving a structural issue that the standalone Vodafone brand had for many years, Ms Darley added.
In entertainment ...
Farnham (MELBOURNE)
Premium tickets to a blockbuster charity tribute concert for John Farnham are selling for $1650, with fans voicing their disappointment.
Tickets for the gig at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena on September 20 went on sale on Tuesday, with the cheapest available seats priced at $179 by the evening and many more on sale for about $1000.
Farnham fans trying to buy tickets online have complained on social media about long virtual queues and having to pay more for expensive seats.
"Wow, who can afford that?" commented one Farnham fan online, while another described the cost as an absolute joke.
"Looks like dynamic pricing will be happening, which is awful considering it is a charity event," said another.
Farnham himself won't be performing at the gig, which is being held to raise funds for Head and Neck Cancer Australia.
Legal: Lively (NEW YORK CITY)
The legal battle between actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni has returned to centre stage in a New York court despite a deal to end Lively's claims that she suffered retaliation after making sexual harassment claims over the making of their 2024 film It Ends With Us.
Lawyer Ellyn Garofalo, representing Baldoni, told US District Judge Lewis J. Liman that Lively was trying through an application for legal fees to do "an end run around the jury trial" that was voided when a deal was reached before a May trial was set to start.
At a hearing without the actors, Garofalo told Liman it was wrong for Lively to seek damages and legal fees after agreeing to a settlement in which she dismissed her claims without Baldoni and his production company "paying a cent of the $US300 million in damages she was demanding."
In sport ...
Super Reds (BRISBANE)
Fraser McReight has spent all week thinking about how to win the battle of the "dark arts" as the Reds captain prepares to join one of Queensland rugby's most exclusive clubs.
Saturday's Super Rugby Pacific quarter-final in Hamilton against the Chiefs will be the No.7's 100th for the Reds.
Only two other flankers - former Wallabies captain David Wilson and tough-as-nails Test toiler David Croft - have achieved the feat for the Reds.
The milestone game shapes as one of the most defining for McReight, still just 27, and his men as they aim to end a run of four-straight quarter-final exits before coach Les Kiss departs for the Wallabies top job.
"Just to get one game, seven or eight years ago, was special ... and what better week to have it than a quarter-final," McReight said.
WC26 Aust (OAKLAND)
Mathew Leckie has been a part of a team that shocked the world once and with the likes of Nestory Irankunda and Cristian Volpato involved, has every reason to believe a young Socceroos outfit can do even better.
The veteran, who famously scored the winner over Denmark that sent Australia to the round of 16 in Qatar, is heading to his fourth World Cup.
Australia are in Group D and will play Turkey in Vancouver on June 14, the United States in Seattle six days later then Paraguay in Santa Clara on June 26 (all dates AEST).
The Socceroos are again underdogs but Leckie believes they can still do something special.
"The belief's always been there, I think it's a big driver in what we do," Leckie said.
Ends Bulletin
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