That's it for today, thanks for reading
Here are the main stories on Friday 19 September:
Optus says three people died after a network outage resulted in more than 600 triple zero calls failing in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Its CEO, Stephen Rue, said he was “so sorry” to the families the network “let down”, and said an investigation was under way.
Federal politics is again dominated by disputes on the climate crisis, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, saying the Coalition’s refusal to set emissions targets is “extraordinary” as leader Sussan Ley says she “misspoke”.
China has urged Papua New Guinea not to sign a treaty that could restrict or prevent it from cooperating with another country, days after Australia failed to secure a defence pact with the Pacific nation.
Seven teenagers have been charged with murder after the stabbing deaths of 15-year-old Dau Akueng and 12-year-old Chol Achiek in Melbourne’s west earlier this month.
The South Australian cabinet has more women than men for the first time in state history after the shock departure of the deputy premier and treasurer.
A Victorian GP who treated triple murderer Erin Patterson and her victims after the deadly mushroom lunch has been slapped with conditions by the health regulator after speaking out about the case.
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Joe Longo, the chair of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, will not seek reappointment to the body when his term ends next May.
Enjoy the rest of your Friday and the weekend.
Updated
Here’s the story we did about the 2024 outage. Optus was fined $12m for the outage, which also prevented people from calling triple zero.
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Optus CEO promises transparency and to ‘get to the facts’
Rue added:
We will continue to do an investigation. I assure you, we will get to the facts; we will make them public.
Again, I sincerely apologise to those people who lost their lives.
On calling the press conference late on Friday, he said:
We have been establishing the facts … when they came to light. We’ve been doing welfare checks during the day. They have just been completed.
Rue confirmed part of the investigation would be why another network had not covered these calls while the Optus upgrade was occurring.
He said normal calls were going through at this time, but triple zero calls were affected. The exact duration of the outage was also being investigated, he said.
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‘This is not about me’: Optus CEO declines to weigh in on his future at telco
Addressing a $12m fine Optus was given for a similar outage in 2024, after which Rue and the federal government said it would never happen again, he said:
I share your frustration. This should not have happened.
We are doing a thorough investigation.The facts are still being established.
This is not acceptable.
Asked about his own future, given this had happened under his watch, Rue said:
Today is not about me, this is about the people who lost their lives.
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Optus CEO apologises for deaths
Rue, the Optus CEO, says of the deaths:
I am so sorry for your loss.
We have let you down.
We will cooperate fully and transparently with all government agencies and regulatory bodies while we investigate this matter further.
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Welfare checks still be completed after Optus outage, CEO says
The Optus CEO says that yesterday’s network outage during an upgrade also affected the Northern Territory.
Rue said it was frustrating that an outage similar to one that occurred in 2024 had happened again.
About 600 people were affected during yesterday’s outage, and a proportion of the calls did not go through, Rue said, adding that the failure had been rectified.
Welfare checks had found that three people had died, he said, noting that checks were continuing.
Updated
Optus’ network failed for triple zero calls, contributing to three deaths, CEO says
Optus’s CEO, Stephen Rue, says the telecommunications company had an outage affecting triple zero calls.
He said the matter was still being investigated, but he apologised to the three families affected, two in South Australia and one in Western Australia.
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Former NSW MP should receive lighter sentence due to ‘enormous fall from grace’ after rape conviction, court hears
Lawyers for convicted rapist Gareth Ward have argued in court that he should receive a lighter sentence because of his “enormous fall from grace”, including the loss of his political career.
Ward, 44, resigned as a New South Wales MP last month, just hours before he was to be kicked out of parliament. He is due to learn his fate at the end of October, but faced a sentencing hearing on Friday.
Ward appeared before the Parramatta district court via video link from Cessnock prison, where he has been remanded in custody awaiting sentencing.
You can read more on that story here:
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Seven teens charged after alleged stabbing murders
Victoria Police have charged seven teenagers with the alleged stabbing murders of 15-year-old Dau Akueng and 12-year-old Chol Achiek in Melbourne’s west earlier this month.
It comes after homicide squad detectives arrested seven people in early morning raids on Friday. The oldest arrested was 19 and the youngest 15.
The three adults will face the Melbourne magistrates’ court this afternoon, police said. The four children will appear at a children’s court this afternoon.
A 19-year-old Thornhill man, 16-year-old Sunbury boy, 15-year-old Hillside boy and 16-year-old Sydenham boy have been charged with Dau’s murder.
A 19-year-old Caroline Springs man, 18-year-old Wollert man and 16-year-old Sydenham boy have been charged with the murder of Achiek.
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Federal government should end logging, fast-track energy infrastructure, Spender says
Spender says the federal government should prioritise ending native forest logging and speeding up the process for approvals of renewable energy infrastructure. She told the ABC:
We are a massive country … We have an opportunity to put in a lot of renewable energy resources. At the moment it is just too slow and that makes it too expensive and makes a more expensive than it should be.
If we are going to do this, I don’t think it’s about our commitment to the environment. What it is about is … speeding up the processes … particularly [between] federal government and state governments.
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Independent Allegra Spender says ‘we really have to aim for the top end’ of emissions target
Allegra Spender, the independent MP for Wentworth, says the upper limit on the range set for emissions reduction by 2035 should be what the federal government aims for. She told the ABC:
I take the Climate Change Authority advice very seriously. I recognised … 62-70% is an appropriate range.
As that is the final report … we should aim for the top end of that range.
Aim for the 70%. If we can get beyond that, great.Having this broad range could mean we don’t have the right incentives left so we really have to aim for the top end.
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Kean dodges question on opposition’s refusal to back emissions target
Kean ducks a question from the ABC on whether he would like to see the opposition sign up to the emissions target, which it has refused to do.
I would like to see all Australians sign up to delivering an economy that is stronger and more prosperous for future generations, while at the same time delivering a planet that is cleaner, better and safer for … Australians.
That’s exactly what underpins the Climate Change Authority’s advice to the government, and I’m thrilled they accepted it, and I encourage other political actors and people across the community of goodwill to look at the work done, to again get on board with that agenda of building a stronger economy and a safe and clean environment for everyone.
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Matt Kean says authority aims to ‘surprise on the upside’ of ‘conservative’ emissions target range
Kean also says the emissions target is “a conservative approach, which means Australia should be able to deliver on what we promised”.
When asked how the gap would be bridged from the 2035 target to zero emissions by 2050, and how confident he was that technology could or would exist to do that, the Climate Change Authority chair responded:
The majority of emissions reduction between now and 2035 will come out of the electricity and energy transition. The good news is about that is it will also have the added benefit of being able to lower cost for households and businesses and still create economic growth for our country.
Yes, we looked at every sector of the economy and every technology available opportunities for abatement where we didn’t believe things would be available by 2035, we thought it would be too hard to deliver that out of the model. It is quite a conservative approach, with the aim of being in a position to surprise on the upside.
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Climate Change Authority chair says 2035 emissions target range ‘in the national interest’
The Climate Change Authority chair, Matt Kean, says the range put forward for the 2035 emissions target was “in the national interest”. He told the ABC:
It was designed to ensure that what we put forward was in the national interest and clearly that needed to balance the science with [what] was achievable, and we had modelling from the CSIRO who worked with Australia’s best scientists, and we built a ground up model to see how far and fast we could go by 2035.
The range reflects a number of uncertainties and there will be challenges along this journey. We have built in flexibility to ensure we can deal with whatever is thrown at us.
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Australian universities acting within culture of ‘consequence-free rotten failure’, Labor senator says
Labor senator Tony Sheldon says today’s interim report on university governance exposes the “widespread failures in transparency, accountability, and integrity across Australia’s public universities”.
Sheldon, the senate inquiry’s inaugural chair, took particular aim at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), which yesterday revealed a plan to slash about 30% of its subjects and more than 130 staff as part of a restructure.
Sheldon, who has been a strong critic of the sector during his time as chair of the education and employment committee, said UTS had become “the embodiment of everything wrong with university governance”.
They spent exorbitant sums on outside accountants to justify job cuts and course closures, splashed out on lavish international trips in the middle of a cost-cutting crisis, and pushed through restructures so extreme that a safety regulator had to intervene.
If our universities are to regain the trust of their communities, they must embrace transparency and accountability.
The vice-chancellor of UTS, Prof Andrew Parfitt, said UTS was focused on achieving a “sustainable future” and its commitment to public education and focus on the student experience were “paramount”.
Sheldon said the inquiry “exposed a culture of consequence-free rotten failure at the top of our universities”.
There’s no other sector in the country where failure is rewarded so handsomely and with so little scrutiny. We need universities run with integrity, not secrecy, and this report is a warning shot to those who think the rules don’t apply to them. The recommendations send a clear message: public money comes with public accountability.
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SA cabinet has more women than men for first time in state history
Two political veterans have been handed key roles on the South Australian government’s frontbench, after the state’s deputy premier and treasurer announced they were stepping down, AAP reports.
Tom Koutsantonis has been appointed treasurer, and the state’s Attorney-General, Kyam Maher, is the deputy premier after the party’s caucus elected him as deputy Labor leader.
They were sworn in at a ceremony at the state’s Government House on Friday, along with two other ministers who have been elevated to cabinet roles.
They replace Susan Close and Stephen Mullighan as deputy premier and treasurer, respectively, after the premier, Peter Malinauskas, announced on Thursday that the pair had indicated they would retire at the March 2026 state election.
The Adelaide MP, Lucy Hood, replaces Close as the environment minister, while the King MP, Rhiannon Pearce, has taken over the emergency services, correctional services, and recreation, sport and racing portfolios.
Malinauskas posted on X:
For the first time in history, we have more women than men in Cabinet.
My team reflects the rich diversity in our society.
And I’m proud to lead a disciplined and united team.
A team that’s determined to get things done for South Australians.
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Greens to introduce cat containment laws in NSW parliament
The Greens will introduce cat containment laws in NSW parliament that would give councils the discretion to regulate and enforce measures in priority areas and hold people responsible for keeping their cats safely at home.
The party announced that the proposed law would be introduced after Western Australia said it would make a similar move this week, amending the state’s Cat Act to allow local councils to make and enforce laws around containment.
Sue Higginson, the Greens’ spokesperson for the environment, said in a statement the primary driver for the new laws was about “protecting our precious and threatened native species”, but also about owners “taking care of the animals that they have a responsibility to care for”.
The failure of the NSW Government to act on cat containment is a tragedy for the environment, and is now a national embarrassment. We are now the only state that hasn’t addressed the extinction of native animals as a result of wandering pet cats …
This approach recognises that native animals and the cats that prey on them should be kept safe from one another, as well as giving enforcement powers to Councils that can be scaled up and down as necessary to prevent cats from wandering into neighbours’ yards, nature reserves or anywhere else where there is a problem.
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David Pocock on the 2035 climate target and political will – Australian Politics podcast
In a defining week for climate action, the Albanese government has unveiled a commitment to cut emissions between 62% and 70% of 2005 levels by 2035. But vocal climate advocate Senator David Pocock says a minimum of 75% is needed to “do our bit”.
Political editor Tom McIlroy speaks to the ACT independent about his pessimism over political leadership on climate ambition – despite the government’s own warnings against a lack of action.
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Humpback whale and calf caught in shark net off Noosa – video
A humpback whale and calf were filmed caught in a shark net at the entrance to Noosa national park.
The pair were freed on Wednesday evening. Five whales have been caught in shark nets this week.
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That’s all from me. Nino Bucci will be your blog guide for the rest of Friday. Enjoy your afternoon!
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Overhauling university governance ‘absolutely urgent’, Greens say
The Greens deputy leader and higher education spokesperson, Mehreen Faruqi, said the interim report “makes the need for an overhaul of hefty VC and executive salaries and cleaning up university governance bodies crystal clear”.
The senator was a member of the inquiry into university governance and made further recommendations, including immediately repealing the former Coalition government’s job-ready graduates scheme.
Faruqi said it was “imperative” the government listened to the inquiry’s “damning evidence” and took staff and student recommendations seriously:
The depth and breadth of anxiety, stress, trauma and fear that staff are subjected to, and the lack of accountability and transparency that VCs and executives get away with without any repercussions or recourse cannot be tolerated any longer.
Overhauling university governance is absolutely urgent. Staff and students deserve to be key decision-makers at their universities, not overpaid executives, corporate appointees or private consultants that walk away with millions of dollars.
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‘Out of step with community expectations’: senate committee targets vice-chancellors’ pay averaged at double the PM’s
Amid increased scrutiny on the high salaries of vice-chancellors, the senate committee recommended the federal government work with the Remuneration Tribunal and states and territories to devise a framework of classification structures and remuneration ranges to determine senior executives’ pay.
University councils would retain responsibility for setting the vice-chancellors’ and senior executives’ pay within the range.
The average vice-chancellor pay is almost twice that of the prime minister, while a number of vice-chancellors with salaries of more than $1m a year also hold external paid positions.
The committee said it accepted the importance of universities remaining “competitive” for global talent, but continued:
The overwhelming volume of evidence received was strongly of the view that universities paying over 300 executives across the country more than the premier or chief ministers of their state was excessive, and out of step with community expectations of public institutions and international comparisons.
The report was released ahead of an education ministers’ meeting in October, where higher education reform will be on the agenda. The final report is due to be handed down in December.
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Senate inquiry recommends reining in pay packets for university vice-chancellors among other efforts to boost trust
Vice-chancellors’ million-dollar pay packets would be reigned in and universities forced to declare potential conflicts of interest under a series of sweeping recommendations by a Senate inquiry into university governance.
The committee’s interim report, released on Friday afternoon, found there was a “lack of trust” in universities that was undermining their reputation and mission to serve the public good.
It made a dozen recommendations to improve transparency and accountability in the beleaguered sector, including publishing the minutes of council meetings on university websites, publicly disclosing all spending on consultants and releasing a conflict-of-interest register for senior executives and council members.
The report also called for greater transparency of the composition of governing bodies, including a minimum proportion of members with higher education expertise and from staff and student backgrounds, and for strengthening the powers of the sector’s regulator.
The committee said it was “concerned that if these governance failures were not addressed, universities risked undermining their public missions, diminishing the international standing of Australian higher education and failing in their obligations as publicly funded institutions”.
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Scientists to research bird flu on Antarctic islands
Australian scientists will set sail on a wet, wild and windy expedition to research whether bird flu has reached world heritage-listed islands in Antarctica, AAP reports.
A group of experts will voyage to Heard and McDonald islands, 4,000 kms southwest of Western Australia, as part of the nation’s biggest campaign to the area in two decades.
The environment minister, Murray Watt, who joined the scientists in Hobart on Friday, said Australia was the only continent remaining free of the h5 strain of bird flu, despite it having spread globally.
H5 avian influenza is a highly contagious strain that mainly affects birds, but can also infect other animals. It rarely affects humans.
The Australian Antarctic Program head of division, Emma Campbell, said one of the main objectives of the voyage was to also assess the size and distribution of seabird and seal populations on the islands.
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Car owner and family expected to testify in Bruce Lehrmann theft trial
Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s alleged car theft victim, her husband, son and five police officers are expected to give evidence at a court hearing into the saga, AAP reports.
Lehrmann has denied stealing a Toyota Prado at remote Mountain River in southern Tasmania on 20 November 2024.
The 30-year-old and lawyer Zali Burrows appeared via phone before Hobart magistrates court on Friday.
Burrows said she would subpoena a media interview conducted by complainant Gail Oates that allegedly contained a different version of the incident than the one she told police.
The defence said they had received previously redacted statements, which included the name of someone else Oates believed might have taken the four-wheel drive.
“We may require more information in light of that,” Burrows told the court.
The yet-to-be-scheduled hearing would take four days, prosecutor Bunewat Keo said.
Oates, her husband and son would all give evidence, as would a friend of Lehrmann and a service station worker able to give context about what happened that night, Keo said.
Five police officers involved in the investigation would be called, and CCTV and police body-worn camera footage would be tendered.
Most of the evidence had been disclosed, bar a bank statement and maps to assist the court, Keo said.
Lehrmann’s bail was continued, and the matter was listed to return to court on October 31.
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Queensland coalminer to cut jobs as prices fall
Queensland coalminer QCoal Group will close one of its two underground sites at its Cook Colliery project in the Bowen Basin, blaming production costs, taxes, royalties and low coal prices.
It is the third coalminer operating in Queensland to announce job cuts this week, with the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) and Anglo American also revealing workforce changes.
QCoal’s Cook Colliery project employs about 170 people, but it’s unclear on the exact number of expected job losses.
A QCoal spokesperson said consultation with workers was expected to take two weeks. The spokesperson said:
Unfortunately Cook Colliery has been affected by high production costs, high taxes and royalties and low coal prices and its ongoing operation at its current levels is unsustainable.
QCoal mines coking coal, used in steel, and thermal coal for energy production.
Coalminers recently emerged from a windfall period, marked by huge price rises after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Prices have now retreated to more normal levels.
Some of the miners have linked their decision to cut jobs to the Queensland government’s tiered royalty scheme, which was updated in 2022 to help the government retrieve higher rates during commodity price booms.
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Queensland government backs shark nets after five whale entanglements
When asked about the five whales caught in shark nets this week, Queensland Minister for Primary Industries, Tony Perrett, backed the continued use of shark nets and drumlines. He said in a statement:
The Crisafulli government will always put the safety of people first which is why it has delivered the largest investment into shark management in the program’s history.
This plan also funds the marine animal rescue team, 25 highly trained specialists who provide rapid response to any whale entanglement.
Perrett said the state government was funding whale-deterrent research and innovation.
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NSW police commissioner may be announced next week
Earlier today, the NSW premier, Chris Minns, was again asked when the government will reveal the replacement for outgoing police commissioner Karen Webb, who announced her resignation in May.
Webb, who stepped down almost two years before her contract was due to end, has her final day on 30 September, although deputy commissioner Peter Thurtell is currently acting in her role.
Since Webb’s resignation, media reports have focused on the frontrunner and acting chief executive of the NSW Reconstruction Authority, Mal Lanyon – including a 2021 incident in which he was found collapsed near Goulburn’s “Big Merino” sculpture.
This month, Lanyon admitted taking his wife and another couple aboard an operational police boat for New Year’s Eve in 2023, after a complaint to the police watchdog.
Asked whether the government has ruled out Lanyon over the incidents, Minns says “people do make decisions, sometimes they’re bad decisions, me included”, but says the final appointment will consider the “totality of someone’s career”.
My experience is that senior police, like our senior public servants in the big portfolios, are eminently professional and just focused on public service … You’ve got every right to highlight and scrutinize public servants. But from my position, if we’re only picking people who have got completely lilywhite records, then we’ll be missing out on a lot of people that can contribute to public life in NSW.
Asked if the announcement could happen next week, Minns says: “Maybe.”
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Ley says party doesn’t ‘believe in setting targets at all from opposition’ but says things would be different in government
Returning to Sussan Ley’s press conference on climate earlier, the Liberal leader now says her party “don’t believe in setting targets at all from opposition”.
While the Labor government yesterday set its target of a 62-70% reduction in emissions by 2035, it seems the Liberal Party or Coalition may not set one of their own in return at this stage.
Ley had initially told the press conference “we don’t believe setting targets at all from opposition or from government”. However her team says she misspoke initially, in adding “government” to that answer.
We understand Ley came back to the press conference immediately after it ended and clarified that the Coalition don’t support setting targets from opposition but that “we do, of course, recognise the importance of targets in government when we have the full information in front of us, which we don’t have”.
Ley, under pressure from right-wingers in her ranks who have been increasingly lobbying to dump the Coalition’s still-current net zero by 2050 pledge, yesterday was quick out of the blocks to oppose the 62% to 70% target.
The obvious question was, what target would Ley’s Liberals and the National party support?
In another presser today, Ley shot down the concept entirely. Asked what she thought the target should be, the Liberal leader responded:
“We don’t believe in setting targets at all from opposition or from government, because the reality is that energy policy is not about a target that is never going to be reached and the 43% target is a perfect example of that,” she said in her initial answer, pointing to the government’s 2030 target.
“Energy policy is about visiting businesses like this one,” Ley continued, referencing the manufacturing business she was speaking from.
And talking to people who work in the energy sector, who deliver the energy grid, who understand the actual realities of the energy economy, not setting a notional target and then expecting that everyone will agree with it even though you can’t demonstrate how you will get there or what it will cost.
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PM calls Coalition's refusal to set emissions targets 'extraordinary'
Albanese also had harsh words for opposition leader Sussan Ley and her refusal to set the Coalition’s own targets.
Albanese said:
Today we’ve had the extraordinary comment by the leader of the Liberal party who said ‘we don’t believe in setting targets at all’ … The modern Liberal party is focused on their own jobs and fighting each other …
The Liberal party is too busy fighting each other, too busy looking over their shoulders, too busy arguing with each other over the interests of Australians.
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Albanese touts emissions reduction targets as ‘ambitious’ but ‘achievable’
Prime minister Anthony Albanese is speaking in Melbourne to speak about the installation of at-home batteries to bolster clean energy from solar power.
Albanese spoke about yesterday’s emissions reduction targets, which would limit carbon emissions from between 62% and 70% over 2005 levels by 2035.
He said:
That was advice based upon science, based upon the best technology. An ambitious target, but one that is achievable.
Rape accused ‘threatened to distribute intimate images’
A Sydney man hit with dozens of rape charges for alleged assaults on three women is also accused of threatening to distribute graphic images, AAP reports.
The 31-year-old is due to face court on Friday over the alleged assaults between April 2023 and April 2025.
One woman was aged 29 and the other two were 21.
The man was arrested on Thursday at a block of units in the western Sydney suburb of North Parramatta.
The man was charged with 32 counts of sexual intercourse without consent dating back to 2023.
The man was refused bail to appear before a local court on Friday.
Australia Post will begin postal sending to the US for business customers earlier than expected
Australia Post said today it will resume postal sending to the US for business customers on Monday, 22 September, three days earlier than planned after the shock decision to suspend most parcel service to the country amid president Donald Trump’s tariff regime.
AusPost said it was working with a company called Zonos, a third-party provider, to offer business contract and My Post business customers the ability to comply with the new tariff rules, which impose duties on parcels valued more than $100USD.
Those business customers looking to send parcels to the US must register with Zonos and set up a verified account.
Retail customers will be able to send parcels to the US via the post office network on or before 7 October. Letters, documents of no commercial value and gifts under that dollar value are exempt.
Gary Starr, the executive general manager of the company’s parcel, post and e-commerce services, said:
We know our customers have felt the impact and disruption from changes the US Government made to customs and import tariff rules, and we have been working around the clock to re-start sending as soon as possible.
Analysis: Australian lives – and deaths – not given even a moment of consideration as Queensland pill testing ban brought in
According to experts, last night’s decision by Queensland parliament to ban pill testing will cost lives. A lot of them; more Australians die of drug overdoses than in car accidents.
Their deaths – past and future – warranted not an instant of parliamentary time.
The family of Queenslander Josh Tam, whose death at a New South Wales music festival led to a coronial recommendation in favour of pill testing in that state, had publicly pleaded with the government to reconsider.
That plea was given not a moment’s formal consideration by parliament.
There is no law or structure preventing Queensland’s governments from ruling by decree via the state’s unicameral parliament.
On Thursday night the government did so by attaching amendments to ban pill testing to an unrelated omnibus bill in parliament.
No less than 11 Labor MPs tried to debate pill testing. Every one had their attempt ruled out of order.
Sandy Boulton, one of the few to get a word in because she is an independent MP representing Noosa, slammed the process as “a form of gagging and not part of transparency”.
“If amendments [to bills] do not go through the appropriate process of committee scrutiny, Queenslanders are denied the right to have their say, and that is wrong in all ways,” she said. They did not.
At 9pm on Thursday the motion was finally “put”, which means all the amendments to the omnibus bill were voted on in one block. There was no opportunity for anyone to speak on the pill testing amendment.
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Weekly Beast is out, and a must-read as always:
Ley calls emissions target modelling ‘a cruel hoax on every Australian’ but ducks Paris agreement questions
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, is speaking to reporters in Lonsdale, South Australia.
She has become “increasingly worried” about the emissions targets announced on Thursday by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, because they “fail the two tests of cost and credibility”.
Ley does not believe the modelling, which she says is “a cruel hoax on every single Australian”.
She will not, however, comment on the future of the Paris Agreement saying she was instead “focused on … the national interest of Australians”.
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Health regulator places conditions on Victorian GP who spoke out on mushroom murders case
A Victorian GP who treated triple murderer Erin Patterson and her victims after the deadly mushroom lunch has been slapped with conditions by the health regulator after speaking out about the case.
Dr Christopher Webster, a GP in Leongatha, south-east of Melbourne, was a witness in Patterson’s trial earlier this year.
After she was found guilty, Webster gave several media interviews about the case, including one in which he called Patterson a “crazy bitch”.
On Wednesday, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) placed conditions on his registration.
According to Ahpra’s register of practitioners, Webster’s conditions include that he must complete:
One-on-one education with an approved educator for a minimum of 8 hours and address the following topics: professionalism and ethics, professional communication, privacy and confidentiality, complying with your obligations under Good medical practice: a code of conduct for doctors in Australia and Social media: How to meet your obligations under the National Law.
The register also says that he must complete the one-on-one education within six months, and that once it is completed he must be mentored.
This mentoring must take place for a minimum of five hour-long sessions on a monthly basis, and must be completed within a year.
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More on shark nets and whale entanglements
There are 27 shark nets in Queensland and 51 in New South Wales. As large numbers of whale mothers and newborns make their way south, spending time near the shore, they are at risk of entanglement.
A spokesperson for Queensland’s Department of Primary Industries said:
Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol officers, the Sunshine Coast shark contractor and a trained marine animal release team from the Sunshine Coast have successfully released a juvenile whale entangled in a shark net at Marcoola beach on the Sunshine Coast.
The entanglement was first reported just before 8am and the whale was successfully released at around 10am.
Our teams were alerted to this incident by reports to the shark control program hotline and we had crews on the scene very quickly. We thank everyone who contacted the hotline, enabling us to provide prompt assistance.
The net is currently being replaced onsite.
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Another whale tangled in shark nets off Marcoola
Another humpback whale has been caught in shark nets on the Sunshine Coast on Friday – the fifth to become ensnared this week.
The whale, which became tangled off Marcoola on Friday morning, has since been released, according to Griffith University’s Dr Olaf Meynecke. He said calm conditions were often associated with entanglements.
This is a very calm morning … the whales come pretty close to shore when it’s calm, when they feel the least danger. They come within a few hundred metres of the shore to rest.
If there’s more waves and wind, mothers and calves stay further away to avoid the risk of stranding.
Authorities are still working to release a mother humpback from shark nets near Hervey Bay. The animal has been entangled now for about six days. Most, but not all, of the nets have been removed. Separately, a mother and calf caught in nets off Noosa were freed on Wednesday.
Humpback whales are caught in shark nets every year, said Meynecke, but this was the first time involving five in a matter of days.
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AHRC accepts complaint over Merivale keffiyeh incident
The Australian Human Rights Commission has accepted a racial discrimination complaint against a Sydney restaurant for allegedly denying dine-in service to six Palestinians for wearing keffiyehs after last month’s Harbour Bridge march.
The Racial Justice Centre (RJC) says the group complaint against Merivale-owned Jimmy’s Falafel has been accepted by the AHRC as an alleged breach of the Racial Discrimination Act. Sharfah Mohamed, lawyer at the RJC, says she welcomes the AHRC’s swift acceptance of the complaint.
The AHRC can only accept a complaint when it is “reasonably arguable” that the alleged conduct is unlawful discrimination. The commission will invite Merivale to respond before it facilitates and conducts conciliation between the parties.
A Merivale spokesperson previously told Guardian Australia that management made a decision to protect their staff that involved banning people carrying or displaying flags and placards inside the venue for a 20-minute period after people walking past its venues shouted “obscenities and violent rhetoric”. Merivale said the comments included“death to the IDF”, “death to all Zionist pigs” and “f***ing Zionist pigs and scum”.
The spokesperson said its staff understood the decision to include “political items of clothing”.”
If conciliation is unsuccessful, the complaint can take the matter to the federal court.
Guardian Australia has contacted Merivale for comment.
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Pedestrian dies after being hit by car in Sydney’s south-west earlier this month
A 60-year-old woman has died after she was hit by a car in Sydney’s south-west earlier this month, NSW police say.
Emergency services were called to the suburb of Bradbury on 9 September amid reports a pedestrian had been hit by a car. Paramedics treated the woman at the scene before she was taken to a local hospital in a critical condition.
She died yesterday in hospital.
The alleged driver of the vehicle, a 24-year-old man, was taken to hospital after the accident for mandatory testing. He was later taken to the police station and charged. His case remains before the courts.
The accident is being investigated.
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Asic chair Joe Longo will not seek reappointment
Joe Longo, the chair of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), will not seek reappointment to the body when his term ends next May.
Longo said in a statement his tenure, which began in June 2021, had been an “immense privilege” saying he had been given an opportunity to “rebuild and renew the agency”. He went on:
When I accepted the position, I was clear Asic needed to become a modern, confident and ambitious regulator.
With the most significant organisational restructure in 15 years, new commissioners, a new CEO and refreshed senior executive team, I see that transformation is delivering dividends.
Longo said Asic had a highly skilled team of dedicated staff, and he could not “praise them enough”.
The ASIC of today is better fulfilling what Australia needs of it. That is just the beginning.
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Search for pilot continues after plane crashes in wilderness area
The search continues for the pilot of a light plane which crashed in Budawang national park, AAP reports.
Emergency services resumed their efforts on Friday morning, hindered by poor weather and difficult terrain.
The plane took off from Bankstown airport in Sydney’s south-west on Thursday and was on its way back when an emergency location transmitter was activated at about 4.30pm.
The wreckage was spotted from the air in the park, about 25km north of Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast, at about 5.30pm yesterday.
The crash site could not be accessed by vehicle or on foot, NSW police said.
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NSW opens fast-charging electric bus depot in Australian first
The NSW government has announced the first conversion of a large Sydney bus depot to electric fast-charging technology as part of its efforts to electrify the state’s 8,000-strong fleet.
The Brookvale bus depot in the northern beaches has been fitted out with Australia’s first gantry-mounted charging system. A mechanical arm connects the buses to overhead power lines via a “pantograph”, similar to the system used to power trains. An electric bus recharges in 20 minutes to an hour, providing up to 300km of travel.
The NSW transport minister, John Graham, says the program has begun in the northern beaches, which has faced serious bus shortages:
The Northern Beaches experienced the worst of the bus driver shortage … and also lost high-capacity bendy buses when they had to be withdrawn from service for body work. Bus passengers here can look forward to a brighter, all-electric future.
As of August this year, greater Sydney had 220 electric buses in operation. Brookvale, the first of Sydney’s 11 bus depots to be fitted out, has 13 electric buses in service, although the government says the 13 charging stations and eight plug in-chargers will support 229.
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AMA Queensland opposes the pill testing ban
The Australian Medical Association of Queensland opposes the ban and warned it could put lives at risk, AAP adds. AMA Queensland President Nick Yim said:
We are disappointed with the government’s move to ban pill testing. Pill testing provides an opportunity for individuals to have a conversation with a health professional about their drug use.
As doctors, we are concerned we’ll see an increase in presentations to our emergency departments, particularly in the upcoming summer festival season, where we know people may use drugs.
Queensland bans pill testing despite warnings crackdown puts lives at risk
Queensland has become the first Australian state to ban pill testing, with medical experts warning the move could cost lives, AAP reports.
The legal crackdown follows state government moves to scrap $1.5m in public funding for pill-testing services run by CheQpoint – one in Brisbane, the other on the Gold Coast – forcing services to close in April.
The ban passed in state parliament late Thursday night makes any pill-testing operations illegal.
The health minister, Tim Nicholls, said:
The Crisafulli Government has a zero-tolerance approach to illicit drugs. I want to make it absolutely clear that there is no safe way to take illegal drugs and this government does not support publicly or privately funded pill testing.
Drug-checking services send the wrong message to Queenslanders.
Some services or trials remain in place in the ACT, Victoria and NSW. Queensland was the first state to establish a fixed pill-testing strategy by the ALP.
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Bocsar chief says small number of charges highlights complexity surrounding such abuse
Jackie Fitzgerald, the executive director of Bocsar said:
The small number of charges highlights the complexity of investigating and prosecuting this form of abuse.
With a median time of 131 days from the police report to charge, it’s clear that building a prosecutable case under this new legislation requires time, evidence, and a deep understanding of the patterns of behaviour involved.
Fitzgerald said the true test of the legislation will come when a case that proceeds to trial for the first time allows “the courts to examine the evidence, interpret the law, and set important precedents for how coercive control is prosecuted in NSW”. She added:
In the first 12 months, only three coercive control charges were finalised in court.
In two cases, the charges were withdrawn by prosecution. And in the third case, the defendant pleaded guilty, meaning no contested charges have yet been tested through the judicial process.
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Only nine people charged during first year of NSW’s landmark coercive control laws
Only nine people have been charged in New South Wales under the state’s landmark coercive control laws, despite there being nearly 300 recorded incidents.
The data, released today by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar), tracked the impact of the legislation – which criminalises coercive control in intimate partner relationships – in the year since it was introduced last July.
The legislation marked a significant shift in the way domestic violence was recognised in the state amid a nation-wide reckoning over how many women continue to be murdered by their intimate partners.
Bocsar found there were five distinct controlling behaviours on average in the 297 recorded incidents. The most common were harassment and monitoring or tracking. Meanwhile threats or intimidation, financial abuse (48%) and shaming or humiliation were recorded in around half of the incidents.
The rates were higher in the regions, with the Far West and Orana and Central West recording the highest in the state. Nearly half of those that alleged a coercive control incident had a recorded history with police of being victim-survivors of domestic violence.
Victoria police have been undertaking 'significant investigation’ after deaths
Police say since the deaths of Akueng and Achiek, in two separate incidents on the night of 6 September, a “significant investigation” by the homicide squad has been under way to “identify those responsible and collect all available evidence”.
They say local police also increased patrols in the Cobblebank area as part of their community reassurance efforts, and met with local schools, council and community leaders.
The investigation into the deaths remains ongoing and urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit an online confidential report.
Seven teens arrested and questioned over stabbing deaths of Dau Akueng and Chol Achiek
Seven teenagers have been arrested and are being questioned over the stabbing deaths of 15-year-old Dau Akueng and 12-year-old Chol Achiek earlier this month.
Police on Friday confirmed homicide squad detectives raided homes in Melton South, Thornhill Park, Caroline Springs, Sunbury, Wollert, Hillside and Sydenham and arrested the seven teens.
They are a 19-year-old Thornhill Park man; a 19-year-old Caroline Springs man; an 18-year-old Wollert man; three 16-year-old boys and a 15-year old boy, all from the north west suburbs of Melbourne.
They are now being interviewed by police.
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Gout Gout misses out on 200m final but says better performances are ‘coming’
The promising debut of Gout Gout on the international stage has come to an end after he was eliminated at the world championships in a competitive semi-final in Tokyo.
The 17-year-old finished fourth last night in his race behind winner Bryan Levell, and missed out on the two additional time-based qualification places on offer after running at 20.36sec.
Although Torrie Lewis couldn’t progress in the women’s 200m either, Australia’s middle distance runners and high jumpers found success in the National Stadium on Thursday.
In the men’s 200m, Gout’s time was marginally slower than the 20.23sec he ran in his heat, and was well off the 20.02sec he produced to lower his own national record in a meet in Czechia in June.
But he was positive afterwards, and said he would build on this experience. “Semi-finalist, and to go out there and compete against the big guys, I couldn’t be prouder of myself for sure,” the teenager said.
Read more here:
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Nearly one in three single-parent households in Australia live in poverty, Hilda report shows
A major national survey has revealed a “silent crisis” among Australian families, with nearly one-in-three single-parent households living in poverty.
The newly released statistical report on the long-running Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey found that, after adjusting for housing costs, 31.3% of single-parent families were living below the poverty line in 2023.
This group is nearly three times more likely to be in poverty than two-parent households, the survey showed.
The latest reported figure was down from a record high reported in 2022, but was still well above the 25% share of single-parent households in poverty a decade earlier and higher than the 28.3% in poverty in 2003.
Hilda’s co-director, Roger Wilkins, said the history of the survey revealed a worsening trend over the past 10 to 15 years as changes under the Howard and Gillard governments forced single parents – predominately mothers – off parenting payments and on to less generous unemployment benefits.
Read more:
Study finds stroke ‘miracle cure’ no more effective than a placebo
A so-called miracle cure for stroke is no more effective than a placebo, a study has found.
AAP reports the treatment, known as perispinal etanercept, involves injecting an arthritis medication into the back of a patient’s neck and tilting them downwards so it travels towards their brain.
Unavailable in Australia, stroke survivors have flown to the United States to receive the treatment, often at great expense.
But a trial conducted by scientists from The Florey research centre has shown it offers patients no benefits above a dummy treatment.
Some 126 patients from Australia and New Zealand took part in the randomised trial, published in the peer-reviewed journal Neurology, with half receiving the treatment and half the placebo.
Neither group nor doctors knew which one they had until afterwards. In total, 52% of those who received the treatment reported feeling better 28 days later, compared to 57% of those who received the placebo.
The difference in the results is considered statistically insignificant.
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Gradual electric vehicles uptake a ‘challenge’, says Bowen
Bowen was asked on 7.30 last night about electric vehicle uptake in Australia and he admitted that reducing emissions from transport is a “challenge” that will “take quite a while” due to Australians’ slow uptake of electric vehicles.
The climate change minister admitted EV adoption had been gradual and was yet to significantly impact Australia’s emissions after announcing the government’s 2035 emissions reduction target of 62% to 70%.
He said:
It’s been a challenge, because … you buy a car today and it’s operating for 15 or more years, so it takes time to turn that around.
Reports released alongside the new target said electric vehicles would have to account for half of new cars sold between now and 2035, alongside dramatic transformation of the country’s energy grid, to even reach the lower end of the target.
Bowen acknowledged transport emissions were yet to slump despite tax breaks for EVs, new vehicle emissions standards and an increasing range of cars:
I’m not here to pretend to you that that has all of a sudden impacted on emissions yet. It’s going to take quite a while to have the full impact on our emissions.
Littleproud says Nationals do not reject climate change
David Littleproud, the Nationals leader, rejected Bowen’s assertion in an interview with RN Breakfast, saying:
I believe in climate change. I believe that man has made an impact on climate change. Just because I don’t believe in Chris Bowen’s plan doesn’t mean I’m a climate denier. …
We believe there’s ways to do it, but not necessarily Labor’s way.
Littleproud said he remained concerned about the cost behind the plan to lower emissions, adding the Nationals were working on their own effort to ensure “we’ve adapted to climate change and protected our economy”.
What I intend to do is lead a party that will maturely work through this, look through all aspects of this, and say to the Australian people: we believe in climate change, but there is ways to achieve this, and it’s not just one way to achieve it.
Open your minds, have the conversation.
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Bowen says the Coalition ‘doesn’t believe in climate action’
Bowen was asked about the Coalition’s fierce criticism of the target. The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, yesterday said the targets failed on both counts of cost and credibility. Bowen said of those criticisms:
The Coalition doesn’t believe in climate action. There’s no surprise there, nor do they accept climate science. [These] guys are just on the wrong side of modernity and they will always play that cheap politics. …
I think Australians know better than that and see through that climate denial sort of rhetoric.
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Bowen says emissions reduction targets ‘no small thing’
Chris Bowen, the climate change minister, maintained the government’s emissions reduction target was “no small thing”, saying he believes the plan is achievable “but ambitious”.
Bowen spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, addressing criticism from many in the environmental community that the target of a reduction between 62% and 70% by 2035 over 2005 levels was too low to rein in the worst effects of climate change. Bowen said:
This is no small thing ... And it certainly compares well internationally. Over the last 24 hours, Europe’s been considering a 63% to 70% cut, which shows on the same accounting basis as ours. So, that shows that we are right up there with the most ambitious countries in the world, as we should be, as we need to be. But also … it has to be achievable. …
With all due respect to those commentators who say we should be doing more, they don’t need to deliver – government does and the government has set out yesterday not only a target but a comprehensive plan to help us get there.
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Good morning, Nick Visser here to take over for Martin Farrer. Let’s get to it, and happy Friday!
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Julie Bishop denies bullying allegations in Senate inquiry
Julie Bishop has categorically denied allegations of bullying made against her during a Senate inquiry, issuing a 25 page right of reply, published on the Senate committee’s website.
The ANU chancellor had told the media and staff at a town hall meeting last week that she denied the allegations and she had first heard the allegations when they were aired at the inquiry.
Liz Allen, an demographer at the ANU, made the allegations while giving evidence to a committee investigating higher education governance.
In the letter, Bishop said the way the allegations were made raised “grave concerns”.
The way the hearing … was used to ventilate serious allegations against me and other senior ANU officers raises grave concerns for a range of reasons – both individually and for the ANU.
I wish to state on the record that I categorically deny the allegations levelled against me during the hearing on 12 August 2025.
I cannot in good conscience publicly give testimony to the committee that may further compromise the workplace grievance process as well as other ongoing.
Bishop said her conduct has always been professional and she rejects the allegations that “I am ‘hostile and arrogant’ to staff, that I have ‘godlike powers, unchecked’ and the more general allegations that, under my chairmanship of council meetings, there is a ‘culture of fear and intimidation’ … that council is ‘dysfunctional and toxic under the current regime’, [or] that elected members are ‘afraid’”.
Plane crashes as it returns to Sydney
A plane has crashed in dense bushland on the state’s south coast while returning to Sydney, sparking a search last night on foot by emergency services for the crash site and the lone pilot.
The pilot had taken the small recreational aircraft out on a solo trip earlier on Thursday, flying south from Bankstown airport in Sydney’s west, police said.
The pilot was flying back to Sydney but crashed in Budawang national park about 25km north of Batemans Bay, activating the plane’s emergency location transmitter.
Emergency services were called to the scene at 4.30pm on Thursday, with the state’s ambulance helicopter assisting police, fire and maritime services in locating the crash site from the air.
First responders could not reach the crash by vehicle or air due to the dense bush and adverse weather and were continuing their effort on foot, police said.
Guardian Australia understands police were considering using drones to assist the search.
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Bowen tells 7.30 he can't promise lower energy prices
The climate change minister has declined to promise energy prices will fall, while acknowledging retail prices would determine the political success of the Albanese government’s new emissions target.
Speaking on ABC’s 7.30 last night, Chris Bowen said prices were “very important” to public support for the 2035 emissions reduction target of 62% to 70% but said the government had balanced climate change and living costs. He said:
Australians do want to see climate action but they also care about cost of living because it’s right before them every day … [but] the fundamental fact is that what’s good for your pocket is good for the planet and vice versa.
Bowen declined to guarantee that electricity prices would fall as the country adopted renewable energy or to specify a timeframe for Australians to see savings from solar and wind uptake. He instead pointed to government modelling showing lower prices were likely, saying:
I can guarantee that renewables are the cheapest form of energy. … We’ve never pretended, in the face of international energy pressures, that all this happens easily or quickly but we also don’t walk away from the fact that renewables are the cheapest form of energy ever known to humankind.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the breaking news and then your news guide will be Nick Visser.
Chris Bowen, the climate change minister, told ABC’s 7.30 last night that he can’t promise energy prices will fall. As he defended the his new emission target, Bowen acknowledged retail prices would determine the political success of the government’s policy. More to come.
Julie Bishop has categorically denied allegations of bullying made against her during a Senate inquiry, issuing a 25 page right of reply which has been published on the Senate committee’s website. More shortly.
And Rescue teams are searching dense bushland on foot near Batemans Bay in New South Wales to try to find a crashed plane and its lone pilot. The aircraft went missing yesterday on its way back to Sydney. More coming up.
