What we learned today, Tuesday 7 July
We will wrap up the live blog here for Tuesday. This is what made the news:
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Nine Entertainment and Foxtel have retained the media rights to the NRL in a $5.3bn deal which will see the games aired on the free-to-air network and the global streaming company Dazn until 2034.
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The Solomon Islands prime minister, Matthew Wale, said China is a “good friend” of his nation, but in response to the missile test in the Pacific yesterday: “This is not something a friend does.”
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Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, said he doubted China tested the long-range weapon in response to Anthony Albanese being in the Pacific to sign a new defence alliance with Fiji but Australia remained deeply concerned by the development.
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The foreign minister, Penny Wong, said she would talk to China about the “destabilising” development.
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Victoria police arrested a 22-year-old man after he allegedly spray-painted “Pam the Bird” graffiti on a 120-metre Bolte Bridge tower in Melbourne.
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South Australia has another suspected case of deadly H5 bird flu in a migratory seabird found on the Yorke peninsula.
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Coleen Lamarre, the mother of ex-senior constable and accused double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon, was granted bail in the NSW supreme court.
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TikTok activated its crisis response protocol after the Bondi terror attack, the royal commission has heard.
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Richard White resigned as the executive chair of WiseTech, the Australian tech company he co-founded, denying allegations he exploited a worker’s financial and visa status for sex.
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Australia’s Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) has begun testing the latest AI models available from the commercial providers just a month after it came into existence, the assistant minister for technology, Andrew Charlton, said.
Until tomorrow, enjoy your evening.
Updated
False flag conspiracy video still on YouTube, royal commission hears
A video falsely claiming Arsen Ostrovsky, who was injured in the Bondi attack, was a “crisis actor” is still on YouTube despite being “a very clear breach of YouTube’s community guidelines”, the royal commission into antisemitism has heard.
Ostrovsky, the head of the Australia, Israel and Jewish Affairs Council’s Sydney office, shared an image of his bloodied head, and it swiftly sparked a deluge of conspiracy theories and “false flag” claims.
Counsel assisting, Richard Lancaster SC, said YouTube’s hate speech policy is that they “don’t allow content that promotes hatred on the basis of, among other things, being victim of a major violent event”.
YouTube senior manager Rachel Lord said the policy applied in “a loss of life”. Lancaster said suggesting Ostrovsky was “a Zionist actor or an intelligence asset” surely incited “hatred towards him based on his characteristic as a Jewish Australian”.
Lord said the video had been reviewed at a senior level and it was determined it did not violate the guidelines. Lancaster said:
[I] suggest to you that it shows a really serious deficiency in YouTube’s guidelines that this video, after review at the highest levels, remains accessible to the public.
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Nearly 4 million Australians tuned in to Australia v Egypt World Cup match
SBS has revealed that nearly 4 million Australians tuned in to Australia’s final match at the World Cup on Saturday morning.
Almost 3 million tuned in for the Mexico v England match on Monday – the biggest audience for a match not involving Australia.
The broadcaster has said more than 16 million Australians have watched the World Cup broadcast on SBS over the first three weeks of the tournament, and despite the Socceroos’ departure, Australians are still tuning in to watch.
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Green steel mill announced for historic Newcastle site
Steelmaking is set to return to Newcastle’s historic BHP site for the first time in almost 30 years and this time it will be powered entirely by electricity.
Greensteel Australia has announced plans for a zero emissions steel mill at the site of BHP’s Newcastle steelworks, which closed in 1999.
The Sydney-based company said the proposed mill would employ 200 people and would initially roll about 600,000 tonnes of steel products for use in construction, particularly housing, each year.
The company’s chair, Ross Garnaut, said it would be Australia’s first fully electric mill. Traditional gas-fired processes would be replaced with either an electric induction technology powered by solar, wind and batteries or with green hydrogen.
Steelmaking contributes about 8-9% of global emissions and countries have made commitments to transition to a green industry. Garnaut said the mill was expected to be operational by mid-2028:
If steelmaking is to become important again in Australia, it will have to be zero emissions steel, and we can actually play a big role in helping the world remove that 9% of global emissions that are in steelmaking.
Garnaut said the new mill was focused on the final stage of the steelmaking process where slabs are turned into product. He said the plant would initially import steel from suppliers that used electric arc furnaces and scrap metal.
But he said the company planned to shift at a later stage to local manufacturing of green iron and steel in regional New South Wales or potentially at Whyalla in South Australia.
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‘You don’t build friendships by firing missiles,’ shadow foreign minister says
The shadow foreign minister, Ted O’Brien, said China’s decision to fire a test missile in the Pacific “only served the purpose” of reinforcing the importance of Pacific countries working together.
He told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:
You don’t create trust by flexing your muscles unexpectedly.
You don’t build friendships by firing missiles.
You don’t develop positive relationships by undertaking threatening activity.
These are the sorts of problems that I think Beijing is creating by behaving like this.
We stand with our Pacific neighbours in wanting to see this region a region of peace.
He said the prime minister and the foreign minister should be the ones making China aware of Australia’s position, and not leaving the feedback to public servants.
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AI companies should ‘pay up’ on copyright, Husic says
The Labor backbencher Ed Husic has said AI companies can “pay up” if they want to train their systems on Australian creative work.
Guardian Australia has reported an industry proposal has been presented to cabinet that would grant AI companies special exemptions to mine creative content.
In exchange, the companies would bankroll the artists’ fund and commit more than $50bn worth of investment in datacentres.
Creative industries have called on the government to rule out this proposal, and Husic told Sky News on Tuesday that AI companies are some of the biggest on the planet, and will be some of the most profitable:
They can pay up if they want content. We don’t need to bend over backwards to water down copyright laws … Most of the people that are in the creative space, be they from musical artists to writers, they’ve poured their heart and soul and worked a day job to be able to get that, and they shouldn’t hand that over to some of the biggest, most profitable companies on the planet without them stumping up for it, because those people certainly wouldn’t do their jobs for free, and why should we expect others to do so?
He said a lot of the building of datacentres wasn’t being driven by actual demand for AI products but to satisfy the valuations of investors.
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Accused double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon’s mother granted bail
Coleen Lamarre, the mother of ex-senior constable and accused double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon, was granted bail in the NSW supreme court on Tuesday after being charged with doing an act with the intent of perverting the course of justice over allegations she attempted to persuade a witness in her son’s trial to give a false statement.
She has not yet entered pleas to the charge.
AAP reports the 63-year-old grandmother of five, who also served in the force, kept a blank face as she heard she would be granted bail, but emotions ran high in the court gallery.
Her son is set to stand trial in the same court in September.
Lamarre-Condon allegedly fatally fired his service pistol at the TV presenter Jesse Baird and his flight attendant partner, Luke Davies, at their inner-city Sydney home in February 2024.
Lamarre-Condon, who briefly dated Baird, has pleaded not guilty to their murders.
He faces two counts of domestic violence-related murder and aggravated break and enter and his case will return to court later in July.
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Banks raise interest rates for sub-$1m property investors
Banks have ratcheted up interest rates for property investors borrowing close to $1m faster than the Reserve Bank’s rate hikes, new data shows.
The RBA has published average lending rates data for May, the month it lifted official interest rates to 4.35% and the federal budget tightened investor tax breaks.
The RBA’s cash rate is up 0.75 percentage points since December.
Rates rose faster for investment properties valued $600,000 to $1m, a range typical of entry-level properties in most major cities, up 0.84 points to 6.51% on average. They rose a full 0.45 points in May alone. Loans below or above the price range rose slower than the cash rate, with average rates of nearly 6.4%.
Investors’ average fixed interest rates have also risen faster than the RBA, with average fixed rates over three years long up 0.87 points since December, to 6.96% in May. Owner-occupiers’ three-year-plus fixed rates are up 0.63 points to 6.54%, so the faster increases in rates for investors suggest banks see a greater degree of risk in cheap lending for those borrowers.
Comparing rates in May to those in December 2024, when the cash rate was also at 4.35%, fixed rate loans are more expensive, as banks see more risk of rate hikes now than they did then. Rates are also now higher on the $600,000 to $1m investment property loans, thanks to banks’ rapid moves in May.
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Greens call for moratorium on large datacentre construction
The Greens have called for a halt to construction of hyperscale datacentres used for AI, following reports that Anthropic is seeking 1.4GW of datacentre capacity in Australia
The chair of the Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence and datacentres, Sarah Hanson-Young, said a report in the AFR that Anthropic is seeking a deal with the federal government on copyright as part of its expansion in Australia is “deeply concerning”.
She said:
If they want to use copyrighted material to train their AI, they should pay for it like everyone else does.
The building of the extra capacity would also have a massive impact on energy and water in Australia, Hanson-Young said.
The community deserves to have a say on whether or not they want to become the data centre dumping ground for US based companies.
We need a moratorium on the building of new hyperscale datacentres until we get the regulatory settings right.
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Government accused of ‘ignoring’ human rights obligations after UN review
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) has accused the federal government of “ignoring” its human rights obligations after only accepting 39% of recommendations in the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
The review evaluates human rights records and provides recommendations for how to improve. Of 322 recommendations, Labor accepted 128.
The NATSILS chair, Nerita Waight, said the federal government was displaying a lack of leadership and commitment to addressing issues that impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:
Ignoring recommendations does not change the evidence. Our children are being locked up at staggering rates, and things are getting worse.
In the past 6 months, Australia has been called out by three United Nations Committees and Working Groups for reports and evidence of systemic racism and human rights violations.
It has reached a point where the international community is deeply concerned about the impacts these laws have on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, which will further entrench them into cycles of disadvantage and inequality.
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Second case of H5 bird flu suspected in South Australia
South Australia has another suspected case of deadly H5 bird flu in a migratory seabird found on the Yorke peninsula.
The giant petrel was found at Hardwicke Bay and reported to the emergency animal disease hotline.
The SA government said local testing returned a suspected positive result and samples had been sent to the CSIRO for verification.
If confirmed it would be the state’s second case of the disease.
The primary industries minister, Clare Scriven, said there was no evidence so far that H5 bird flu had affected local wildlife or poultry:
It is disappointing that South Australia has a suspect case, however it was always a possibility through the pathway H5 bird flu has to our shores via wild migratory birds.
The surveillance we are undertaking is critical to get a broader understanding of where these birds are being seen, and I thank the public for reporting sick or dead birds to us.
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Australian shares flat as mining stocks drag
Australia’s share market is struggling to find momentum for a second straight session as mining stocks continue to drag on the exchange, Australian Associated Press reports.
The S&P/ASX200 eased by 0.8 points by midday, down 0.01%, to 8,830.2, as the broader All Ordinaries lost one point, or 0.01%, to 9,036.
The move followed a positive lead from Wall Street overnight after US tech stocks rallied on renewed hopes around artificial intelligence demand ahead of earnings season.
ASX-listed IT stocks charged 2.7% higher, led by a more than 11% surge in WiseTech to $39.38, after its controversial co-founder Richard White stepped down as executive chair but retained a spot on the board along with his role as chief innovation officer.
Rio Tinto tumbled 1.5% to $168.57, while BHP shed 0.4% to $59.80. Energy stocks fell 0.8%, as oil prices hung on to recent losses amid hopes of a permanent end to the US-Iran conflict and after OPEC+ nations flagged plans to increase output in August.
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AFL great Tony Modra recovering at home after June truck crash
The AFL great Tony Modra was hospitalised in Adelaide with head injuries in June after an accident on his cattle property.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Modra said he has left hospital and is continuing his recovery at home. He has asked for privacy.
He said:
I remain deeply grateful to the members of the public who gave me vital first aid until professional help arrived, to others who offered reassurance, and to the emergency responders, medical staff and specialists who have cared for me since the accident.
My progress has been encouraging and we kindly ask that our privacy continues to be respected as we focus on my rehabilitation. Thank you.
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One in 25 Australian teenagers affected by online sexual victimisation involving AI, study finds
Breakthrough research released by the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children Australia has detailed the prevalence of AI in the online sexual victimisation of children, AAP reports.
At least one in 25 Australians has experienced, or has a close friend who has experienced, online sexual victimisation involving AI before the age of 18.
That is at least one young person in every year 12 classroom across the nation.
Children seeking support have turned to the technology responsible for their abuse.
About 19% of victims told an AI chatbot they had been abused.
That compared with about 13% who told authorities, including a teacher, doctor, counsellor, police officer or helpline.
More than a third of victims told no human at all, disclosing only to AI or to no one.
The centre’s chief executive, Colm Gannon, said Australia’s social media age limit was restricting the conversations children feel comfortable having.
“You will not have a 15-year-old making a disclosure they have been subject to sexual extortion on Facebook, when they’re not supposed to be on Facebook,” Gannon told AAP.
He said parents and schools need to be ready for these types of disclosures, and their first priority should be supporting a victim of abuse rather than scolding them for any illegal activity.
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TikTok outlines its response to Bondi terror attack
Last week we heard about Elon Musk’s X Corp (formerly Twitter) being, to put it mildly, rather blase about content from the Bondi attack circulating online.
TikTok has revealed quite a different response to the royal commission into antisemitism. Its global head of partnerships, elections and market integrity, Valiant Richey, said the company immediately activated a crisis response protocol, starting with contacting police and eSafety and looking for trends in content that violated its guidelines:
That would be actual depictions of the shocking and graphic content. It might be followed thereafter by misinformation about potential suspects, and it might be followed thereafter by conspiracy theories. So those teams will be actively, you know, they would be activated to start looking for those types of things.
Earlier the inquiry heard that while TikTok is not perfect, 98% of videos that violate its policies are removed before they are seen. Last year, 270,000 videos of the 336m posted were removed under the company’s safety and civility guidelines.
YouTube is up next.
Updated
Nine and Foxtel retain NRL broadcast rights in $5.3bn deal
Nine Entertainment and Foxtel have retained the media rights to the NRL in a $5.3bn deal which will see the games aired on the free-to-air network and the global streaming company Dazn until 2034.
The Australian Rugby League Commission chair, Peter V’landys, said the seven-year agreement from 2028 marked “a defining moment for rugby league”.
The Commission has worked hard in the last five years to make the game more entertaining for our fans, effectively doubling our audience.
Our players and clubs that made this possible will now be justifiably rewarded.
Nine will screen the NRL grand final and both the men’s and women’s State of Origin series. It has also acquired the exclusive free-to-air and free streaming rights to broadcast three live NRL games a week, on each of Thursday and Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons.
Read more:
Updated
How the alleged graffiti artist behind ‘Pam the Bird’ was detained
About 10.54am, the alleged graffiti artist behind “Pam the Bird” emerged unmasked from the tower after climbing down from the bridge, Guardian Australia’s Tania Lee reports from the scene.
The man then made an agile descent from the tower’s staircase on to the rocky riverbed below.
He calmly walked towards waiting police officers, who instructed him to keep his hands above his head. He then turned around and placed his hands behind his back, before about a dozen officers moved in to arrest him and patted him down.
The man was escorted to a waiting van in a restricted-access area beside the bridge. Officers were seen speaking to him as he sat in the doorway of the van for about 10 minutes before he was driven away.
Updated
Microsoft job cuts expected in Australia
A small number of the 3,000 Australian staff working for Microsoft are likely to be included in the 4,800 job cuts announced by the tech giant today.
The focus of the cuts globally has been on the Xbox gaming division, with the company saying the jobs going aren’t being replaced by AI but AI is changing how the company works.
Microsoft would not comment beyond the global announcement but it is understood that roughly the same percentage of cuts globally (2.1%) may apply here. Microsoft is still expecting its headcount in Australia to ultimately increase.
Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, visited Australia in April to announce $25bn in AI investment in Australia for capital and operational expenditure on infrastructure, as well as AI skills training.
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Solomon Islands reacts to China’s missile test: ‘Not something a friend does’
Anthony Albanese is holding a press conference with his Solomon Islands counterpart, Matthew Wale, and says work on a comprehensive treaty is advancing, as new health and education funding from Australia is announced.
To questions about the China missile test in the Pacific yesterday, Albanese says Australia has made clear its concerns and it was a “provocative act by China, which does destabilise the region”.
He says there should have beeen 48 hours’ notice.
Wale says China is a “good friend” of Solomon Islands but “this is not something a friend does”.
We don’t want anybody testing the ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] in the Pacific Islands region. That’s the bottom line.
Be our friend, but don’t threaten us.
Albanese says the world needs “less nuclear weapons, certainly not more”.
Updated
NRL rights deal to be announced today
The Australian Rugby League Commission is expected to announce the media rights for the NRL at 12.30 today at Rugby League Central in Moore Park, Sydney.
The NRL’s deal with Nine Entertainment and Foxtel – to finish at the end of the 2027 season – is worth about $400m a year.
The NRL attracts huge TV ratings and lucrative sponsorship deals and has been highly contested between free-to-air and streaming services.
Last year’s grand final between Brisbane and Melbourne drew an average audience of almost 4.5 million, the first time it eclipsed the AFL showpiece in a year since 2015.
The first match of the men’s State of Origin attracted close to 4 million, up 6% year on year, while the women’s series consistently draws about 1 milion viewers, figures that are the envy of women’s Australian rules.
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Man arrested after Pam the Bird graffiti painted on Bolte Bridge tower
Victoria police have arrested a 22-year-old man after he allegedly spray-painted “Pam the Bird” graffiti on a 120m Bolte Bridge tower in Melbourne on Tuesday morning.
Police alleged the man refused to follow police direction and come down but ultimately descended from the tower without injury about 11am.
He was arrested at the scene and would be interviewed by investigators, Victoria police said.
Earlier police said there was no threat to the public. One of the lanes of the bridge was closed off to traffic.
Updated
Machines may be better at detecting hate speech, royal commission hears
Machines might be better than humans at detecting hate speech, the royal commission into antisemitism has heard.
TikTok’s global head of policy, trust and safety, Zachary Hecht, was being grilled on a video that was blocked by the platform’s automatic moderation process but on appeal that decision was overturned by a human moderator. A second human also decided it did not violate their guidelines.
But the content was “clearly a violation of our prohibition on hate speech and hateful ideology”, Hecht told the inquiry this morning:
That being said, it does demonstrate that in some instances, automated moderation might be getting the decision correct, and then human judgment can sometimes complicate that.
The moderators who reviewed it should get more training, he said.
In the end the case was escalated to more senior people and they came to the “right conclusion” and removed it.
Cyberwell, a company that tracks online antisemitism, told the inquiry yesterday that TikTok had the best removal rate for content it had reported to them with an 88.8% takedown rate. By contrast Meta had a 57.3% rate, YouTube had a 34.2% rate, and X (Twitter) had a 29.5% rate.
Updated
‘Pam the Bird’ man ‘waiting for low tide’
An Instagram account linked to the alleged “Pam the Bird” graffiti artist, who is still perched atop the Bolte Bridge in Melbourne, says the man will come down “peacefully” at 12pm:
Just waiting for the tide to get a little bit lower.
According to some media reports he is believed to have accessed the tower through a door at its base, which is only accessible at low tide.
Updated
Here’s a background piece we wrote when Richard White stepped down as CEO in 2024:
And here’s a news story from 2025 when four board members resigned over “differing views” on White’s ongoing role:
Updated
WiseTech chair Richard White steps down
Richard White, the chair of WiseTech, has stepped down from his role with immediate effect.
WiseTech said in an ASX announcement that Raelene Murphy had been appointed as chair to replace White. He would remain on the board as executive director and continue in his role as “chief innovation officer”.
White said:
Personal media attention is creating an unnecessary distraction from the strength of WiseTech’s business. At this time, the senior management team, Zubin and I should be singularly focused on the execution of the Company’s growth strategy.
As I have stated previously, I strenuously and unequivocally deny the recent allegations in the media. Further, I am conscious that personal attacks on me in the media that are unconnected to the performance of the Company nevertheless have the potential to encourage short selling activity.
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Australia’s AI safety institute begins testing
Australia’s Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) has begun testing the latest AI models available from the commercial providers just a month after it came into existence, the assistant minister for technology, Andrew Charlton, has said.
In a speech this morning to the AI safety forum in Sydney, Charlton said Australia’s approach to AI safety was to look both at what is available now – in gaming, apps, chatbots and AI medical scribes – as well as the latest models that could be a future risk.
He said the AI Safety Institute, led by Dr Kate Conroy, had “hit the ground running” and was already testing frontier AI models with technical partners. AISI was also working with regulators and agencies to respond to emerging AI capabilities, risks, harms and trends.
Amid calls for an overarching AI law, Charlton said the government was regulating based on laws already available:
The government has chosen a whole-of-government approach to AI regulation. We have taken this approach because AI will affect every part of our government and society.
That is why, in the Albanese government, AI safety will be pursued through every relevant agency and regulator, across consumer law, therapeutic goods, workplace health and safety, and online safety, backed by laws that already exist and strengthened, where they need to be, with new powers and tougher enforcement.
That is not fewer rules. That is faster rules, applied by regulators who already understand their sectors.
The first work undertaken by AISI is assessing risk of AI agents that can undertaken work on behalf of human, as well as a separate project with CSIRO making sure AI systems do what people intend them to do.
Updated
Victoria police ask for zero drones near Bolte Bridge
Police don’t have any further updates so far on their efforts surrounding the Bolte Bridge but they have asked all drones in the area to stop flying:
As you can imagine, this is a complex and dynamic situation and the safety of the man atop the bridge tower and our attending members is paramount.
Updated
A dispatch from Melbourne’s Bolte Bridge
Guardian Australia’s Tania Lee is at the Bolte Bridge, the site of a new “Pam the Bird” mural and a standoff with Victoria police. Here’s what she has to say:
Standing beside Ron Barassi Park beneath the Bolte Bridge, I have a clear view of the masked graffiti artist behind the freshly painted ‘Pam the Bird’ artwork. A small media contingent has gathered nearby, while across the mouth of the Yarra River the tower and riverbank where the artist gained access to the bridge are clearly visible.
Traffic on the Bolte Bridge is slow but continues to move. Emergency services and police remain on the restricted riverbank and on watercraft near the tower entrance, on standby.
A drone has periodically appeared near the top of the tower. During that time, I have seen the graffiti artist repeatedly emerge on to the upper ledge, sitting on the edge to take selfies. Police are attempting to locate the drone operator and determine who is flying it.
Over the past hour, the artist has also abseiled down the face of the tower twice, swinging across the concrete over the face of the large ‘Pam the Bird’ graffiti before climbing back up.
Passing motorists have been sounding their horns, apparently reacting to the spectacle unfolding high above the bridge.
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Alex de Minaur wilts in fourth-round Wimbledon defeat
In case you missed it …
On a sweltering day when a series of spectators required medical attention at Wimbledon, Australia’s challenger also wilted in the heat, AAP reports.
Alex de Minaur, who walked on to No 1 court with a first grand slam semi-final, at the least, very much in his sights, was left dejected after losing to Italy’s Flavio Cobolli 5-7, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 in the fourth round.
The Australian No 1 and world No 6 was too timid in the face of Cobolli’s vibrant attacking play and lacked spark. A misfiring first serve also let down Australia’s last singles contender.
Read more here:
Updated
We have some shots of the new “Pam the Bird” atop the Bolte Bridge in Melbourne.
Read more here:
Updated
Higher-earning Australians flock to 5% first home deposit scheme
Most Australian first home buyers are using the government’s 5% deposit scheme, with one in three new participants earning more than the scheme’s previous cap for high-income earners.
The influx of high-income earners into the first home guarantee program, economists warn, has pushed up property prices by increasing buying capacity for people who would have bought anyway.
The former Coalition government installed a scheme whereby lower-income first-time buyers could borrow 95% of a property’s value and have the government pay for their lenders’ mortgage insurance.
Labor scrapped the income caps of $125,000 for single borrowers and $200,000 combined for joint borrowers last year, fulfilling a pre-election pledge.
Read more here:
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Pay Conroy says China had been planning missile test for ‘some time’
Pat Conroy, the defence industry minister, spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying the Chinese government had been planning to test a long-range missile for “some time” but had only informed the Australian government a few hours beforehand:
We’ve been very clear that we’re seeing the biggest military buildup in our region since world war two and it’s not being accompanied by sufficient transparency.
Conroy said he believed the launch was “more likely to be a coincidence rather than linked” to Australia’s defence agreements with Fiji yesterday. But he added that was “obviously” a question for the Chinese government:
This is something that can destabilise the region but it doesn’t take away from our efforts to implement what the Pacific leaders have called for, which is Pacific security to come from within the Pacific.
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Taiwan says China missile test destabilises Indo-Pacific
Joseph Wu, the head of Taiwan’s national security council, also had harsh words after the test.
On X, Wu wrote:
It’s a provocation that destabilizes the #IndoPacific. #China just proved itself again to be a bully on the block.
Updated
Marles says Australia has expressed concern over long-range missile test to China ‘directly’
Richard Marles said he doubted China tested the long-range weapon yesterday in response to Anthony Albanese being in the Pacific to sign a new defence alliance with Fiji but said Australia remained deeply concerned by the development. He told ABC News:
At the end of the day, what we’re seeing here is a long-range missile test from China, which China itself has said is nuclear-capable … This is China demonstrating a much greater range in terms of being able to deploy a nuclear weapon.
And ultimately what that is, is deeply destabilising.
Marles said the Australian government had expressed its concern to “China directly”:
Our fundamental issue in relation to China is that we have seen a very dramatic military buildup by China without that strategic reassurance [to our neighbours].
There really isn’t an explanation as to why they are building the capabilities that they are and that is fundamentally destabilising.
Updated
Richard Marles, the acting prime minister, has made some brief comments on “Pam the Bird” during an interview on ABC News:
I think the system is handling the matter as it should … I think it’s appropriate that the legal process takes its course.
Updated
Man atop Melbourne’s Bolte Bridge says he won’t come down until they ‘lower the taxes’
The man who allegedly painted a massive “Pam the Bird” image on Melbourne’s Bolte Bridge says he won’t come down “until they lower the taxes”.
As we reported earlier, Victoria police are in a standoff with the man and were on scene this morning “responding to an incident involving a trespasser”.
In an Instagram video purportedly from the man, he said he wouldn’t come down for the foreseeable future:
I’m not coming down until they lower the taxes. Fucking sick of paying that shit.
A media officer for the police said they had been told about a “suspicious loiter” on the bridge about 2am today. One of the southbound lanes on the bridge was closed and the others were running at reduced speed.
Updated
Wong maintains China’s test of long-range missile ‘destabilising’
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, maintained Australia views China’s test of a long-range missile in the South Pacific yesterday as “destabilising to the region”, saying it raises the risk of miscalculation”.
Wong spoke to RN Breakfast the morning after Beijing tested the weapon, just hours after Australia signed a defence agreement with Fiji. A Chinese navy statement said a nuclear submarine had launched a “strategic missile carrying a training simulation warhead”.
Wong said:
We do not believe this test is consistent with the view that Pacific leaders have very clearly expressed that the Pacific should be an ocean of peace.
Updated
Back to the upcoming byelection in Secret Harbour …
The WA One Nation Leader, Rod Caddies, said Labor had treated Secret Harbour as a safe seat and voters weren’t happy, AAP reports:
They’ve been missing in action and we’re going to sink Labor in Secret Harbour.
The party has a shortlist of potential candidates but no one has been officially nominated to run:
We want to make sure that we don’t leave any stone unturned in getting the very best.
Pauline Hanson could also make an appearance on the hustings once the byelection date was announced, he said.
The political commentator Peter Kennedy said Labor would “lose some paint” in the poll but was likely to retain the seat:
The big question for Labor is how much support it will lose.
It’s got a fair buffer but things are a bit volatile at the moment so I think there would be a bit of nervousness all around the traps.
The byelection’s “moment of truth” would be how many votes One Nation gets and how much of the struggling Liberal party vote it can take:
It’ll be a test for [WA Liberal leader] Basil Zempilas and his leadership. It’s also a big test for One Nation, whether the swing we’ve been seeing to One Nation is reflected in actual votes.
Updated
Good morning, Nick Visser here to take over the blog. Let’s dive in.
Police in standoff with alleged trespasser on Bolte Bridge
Police in Melbourne are in a standoff with a man who they allege has painted a huge “Pam the Bird” image on the city’s Bolte Bridge.
Victoria police said uniformed and water police were “on scene and responding to an incident involving a trespasser” on the bridge:
A man has scaled the bridge and remains in a restricted area on the eastern tower. He is refusing to follow police direction and come down.
Police allege the man is responsible for graffitiing the bridge earlier this morning.
There was no threat to the public or road users and one lane of the bridge remains closed. Officers were working to get the man down safely.
A post on Instagram from a Channel Seven reporter shows a man on top on one of the bridge’s 120m-high towers, just above a new Pam the Bird.
Another post appears to be taken from the man’s point of view on top of the tower, looking out over the city and gesturing to police below. It ends with the comment “will see you in the morning might have a quick nap”.
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WA premier says Labor faces tough fight to retain Secret Harbour in byelection
Western Australia’s Labor premier has conceded his party will have a tough fight to retain a previously safe seat after a retiring MP triggered a byelection, Australian Associated Press reports.
Paul Papalia, the WA minister for corrective services and member for the seat of Secret Harbour, south of Perth, quit politics yesterday. He told reporters:
This isn’t what I’d planned. One of my immediate family members has been diagnosed with a serious illness.
The state premier, Roger Cook, said his party would have to work hard if it wanted to retain the seat, which is made up of working- and middle-class families:
It’s going to be really tough. We’re not taking anything for granted.
We know that during a byelection there’s heightened debate and there’s increased focus and, as a result of that, we’re going to have to fight for our lives on this one.
Papalia, a navy veteran who entered politics in 2007, won Secret Harbour for Labor in 2025, polling 61.5% of the two-party preferred vote amid a 28.5% swing away from the party.
The Liberals won 28.5% of the vote, recording a swing of 9.8% to the party.
One Nation, which polled 8.4% in 2025, with a 6.3% swing to it, confirmed it would run a candidate.
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Wong says she will talk to China over ‘destabilising’ missile test
Penny Wong has said she will discuss China’s long-range missile test personally with Chinese counterparts in her next official engagements.
The foreign affairs minister said Australia had made clear its displeasure at Monday’s South Pacific missile launch by diplomatic channels, speaking to the ABC on Monday evening:
We have consistently made those representations and will continue to do so … because we do want the Pacific to be an ocean of peace.
In an era where we see contest and competition, the destabilising acts can lead to miscalculation, can lead where we do not want these actions to lead.
Wong said Australian defence attachés in Beijing and officials in Canberra had been briefed by their Chinese counterparts earlier in the day and communicated the government’s view. She added:
You should anticipate that in my next engagements those points will be something we will discuss.
Wong repeatedly refused to speculate on China’s intention and refused to say whether the action was “dangerous” or “heavy handed”.
You can read more here:
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
Western Australia’s Labor premier, Roger Cook, has conceded his party will have a tough fight to retain a previously safe seat after a retiring MP triggered a byelection in which One Nation could launch a strong challenge. More coming up.
Penny Wong has said she will discuss China’s long-range missile test with Chinese counterparts in her next official engagements after Beijing’s shot across the bows of the region.
