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The Guardian - AU

National

Elias Visontay and Emily Wind (earlier)

Senator’s X account removed – as it happened

Anthony Albanese Australia Elon Musk X James Marape

Jacqui Lambie says Elon Musk should be jailed for his refusal to take down Wakeley church stabbing content from X. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

8.38am BST

What happened Tuesday 23 April, 2024

With that, we’ll end our live coverage of the day’s news.

Here’s a summary of the main news developments:

Elon Musk’s X is in a fight with the Australian online safety regulator, the courts have got involved and even the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has weighed in, calling Musk an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law” over his platform’s refusal to remove videos of a violent stabbing in a Sydney church.
The lawyer for former police officer and accused double murderer Beau Lamarre has suggested the charges could be defended on mental health grounds.
A man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend in regional New South Wales while on bail for rape and stalking charges against her will remain behind bars.
A proposed safe injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD has been rejected by the Victorian government, with addiction experts warning the decision will “cost lives”.
Queensland police believe a man they shot and killed in a standoff outside Gladstone yesterday had stolen three vehicles before pointing a stolen loaded rifle at officers.

Thanks for following along.

Updated at 8.42am BST

8.14am BST

Spears stolen by Captain Cook from Kamay/Botany Bay returned to traditional owners

The first objects the British took from Australia are finally back with their rightful owners after more than 250 years, according to AAP.

British soldiers took 40 spears from Aboriginal camps at Kamay/Botany Bay when James Cook and his crew first made contact in 1770.

Only four of those spears remain and they have been kept at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the UK since the early 20th century.

The spears were handed back to their owners, the Aboriginal community of La Perouse, during a ceremony at Trinity College at Cambridge on Tuesday.

The people who took the spears back included direct descendants of the Gweagal people who crafted them.

Noeleen Timbery, the chairperson of the local La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council said the Gweagal spears were an important connection to their people’s past, traditions, cultural practices and ancestors.

Our Elders have worked for many years to see their ownership transferred to the traditional owners of Botany Bay.

The spears were ultimately set to be displayed at a visitor centre at Kurnell in Botany Bay, known as Kamay in the local Indigenous language.

Updated at 8.23am BST

7.53am BST

Assistant treasurer adds to Senator Babet backlash, accusing him of ‘reprehensible’ behaviour by sharing Wakeley church stabbing video

The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, has accused UAP senator Ralph Babet of “reprehensible” behaviour after he posted video of the Wakeley church stabbing on his social media platforms.

Babet, a Victorian senator, has been branded as “foolish” by the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young, who called his actions a “pathetic stunt”. As we reported earlier, Babet tweeted video of bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel being stabbed on a livestream – the video that X has been ordered to take down by the eSafety Commission, and which is at the centre of an ongoing federal court case.

Babet posted alongside the video:

To the Australian government and the eSafety commissioner go fuck yourselves.

Earlier, communications minister Michelle Rowland called it “appalling behaviour”.

In an interview with ABC TV on Tuesday afternoon, Jones claimed Babet had “let himself down” with the social media activity.

Jones said:

Putting his own political thoughts and interest ahead of the concerns and feelings and anguish and trauma that the victims, the witnesses and the families are going through after these horrific events over the last week.

I think the senator should reflect upon his own behaviour. He is out of touch of where mainstream Australia is at.

In a statement, Hanson-Young claimed Babet was “an attention seeker suffering from relevance deprivation”. She said:

He has no respect for the victims of violence and clearly no care for law enforcement. His pathetic stunt is foolish, and irresponsible. The public will rightly ask if he’s up for the job of being a responsible member of parliament.

Babet has further tweeted: “I will not remove it [the video].”

Updated at 8.09am BST

7.34am BST

Australian shares rise again

The local share market has finished higher for a second day as gains by the financial and tech sectors outweighed a big sell-off among goldminers, and smaller losses for coalminers and uranium companies, AAP has reported.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index on Tuesday finished 34.3 points higher at 7,683.5, a gain of 0.45%, while the broader All Ordinaries rose 35.9 points, or 0.45%, to 7,937.9.

The Australian dollar was buying 64.53 US cents, from 64.33 US cents at Monday’s ASX close.

Updated at 7.51am BST

7.06am BST

Double demerit points from Wednesday to Sunday in NSW and ACT

Motorists in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory will face double demerit points from tomorrow until Sunday, due to the Anzac Day public holiday on Thursday and looming end of the school holiday period.

Amid a rising road toll, authorities are keen to stop any would be drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel over the busy period.

The double demerit window comes amid a peculiar story out of Belgium, where a man was acquitted of drunk-driving because he has auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), an extremely rare condition whereby the body produces alcohol, his lawyer has said.

Anse Ghesquiere said on Monday that in “another unfortunate coincidence” her client worked at a brewery, but three doctors who independently examined him had confirmed he had ABS.

Belgian media said in the verdict the judge emphasised that the defendant, who was not named in line with local judicial custom, did not experience symptoms of intoxication.

Jacqui Lambie deletes X account after criticising Elon Musk

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie appears to have deleted her X account after criticising the platform’s CEO Elon Musk repeatedly throughout the day.

Jacqui Lambie appears to have deleted her X account pic.twitter.com/LqO8cgmDNg
— Emily Wind (@emilywindwrites) April 23, 2024

She reportedly called on other federal politicians to delete their X accounts, telling Sky News:

When you want to lead by example, it has to happen from here, so start switching off X.

Earlier, Lambie called Musk an “absolute friggin disgrace” who should be jailed for his refusal to take down content from X of the Wakeley church stabbing. She also called him a “billionaire bully”.

This comes as the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, labelled Musk an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law”.

The X account for Lambie’s party, the Jacqui Lambie Network, appears to still be active – although the last post was in 2022.

Updated at 5.41am BST

5.22am BST

Busy street in Brisbane to be shut down for fatal bus crash re-enactment

A bus crash that killed an 18-year-old woman will be re-enacted in Brisbane’s CBD to investigate the cause, AAP reports.

Edward Street will be shut down on Sunday to carry out the bus crash re-enactment and help understand exactly what transpired, despite extensive video and CCTV footage being reviewed.

Tia Cameron died after a bus mounted a kerb and pinned her against a wall in Brisbane’s city centre during peak hour on 8 March. Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner told ABC Radio the bus had been thoroughly tested and investigations so far determined there was no mechanical fault.

It was not a mechanical failure, there was no technical failure.

Following the accident, Transport for Brisbane confirmed the bus’s brakes had been tested a month before the incident.

The re-enactment may be re-traumatising for loved ones of Cameron but it is important in order to gain answers, Schrinner said:

Obviously it opens this wound for the community but we have to get to the bottom of it. Tia’s family deserves to know what happened and there’s justice that’s required.

Updated at 5.31am BST

5.12am BST

Number of Australians in prison on the rise, according to new ABS data

Australian prisoners increased by 3% from 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023 – up 1,338 to 41,929, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Here are some key figures:

Female prisoners increased by 6% to 3,168. The biggest changes, by most serious offence, were acts intended to cause injury up by 13% (94), robbery/extortion up by 30% (52), and illicit drug offences down by 11% (67).

Male prisoners increased at half the rate, by 3%, taking their count to 38,757. Acts intended to cause injury were up 6% (624), sexual assault and related offences were up 6% (375), unlawful entry with intent was up 8% (233), while illicit drug offences were down 5% (233).

36.2 was the median age for all prisoners, as of 30 June 2023. Around four in every five prisoners were born in Australia. Of prisoners born overseas, New Zealand, Vietnam and the United Kingdom were the most common countries of birth.

After accounting for population growth, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rate increased by 5% (from 2,330 to 2,442 prisoners per 100,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults). At 30 June 2023, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners accounted for 33% of all prisoners.

The total amount of prisoners increased in Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory, but decreased in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.

Government restrictions implemented due to Covid-19 from 2020 to 2022 “may be continuing to have an impact on criminal activity and the justice system,” as put in the ABS findings.

Updated at 5.16am BST

5.01am BST

Victorian anti-corruption watchdog found police used OC spray without verbal warning or care afterwards

The Victorian anti-corruption watchdog has found the state’s police officers used OC spray without providing a verbal warning and without providing care afterwards to those affected.

Oleoresin capsicum aerosols, also commonly known as pepper or capsicum spray, can cause temporary blindness or a burning sensation when sprayed in someone’s eyes.

The independent broad-based anti-corruption commission (Ibac) released a “thematic review” today which outlined its assessment of 15 investigations conducted by Victoria police involving the use of OC spray between January 2020 and March 2022.

It said it examined police interactions involving OC spray, the standard of aftercare provided following its use and the quality of internal Victoria police investigations into the use of the spray.

There were issues with all 15 investigations and nine were not of the expected standard, Ibac found, with these investigations “not rigorous”. It found Victoria police did not impose serious disciplinary action when allegations of misuse were substantiated. Ibac said:

The reviews indicated that some Victoria Police officers consider OC spray to be a low-level use of force, despite the advice in the Victoria police manual that says it should only be used where there are reasonable grounds to believe it is necessary and proportionate. The manual contains clear instructions that the spray should not be used when a person is only passively resisting.

It found that in many cases the decisions and actions of police escalated incidents or increased the risk to those involved, and in some cases police did not provide a verbal warning before using OC spray where it was possible to do so.

Human rights were not considered in some cases, and police did not consider the potential physical and psychological harm caused by OC spray nor offer proper aftercare, Ibac found.

It made recommendations including regular refresher training, updating its policies, and developing a guide for administering OC spray aftercare.

Updated at 5.22am BST

4.34am BST

PM shares first images from Kokoda Track as he embarks on two-day walk

The prime minister has shared his first photos from the Kokoda track, which he will be walking over two days alongside Papua New Guinea’s prime minister James Marape.

Anthony Albanese said:

We can walk the Kokoda track today in freedom because of those who fought to keep it free. The bravery of those who made the ultimate sacrifice here lives in our nation’s memory.

Australians, Papuans and New Guineans, fought alongside one another across this landscape. Together, we honour them.

We can walk the Kokoda Track today in freedom because of those who fought to keep it free.

The bravery of those who made the ultimate sacrifice here lives in our nation’s memory. pic.twitter.com/NF1ZUzEGL6
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 23, 2024

Australians, Papuans and New Guineans, fought alongside one another across this landscape.

Together, we honour them. pic.twitter.com/vJZPoJ0uOk
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 23, 2024

As we reported earlier, Albanese will walk the trail for two days – having started this morning – along with Marape. The walk will culminate with a dawn service for Anzac Day on Thursday.

Updated at 4.37am BST

4.28am BST

Rowland accuses UAP senator of ‘appalling behaviour’ after he reposted Wakeley church stabbing video

The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, has accused the UAP senator Ralph Babet of “appalling behaviour” after he posted video of the Wakeley church stabbing in a tweet telling the government and eSafety commissioner to “go fuck yourselves.”

Babet, elected under Clive Palmer’s party banner at the 2022 election, has been a longtime vocal fan of X boss Elon Musk. This morning the Victorian senator tweeted the video of bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel being stabbed on a livestream – a video that X has been ordered to take down by the eSafety commission and which is at the centre of an ongoing federal court case.

“To the Australian government and the eSafety commissioner go fuck yourselves,” Babet posted alongside the video.

Minutes ago, he posted the video clip again, included inside a 6-minute video monologue criticising the government’s response to the stabbing. Babet said:

This opinion piece contains the video that the Australian government has gone to the federal court to have removed. I WILL NOT REMOVE IT. Without free speech our nation will fall. The Liberal party, The Labor party and the eSafety commissioner are a threat to democracy.

The eSafety Commission has been contacted for comment. But in a statement to Guardian Australia, Rowland slammed Babet’s response:

The Albanese government supports efforts by the eSafety commissioner to have this content removed from digital platforms in Australia. This is appalling behaviour by a serving senator and he needs to explain why he’s sharing this harmful content.

Updated at 4.31am BST

4.19am BST

Watch: hundreds take part in paddle-out at Bondi Beach for Westfield attack victims

As we reported earlier, hundreds of people took part in a “paddle-out” at Bondi Beach this morning in honour of those killed during the Bondi Junction Westfield attack.

The paddle-out was supported by local sporting organisations including Bronte Surf Club where one of the victims, 47-year-old Jade Young, was a member.

You can watch a video from the emotional event below:

4.13am BST

Greens want Facebook, X and TikTok back under news media bargaining code

Sarah Hanson-Young also urged the government to put Facebook, X and TikTok back under the news media bargaining code.

Facebook’s deals with Australian publishers are about to expire, and the company has said it won’t look to renew them – but Hanson-Young said the government should obligate them to do so, in light of recent misinformation issues.

The first thing the government should do is designate the social media companies who are refusing to pay and support Australian media.

They have the power to designate Meta... Twitter, if they want to... to designate TikTok, to make sure Australians who use these platforms have access to news and trusted sources, and they should get on and do it.

4.10am BST

Hanson-Young to call tech bosses before Senate committee

Bosses of big social media platforms including X and Facebook could be called before a federal Senate inquiry to answer questions about their algorithms, with Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young saying the tech giants should front up “in the next few weeks”.

The Greens’ communications spokesperson has also urged the government to “designate” platforms like Facebook, X and TikTok under the news media bargaining code, to force them to carry news content and compensate media outlets for their work.

Hanson-Young said she would use an ongoing committee inquiry into media regulation to ask platforms to face the Senate. She wouldn’t confirm exactly who she may invite, or when those hearings could take place, but said she would like it to happen sooner rather than later:

I will use that Senate inquiry to call the directors, and those responsible of these big tech platforms, to account. We need to make sure that Australians have their interest upheld and put directly to these social media tycoons.

To ensure that we have proper representation of what the community really wants going forward. We need media regulation in this country. We need an overhaul of it. And what the last few days has shown is that we need more than ever.

Hanson-Young said she would discuss future hearings and witnesses with her Senate colleagues. She claimed there was a “train crash” of issues with social and traditional media, including the recent misinformation issues around the Sydney stabbings, the news media bargaining code, and broader media regulation issues.

I’d like to make sure we could do it in the next few weeks.

4.05am BST

Wally Lewis advocating for CTE awareness at National Press Club

In Canberra, rugby league legend and Dementia Australia ambassador Wally Lewis has been delivering a personal speech to the National Press Club about living with probable CTE.

He described the “fear and embarrassment” that can come with being forgetful – driving to work and not remembering where he was going, or driving to the wrong place. His diary, which he now carries everywhere, has become like a “best friend”, he said.

I rely upon it as a gentle reminder of what I need to do, and be able to be given that information without making too many mistakes too often. It also alleviates my anxiety.

Lewis explained that CTE is a form of dementia that can affect people in their 30s to 60s and beyond, pointing to a case in the US involving a NFL player aged 17.

We need to accept that repeated head knocks can cause brain damage and we need to work together to implement nationally consistent protocols to prevent, detect and monitor head injuries in every single sport … It is not a badge of honour to go back onto the field with a head injury. It certainly is nothing other than carelessness.

He wants to see a pilot program developed to support people and families impacted by CTE, and for the federal government to fund a national CTE awareness raising program in the upcoming budget.

Updated at 4.09am BST

3.55am BST

Health, environment groups call on MasterChef to switch from gas cooking

MasterChef Australia should lead by example and join its international counterparts in switching away from cooking with gas at a time when the adverse health and climate impacts are becoming more well known, health and environment groups said today.

Following the news that Australian Gas Networks will sponsor Masterchef Australia, the groups have written a letter to Masterchef Australia encouraging them to join international Masterchef programs including the UK, Italy, Singapore, Denmark and Spain where competitors have been cooking on induction cooktops for many years.

Joy Toose, climate campaign manager for Environment Victoria, said:

The sponsorship announced today only helps to greenwash the gas industry and create a false impression that biomethane and hydrogen are good replacements for methane gas. Australian Gas Networks have been peddling these gases as solutions to replace methane gas in an attempt to protect their massive profits – but in reality they can’t do the job.

In Victoria where MasterChef Australia is filmed, the Allan government has recently banned gas connections in new homes from January 2024 in order to meet our climate targets and protect the health of all Victorians, so it is completely out of sync with the shifting political and social attitudes to gas that the program continues to promote the use of gas in homes.

3.49am BST

Academics express disappointment after Victorian government rejects safe injecting room for CBD

Professor Dan Lubman, the director of the Monash Addiction Research Centre, said he is “disappointed” the Victorian government will not open a safe injecting room in the CBD.

In a statement, Lubman said that when it comes to addiction, “the best evidence and the most effective harm reduction approaches are too often ignored”.

While the additional services announced today are welcome, there is an established body of local and international evidence that shows that supervised injecting services are effective harm reduction and life-saving initiatives.

These services ensure people do not fatally overdose, and reduce demand on ambulance and emergency services. They also connect people with other health and support services.

Lubman said heroin-related ambulance attendances have been “steadily increasing” in Melbourne since 2014, but in Yarra – where the Richmond safe injecting room opened in 2019 – attendances have been decreasing.

Opioid expert Professor Suzanne Nielsen said it was a “false dichotomy” to say there is a choice between “a supervised injection room and treatment” because “we urgently need more of both”.

The government made a clear commitment to a second site years ago now and if anything, the need has become greater and the evidence has become stronger.

Updated at 3.54am BST

3.39am BST

Ellen Sandell announced as new Victorian Greens leader

The Victorian Greens have just announced they’ve elected Melbourne MP Ellen Sandell as their new leader.

Sandell, who was the party’s deputy leader, replaces Samantha Ratnam, who will be stepping down to run as the Greens candidate in the federal seat of Wills at the next election.

Sandell was unanimously elected as leader. Prahran MP Sam Hibbins and upper house MP for western Victoria, Sarah Mansfield, were appointed as co-deputy leaders.

Sandell said as the “first millennial leader of a major political party in Victoria” she will fight for those struggling in the housing and cost of living crisis. She said in a statement:

If you’re struggling to pay the rent, or worried you or your kids will never be able to buy a home, you’re not alone. Millions of people are struggling with the cost of rent, mortgages and groceries, and are being let down by politicians who refuse to do anything about it ...

I’m honoured to lead the Greens and fight every day to give voice to a whole generation locked out of the housing market, to give voice to those who feel let down by Labor and Liberal politicians, and to give voice to those who want to see some vision back in our politics.

Updated at 3.45am BST

3.32am BST

Crown permitted to retain Sydney casino licence

Gambling giant Crown will hold onto the licence for its luxury Sydney casino after being declared a “changed business” from the troubled operator that was previously barred from running the waterfront venue, AAP reports.

The NSW Independent Casino Commission has found the company suitable to retain its Sydney licence after “nearly three years of intensive remediation” in its practices.

Commission head Philip Crawford said Crown had come a long way since widespread misconduct was exposed in a 2021 inquiry, which found it unsuitable for holding the second Sydney casino licence.

Crown’s Sydney casino opened its doors in August 2022 after an inquiry led by the former NSW supreme court judge Patricia Bergin initially found the company unfit to operate the facility.

The troubled gambling outfit was later given approval for its members-only gaming facilities inside the harbourside Barangaroo complex to open on a conditional basis.

The conditional period ran for up to 24 months to give regulators a chance to monitor changes at Crown to ensure they were “embedded” in the business.

Updated at 4.24am BST

3.19am BST

Musk questions if Australia eSafety should have ‘authority over all countries on Earth’

Elon Musk has posted on his X platform about its legal battle with the Australian eSafety commissioner.

Musk quote shared a post that said “the issue is that Australia appears to be demanding censorship of content on 𝕏 beyond its borders”.

Musk said: “That is exactly the issue. Should the eSafety Commissar (an unelected official) in Australia have authority over all countries on Earth?”

That is exactly the issue.

Should the eSafety Commissar (an unelected official) in Australia have authority over all countries on Earth? https://t.co/wzv4Uinx8y
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2024

Updated at 3.21am BST

3.10am BST

New South Wales’ ‘posting and boasting’ laws used for first time on boy

A teenager being held on a slew of stolen vehicle charges has become the first person charged under NSW’s so-called “posting and boasting” laws, AAP reports.

The 15-year-old is due to face Parramatta children’s court today after being denied bail on Saturday on dozens of charges. He was the first person charged with a new performance crime offence created in March, part of a suite of changes targeting youth offenders.

The teen was also charged with 15 counts of breaking and entering, 14 offences relating to alleged vehicle thefts and breaching bail. He was arrested on Friday along with a 17-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man.

The trio were arrested after a Mazda SUV was allegedly stolen from Constitution Hill, in Sydney’s western suburbs, before a brief pursuit at Prospect. A police helicopter and the dog squad tracked the trio down in bushland at Northmead, near where the car was abandoned.

Days earlier, a BMW sedan and a white convertible Ferrari were allegedly stolen from Dural before being found at Doonside several hours later.

2.57am BST

Jacqui Lambie continues attack against X boss Elon Musk

Crossbench senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock have given a press conference in Canberra on proposed changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax. The pair were also asked about Elon Musk’s response to the eSafety commissioner’s takedown orders.

Lambie argued Musk is “just putting his ideology out there, all over his platform, because he’s a billionaire”.

The crap he puts over that X, I tell you what, it has gone far enough. If that bloke had half a social conscience, or even 10% of one, that stuff would be pulled down. He hasn’t pulled that down, because I was only looking at that an hour ago ... So let’s call him out for it, I’m sick of it. I hate bullies. Billionaire bullies – can’t stand them.

Earlier, Lambie told ABC RN Musk was an “absolute friggin disgrace” who should be jailed for his refusal to take down the content.

At their press conference, Pocock weighed in and said social media empires have “huge power” and “basically no transparency” about how their algorithms work:

They hate scrutiny, and they bully governments over any changes or any sort of social contract that says ‘you can do business in Australia, but we actually expect you to put social cohesion and some of our values ahead of just profit at all costs.’

2.49am BST

Australia’s first female astronaut graduates from training program

Australia’s first female astronaut, Katherine Bennell-Pegg, graduated from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) training program on Monday night.

She may be unlikely to take a giant leap into space anytime soon, but is on a mission to bolster the space industry and inspire women and girls.

Bennell-Pegg is the first person to become a qualified astronaut under the Australian flag, as Dr Andy Thomas and Paul Scully Power both went to space as US citizens.

She said it was “an honour to be the first” and was “determined not to be the last.”

I hope my training and whatever comes next helps unlock the path for more Australians to become involved in human spaceflight.

Read the full story below:

2.39am BST

Meta outlines how it monitored content associated with Sydney stabbings on Facebook

As the Australian government continues its war of words against Elon Musk’s X platform amid claims of censorship, Facebook’s parent company Meta has outlined how it has handled content associated with two recent stabbing events.

Meta, along with X both received removal notices from the eSafety commissioner, but Meta was later found to have complied with the notice and removed content associated with the Wakeley church stabbing.

In a blog post today, Meta’s regional director for Australia, Mia Garlick, said the company had deployed specialised Australian teams to review and take action on any content reported by users to violate policies and blocked copies of any videos depicting the attacks.

The company said it identified the victims and law enforcement in the Bondi attacks and proactively monitored for abusive content, and where requests were received from family members, victims’ accounts were temporarily deactivated.

Videos with graphic footage were covered with a “mark as disturbing” interstitial, and people under 18 were unable to access it. This is separate from the content eSafety had ordered to be removed.

There were four fact checks conducted by Meta’s fact check partners around the Bondi attacks, with content making the false claims rated as false, and their reach reduced.

Updated at 2.41am BST

2.35am BST

Australian Breastfeeding Association urges respect and safety for mothers breastfeeding in public

The Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) says breastfeeding mothers have the right to be respected and feel safe while breastfeeding in public settings.

Their message comes after comedian Arj Barker asked a mother and her seven-month-old baby to leave his show in Melbourne at the weekend. The mother said she had been breastfeeding when she was kicked out, but as we flagged earlier, Barker said it was “an audio issue purely” and that he hadn’t known she was breastfeeding. Barker also said he supported the right to breastfeed in public.

In a statement, the ABA noted breastfeeding is a right protected by law and mothers should be able to do so “without fear of judgement or discrimination”.

If a baby has been exclusively breastfed at the breast, other options such as expressing may not be either a suitable option or a mother’s choice. It is a mother’s right to choose how she breastfeeds.

Updated at 2.39am BST

2.24am BST

Continued from last post:

Data showed that alongside ADVOs, victim-survivors were mostly seeking help from Legal Aid’s domestic violence unit with parenting arrangements or divorce. Of them, 94% of people seeking aid were women, and 36% lived in regional areas.

The data comes after the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, last week described the death of one woman every week to domestic violence as an epidemic that “must end”.

Alexandra Colquhoun said Legal Aid’s domestic violence unit – which is free to access and includes a team across lawyers, domestic violence case workers, mental health workers and financial counsellors – can be crucial in providing the legal help that stops domestic violence from continuing.

Colquhoun said:

Twenty-five women dying to domestic violence so far this year is an epidemic which is preventable, including by having early access to legal advice to help clients to stay safe. A lawyer can help seek changes to an ADVO to better protect the victim or their children, or to connect them with a case worker for safety planning.

Updated at 2.31am BST

2.21am BST

Demand for help with domestic violence matters surges in New South Wales

Demand for help with domestic violence matters has surged in NSW amid “an epidemic which is preventable”, with the state’s Legal Aid seeing a 61% increase in demand over two years for its legal services.

The surge has mostly come from an increase in victim-survivors seeking apprehended domestic violence orders (ADVO), which in two years has grown by 25%. During that time, calls to Legal Aid’s domestic violence unit also grew by 36%.

Legal Aid’s executive director for family law, Alexandra Colquhoun, said the increase in demand is likely due to a combination of factors, including an increase in awareness of domestic violence and reports of domestic violence to police, and the cost of living and housing crisis.

But she expects the demand to increase further once the coercive control laws – which makes controlling an intimate partner via abuse a criminal offence – comes into effect in NSW in July.

This will likely see more victim-survivors seeking legal advice about whether their circumstances may constitute coercive control.

Updated at 2.30am BST

2.10am BST

Arj Barker defends show ejection 'an audio issue purely’

Comedian Arj Barker has responded to intense backlash after asking a mother and her seven-month-old baby to leave his show in Melbourne at the weekend.

As Kate Lyons reports, the account of the incident is contested, with the mother initially claiming she was breastfeeding at the time she was asked to leave.

Speaking on Nine’s Today earlier this morning, Barker said he had “no idea if she was breastfeeding or not” and that she was asked to leave because of the noise level.

He said he’d spent more than 20 years touring Australia and would be “really sad to think that people would look at me in a non-positive way”.

What happened is unfortunate … I want to set the record straight on a couple of things that are going around.

Number one, the breastfeeding thing is a non-issue … I had no idea if she was breastfeeding or not because I’m on stage …

The breastfeeding was never part of it. I didn’t even hear about that until two days after this thing happened.

Barker said he would have done the same thing to a father because “it was an audio issue purely”.

I have nothing against mums, obviously, and I want to set that straight.

Updated at 2.32am BST

1.47am BST

Court to reconvene in June as case against Beau Lamarre proceeds

A Sydney court will reconvene on 18 June as the case against alleged murderer and former police officer Beau Lamarre proceeds.

Deputy chief magistrate Sharon Freund said court was adjourned until June after a very brief mention this morning.

Lamarre, 28, is being held in custody and is alleged to have murdered Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, at Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February.

In the brief status hearing, the court heard a partial brief for the case had been given. The accused did not appear at the Downing Centre local court.

John Walford, a solicitor and former NSW police officer, is representing Lamarre in the criminal case. He told the media that he was not yet able to say how his client will plead.

The off-duty police officer allegedly used his police-issued gun to shoot and kill the couple before hiding their bodies in surfboard bags and driving them to a property near Goulburn, about 160km south-west of Sydney.

Lamarre handed himself into Bondi police station four days after the men were allegedly killed. Their bodies were found near a fence line of the Bungonia property that afternoon.

Police allege the murder of Baird was premeditated and that Davies was killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Lamarre, a serving senior constable at the time of the men’s deaths, was formally discharged from the police force in March.

Updated at 2.18am BST

1.39am BST

Victorian Greens label decision on second safe injection room a ‘spineless captain’s call’

The Victorian Greens have labelled Labor’s decision not to open a second safe injecting room in the CBD as a “spineless captain’s call” that will “cost lives”.

In a statement, the state Greens said the decision would leave people struggling with heroin addiction “to die on the streets of Melbourne, and the local community and families to deal with the consequences”.

The party accused Labor of backtracking on progressive reforms introduced under Daniel Andrews and said “this government won’t act unless their feet are held to fire”.

Victorian Greens MP for Melbourne, Ellen Sandell, said:

This is cowardly from Labor. It leaves people who are struggling with heroin addiction to die on the streets of Melbourne, and the local community and families having to deal with the consequences because the Labor state government won’t do anything to help …

I don’t know why Labor persists with their failed drug policies that do not work.

The Greens have previously called on the government to establish more safe injecting rooms in places where there are increases in drug use, overdoses and deaths – including in Melbourne, Dandenong, St Kilda, and Geelong.

Updated at 1.51am BST

1.31am BST

Victorian government will not open second safe injection room in CBD, premier confirms

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, is holding a press conference on the government’s decision to ignore an inquiry recommendation to open a second safe injecting room in the CBD.

She said it’s the only recommendation from Ken Lay’s inquiry the state government is not accepting due to issues around a location.

Allan told reporters the government had supported the establishment of a second site in the CBD and looked at “many, many sites for review as part of that process”.

We were clear, in looking at different sites across the CBD, that the location needed to balance the needs of people who use drugs with the needs of the broader CBD community and indeed, this is something that Ken Lay himself went to in his report where he reported that an injecting service trial has less chance of success without the legitimate needs of the community being recognised and addressed.

Allan said finding a location had been “a sticking point” and ultimately, the government was unable to find a site that “strikes the right balance” between “supporting people who use drugs with the needs of the broader community”.

Updated at 1.40am BST

1.24am BST

Former NSW treasurer critical of Mookhey’s readiness to accept rating downgrade

NSW treasurer Daniel Mookhey’s predecessor, Liberal Matt Kean, has written an op-ed in the AFR today where he criticises Mookhey’s readiness to accept a downgrade.

(All things being equal, the government will have to pay investors a higher return if the state doesn’t have a top rating.)

Kean wrote:

I took pride in maintaining the top-tier AAA rating with Fitch and Moody’s despite the unprecedented shock caused by a once-in-a-century pandemic.

Mookhey’s statement was a stunning admission that, as treasurer, he had lost control of the state’s fiscal position.

Kean is now the opposition’s health spokesperson.

Updated at 1.34am BST

1.21am BST

Rating agency say it will be watching how NSW navigates economic conditions

Yesterday we had NSW treasurer Daniel Mookhey warning his state was at risk of losing its two remaining top-notch debt ratings in the light of the “rip-off” GST carve-up.

You can read all the details on this below, in case you missed it:

S&P had already downgraded the state’s debt in 2020. Moody’s told us yesterday they had reviewed NSW’s debt standing earlier this month and weren’t about to re-check in the light of Mookhey’s comments.

And now Fitch, the other rating agency, has told us that for now, it too isn’t about to pull the trigger – but a lot will hinge on how the Minns government performs.

“Additional pressure on the revenue outlook undoubtedly creates further challenges for the state at a time when budgetary repair and rebuilding fiscal buffers is a focus,” Paul Norris, director of Fitch’s international public finance told us.

That said, the state has significant economic resources and fiscal levers that provide a solid platform to be able to respond to unplanned events and keep the budget in check.

We will be interested in how the state plans to navigate the current economic environment in balancing its spending and continued provision of economic support with its management of debt levels in its upcoming budget.

Fitch has said a failure by the state “to control expenditure and deliver on its fiscal targets to restore a stronger fiscal position” would be one trigger for a ratings cut.

Updated at 1.34am BST

1.15am BST

Funeral to be held for Bondi Junction Westfield victim Jade Young today

The family of 47-year-old Jade Young, a beloved mother and architect, has released a statement ahead of her funeral today.

Young was one of the six victims of the Bondi Junction Westfield stabbing attack. Family and friends will say their farewells at a service in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens.

The statement from the family reads:

The loss of Jade Young at the catastrophic attack at Bondi Junction on the 13th of April has shattered our world.

While we have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from friends and the community, Jade’s death has left a gaping hole in our lives. Her children were her life, and we do not want their future to be shaped by her death.

Today’s memorial at the Calyx is a celebration of Jade’s life and we know many in our community loved her.

It is the family’s strong preference that their privacy be respected and people be allowed to grieve Jade respectfully.

The venue for the memorial, the Calyx, is the gardens’ architectural centrepiece and features one of the southern hemisphere’s largest garden walls.

Faraz Tahir, a 30-year-old security guard killed during his first shift at Westfield Bondi Junction, will be laid to rest on Friday at a mosque in Marsden Park.

– with AAP

Updated at 1.30am BST

1.08am BST

Youth crime models made permanent and extended in Queensland

A taskforce that oversees Queensland police responses to youth crime and leadership of reforms will be made a permanent operation, AAP reports.

A youth crime taskforce was first established in 2021 that seeks to reduce youths reoffending. The premier, Steven Miles, said youth offending had fallen more than 10% since the taskforce was established:

High-visibility and flying squad operations are overseen by the taskforce, which are proving to prevent, intervene and deter crime. That’s why we are making them permanent in our community safety plan.

The state government will also commit $13.55m to expand a youth co-responders initiative that partners police and youth justice staff with at-risk youth and young people on bail.

The teams operate in 13 regions from Cairns to the Gold Coast and will be expanded to Goondiwindi and the Sunshine Coast.

A crime report shows there were 11,191 unique child offenders in 2022/23 – counted only once in statistics regardless of the number of offences they have committed, or the number of times they have been dealt with by police.

Updated at 1.11am BST

12.52am BST

NSW unions call for police ‘wanding’ powers to tackle knife crime

Unions representing various sectors of the New South Wales workforce are calling on the state government to introduce new powers for police to conduct non-invasive knife searches in public.

This follows a number of stabbings across Sydney in recent weeks, including the Bondi Junction Westfield attack and Wakeley church stabbing.

The unions are calling for similar laws to those in Queensland, which allow police to use metal detectors to search people without a warrant. The unions calling for the change include the Police Association of NSW, Public Service Association of NSW, Health Services Union and SDA Union.

President of the police union, Kevin Morton, said in a statement that such scans are already used at large scale events, like concerts, sporting finals and airports.

We want to proactively prevent knife crime from occurring. This is not an enforcement issue, but about keeping the community safe in day to day life.

Bernie Smith from the SDA union said: “Too many retail workers have suffered as a result of knife-related incidents in their stores.” Meanwhile, Adam Hall from the Health Services Union said:

Health workers have enough to worry about and deserve to feel safe as they tend to patients and keep our hospitals running. New laws are really important. We can’t eliminate risk but we can certainly minimise it.

Updated at 12.57am BST

12.39am BST

Sombre scene forms at Bondi beach as 100 gather to honour stabbing victims

AAP has more details on the paddle-out held at Bondi beach early this morning, where about 100 paddleboarders and surfers poured into the surf to honour the six victims of the Bondi stabbing attack.

As the sun rose this morning, a sombre scene took shape as the paddleboarders formed a heart in the ocean to remember the six lives lost.

Organiser Vicky Austin said 12 local clubs came together to say goodbye at the ocean, a focal point for the community. She told ABC TV:

Everyone’s feeling the after effects of Bondi Junction and it was just a way for us as a community to come together in solidarity in the ocean we all love.

We play, we compete, and we come here for solace and I think it’s our way to say goodbye to those that we have lost.

It’s solidarity and mateship and what we’re all about.

Updated at 12.49am BST

12.30am BST

Lambie calls for Musk to be jailed over refusal to take down Wakeley stabbing content

The independent senator Jacqui Lambie has called X boss Elon Musk an “absolute friggin disgrace” who should be jailed for his refusal to take down content from his social media platform of the Wakeley church stabbing.

Hitting out at Musk while speaking on ABC RN, Lambie did not hold back, saying:

Elon Musk has no social conscience, or conscience whatsoever.

She said it was “absolutely disgusting behaviour” to continue to allow the graphic content of the stabbing on his platform:

And quite frankly the bloke should be jailed, and the sooner that we can bring rules in or do something about this sort of game playing with our social media, the better off we’re going to be.

But quite frankly, the power that that man has because of that platform that he’s on, it’s got to stop. It has absolutely got to stop. But leaving that out for our kids to see, for people that were family and friends out there and just letting that run on there, once again, that bloke has no conscience. He’s an absolute friggin disgrace, and there’s nothing else to say about Elon Musk.

Updated at 12.38am BST

12.23am BST

Lambie calls on PM to ‘show more courage’ around reforming negative gearing

Circling back to David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie’s push for tax reform to tackle the growing housing crisis. The pair have been making the rounds across breakfast television and radio today, pushing their proposal (which you can read about below):

Speaking to ABC RN, Lambie argued that most people out there don’t “give a stuff” about negative gearing when asked about potential scare campaigns. She pointed to the federal election where Labor MP Bill Shorten lost as an example:

People can go back to Bill Shorten’s election and say it was negative gearing talk that blew him out of water, that’s absolute rubbish. I can tell you now running around during that period of time trying to win my own seat back, I heard nothing about that negative gearing in Tasmania, nothing at all.

I don’t have a problem, I’ve got the courage, David Pocock’s got the courage up here.

We’re bringing it forward, we’ll have the argument across the table, but the prime minister needs to show some more courage because the way he’s doing it – you’ve got to stop slapping Band-Aids on it and just saying, ‘hey, we’re going to chuck to half a billion dollars a year into building new houses that we haven’t even turned the soil on yet’.

Well, you have to make other moves, mate, otherwise this is just not going to work out at all and we’re going to be in the same situation we’re in today in 10 years’ time.

Updated at 1.21am BST

12.12am BST

Pocock hopes Musk saga will leader to broader conversation around social media regulation

The independent senator David Pocock hopes the current saga involving Elon Musk and X will lead to a broader conversation around social media companies.

Speaking to ABC RN, he accused social media platforms of not being “good faith actors” most of the time, who monetise people’s attention.

We are the product when we use things like Facebook, Instagram, and I’m really concerned about the effect that that’s having on all of us.

And these multinational companies have proven time and time again that they’re willing to bully governments and countries like Australia and not uphold their part of the bargain of being able to run their businesses here in Australia. So I hope that this extends beyond just this latest move from Elon Musk … to a broader conversation around: how do you regulate things like social media?

Updated at 12.40am BST

12.00am BST

PM says he ‘won’t cop’ lecture from Elon Musk over freedom of speech

The prime minister has continued to blast X boss Elon Musk for his refusal to take down content from his platform from the Wakeley church stabbing.

Speaking to Sky News, Anthony Albanese said Musk has “chosen ego and showing violence over common sense”.

I think that Australians will shake their head when they think that this billionaire is prepared to go to court, fighting for the right to sow division and to show violent videos, which are very distressing.

He is in social media, but he has a social responsibility, in order to have that social licence. And what has occurred here is that the eSafety commissioner has made very sensible suggestions. Other social media companies have complied without complaint. But this bloke thinks he’s above the Australian law, that he’s above common decency.

And I say to Elon Musk that he is so out of touch with what the Australian public want. This has been a distressing time and I find this bloke on the other side of the world, from his billionaires’ establishment, trying to lecture Australians on free speech – well, I won’t cop it and Australians won’t either.

Updated at 12.40am BST

11.47pm BST

More than 1m vapes in total seized after largest operation in Australian history

In Melbourne, 500,000 vapes have been seized in the largest single operation in Australian history, the health minister says.

The joint operation between the drugs regulator and Victoria police seized the vapes with an estimated street value of over $15m.

The health minister, Mark Butler, says more than 611,000 vape products have been seized at the border since new vaping laws came into effect in March banning importation unless the importer has a licence and permit.

The latest seizure brings that total to more than 1m, he said.

The next round of reforms currently before federal parliament would force vape stores to close by preventing the domestic manufacture, advertisement, supply and commercial possession of non-prescription vapes.

Butler said:

Our coordinated efforts are working to control a product that has hooked a whole new generation on nicotine.

Now we need parliament to pass our legislation to return vaping to its original purpose of helping hardened smokers to quit – as prescribed by their doctor and purchased at a pharmacy like any other prescription.

Updated at 12.39am BST

11.39pm BST

Hundreds honour Westfield victims with paddle-out at Bondi beach

Hundreds of people have participated in a paddle-out at Bondi beach at dawn to honour the victims of the Westfield stabbing tragedy.

This comes as the first funeral for one of the victims, 47-year-old Jade Young, will take place today.

The community paddle-out, held at dawn this morning, was supported by local sporting organisations including Bronte Surf Club, where Young was a member.

The Bondi Girls Surfriders wrote on Instagram that paddle-outs are a time-honoured tradition originating from Hawaii for surfers to gather on the water and pay tribute to a life, or lives, lost. They wrote:

This involves surfers paddling out to sea to form a circle to take a moment to reflect on those lives taken too soon … After the paddle out, we’ll gather back on the beach to express our deepest gratitude to the selfless members of the public that helped, the first responders and the survivors.

Participants included Bondi Boardriders, Bondi Longboard Club, Bondi Girls Surfriders, Bronte Boardriders, Let’s Go Surfing, Bondi SBLSC, North Bondi SLSC, Bronte SLSC, Tamarama SLSC, Bondi Icebergs and Bondi United.

– with AAP

Updated at 3.51am BST

11.27pm BST

Thousands of Western Australian teachers set to stop work over wages

More than 80 public schools across WA are expected to close or partially close as thousands of teachers walk off the job over their pay and conditions for the first time in ten years, AAP reports.

The State School Teachers’ Union of WA (SSTUWA) advised its members to stop work for half the day in protest against the state government’s pay rise offer for primary and high school teachers.

SSTUWA president, Matt Jarman, said teachers and school leaders were overworked, underpaid and leaving the public education system in droves:

The SSTUWA has continued to bargain in good faith with the department of education to get an appropriate offer, and we do not take this stop-work action lightly.

The government has offered an increase of 5% in the first year, followed by 3% in each of the following two years. The union has asked for 7% in the first year followed by 5% and a range of improvements in conditions and workload issues.

The state’s treasurer, Rita Saffioti, yesterday said the government’s offer was fair and there was no need for the strike. She said the government was willing to continue negotiating:

We understand that everyone always wants more, but from a government perspective, we’re going to balance the ability to fairly give wage rises but also manage the entire budget.

Updated at 11.43pm BST

11.20pm BST

Cases of flu rising in New South Wales compared to last year

Cases of influenza appear to be on the rise in NSW when compared to last year’s figures.

The latest respiratory surveillance report shows more than 4,700 people across the state were diagnosed with the flu during the past four weeks, a 16% rise compared to the previous year.

Hospitalisations are also up, with 480 admissions between 6 January and 14 April – compared to 284 during the same period for 2023.

The NSW health minister, Ryan Park, has launched NSW Health’s winter flu vaccine campaign today. The chief health officer, Kerry Chant, said that last year there was an increase in ED presentations among young children due to flu complications:

We don’t want to see a repeat this year, so we are reminding families to book their children aged under 5 years in for their free flu vaccine now.

Updated at 11.39pm BST

11.13pm BST

More than 3.4 million Australians tune in for new Bluey episodes

The latest trio of new Bluey episodes, which were anticipated by parents just as much (if not more!) as their children, achieved unprecedented ratings success for the ABC, with a combined 3.4 million viewers tuning in.

The three episodes – Ghostbasket, The Sign and Surprise – currently hold an average total audience of 4.8 million, when accounting for the ABC iView audience.

Ghostbasket was the first Blue release since June 2023 and reached a total audience of more than 6.2 million.

The Sign reached a national audience of 4.4 million, accounting for a metro TV share of 54% on broadcast. A statement from the ABC said this episode set an all-time TV broadcast record for the ABC Kids channel, and has become the highest ABC program of all time on ABC iView.

Word spread quickly for the Surprise episode, with a total audience of 1.5 million.

The listing of Bluey’s home on Domain was an instant success, too, with 735,000 viewings of the listing and 2.8m engagements with the listing photos.

Libbie Doherty, head of ABC Children and Family, said:

Just when you think Bluey can’t get any better, creator Joe Brumm and the team at Ludo have broken all records with this trio of episodes for the season finale. The Bluey team keep doing what they do best, surprising, innovating and putting fans front and center making sure each episode is a cracker. It’s been an incredible three weeks seeing reactions unfold, the ABC is ecstatic by these results and thank Australians for continuing to love and support Bluey.

Updated at 11.21pm BST

11.03pm BST

Prime minister to walk Kokoda Track over two days

As we flagged earlier, Anthony Albanese is set to become the first sitting prime minister to walk the Kokoda Track.

He will walk the trail for two days, starting this morning, along with the Papua New Guinea prime minister, James Marape. The walk will culminate with a dawn service for Anzac Day on Thursday.

Albanese spoke to ABC News Breakfast earlier, ahead of the walk, and said:

We’ll be walking in the footsteps of giants. The Australians who fought here saved our continent, literally, and they stood side-by-side with their brothers and sisters in Papua New Guinea who also fought, but also provided such extraordinary support to the Australian soldiers, of whom some 625 Australians were killed along the Kokoda Track.

We’ll be, on Anzac Day, at Isurava, the memorial there. Ninety-nine Australians lost their life in that one battle, and a further 110 were injured. This was an extraordinary feat. The Japanese had a much larger force, landed at the north and headed south to Port Moresby and had they captured Port Moresby, they would have been very close to the Australian mainland. And the Australians showed sacrifice and courage and extraordinary valour during what was a battle that went over many weeks and it will be an honour to pay tribute to them, but also to show respect to all those men and women who served in the Australian Defence Force.

Updated at 11.10pm BST

10.55pm BST

‘Easier to buy your second house than your first’ in Australia, David Pocock says

The independent senator David Pocock pushed back against the idea that reforming negative gearing is unpopular with voters. Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, he said:

There’s quite a bit of polling and research showing the majority of Australians actually support changes to our property system, our tax system, where it’s arguably easier to buy your second house than your first one. A system that’s treating housing not as a human right, something everyone in our community should be able to afford, but an investment vehicle for wealth creation.

That is leading to the outcomes we’re seeing and as Jacqui said this is not the silver bullet, but it’s one very important lever to, one, start to change the way that people invest, but two, save $16bn to $60bn over the next decade that can be invested in social and affordable housing for key workers, or for people who are on the social wait list.

You can read all the details about the independent senator’s plan for tax reform below, in a separate piece from Paul Karp and Cait Kelly:

Updated at 11.02pm BST

10.48pm BST

Independent senators push tax reform as way to tackle rental affordability, which has ‘never been worse’

The independent senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie will push the government to reform negative gearing and the capital gains tax as a potential solution to the growing housing crisis.

The pair commissioned the parliamentary budget office to look at five scenarios to tackle housing affordability, and landed on these tax reforms. Lambie said it wasn’t a “magic bullet” but formed part of the overall solution.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast just a moment ago, Pocock said people should not be anxious when discussions around negative gearing occur:

We’re seeing homeowners are declining, we saw that report today – rental affordability has never been worse and we need to make sensible changes.

There’s a range of changes that are fully costed, they have taken into account behavioural changes, and I think it’s a really sensible conversation that we should be having. I urge the major parties – they don’t want to talk about tax reform in a housing crisis, but we have to. And there’s ways to sensible start to turn this ship around …

One suggestion Pocock made was, “going forward, you [would only get the] capital gains tax discount if you’re investing in new supply”.

Fewer than 300 rental properties affordable for workers on minimum wage, snapshot shows

Just 289 private rental properties out of more than 45,000 listings in Australia are affordable for full-time workers earning the minimum wage, with people renting on jobseekers all but locked out of the private market.

Anglicare’s Rental Affordability Snapshot surveyed the 45,115 listings across Australia – the lowest available in the 15 years the charity has prepared the report. Between 2018 and 2021 the number of available rentals listed was consistently above 65,000.

The snapshot found:

289 rentals (0.6%) were affordable for a person earning a full-time minimum wage.
89 rentals (0.2%) were affordable for a person on the age pension.
31 rentals (0.1%) were affordable for a person on the disability support pension.
3 rentals (0%) were affordable for a person on jobseeker.
0 rentals (0%) were affordable for a person on youth allowance.

Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers said the housing crisis is “the worst it’s ever been”.

This is not hyperbole. It is Australia’s new normal.

Chambers said Anglicare had “never seen such bad results for people on the minimum wage”, with affordability “halving” for a single person over the last two years.

Even couples with both partners working full-time are locked out of nearly 90% of rentals.

People on Centrelink payments are being pushed out of housing altogether. A person on the age or disability support pensions can afford less than 1% of rentals. For a person out of work, it’s 0% – and that includes the highest rate of rent assistance.

Updated at 10.57pm BST

10.18pm BST

Albanese on tacking violence against women: ‘We’ll look at every measure we possibly can’

Anthony Albanese says tackling violence against women will be a responsibility for governments at different levels, but is “clearly [a] society problem as well”.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, the PM said “we all have a responsibility to … address what is a scourge of violence against women”.

The fact that more than one woman per week has died at the hands of someone that they know, whether it’s a partner or someone in a relationship, is just completely unacceptable. Men and boys have to clearly have discussions about these issues.

Asked if he would declare violence against women a crisis, Albanese responded: “Well, we know that it’s been a crisis for some time.”

He pointed to a number of federal government measures including additional funds for domestic violence workers, and changing the sole parenting payments in last year’s budget.

We’ll look at every measure that we can possibly take on these issues because I know that we as a society just have to do better.

Updated at 10.47pm BST

10.12pm BST

PM says Elon Musk an ‘arrogant billionaire who thinks he's above the law’

Anthony Albanese has called X boss Elon Musk an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he’s above the law”.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, the PM was asked how far the government would be willing to take Musk on, regarding the takedown of content from last week’s stabbing at a church in Sydney. Albanese said:

We’ll do what’s necessary to take on this arrogant billionaire who thinks he’s above the law, but also above common decency.

What the eSafety Commissioner is doing is doing her job to protect the interests of Australians, and the idea that someone would go to court for the right to put up violent content on a platform shows how out-of-touch Mr Musk is. Social media needs to have social responsibility with it. Mr Musk is not showing any.

In case you missed it late last night, the Australian federal court ordered X to hide posts containing videos of last week’s Wakeley stabbing. You can read the full details below.

Musk also hit back at the eSafety commissioner’s attempts to get him to take the content down overnight, suggesting the government was promoting censorship.

Updated at 10.43pm BST

10.06pm BST

Thanks to Martin for kicking things off! I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be with you on the blog today.

See something that needs attention? You can get in touch via X, @emilywindwrites, or send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.

Let’s get started.

10.05pm BST

I shouldn't have been sacked, says former home affairs boss Michael Pezzullo

The former home affairs department secretary Michael Pezzullo believes he shouldn’t have been sacked from his position, despite admitting to wrongdoing after revelations of text messages with a Liberal powerbroker.

Pezzullo admitted to “mistakes” in an interview on ABC’s 7.30 program last night, but believes he didn’t deserve to lose his lucrative job. He was sacked as home affairs boss in November last year, after he was found to have breached the public service code of conduct at least 14 times, including for using his power for personal benefit, following reporting on a series of text messages he had allegedly sent to a Liberal party insider in an attempt to influence political processes.

On 7.30, Pezzullo said he believed another punishment would have been fair, but that the final decision on his position had been decided “fairly”.

I put an alternative view that perhaps an appropriate censure or reprimand would have been relevant or appropriate in the circumstance.

I think a case could be made, in the rough and tumble of places like Canberra, no different from places like Washington or any other political capital, there are networks and people pursuing agendas, whether bureaucratic, policy or resource agendas, and I think that that behaviour can be dealt with in other ways.

What I sought to rebut was that they were of such a grievous kind that they warranted dismissal.

Pezzullo denied he’d sought or gained any personal benefit from his actions. He said it was a mistake to have such conversations, which he described as a “third party back channel”.

The advantage, either in terms of achieving a program outcome or a policy outcome or a particular outcome in terms of resourcing the department.

It was considered, in terms of the finding, that I was using channels outside of the established mechanisms to pursue those ends. I accept that. I made a mistake.

Updated at 10.09pm BST

9.51pm BST

Updated at 10.30pm BST

9.45pm BST

Research is ‘a warning sign for biodiversity conservation worldwide’, bushfires report says

More on that study on the link between bigger and more frequent bushfires and endangered wildlife:

Of almost 2,000 threatened species in Australia “a portion are threatened by fire regimes that have been changing over recent years”, the report found.

“Then a subset of those are threatened species that need habitat that has not been burned for a long time to persist, because that habitat has different types of attributes that these species need,” researcher Dr Billy Geary said, referring to tree hollows, logs on the ground and different food resources.

The western ground parrot from WA is one of the 129 species looked at by the study that require long unburned habitat to reach its highest population numbers, but has instead seen its habitat shrink since 1980. The western ground parrot experienced a decline in unburned vegetation from 68% to 9% – “a really large reduction in the amount of habitat for that species,” Geary said.

The report acknowledges that a pattern of large, high-severity fires is becoming commonplace across the world, triggered by climate change, land-use change and the spread of exotic plants, as well as novel anthropogenic burning and displacement of Indigenous people.

“Our results serve as a warning sign for biodiversity conservation worldwide,” the report said.

Updated at 10.14pm BST

9.41pm BST

Fires in southern Australia getting bigger and more frequent

Fires are getting bigger and more frequent in southern Australia, burning through previously unburned habitats that some threatened species need to survive, new research suggests.

“We are losing habitat that has not been burned for more than 30 years,” Dr Billy Geary, University of Melbourne lecturer in quantitative ecology and biodiversity conservation, said. “This has got important implications for biodiversity.”

Geary was an author on the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which collates four decades of change in fire frequency and the amount of unburned vegetation across Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.

Assessing 415 reserves and forests – covering more than 20 million hectares and home to 129 fire-threatened species including frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals – the study found that most conservation reserves and threatened species experienced increases in fire frequency as well as and declines in the amount of unburned vegetation from 1980 to 2021, Geary said.

The mean fraction of vegetation within reserves that did not burn in the 30 years prior dropped from 61% in 1980 to 36% in 2021.

During the same period, the mean fraction of vegetation burned in the five years prior increased from 20% to 35%, and the mean fire frequency in reserves increased by 32%.

The impact is most severe in areas at high elevation with high environmental productivity and strong rainfall decline – “a sobering picture for threatened species in fire-prone landscapes,” the report said.

Updated at 10.08pm BST

9.28pm BST

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be bringing you the best of the overnight stories before my colleague Emily Wind takes up the baton.

Voters have backed Anthony Albanese’s Future Made in Australia plan, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, but are under the misapprehension that renewables are the most expensive form of power, illustrating the difficulty for Labor of selling the energy transition to voters. More coming up from the poll findings on how the prime minister is handling the Israel-Gaza war.

More than 80 years after Australian forces etched their name into military history, Albanese is set to become the first sitting prime minister to walk the Kokoda Track. Albanese will walk the mountainous trail for two days, starting this morning, with the Papua New Guinea prime minister, James Marape, culminating in a dawn service on Anzac Day on Thursday. As well as honouring the sacrifices of troops who fought on Kokoda, the trip will also centre on forging closer ties with PNG at a time when China is looking at expanding its influence in the region. We’ll be following his progress throughout the day.

The war of words between the Australian government and Elon Musk has continued with the tech billionaire using his X social media platform to accuse the prime minister of censorship. The Australian federal court has ordered Elon Musk’s X to hide posts containing videos of a stabbing at a Sydney church last week from users globally, after the eSafety commissioner launched an urgent court case on Monday evening seeking an injunction. It prompted the billionaire to hit back, branding X as the home of “freedom” and Australia as the home of “censorship”.

And as bushfires become more and more frequent in southern Australia, they are burning through previously unburned habitats that some threatened species need to survive, new research suggests. More on that soon.

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