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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Alan Vaarwerk

Afternoon Update: Senator heckles the royals; new guidelines for ‘forever chemicals’; and Hephner the alpaca’s big moment

Senator Lidia Thorpe stages a protest as King Charles and Queen Camilla attend a reception at Parliament House in Canberra
Senator Lidia Thorpe stages a protest as King Charles and Queen Camilla attend a reception at Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: Victoria Jones/Reuters

Good afternoon. Lidia Thorpe has been removed from the Great Hall of Parliament House after yelling “this is not your land” at King Charles.

The king had just finished addressing MPs and senators when the independent senator approached the stage, having earlier turned her back on the royal couple during the national anthem.

“You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” shouted Thorpe, who is a fiercely outspoken advocate for Indigenous rights.

As security officers escorted her out of the hall into the foyer, Thorpe, who was dressed in a long possum skin coat, could be heard shouting: “Fuck the colony.”

The former prime minister Tony Abbott called it “unfortunate political exhibitionism” while Dick Smith said it was a “wonderful part of our democracy” that Thorpe “won’t be put in jail”.

Top news

  • New rules for ‘forever chemical’ levels | Australia could toughen the rules around levels of key PFAS chemicals in drinking water, after draft guidelines were released lowering the acceptable limits of four key chemicals – some of which are known to be carcinogenic.

  • Victoria to cut stamp duty for off-the-plan homes | Homebuyers in Victoria will save tens of thousands of dollars in stamp duty on off-the-plan apartments, townhouses and units bought at any price point in the next 12 months, under a state government initiative aimed at stimulating development.

  • Labor dares LNP leader to face Dutton in high court | The Queensland premier, Steven Miles, has accused the opposition leader, David Crisafulli, of using “weasel words” by not directly committing to challenge Peter Dutton in the high court, should the federal Coalition attempt to override the state’s ban on nuclear energy.

  • ‘Emotionally resonant’ animation takes London film prize | The Australian director Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail has become the first stop-motion animation to take the top prize at the London film festival, with the jury calling it a “singular achievement in film-making”.

  • Hunt for remains in 35-year-old murder case | Homicide detectives have returned to Bowraville as the search continues for the remains of a 16-year-old girl allegedly murdered in the New South Wales town in 1990, along with two other Aboriginal children.

  • Sussan Ley buys light plane | The Liberal MP for the large rural electorate of Farrer, who says she got her pilot’s licence at 19, has updated her parliamentary register of interests to declare the purchase of a Cessna 182 – a four-seat, single-engined plane.

  • Blasts heard across Beirut as Israel escalates | Witnesses saw dense plumes of black smoke from at least 10 blasts in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital after Israel’s military said it was preparing strikes on branches of a banking system linked to Hezbollah.

  • Food shortages as Cuba power cuts continue | Long queues formed for bread in Havana, as Cuba prepared for a third night without electricity after repeated failed attempts to restart the national grid – made worse by the government’s struggle to pay for fuel.

  • NZ airport cracks down on overly fond farewells | The international airport in Dunedin has introduced a three-minute cap on cuddles, as part of a broader effort to improve safety and keep traffic flowing at its drop-off zone. A sign erected in the airport’s drop-off zone says: “For fonder farewells please use the car park.”

In pictures

Hephner the alpaca meets King Charles

At the Australian War Memorial, Canberrans lined up to catch a glimpse of the king and queen’s first stop in the nation’s capital. One of those in line was Robert Fletcher and his alpaca Hephner, who was apparently on his best behaviour – so much so that he was allowed into the war memorial to say hello.

What they said …

***

“As I walked out, a boy who was lying on the floor of a cell he had been in for five days called out, ‘God bless.’ He was all alone, quiet and subdued. He shouldn’t be in a watch house; it won’t make things better for any of us.”

Reflecting on a visit to the Cairns watch house, Aimee McVeigh, the chief executive of the Queensland Council of Social Service, writes that the LNP’s “adult crime, adult time” election slogan won’t make Queenslanders safer – “we need to fight fear with facts”.

In numbers

The federal court ruled that three baggage workers sacked by Qantas at the start of the pandemic should receive $30,000, $40,000 and $100,000 in compensation for hardship and distress caused by the airline. The test cases will inform compensation payouts for the other almost 1,700 workers whose jobs were found to be illegally outsourced, with the total bill now expected to exceed $100m.

Before bed read

Three things with Claudia Chan Shaw: ‘Pull out a Bic four-colour pen in a meeting and it’s a real icebreaker’

In Guardian Australia’s weekly interview about objects, the TV host and collector shares her “daggy” stationery – and her childhood obsession with Humphrey Bogart.

Daily word game

Today’s starter word is: LEV. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.

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And check out the full list of our local and international newsletters, including The Stakes, your guide to the twists and turns of the US presidential election.

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