What we learned, Friday 12 June
That’s all from us today. Here are today’s top headlines:
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One Nation has been moved a planned fundraising event to an undisclosed location in Melbourne, after the venue cancelled due to planned protest activity.
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Local Australian athletics organisations have paid tribute to 2025 Stawell Gift finalist Jemma Stapleton, 25, who died while on holiday overseas with her family.
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The Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, has rejected calls from some Liberals to consider a joint election strategy with One Nation, telling Guardian Australia the Coalition will “compete against Labor everywhere”.
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The Socceroos have addressed growing anti-immigration sentiment in a powerful video message ahead of the World Cup, speaking of their pride in their heritage and playing for the national team.
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The grandmother of missing four-year-old Gus Lamont has been fined $10,500 after admitting to a firearms offence unrelated to the boy’s disappearance eight months ago.
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A man has been charged over the alleged kidnapping and murder of a woman whose body is yet to be found.
Thanks for joining us, have a lovely weekend!
Earlier this year the Minns government delivered an updated coal policy, which ruled out new greenfield mines in NSW but allowed expansions to continue. This was despite advice from the state’s Net Zero Commission, which concluded that new expansions were inconsistent with the state’s legislated emissions reductions commitments. That advice was one of five recommendations in the commission’s Coal Mining Emissions Spotlight Report last year.
On Friday, hours before the government referred the HVO project to the IPC, it published its report in response to the Net Zero Commission’s advice, accepting four of the five recommendations.
Greens environment spokesperson Sue Higginson said:
This next step for HVO comes the same day that the government accepted all of the Net Zero Commission’s recommendations in the Coal Spotlight Report, except the recommendation that coal expansions were inconsistent with climate laws that the Minns Labor Government introduced in 2023.
Biggest coalmine expansion in NSW referred to Independent Planning Commission for decision
The largest coalmine expansion proposed in New South Wales has been referred to the state’s Independent Planning Commission (IPC) for a decision.
Yancoal and Glencore are seeking approval for the Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) Continuation project near Singleton in the Hunter Valley. The project would extend open cut-mining at the site by 19 years to 2045 and mine an additional 430 million tonnes of coal.
The state government referred the project on Friday afternoon, which starts an 84-day process that will include public hearings before the commission reaches a decision.
Lock the Gate Alliance acting national coordinator Georgina Woods said:
Expanding Hunter Valley Operations mine will worsen air pollution and water stress locally in the Hunter, but the impact of worsening global warming from its 800 million tonnes of greenhouse pollution will be felt by communities across New South Wales.
She said the group was expecting people from the Hunter and other regional areas would tell the commission about their experiences of climate change.
For too long these voices have not been heard and the costs of climate change on households have not [been] weighed up in planning decisions about coalmines.
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Conroy defends Aukus future
The defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, has rejected claims that the shock resignation of British defence secretary John Healey poses any threat to the Aukus pact, labelling domestic concerns as “tall poppy syndrome or cultural cringe here where we think everything’s about Australia”.
Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Conroy dismissed suggestions that the UK’s internal funding crisis could derail the nuclear submarine deal.
Conroy said:
In the UK system, the funding for the nuclear systems, the nuclear deterrent and the nuclear attack submarines, is ringfenced from the rest of the defence budget. This has got nothing to do with Australia.
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Thanks, everyone, for spending the afternoon with me!
I am going to hand you over to my colleague Ima Caldwell, who will take you through the evening.
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Weather fronts to bring rain, gusty winds to southern states, showers to southwest WA
A front will bring rain, showers and gusty winds to South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and southern NSW this weekend, while a second front brings showers to far southwest Western Australia.
An unstable air mass will maintain showers and storms over northwest and central WA, while onshore winds bring showers to eastern Queensland.
On Saturday, Brisbane will hit 24C, Darwin will hit 33C, Perth will see a high of 18C, Adelaide will experience 19C, Melbourne a high of 17C, Hobart 18C, Canberra 17C and Sydney 22C.
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ABC managing director Hugh Marks says it would be hypocritical not to talk to journalists who work for Rupert Murdoch.
In an interview with Ben Fordham on 2GB Marks said he couldn’t comment on why other managing directors didn’t come on the commercial radio station, but he believed in transparency.
Fordham:
Did you know that a lot of ABC staff members were angry the first time they read quotes from Hugh Marks in the Australian?
Marks:
Well, I’d be hypocritical, wouldn’t I, if I didn’t talk to everybody in the industry on the same basis that we expect everybody in politics to talk to us at the ABC.
So being transparent, being out and about and … Talking to everybody and putting yourself in an environment where you are and you do have to justify the decisions you make I think is important.
Since December Marks has granted the Murdoch broadsheet three exclusive interviews.
The former CEO of Nine Entertainment and independent producer said it was “not an easy decision” to take on the job of managing director of the ABC because he “had a nice life”, but he believes in a strong public broadcaster.
So it was a difficult decision to do, but it’s important. I think a strong public broadcaster is important and as a public broadcasters we have to accept that the taxpayer is our owner through the parliament of Australia.
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More Australians travelling to Indonesia; New Zealand and Japan still popular, ABS statistics show
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows the number of short-term trips to Indonesia rose 16% over the year to April.
The monthly arrivals and departures data show the three leading destination countries for Australian residents on short-term trips in April were:
- Indonesia (161,700 trips)
- New Zealand (135,190)
- Japan (108,540)
The highest number of resident returns from short-term trips was for New South Wales (354,140), while the Northern Territory recorded the fewest (8,520).
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Court approves class-action style lawsuit against Queensland puberty blocker ban
The Queensland civil and administrative tribunal has approved a class-action style anti-discrimination lawsuit against the state’s ban on gender affirming care.
Transgender children are banned from accessing puberty blockers or hormone therapy in Queensland public hospitals. Both drugs are still available for cisgender children.
The state unlawfully imposed the ban in January 2025. That order was thrown out by the supreme court in October, before being reimposed the same day.
In December, health minister Tim Nicholls announced the ban would be continued until 2031.
The LGBTQI legal service said Qcat had allowed another lawsuit against the ban to proceed as a representative action, akin to a class action. They will represent all young Queenslanders diagnosed with gender dysphoria who had yet to commence puberty blockers or hormone treatment at the time of the original order.
It also ordered that Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls be joined as a respondent to the proceeding.
LGBTI legal service senior solicitor Emma Bastable said “every young person who meets the class definition is automatically included unless they choose to opt out by a date that will be set by the tribunal”.
“This case is not limited to young people who were already on a treatment pathway, with the Tribunal finding that being denied the opportunity to be considered for treatment is enough,” Bastable said.
The Tribunal has recognised that exclusion itself can cause harm, even before a young person reaches the point of treatment.
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That’s all from me. Cait Kelly will take things from here. Enjoy your weekend!
One Nation fundraiser in Melbourne cancelled, but event will take place elsewhere
A fundraiser for One Nation scheduled for tonight in Melbourne has been cancelled after the venue decided not to hold the event, according to Victoria police. The event was set to be held at Giorgio Casa, a bistro in Moonee Ponds.
A spokesperson for One Nation told Guardian Australia the event will go ahead at another location tonight, but did not specify where. The spokesperson said police “did express concern about protest activity at the event”. They added the event was “sold out”, but wouldn’t put a number on how many people were expected to attend.
A spokesperson for Victoria police said officers were not aware of any threats made against the event.
“The decision not to hold the event was made by the venue,” the spokesperson said.
A number of groups were planning to protest against the event, saying Victorians needed to “stand up and fight back” and “drive Hanson out of Melbourne”.
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Three of four major banks now expect interest rates to fall next year
Top economists at ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and NAB are now predicting interest rates will not rise any higher this year and will start to fall from the middle of next year.
ANZ today changed its rate call to predict two cash rate cuts in 2027. It had previously expected rates to remain steady for the foreseeable future.
HSBC’s Paul Bloxham also has now changed and expects no change until cuts in late 2027. Bloxham said:
Inflation is still too high and is set to rise further before it falls. That being said, the RBA has already taken significant action to deal with this surge in inflation – and, critically, the action is working …
We expect the RBA to be on hold in June. Although there is some risk the RBA might choose to hike again beyond that, we expect the weakening in growth to convince them to be on hold.
Commonwealth Bank has not changed its prediction that the RBA will stay on hold before cutting twice in mid-2027. NAB expects a similar trajectory.
But financial markets are still betting a hike is more likely than not over the next 12 months. Westpac today reaffirmed its view that the cash rate will rise in August and September this year, with no cuts until 2028. Its chief economist, Luci Ellis, today predicted inflation would peak at 4.7% late this year, lower than she previously expected but still higher than the RBA now expects it to be.
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KPMG awarded $26m in government contracts since leaks revealed
The federal government has awarded KPMG 36 contracts worth $26m since it was revealed that the audit firm had leaked confidential client data, taking KPMG’s total published contract value to $653m.
KPMG had 297 active contracts as of 11 June, according to parliamentary library analysis commissioned by the Greens. The Department of Defence accounts for $397m of that total.
Of the active KPMG contracts, $26m are for audit services, including for the Reserve Bank ($1.65m), the CSIRO ($4.9m), the Australian Electoral Commission ($3.15m), the Bureau of Meteorology ($2m), the national emergency management authority ($1.98m) and the departments of industry ($1.74m) and veterans affairs ($1.75m).
The analysis shows the government has executed 31 active contracts worth nearly $24m since the KPMG allegations were made public on 24 March. They include two separate $59,000 audit contracts with the clean energy regulator, a $172,000 audit contract with the department of climate change and a $82,500 audit contract with the BoM.
Separate Guardian Australia analysis of government tender data shows another $2m of contracts have been awarded since the allegations were publicised which are not included in the Library’s analysis, including two Defence contracts worth $1.6m and a $325,662 Home Affairs “high-risk high-value” contract for Nauru procurement.
The federal government has said all of its KPMG contracts will be reviewed. The Greens’ finance spokesperson, Barbara Pocock, said KPMG should be banned from any future contracts. Pocock said:
“This government is completely addicted to KPMG … As scandals are being publicly exposed, Australians are rightly asking why the Labor government continues to give them contracts worth millions.”
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Hugh Marks says ABC management has changed since major legal losses
ABC boss Hugh Marks says there are “definitely lessons” to be learned from the ABC’s two high profile legal losses, Antoinette Lattouf and Heston Russell, but the ABC under his management has had a “very low” number of legal suits.
“There’s been a big change in personnel over the time since those cases at all levels, including at the MD level, obviously,” Marks told Ben Fordham in an interview on 2GB.
Marks replaced David Anderson as managing director a little over a year ago. He told Senate estimates last year that the Lattouf unlawful dismissal case had “many failings” and has cost the public broadcaster more than $2.5m in external costs alone.
In 2023 former commando Russell won his defamation case against the ABC and was awarded $390,000 after a federal court judge found the public broadcaster did not prove its reporting was in the public interest.
Today, Marks, a former CEO of Nine Entertainment, told Fordham he has many years of experience in running major legal cases.
At the moment, we have a very low number of defamation or legal cases against the ABC and that’s the way I’d like to keep it.
Being in this business though, and if you wanna do good stories, sometimes you’re gonna put yourself at exposure to a legal claim and that’s just part of the business.
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Black Mountain warned about lack of data about potential damage to Kimberley water and ecosystems
Continuing on from the last post, documents released through freedom of information show department officials repeatedly warned Black Mountain it had not provided enough information about water resources and ecosystems that could be harmed by its gas drilling plans.
Lock the Gate Alliance WA coordinator Simone van Hattem said “Australians don’t want to see the precious Kimberley industrialised and turned into a dumping ground for toxic chemicals” and “the community will make known all the very same concerns the department has”.
Guardian Australia has approached Watt and the environment department for comment.
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WA Kimberley fracking proposal opens for public consultation
An American company’s proposal to frack Western Australia’s Kimberley region, part of the world’s most intact tropical savanna, has been opened to public consultation.
It comes days after Guardian Australia reported on newly released documents that revealed concerns among environment department officials about the standard of Black Mountain Energy’s environmental assessments. The federal government opened the project for four weeks of public consultation late on Thursday.
Black Mountain Energy, through its subsidiary Bennett Resources, has proposed up to 20 “appraisal” wells for its Valhalla project. Appraisal wells are drilled to assess the quality and commercial potential of a gas resource. At full production, fracking projects can involve dozens, hundreds or even thousands of wells.
The development is located near a creek that flows into the national heritage-listed Fitzroy River, potentially opening WA’s Fitzroy valley landscape to fracking and affecting the region’s endangered species.
Environment groups have called on environment minister Murray Watt to strike out the proposal, with 10,000 people contacting his office over the past week, according to Environs Kimberley executive director Martin Pritchard.
There is no way Environment Minister Murray Watt can approve fracking the Kimberley and have a shred of environmental credibility. Murray Watt knows this, 10,000 people have just emailed to tell him. Now he needs to act.
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Miner Fortescue signs new deal with Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people
A mining company owned by billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has struck a new agreement with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people of Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
Forrest’s company, Fortesque Metals Group (FMG), signed a Native Title and co-management agreement with PKKP in Karratha, to boost economic participation and business development for traditional owners.
In the arrangement PKKP mining equipment, including haul trucks and electric excavators, will be leased to FMG to support mining operations in the Pilbara.
Traditional owner and chairperson of PKKP Enterprises, Terry Drage said the agreement also allowed for better protection of sacred sites:
One of the key parts of the Co-Management Agreement is that Fortescue and PKKP need to share information much earlier about mining activities and heritage so we have the best chance of protecting important places.
We have always said we are not opposed to mining, but it has to be done in the right way with traditional owner decision-making front and centre.
These agreements are going to create a lasting legacy for our people, and we are really proud that we have signed this with Fortescue so that we don’t have to rely on the government or courts to protect our important places.
Forrest said FMG had “never seen native title agreements as simply a transaction”, and that “the custodians of that Country should have a genuine voice in what happens there and share in the opportunities it creates”.
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Firefighter union and boss named as trying to block publication of corruption watchdog report
Firefighter union boss Peter Marshall has been revealed as the person trying to block the publication of a corruption watchdog report. Marshall and the United Firefighters Union were revealed today as the applicants seeking to stop the release of the Operation Richmond report.
AAP reports the operation, launched by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission in 2019, investigated the Victorian government’s negotiations with the union. IBAC indicated the final report would be released to the public by 1 July but that plan was sidetracked by Marshall and the union’s supreme court injunction application filed in May.
At the 22 May hearing, Justice Claire Harris rejected their bid to have their identities kept secret through a pseudonym order. She found there was insufficient reasons to grant the order given the information was already in the public domain.
The judge granted a temporary pseudonym order to allow the two applicants to appeal her decision to the Victorian court of appeal. But that appeal was rejected today, with the appeal court finding Justice Harris had not made an error.
The court ordered their names be publicised and the applicants’ barrister Paul Holdenson KC indicated he would not be appealing to the high court. The supreme court subsequently confirmed the applicants were the United Firefighters Union of Australia and the union’s national secretary Peter Marshall.
Marshall said he and the union were prohibited from talking about the case.
“Examinations were in private, confidentiality notices were issued. The law still prohibits us from commenting on what is in the report and what it may say about us or anyone else,” he told the ABC..
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VicRoads website operational after being offline for a week
A major website upgrade for VicRoads is finally operational after the online payment portal was down for almost a week.
The planned upgrade took place on Friday last week, with plans for it to be operational after the long weekend. The payment portal took a few days longer to come online, leading making it hard for customers to pay for car registrations, book driving tests or renew their licences.
A statement on the website reads:
We’ve delivered a major upgrade to our systems to deliver faster and more modern services. This is part of our commitment to simplify licensing and registration solutions, and to keep pace with the needs of Victorians today and tomorrow.
Most online services are now available.
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Police still looking for Sydney woman, after charging man with murder
Police spoke a moment ago in Sydney after a 33-year-old man was charged with murder as part of investigations into the alleged kidnapping of a woman in the city’s northwest earlier this week.
The 58-year-old mother failed to return home after visiting family in Winston Hills on Monday, prompting the investigation, police said.
On Thursday, the man, who is known to police, was arrested in Tomerong on the South Coast of New South Wales. Investigations are continuing into the whereabouts of the woman, with police seeking assistance from residents in the Winston Hills area.
Police said they believed the man and woman were meeting on Monday to talk about “perhaps, borrowing some money, but that ultimately, we don’t know whether that exchange occurred”.
They are known to each other, but we will allege that communications directed toward our missing lady were hostile in nature prior to that meeting.
We have significant concerns … and as I say, we’re just seeking the assistance of community to hopefully locate the 58-year-old woman.
Police told reporters they were satisfied there was “sufficient evidence” to put the charges to the court, despite not having found the woman’s body, citing mobile phone records.
The woman is a mother of three children, and a carer for her elderly parents, and is estranged from one of her children, police said.
The fact that no one has been able to contact her or heard from her is significant for investigators … I can only say that when family were informed of action taken by police yesterday, they were obviously shocked.
The man appeared before court this morning and has been refused bail to Parramatta local court on 12 August.
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Vocus routing issue affects internet nationally in Australia
A routing issue for fibre network provider Vocus caused intermittent outages for internet users across Australia this morning.
Vocus provides fibre links across Australia and connecting to the rest of the world, making it the backbone for much of the internet and online services.
The outage, which occurred at about 9am this morning, is understood to be an issue with a border gateway protocol configuration – which is used to determine the fastest way to transmit information across the internet.
Vocus indicated the issue was largely resolved as of midday.
A spokesperson for NBN Co confirmed it was not an NBN issue:
We are aware of an issue with broadband services being reported by customers nationally, across different internet service providers.
Nbn is investigating with internet service providers what may be occurring. Our initial checks have confirmed the issue does not seem to be related to the operation of the nbn network.
We are actively monitoring the situation and we will provide more updates soon.
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Matt Canavan: Nationals on ‘same page’ with One Nation to oust Labor government
Canavan was also asked about One Nation’s “fire the liar” campaign, which has reportedly raised $2.7m in donations since the party launched a dedicated funding drive.
He said there was “a lot of anger out there, and a lot of frustration”, while adding “good on One Nation for doing this”.
I think you’re seeing that exercised through the vote for a minor party. I can understand that, as I’ve said since I became leader, I understand the frustration with the major parties. I’ve been in that frustrated camp, but I truly believe what our country needs is a solid, coherent economic plan for our future.
The Liberal and Nationals parties will do that, but look, I welcome everybody trying to take down this government, because that is the first step. So, good on One Nation for doing this. They’re saying that that funding, that now over $2m, is going to be used to root out Labor members of parliament, and I’d encourage them on that front, because we have seen Pauline Hanson spend a lot of time campaigning in the seats of Liberal and National members. That’s not going to help change the government. We’re all on the same page here of getting rid of this government.
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Matt Canavan says tobacco excise is ‘going to have to come down’
The Nationals leader, Matt Cavanan, says Australia’s tobacco excise is “not working” and reiterated his party’s calls to have a regulated, taxed vapes market.
Appearing on Sky on Friday, Canavan said it was “pretty clear that the current excise rate is not sustainable”.
That’s going to have to come down in some way, shape or form. We’ve got to work out exactly how much, because it’s such a mess that it’s going to be very hard to recover now.
Canavan said the excise shouldn’t be removed altogether but said legal cigarettes should be cheaper.
The problem, of course, is on the latest figures 80% of people are not buying cigarettes through that market. In fact, they’re buying cigarettes at prices that we haven’t seen for decades, because they’re not getting any excise. The excise rate on a black market cigarette is zero, so that’s not helping.
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A shadowy overseas group is trying to influence Australian abortion policy. Who are CitizenGo and what do they want?
Among the hand-drawn signs warning of the “evil” of abortion at last week’s Sydney rally were some more professional placards.
“The greatest liberty is the right to life,” the blue-and-white posters read, under a small logo for CitizenGo.
CitizenGo will not be a familiar name to many in Australia but in Europe it looms large in the anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+ rights world. An offshoot of the ultra-conservative Spanish group HazteOír (Make Yourself Heard), it was founded in Spain in 2013 and claims to have 20 million members across 50 countries.
Read more here:
Notorious pedophile loses sentence appeal bid
One of Australia’s worst pedophiles, former childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith, has failed in his bid to reduce the life sentence he received for hundreds of sex offences against young children, AAP reports.
Lawyers for the 48-year-old in May argued in the Queensland court of appeal that the 27‑year non‑parole period he was handed in 2024 was ‘‘manifestly excessive’’ as they sought leave to appeal.
Justice David Boddice on Friday handed down the court of appeal’s decision to dismiss the appeal during a brief sitting in Brisbane.
“The appeal against sentence is refused,” he said.
Griffith pleaded guilty to 307 child sex offences against 65 victims aged between one and nine. Those offences include 28 counts of rape against girls mainly aged three to five at Queensland childcare centres between 2007 and 2022.
Prosecutors in May urged the justices to reject the appeal, saying the sentence barely reflected the scale and cruelty of the crimes.
The conclusion of Griffith’s appeal clears the path for him to face court proceedings in NSW, where he is accused of committing 180 sex offences against more than 20 children.
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ASX200 adds $50bn after Trump cancels Iran strikes
The Australian sharemarket has added over $50bn in value after Donald Trump said he had cancelled “scheduled strikes” on Iran early this morning.
The benchmark S&P ASX200 saw predictions rise immediately after Trump’s announcement. This morning it’s added $51bn in value, rising 1.9% to just under 8,800 points.
For perspective, that’s back to about where the ASX200 was in mid-January, before the war, or in early August 2025, before November’s AI-driven tech selloff.
While it’s a big leap, we saw comparable jumps three times in May, typically precipitated by another Iran-war related announcement from the US president.
Australia’s 10 biggest companies have all seen their market value rise 1% at least this morning. The big four banks’ shares have risen at least 1.5% each. Miner BHP is up nearly $8bn to $317bn, after a 2.62% share price rise.
Goldminers are surging in price today, after steady falls in their market value as the price of gold fell while the US-Israel war on Iran dragged on.
Only a handful of top businesses are falling in value this morning. One is REA Group, which owns the realestate.com.au listings website. It’s down 3.19% today and nearly 20% since the federal budget on 12 May, as higher investor taxes are expected to slow down sales.
The broader All Ordinaries index is up 1.86%, back above 9,000 points.
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Auckland sits near an active faultline, new research suggests, so what’s next for New Zealand’s biggest city?
A faultline south of New Zealand’s most populated city, Auckland, is active and could trigger a devastating earthquake, new research shows, dispelling the region’s long-held belief it was largely immune from intense seismic activity.
The research has also raised questions over the recent decision to exempt Auckland from earthquake building regulation.
The Mangatangi Fault, which runs along the Hunua ranges, is situated roughly 50km south-east of Auckland’s central city and is close to the southern suburbs Pukekohe, Drury and Takanini.
Research published in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics shows the fault has ruptured in the past 10,000 years and could cause a 6.8 magnitude earthquake. A fault that has moved in the past 125,000 years is considered active.
Read more here:
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Socceroos celebrate migrant roots and address anti-immigration sentiment before World Cup
The Socceroos have addressed growing anti-immigration sentiment in a powerful video message before the World Cup, speaking of their pride in their heritage and playing for the national team.
Take a look:
Pauline Hanson says she consults her ‘friend’ Gina Rinehart on policy
The One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says she consults mining billionaire and party donor Gina Rinehart on policy development.
Guardian Australia has revealed the depth of support from Rinehart, including her move to gift Hanson a new private plane, worth more than $1.5m, to be used in the run-up to the federal election.
“I consider her a friend and I’m very … grateful for her support. She’s an Australian identity, she’s one of the highest taxpayers in the country,” Hanson told ABC radio in Perth on Thursday night.
I won’t have anyone have a go because she’s, you know, OK she’s a billionaire.
Good luck to her. I don’t believe in the tall poppy syndrome of pulling someone down because they’ve made a success of their life or business.
Asked if Rinehart contributes to formulation of One Nation policy, Hanson said she had been “very beneficial”.
My policy on pensioners being able to work unlimited hours and without losing their pension or healthcare card came from Mrs Rinehart. And I think that’s great. I listen to anyone who brings good policy to me.
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Man charged with murder after woman in Sydney’s north-west allegedly kidnapped
A man has been charged over the alleged kidnapping and murder of a woman whose body is yet to be found, AAP reports.
Police have been investigating the disappearance of a 58-year-old woman who failed to returned to her home in Sydney’s north-west on Tuesday.
Family members told officers they last heard from her about 4.50pm on Monday, where she told them she was meeting a relative in Winston Hills. The woman’s car was found in the suburb, about 28km west of Sydney, around 9.30am the next day.
Police arrested a man, 33, yesterday south of Nowra. He was taken to Nowra police station, where he was charged with murder and has been refused police bail. He is due to face bail court on Friday.
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Socceroos’ breakout star Jordan Bos at ease with the hype: ‘I’m a pretty chill guy’
Jordan Bos’s career has moved swiftly towards this moment: a World Cup debut for the Socceroos’ not-so-secret weapon. “I just have to soak up the experience and just play football,” Bos says. “It’s kind of hard to ‘feel’ the moment as it is now, but I think afterwards I’ll really understand the experience that I’m in now.”
The World Cup’s first match is a day away. The Socceroos’ showdown with tournament dark horses Turkey barely three. The travelling Australian media cohort has swelled to about 30. They hang on every word of the 23-year-old, heralded as the side’s breakout star. Is there pressure? “Not really pressure,” Bos says. “I don’t really look at that stuff. Or think about it too much.”
While Bos might downplay it, he admits the praise is appreciated. “To have some positivity and having people believing in me and stuff like that, it’s really nice, and yeah, it does feel like [the work] is paying off a bit,” he says. “But yeah, we go on.”
Read more here:
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Victoria’s Secret chair survives removal bid by Australian Brett Blundy
The Victoria’s Secret chair, Donna James, has been re-elected to the board of the lingerie company after surviving a push by a dissident shareholder, the Australian billionaire Brett Blundy, to have her removed.
James received 83% of all votes cast, according to Reuters, at the US company’s annual meeting held overnight.
Blundy, who is the second-biggest shareholder at Victoria’s Secret, with a near 13% stake through his investment firm BBRC International, has been pushing for changes at the company since about 2021.
He has previously sought a position on the board, and has built a stake that could be used as a platform to launch a hostile takeover.
The Monaco-based Australian has a net wealth of $4.5bn, according to the AFR’s rich list, and is chair of the Lovisa jewellery brand, founder of the Léays lingerie stores and former owner of the Bras N Things and Honey Birdette brands.
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Teens who use social media two hours daily at higher risk of depressive symptoms, study finds
Teenagers who spend hours glued to social media are likely to experience poorer mental health and a decline in wellbeing, a decade-long study shows, with young girls most at risk.
AAP reports social media has transformed young people’s lives through instant connection but raised concerns about cyberbullying, harmful algorithms and impacts on health, including reduced sleep and fewer offline activities, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute study published on Friday found.
It comes as a world-first ban for under-16s reaches its six-month mark, with its effectiveness in reducing harm still unclear.
The research found adolescents who used social media for at least two hours a day were at higher risk of experiencing depressive symptoms and poor wellbeing, compared with those who used the platforms less than one hour a day.
Young people aged 12-18 found using heavier amounts of social media was associated with small but increased mental health problems one year later.
The strongest impact on mental health was seen in girls 12–13 years old.
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El Niño forms in Pacific as experts say it will likely turbocharge extreme weather
El Niño, the climate phenomenon that supercharges weather around the world, has officially arrived and could intensify to historic levels in the (northern hemisphere) autumn, US officials said on Thursday.
US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) forecasters confirmed the formation of El Niño in the warmer than usual Pacific Ocean near the equator, which affects global weather patterns.
Scientists have previously advised that this year’s El Niño could be the strongest of the century. António Guterres, the UN secretary general, described El Niño as an “urgent climate warning”.
There was a 63% chance that the El Niño will get so intense this late (northern hemisphere) autumn and early winter that it “would rank among the largest El Niño events in the historical record going back to 1950”, according to Noaa.
Read more here:
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Six Australian music acts inducted into Aria hall of fame
The Aria hall of fame has six new members after the body inducted iconic Australian acts into its anointed halls.
Gurrumul, Jenny Morris, Kate Ceberano, Spiderbait, the Living End, and Vika and Linda Bull were awarded in Sydney on Thursday night.
Aria typically inducts one artist a year to its hall of fame, but elevated six to top-tier status on Thursday night as part of its 40th-anniversary celebrations, AAP reports.
Accepting Gurrumul’s hall of fame nod, Mark Grose, the artist’s former manager and collaborator, thanked the fewer than 10,000 people who speak the native Yolngu language for keeping it alive.
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Resignation of Britain’s defence secretary will have ‘no effect’ on Aukus, minister says
Tim Ayres, the minister for innovation, said the resignation of John Healey in the UK, Britain’s defence secretary, will have “no effect” on the Aukus partnership.
He told RN Breakfast this morning:
This is a partnership that has deep support across all three countries’ political systems, within the public service and the defence agencies in all three countries, and indeed with the defence industry, because it’s in the interests of all three countries.
Over the life of this agreement … there will be many ministers for defence for all three countries, many secretaries for war in the United States case, who are there charged with delivering this program.
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Twenty-five anti-Isaac Herzog protesters to face joint trial in Sydney
Twenty-five people who were charged after they protested against the visit of the Israeli president will face a six-week joint trial in July next year.
The protesters had their matters heard before Downing centre local court on Thursday after their lawyers made a successful application for the joint hearing, arguing there were common legal issues across the cases.
The acting deputy registrar Soly Najm set down a week-long pre-trial hearing for 8 March 2027, and a six-week long trial beginning 19 July 2027.
Felicity Graham, who was one of nine lawyers to appear on behalf of the protesters, told the court she expected the police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, to be the first witness called.
Read more here:
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NSW police find human remains in search for woman missing since 2018
NSW police have located human remains in a long search for a woman allegedly murdered in 2018.
Officials said officers have been investigating the disappearance of Nadire Sensoy, 71, who vanished from her home in Prospect in December 2018. A coronial inquest into her death began in 2023, but it was suspended after new information came to light.
Later in 2023, police arrested a man, 47, in Wagga Wagga, NSW. He was charged with murder and remains before the courts.
NSW police said this morning they will allege he murdered the woman, who was known to him.
Officials said officers searched a property in Seven Hills in Sydney this week, where they located human remains. They have not yet been formally identified.
Good morning, Nick Visser back on deck to take over the blog reins. Let’s get into it.
Jim Chalmers defends jibe about Angus Taylor's background
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has defended remarks he made about Angus Taylor, saying he has no issue with wealthy Australians - but maintained the opposition leader is disconnected from the reality of the housing market.
In a speech on Thursday, Chalmers said Taylor was born “at the top of the ladder”.
Appearing on the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Chalmers was asked by host Sarah Ferguson whether he has a “problem with wealthy Australians.”
Chalmers said:
Not at all. I want more people to succeed in our economy and in our society...
Angus Taylor talks about a ladder and the point that I’ve made about the ladder is it’s not much point in having a ladder if the first few rungs are missing. Angus Taylor was born at the top of the ladder, good on him, but I think that that means he doesn’t understand that a lot of people are struggling.
When pushed on whether people who inherit wealth are worthy of criticism - given Labor boasts historically wealthy figures of its own, such as Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd - Chalmers said:
The point that I’m making about Angus Taylor is that not everybody is born already at the top of the ladder... Not everybody has had the same experiences that Angus Taylor has had.
Our responsibility, which we embrace enthusiastically, is to make it easier for more people to do well, whether that’s at work with better wages, whether it’s helping with the cost of living and tax cuts, or whether it’s helping people get a foothold into a housing market that’s been too difficult for too long, especially for young people.
Richard Marles wishes John Healey ‘all the best’ after he abruptly quit UK government
Britain’s defence secretary, John Healey, has abruptly quit the Starmer government, in another blow to the leader’s teetering authority.
Our UK colleagues have all the coverage (it was apparently over a new defence spending plan that Healey considered didn’t “commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats”):
But it’s also a blow to Richard Marles, who was in the UK for the Aukmin summit of defence and foreign ministers, and had been due to head to a naval base at Portsmouth alongside Healey, overnight our time.
The event was cancelled. Some time later Marles put out a rather mournful statement, saying:
I have deeply valued the close and collaborative working relationship with my good friend John Healey as Secretary of Defence, as I have with his predecessors on the Australia-UK defence relationship. I have worked closely with all of them particularly in respect of Aukus.
Our defence relationship is enduring, with deep connections, values and shared interests.
Acknowledging that ultimately this has been a decision for John, I wish him all the best for the future.
Marles did go to Portsmouth anyway, Guardian Australia was told, to meet the Royal Navy, hosted by a junior defence minister.
The day before, Marles had expressed “a sense of confidence” in the commitment of the UK to the Aukus submarine project.
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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.
We kick off with news from the UK, where our deputy PM and defence minister, Richard Marles, was visiting for a ministerial summit but had the wind taken from his sails when his British counterpart abruptly quit over defence funding.
More on that coming in a minute or two.
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