Wong condemns Israeli ban on Unrwa operations
Karen Middleton
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has criticised new Israeli laws restricting the UN relief agency Unrwa’s access to Gaza, saying that Unrwa “does life-saving work”.
“Australia opposes the Israeli Knesset’s decision to severely restrict UNRWA’s work,” Wong said in a statement posted to the social media site X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Australia joined Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK to urge Israel’s Knesset not to proceed with this legislation.”
Unrwa, the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is the main provider of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Unrwa of engaging in “terrorist activities” against Israel, which the agency has denied.
Overnight, the Israeli parliament passed legislation designating the agency a terrorist organisation, severing ties with it, stripping staff of diplomatic immunity and banning it from operating on Israeli soil – a move that severely hampers its capacity to deliver aid to Gaza.
Key events
The prime minister Anthony Albanese has been asked a few times whether he called Qantas CEO Alan Joyce directly about flight upgrades.
He said:
There is no accusations being made with any specifics at all about any of this. None. None. People are – Peter Dutton is making this statement. If there is a suggestion to be made, let it be made, specifically and I will answer it but I have said very clearly that I recall direct discussions with Alan Joyce over the flights, the Emirates, Qantas flight to Dubai and of course the first flight to Perth. They are the only times I was on a plane with Alan Joyce. Of the 22 flights, 10 of them were during the leadership ballot between myself and Bill Shorten in 2013 over a 1-month period where both Qantas and Virgin provided upgrades for flights that were paid for by the Australian Labor Party to make sure there was not any cost to taxpayers for what was internal business.
In terms of transparency, Bridget McKenzie can answer questions herself about things. Peter Dutton can answer questions about his flights. I assume, his flights upgrades, the same circumstances I am in with the exception that I don’t have access to a private jet on call which has happened with Mr Dutton and it is up to him to explain that. Just like all of my financial arrangements are completely transparent.
PM says he ‘didn’t have to declare any flights taken on private jets owned by billionaires’
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says he hasn’t had to declare flights taken on the private jets of billionaires, answering questions on reports he sought free Qantas flight upgrades directly from Alan Joyce while serving as transport minister.
He spoke to press from Newcastle a short while ago:
Peter Dutton has declared some of his flights. There is a difference between both of us. My flights were commercial, with Qantas or Virgin, or Emirates. They were all declared in the appropriate way. I didn’t have to declare any flights on private jets owned by billionaires like Gina Rinehart, because I haven’t engaged in it. As simple as that. And it’s up to Mr Dutton to explain how those flights were organised to private parties.
Donna Lu
More than 10% of Australian teenagers found to identify as gay, bisexual, pansexual or asexual
More than one in 10 Australian teenagers identify as gay, bisexual, pansexual or asexual, a survey of high school students has found.
Researchers surveyed 6,388 year 8 students between 2019 and 2021, finding that 12% of the teenagers reported diverse sexualities, while 3.3% identified as gender-diverse.
The findings, the study’s authors say, highlight an “urgent need” for support services in schools and healthcare settings to mitigate against an increased risk of stigma, discrimination and violence.
Read the full story here:
Kelly Burke
‘Immense’ contribution
More on Dr Michael Brand, director of the Art Gallery of NSW, stepping down.
Brand oversaw the $344m Sydney Modern project that included the opening of the award-winning new building, Naala Badu, and the revitalisation of the 153-year-old original building, Naala Nura, both completed almost two years ago.
Brand did not reveal what his next move would be.
The president of the board of trustees, David Gonski, who is stepping down from his role in December, said Brand’s contribution to the AGNSW had been immense.
AGNSW director to step down next year
The director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Dr Michael Brand, is stepping down from in July 2025.
Brand joined the gallery as director in 2012. He said:
When we unveiled the Sydney Modern vision in 2013, I said it would be a green light for art, artists and audiences. I am extremely proud of all that we have achieved together in the last 12 years to create a unique art museum experience on Gadigal Country in Sydney for our local and international audiences.
This ambitious project is what called me back to Australia so my decision to step down next year follows much reflection. As we are now building on the success of the Sydney Modern transformation, it feels like the right time to transition to a new generation of leadership for the next exciting chapter in the history of our 153-year-old art museum.
The president of the board of trustees, David Gonski AC, said:
We are indebted to [Brand’s] ambition and vision to create a globally significant art museum in Sydney.
A national and international search for a new director will commence soon, Gonski said.
Benita Kolovos
More on the overhaul of committal hearings in Victoria
For the accused, audiovisual link appearances will become default position in committal proceedings, while the committal hearing process will be bypassed altogether for homicide matters after a successful pilot, which fast-tracked cases to the supreme court.
The Victorian attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, says the reforms act on a number of recommendations made by the Victorian Law Reform Commission in its 2020 report into committal hearings.
She says she knows her changes will be met with “mixed reviews” from the legal community but she was taking into account victim’s experiences.
Symes told reporters outside parliament:
The most compelling evidence put to me is that when you have sexual offence cases in particular, but [also] family violence and stalking matters, where witnesses are being cross examined in a committal process, then having to repeat that process because the case is proceeding, that’s unacceptable. There is lack of evidence to suggest that cases are being knocked out in the committal stage. It’s just a rerun and so [the reform is] avoiding the retraumatisation of victims having to give repeated evidence and particularly be cross examined.
There is no doubt the cross examination process, is an important process of a trial, but it is the most stressful for a victim and a witness and if we can avoid them having to do that twice, I think this is called for.
She says there will be a 12-month implementation period and a review of the changes once they’re in place.
Overhaul of committal hearings in Victoria
Benita Kolovos
Traumatic pre-trial cross-examinations will be banned in Victoria as part of a push to protect victims and witnesses in family violence, sexual offence and stalking cases.
The Victorian attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, is announcing new laws she says will guarantee that victims of particularly traumatic cases will only have to give evidence at committal hearings.
It will reduce the number of cross-examinations, which Symes says is one of the most challenging parts of the criminal trial process.
The justice legislation amendment (committals) bill 2024, will also significantly reduce the amount of pre-trial evidence given by all victims and witnesses, ensuring only questioning that is essential to resolve matters earlier is permitted.
The laws will also prevent child victims, witnesses and those with cognitive impairments from having to testify multiple times in family violence cases by allowing them to give prerecorded video evidence, as is already done in sexual offence proceedings.
Keep an eye out for more detail in the next blog post.
Mehreen Faruqi calls on government to sanction Israel
Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi is calling on the Albanese government to sanction Israel after its parliament voted to ban UN relief agency Unrwa from the country and declared it a terrorist organisation.
Faruqi said:
Undermining and stopping UNRWA from providing aid to Palestinians has been a long term goal of Israel and it’s outrageous that now they are even closer to achieving this because the world has refused to take action to stop them.
The Labor government has been ‘urging’ Israel to abide by international law for a year, and all we’ve seen is its war crimes and genocide escalating.
Enough with the weasel words. It’s time for Albanese and Wong to impose sanctions and expel the Israeli ambassador.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, condemned Israel’s ban on Unrwa operations earlier today.
Read more here:
Jonathan Barrett
Myer to buy multiple brands including Just Jeans
Department store chain Myer will buy Premier Investment’s apparel brands in Australia and New Zealand, which includes Just Jeans, Jay Jays, Portmans, Dotti and Jacqui E, the companies announced today.
The transaction involves Premier shareholders receiving Myer stock, which will give Premier chairman Solomon Lew control of just under one-third of Myer shares.
Lew said:
Myer and our apparel brands will be stronger together – delivering vertical integration, scale, additional margins and loyalty opportunities.
Premier will retain the Peter Alexander and Smiggle brands along with its stake in Breville Group and various property assets.
The transaction comes at a challenging time for Myer, which reported lower profits and sales as customers grappled with rising living costs, prompting the department store operator to discount its fashion brands.
Wong condemns Israeli ban on Unrwa operations
Karen Middleton
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has criticised new Israeli laws restricting the UN relief agency Unrwa’s access to Gaza, saying that Unrwa “does life-saving work”.
“Australia opposes the Israeli Knesset’s decision to severely restrict UNRWA’s work,” Wong said in a statement posted to the social media site X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Australia joined Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK to urge Israel’s Knesset not to proceed with this legislation.”
Unrwa, the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is the main provider of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Unrwa of engaging in “terrorist activities” against Israel, which the agency has denied.
Overnight, the Israeli parliament passed legislation designating the agency a terrorist organisation, severing ties with it, stripping staff of diplomatic immunity and banning it from operating on Israeli soil – a move that severely hampers its capacity to deliver aid to Gaza.
Australian Energy Regulator investigates power outages around Broken Hill
The Australian Energy Regulator is investigating “power system events” that left 20,000 people without power in Broken Hill and nearby areas, after severe weather hit far west NSW and the region’s only working large-scale emergency generator failed.
The investigation will review whether there has been any potential breaches of the national electricity rules, as put in a statement from the regulator. The rules require transmission and distribution networks to “ensure their systems and infrastructure are properly operated and maintained”.
The AER will coordinate with the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal investigation into Transgrid’s compliance with licence conditions and other obligations under state legislation.
You can read up on the outage here:
Reaction to PM’s Qantas flight upgrades ‘a complete pile-on’
The minister for social services, Amanda Rishworth, and Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie went back and forth on the Today show this morning, talking reports of Anthony Albanese seeking free Qantas flight upgrades directly from Alan Joyce while serving as transport minister.
Rishworth said the fallout “has been a complete pile-on on the prime minister”:
I mean, he’s publicly declared very, very clearly what he has been gifted. I think there’s something to if you are in a glass house, don’t throw stones.
Asked if she has ever called in for an upgrade, Rishworth said:
Me personally? No, no, I haven’t rung Alan Joyce, anyone, [for] an upgrade. But, you know, quite frankly. Well, no, that is not something that I’ve done.
Host Karl Stefanovic responded to Rishworth, saying:
It wasn’t your most convincing answer, Amanda, I mean, it was a pretty simple question.
He then asked McKenzie if she had ever called Qantas management for an upgrade. McKenzie said:
Amanda’s answers aside, this is a serious problem … The problem is that I don’t know of another transport minister who had a hotline to the CEO of Qantas to request freebies for family holidays.
Pressed to answer the question about calling in for an update, McKenzie said, “I’m happy to answer it,” then went on:
There’s a difference to receive a gift and declare it on your register to actually getting on the blower and saying, “Listen, mate, the missus and I are going overseas on a holiday. How about upgrading those economy tickets?”
Again, McKenzie was asked whether she has ever called Joyce or Qantas management for an upgrade. She said:
I do not have a hotline to request upgrades. I have received an upgrade in 2018 that I declared, but to my knowledge, no transport minister other than Anthony Albanese has done this.
Josh Butler
Jeffrey Pope to be new acting Australian electoral commissioner
Special minister of state Don Farrell has announced Jeffrey Pope as the new acting Australian electoral commissioner, to take on that role from mid-December.
Pope has been the deputy AEC commissioner since 2016 and made “significant contributions” to the 2023 referendum process and recent federal elections, according to Farrell:
This appointment marks the end of a successful 11-year term for the current electoral commissioner, Mr Tom Rogers.
Farrell thanked Rogers for his work at the 2016, 2019 and 2022 elections, as well as the 2023 referendum, and praised him for overseeing significant reforms in Australia’s electoral process:
Mr Rogers leaves a legacy of stable leadership and a stronger democracy.
Farrell appoints Pope as parliament watchers eagerly await the final details of the government’s new electoral reforms, which will propose changes surrounding spending caps and donations at elections. We understand that legislation is now slated to appear in mid-November, just before the parliament finishes for the year.
‘I haven’t worked that out’: Robbie Katter asked about his abortion strategy in Queensland
Back to Robbie Katter on ABC RN a short while ago.
Asked whether he would amend Queensland’s abortion legislation or repeal it, Katter said he hasn’t worked it out. He said he had been “pulled” into the abortion debate and that it wasn’t meant to be a priority of the campaign:
I was pushed to give a response saying that there’s backbenchers that would say, if they were given the opportunity and they would to turn things around, they would. And they said, “Would you entertain that?” I said, “Of course I would, like, that’s what we do.”
And so I responded to a question, and then, you know, blew up from there. And everyone started hitting me up for details on that … this one isn’t one of my priorities for the new government.
But if you ask me, yes, I would try and turn things around, and to what degree, whether that’s, you know, 22 weeks thing, or 16 weeks or 22 weeks, or repeal or new bill and amendment, I haven’t worked that out, Steve, and I’m sorry I can’t give you more detail, but it wasn’t sort of front of centre of my consciousness when I entered the campaign and I got pulled into the debate.
The Katter’s Australia party leader has vowed to introduce a private member’s bill to wind back abortion rights and access that would notionally spark a conscience vote.
One person dead after car crash in Victoria
One person has died in a two-vehicle collision in Nyora about 5.20am this morning, according to a statement from Victoria police.
It is believed a male driver in a Holden sedan was travelling along the South Gippsland Highway when it collided head-on with a silver Mazda hatchback at the intersection of Nyora-St Helier Road.
The driver of the sedan, yet to be formally identified, died at the scene.
The driver of the hatchback, a Poowong man in his 30s, sustained serious injuries and was airlifted to hospital for treatment.
Investigations are ongoing. The exact cause of the collision is yet to be determined.
Babies deserve representation in parliament, Robbie Katter says
Robbie Katter, the Katter’s Australia party leader, says babies deserve representation in parliament.
In the final weeks of the Queensland state election campaign, Katter vowed to introduce a private member’s bill to wind back abortion rights and access that would notionally spark a conscience vote.
He was asked on ABC RN this morning:
An argument you hear in the US, and it’s an argument you hear in Australia, that it’s always men who seem to want to change laws about women’s reproductive rights. What would you say to them?
Katter replied:
I’d say there’s a lot of babies that are males and females, and there’s 93 members of parliament in Queensland, and looks like [there will] again be four that vote against that vote for pro life. So there’s pretty strong representation for inverted commas, women, those women.
And, you know, I think that the babies deserve to have some representation as well. And four is a pretty small number in the Queensland parliament, but I think those babies deserve representation.
A lot of those women you speak of, they were babies once too, and I’m sure they would have preferred to have some representation when they were babies as well.
Labor decriminalised abortion in 2018 and has sought to put the issue at the forefront of the campaign, saying there is a “very real risk” that reproductive rights will be wound back if the LNP wins government. Read more from Ben Smee’s report here:
The significance of Thorpe’s royal protest
Independent senator for Victoria Lidia Thorpe’s protest before King Charles in the Great Hall of Parliament House last week caught news attention around the globe.
While it prompted a few reactions, it also started a conversation about the British monarchy’s role in the lasting legacy of colonisation for First Nations people.
For today’s Full Story podcast, Reged Ahmad speaks to political editor Karen Middleton about why Australians can’t stop talking about the royal protest and what it means for Thorpe’s role as a senator.
Listen here:
Bowen deflects question about PM’s Qantas flight upgrades
Climate and energy minister Chris Bowens says Anthony Albanese is not focused on political debates “about what conversations he may or may not have had”, after reports of the prime minister seeking free Qantas flight upgrades directly from Alan Joyce while serving as transport minister and opposition leader.
He said on ABC Radio National:
The opposition can focus on the cost of Qantas flights for their life. The Labor party and the prime minister is focused on cost of living for ordinary Australians. Whether it be the cost of housing and a housing package we want to get through cost of energy and our reforms there.
I mean, Anthony Albanese is, I can tell you, as a senior member of his cabinet, focused like the laser on these issues, not on these sort of political debates about what he may conversations he may or may not have had, you know, 10 or 15 years ago. He’s focused on issues today.
