Australia news LIVE: Chalmers urged to act to counter China downturn threat; Australia condemns Iran’s attack on Israel

Australia has joined 47 countries to “unequivocally” condemn the 13 April attacks on Israel by Iran and its militant partners.

Representatives of the United States, Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom to the United Nations issued the following joint statement condemning Iran’s attack on Israel:

We unequivocally condemn the April 13 attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its militant partners on the State of Israel, which involved launching several hundred ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and attack drones against multiple targets, and note this large-scale attack could have caused significant damage and loss of life.

We further condemn the fact that the weapons launched at Israel violated the airspace of several regional states, putting at risk the lives of innocent people in those countries, and appeared to traverse airspace near holy sites in Jerusalem.

We welcome the efforts to avert a further immediate escalation of violence in the region, following the successful coordinated efforts to defend against Iran’s attack.

We condemn Iran’s unlawful seizure of a Portuguese flagged commercial ship near the Strait of Hormuz on April 13 and call on Iran to release the ship and its international crew immediately.

We note that Iran’s escalatory attack is the latest in a pattern of dangerous and destabilizing actions by Iran and its militant partners that pose a grave threat to international peace and security.

We call on all regional parties to take steps to avert further escalation of the situation and demand that all Council resolutions be fully implemented. We will strengthen our diplomatic cooperation to work toward resolving all tensions in the region.

Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has welcomed Walker Corporation’s decision to withdraw its controversial Toondah Harbour development proposal at Moreton Bay in Queensland.

The company had proposed a $1.4 billion marina and apartment complex in the Ramsar wetlands.

But Plibersek said she wanted to protect Moreton Bay from the “unacceptable impacts” of the proposed development.

“These wetlands are rare, unique and important to prevent the extinction of animals like the eastern curlew and loggerhead turtle.”

Just a week after she said she planned to reject the project on environmental grounds, the company withdrew its application.

“This is great news for the animals that call his place home,” she said said in a video posted to X. Watch the full video here:

Seven West Media has announced that managing director and CEO James Warburton will finish up today and his successor, Jeff Howard, will take over duties on Friday.

The CEO transition comes amid a difficult time for the listed company, which was embroiled in Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation action. Most recently, the broadcaster incorrectly identified a 20-year-old man as the Bondi Junction knife attacker, who has since threatened defamation action.

Chairman Kerry Stokes and Howard both thanked Warburton “for this contribution to the business over many years”.

The search for the company’s new chief financial officer continues.

The parents of a 10-year-old boy who took his own life in state care were made to jump through “hoop after hoop” in their failed bid to be reunited, an advocate says.

The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died on Friday night in Perth while under the care of the Department of Communities.

WA Premier Roger Cook said the death was concerning and a tragedy and he would support expediting the coronial inquest.

National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project director Megan Krakouer said the boy was removed from his parents’ care four days before Christmas in 2020 when they were living in a tent.

She said they had created a stable home in the years since and were working with the department in an attempt to reunite their family but it had been unsupportive and judgemental.

“Their hearts are broken,” she told AAP on Thursday. “They are good people, respectful people, loving people.”

Ms Krakouer, who is acting for the parents, said they felt there had been an incredible power imbalance and the department had ignored them as they attempted to reunite their family.

“They made them jump through hoop after hoop after hoop,” she said.

“Some of the words they used were ‘grooming’ and ‘manipulation’ and they also said … they were being looked down upon.”

Ms Krakouer said the first time the boy’s parents had been permitted to see him as a couple since he was removed from their care was at a morgue.

She said the department had failed the family.

The Department of Communities said it could not comment on individual cases.

AAP

Pressure is growing on the Albanese government to make it easier for Australians to pay off their HECS debts.

HECS debts are forecast to rise between 4.2 and 4.8 per cent on June 1 this year, increasing the amount of an average loan of $26,494 by up to $1272. The likely indexation figures were calculated by the Parliamentary Library for the Greens.

Independent MP Monique Ryan’s petition calling on the federal government to index loans to the consumer price index or the wage price index, whichever is lower, has attracted more than 260,000 signatures.

“If the government does not listen to the 260,000 Australians calling for fairer HECS debts, they will hear them at the ballot box next election,” she said on X.

“I urge the government to make HECS debts easier to pay off.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday a government announcement was imminent on a recommended overhaul of HECS as calls spread along the crossbench for Labor to look at wiping student debt.

“I think there’s a range of areas where we need to do much better with the younger generation basically, and HECs is one of them,” Albanese told central Queensland radio station HIT.

The National Imams Council says the rush to declare the Wakeley stabbing a terrorist attack risks undoing years of progress on religious tolerance in western Sydney, as the community reels from a teenager’s assault on a local church.

Bilal Rauf, a senior Muslim leader and Imams Council spokesman said to label it as religious terrorism completely overlooks a more primary factor: mental health.

“There is a real sense of disparity with Bondi,” he said.

“There it was very quickly said to be related to mental health but here where it is a 16-year-old boy they said this must be religious terrorism.”

The National Imam’s Council is Australia’s peak Islamic body and selects the Grand Mufti of Australia to lead Australia’s more than 800,000 mostly Sunni Muslims.

Rauf said the Muslim community was on edge.

“Everyone else is looking at them – thinking he is a terrorist that has come from among you – when that does not appear to be the case at all,” he said.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb declared the incident a terror attack after the 16-year-old boy stabbed Christ the Good Shepherd Church Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel multiple times during a Monday night service in Wakeley. The teenager cannot be named for legal reasons.

Webb said the teenager allegedly made comments “centred around religion” in the lead-up to the attack. Gamel Kheir, a lawyer and secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said the boy’s father had noticed increasing signs of mental illness but had not seen any evidence of him becoming radicalised.

“This is hateful and violent conduct, but it is not necessarily religiously driven,” said Rauf.

“If anything in the community there is a real sense of disappointment that there was a rush to designate it a religious terrorist event. The designation was made even before police had spoken to the boy or his parents.”

Rauf said the terrorism declaration had generated cynicism about how these decisions are made and put at risk years of positive progress on religious tolerance made with the state government.

That confidence was dented by revelations in February that the Australian Federal Police had encouraged a 13-year-old autistic boy’s fixation with Islamic State before charging him with terror offences once he turned 14.

“People in the community are perplexed and disappointed,” said Rauf.

Follow our live coverage of the aftermath of the stabbing attacks in Bondi Junction on Saturday and in Wakeley on Monday.

The world’s biggest concert promoter and ticketing company could be broken up by regulators in the US, in a move that could have significant repercussions for the Australian live music sector.

Live Nation – the Saudi-backed multinational whose Australian arm stages the Falls and Splendour in the Grass festivals, both of which were cancelled in the past 12 months – is facing an anti-trust action by the US Justice Department, which could result in it having to sell off its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the move on Monday (US time). The Washington Post later confirmed the story.

Though specific details are yet to be revealed, it is likely the investigation will focus on alleged breaches of an agreement that was critical to regulators’ approval of the merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2010 to not “tie” the two businesses together operationally.

According to the Post, an investigation in 2019 found Live Nation had repeatedly violated the terms of its merger.

“The federal government could file charges narrowly related to the Ticketmaster merger agreement or bring a bigger case related to Live Nation’s perceived market dominance,” the Post reported, flagging that ultimately “the government could seek to unwind the Ticketmaster merger”.

Read the full story here.

Thanks for your company for the first half of the day.

If you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know:

• The unemployment rate rose in March by 0.1 of a percentage point to 3.8 per cent as the number of jobless people increased by 21,000.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government could do better on dealing with HECS debt, and pointed to potential changes.
• China’s Foreign Ministry has accused the Australian government of stoking bloc confrontation and inflaming tensions in the South China Sea after Defence Minister Richard Marles released its $50 billion defence strategy.
• Five Australians have been arrested in an international police operation that targeted a cybercrime platform used to steal personal data from around the world.
• NSW Premier Chris Minns has backed proposed federal laws to thwart falsehoods on social media platforms.
• In overseas news, British actor Hugh Grant has settled a lawsuit against the publisher of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspaper The Sun.

The head of Nine Entertainment said the government must address two big gaps in its latest media reforms if Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants to stay true to his “Future Made in Australia” vision.

Last week, a bipartisan Senate committee largely backed Labor’s proposed communications bill, updating the anti-siphoning list and implementing “prominence” rules that ensure free-to-air networks are given prime placement on smart televisions.

However, to avoid inevitable regret down the line, Mike Sneesby, chief executive of Nine – which owns this masthead – is urging the government to amend the bill now.

“There is a moment in time right now where our government has the opportunity to make the right decisions in the interest of the Australian public. If we don’t, we will reflect on those in the future and regret the actions we didn’t take,” Sneesby said.

Labor introduced the Communications Legislation Amendment (Prominence and Anti-Siphoning) Bill 2023 in November, and a cross-party Senate committee scrutinised it later.

The updates will extend the scope of the anti-siphoning list to include online services alongside pay TV providers such as Foxtel, preventing them from buying the rights to major sporting events, including the Olympics, AFL and NRL grand finals and FIFA World Cup, before free-to-air networks have had the chance.

Catch up on the full story here.

Back to state news, NSW Premier Chris Minns has again indicated that stricter knife laws are being considered following the Bondi Junction and Wakeley stabbings.

Minns told a press conference his government already strengthened knife offences legislation, after the stabbing death of paramedic Steven Tougher in 2023.

“Mid last year, legislative changes went to the Parliament, doubling the jail term for the maximum penalty for knife offences in New South Wales, we took out the summary offences act and put in the Crimes Act and doubled the penalty fines that we would be issued by magistrates and judges as a result of knife offences,” he said.

But Minns said that didn’t mean further changes were off the table.

“However, given these very serious criminal attacks in the last week, of course, a responsible government looks at the existing legislation to see where potential changes could help prevent a similar attack,” the premier said.