Australia news LIVE: PM told to scrap religious schools rule; Nation set to pump $5b into UK submarine industry

The federal government says it is considering recommendations from a post-incident report into November’s mass Optus outage, which affected some 10 million customers and stopped more than 2000 triple-zero emergency calls from getting through.

The review, led by former deputy ACMA chair Richard Bean, examined emergency call arrangements, customer communications and complaints handling during and after the outage.

Communications minister Michelle Rowland said the government’s response and the report itself will be made public.

“Last year’s Optus outage was incredibly disruptive for millions of Australians, and had serious impacts on public safety, access to essential services, and the ability for businesses to trade,” Rowland said in a statement.

Here’s what else she said:

The government thanks Richard Bean for the comprehensive Post-Incident Review and its final report. We want industry and government to learn the lessons from this event, and take steps to prevent this type of disruption occurring again.

We will consider the recommendations from the Review, and publicly release both the final report and the government’s response in due course.”

Optus parent company Singtel is still searching for a new CEO to replace Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, who resigned in the days following the outage.

NSW police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon, who is accused of murdering Jesse Baird and Luke Davies with his police-issued gun, has officially been removed from the state’s police force.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb expelled Lamarre-Condon from the force today, more than three weeks after he was given a show cause notice in prison, the first step in disciplinary action.

“An off-duty police officer charged with two counts of murder in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs has been removed today from the NSW Police Force,” a NSW Police statement said.

“Under section 181D of the Police Act 1990, the Commissioner has the ability to remove officers if she has lost confidence in their suitability to continue as a police officer.”

Lamarre-Condon is currently behind bars where he is waiting to face court in April on two murder charges.

Police allege the now former police officer murdered Jesse Baird, with whom he was once in a relationship, and Baird’s new partner Luke Davies.

It’s alleged Lamarre-Condon then dumped the couple’s bodies on a rural property in Bungonia, near Goulburn.

Early Childhood Education Minister Anne Aly says many politicians no longer have open air offices due to increasing domestic tensions from the Gaza conflict.

Earlier this week, footage revealed pro-Palestine protestors confronting Aly to label the Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Gaza as genocide.

Speaking on Radio National this morning, Aly said she while people’s anger is valid, she has never in her political career seen tensions rise so much.

“Many of my colleagues have faced similar or worse [experiences] to the point that many of them have had to stop doing open air offices, which I think, you know, is a real shame for those members of the community who need to have open access to their federal members,” Aly said.

“I’ve certainly not seen [tensions] to this level in my time in parliament.”

Asked if the protest activity and tensions is having a chilling effect on politicians and their ability to do their work, Aly agreed it was.

“It is, I think you know, I’m the member for Cowan, when I go out into my community there are a variety of issues that people want to talk to me about that people want to advocate on,” she said.

“The situation in Gaza is also one of those issues that people want me to advocate on and want me to speak up about and so I want to be able to speak up about them, I want to be able to have those conversations in a manner that engages people.”

In state news, Tasmania will be holding an election tomorrow with politicians making their last pitches to voters.

Australia’s only Liberal government, led by Jeremy Rockliff, is aiming for a record fourth straight term at Saturday’s poll while Labor is chasing power after a decade in opposition.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff and Labor leader Rebecca White have traded barbs over financial management in the dying stages of the campaign.

Forecasts point to budget deficits over the forward estimates and net debt growing to $6.1 billion in four years’ time.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, who was on ABC earlier, is running candidates in several electorates for the Jacqui Lambie Network.

She said she didn’t want to feel “too confident” about the election, adding she had high hopes but wanted to remain realistic.

“My candidates have real life experience. They haven’t come up through the same political area that the rest of them have. They will offer integrity,” she said.

Lambie said the Liberal Party had ten years in power, and the state was “worse off” than when they first came into power.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff also appeared on the ABC, to persuade voters to continue to support the Liberal Party.

“We’re the only party that can win majority and I urge Tasmanians for that majority government to vote Liberal tomorrow to restore that certainty and stability so we can keep moving forward,” he said.

Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White said the plan was ensuring people in the state were treated fairly.

“What we bring with our plan is really tackling some of those key challenges and making sure Australians pay Tasmanian price for power, building more houses, hospitals.”

with AAP

Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd is doing a “fantastic job” and he would do that irrespective of who leads the country, the defence minister says.

Richard Marles was asked about Rudd this morning, after Donald Trump called the former prime minister “nasty” and “not the brightest bulb” in an interview with former Brexit party leader Nigel Farage on Britain’s right-leaning GB News.

“Kevin is well received across the political spectrum, and he’s doing a great job in representing Australia’s interests,” Marles said on ABC Radio National.

He said Rudd led the advocacy effort for AUKUS.

“I think he will be able to do that job irrespective of who is governing of America this time last year,” Marles

The minister said the Australian-American alliance endured over decades, from governments of both persuasions and it will continue to persist because of its “deep institutional strength”.

“I think Kevin’s role is being able to advocate for australia in the context that can absolutely be maintained irrespective of who wins the election in November.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles says the government is consulting broadly with all parties involved with religious discrimination laws after an explosive report called for action to safeguard human rights.

Released yesterday, the Law Reform Commission’s report concluded religious schools should lose their unfettered right to dismiss teachers and expel students over questions of sexuality or gender identity.

“We’ve made clear our desire to move down a path of these reforms, but we want to do this in a way which builds consensus across the community and a lot of work has been done by the Attorney General [Mark Dreyfus] in respect of that,” Marles said when asked about the findings.

Marles would not confirm if the government would remove discrimination but that they honour all their commitments.

“The important point here is that what we want to do is to walk forward with consensus within the community and across the political spectrum and that’s what we seek to achieve,” he said.

Returning to federal politics, NDIS and Government Services Minister Bill Shorten says there is a “crisis out there” in how to balance immigration and housing.

It comes after the home affairs minister flagged the government would issue warning notices to high-risk education providers that have become “visa factories”.

Shorten told Nine’s Today program that interest rates were flat lining, unemployment and taxes were going down which would benefit Australians.

“The reality is, though, that there is a crisis out there in terms of how we make sure we balance immigration and housing,” he said.

“But what we’re doing about that is we’re tightening the English language test, we’re cracking down on the dodgy visa providers. We’re making sure that for people who come out here saying they’re students, they’re actually genuinely students,” Shorten said.

He said the government was also cracking down on the “so-called educational training bodies” who were just importing people into Australia for jobs.

Returning to federal politics, Defence Minister Richard Marles says being a part of a drone coalition to provide thousands of drones to Ukraine is a way Australia can make a real difference.

Marles said being part of the drone coalition that is led by the UK and Latvia, would be an important opportunity to continue making a contribution to support Ukraine.

“Drones is an area where we have a real expertise and real capability. It’s an area where we think we can make a difference,” Marles told Radio National this morning.

“So [we took] up the British offer, who are leading this coalition with Latvia, to be a part of it, and we will work out over the next few weeks and months to look at exactly what their contribution will be.”

Legislation banning LGBTQ+ conversion therapy practices has passed NSW Parliament after debate dragged through the night and into the early hours of this morning.

Bleary-eyed members of the upper house voted in favour of the bill just after 6.30am, which will outlaw conversion therapies like “straight camps” and other practices that aim to suppress and individual’s sexual or gender identity.

The bill has some allowances for religious groups, meaning it is still legal to give a religious sermon that teaches against homosexuality.

Exemptions are also given to registered psychologists and families, with honest conversations in those settings still legal under the bill.

“They are important protections. I think we got the balance right,” Premier Chris Minns told Ben Fordham on Sydney radio station 2GB.

The bill also makes it illegal to take someone outside of NSW for the purposes of undergoing conversion therapies. NSW follows Victoria and the ACT, where conversion therapy has already been outlawed.

“This is a historic step in the journey for LGBTQA+ people in this state and the first major reform for our community in almost a decade,” said Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown.

“This law will save countless people from a lifetime of pain and in some cases save lives.

“It sends a powerful message that we are whole and valid, just as we are.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has spoken about the deal with the UK, saying it will underpin Australia’s security for generations to come.

He told Nine’s Today program that it was a great thing for the Labor government to undertake the AUKUS deal.

“It will underpin our security for generations to come,” he said.

“The government’s spending about $5.5 billion on new nuclear reactors, most of which will be either housed at one point in Osborne in South Australia, just kilometres from local communities there or in Henderson in WA, a similar story.”

He said the Virginia class submarines and Astute class submarines from the UK would make Australia safer.