Australia news live: Victorian Greens leader says state’s MoU shows Labor ‘directly supported Israeli’s military objectives’ | Australia news

WA opposition leader denies bullying former Nationals colleague

Western Australia’s opposition leader, Shane Love, has denied bullying a fellow Nationals MP, Louise Kingston, who resigned from the party during a tearful address to parliament.

Kingston made the claim during an address to the state’s Legislative Council on Thursday afternoon. She said:

It gives me no pleasure to have to say what I am going to have to say today.

Unfortunately, I’ve been the victim of relentless bullying and harassment by the leader of the Nationals.

Kingston said she had raised the issue with others and Love directly and did not make a formal complaint with the party because she “believed the situation had been resolved”.

Love said he doesn’t know what he allegedly did to Kingston and that he had tried to contact her but received no response. He told ABC News on Friday:

I think that this is the result of a difficult and bruising pre-selection process.

We have a small party but we’re a party that actually cares about people.

On Thursday afternoon Love confirmed Kingston’s resignation from the party, saying in a statement:

While it is disappointing Ms Kingston no longer wishes to be part of our Nationals WA team, we thank Ms Kingston for her service to our party.

– via AAP

The Bureau of Meteorology has your weather forecast for the weekend

The upshot is the cold and frosty weather will continue in many areas throughout the weekend, and showers on the east and west coast are forecast for Saturday.

Josh Taylor

Publishers already feeling potential news ban on Facebook and Instagram, MPs told

Smaller publishers in Australia are already feeling the effects of a potential ban of news on Facebook and Instagram, the chair of the Digital Publishers Alliance, Tim Duggan, has told MPs.

There is concern that if Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, is designated under the news media bargaining code and forced to pay news companies for news, then it will block news on its platforms similar to what is in effect in Canada.

At the inaugural hearing of the joint select committee on social media and Australian society, Duggan said the ban would cause a substantial loss of traffic for smaller publishers more reliant on social media for traffic, but he said the effects of the government considering designation were already being felt.

He said:

There would also be the fact that revenue is generated through these platforms, particularly Instagram for digital publishers is for many digital publishers is a large source of revenue to be able to amplify content. And there are even more indirect ones around most of our members rely on advertising from media agencies and brands. And we have already seen an impact to some members of brands and agencies holding back some of their revenue and some of their campaigns in the anticipation that a news ban will come into effect in the next few months.

He said advertisers are getting nervous and are holding back advertising dollars. The committee has also heard from the bosses of News Corp, Seven, Nine and ACM Media, all calling for social media platforms to fund journalism.

Missing teen Amber Haigh was ‘removed from the equation’ after giving birth, court told

A couple from country New South Wales used intellectually disabled teenager Amber Michelle Haigh as a “surrogate mother” so they could have another baby, before killing her, a court has heard.

Robert and Anne Geeves, now of Harden, face one count each of murder, over the suspected killing of Haigh, who disappeared without trace in June of 2002.

Haigh’s disappearance, its circumstance and enduring irresolution, has been a high profile public mystery in the Harden area of New South Wales’ Riverina, where she was living at the time.

Robert and Anne Geeves spoke in court Friday morning only to individually plead “not guilty” to murder.

More on this story from Ben Doherty here:

Jordyn Beazley

Hello, everyone. I’ll now be taking over to bring you the news until this evening.

Victorian Greens blast state government over MoU with Israel defence ministry

Benita Kolovos

The Victorian Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, has commented on a report we brought you today on documents showing the state government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Israel’s defence ministry to capitalise on “global tensions” and countries wanting to “protect their national interests” militarily.

Sandell says the documents show “Labor has directly supported [the] Israeli’s military objectives”:

It’s very clear from these documents that Victorian Labor is in bed with the Israeli defence ministry.

These documents expose that Labor signed an MOU to ‘capture opportunities’ from increased tension and militarisation overseas.

I think Victorians would be pretty disgusted to know that the Labor government could be seeking to profit or gain from war and killing overseas.

The Greens are calling on Labor to immediately rip up its MOU with the Israeli Defence Ministry and end all military ties with Israel.

Here’s the report:

‘Watch for orcas and leopard seals’

Some more from the Antarctic. Casey station leader Dave Buller said:

As seen in previous years, some will demonstrate a newfound skill of simultaneously entering and jumping out of the water at the same time.

It’s a somewhat brisk and confronting experience.

Over at Macquarie Island, they swim twice! According to the Australian Antarctic Division, expeditioners jump in the water on the east, then run across to the west, “with someone keeping watch for orcas and leopard seals”. That frivolity is followed by a festive lunch, gift giving, and a pantomime.

Macquarie Island station leader Rebecca Jeffcoat said:

Midwinter has historically been celebrated by the earliest of Antarctic explorers and continues to be the most important day on the calendar for all expeditioners, even more than Christmas.

It’s a rite of passage to have spent midwinter in Antarctica!

Daniel Hurst

The minister for the Pacific, Pat Conroy, has admitted Australian funding for a Pacific NRL team is “not about sport” but is intended to serve Australia’s national security interests, at a time of intense competition with China for influence.

He said the Albanese government would use “every lever at our disposal to bring us closer to the Pacific”, pointing to “the disastrous impact of the security pact between the Solomon Islands and China” that was negotiated when the former Morrison government was in power.

In an interview with Newcastle radio station 2HD today, Conroy was asked about recent reports of potential funding of up to $600m over 10 years to enable a Papua New Guinea-based team to enter the NRL.

He said the government was “still negotiating with the NRL about this, and that figure hasn’t been confirmed, but whatever the figure is, it will be over a 10‑year period”:

Importantly, this is not about sport, this is about national security. This is about how do we bind the people of the Pacific and Australia together with a shared future.

I think everyone would agree that having a Pacific that sees Australia as their primary partner is in our interests, so we’ll use temporary labour schemes, we’ll use foreign aid, we’ll use policing cooperation, we’ll use sport, to support those people‑to‑people links. That’s in our national interest.

To mark the winter solstice, there’s a nudie Tassie swim, and then there are the Australian Antarctic expeditioners. At the Australian stations they cut a hole in the ice with a chainsaw or digger to make a plunge pool. How fun! Swimmers are medically supervised as they are lowered into the -1.8C water. Davis Station leader, Brett Barlee, said:

These occasions are important because they call you to take pause and reflect not only on our achievements in this current season, but of the shoulders we stand on as we do our work.

It’s felt by our community as an honour and a privilege to be part of this legacy.

Frigate construction begins in SA as premier hails ‘momentous day’

The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, has described today as a “momentous day” for SA with the long-awaited beginning of frigate construction. He said:

This delivery of frigates alongside SSN-Aukus submarines puts South Australia front and centre in the most crucial of national endeavours.

It also represents a step change in our state’s economic complexity, which will help improve the standard of living for South Australians more broadly.

Here’s Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young v News Corp Australasia chair Michael Miller on comparing the Greens to Nazis. The footage is from today’s parliamentary inquiry into social media and Australian society.

Adeshola Ore

Two found dead in Victoria’s Otway Ranges

Two people have been found dead in Victoria’s Otway Ranges in the state’s south-west.

A spokesperson for Victoria police says emergency services were called to the Gellibrand Lower area following the discovery of a dead man and woman on Friday morning. In a statement, police said the circumstances of their deaths are yet to be determined:

The man and woman, who are yet to be formally identified, were found by a passerby on a walking track near Wreck Beach about 10.45am.

Offices have cordoned off the area and a crime scene has been established. At this early stage, police are not searching for anyone else in relation to the incident.

Please be astounded and amazed at all these people getting nippy at the Dark Mofo winter solstice swim in Tasmania. (Also it’s the start of the Beanie festival in Alice Springs. I know which I’d rather don/doff). From AAP:

Man arrested after making $60,000 of fake pandemic payment claims

AAP reports that a man has been arrested for allegedly making more than 500 fake pandemic payment claims worth about $60,000:

Victoria police uncovered masses of counterfeiting equipment at a home in Melbourne’s west, during a fraud investigation into Covid-19 temporary isolation payments submitted during the pandemic.

Police said this morning that a card printer, embossing machine, drivers licences, fake Medicare and other ID cards, mobile phone signal jammers and phones, tablets and computers had been seized.

A 41-year-old Braybrook man has been arrested and is expected to be charged on summons with deception and fraudulent documents offences. Police said in a statement:

It will be alleged that over 500 fraudulent Covid-19 grant applications were successfully submitted under a variety of false names worth almost $60,000 between 2020-2021.

Simon Holmes à Court is not holding back in this piece:

If there’s any doubt that Dutton has internalised the Trump playbook, here’s an example of how he’s deployed the infamous Steve Bannon technique: “flood the zone with shit”.

The deputy prime minister (and defence minister), Richard Marles, is expected to hold a press conference shortly about the Hunter Class frigates. He told ABC’s Radio National this morning there had been moments when the program was “off track” after host Patricia Karvelas asked him why construction was only beginning today – six years after the program was announced.

Marles said the pandemic was one of a number of reasons for the delay. He said:

But we’ve been working very hard since coming to power to get this back on track. You take it step by step, but contracts are in place and we are now at a point of cutting steel today, which is a really, really big milestone.

And at its peak, this is going to employ 3,000 people directly at the Osborne naval shipyard. In building these frigates, we will see the first come into service in 2034, and these will be the most advanced anti-submarine warfare frigates in the world, but will also have very significant vertical launch capacity. They will be very much at the centre of our service combatant fleet.

Thirteen people have been arrested in connection with a $10m illicit tobacco network after WA police seized 5.9m cigarettes, 1.4 tonnes of loose tobacco, $1.7m in cash and 41,000 vapes.

WA police have charged seven men and two women including some with alleged links to a Middle Eastern crime group, according to a joint media release put out this morning by WA police, Victoria police, the Australian Border Force and the WA health department.

At one Sunbury residence, police seized 15 firearms, 2.4m illicit cigarettes, a stolen car and a gel blaster (which, I have just learned, one needs a license or permit for).

Other hauls included magic mushrooms, cocaine and a crossbow.

Detective acting superintendent Jeff Beros, from WA police’s serious and organised crime division, said:

Attractive profit margins can be generated from the sale of illicit tobacco and this has caused an environment where organised crime groups are aggressively competing for market share, resulting in violent offences such as criminal damage, threats and extortion being undertaken in our community.

We have seen this violence and harm being undertaken in other parts of Australia and we are resolute in not letting these groups flourish in Western Australia.

These outcomes, including the arrest of the head of the group and his offsiders, sends a clear message to anyone who thinks they can undertake this type of criminal activity in Western Australia – you will be caught and you will be prosecuted.