Australia news live: Dutton ‘more like a thug’ than an aspiring PM in comments about protests, Hanson-Young says | Australia news

Mental health experts say social media ban could cause greater harm to children

Banning children from social media wouldn’t remove risks to their mental health and could rob them of an important social and emotional lifeline, experts have told a federal inquiry.

Representatives from six health organisations including ReachOut, Headspace and Beyond Blue rejected proposals to raise age limits for social networks, telling politicians on Tuesday the move would cause greater harm to children and give parents a false sense of security.

Their testimony comes a day after parent groups appeared before the Social Media and Australian Society inquiry and urged the government to impose a ban on all children accessing social media.

ReachOut government relations director Ben Bartlett said he recognised parents were struggling to find ways to approach the technology and protect their children, but a blanket ban would not address the risks.

“A ban would expose young people to new harms,” he said.

“It may leave some young people without any mental health support options, it may make them less likely to seek help when they need it and be less likely to tell an adult when things go wrong online.”

A survey conducted by ReachOut found almost three in four young people turned to social media platforms including TikTok, YouTube and Instagram to access information and support for mental health issues.

Removing teens’ access to this information, Bartlett said, would leave them worse off.

“We don’t want to end up after this moment in time when everyone is focused on making social media safer with a policy response that potentially just gives parents a false sense of security that something’s been done and all the harms have been addressed,” he said.

“We would say it’s much better to … do what we can quickly on quick wins and then work through to make the platforms fundamentally safer over time for everyone.”

– via AAP

Every state behind on national housing targets as dwelling approval rates slide

The chance of Australia meeting nationally agreed housing targets has taken another hit, with approval numbers suffering a steep decline.

Dwelling approvals dropped by 6.1% in August, further endangering the goal of building 1.2m extra homes by July 2029.

The monthly decline reversed a bullish 11% increase in July, while approvals were up 3.6% when compared to August 2023.

NSW and South Australia recorded the biggest declines with an 11.5% monthly fall in approvals in both states, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Tuesday.

All states experienced a decrease of at least 3% in dwelling approvals month-on-month.

Approvals for detached houses rose by a slim 0.5% nationally, but other private-sector dwellings pulled down the overall tally with a 16.5% fall.

In September, Master Builders Australia forecast just 1.03m of the target homes would be built, finding every state was behind on meeting their individual targets.

ABS construction statistics head Daniel Rossi said weak apartment approvals had fuelled the overall drop in the figures.

“The movements in dwellings excluding houses continue to be the result of volatility in apartment approvals, with the broad environment around apartments remaining subdued,” he said.

Sluggish planning systems – which the NSW premier, Chris Minns, has routinely blamed for lacklustre progress in his state – along with “apartment-killer taxes” was driving the decline, according to the Property Council of Australia.

Only 1,200 apartments in blocks with nine or more storeys were approved in August, compared with 2,500 in July.

“We need to increase the number of homes approved and ensure a strong pipeline of apartment supply to drive towards our housing targets at scale,” the industry lobby’s group executive, Matthew Kandelaars, said.

“But the reality is it has never been more difficult and costly to get apartments out of the ground.”

– via AAP

Greens’ Faruqi ‘disappointed’ but ‘not surprised’ by results of review into racism at ABC

The deputy leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has said she is “disappointed” to hear the results of the Janke review into the ABC.

The review spoke to 120 current and former staff, with all but one saying they had personally experienced racism at the national broadcaster.

Faruqi said she was “not surprised”:

I’m not surprised, but it doesn’t lessen the disappointment. People of colour working at the ABC have been suffering racism for far too long. They deserve so much better from our public broadcaster.

The Janke review recommended the ABC ‘improve diverse representation in management and leadership’, which is what I have long been calling for. The Board must reflect the diversity in the community if it is to be considered a true national broadcaster.

The time for platitudes and hollow apologies is over. Strong action must be taken starting from the top. Anti-racism training must be mandatory and progress on change monitored and publicly reported.

People of colour deserve a respectful and safe workplace and to be treated as equals to white people working at the ABC.

Emily Wind

Many thanks for joining me on today’s blog – I’ll pass over to Mostafa Rachwani to take you through the rest of today’s news. Take care.

Amy Remeikis

No official response yet on whether Australian passport and visa holders will be evacuated by Dfat from Lebanon

We know there are thousands of Australians who are worried about family and loved ones in Lebanon.

We have put in questions to the department of foreign affairs and Penny Wong’s office about whether Australia is moving to help evacuate Australian passport and visa holders from Lebanon in the wake of Canada and the United Kingdom stepping up their own procedures.

So far there has been no official response.

Anthony Albanese was asked about evacuations at his press conference a little earlier today and said:

What we’re doing is looking at all the measures that are available at our disposal. But we say this as well – we repeat the call for Australians who are in Lebanon to come home. There are still commercial opportunities available. We’ve been saying for months that it is time to leave. It is certainly time to leave now when those opportunities are available, and at the moment, there are some commercial opportunities available, and we want Australians to take up that opportunity to come home to safety.

We will keep you updated.

Anderson: ‘I am sincerely sorry’ to anyone who has experienced racism at the ABC

Wrapping up the interview, David Anderson was asked about the recommendation about providing an apology.

He said he had written to all staff and “expressed that I am deeply sorry to anybody who has experienced racism at the ABC”.

For whenever that is and whenever that’s happened, it shouldn’t have happened, it shouldn’t happen and I am sincerely sorry for that experience.

And I think that the conviction here is certainly looking at the what we are putting in place is to the greatest possible extent, it is not just what we say today, but what we do in the future.

And I think what it will take is everybody working together to ensure that all of these things are in place over a longer period of time. And yes, I am truly sorry for what has happened to people in the past.

David Anderson said that amid this report, there is a “broader question here for the broader media industry about what they do.”

We are focusing on us at the moment. We are focusing on these recommendations and it is a path, it is a a discernible action on what we are doing now to move this forward, to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

This racism cannot occur in any workplace and I’ve called it out today in my communication in staff, that if people believe that it’s OK to behave like this, this is not the place for them. We will find them and we will make sure they leave the ABC. It cannot happen. It must stop. It must stop in society and it must stop for the ABC.

ABC managing director says ‘it is important’ to him to begin implementing changes before he leaves role

David Anderson has already indicated he would be leaving the ABC. He was asked what confidence he had that this would be carried out – as he wouldn’t be here to oversee a portion of the response.

Anderson replied that it was important to him to put things in motion before he departed:

It is important to me, it is important to the leadership, it’s important to the board of the ABC. So we’ve all committed to doing this.

There are a number of months that I’ve got to oversee the implementation of this, such that whoever replaces me already has a framework in place …

And, if anything, it is a reason for me to stay longer, not a reason for me to leave earlier. So it is very important to me that we do this.

David Anderson again stressed the important of reading the testimony of the 120 people included in the report – including 21 former and 99 current employees.

I think it is important that we all read them. In unlocking those stories, that helps you understand what sits behind the recommendations themselves. It also goes to the implementation of the responses that we’ve listed out there, and they will happen over time.

It is a multi-year approach to this, but it doesn’t mean you wait to do it. There are things we are putting into place as of today and there’s those we are committing to certainly in the shorter term developing very quickly, so we have them adopted and in effect as fast as possible.

Anti-racism campaign and training to be implemented at ABC in response to review, managing director says

Asked where the responsibility for those failings lay, ABC managing director David Anderson responded:

It resides with all of us, it resides with me as managing director and certainly anybody within the organisation who has not acted at times to the extent that they should have.

He said the testimony in the report includes examples of both covert and overt racism.

They are the responsibility of everybody, everybody who sees it to call it out, not just the responsibility of those that it happens to.

Anderson said some measures that are being implemented will include an anti-racism campaign and anti-racism training at all levels of the ABC.

As we bring you the rest of David Anderson’s interview, you can read our separate article on the ABC review below:

Every ABC staff member should read ‘disturbing’ review on racism at broadcaster, says David Anderson

David Anderson, the managing director, is speaking with ABC TV after an independent review found there are cultural issues in the ABC which allows racism to exist.

The ABC reported on the review, which was led by Indigenous lawyer Terri Janke, here.

Journalist and senior cultural adviser for ABC News, Miriam Corowa, is conducting the interview and asked Anderson what he is reflecting on today as he works through the testimony of 120 ABC staff.

Anderson said it is a “disturbing report” filled with testimony that every staff member should read:

They are a difficult read, but it shows the perspective of people who have been at the other end of experienced racism – either internally at the ABC or externally from other external individuals, or what has been reported elsewhere.

What the report says is that – for all that we’ve done and all the measures that we’ve put in place – that we need to do more. And what that report does is calls for us as an organisation – and I call for that, too – to come together around listening to the voices that are in the report, to really understanding the effect that this has had, to work together on a better future, and I think that happens through discussion …

The act of some people has been completely unacceptable … and there is a commitment from me and … from the leadership team and … from the board … to do better for the future.

Father and son charged over alleged attempt to possess 50kg of cocaine with estimated street value of $16.25m

The Australian Federal Police have charged a father and son from Sydney’s northern beaches for allegedly attempting to possess 50kg of cocaine concealed in machinery.

The two men, aged 48 and 23, are expected to appear before Downing Centre local court today. An investigation was launched in August after Border Force officers at Port Botany identified anomalies in an industrial generator, during a routine inspection of sea cargo from Vietnam.

AFP forensics allegedly found 50kg worth of cocaine concealed inside the machine.

This consignment could have been sold as 250,000 individual street deals, with an estimated street value of $16,250,000, the AFP said. It removed the illegal drugs and monitored the consignment as it was transported to Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

The AFP allegedly identified the 48-year-old who had leased the industrial complex – and allegedly found evidence the man made overseas cash transfers to a known criminal facilitator, and recently travelled to Vietnam.

Yesterday officers allegedly observed the 48-year-old and his 23-year-old son attempt to access a compartment in the generator where the drugs had been hidden. It will be alleged the men went to purchase separate angle grinders and associated materials from a local hardware store on two occasions.

The AFP arrested and charged both men with jointly attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a unlawfully imported border controlled drug. The maximum penalty for this offence is life imprisonment.

QFS issues ‘prepare to leave’ warning for Innot Hot Springs fire

The Queensland Fire Department has issued a “prepare to leave” warning for the rural town of Innot Hot Springs, near Ravenshoe, amid a fast-moving fire.

The fire is burning near Herbert River Road and conditions could get worse quickly, the department said.

The warning area is between Kennedy Highway, Herbert River Road and Uramo Road.

Some properties are at risk and the fire is likely to affect the community in the coming hours, the warning says.

The Greens senator said comments from Peter Dutton earlier this morning made him sound “more like a thug than someone who ought to be prime minister”.

Sarah Hanson-Young told reporters:

It is just abhorrent to have someone who wants to be the prime minister actively whipping up fear and division, rather than calling for calm and bringing people together at a time when so many people are hurting.

Asked if the Greens condemn supporters of Hezbollah and those who allegedly held Hezbollah flags at rallies at the weekend, Hanson-Young said it is “appropriate” those alleged actions were reported to police.

Hezbollah is a registered terrorist organisation, we don’t have a concern with that.

What Peter Dutton is trying to do is use this for his own political gain, rather than uttering a concern about the human life and loss in Lebanon or Gaza or the anguish that Lebanese Australians are feeling right now about their loved ones or their colleagues, their family members who might be caught up in this.

Hanson-Young accuses Dutton of ‘wanting to stoke fear in the community’ over Hezbollah flags at protests

Sarah Hanson-Young said it was an “absurd suggestion” from Peter Dutton that parliament should be recalled earlier than next week.

Dutton wants to recall the parliament and give the AFP powers to arrest people who allegedly held Hezbollah flags at protests at the weekend.

Hanson-Young told reporters:

All Peter Dutton is doing is wanting to stoke fear in the community, fear and division at a time when so many Australians have loved ones or family members, friends and colleagues caught up in the escalated conflict in the Middle East …

A million people have been displaced in Lebanon over the last few days because of the impending and now invasion from Israel, and 60,000 children have fled the border into Syria in the last few days.

This is a human catastrophe, a humanitarian catastrophe, a human-made humanitarian catastrophe. Australia needs to be part of the world’s moral compass, say that this is not OK, stand up to it – enough is enough.

All Peter Dutton wants to do is use this for his own political purposes, fearmongering division and whipping up community division.

Sarah Hanson-Young to introduce bill next week to ban gambling ads

Sarah Hanson-Young also responded to comments from the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, earlier today about gambling reform.

As we covered earlier in the blog here and here, Rowland said the government was consulting on a model addressing the three key areas – protecting children, breaking “that nexus between sport and online wagering” and dealing with the saturation of ads – but did not comment on an outright ban.

Hanson-Young said this was “not good enough”.

We need a total ban on gambling advertising, just like we do on tobacco, and that’s what the experts have called for. That’s what Labor’s own chaired committee called for. It’s time they acted.

The Greens senator said that when parliament returns next week, her bill to ban gambling ads from broadcast and online would be introduced:

The government has to stop dragging its feet, bending over backwards for the gambling lobby, and do something that is desperately needed to protect families. That bill will be before the parliament next week, it will be introduced, and the government should give it time for debate and a vote.

Here’s more from August on this issue:

Dismantling tech companies’ business models will make young people safer online, Greens senator says

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young spoke with reporters earlier, amid the joint inquiry into social media.

She said it has become “absolutely clear from all of the experts” that simply banning young people from accessing social media won’t make the online space safe for young people.

I challenge both the Labor and the Liberal parties to have the courage to hit big tech where it hurts, and that’s their business model. It’s time for this parliament to have the courage to ban the use of targeted advertising online to kids and young people.

It’s time for young people to be protected from the harvesting of their data by big tech, that’s then sold off to make huge profits at the expense of young people vulnerabilities and their privacy and their safety.

This is how we dismantle the business model of these big tech companies – who are using business models that are predatory, that are harmful and that are making huge, massive profits off the back of our kids and young Australians.

Hit them where it hurts, hit them where they make their money and they make their profit, and it will make these platforms much, much safer.

Dutton and ABC reporter clash over Hezbollah question

Earlier, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, took aim at an ABC reporter during a press conference in Sydney.

The reporter had asked what determines the fact that Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation. Dutton asked where the reporter was from, and there was a back-and-forth between the two over what the exact wording of the question was she was asking.

The reporter then asked Dutton:

What determines something as a terrorist organisation?

Dutton responded:

I had presumed, up until this point at least, that the ABC supported the government’s laws. And the government has passed laws, supported on a bipartisan basis – but not by the ABC, it seems – in relation to the proscribing or the listing of a terrorist organisation.

Hezbollah under Australian law is a listed terrorist organisation. Now if the ABC doesn’t support that, they should be very clear about it …

The journalist interjected and said that that wasn’t what she was saying, but Dutton continued:

You asked me why our country has listed Hezbollah. They’re a terrorist organisation, they organise terrorist attacks.