Musk argues social media bill may not be lawful – as it happened | Australian politics

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Here are the main stories:

• The deputy prime minister’s chief of staff, Jo Tarnawsky, is suing her boss and the government after it failed to resolve the employment stalemate that has seen her locked out of her office since May.

• The independent senator David Pocock called Labor “gutless” for delaying gambling ad reform. A recovering gambling addict who testified before a parliamentary inquiry into gambling harm also criticised the government’s decision to delay advertising reforms.

• At the short hearing on the federal government’s social media ban bill, mental health groups and experts were asked whether the good outweighs the ban on social media for under-16s.

• The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, made a speech in the House of Representatives calling for the parliament to give “unanimous” support to his government’s bid to ban under-16s from social media, saying world leaders were “applauding” the push.

• The government also said its digital ID won’t be used to assure ages on social media, but when pressed could not point out in the under-16s ban legislation where it was specifically prohibited.

• Elon Musk’s X warned the bill to ban under-16s from social media may not be lawful, and the company is reserving its legal rights.

• Julie Inman Grant, the Safety Commissioner said it was her role to “enforce the laws”, not endorse, and the under-16 social media age ban was a matter for the parliament.

• The Greens said they would wave through Labor’s housing plan so they can “focus on campaigning for renters and against Peter Dutton at the next election”.

• The expected power crunch has shifted to Thursday as a heatwave lingers over eastern Australia.

• The NSW Council of Civil Liberties says an “extraordinary” number of people were arrested at the Riding Tide climate protest in Newcastle yesterday, because of “draconian anti-protest laws” in the state.

• A man has been charged after cars and buildings were damaged or vandalised with anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney’s east last week.

Mayors blindsided by NSW housing proposal

Luca Ittimani

Mayors of the areas home to Sydney’s supersized housing precincts have been left “blindsided” after the NSW government announcing major zoning changes without first telling them.

Six precincts were up for consideration and all had at least 1,000 additional homes added to their expected housing density in new zoning announced on Monday – except for the Kellyville and Bella Vista area, which had its total cut by three-quarters.

The premier, Chris Minns, told reporters he thought that was a “reasonable compromise”:

The number of new homes being built in the Blacktown local government area is massive, far, far higher than Macquarie Park and Hornsby.

The mayor of Blacktown, Brad Bunting, said the decision was “a win for common sense” and praised the government’s decision.

However, that precinct also reaches into the Hills shire, where the mayor, Michelle Byrne, was unhappy to have learned about the rezoning via morning media reports:

It’s disappointing that the minister has steamrolled council with this announcement. There are a lot of issues with this half-baked proposal that need to be addressed.

Byrne said the finalised proposal had wiped housing growth from Blacktown and put all of the increase into the Hills.

The City of Ryde initially issued a statement thanking the government for its consultative approach but in a subsequent statement said staff had been “blindsided by today’s announcement” and had found “major discrepancies” between the government’s announcement and departmental master-planning documents.

The North Sydney mayor, Zoë Baker, also said she had not been notified ahead of the announcement for the Crows Nest precinct, slamming the ruled 3% minimum for affordable housing as “wholly inadequate”, while a Hornsby shire council spokesperson said the new development plan included a number of changes made without consulting the council.

Queensland police are investigating the death of a child in Innisfail this afternoon.

Officers responded to reports of a child found unresponsive in a vehicle about 1pm.

Upon arrival, emergency services provided medical assistance, however the child was declared deceased.

Investigations are continuing, and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

Man dies at swimming hole in Royal national park

A man has died after being pulled unresponsive from a swimming hole in the Royal national park in NSW.

Emergency services were called to Winifred Falls at about 2.35pm after reports of a drowning.

Officers attached to Sutherland shire police area command attended alongside NSW ambulance paramedics and found a man had been pulled from the water.

The man was treated at the scene by paramedics, but he could not be revived.

The man, who is yet to be formally identified, is believed to be aged in his 20s.

Police established a crime scene and commenced inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the man’s death.

Josh Butler

Liberal MP apologises for staffer filming in ministerial wing of Parliament House

The Liberal MP Tony Pasin has apologised for a staff member filming in the corridor of Parliament House’s ministerial wing, saying “unbeknownst to me” his employee filmed inside the infrastructure minister Catherine King’s office.

King made claims of “discourtesy” from Pasin in an interaction last week, where she alleged filming inside her office when Pasin and a staffer attended for a “drop-in” session.

Pasin was not in parliament on Thursday but a spokesperson said in a statement last week he “denies the accusations levelled against him by minister King”. On Monday, the House of Representatives speaker, Milton Dick, said he had considered the matter but would not be referring it to the privileges committee.

Pasin told the chamber that a new staff member of his had filmed him around Parliament House, “including in the ministerial corridor”. The MP conceded the filming was done “in error” but were “in no way covert”.

“I acknowledge the error. I note that I apologised to you, and through you to all occupants of this building. I have re-familiarised myself with the rules for media-related activities,” Pasin said.

But Pasin went on to deny that he filmed in King’s ministerial suite, or that he downloaded the footage to a laptop. He maintained that, “unbeknownst to me”, his staffer continued filming as he entered King’s office.

“On returning to my office, and having been made aware of that footage, the member of my staff was directed to delete it,” Pasin said.

“I have apologised to Minister King. Filming in her suite should not have occurred, and I accept responsibility for my staff member’s error.”

King gave a short statement in response, saying “Australians do expect and deserve to see parliamentarians conduct themselves in a manner befitting this place. That goes to respect for each other.”

Power crunch shifted to Thursday as heatwave lingers over eastern Australia

Peter Hannam

As we flagged last week – and updated here today – eastern Australia will face a pretty warm end to spring, with temperatures soaring.

A few days ago, the forecasts had pointed to relief coming to eastern New South Wales at least by Wednesday. That looks more likely to be Friday, as the heatwave stalls a bit over the region.

Penrith, in Sydney’s west, can expect tops of 39C and 40C on Tuesday and Wednesday, with each daily update nudging the forecast higher it seems. Sea breezes should keep Sydney’s CBD to maximums of 31C and 33C for those two days, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

The mercury on Thursday, though, will still be nudging 30C in Sydney and 33C in Penrith.

One consequence is that the power grid will be strained for a bit longer, particularly in NSW, although Queensland will be hoping its generators don’t have any unplanned outages.

The Australian Energy Market Operator had been forecasting the potential for blackouts on Wednesday afternoon in NSW, dubbed a lack of reserve level 3. That forecast was cancelled a little while ago, only for an LOR to be issued for Thursday afternoon.

Now, it’s likely the market will respond (that’s the point of these alerts), but moving target, from Tuesday to Thursday, is a reminder of the limited spare generation capacity there is in the grid.

Some will say “net zero policies are to blame”. The fact that about 6 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants are facing planned or unplanned maintenance this week in eastern Australia seems to be the real culprit.

An Australian injured in a West Bank shooting has called for an investigation into the incident. Watch the video here:

Ranem Abu Izneid was studying in her room on 15 November at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, in the West Bank east of Jerusalem, when she was hit by shrapnel after Israeli forces allegedly fired live rounds in her direction.

The shrapnel caused severe injuries to her right eye, neck and chest. “I want a transparent, full investigation on the situation,” the Australian citizen says. “I’m grateful for the help that I got from the Australian embassies, but it’s not enough.”

The Greens have released a statement saying they have waved through Labor’s housing plan so they can “focus on campaigning for renters and against Peter Dutton at the next election”.

They said renters should grant them the balance of power at the next election if they “want to end tax handouts for property investors and an end to unlimited rent increases”.

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, said the party had “pushed as far” as it could:

There comes a point where you’ve pushed as far as you can. We tried hard to get Labor to shift on soaring rents and negative gearing, but we couldn’t get there this time.

We’ll wave the housing bills through and take the fight to the next election, where we’ll keep Peter Dutton out and then push Labor to act on unlimited rent rises and tax handouts to wealthy property investors.

Good afternoon, Mostafa Rachwani with you for the rest of the day’s news.

Emily Wind

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

The Greens are expected to give a press conference any minute now on their decision to help pass Labor’s Help to Buy bill – stay tuned for all the details.