Australia news live: landmark Icac inquiry into corruption allegations in NSW Liberals begins

Key events

Brothers of former NSW premier sought to leverage their influence to help Sydney developer, ICAC hears

Returning to the NSW Icac’s Operation Rosny, counsel assisting, Dr Peggy Dwyer SC, has described the allegations being investigated in greater detail.

In describing the timeline of the watchdog’s investigations, she has revealed that police referred WhatsApp communications from Jean-Claude and Charles Perrottet, two of the brothers of the former premier, Dominic Perrottet, two days before the premier himself referred allegations of corruption to Icac.

The former premier made that move after a 2022 speech in parliament by the Liberal MP for Kellyville, Ray Williams, claiming that fugitive property developer Jean Nassif had met with senior Liberals, who were allegedly paid significant funds to arrange for new councillors to be elected to the Hills Shire council.

Dwyer has told the hearing that the day before Williams’ speech, police referred legally intercepted communications from “not one but two of Dominic Perrottet’s brothers” to Icac.

That lawfully intercepted information also indicated that Mr Nasif had an association with not one but two of Dominic Perrottet’s brothers, and that he was seeking to leverage their connections with Dominic Perrottet to assist in having the building commissioner David Chandler removed from office.

Dominic Perrottet is not accused of any wrongdoing. Jean-Claude and Charles Perrottet and Nassif have previously denied any wrongdoing.

Landmark inquiry into corruption allegations in NSW Liberals begins

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) has begun its Operation Rosny hearings into allegations of corruption in the NSW Liberals today.

As part of Operation Rosny, Icac is investigating three allegations, firstly that senior Liberal figures “solicited or accepted” donations, including from prohibited donors, in amounts which were undeclared or exceeded caps, to recruit or renew members to the party – a practice known as “branch stacking”.

In her opening statement, the counsel assisting the commission, Dr Peggy Dwyer SC, has said:

Money in politics, as in other spheres of life, has the potential to corrupt.

At a local, state, and federal level, electoral funding laws play a vital role in minimizing. minimizing the risk of corruption by ensuring transparency and attempting to level the playing field. They also promote public confidence in a fair go for politicians and political aspirants, and for the public they are entrusted to serve.

Victorian Labor ministers, MPs meet with Jacinta Allan to tell her she does not have their support

A group of Victorian ministers and MPs from across Labor’s left and right factions have gone to see the premier, Jacinta Allan, to inform her that she has lost the majority of support in the caucus and urge her to stand down.

‘You can’t do this to us’: Taylor urges Albanese to push back against latest Trump tariffs

Federal opposition leader Angus Taylor has said the prime minister should be “sitting down with” US president Donald Trump after the US hit Australian exports with new 12.5% trade tariffs, claiming the country is not doing enough to combat forced labour.

Speaking in Brisbane earlier this morning, Taylor said the tariff “shouldn’t be happening”:

I tell you what should be happening, the prime minister should be sitting down with the president of the United States and saying this is not good enough. He needs to be clear to the president of the United States this is an unacceptable thing to do with one their very greatest friends and allies. You can’t do this to us.

The Australian trade minister, Don Farrell, immediately called for the US to change course last week when the tariffs were announced, saying they were unjustified:

Israeli siblings who fear breaking law in Gaza under IDF owed protection by Australia, tribunal finds

Three Israeli citizens facing conscription into the Israel Defense Forces have been granted the right to reapply for protection visas in Australia, after a government tribunal found they held a genuine fear they would be forced to break international humanitarian law in Gaza.

The Administrative Review Tribunal found the punishment the young adults could face from the state of Israel – including imprisonment as conscientious objectors – would amount to persecution.

Part of a family group, three siblings faced mandatory national service if they were returned to Israel, and held a genuine belief they would be forced to “engage in breaches of international humanitarian law”.

The tribunal found there were “credible allegations that Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip are in breach of international humanitarian law” and that international opinion was that the IDF’s actions in Gaza were disproportionate. It found the three siblings were refugees facing persecution from the state of Israel, and Australia had a legal obligation to protect them.

Read more:

Jacinta Allan indicates she will fight any leadership spill

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has indicated she will fight any attempt to oust her as Labor leader despite the party’s factions agreeing overnight that she lacks the support of the majority of her caucus.

Under Labor’s rules, if Allan does not step down as leader and is challenged, a weeks-long process will occur in which both parliamentary Labor caucus and rank-and-file members vote. Votes are split evenly: 50% of the weight goes to MPs and 50% to party members.

In a letter to the Victorian Labor state secretary, Steve Staikos, obtained by Guardian Australia, Allan said she intended to be a candidate if such a ballot occurred.

The letter reads:

I refer to media speculation regarding the leadership of the Victorian Parliamentary Labor Party and am writing to request that you ensure that the Victorian Labor Party is prepared to conduct an election for the leadership of the State Parliamentary Labor Party in the event an election is required.

As you are aware the Victorian Labor Party rules require State Secretary to provide administrative support to ensure the effective conduct of a ballot of all eligible party members. I would also like to formally notify you of my intention to be a candidate for the leadership of the Victorian Parliamentary Labor Party in the event that an election is required.

The letter quashes the party’s factional leaders’ hopes that the premier would stand down before a vote, which would have allowed her deputy, Ben Carroll, to run for the position unopposed.

Australia’s ‘most progressive’ census comes at personal cost to April – but it means their family will finally be counted

Self-professed “data nerd” April Long was excited to fill in their first census after welcoming their son, Kai, to the world. But as they opened the 2021 survey, they quickly realised it wasn’t made for them.

It excluded Long’s role as a parent, made assumptions about their gender and asked where Kai’s mother and father were born, when he has two mums.

Many “rainbow families” echoed similar experiences of the census being unable to fully capture the LGBTQ+ community.

But for this census on 11 August, Australians over the age of 16 will be asked to identify their sexual orientation and given separate questions on their sex at birth and gender for the first time. The 2026 iteration also introduces non-gendered terms to questions on household and family relationships, among other changes.

Read the full story here:

Police investigating after Jewish teenager allegedly assaulted in Melbourne

Victoria police have launched an investigation into an alleged knife assault in Melbourne’s south-east.

In a statement, they said officers were stationed to Bentleigh just after 2pm on Friday where an 18-year-old man reported that he had been assaulted by a man he’d approached on the street while performing his door-to-door Jewish outreach work:

He reported being threatened with a knife and punched in the stomach. Police spoke to a 69-year-old man who was subsequently searched, and two pocketknives were located and seized. The investigation into the incident remains ongoing.

Jewish organisation the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADF) said the man who was allegedly assaulted was studying at a Melbourne yeshiva and spent every week doing Jewish outreach. They alleged he was “menaced with a knife, told he would be killed, and punched in the stomach in broad daylight”.

Dvir Abramovich, chair of the ADF, thanked Victoria police for their “swift response” but said the man had faced a “knife for a question”:

That is the going rate in Melbourne for being openly Jewish … If prejudice drove this alleged attack, the charges must say so.

AusAlert warning system ‘another tool in the toolkit’, minister says

The emergency management minister, Kristy McBain, has said the AusAlert system that will be tested this afternoon is “much more accurate than the current system”, following several outages from major telco companies in recent months that saw hundreds of people unable to access triple zero.

McBain told ABC News Breakfast today:

[AusAlert] doesn’t rely on any one telco provider, it’s not subject to network congestion, and we can geolocate an alert down to 160 metres of where an incident is actually occurring.

In an actual emergency event (not a test, like today), the alert would explain what the type of emergency is, where it’s located, how serious it is, the emergency organisation that sent it, and where to get more information.

McBain emphasised the system would work alongside existing warning channels such as websites, radio, social media, television, and community outreach, and that it was “another tool in the toolkit”.

McBain also said on Monday the government had “done a lot of work” with domestic violence groups to limit harm, and that anyone with a concealed or hidden phone should place it in flight mode or keep it switched off before the alert sounds and for at least 24 hours.

– with AAP

Emergency warning siren to blare across most phones today at 2pm AEST

A reminder that today’s the long-awaited AusAlert day! The day when every phone in the country (except for those who take specific precautions) will – or should, at any rate – blare an emergency siren at 2pm AEST as part of the first Australia-wide test of a new national warning system.

A recap: this afternoon, most phones, and some smartwatches and tablets, will receive a pop-up notification and an alert sound that cannot be silenced – even if your device is on “do not disturb” or silent mode. The warning system will be deployed to prepare Australians for fires, floods, terrorist incidents or health emergencies.

Here’s a backgrounder we prepared earlier on the nationwide test:

Man charged with murder after woman fatally injured at home in Melbourne

A man has been charged with the murder of a woman in Melbourne’s outer south-east last night, according to police.

Emergency services were called to a home in Clyde North on Sunday evening at about 6.30pm after reports a woman had been seriously injured.

The woman was found critically injured in the home and was taken to hospital with life threatening injuries, where she later died.

Police arrested a 32-year-old man at the property. They believe he was known to the woman. He was charged with one count of murder and will appear in the Melbourne magistrates court today.

Paterson again hoses down possibility of Liberal-One Nation coalition

Paterson also sought to hose down the possibility of a Liberal coalition with One Nation, after Liberal senator Andrew Bragg appeared to leave the door open to it, in some roundabout comments on the Today Show.

Paterson said:

I think Angus Taylor’s made the position of the Liberal party very clear. My assessment is it’s widely supported by colleagues. We have one coalition partner already, which is the party, our traditional coalition partner, and we are not in the market for any other coalition partners …

I’d be surprised if Andrew Bragg is advocating for a coalition with One Nation. That’s not my understanding of his views. I think he made a sensible point that we’ll work out our preferences in the normal time, in the normal way, closer to the election.

Latest US tariffs on Australia ‘unjustified’, James Paterson says

The 12.5% tariff imposed on Australia by the US government is “unjustified” and should be reconsidered, the shadow defence spokesperson, James Paterson, has said.

The tariffs were imposed after a US trade investigation into forced labour and international supply chains. Speaking to ABC RN, Paterson said:

It’s unjustified. Australia is not a haven of slave labour-produced goods and it’s inconsistent with the spirit and the letter, in my view, of our free trade agreement and the partnership that we have with the United States, which is very deep and very sincere and very important. And I’d really hope that the administration reconsiders applying tariffs like these to countries like Australia.

Paterson, who has recently been in the US and met with Pentagon officials, said the US sentiment towards Australia on Aukus, however, was “very positive”:

[The US has] had their very well-publicised review about Aukus and they’ve made an active decision to proceed with Aukus. And so the focus is now delivering … Everybody acknowledges there is more work to be done on increasing those submarine production rates to make them where we all want them to be.

Culture of debate ‘not valued as it should be’ within Labor, Husic says

Labor’s Ed Husic has said there was “an extraordinary amount of energy expended” at Labor’s national conference last week on stopping his motion to recognise Israel’s campaign in Gaza as a genocide from even reaching the floor, rather than allowing it to be debated.

Husic told ABC’s RN this morning:

I am concerned … the climate that exists in the party at the moment about having a different view is one that’s not valued as it should be. We bring perspectives from constituencies we represent on issues we feel strongly about, and that you want to be able to have those voices represented, particularly at the floor of conference.

He said there’s a large constituency that want this issue to be “ventilated and importantly, responded to”.

There’s a lot of support. I have to say, I’ve been really grateful for the support that I’ve received from rank-and-file members, from our supporters, from people in the public who believe it’s right to be able to have – you may not agree with the issue but believe it’s important to speak about. But a lot of party members feel strongly on this issue about what’s happened in Gaza, what’s happening in the West Bank, and they do want the government to be part of a process to stand up to that.

He continued:

I’ve been forward about the ideas that I believe strongly in, and on this issue in particular, that when Israel undertook a campaign in Gaza during our last term of government in the Rudd Gillard years, my son had just been born and I saw a father in Gaza taking a two-year-old out of rubble. And I rang the Israeli ambassador at that point and said, where do you think this ends? Like, my view is there’s got to be space for both Israelis and Palestinians.

It’s something I’ve spoken about for ages. It’s something I’ve spoken about as a minister. And while I don’t necessarily ascribe my faith to all the things that I do in public life, on this, as Australia’s first minister of Muslim faith, and where I express views early on, and where I come from a Bosnian Muslim background, where we have witnessed genocide – that took 10 years to establish as a genocide. Like, I am going to have views about it. And I think it’s only fair that I be able to express them.