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Key events
Former Rio Tinto boss to lead defence procurement watchdog
Tess Ikonomou
Former mining boss Kellie Parker has been tasked to lead the new defence agency responsible for overseeing the delivery of projects worth hundreds of billions of dollars on time and budget.
The Albanese government will today announce Parker, who used to run Rio Tinto’s Australian business, has been appointed to the role of national armaments director for a five-year term.
She begins next month at the new independent defence delivery agency which has been operational since July, and was set up in response to cost blowouts and lacklustre project management.
The government had been looking to the private sector to fill the position as Labor pumps tens of billions of extra spending into defence.
Defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, pointed to Parker’s experience in bringing cultural change to the mining company after the destruction of the ancient Juukan Gorge rock shelters in 2020.
He said other senior female appointments including the first woman to lead the army, Lt Gen Susan Coyle, were merit-based.
They’ve both dealt with male-dominated industries with cultures that are pretty rough and challenging for women, and so they’re perfect people to lead that cultural journey.
Malicious actors using AI to find vulnerabilities, defence minister warns
The defence minister, Richard Marles, is doing the rounds this morning to address the Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) annual cyber threat report.
It warns Australians to prepare for more basic and important online services to go offline unexpectedly and urges businesses and critical infrastructure to use cutting-edge AI models to defend against digital threats.
Marles told News24 this morning:
If you’ve got an old system which is attached to the internet, it is effectively a gateway to a malicious actor. You’ve really got to prioritise hardening your system, even if that’s at the expense of access to it.
Malicious actors, are now able to use AI to find vulnerabilities in the systems of organisations and companies, and they’re doing that to exploit them.
Tess Ikonomou
Female and First Nations public servants facing ‘more egregious’ abuse online, parliament hears
A federal departmental boss has warned female public servants are experiencing more “more egregious forms of abuse” on social media following complaints from bureaucrats about what they claim is selective clipping of evidence being published online.
Last month, the Secretaries Board, which includes heads of departments, asked the federal government to introduce rules restricting testimony from being uploaded to platforms including X and Instagram.
They argued the clips were exposing public servants to ridicule and abuse, but their bid has been dismissed as an attempt to limit public accountability.
Steven Kennedy, secretary of the department of the prime minister and cabinet, told a parliamentary hearing yesterday that the board was concerned evidence had been taken out of context and edited in ways which invited hostility toward individual bureaucrats.
I would note that secretaries have observed that it is often female public servants and those from First Nations … backgrounds who experience the more egregious forms of abuse on social media.
Kat Wong
Thanks, Martin Farrer! I’ll steer us through politics for the rest of the morning.
Benita Kolovos
Liberal candidate’s husband allegedly assaulted in Melbourne confrontation
The husband of a Victorian Liberal party candidate has allegedly been assaulted during a confrontation over election signs.
A Liberal party spokesperson on Monday evening confirmed the husband of their candidate for Yan Yean, Amanda Dow, was involved in an alleged incident in Mernda yesterday afternoon.
They said:
We understand Ms Dow’s husband approached a member of the public who was removing Liberal party campaign signage and was allegedly assaulted. He suffered facial injuries and was taken to hospital and was discharged today.
Police confirmed a 59-year-old Mernda man had been charged with recklessly causing injury, criminal damage and unlawful assault over the incident, which they alleged occurred near Abundant Avenue and Bridge Inn Road at about 2pm yesterday.
“Police have been told the victim attended an address to retrieve political campaign signage when he was [allegedly] assaulted,” a spokesperson said.
They said the man has been bailed to appear before Heidelberg magistrates’ court on 1 February 2027.
The Liberal party spokesperson asked for privacy for Dow and her husband while he recovers.
It comes amid alarm about the safety of candidates in the wake of the Helen Haines attack and after Victoria’s emergency services minister said he thought he was being followed.
Lambie says Hanson hasn’t personally apologised over cartoon
Josh Taylor
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie says the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has yet to personally apologise to her over her party’s “Please Explain” cartoon that poked fun at her medical condition, as the candidate behind the cartoon refuses to apologise.
Hanson publicly apologised for the cartoon that depicted Lambie saying “I can’t laugh because of my prolapsed vagina” and the video was subsequently removed from online platforms.
However, Lambie told ABC’s 7.30 last night that Hanson “hasn’t emailed, messaged, even sent me a nice little card and said, ‘I’m really sorry for doing that’”.
Mark Nicholson – who is running in the Victorian state election for One Nation and is cofounder of Stepmates Studio which makes the cartoons – told 7.30 it was his job to “pick on people in the public realm” and he would not apologise:
Not right now. If I do anything that is apology-worthy, I’ll apologise.
Nicholson claimed he had “drawn quite a lot of attention” to the medical issue, rather than trivialising it.
Lambie said Nicholson should drop out of the election.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Kat Wong with the main action.
