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What we learned; Tuesday 15 July

With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening. Thanks for following along, Nick Visser will be back first thing tomorrow morning.

Until then, here were today’s major developments:

Traditional Owners have warned their communities will be the first climate refugees in Australia after their case arguing the federal government breached its duty of care to protect the Torres Strait Islands from climate change was dismissed.

More families will be contacted by Victorian authorities to get their children tested for sexually transmitted infections after police established alleged paedophile Joshua Dale Brown worked at four more childcare centres.

Australian journalists in China for prime minister Anthony Albanese’s visit were blocked by local authorities and questioned about their visas and recording permissions.

The former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas, who was injured during an interaction with police, has pleaded not guilty to three charges.

And the Country Fire Authority “strongly condemned” a group of volunteer firefighters for writing offensive slogans about the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, including “ditch the bitch” on their truck.

Updated at 10.38 CEST

Bodies of elderly man and woman found in Sydney house

The bodies of an elderly man and woman have been discovered in separate rooms at a house in Sydney’s south, NSW police say.

About 2pm today, police responded to concern for welfare reports at a house on Knight Street in Arncliffe.

The bodies of a man and woman were located in different rooms in the house, police said, and were “believed to have been at the location for a considerable amount of time”.

Whilst identities are yet to be confirmed the man is believed to aged in his 70’s and the woman in her 90’s.

A crime scene was established, and an investigation was underway.

Updated at 10.21 CEST

Queensland man facing charges after baby’s death

A man has been charged with manslaughter after the death of a seven-month-old boy in a rural Queensland town on Sunday.

Emergency services were called to a park off Gympie Curra Road in Chatsworth, Gympie, about 10.40am on Sunday, 13 July, after reports the baby was found unresponsive.

The child was transported to hospital for treatment but he was declared dead that evening.

After investigations, Queensland police arrested a 42-year-old man, who was known to the child, in Bundamba today. He has been charged with manslaughter (domestic violence) and is due to appear before Ipswich magistrates court tomorrow.

Updated at 10.16 CEST

Luca Ittimani

I’ll hand over now to Caitlin Cassidy to run you through the evening’s news. Thanks for staying with us today.

Man charged over allegedly detaining teen while pretending to be a police officer

A man who allegedly impersonated a police officer and detained a teenager at a Sydney supermarket has been charged.

The 59-year-old man allegedly stopped a 16-year-old boy at a supermarket in Forest Lodge in the city’s inner west at midday on Friday, before taking out a silver badge in a black leather wallet.

Police said the man accused the boy of stealing from the store then took him to an office at the back of the supermarket. The boy’s mother came to the store soon after, where it is alleged the man again claimed he was a police officer and showed the same badge before demanding she pay $500.

The woman purchased a gift card from the store, police said. Local police were notified that afternoon and began investigating.

The man was arrested at Balmain police station and charged with take/detain person with intent to obtain advantage, impersonate police officer and exercise powers/functions, stalk/intimidate intend fear physical etc harm (personal) and common assault. He was given bail to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday 23 July 2025.

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Shadow home affairs minister lists demands for action after antisemitism report

Shadow home affairs minister Andrew Hastie has urged the Labor government to focus on a visa crackdown, inquiry into universities and a dedicated law enforcement taskforce, in its response to Jillian Segal’s antisemitism report.

The government is mulling its response to Segal’s 49 recommendations, handed down last week. There’s no public timeline for when the government will respond or give its path forward on addressing antisemitism, but home affairs minister Tony Burke has downplayed the prospect of stripping universities of funding, and said immigration authorities already screened for antisemitic sentiment.

In a statement, Hastie said the Coalition backed the antisemitism report and said the opposition would “work constructively” with the government on its response. But he claimed Labor was “doing too little too late.”

He said the Coalition had already “consistently advocated for more action in the areas identified in the plan”, noting specifically the opposition’s calls for a dedicated law enforcement taskforce, more action to cancel the visas of anti-Semites, a judicial inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities, and “preventing taxpayer money going to organisations with extremist views”. He said:

It shouldn’t have taken a report for the government to finally consider serious action.

The Special Envoy’s plan makes it clear that there is an antisemitism crisis gripping Australia, and it is past time the prime minister stopped admiring the problem and started showing leadership. The Coalition stands ready to work constructively with the government to implement the plan’s recommendations.

Updated at 09.50 CEST

Marles prepared for ‘usual’ Chinese monitoring of war games

The deputy prime minister has said the government is prepared for “business as usual” Chinese surveillance of a key Australian-United States war game ensuring the fitness of Australia’s defence force.

Richard Marles, also Australia’s defence minister, said the ongoing 35,000-person Talisman Sabre exercise could be surveilled as it had been in the past. He told the ABC:

It certainly has [been watched] in past iterations of Talisman Sabre, so that would be business as usual. We are obviously prepared in the event that occurs. It will be what it will be.

The war game is undertaken every two years and jointly planned by Australia and the United States while including 17 nations. It is key not only to certifying the ADF’s capabilities but also improving collaboration with the US, the deputy prime minister said.

Marles further said it was important that Anthony Albanese had directly raised Australia’s concerns about China’s lack of notice over live fire exercise in Australian waters in his meeting with Xi Jinping on Tuesday. He said:

It is about being consistent with China in relation to what our position is, that is the importance of dialogue of this kind. Nobody is expecting every issue to be resolved between Australia and China in a meeting of this kind but it really is important that China has a clear understanding of where we stand.

Updated at 09.34 CEST

Albanese cites ‘different system’ in Chinese security confronting Australian reporters

The prime minister has attributed confrontation of Australian journalists by Chinese security guards to China’s “different system” when asked if he was concerned by the incident.

Members of media crews covering Anthony Albanese’s visit to China said they had been followed by local authorities early today and told to hand over their footage and not leave the area. Asked if he held concerns, Albanese said:

I’m here, paying my respect to the media here. That is what I do. China has a different system obviously with the media, but certainly I am here, being accountable, I came straight here, and I’m going straight back.

You can read more about the incident here:

Updated at 09.12 CEST

PM says China and US ‘separate’ relationships for Australia

Anthony Albanese said Australia’s relationship with China is separate from its connection to the US after discussing options for further economic engagement with Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Asked about how the United States had featured in his conversation with the Chinese president, Albanese said the conversation had focused on the relationship between Australian and China. He told reporters:

Our relationship with China is separate. China is a major trading partner … Trade with the US is important, but is less than 5%.

What Australia is doing is engaging not just with China, but we engage as well with our partners around the world and we increasingly want to see a diversification of our trade.

Albanese said Xi raised no concerns over his government’s tightening of the foreign investment regime or plans to take the port of Darwin back into Australian hands.

The prime minister said he had discussed economic ties between the two governments, including a forthcoming review of Australia and China’s trade agreement first signed in 2015:

President Xi Jinping and I agreed dialogue must be at the centre of our relationship. We also discussed our economic relationship which is critical to Australia, we spoke about the potential for new engagement in areas such as decarbonisation. …

If you don’t have communication, you can have misadventure and misinterpretation.

Updated at 09.00 CEST

Albanese and Xi discuss Australian held in China

The prime minster has said he had raised the case of Yang Hengjun, an Australian detained in China, with Xi Jinping but was not expecting an immediate outcome, as his government continues diplomatic efforts to secure Yang’s release.

Anthony Albanese told reporters after meeting with China’s president:

You wouldn’t expect there to be an immediate outcome, and that is not the way things work. The way it works is by that patient calibrated advocacy. What Australians do, what my government does and I point to the record of my government when it comes to these issues.

Asked about Yang’s friends and family’s criticism of his government’s efforts to end Yang’s detention, Albanese hit back:

I am certainly not going to comment on what the family of someone who is detained here or anywhere else [says]. That would be inappropriate and insensitive. I understand the pressures that are on people when a loved one has been incarcerated.

What we will do, though, is put forward our views in a diplomatic way in order to try to maximise an outcome.

Updated at 09.02 CEST

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