MANHUNT AFTER VICTORIAN OFFICERS KILLED
A manhunt is underway after two Victorian police officers were killed and another seriously injured in a shooting at a property in the rural town of Porepunkah on Tuesday.
The AAP this morning reports the Victorian town, about 300 km north-east of Melbourne, spent last night in lockdown as police searched for the suspect, who is believed to be heavily armed. The BBC reports hundreds of officers have now been deployed as part of the investigation.
The newswire says ten officers were met with gunfire as they attended the property yesterday morning to execute a search warrant. A 59-year-old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable were shot dead.
Victoria Police chief commissioner Mike Bush told reporters yesterday: “They were met by the offender, and they were murdered in cold blood.” The Alfred Hospital said a third officer was in a serious but stable condition, Guardian Australia reports.
The AAP highlights the suspect has been named in media reports as 56-year-old Dezi Freeman. The Nine papers have led overnight with a feature on the alleged shooter, while the ABC says it has confirmed the name of the alleged gunman and said he identifies as a “sovereign citizen”. The national broadcaster also has a feature on the alleged suspect.
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Police have not officially confirmed the name of the suspect.
Victoria Police said in a statement yesterday: “Police have accounted for the whereabouts of the suspect’s family, with his partner and children attending a police station this evening.
“There is nothing to suggest they were ever in the company of the suspect following today’s incident. We urge the public in and around the township of Porepunkah to remain indoors until further notice. We also ask people not to travel into the area.”
Bush said in his press conference: “My message to that person is give yourself up, so that the community can be at peace and we can have this resolved peacefully.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan both paid tribute to the officers involved on Tuesday.
The Associated Press quotes Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt saying members of Victoria’s police union were stricken by a “shocking and eerie feeling of dread” and “police stations have fallen silent in Victoria when we were first notified”.
The AAP says the officers’ deaths mark the state’s biggest loss of police life since the 2020 Eastern Freeway crash in which four officers died.
IRAN VOWS ‘RECIPROCAL ACTION’
Iran has vowed to take “reciprocal action” after its ambassador was expelled from Australia following claims Tehran was behind at least two antisemitic attacks on Australian soil.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had “credible intelligence” to suggest the Iranian government was behind the attacks last year against the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne and Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Bondi, the AFP news agency recalls.
In response to the claims and the expulsion of ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and staff, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said: “The accusation that has been made is absolutely rejected”, adding “any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction”.
The AAP highlights Baqaei’s attempt to link the announcement to the ongoing diplomatic dispute between Australia and Israel and the Albanese government’s recognition of a Palestinian state. “It looks like the action, which is against Iran, diplomacy and the relations between the two nations, is a compensation for the criticism that the Australians had against the Zionist regime,” he said.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed: “Iran is paying the price for the Australian people’s support for Palestine”.
Writing on X, Araghchi also said: “I am not in the habit of joining causes with wanted war criminals, but Netanyahu is right about one thing: Australia’s PM is indeed a ‘weak politician’.”
On Tuesday, Albanese announced Australia was listing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group, withdrawing its own ambassador from Iran and suspending operations in Tehran.
The Australian Financial Review has led overnight with the latest on the story and recalls ASIO chief Mike Burgess saying IRGC commanders are accused of disguising their involvement in the attacks by using a series of “cut-outs” and proxies to pay criminals. Albanese said ASIO “assesses it is likely Iran directed further attacks as well”.
The paper says the government is now concerned Australians in Iran could be targeted in reprisals, flagging updated travel advice.
“If you’re in Iran, you should strongly consider leaving as soon as possible, if it is safe to do so. Foreigners in Iran, including Australians and dual Australian-Iranian nationals, are at a high risk of arbitrary detention or arrest. Our ability to provide consular assistance in Iran is extremely limited,” the advice now says.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
I suppose we could have gone with the most famous person in the world getting engaged as today’s Lighter Note, but given you’re probably already aware of that news, let’s instead go with panda twins Leni and Lotti celebrating their first birthday in style.
The pair were born at Berlin Zoo on August 22 last year and on Friday enjoyed frozen vegetable treats and a candle made out of bamboo shoots, France24 informs us.
The news channel says the cubs were the second pair of giant pandas born in Germany, the first being their elder brothers Meng Xiang and Meng Yuan.
Reuters carries important footage of the big birthday event, with Panda curator Florian Sicks quoted by the newswire as saying: “Today we’ve prepared a special birthday surprise for them … It’s extremely difficult to surprise giant pandas as they are very focused on bamboo, but they really seem to enjoy these ice balls.”
Say What?
WOW! SEAN HANNITY: “GAVIN, YOU’RE DOING GREAT. I’M PROUD OF YOU!” EVEN FOX NEWS AGREES THAT I, GAVIN C. NEWSOM AM THE #1 GOVERNOR IN U.S. HISTORY. ONLY I CAN CHANGE HEARTS, MINDS, AND FOX’S AWFUL RATINGS! AN HONOR!!! — GCN
Gavin Newsom
The governor of California continues to post on social media in the style of the US president as part of his trolling of Donald Trump. The Atlantic and Politico have recently written features on the tactic, and as the latter puts it: “Gavin Newsom is holding a mirror up to MAGA — and MAGA doesn’t like what it sees.”
CRIKEY RECAP
The role of the absurd in Trumpland
A person wearing a mask depicting US President Donald Trump (Image: Reuters/David ‘Dee’ Delgado)
The absurdity of the Trump era is louder and more brazen, perhaps because these are qualities of the times that shaped him. Outrage over Cracker Barrel, TV’s aging Superman, and the president bragging about how much gold he has in his office while wearing a cap that reads “Trump was right about everything” is of a piece with the general sense of distorting unreality that Trump actively cultivates.
An ongoing Crikey series looks at how the Trump administration’s actions, as opposed to its rhetoric, mirror those of fascist governments. But it’s important to note that the absurdity of the US president’s politics pushes beyond rhetoric — it’s a crucial part of the muscle and sinew in his exertion of power.
Australia’s capital class remains too focused on profit to truly address productivity
At least we have seen some focus on intergenerational inequality, which in large part has come from the Australian policy habit of grandfathering concessions for older generations while asking younger generations to pay for it. This isn’t new: a recent ANU study found the “pre-tax income of Australians aged over 60 was 65% of the population aged 18-60 and the post-tax income is equal to 95% of their income”.
While there is at least some talk of wealth taxes, it is worth pointing out that it has been framed by the Australian Financial Review — largely seen as very sensible and without motive by the press gallery, despite being the paper of capital and therefore as objective as Green Left Weekly — as “an assault” on superannuation and wealth, rather than as a necessary redistribution (cue the “we worked very hard for our tax breaks” defence).
The Labor government has all the space in the world to make changes. It’s broadening the conversation. Now it just has to find the courage to use the power that it’s been handed to make the hard but necessary reforms people not only expect, but need.
The key figures underpinning the NDIS and its generational reform project
Health Minister Mark Butler wants to make generational changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), diverting children with autism or developmental delays off the scheme and into a new program dubbed “Thriving Kids”. States and territories may have felt blindsided by the move, announced last week, but Butler expects them to eventually help fund the new program.
In our latest instalment of Paint by Numbers, we present the key figures involved in the massive reform project.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Brittany Higgins to learn defamation fate over posts (AAP)
Growing push for early decision on climate policy wedges Ley (The Conversation)
Hostage families protest in Israel as global outrage deepens over Gaza hospital attack (CNN)
The deadly risks of reporting in Gaza (The New York Times) ($)
‘I will walk out the motherf***ing door’: Vanity Fair boss sparks fury with Melania Trump cover idea (Daily Beast) ($)
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announce engagement on social media (The Guardian)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Shock tactics: Why Albanese had to send the Iranians packing — James Massola (The Age): The practical effect on the Australian economy and the diplomatic relationship may not matter much.
But symbolically, the expulsion of Sadeghi is a big deal because of the message it sends to Iran, and other nations such as China and Russia engaged in foreign interference operations on Australian soil, that they will be called out and publicly humiliated if caught.
Australia might be on the other side of the world to the Middle East, but these Iranian influence operations are a reminder that we are on the front lines when it comes to foreign interference.
Correct decision to move on Iran, but far too late — Greg Sheridan (The Australian): The Albanese government is absolutely right to expel the Iranian ambassador and three of his colleagues, and to move to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.
These are serious, even historic, actions, taken for the right reasons. They are tough, and proportionate to the offence uncovered.
The Iranian government, on the evidence of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police, has directed at least two serious antisemitic attacks in Australia and almost certainly more. On any measure, these are gross, illegal and unacceptable actions. The Albanese government deserves wide bipartisan and community support for its decisions.
