Australia news live: Anika Wells refers expenses to parliamentary watchdog; where and when to see the aurora australis

Firefighter who died battling blaze named

Daisy Dumas

A “treasured and long-serving” New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service firefighter who died after being struck by a falling tree in a bushfire has been named as John Lohan.

The divisional commander was killed in Nerong on the state’s mid-north coast on Sunday night. He had been working in a “critical leadership role on the fire ground, ensuring the safety of his firefighters and the community”, the NSW NPWS said.

Lohan, 59, had been based at the service’s Lake Munmorah depot for almost 30 years and had been deployed to fires across the state.

In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, Lohan’s family thanked the public for their support and said they were “deeply grateful to John’s coworkers for their compassion and strength”.

The ongoing contributions of the men and women of the NPWS, they said, “often go unrecognised, and we truly value the role they play on the frontline every day”.

The news of John’s passing has come as a profound shock to us all. John was a great father, loving brother and wonderful friend to everyone who knew him. He will be greatly missed.

Updated at 07.06 CET

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What we learned today, Tuesday 9 December

We’ll leave our live coverage of the news there for today. These were Tuesday’s top stories:

Updated at 08.42 CET

First home buyers battling for shrinking share of market

First home buyers are typically buying homes priced under $760,000 but the share of homes within that budget has shrunk to just over one in 10, new analysis shows.

The average first home buyer’s purchase has risen in price from about $560,000 to about $760,000 in the five years from 2020 to 2025, according to KPMG analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

The share of homes within that budget is shrinking, though. While the average first-time purchase price could afford 30% of properties in 2020, it covers just 12% in 2025.

The average first home buyer could only afford 5% of homes in New South Wales in 2025 – unchanged from 2020. In South Australia, where average first-time budget could have bought 75% of homes in 2020, it only buys 25% in 2025.

Households would also now need to earn incomes of about $180,000 to service the average first-time loan, compared to $150,000 in 2020.

Aurora australis tonight – how can you watch?

An aurora australis could appear later tonight, the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast.

Visible aurora could be seen in Tasmania and southern parts of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia during local night hours.

Adelaide and Perth are set to have clear skies, providing the best chance of seeing the lights. Melbourne and Hobart may have some cloud cover.

The colours displayed by the aurora will appear overhead and be easier to see with the naked eye for those living closer to the south pole, the BoM says. For those further north, auroras will appear closer to the horizon.

The BoM recommends skywatchers find a location with low light pollution and an unobstructed view to the south.

Auroras result from disturbances to the Earth’s magnetic field, as charged particles interact with gases and dust in the atmosphere. The astronomical incident follows an even bigger aurora event last month, generating stunning sky colours across Australia’s south:

Updated at 08.35 CET

Victorian government makes formal apology to First Nations people – video

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, made a formal apology to First Nation people earlier today for the harm inflicted upon them by the state and colonisers.

The apology was previously agreed to in the statewide treaty, signed into law in November.

Watch the moment below:

Victorian government makes formal apology to First Nations people – videoShare

Airline ordered to pay families of MH370 victims

A Beijing court has ruled that Malaysian Airlines must pay 2.9m yuan ($A618,830) each to the families of eight passengers who went missing in the mysterious disappearance of the MH370 flight more than a decade ago, AP reports.

Six Australian citizens and two residents were among the 239 people on board the Malaysia Airlines flight bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur when it was lost on 8 March 2014. Most of the passengers were Chinese and their families in China have continued to seek answers.

The court ordered the airline to pay each family compensation for the death of their loved one, funeral expenses, and damages stemming from emotional distress, it said in a statement on Monday.

Although it is not known what happened to the passengers, they have been declared legally dead. There were 239 passengers and crew members on the flight that disappeared after departing Kuala Lumpur for Beijing in 2014.

The Malaysian government said last week it would resume a search for the missing plane on December 30. Read more here:

Firefighters warn Tasmanian blaze will put lives in danger

The Tasmania Fire Service warned locals in Stieglitz, on the state’s north-east coast, to leave immediately in a new bushfire emergency warning.

An uncontrolled bushfire is expected to put lives in danger and may destroy homes, generating thick smoke and showers of embers, the TFS has warned.

Firefighters were attending the blaze at Dianas Basin, near St Helens, as it travelled between Aerodrome Road and Jetty Road, Stieglitz.

Smoke and ash was expected to make it difficult to see and breathe and conditions would change quickly, the TFS said in an alert.

Updated at 07.26 CET

Key takeaways from RBA interest rate decision

The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock spoke after the RBA left interest rates on hold and does not expect to cut rates in coming months.

Here’s what else the governor said:

Rate hikes are a serious option. Bullock said the board didn’t “explicitly consider” raising interest rates today but it did discuss raising if recently observed rapid price rises start to spread.

Inflation’s pick-up is worrying and doesn’t appear to be a one-off, but the RBA still wants to wait and see whether it endures into the new year before changing rates.

Energy rebates have confused inflation forecasts made the RBA’s job harder. Now the federal government has decided not to extend them, the bank expects less distortion.

Economic growth and job markets are looking strong. “A lot of the downside risks seem to have abated a bit,” Bullock said.

The forward view is becoming clearer, so the RBA’s commentary is losing some of characteristic caution: “Now, the message clearly is [about] upside risks so we can be a little bit clearer.”“

Over the course of the press conference, markets became more certain rate hikes are on the way, signalled by the Australian dollar rising above 66.5 US cents and the ASX200 slipping slightly to close at 8,585.9 points.

Updated at 07.15 CET

Firefighter who died battling blaze named

Daisy Dumas

A “treasured and long-serving” New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service firefighter who died after being struck by a falling tree in a bushfire has been named as John Lohan.

Lohan, 59, had been based at the service’s Lake Munmorah depot for almost 30 years and had been deployed to fires across the state.

In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, Lohan’s family thanked the public for their support and said they were “deeply grateful to John’s coworkers for their compassion and strength”.

The ongoing contributions of the men and women of the NPWS, they said, “often go unrecognised, and we truly value the role they play on the frontline every day”.

The news of John’s passing has come as a profound shock to us all. John was a great father, loving brother and wonderful friend to everyone who knew him. He will be greatly missed.

Updated at 07.06 CET

Josh Taylor

X expected to comply with the social media ban

Elon Musk’s X platform is the only one out of the 10 named as needing to comply with the under-16s social media ban that has not publicly confirmed whether it will do so and what it will mean for its users.

However, the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, told ABC RN this morning that she had spoken to X about how the platform was planning to comply.

She said:

I actually had a conversation with X a week or two ago, and they actually walked us through how they were going to comply. They haven’t communicated to the user base, which is a bit disappointing because that is best practice.

X has not responded to requests to confirm it would comply with the ban. In September, X argued the start date should be delayed by six months, arguing there were concerns about the lawfulness of the ban.

X’s Australian regulations page still says “anyone above the age of 13 can sign up for the service” as of Tuesday afternoon.

The ban is due to commence at 12.01am tomorrow in times local to each state and territory.

Anika Wells self-refers expenses for investigation

Josh Butler

The communications minister, Anika Wells, says she has referred her entitlement spending to parliament’s expenses watchdog but maintains she believes she has remained within the rules.

The communications minister, Anika Wells. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

In a statement just now, the minister said:

I remain confident all my travel and expenses is within the framework but for the avoidance of doubt I have self-referred my expenditure to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority for an audit.

Wells has come under criticism from the Coalition for her spending on family reunion travel but the scrutiny is now widening to other members of the government and Coalition members as well.

Updated at 07.32 CET

Dan Jervis-Bardy

Minister’s office misled on triple zero death, parliamentary inquiry hears

Anika Wells’ office was wrongly assured that a person had not died after failing to connect to triple zero in late September, leaving her and her department in the dark about the fatality until a last-minute notification from Telstra ahead of the telco’s appearance at a senate inquiry.

Federal communication department official Sam Grunhard made the explosive revelation in evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday afternoon.

Grunhard said Telstra contacted the department on 24 September to advise him that a person had died in Wentworth Falls, New South Wales, after failing to connect to triple zero.

After Telstra and TPG Telecom confirmed that the matter was under investigation, Grunhard said he notified Wells’ chief-of-staff about the incident.

The suspected death was not publicly revealed by Wells, who was in New York on the trip that has ignited her ongoing expenses controversy.

But in a major twist, Grunhard revealed that two days later, on 26 September, TPG told him there was “no fatality associated with the incident”.

He told the committee:

So of course, I immediately then pass that information on to the minister’s office, and I can tell you, everybody in the department and the minister’s office were very relieved to learn that, in fact, there was no fatality associated with this incident.

He said the minister’s office and the department continued to believe there had not been a death until Telstra contacted him late on Monday to “raise a concern that there seemed to be a difference in understanding about the 24 September incident”.

Life sentence for former nurse after killing Toyah Cordingley

A former nurse must serve a 25-year non-parole period for fatally stabbing Toyah Cordingley, seven years after her body was discovered on an isolated beach, AAP reports.

Rajwinder Singh, 41, was on Tuesday given a life sentence a day after being found guilty of murder in Cairns’ supreme court after a four-week retrial. He had pleaded not guilty to murder.

Singh, 41, repeatedly stabbed Cordingley and slashed her throat at a far-north Queensland beach in October 2018 before fleeing to India, spending years in hiding.

Cordingley, 24, was discovered by her father half-buried in sand dunes at Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns, a day after she failed to return from walking her dog.

A jury reached a guilty verdict on Monday after about seven hours of deliberating.

Singh’s first trial ended in a hung jury eight months ago.

Updated at 06.33 CET

RBA decision ‘a small mercy’, says Australia Institute

The progressive thinktank the Australia Institute has released a statement about the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to hold the cash rate.

The institute says it shows the RBA doesn’t really know which way inflation is trending.

Greg Jericho, chief economist at the institute, says if the RBA had hiked rates today in response to the most recent inflation data, it would have been a brutal knee-jerk reaction, especially with real wage growth slowing. In a statement, Jericho says the slight uptick in inflation is likely to be short-term, due to the ending of government power bill subsidies:

The truth is, market predictions of rate hikes and cuts will swing with new data on inflation, economic growth, real wages and unemployment.

The RBA has chosen to wait and see. That’s at least a small mercy for mortgage holders a fortnight out from Christmas.

Updated at 06.15 CET

Tom McIlroy

Parliamentary review of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps listing as state sponsor of terrorism

Parliament’s powerful Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has announced the start of a review on the listing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Under Australian law, listings are made through changes to the Criminal Code.

The move follows revelations from security agencies that the Iranian government allegedly used third parties to order a fire bombing attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, along with an arson on Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney.

Listing activates criminal offences for directing, financing, recruiting and supporting state sponsors of terrorism, with penalties of up to 25 years’ imprisonment.

“This is the first organisation listed as a state sponsor of terrorism under laws recently passed by the Australian Parliament,” the PJCIS chair, Raff Ciccone said.

“The committee’s review will give the Australian community an opportunity to have their say on the listing of the IRGC and ensure that appropriate processes have been followed”.

Public submissions are open until 23 January next year.

Bullock says further interest rate cuts are not ‘on the horizon’

Patrick Commins

The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, has essentially ruled out further mortgage relief, saying further cuts are not “on the horizon”.

Speaking at a press conference in Sydney, Bullock said “given what’s happening with underlying momentum in the economy … it does look like additional cuts are not needed”.

“I don’t think there are interest rate cuts on the horizon for the foreseeable future.”

The RBA board did not consider the case for a rate hike at today’s meeting, she said. But members did “discuss quite a lot” what might lead them to lift the cash rate next year.

“We did consider and discuss quite a lot what were the circumstances and what might need to happen if we were to decide that interest rates had to rise at some time next year,” she said.

Updated at 06.06 CET

RBA governor says rate decisions will be made ‘meeting by meeting’

Asked if it was plausible that a the board could decide on a rate hike in February, Bullock says the board will monitor whether inflation is persistent:

If inflation continues to be persistent and looks like it is not coming back down towards the target, then I think that does raise questions about how tight financial conditions are and the board might have to consider whether or not it’s appropriate to keep interest rates where they are or in fact at some point raise them.

I wouldn’t put a timing on that. It’s going to be a meeting by meeting decision.

Updated at 05.42 CET

Bullock: there was no cut on the table

The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, is speaking to reporters at a press conference in Sydney.

Speaking about the RBA’s decision to leave interest rates on hold at 3.6%, Bullock says the board did not consider the case for a rate cut:

There was no cut on the table and no one suggested that there be a cut.

Updated at 05.39 CET

Opposition claims RBA cash rate decision ‘tragic news’ ahead of Christmas

The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien, says the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to hold the cash rate is “tragic news for households” ahead of Christmas:

The government promised Australians the opposite of what they are delivering. Everybody is being held back, everybody is being left behind. The opposite of what Labor has promised.

O’Brien says Jim Chalmers has failed to “stop his spending spree and he has failed to start growing the economic pie”. He says there are “too many” young Australians who cannot afford to buy a home:

Every time they try to look at that online mortgage calculator, the numbers just do not add up. Today’s decision will continue to see it very difficult to add up. In fact, next year it will be even more expensive for young Australians who want to enter the property market.

Updated at 05.31 CET

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