Australia news live: Brereton tells Nacc inquiry he has acted appropriately in defence matters despite concerns over his role at watchdog

Nacc boss says tells inquiry he has acted appropriately in defence matters

Tom McIlroy

The head of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc), Paul Brereton, has told a parliamentary committee he has acted appropriately in dealing with defence matters, despite concerns about his role at the watchdog.

Brereton clarified his role in assisting the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF), including on matters related to the Afghanistan war crimes inquiry, which Brereton previously led.

His involvement in defence matters has caused controversy for the Nacc, and raised a series of conflict-of-interest complaints.

Brereton told the committee he has been approached for assistance about 22 times, and estimates he has spent about 24 hours in total over more than two years on the matter.

“I have unique knowledge of the Afghanistan inquiry, which cannot be sourced elsewhere. Since it was completed in 2020, and before my appointment as commissioner, that required ongoing consultation with me from time to time, and when my appointment as commissioner was under consideration, I anticipated it would continue to do so,” he said, adding:

It would be a waste of time and resources, and utterly unreasonable if the IGADF could not, in furtherance of implementing my recommendations, seek and obtain information from me.

The only persons who would benefit if I did not do that are those who don’t want the recommendations to be implemented, or don’t want the office of the special investigator, who is responsible for the criminal investigations that I recommended be instituted, to be able to do their job.

Updated at 03.11 CET

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BoM rolls out updates to new website after community feedback

The Bureau of Meteorology released a new round of updates to its website today after a controversial $96.5m redesign that went live in October to the consternation of many.

The BoM says the new website has seen nearly 75m visits, 67% of which came from mobile devices, since it launched and received more than 400,000 pieces of “feedback”. In response, the agency has:

Added shortcuts to the rain radar and weather maps page to the homepage.

Made it easier to customise the map.

Refined warning icons, displaying them as yellow for active warnings and grey for cancelled ones.

Updated fire danger ratings tables on state and territory pages.

There are several other changes, which you can find here.

Updated at 03.20 CET

SA courts closed and prisons in 96-hour lockdown during strike

Major courts have shut their doors and South Australia’s publicly run prisons remain in lockdown as an ongoing pay dispute escalates into widespread strike action, AAP reports.

More than 1,000 corrections officers across the state voted to strike on Monday, and on Thursday they voted to extend it to 96 hours, calling on the government to increase pay rates, lift staff numbers and improve safety.

The corrections officers’ strike has plunged the prison system into a four-day lockdown, with more than 2,000 prisoners confined to their cells since 7.30am on Monday.

All striking staff will reconvene on Friday morning to decide whether to take further action.

Corrections officers are striking over what they say is an inadequate pay offer, a surge in violence in prisons and a crisis in staffing levels caused by low wages.

ShareJack Snape

Australian Olympic Committee announces motherhood payments

Female Olympians will be paid $10,000 if they have a baby and pledge to return to top-level sport, as part of a suite of new funding initiatives from the Australian Olympic Committee designed to ease financial suffering for elite athletes.

The new measures also include a $32,000 “retirement grant” for Australians who appear at the next two summer and winter Olympics, to be paid in the 2040s and 2050s, and a new team selection payment of $5,000 for those selected at a summer or winter Games.

Alyce Wood, the AOC Athletes’ Commission deputy chair, and a canoeist and mother, said the baby payment is a “gamechanger” that “actually acknowledges what athletes are dealing with and gives them the support they need to build long, sustainable careers, in sport and in whatever comes next”.

Alyce Wood speaks during an Australian Olympic Committee event on Thursday. Photograph: Jason McCawley/Getty Images for AOC

The AOC president, Ian Chesterman, said Thursday’s announcement was his organisation’s “most significant funding announcement” since the establishment in the 1990s of the Australian Olympic Foundation. That entity has grown an initial $90m in seed investment to a fund of around $200m, allowing support for Olympians separate to government funding.

The payments are set to cost the AOC more than $50m over the next two Olympic cycles, and are in addition to the government’s support of sport through high-performance funding and medal payments.

Updated at 02.57 CET

Nacc boss says tells inquiry he has acted appropriately in defence matters

Tom McIlroy

His involvement in defence matters has caused controversy for the Nacc, and raised a series of conflict-of-interest complaints.

Brereton told the committee he has been approached for assistance about 22 times, and estimates he has spent about 24 hours in total over more than two years on the matter.

It would be a waste of time and resources, and utterly unreasonable if the IGADF could not, in furtherance of implementing my recommendations, seek and obtain information from me.

Updated at 03.11 CET

Caitlin Cassidy

Darwin students celebrating the VCE

The only school offering the VCE outside of Victoria has received its best ever results this year. At Haileybury Rendall School in Darwin, 40% of students received an Atar of 90 or above, placing them in the top 10% of students nationwide.

Its median Atar was 86.5, marking the school’s highest performance in its eighth year of operation. Ten of the year 12 students to complete their certificate were Indigenous and travelled from remote parts of the Northern Territory to attend the school.

Its principal, Andrew McGregor, said the “best-ever” results were a testimony to brilliant teaching, a positive school learning culture and hard-working students:

Our students have absolutely smashed it this year and shown what young people in the Territory can achieve with the right support and high expectations.

Haileybury was founded in Melbourne in 1892 and now has four campuses in Victoria, one in China and a virtual campus, Pangea, in addition to its Darwin outpost.

Some 14% of students at its Darwin campus are Indigenous and 31% have a language background other than English.

Updated at 02.40 CET

Luca Ittimani

Albanese says he’s not focused on entitlements

The prime minister has said he’s not focused on entitlements rules and is more interested in the social media ban.

After a series of questions on ministerial expenses and his unwillingness to intervene and change the regulations, Anthony Albanese said:

My focus is not on entitlements and the finance minister’s rules, to be frank. My focus has been on this [social media ban].

Reporters continued to press him on entitlements rules. Asked whether he was happy for the expenses rules to stay as they are now, Albanese instead discussed the issue he’s focused on “today”:

What I’m focused on today, today, is an issue, which is a revolution. This issue is you will talk about for a lot longer than you talk about the issues which you are raising, which I accept are legitimate to be raised. I’ve answered multiple questions on it today. …

When you look back, and you will be able to write a book, maybe, on the period of the Labor government when you look back and you look at what are the five biggest things that we did, I tell you what, this will be one of them, and that’s what makes me proud.

The prime minister then ended the press conference.

ShareLuca Ittimani

Albanese won’t tighten MP expenses rules to avoid top-down influence

The prime minister has said he won’t tighten the rules on MPs’ travel, both to avoid influencing the rules “from the top” and because he is “not the finance minister”.

Anthony Albanese was repeatedly asked about his refusal to tighten ministerial expenses rules in the wake of revelations over Anika Wells’ and other ministers spending

Asked why he wouldn’t intervene to tighten the rules, Albanese said;

I think it’s important just like on the [remuneration] tribunal, setting our wages, that I don’t influence that from the top …

We haven’t changed the rules. We haven’t added to any entitlements. The rules have been there since they were put in place by the former government

The finance minister, with the prime minister’s support, can change the regulations without legislation. Albanese said, when asked whether he believed it was appropriate for ministers to unlimited travel expenses for spouses:

I’m not the finance minister. I haven’t changed the rule.

Updated at 02.08 CET

Luca Ittimani

US has the right to screen tourists’ social media, says Albanese

Albanese said the Trump administration has the right to pursue its plans to require tourists to reveal their social media activity for the past five years, revealed today.

Asked whether he was concerned by the announcement, Albanese said:

The United States, like Australia, is a sovereign nation. They have a right to set the rules which are there. And we give advice on Smart Traveller to Australians travelling to destinations overseas about what are the expectations of particular countries, be it the United States or other nations as well.

The Coalition’s shadow home affairs minister, Jonno Duniam, earlier said the move was “beyond what a freedom-loving” western democracy would do.

ShareLuca Ittimani

World leaders contacting Albanese on social media ban

Anthony Albanese has said world leaders have reached out to discuss the social media ban.

Speaking to reporters at a Canberra school, the prime minister pointed to his interviews with international media, before revealing foreign politicians were interested too:

World leaders have been in contact as well. They’re all engaged as well. We know that Malaysia will introduce reforms on January 1. Indonesia is introducing reforms. The European Union is engaged in this is a well. There’s actions in some of the US states in North America. So this is a big deal. This is Australia leading the world as we have in so many other areas. And that’s why I see it as a source of national pride.

Anika Wells, the communications minister, said she welcomed the international support for regulation of “one of the defining issues of our time”:

There’s been a huge amount of global interest and we welcome it, and I welcome all the allies joining Australia to take action in this space to draw a line and say enough’s enough.

Jobless rate steady despite surprise drop in employment

Patrick Commins

Unemployment was steady at 4.3% in November, despite a weaker than expected month for the jobs market that saw a 21,300 drop in the number of employed Australians.

Full-time employment dropped by a substantial 56,500 people, offset by a 35,200 rise in part-time workers, the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed.

Economists had expected employment to rise.

There was also a sharp lift in the rate of underemployment – which adds in those with jobs but who are trying to get more hours – from 5.7% to 6.2%, leaving it at the highest in more than a year.

Updated at 02.00 CET

Josh Butler

Albanese and Wells talk social media ban with school students

Anthony Albanese and the communications minister, Anika Wells, are visiting a school in Canberra to discuss the under-16s social media ban. We’ll get a press conference shortly.

Albanese and Wells are speaking to a few school students about the change. Most of them said that many of their friends had not yet been kicked off all online platforms, and that many remained online.

Wells responded that it might take “weeks, a few months” for all of the people under-16s to lose their access, but said that whether it was “in four weeks or four days” the laws would filter through.

All the students said there were mixed opinions among their friends, but that they themselves didn’t use social media much anyway. One student said their friends said “I really don’t like this, I want my social media back”.

Another student said some friends aren’t getting locked out, and some had said “It’s a bad idea we’ll find alternates anyway”.

Albanese replied: “They’ll get found out too”.

A third student said some of their friends said they’ll feel disconnected from the world – but added “I think it’ll bring friends together easier”.

Wells and Albanese said they believed the under-16s ban would have benefits including improved mental health, addressing online bullying, and increased communication between friends in real life.

Are Australian kids breaking the law if they sneak on to social media? – videoShare

Updated at 01.46 CET

Nino Bucci

Judgment in Greg Lynn appeal published

In the appeal judgment, the court of appeal justices said:

Unhappily, we have concluded that the conduct of prosecuting counsel so compromised the fairness of the applicant’s trial that a substantial miscarriage of justice resulted.

In those circumstances, the applicant’s conviction for murdering Mrs Clay cannot be permitted to stand. We would grant the applicant leave to appeal against his conviction; allow the appeal; set aside the conviction; and order a new trial.

Given our conclusions with respect to conviction it is unnecessary to consider the application with respect to sentence.

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