Gus Lamont’s ‘devastated’ grandmothers engage lawyers
Tory Shepherd
Lawyers have confirmed they are acting for the two grandmothers of missing four-year-old Gus Lamont.
Gus went missing from his family’s sheep station in September last year and was initially thought to have wandered off. After months of intensive searching, South Australian Police (SAPol) declared his disappearance a major crime on Thursday, and said that the suspect was someone who lived at the station.
Gus’s mother, younger brother and two grandmothers live at Oak Park Station, and his father lives elsewhere. Police ruled out the parents as suspects.
Gus Lamont. Photograph: SA POLICE/AAP
Andrew Ey is acting for Gus’s grandmother Josie Murray, and Casey Isaacs is acting for his other grandmother, Shannon Murray.
The lawyers said in a joint statement that their clients “will not be participating in any interviews nor commenting any further save and except that they wish to release a brief comment”, which was:
We are absolutely devastated by the media release of SAPol Major Crime. The family has cooperated fully with the investigation and want nothing more than to find Gus and reunite him with his mum and dad.
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Updated at 03.55 CET
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Five-day search for fugitive Dezi Freeman ends without a trace
Nino Bucci
An exhaustive search in the Victorian high country has ended without police finding any trace of fugitive Dezi Freeman.
Police suspect Freeman died only hours after he allegedly killed two officers and fled into bushland near Porepunkah in August.
There has been no proof of life recorded for Freeman since he fled from police, near the Mount Buffalo national park, about 15 minutes after he allegedly shot dead two officers – Det Sen Const Neal Thompson and Sen Const Vadim de Waart-Hottart.
Less than two hours after Freeman fled, police said a single gunshot was heard coming from the bushland – a report that was later corroborated by investigators. That sound may have been Freeman shooting himself, police believe.
That report led to police congregating in the region again on Monday morning as they undertook what senior officers said would be the largest Victorian manhunt in history.
But police confirmed early on Friday afternoon that the search had concluded, and no further updates were planned.
The latest search for Dezi Freeman has concluded. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The GuardianShare
All bushfire-affected arterial roads reopened in Victoria
All state-managed roads affected by the January bushfires in Victoria are now reopened, officials said earlier today.
Work to reopen local roads managed by councils is ongoing, but crews have been travelling across the state’s arterial road network to ensure they are safe to use. Those efforts have included removing debris, replacing guideposts and repainting road markings.
Victoria’s Department of Transport said some speeds on those roads were reduced due to remaining damage, but that they would revert as infrastructure repairs were finished.
The works were funded as part of a $81.8m package to repair the transport network after the fires.
A burnt road sign in Victoria. Photograph: Michael Currie/EPAShare
Updated at 04.02 CET
Gus Lamont’s ‘devastated’ grandmothers engage lawyers
Tory Shepherd
Lawyers have confirmed they are acting for the two grandmothers of missing four-year-old Gus Lamont.
Gus went missing from his family’s sheep station in September last year and was initially thought to have wandered off. After months of intensive searching, South Australian Police (SAPol) declared his disappearance a major crime on Thursday, and said that the suspect was someone who lived at the station.
Gus’s mother, younger brother and two grandmothers live at Oak Park Station, and his father lives elsewhere. Police ruled out the parents as suspects.
Gus Lamont. Photograph: SA POLICE/AAP
Andrew Ey is acting for Gus’s grandmother Josie Murray, and Casey Isaacs is acting for his other grandmother, Shannon Murray.
The lawyers said in a joint statement that their clients “will not be participating in any interviews nor commenting any further save and except that they wish to release a brief comment”, which was:
We are absolutely devastated by the media release of SAPol Major Crime. The family has cooperated fully with the investigation and want nothing more than to find Gus and reunite him with his mum and dad.
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Updated at 03.55 CET
Angus Taylor concedes he’s been ‘having conversations’ with colleagues about Liberal party’s future
Liberal frontbencher Angus Taylor has insisted he has no plans to roll his leader despite holding ambitions to serve in the party’s top job, AAP reports.
MPs and senators widely expect Taylor to challenge the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, for the role in the coming weeks, but disagree over whether he has the numbers to win a spill.
Sussan Ley and Angus Taylor. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Pressed on whether Ley would still be leader at the end of next week, Taylor said a coup was not in the works, but conceded he’d been “having conversations” with his colleagues about the party’s future.
“There is no plan,” he told Sydney radio station 2GB.
If I had a plan to remove Sussan as leader or put my hand up for the leadership, I would be telling Sussan Ley about that first; I wouldn’t be saying anything about it on this radio station.
Many Liberal insiders privately concede a challenge from Taylor is inevitable, and expect him to push for a spill as soon as next week.
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Updated at 03.12 CET
Coalition reunion in jeopardy
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The Liberals are poised to reject the Nationals’ latest offer to reunite the Coalition, increasing the chances of a longer-term split between the two parties.
Four Liberal sources briefed on the offer said the Nationals had refused to accept Sussan Ley’s demand that the three frontbenchers who crossed the floor on Labor’s hate speech laws serve a six-month suspension on the backbench.
Instead, the Nationals are proposing that all their former frontbenchers serve suspensions until the end of February, and that the parties remain apart during that time, the sources said.
Sussan Ley. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
The Nationals’ proposal would essentially delay the Monday deadline that Ley has set for announcing a Liberal-only frontbench, which would cement the Coalition split.
Multiple Liberal sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Nationals’ proposal was not being treated as a serious offer and was likely to be rejected unless revised.
One Liberal interpreted the Nationals’ offer as an attempt to make the Liberals appear responsible for blowing up the Coalition.
If the talks collapse, Ley is expected to bring forward the deadline for announcing her Liberal-only frontbench.
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Updated at 03.01 CET
Jonathan Barrett
Australian banks passed interest rate hikes on to mortgage holders – so why haven’t they done so for savings accounts?
Shortly after the Reserve Bank lifted the official cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point, major lenders announced mortgage interest rates would rise by the same amount.
Yet the interest rates that can grow their customer’s savings accounts are still “under review” – or the increases are being applied selectively – days after Tuesday’s announcement.
Photograph: Daniel Munoz/Reuters
There’s an obvious reason the banks don’t want to give all savers an automatic rate lift: the less paid to customers, the better their balance sheet looks.
But they do need to entice customers because such deposit accounts finance bank operations, including mortgages.
The problem for consumers is that savings products have become so complex that it’s often unclear whether they are getting a good deal.
Read more here:
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Updated at 03.02 CET
Man shot dead by NSW police after woman stabbed on mid-north coast
Catie McLeod
New South Wales police have launched an investigation after officers shot dead a man accused of stabbing a woman on the mid north coast this morning.
Officers from the Manning Great Lakes police district were called to a property on Heath Avenue, Tuncurry, just before 6.40am, after reports of a home invasion by a man armed with a chainsaw and knife.
On their way to the location, the officers were told that a woman had been stabbed by the man who left the location in a white 4WD, police said.
The officers found a 28-year-old woman at the house with serious wounds. She was treated by paramedics before being flown to the John Hunter hospital in a serious but stable condition.
The officers pursued the 4WD after seeing it on Stewart Parade in Tuncurry.
The 4WD drove through a sports ground before the vehicle crashed on the Forster Bridge a short time later, police said.
Officers attended the bridge where they found the crashed 4WD and were told the man had carjacked another vehicle.
Police said the man rammed a police vehicle with the other vehicle, with one of the officers sustaining minor injuries.
The officers pursued the man again until Idlewood Drive in Rainbow Flat, where the man allegedly drove on to a property and entered a home, still armed with a knife, before attempting to steal another vehicle.
Police said the man, still armed, came out of the house moments later and confronted the officers, who had arrived at the scene.
The officers deployed a Taser in an effort to detain the man; however, he allegedly ran to a neighbouring property.
Police said a Taser was deployed “multiple times” before the armed man ran towards an officer, who then shot him.
The officers treated the man at the scene before the arrival of NSW Ambulance paramedics, but he died there.
The man had not yet been formally identified as of midday today, but police said they believed he was 41 years old.
Police have begun a critical incident investigation, which occurs when an incident involving a NSW police officer results in the death or serious injury of a person.
Police said a critical incident team from the state crime command’s homicide squad would lead the investigation.
The probe will be reviewed by the police’s professional standards command and overseen by the force’s watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.
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Updated at 03.04 CET
Christopher Knaus
‘All legal options’ on table as lawyers fight convictions of Indonesian children jailed in Australia as adults
Lawyers seek to overturn convictions of Indonesian children wrongly jailed as adult people smugglers
Lawyers representing Indonesian children who were wrongly imprisoned as adult people smugglers say they are now exploring “all legal options” to have a string of convictions overturned.
Guardian Australia revealed this morning that the federal attorney-general, Michelle Rowland, had intervened to help two Indonesian boys, Anto and Samsul Bahar, achieve justice. The pair were among hundreds who were detained by Australian authorities and wrongly presumed to be adults on the basis of a deeply flawed wrist X-ray age assessment technique that has since been completely discredited.
The use of the technique sent boys as young as 13 to adult, maximum-security prisons in Australia, when they should have been sent home to their families in Indonesia.
Many, including Anto and Samsul, have since been left in a legal quagmire, unable to have their convictions overturned despite widespread acceptance that the wrist X-rays caused miscarriages of justice. The boys required intervention by the attorney-general to pave the way for them to appeal.
Anto and Samsul have been pleading with successive attorneys-general for six years. Their lawyer, Sam Tierney, said he had more clients still seeking justice.
There remain a number of other Indonesian children who wish to seek to correct their Australian criminal convictions. We are considering all legal options including options that will achieve a more timely and efficient review of those convictions.
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Updated at 02.29 CET
Patrick Commins
RBA governor says inflation is ‘not a disaster at the moment’ days after rate hike
Staying with the RBA’s governor, Michele Bullock, at the parliamentary committee.
This week’s Reserve Bank cash rate hike represents a rapid reversal that has some people wondering whether the central bank made a mistake by not ensuring inflation was under control before cutting it last year.
Is this evidence of a “policy error”?
Bullock said during questioning by the committee this morning that the shortest rate cutting cycle in recent history (three cuts between February and August) actually “points to the fact that we have managed to get the economy into a reasonably good place”.
Michele Bullock speaks at the parliamentary committee. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
She said:
I think it reflects the fact that we’ve been trying very hard to bring the economy down on a soft landing.
It would have been very easy to bring the economy to its knees. That would have been very easy to just increase interest rates a long way.
We tried not to do that. The labour market is in a good position.
Inflation is higher than it should be, but it’s still not really high. We want it to come down below three and towards 2.5 (per cent) but it’s not a disaster at the moment.
Reassuring words from the governor.
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Updated at 02.15 CET
Patrick Commins
RBA governor denies she and treasurer ‘running in opposite directions’
Back to the RBA’s governor, Michele Bullock, who is answering questions before a parliamentary committee hearing this morning …
Liberal MP Aaron Violi is having another go at trying to understand why very high government spending as a share of the economy isn’t part of the inflation problem.
Violi asks:
So governor, if the RBA is trying to cool the economy by taking money out of the pockets of mortgage holders and all Australians, but the government is simultaneously heating the economy through high levels of public spending, aren’t you and the treasurer essentially running in opposite directions?
Bullock says she “wouldn’t characterise it like that”:
I’d characterise it as the government and the parliament are making decisions about what they want to spend their money on, and monetary policy takes those things as given and it manages the cycle appropriate to them.
That’s the way I describe it.
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Updated at 01.53 CET
Liberals considering Nationals’ counteroffer that could reunite the Coalition
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The Liberals are weighing up a counteroffer from the Nationals to reunite the Coalition, as the clock ticks down on party leader Sussan Ley’s deadline to cement the split.
Guardian Australia has confirmed the Liberals have received the Nationals’ proposal this morning and are considering it.
Ley and the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, met several times this week but were unable to broker a peace deal as both sides refused to concede on their red lines.
The main sticking point has been the fate of the three Nationals frontbenchers who crossed the floor to oppose Labor’s hate speech laws, triggering a chain of events that split the Coalition for the second time in eight months.
Ley has insisted that senators Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald must serve out a six-month suspension on the backbench for breaching shadow cabinet solidarity.
But the Nationals believe the trio should not face punishment at all.
The Australian reported the Nationals were only prepared to countenance the suspension if they applied to all of their frontbenchers, adopting the same “one-in, all-in” approach that prompted the mass walkout from the shadow ministry after the hate speech vote.
Ley has set Monday as the deadline to reunite the Coalition before she pushes ahead with an all-Liberal shadow ministry, which would cement the split.
As we reported earlier this week, the opposition leader is prepared to bring forward that deadline if the peace talks collapse.
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Updated at 01.50 CET
Police say 500 officers will be deployed at Sydney protest against Isaac Herzog’s visit
NSW police have held a press conference after the Palestine Action Group asked for officials to alter a restriction on protests before the Israeli president’s visit, as reported earlier in the blog.
A police official said the group hoped to march from Sydney’s town hall to the NSW parliament, but that the streets were in a “declared area” and would not be approved.
The NSW police acting assistant commissioner, Paul Dunstan, said:
It’s our intent to work closely with the Palestinian Action Group as there’s an opportunity for them to conduct lawful public assembly in an area outside the declared area.
Dunstan said the group recently held a protest in nearby Hyde Park, and that area would be available again.
Once again, we offer that space to the Palestinian Action Group, so they can participate in lawful, peaceful protest. … I reach out to the Palestinian action group organisers and ask them to come to table and work with us.
He warned that if too many people gathered in the “declared area” officers could have “no choice” but to issue move-on directions and arrest those that do not comply.
He said there would be 3,000 police shifts during Isaac Herzog’s visit, and more than 500 officers to police the march around town hall.
Palestine Action Group estimates 5,000 people will attend their march.
Protesters at Hyde Park last year. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAPShare
Updated at 02.31 CET
Penry Buckley
Sale of defence properties ‘not necessarily to create more housing’, says O’Neil
The federal housing minister, Clare O’Neil, says the planned sale of more than 60 defence properties is “not necessarily to create more housing”, but that the controversial plans may help towards national targets.
O’Neil told the Sydney Summit that housing development must focus on density, saying “too many councils, well-located, [in] affluent parts of the city are blocking sensible increases”.
She said fewer than 20% of new dwellings in Sydney between 2016 and 2021 were built within 10km of the CBD.
“Urban sprawl is the quiet driver of inequality in Australia today, when cities grow only outward and not upward, the cost falls on the families and communities that have the least capacity to manage them,” O’Neil said.
The Victoria Barracks in Sydney. Photograph: Sarah Wilson/AAP
O’Neil also addressed the planned sale of defence properties, including Sydney’s Victoria Barracks:
This is 67 sites, many of them iconic and incredibly important sites in big cities around Australia that will be divested by defence. The intention of that policy is not necessarily to create more housing.
It’s to make sure that defence is able to be sustainable and look after defending the nation, but it would be negligent for the commonwealth government and state governments we work with to not look seriously at the capacity for these sites to help us with our national housing challenge.
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Updated at 01.23 CET
