Wong says Israeli strikes on Qatar ‘the wrong thing to do’
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said she hopes Israel’s strikes on Qatar will not make a ceasefire highly unlikely, but admitted it will “obviously make it harder” to reach one.
Wong just spoke to ABC News:
The Australian government believes this was the wrong thing to do. Qatar, as you know, has been one of the parties seeking an immediate ceasefire. It has been working with the United States on the return of hostages. This is a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty. It imperils that work on the ceasefire and it risks escalation.
Wong added that Australia was limited in its ability to stop the war between Israel and Hamas as the nation is not a central player in the conflict:
We can’t end the war. What we can do is support the calls for a ceasefire and the work and the work of the United States and others to try to broker a ceasefire.
Penny Wong. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPAShare
Updated at 23.10 BST
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Australia ‘perfectly positioned’ to host next UN climate conference, Thistlethwaite says
Thistlethwaite added that the government believes Australia is “perfectly positioned” to host Cop 31, the UN’s major climate summit, next year. The country is still vying with Turkey for the right to host the event alongside Pacific nations.
Thistlethwaite told RN Breakfast:
We think that Australia is perfectly positioned to host this Cop 31 given the urgency of climate change in the Pacific. And really, we want to see some of those northern hemisphere leaders come to the southern hemisphere, come to Australia, to Adelaide, and hopefully use the time that they’re here to think about perhaps travelling to Pacific neighbours and engaging with their governments and their people around the urgency of climate change.
Cop 30 will take place in the Brazilian city of Belem in November. Photograph: Anderson Coelho/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 22.54 BST
Labor condemns Israeli missile strike on Qatar
Matt Thistlethwaite, the assistant minister for foreign affairs and trade, said Israel’s strikes against top Hamas members in Qatar violated the nation’s sovereignty and imperilled ceasefire talks, adding the Australian government was not informed of the actions beforehand.
Thistlethwaite told RN Breakfast this morning the government condemned the strikes, adding:
These strikes violate Qatar’s sovereignty and they imperil a ceasefire and the release of the Israeli hostages. And unfortunately, they risk further escalation in the conflict.
Qatar’s been working quite hard behind the scenes alongside the United States and Egypt to try and broker a ceasefire and a release of hostages deal. So these strikes will imperil that. Nonetheless, it’s encouraging to hear Qatari leaders say that they remain committed to trying to broker an agreement and a ceasefire.
Matt Thistlethwaite. Photograph: Brendon Thorne/AAPShare
Updated at 23.02 BST
Meta blocks and sends legal threats to makers of deepfake nude apps
Josh Taylor
Two days after the eSafety commissioner issued a notice to a UK company behind a “nudify” deepfake AI app, Meta announced it has issued cease and desist notices to 46 companies attempting to advertise similar products on its platforms.
Meta, which is already suing one such company to try to prevent it advertising on Facebook and Instagram, announced on Wednesday cease and desist notices have been sent to 46 companies attempting to advertise nudify apps on their platforms.
Meta said it has removed over 5,000 ads and 96 ad accounts linked to those companies, and blocked links to more than a dozen apps and websites offering nudify services.
Julie Inman Grant. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
On Monday, the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, told ABC’s 7.30 on Monday the platforms were not expressing remorse about not doing more to curb the rise of such apps.
“That’s what makes it all the more disturbing, having worked in the technology sector for 22 years,” Inman Grant said, adding:
I know what they are capable of, and not a single one of them is doing everything they can to stop the most heinous of abuse to children, being tortured and raped, and this imagery being perpetuated online.
Read more here:
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Updated at 22.24 BST
Good morning
Nick Visser
And happy Wednesday. Nick Visser here to take over from Martin Farrer for the morning. Let’s see what the day has in store.
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Updated at 22.14 BST
More on the WA abuse settlement
Dion Barber launched the legal case in 2021 for the repeat abuse and harm caused by his stepfather as well as other perpetrators over subsequent years while in care.
A trial was held earlier in the year before judge Linda Black, who described Barber as a “completely credible witness in every respect” when she handed down her judgment.
Barber said he was happy with the result, but there was more work to be done.
I’m still going to fight because I want change in the system so this doesn’t continue happening.
I would like an apology [from the department] but it doesn’t mean anything to me because unless there’s change, it don’t mean nothing.
Judge Black’s comment about his evidence was also significant, he said.
“You always get put down as being a liar all your life and to have that come through by a judge and actually say you’re believed, it’s massive,” he said.
– AAP
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WA makes ‘extraordinary’ $2.85m payout after state care abuse
A man repeatedly sexually abused as a child in state care has won a landmark legal case after being awarded almost $3m in compensation, Australian Associated Press reports.
Dion Barber, 45, sued the state of Western Australia for the “extraordinary” abuse he suffered in the 1980s and 1990s.
He was awarded $2.85m in the WA district court yesterday, the largest award of damages made to a child sexual abuse survivor in the state.
It also marked the first historical sexual abuse case against the state of WA to proceed to a judgment since a 2017 royal commission into child sexual abuse removed time limits for survivors to bring claims.
Barber was eight years old when he reported sexual abuse by his stepfather to his mother and authorities, his lawyers said.
The then community services department (now department of communities) and the children’s court confirmed he was abused, and he was placed under the guardianship and care of the welfare department.
Dion Barber (left) and lawyer Hugo Seymour outside the WA district court in Perth on Tuesday. Photograph: PR HANDOUT
Over the following months, he was forced to have counselling with his stepfather before he was sent back into the home, where he was raped and abused by the same perpetrator.
“The treatment of Dion is the worst I’ve seen,” lawyer Hugo Seymour told reporters outside court.
The sheer negligence in this case was extraordinary.
The decision to send him back to his abuser, knowingly, to force him into counselling with his abuser, to then place him with his alcoholic, clearly unsafe, violent father, and to let the wardship lapse was extraordinary, inexplicable.”
In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380.
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Updated at 21.59 BST
NSW Labor pounces on Coalition’s koala park disarray
The New South Wales minister for the environment, Penny Sharpe, was keen to exploit the Liberals’ disarray over the koala issue and called on the party to make their position clear.
She said in a statement:
Koalas in NSW hang in the balance. This decision to protect the Great Koala National Park will secure their future in the wild.
Liberal Party members need to make clear their position in relation to the park. They can’t be both for and against the park, and they need to be upfront for voters ahead of the Kiama by-election on Saturday.
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NSW Coalition embroiled in koala wars as Liberals skip Nationals motion to shrink park
Anne Davies
The koala wars are alive and well in NSW, it seems, and again look set to cause serious marital strife for the Nationals and Liberals.
The Minns Labor government set the ball rolling on yesterday afternoon by moving a public interest debate, patting itself on the back for finally declaring the 176,000 hectare great koala national park, an election promise made in 2019 and again in 2023.
The Nationals then tried to amend the motion calling on the government to shrink the park to 37,000 hectares and protect timber worker jobs.
In an unusual move, the Liberals did not show up for the vote on the Nationals’ amendment, which failed 11-51, or for the motion itself.
The Liberals’ no-show has left the Nationals furious with firebrand MP Wes Fang posting on X:
The gutless NSW Liberal party members didn’t turn up to the Lower house to vote in support [of] the NSW Nationals on #ForestryTimber jobs.
More fallout is expected.
Wes Fang. Photograph: James Gourley/AAP
In 2020, the Nationals, then led by John Barilaro, briefly left the Coalition after a dispute over clearing of koala habitat on private land, which the environmentally-conscious former planning minister Rob Stokes had sought to protect using the planning laws.
The split only lasted a few days, but was politically costly. Both Barilaro and Stokes have now left politics.
With the opposition leader, Mark Speakman, under pressure over his “cut-through”, the politics of koalas may be his undoing as well.
Or it could be the hunting bill, or support for net zero. The Coalition is not happy.
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Updated at 21.50 BST
The Liberals’ Jacinta Nampijinpa Price problem – Full Story podcast
And we also have today’s Full Story podcast tackling the very same subject:
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Nationals leader says Jacinta Nampijinpa Price should apologise for migrant comments
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has joined several leading Liberals in calling for Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to apologise to the Indian community for her remarks that the government was only allowing them into the country because they would vote Labor.
Asked on ABC’s 7.30 whether Price should apologise, Littleproud said:
Yeah, I think she should. I think she’s admitted that she’s made a mistake. She regrets it. But I think it’s the right thing to do to simply say – you’ve made a mistake, I’m sorry for any offence that I’ve caused, and move on.
We all make mistakes in life, and I think it’s important that, when you do, you own up to them … We all get into these predicaments from time to time as politicians. That’s the sensible thing to do, and I think that’s what the Australian community should expect of her.
For more on this, read our report from last night as rightwing MPs rally around the senator:
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Updated at 21.25 BST
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories before Nick Visser reports for duty shortly.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has joined several leading Liberals in calling for Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to apologise to the Indian community for her remarks that the government was only allowing them into the country because they would vote Labor. More coming up.
A man in Western Australia who was repeatedly sexually abused as a child in state care has won a landmark legal case after being awarded almost $3m in compensation. More on that shortly.
And we bring you the latest in the koala wars in NSW, where Chris Minns’ Labor government finally declared a 176,000 hectare great koala national park, and the Coalition has been consumed by infighting over the plan.
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