Australia news live: a white commentator ‘would not have been abused the way I was’, Stan Grant tells Sydney writers’ festival

Key events

‘Ball is in government’s court’ on FOI delays

Grata Fund, which financially supported the former senator Rex Patrick’s freedom of information case, has also responded to the ruling.

Grata Fund’s executive director, Isabelle Reinecke, said the decision “should be an enormous catalyst for the government to improve and future-proof the FOI system” by funding the office of the Australian information commissioner adequately:

By anyone’s measure, multiple year delays are unacceptable, and now the ball is in the government’s court to ensure its public commitments to the democratic operation of government are put into effect.

David Shoebridge calls on government to properly fund office of Australian information commissioner

Move comes after a federal court judge noted the agency had “an unquestionable shortage of resources”.

Shoebridge, who is the party’s justice spokesperson, said the public should care about the issue because “democracies only work when the public has the information needed to hold governments to account”. Shoebridge said Australia’s “broken” freedom of information (FOI) system was “making that close to impossible”.

As reported here earlier this afternoon, the former independent senator Rex Patrick lost his legal challenge against what he argued were unreasonable delays in the commissioner’s reviews of FOI matters.

Justice Michael Wheelahan found that a claim of unreasonable delays “must take account of the resources that are available to the commissioner and the competing demands on those resources”. He found “the combined force of the evidence pointed to an unquestionable shortage of resources” but “whether that situation is acceptable is not a question for the court to decide”.

Shoebridge told Guardian Australia this afternoon:

The parliament has given the commission statutory functions but the government is starving it of the funds to fulfil them.

This must be a loud wake-up call to the attorney general given all the promises he made on transparency before the election.

Rally against SA’s anti-protest laws to be held outside parliament on Friday evening

The controversial amendments are expected to come to a vote as early as Tuesday.

Amnesty spokeswoman Adelaide Xerri said the bill’s broad scope was concerning.

This crackdown on the right to protest means all our ability to fight for human rights and combat the climate crisis are under threat.

People must not face huge fines, and even prison sentences, just for standing up for what’s right.

Unions have also condemned the increased penalties, along with Greens MPs in the upper house.

On Friday, the Law Society of South Australia posed a series of questions and said it was “deeply troubling” that those in favour of the higher fines had not explained the rationale for the changes or the urgency for their introduction.

The organisation also questioned why there was no public consultation.

- with AAP

Stan Grant ‘bewildered’ by furore since he appeared on ABC’s coronation panel

The host of Q+A stood down from the show on Monday after receiving “grotesque racist abuse” which escalated after he spoke on the ABC about the impact of colonialism ahead of the king’s coronation.

Grant told the Sydney Writers’ festival that the ABC panel discussing the impact of the monarchy on Indigenous people was a “respectful” conversation that was misconstrued by some media commentators as a “hate-filled hour of television”.

If a white person had been on air talking about historical realities like martial law and the extermination of the Wiradjuri people they “would not have been abused the way I was”, Grant said.

Race crowded out everything. It wasn’t just what I was saying, it was the fact that I was saying it. And the racial attacks and abuse began before I had even uttered a word.

Grant was talking to constitutional lawyer George Williams at a session about his book The White Queen is Dead, about the bitter legacy of colonialism for Indigenous people.

Nurses union fined $350,000 for West Australian strike

The nurses union has copped a $350,000 fine for organising a strike during which thousands of Western Australian health workers fought for better pay and conditions.

About 3,000 nurses and midwives walked off the job at hospitals across the state on 25 November last year after the Australian Nursing Federation ignored a lawful direction from the WA Industrial Relations Commission to call off the action.

The commission on Friday handed down its written judgement, in which chief commissioner Stephen Kenner labelled the union’s correspondence before the strike “staggering”, “belligerent noncompliance” and “dripping with contempt”.

In breach of the no-strike order, at least 1,758 members of the ANF employed in the public health system took industrial action by walking off the job or failing to report for duty.

The industrial action included various rallies throughout the state including at Parliament House and Dumas House in Perth, and in Albany, Broome, Bunbury, Geraldton, and Karratha.

Following a negotiation during the hearing, the commission fined the union the agreed amount of $350,000.

- AAP

Rex Patrick on losing FOI challenge: court found time taken ‘not legally unreasonable’ because of information commissioner’s ‘lack of resources’

The former independent senator Rex Patrick has lost his legal challenge against what he argued were unreasonable delays in the freedom of information (FOI) system.

But the federal court judgment, published today, also says the “picture that is painted by the evidence is that the Australian information commissioner has limited resources” to perform the volume of matters before her.

The federal court action was initiated in 2021 by Patrick. The then senator for South Australia had argued his right to access government documents had been “frustrated by delays” by the information commissioner in deciding on his applications that challenged department’s FOI decisions.

Justice Michael Wheelahan found that a claim of unreasonable delays “must take account of the resources that are available to the commissioner and the competing demands on those resources”. In one of the reviews at the heart of the case, he said the delay was “very significant indeed” but he was “not satisfied that there has been unreasonable delay” according to law:

It is ultimately for the commonwealth parliament to legislate so as to appropriate monies to the Office of the Australian information commissioner in order to enable the discharge of the commissioner’s statutory functions. Any legislative decision no doubt needs to balance competing budgetary demands, which are for the parliament to consider.

Patrick told Guardian Australia:

While I’m naturally disappointed with the outcome, ultimately the court found that it is for the commonwealth parliament to fix the problem, not the court. The parliament needs to pay attention to this judgment. In effect the court found that the time taken by the information commissioner is not legally unreasonable on account of the commissioner’s lack of resources.

Mike Cannon-Brookes defeats Andrew Forrest for control of solar project Sun Cable

Mike Cannon-Brookes has prevailed over Andrew Forrest in a billionaires’ battle for control of Sun Cable, an ambitious development promised to transmit solar power from the Northern Territory outback to Singapore.

Cannon-Brookes and Forrest had been involved in a five-month bidding process to gain control of the $35bn project after they fell out over its future direction and the company went into voluntary administration.

FTI, the administrators of Sun Cable, have announced that a consortium led by Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures had been successful in acquiring the company’s assets.

In a statement, the consortium said it believed Sun Cable “had the potential to be a nation-building project for Australia”.

We believe Sun Cable can achieve long-term success by delivering globally competitive electrons to Australia and the world. We will continue to pursue customer off-take agreements in Singapore and Darwin, and collaborate with the Singaporean and Northern Territory governments to achieve this mission.

It said the consortium would “deep dive with management over the coming weeks” before saying more about the project’s design and development.

Cannon-Brookes said it was “a big step in the right direction”.

We’ve always believed in the possibilities Sun Cable presents in exporting our boundless sunshine, and what it could mean for Australia. It’s time to stretch our country’s ambition. We need to take big swings if we are going to be a renewable energy superpower. So swing we will.

More to come at Guardian Australia shortly.

South Australian coroner finds death of five-year-old was preventable

The death of a young boy with special needs, who choked on a nectarine stone while at school, would have been prevented had he been better supervised, an inquest has found.

Five-year-old Lucas Latouche Mazzei died in March 2017 after choking on the stone at Adelaide’s Henley Beach Primary School.

Deputy State Coroner Ian White said Lucas was left unsupervised for an unacceptable period of time.

He ruled that had staff remained in the classroom during the whole time the boy was watching the cartoon, his death would have been prevented.

The coroner said Lucas’ death was “heartbreaking and tragic” and the distressing attempt to save his life had a marked effect on those involved.

Lucas’ parents have been consumed by grief over the death of their precious little son that day.

White found that, under the circumstances, the efforts to save the boy were reasonable.

But he recommended all teaching staff be required to hold up-to-date qualifications in providing first aid assistance in an education and care setting.

He also called for the education department to review its policies on obtaining information about students with special needs and review the first-aid guidelines for dealing with a choking emergency.

Outside the court on Friday, Lucas’ mother Daniela Mazzei said the journey looking for answers about her son’s death had been “extremely hurtful, even cruel”.

Lucas’ death did not receive the attention it deserved from the education department, even when we insisted on it.

Our grief will always be with us. His death could have been prevented.

- AAP

US doesn’t want to drag Pacific allies into “headlong” clash with China

Joe Biden’s senior advisers have acknowledged countries in the Indo-Pacific don’t want to be “trampled by a headlong clash” between the US and China.

In a webinar with an Australian audience on Friday, senior White House national security council (NSC) officials said the US president wanted to give allies and other close partners “breathing space” to engage with China constructively.

Edgard Kagan, the NSC’s senior director for east Asia and Oceania, said Biden had been listening to the region’s concerns.

“I think the president is very focused on the fact that we cannot strengthen our relations with allies and partners if we just try and jam our views down their throat,” Kagan said. “That’s not who he is.”

For more on this story, read the full report by Guardian Australia’s foreign affairs and defence reporter Daniel Hurst.

WA to keep ‘no grounds evictions’

Western Australia will keep provisions that allow landlords to evict tenants without providing a reason in newly announced changes to the Residential Tenancies Act, despite its department advising they be removed.

The decision to keep “no grounds evictions” overrules explicit advice from the Department of Mines, Industry Regulations and Safety that recommended the government introduce a list of grounds for termination of a lease by landlords:

The review recommended that the [Residential Tenancies ACT] be amended to prohibit without grounds terminations by lessors and introduce additional grounds for termination.

In a joint press release on Friday, Minister for Finance, Commerce and Women’s Interest Sue Ellery and Minister for Housing, Lands and Homeless John Carey said “major changes” to the act would strike the right balance between tenants and landlords.

But they said “the McGowan government is not making any chances to the ‘without grounds’ terminations provisions”. This means the current provisions of 60 days notice for periodic leases and 30 days notice for fixed remain in place.

Changes to the Act will include:

a ban on rent bidding, with landlords and property managers unable to pressure or encourage tenants to offer more than the advertised rent;

reducing the frequency of rent increases to once every 12 months;

tenants will be allowed to keep a pet or pets in a rental premises in most cases;

tenants will be able to make certain minor modifications to the rental premises and the landlord will only be able to refuse consent on certain grounds;

the release of security bonds at the end of a tenancy will be streamlined, allowing tenants and landlords to apply separately regarding how bond payments are to be disbursed; and

disputes over bond payments, as well as disagreements about pets and minor modifications, will be referred to the commissioner for consumer protection for determination.

The changes will also mean rents must be advertised as a fixed amount and not as a range, however tenants who make minor changes to their rental property “may be required” to restore it to its original condition at the end of the tenancy.

Ellery said banning rental auctions and reducing rent increases would “help ease the financial burden on many families”.

The new laws proposed by the McGowan government strike a good balance by protecting the owner’s investment property while providing stability and certainty for tenants.

Carey said the changes “strike the balance between the rights and needs of tenants and landlords.”

Our focus is on boosting the supply of housing, which is why we’re investing a record $2.6 billion in housing, lands and homelessness measures throughout Western Australia.

Lidia Thorpe calls for amendment to voice bill

Senator Lidia Thorpe will seek to amend the constitutional alteration to establish the Indigenous voice, to include an explicit acknowledgement of the sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The bill is still in the House of Representatives, and won’t hit the Senate until at least next week, but the former Greens senator (now independent) has given notice she will introduce an amendment to the alteration. Thorpe, a noted voice critic, hasn’t flagged changes to strengthen the body or give it new powers – but instead to add a whole extra section to the constitution.

The voice, as proposed, would be established in a new section 129 at the end of the constitution (which currently has 128 sections). Thorpe’s amendment would insert another section, 130, titled: “Sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”.

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Thorpe wants that section of the constitution to include the line “Nothing in this Act shall be taken to cede or disturb the Sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.” Her amendment goes on to suggest adding the lines:

The Sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples means an unceded right held in collective possession by the members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations which confers usage, access and custodianship to the lands, waters, minerals and natural resources of what is now known as Australia, and the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to exercise an unimpeded and collective self-determinate governance over their political, economic and social affairs.

Thorpe has long spoken of scepticism about the voice and quit the Greens partly over the party’s commitment to support the voice.

But she told Guardian Australia this week she had “not stated any position on how people should vote in the proposed referendum.”

Prime minister Anthony Albanese yesterday all but ruled out accepting any amendments to the constitutional alteration, telling parliament:

This form of words is legally sound, and should be the words that goes forward.

Scale of Sydney fire damage revealed

Fire and Rescue NSW has released new aerial photos showing the extent of damage in the Sydney building fire.

An aerial view of the gutted building where a fire broke out a day earlier in central Sydney. Photograph: Fire and Rescue NSW/AFP/Getty ImagesAnother view of a burnt out building in central Sydney Photograph: Fire and Rescue NSW/AFP/Getty ImagesHere damage can be seen in adjacent buildings. Photograph: Fire and Rescue NSW/AFP/Getty Images