Australia news live: former CFMEU official launches high court challenge; baby found dead at Brisbane daycare

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Man arrested after fatal vehicle and pedestrian incident at Kingaroy

Queensland police have arrested a man after a fatal vehicle and pedestrian incident at Kingaroy this morning.

A black Mercedes allegedly struck a 36-year-old Kingaroy man this morning, before the vehicle left the scene. It will be alleged the man was walking with a 27-year-old man when he was hit by the vehicle, police said.

The 36-year-old was declared deceased at the scene, and the 27-year-old man was taken to hospital as a precaution.

Police located a Mercedes at an address on Boonenne Ellesmere Road in Taabinga, and a 30-year-old man was taken into custody.

Investigations were ongoing, and anyone with information has been urged to contact police.

Mick Lowe, SES Tasmania’s executive director, said impact assessments were being conducted on homes affected by flooding:

We’ve got some drones that are flying to confirm exactly how many properties have been inundated, but we believe we’ve managed to notify most of those properties prior so we’re hoping most people are out of the danger areas …

The total number of houses, either isolated or in danger, was around 70 in the Meadowbank, Bushy Park and Macquarie Plains area. That’s the total and we’ll have further figures once we’ve done the rapid impact assessment.

Minor flooding could persist in Tasmania for ‘several days’, emergency personnel say

Circling back to the flooding situation in Tasmania, and emergency service personnel were giving an update from Hobart just earlier.

They said the Derwent River peaked at 8.17 metres, marking the record highest peak at that site since it was installed in 1974.

They said minor flood warnings could persist for “several days”, particularly the bigger catchments.

It will take a little bit of time for the water to work its way down. And with the potential for snow melt with warm days during the middle of this week, that could feed extra water flow into some of those catchments.

A second front is expected on Thursday and Friday, where isolated wind gusts up to 100km/h could hit.

It’s, of course, an evolving situation. It’s a few days away and we’ll continue to monitor that closely and [we’re] not expecting anything like the widespread destructive gusts that we saw last weekend.

Perth college principal charged with child exploitation material offences

Western Australian detectives have charged a 56-year-old man after an investigation into alleged child exploitation material offences.

The offences are alleged to have occurred while he was a principal at a Perth college. Police said in a statement that at this time, there was no evidence that any student of the college was depicted in the child exploitation material.

Child exploitation operations squad detectives executed a search warrant at the man’s Ellenbrook home on 27 August, and seized electronic devices allegedly belonging to the man. It would be alleged that child exploitation material was identified on them.

The 56-year-old man has been charged with one count of possessing child exploitation material, one count of failing to obey, and unlawfully possessing a controlled or prescription drug.

He is due to appear before the Midland magistrates court on 17 September.

Baby found dead at Brisbane daycare

Queensland police are investigating the sudden death of a baby at daycare in Brisbane’s south yesterday.

Police said emergency services were called to a Wakerley address yesterday afternoon where a one-year-old boy was located deceased.

Investigations into the matter are ongoing.

Trade numbers underscore likely weak June GDP figures (and hint at more woes)

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release June quarter GDP figures tomorrow and today’s data on trade for that period suggest the economic story will be a gloomy one.

Economists had expected a current account deficit of $5bn but it came in at double that, $10.7bn. (The March quarter deficit was also revised to be more than $1bn worse at $6.3bn.)

According to the way the ABS factors trade into GDP, the net export result will contribute 0.2 percentage points to the June quarter GDP growth number. That might sound good, but economists had tipped it would be more like 0.6pp.

Perhaps, then, we might get a negative GDP figure, the first since the Covid disruptions. And given the March quarter GDP figure was just 0.1%, that might be revised lower too.

Perhaps this time tomorrow, the headlines will be “Australia in recession” if it transpires there were two negative quarters in a row (according to a simplistic “recession” definition).

Anyway, Australia’s current account deficit was the largest in six years, reflecting lower commodity prices and more income heading offshore, the ABS says. Goods export prices were 5.4% lower than a year ago. And that’s where some of the portents aren’t great.

Commodity prices have been sinking lately, particularly as hints of China’s economic funk intensify. More of the same won’t be good for the federal budget either (and the ability for public demand to keep shoring up economic activity in Australia).

Former CFMEU official launches high court challenge

The Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union’s former national president Jade Ingham has announced the launch of a high court challenge against laws allowing the Albanese government to appoint administrators to the construction division of the union.

As we reported last week, the challenge is expected to argue the law breached the separation of powers and did not afford the CFMEU due process, because the Fair Work Commission general manager had already applied to appoint an administrator in the federal court.

Ingham will speak about the challenge and a campaign called Your Union, Your Choice in Brisbane at 2pm. In a statement, Ingham said:

The most important people in this are the members of the CFMEU whose voices have been excluded. Members are furious about their union being taken away from them. Their union has been stolen from them.

This is active treachery and class warfare against the working class in this country from the state and federal governments. Union bashing never worked for the Tories, so why did Labor think it would work for them? CFMEU members will have their voices heard.

Reynolds closing arguments begin as Reynolds enters courtroom

Linda Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, is now up. He begins with what he claims is the “trivialisation” of Reynolds’ hurt and distress by Brittany Higgins – “arrogantly” from the “sanctity of France”.

Reynolds enters the courtroom shortly after Bennett begins.

Bennett dismisses the defence’s claims that Reynolds’ hurt and distress was caused by the “public scrutiny” of their actions, instead saying it is due to the “deliberate defamatory conduct” by Higgins.

Bennett points to a text message Higgins sent to her partner, David Sharaz, on 17 May 2021, where she wrote:

Fuck it. If they want to play hardball I’ll cry on The Project again because of this sort of mistreatment. I do not care.

Bennett said the message showed this was “a woman who was prepared to cry again” and was evidence of her “visceral hatred” of Reynolds.

The trial continues.

Deeming’s lawyers accuse Pesutto’s legal team of failing to produce documents

Lawyers for the ousted Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming have accused John Pesutto’s legal team of failing to produce documents ahead of a defamation battle.

The ousted Liberal MP is suing the state opposition leader over a series of media releases, press conferences and radio interviews he gave last year after a Let Women Speak rally during his push to expel her from the parliamentary party. The rally was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis and Deeming claims Pesutto characterised her as a Nazi sympathiser or supporter.

In a case management hearing this morning, Deeming’s lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou SC, said the parliament email accounts of Pesutto’s former staff members Nick Johnston and Rodrigo Pintos-Lopez have been deactivated since March when they quit their roles. She said this is despite the pair receiving notices last year to preserve all relevant documents:

Deactivation to us is not deletion. That word tends to suggest reactivation can occur. And we’ve asked these things and we’ve received no response.

Pesutto’s lawyer, Matt Collins KC, said there had been a delay in the prosecution’s legal team producing communication between Deeming and the British activist Kellie-Jay Keen, who also spoke at the rally.

The federal court justice David O’Callaghan says he will hear further submissions on the matter during the trial.

Higgins’ defence concludes with her own words from 2021

Brittany Higgins’ defence has finished with its concluding remarks in Perth, ending with Higgins’ own words in 2021. The former staffer’s lawyer, Rachael Young SC, said the trial had heard a lot about the word “agency”.

Linda Reynolds herself said she wasn’t a “counsellor” for Higgins and had tried give her “agency” when asked why she didn’t do a welfare check on her after they held a meeting about her rape allegations.

Young closed her arguments by saying Higgins had “no agency” when she was allegedly raped. She had “little agency” when, as a 24-year-old, she met with Reynolds, then the defence minister, in the room where it allegedly happened just a week later.

Higgins had “no agency” when she was sent to Perth to work on the federal election campaign, away from her support networks, Young said.

Young said Higgins did, however, have agency when she decided to come forward to the media and publicly speak about her experience to achieve reform. Young read out a statement Higgins provided the media in 2021 after the story was published:

The prime minister has repeatedly told the parliament that I should be given ‘agency’ going forward. I don’t believe that agency was provided to me over the past two years but I seize it now. I was failed repeatedly, but I now have my voice, and I am determined to use [it] to ensure that this is never allowed to happen to another member of staff again.

The court briefly adjourns before Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, begins his closing arguments.

Less than 40% of Australians use sunscreen when recommended

Only two in five (38%) Australians are using sunscreen most days during late spring and summer when daily sunscreen use is recommended, a new survey has found.

In an Australian first, the Sun protection behaviours survey was funded by the Cancer Councils of Australia and conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as a telephone interview of 8,595 people across Australia aged 15 years and over between November 2023 and February 2024.

Based on the survey, it found that almost 1.5 million Australians had been sunburned in the week before being surveyed and 2 million Australians attempted to get a suntan in the last year.

Men were less likely to use sunscreen regularly (27%), around half the number of women (50.7%). Men were also more likely to be outside during peak UV times (64.8%) than women (56.6%).

The most at-risk group were 15- to 24-year-olds as they were less likely to use adequate sun protection when outdoors during peak UV times (39%) compared to 62% of those aged 45-54.

The survey also found that one in five (20.6%) young Australians tried to get a suntan in the last year, with more young women (26%) doing so than young men (15.3%).

Based on the results, the Cancer Council says it is concerned that Australians are not using adequate sun protection.

The Cancer Council recommends using all five forms of sun protection when the UV is three or above: Slip on protective clothing, Slop on broad-spectrum, water-resistant SPF 50 or SPF 50+ sunscreen, Slap on a broad-brimmed hat, Seek shade and Slide on sunglasses.

However, the survey found only half (54%) of Australians are using three or more forms of sun protection when exposed to the sun during peak UV times.

Flood warning downgraded in Tasmania

Tasmania’s SES has downgraded the emergency warning for the Derwent River, but says widespread moderate and minor flooding remains across the state.

Mick Lowe, the Tasmania SES executive director, said the Derwent River warning was downgraded to watch and act this morning, but people must continue to avoid flooded areas and monitor conditions.

Several flood warnings remain in place across Tasmania, and we need people to remain alert and up to date.

We have flood impact assessments taking place today across the state, to help us plan our recovery activities going forward.

Tasmania SES has received more than 800 requests for assistance since Tuesday, 77 in the past 24 hours and fortunately only 10 since midnight. There are about 24 requests for assistance outstanding.

Abandoned yacht may travel to New Zealand

At a press conference earlier, chief inspector Anthony Brazzill said that the Spirit of Mateship yacht – which was abandoned during the rescue efforts – may travel over to New Zealand.

Depending on conditions it may come in on the coast further down, it may go to New Zealand …

Our priority is to rescue people, save lives, not save boats.