Australia news live: nearly 500 structures destroyed in Victoria bushfires; NSW teen charged over US mass shooting hoax calls

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Victorian premier Jacinta Allan is speaking now about the bushfire disaster in the state. She has urged fire affected communities to remain aware of any ongoing risks.

She said:

I reiterate the importance of staying tuned to local conditions. Staying tuned to the emergency Vic up a local radio and if you are told to leave, please do so because it’s so incredibly important.

Allan has thanked the community and emergency services for their support throughout the disaster. She said:

Every single Victorian has been playing their role in protecting life and community and supporting our emergency services as well.

Abdel-Fattah rejects suggestions she made antisemitic comments in the past

On Tuesday, Randa Abdel-Fattah rejected any suggestion she had made antisemitic comments in the past.

Announcing their decision to disinvite her last week, the Adelaide festival board said that while it did not suggest “in any way” that Abdel-Fattah or her writings had any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, the decision was made “given her past statements”.

“I stand for the rights of all people,” she told ABC Radio Adelaide. “I stand for the principle that we are all equal, I stand for the rights of Jews, Palestinians, Muslims, everybody of every racial and religious group to live in.”

She said she stood by her past comment that Zionists had “no claim or right to cultural safety”, a comment that has been cited repeatedly in the media since the board’s decision was announced.

“I have never, ever called for Jews to be unsafe,” she told ABC Radio Adelaide, adding:

Zionism is not a racial or religious identity, it is a political ideology. It is as absurd as saying that communists have the right to cultural safety or Islamism or white supremacy or misogyny. I’m talking about the espousing of Zionist ideology. I have sat in rooms where people have said that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is justified. I am entitled to say there should be no space for people to call for genocide.

Abdel-Fattah says Louise Adler’s resignation from Adelaide writers’ week a ‘tragedy’

Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, the writer at the centre of the storm around this year’s Adelaide writers’ week, has called today’s resignation of its director, Louise Adler, “a tragedy”.

Speaking on ABC Radio Adelaide this morning, Abdel-Fattah called Adler “one of the most incredible directors and icons in Australia’s cultural history”.

What we have now is Louise Adler, a Jewish woman, an anti-Zionist Jewish woman who has had to resign and step down from this festival … It really shows you that in this moment her identity as a Jewish woman has been erased, and this is an attack on me as a Palestinian and Louise Adler as an anti-Zionist Jewish woman.

“Solidarity with the brilliant Louise Adler,” Abdel-Fattah wrote earlier on social media. “I stand with her.”

You can read Adler’s piece announcing her resignation here:

Flood rescue teams deployed in Queensland overnight

Swift water rescue teams were deployed to the town of Clermont overnight after ex-Tropical Cyclone Koji dumped heavy rain across sodden catchments across swathes of central Queensland.

Two crews were called to two separate vehicles in the same vicinity just before 3am Tuesday, a Queensland fire department spokesperson said.

Two people were stranded atop a B-double truck while another was alone on their vehicle.

The rescuers worked until 6am, plucking the three people from the flood waters.

Earlier that night at around 8pm crews were called to another vehicle stuck in flood waters with two people stranded, but were not required to extract them.

The Courier Mail reports those two were a man and his daughter, who spent several hours atop the vehicle until the water receded and they could walk to safety.

An SES spokesperson said state emergency services received 123 requests for assistance across Queensland since 5.30am on Monday, 30 of those jobs being in the Rockhampton Regional, 18 in the Mackay regional and 13 in the Isaac region.

Bushfire threat eases across Victoria as number of structures destroyed nears 500

The bushfire threat in Victoria has eased, with no emergency warnings in place for the first time in almost a week, as the number of structures lost nears 500.

The State Control Centre (SCC) on Tuesday morning confirmed that while there were 12 major bushfires active across Victoria, many of which are expected to burn for days or weeks, there were no emergency warnings in place for the first time since Thursday.

The Mallee, Wimmera, south-west, northern country, north central and north-east regions continue to rate a high fire danger risk, while the west and south Gippsland, east Gippsland and central districts face a moderate risk.

The SCC estimates that 404,000 hectares of land have been burned in the devastating blazes, with more than 480 structures damaged or destroyed – up from 350 on Monday.

Read more here:

Major muslim advocacy group calls for federal minister to apologise over Adelaide festival comments

The Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (Aman) called on the federal resources minister, Madeleine King, to apologise after she said Randa Abdel-Fattah should “absolutely not” be invited back to the Adelaide writers’week.

“To be frank, in my own opinion, I’m surprised she ever got an invite,” King said on Monday.

The views that she has said in relation to wishing for the end of Israel, as well as some other pretty, you know, vile commentary, you know, doesn’t deserve an invitation to the writers’ festival.

During a press conference yesterday, King said she was on a “unity ticket” with the SA premier, Peter Malinauskas, after he reiterated his support on Saturday for the festival board’s decision to withdraw its invitation to the academic.

That move has prompted many writers to withdraw from the festival, and its director, Louise Adler, revealed in the Guardian she would resign her role as well this morning.

Aman said today:

Dr Abdel-Fattah has never engaged in hate speech. The comments attributed to the Minister reveal a concerning lack of understanding within Cabinet as to what constitutes hate speech under Australian law, as distinct from robust political expression.

NSW shadow attorney general expresses ‘grave doubts’ about effectiveness of banning ‘reams and reams of phrases or potential slogans’

Continuing on from last post …

Tudehope condemns the use of the phrase “globalise the intifada”, but says he has “grave doubts” about the government’s ability to outlaw “reams and reams of phrases or potential slogans” without a constitutional challenge. He has called for existing laws to be used to arrest protesters who use hateful slogans, drawing attention to 93ZAA, a new offence for inciting hatred towards other persons or groups introduced in August.

The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that just two people have been charged under the offence since it became law, with at least one of those charges withdrawn. Tudehope said:

So, a circumstance where you create laws which are ineffective, or the police do not know the circumstances in which they can be used, create uncertainty in the community, and they are certainly, a circumstance which I think don’t do the law any good, and we are just struggling around in a mire of legislation.

Tudehope also said a government plan announced yesterday to give councils greater powers to shut down unlawful places of worship as part of a crackdown on “factories of hate” was an “appropriate” response, but “the detail is lacking”.

Fundamentally, of course, I can see council saying: ‘do we have the resources to be able to do this?’

NSW opposition questions transparency of ‘rushed’ inquiry into banning ‘globalise the intifada’

As the federal government prepares to debate a bill on hate speech legislation following the Bondi attack, the NSW shadow attorney general, Damien Tudehope, has accused the state government of using an inquiry into banning phrases including “globalise the intifada” as a “law-making exercise” without public transparency.

The inquiry, which closed to submissions yesterday, just three weeks after it was referred to a parliamentary committee, will not hold any public hearings. The Labor-controlled law and safety committee will report to the government at the end of the month.

Earlier, Tudehope told ABC Radio the inquiry was “very rushed”:

In many respects, it runs the risk of being a law-making exercise, which at the end of the day will never be effective.

You have to say, unless you’re entirely politically naive, the government has an agenda, they have an outcome in mind, and they are using the committee to effectively deliver that outcome.

The committee’s chair, Labor MP Edmond Atalla, has defended the decision not to hold public hearings due to the urgent need to respond to the Bondi attack, saying the committee had reached out to more than 100 key stakeholders for submissions.

But Tudehope has called for the government to release a review of protections against hate speech commissioned in February, which retired supreme court judge John Sackar KC, handed to the government in November.

I think, in terms of transparency, the government should release that report today so that we are properly informed about what Mr Sackar has had to say about the … impositions on free speech in New South Wales, and the constitutionality, because if you have laws which are set aside because they’re unconstitutional, that has an absolutely bad effect on communities which we’re trying to protect.

Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce use Gina Rinehart’s private jet to visit flooded parts of Queensland

The One Nation MPs Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce have used a private jet owned by the mining magnate Gina Rinehart to tour flood-affected Queensland communities.

Joyce, who defected from the s last month, said the pair were saving taxpayers’ money by using the Gulfstream G700 plane and a helicopter at the weekend, including to meet with mayors in north Queensland.

He confirmed that the plane, whose registration is linked to the Bank of Utah, had been provided by the Hancock Prospecting boss.

Rinehart has previously provided travel for the former opposition leader Peter Dutton and is a longtime backer of Hanson and Joyce.

The pair were photographed exiting the plane with grocery bags in Mount Isa on Sunday, before a flight to Julia Creek, with images posted to social media.

Read more here:

NSW teen charged over alleged mass shooting hoax calls in US

A teenager in NSW was charged after allegedly making multiple hoax reports to emergency services – a practice known as “swatting” – falsely claiming mass shootings were taking place at major retail and educational institutions in the US.

The Australian federal police (AFP) said it launched an investigation after getting intelligence from the FBI that a member of an alleged decentralised online crime network had made multiple hoax calls to trigger an “urgent and large-scale emergency response”.

Officials executed a search warrant at a house in NSW last month, seizing a number of electronic devices and an alleged prohibited firearm.

The boy was charged with 12 counts of using a telecommunications network with intention to commit a serious offence and one count of unauthorised possession of a prohibited firearm. He is scheduled to appear in children’s court today.

Graeme Marshall, the acting assistant commissioner of the AFP, said in a statement:

These types of investigations are complex, and the AFP will continue to work with private and public sector partners to educate families and schools about the threat of these online decentralised crime networks, as part of our commitment to protect our community.

Kevin Rudd says ambassadorship has been ‘an honour’

Kevin Rudd just released a statement after the prime minister announced he would step down from his role as the ambassador to the US this morning.

Rudd said:

It has been an honour to serve as Australia’s Ambassador to the United States over the last three years. I thank the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister for their kind remarks today.

I also thank the Trustees of Asia Society for offering me the position of global President & CEO, as well as President of the Asia Society Policy Institute and Chair of the Center for China Analysis. I will be remaining in America working between New York and Washington on the future of US-China relations, which I have always believed to be the core question for the future stability of our region and the world.

As a ‘think and do’ tank, Asia Society’s formidable Center for China Analysis will be an important platform to that end.

Victoria bushfires all downgraded

There are still many bushfires burning across Victoria, but none are currently at emergency level thanks to much cooler conditions in the state.

There are dozens of watch and act warnings for communities spanning Victoria and several areas are still not safe to return to yet around the large Walwa fire in the state’s north-east.

Adelaide festival ‘the canary in the coalmine’: Louise Adler

Louise Adler has written a strongly worded piece for the Guardian about her decision. She said:

In my view, boards composed of individuals with little experience in the arts, and blind to the moral implications of abandoning the principle of freedom of expression, have been unnerved by the pressure exerted by politicians calculating their electoral prospects and relentless, coordinated letter-writing campaigns …

We need writers now more than ever, as our media closes up, as our politicians grow daily more cowed by real power, as Australia grows more unjust and unequal.

AWW is the canary in the coalmine. Friends and colleagues in the arts, beware of the future.

They are coming for you.

Read her full remarks below:

Louise Adler resigns as director of Adelaide writers’ week

The director of Adelaide writers’ week, Louise Adler, has resigned after the board of the Adelaide festival announced it had dumped the Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from the literary event.

“I cannot be party to silencing writers, so with a heavy heart I am resigning from my role as the director of the AWW,” said Adler, one of Australia’s most influential literary figures.

Writers and writing matters, even when they are presenting ideas that discomfort and challenge us. We need writers now more than ever, as our media closes up, as our politicians grow daily more cowed by real power, as Australia grows more unjust and unequal.

Adler announced her resignation in an opinion piece published in Guardian Australia on Tuesday.

Read more here:

day of mourning for Bondi victims to be held 22 January

The prime minister announced earlier that the country will hold a national day of mourning for the victims of the Bondi terror attack on Thursday, 22 January.

Flags will be flown at half mast in all commonwealth buildings around Australia. Albanese said the decision came after consultation with Sydney rabbi Yehoram Ulman:

This will have a theme of ‘light will win’, a gathering of unity and remembrance.

More details about the day will be announced at the end of this week.

Alyssa Healy to retire from cricket in March

The captain of Australia’s women’s team, Alyssa Healy, has announced she will retire from cricket in March, after the upcoming series with India, AAP reports.

The wicketkeeper-batter has been playing for Australia for 15 years, making her debut as a teenager. She said:

It’s with mixed emotions that the upcoming India series will be my last for Australia. I’m still passionate about playing for Australia, but I’ve somewhat lost that competitive edge that’s kept me driven since the start, so the time feels right to call it a day. …

I’ll genuinely miss my teammates, singing the team song and walking out to open the batting for Australia. Representing my country has been an incredible honour and I’m grateful for one last series in the green and gold.

Albanese says changes to gun laws won’t punish responsible gun owners

The prime minister was just asked if changes to gun legislation would penalise responsible gun owners. He stressed that any changes are meant to be sensible closures to loopholes, including plans to limit ownership to Australian citizens.

If you have a look at the commonwealth legislation that will go before the parliament, it will stop non-citizens from having guns. It think that is just common sense.

I reckon Australians would be surprised that non-citizens can get a gun licence … We’re closing that loophole.