Australia news live: Second case of H5 bird flu suspected in South Australia

Key events

Greens call for moratorium on large datacentre construction

The Greens have called for a halt to construction of hyperscale datacentres used for AI, following reports that Anthropic is seeking 1.4GW of datacentre capacity in Australia

Senator for South Australia and chair of the Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence and datacentres, Sarah Hanson-Young, said reports in the AFR that Anthropic is seeking a deal with the federal government on copyright as part of its expansion in Australia are “deeply concerning”.

She said:

If they want to use copyrighted material to train their AI, they should pay for it like everyone else does.

The building of the extra capacity would also have a massive impact on energy and water in Australia, Hanson Young said.

The community deserves to have a say on whether or not they want to become the data centre dumping ground for US based companies.

We need a moratorium on the building of new hyperscale datacentres until we get the regulatory settings right.

Government accused of ‘ignoring’ human rights obligations after UN review

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) has accused the federal government of “ignoring” its human rights obligations after only accepting 39% of recommendations in the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

The review evaluates human rights records and provides recommendations for how to improve. Of 322 recommendations, Labor accepted 128.

The NATSILS chair, Nerita Waight, said the federal government was displaying a lack of leadership and commitment to addressing issues that impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

Ignoring recommendations does not change the evidence. Our children are being locked up at staggering rates, and things are getting worse.

In the past 6 months, Australia has been called out by three United Nations Committees and Working Groups for reports and evidence of systemic racism and human rights violations.

It has reached a point where the international community is deeply concerned about the impacts these laws have on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, which will further entrench them into cycles of disadvantage and inequality.

Second case of H5 bird flu suspected in South Australia

South Australia has another suspected case of deadly H5 bird flu in a migratory seabird found on the Yorke peninsula.

The giant petrel was found at Hardwicke Bay and reported to the emergency animal disease hotline.

The SA government said local testing returned a suspected positive result and samples had been sent to the CSIRO for verification.

If confirmed it would be the state’s second case of the disease.

The primary industries minister, Clare Scriven, said there was no evidence so far that H5 bird flu had affected local wildlife or poultry:

It is disappointing that South Australia has a suspect case, however it was always a possibility through the pathway H5 bird flu has to our shores via wild migratory birds.

The surveillance we are undertaking is critical to get a broader understanding of where these birds are being seen, and I thank the public for reporting sick or dead birds to us.

Australian shares flat as mining stocks drag

Australia’s share market is struggling to find momentum for a second straight session as mining stocks continue to drag on the exchange, Australian Associated Press reports.

The S&P/ASX200 eased by 0.8 points by midday, down 0.01%, to 8,830.2, as the broader All Ordinaries lost one point, or 0.01%, to 9,036.

The move followed a positive lead from Wall Street overnight after US tech stocks rallied on renewed hopes around artificial intelligence demand ahead of earnings season.

ASX-listed IT stocks charged 2.7% higher, led by a more than 11% surge in WiseTech to $39.38, after its controversial co-founder Richard White stepped down as executive chair but retained a spot on the board along with his role as chief innovation officer.

Rio Tinto tumbled 1.5% to $168.57, while BHP shed 0.4% to $59.80. Energy stocks fell 0.8%, as oil prices hung on to recent losses amid hopes of a permanent end to the US-Iran conflict and after OPEC+ nations flagged plans to increase output in August.

AFL great Tony Modra recovering at home after June truck crash

The AFL great Tony Modra was hospitalised in Adelaide with head injuries in June after an accident on his cattle property.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Modra said he has left hospital and is continuing his recovery at home. He has asked for privacy.

He said:

I remain deeply grateful to the members of the public who gave me vital first aid until professional help arrived, to others who offered reassurance, and to the emergency responders, medical staff and specialists who have cared for me since the accident.

My progress has been encouraging and we kindly ask that our privacy continues to be respected as we focus on my rehabilitation. Thank you.

One in 25 Australian teenagers affected by online sexual victimisation involving AI, study finds

Breakthrough research released by the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children Australia has detailed the prevalence of AI in the online sexual victimisation of children, AAP reports.

At least one in 25 Australians has experienced, or has a close friend who has experienced, online sexual victimisation involving AI before the age of 18.

That is at least one young person in every year 12 classroom across the nation.

Children seeking support have turned to the technology responsible for their abuse.

About 19% of victims told an AI chatbot they had been abused.

That compared with about 13% who told authorities, including a teacher, doctor, counsellor, police officer or helpline.

More than a third of victims told no human at all, disclosing only to AI or to no one.

The centre’s chief executive, Colm Gannon, said Australia’s social media age limit was restricting the conversations children feel comfortable having.

“You will not have a 15-year-old making a disclosure they have been subject to sexual extortion on Facebook, when they’re not supposed to be on Facebook,” Gannon told AAP.

He said parents and schools need to be ready for these types of disclosures, and their first priority should be supporting a victim of abuse rather than scolding them for any illegal activity.

TikTok outlines its response to Bondi terror attack

Last week we heard about Elon Musk’s X Corp (formerly Twitter) being, to put it mildly, rather blase about content from the Bondi attack circulating online.

TikTok has revealed quite a different response to the royal commission into antisemitism. Its global head of partnerships, elections and market integrity, Valiant Richey, said the company immediately activated a crisis response protocol, starting with contacting police and eSafety and looking for trends in content that violated its guidelines:

That would be actual depictions of the shocking and graphic content. It might be followed thereafter by misinformation about potential suspects, and it might be followed thereafter by conspiracy theories. So those teams will be actively, you know, they would be activated to start looking for those types of things.

Earlier the inquiry heard that while TikTok is not perfect, 98% of videos that violate its policies are removed before they are seen. Last year, 270,000 videos of the 336m posted were removed under the company’s safety and civility guidelines.

YouTube is up next.

Nine and Foxtel retain NRL broadcast rights in $5.3bn deal

Nine Entertainment and Foxtel have retained the media rights to the NRL in a $5.3bn deal which will see the games aired on the free-to-air network and the global streaming company Dazn until 2034.

The Australian Rugby League Commission chair, Peter V’landys, said the seven-year agreement from 2028 marked “a defining moment for rugby league”.

The Commission has worked hard in the last five years to make the game more entertaining for our fans, effectively doubling our audience.

Our players and clubs that made this possible will now be justifiably rewarded.

Nine will screen the NRL grand final and both the men’s and women’s State of Origin series. It has also acquired the exclusive free-to-air and free streaming rights to broadcast three live NRL games a week, on each of Thursday and Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons.

Read more:

How the alleged graffiti artist behind ‘Pam the Bird’ was detained

About 10.54am, the alleged graffiti artist behind “Pam the Bird” emerged unmasked from the tower after climbing down from the bridge, Guardian Australia’s Tania Lee reports from the scene.

The man then made an agile descent from the tower’s staircase on to the rocky riverbed below.

He calmly walked towards waiting police officers, who instructed him to keep his hands above his head. He then turned around and placed his hands behind his back, before about a dozen officers moved in to arrest him and patted him down.

The man was escorted to a waiting van in a restricted-access area beside the bridge. Officers were seen speaking to him as he sat in the doorway of the van for about 10 minutes before he was driven away.

Microsoft job cuts expected in Australia

A small number of the 3,000 Australian staff working for Microsoft are likely to be included in the 4,800 job cuts announced by the tech giant today.

The focus of the cuts globally has been on the Xbox gaming division, with the company saying the jobs going aren’t being replaced by AI but AI is changing how the company works.

Microsoft would not comment beyond the global announcement but it is understood that roughly the same percentage of cuts globally (2.1%) may apply here. Microsoft is still expecting its headcount in Australia to ultimately increase.

Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, visited Australia in April to announce $25bn in AI investment in Australia for capital and operational expenditure on infrastructure, as well as AI skills training.

Solomon Islands reacts to China’s missile test: ‘Not something a friend does’

Anthony Albanese is holding a press conference with his Solomon Islands counterpart, Matthew Wale, and says work on a comprehensive treaty is advancing, as new health and education funding from Australia is announced.

To questions about the China missile test in the Pacific yesterday, Albanese says Australia has made clear its concerns and it was a “provocative act by China, which does destabilise the region”.

He says there should have beeen 48 hours’ notice.

Wale says China is a “good friend” of Solomon Islands but “this is not something a friend does”.

We don’t want anybody testing the ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] in the Pacific Islands region. That’s the bottom line.

Be our friend, but don’t threaten us.

Albanese says the world needs “less nuclear weapons, certainly not more”.

NRL rights deal to be announced today

The Australian Rugby League Commission is expected to announce the media rights for the NRL at 12.30 today at Rugby League Central in Moore Park, Sydney.

The NRL’s deal with Nine Entertainment and Foxtel – to finish at the end of the 2027 season – is worth about $400m a year.

The NRL attracts huge TV ratings and lucrative sponsorship deals and has been highly contested between free-to-air and streaming services.

Last year’s grand final between Brisbane and Melbourne drew an average audience of almost 4.5 million, the first time it eclipsed the AFL showpiece in a year since 2015.

The first match of the men’s State of Origin attracted close to 4 million, up 6% year on year, while the women’s series consistently draws about 1 milion viewers, figures that are the envy of women’s Australian rules.

Man arrested after Pam the Bird graffiti painted on Bolte Bridge tower

Victoria police have arrested a 22-year-old man after he allegedly spray-painted “Pam the Bird” graffiti on a 120m Bolte Bridge tower in Melbourne on Tuesday morning.

Police alleged the man refused to follow police direction and come down but ultimately descended from the tower without injury about 11am.

He was arrested at the scene and would be interviewed by investigators, Victoria police said.

Earlier police said there was no threat to the public. One of the lanes of the bridge was closed off to traffic.

Machines may be better at detecting hate speech, royal commission hears

Machines might be better than humans at detecting hate speech, the royal commission into antisemitism has heard.

TikTok’s global head of policy, trust and safety, Zachary Hecht, was being grilled on a video that was blocked by the platform’s automatic moderation process but on appeal that decision was overturned by a human moderator. A second human also decided it did not violate their guidelines.

But the content was “clearly a violation of our prohibition on hate speech and hateful ideology”, Hecht told the inquiry this morning:

That being said, it does demonstrate that in some instances, automated moderation might be getting the decision correct, and then human judgment can sometimes complicate that.

The moderators who reviewed it should get more training, he said.

In the end the case was escalated to more senior people and they came to the “right conclusion” and removed it.

Cyberwell, a company that tracks online antisemitism, told the inquiry yesterday that TikTok had the best removal rate for content it had reported to them with an 88.8% takedown rate. By contrast Meta had a 57.3% rate, YouTube had a 34.2% rate, and X (Twitter) had a 29.5% rate.

‘Pam the Bird’ man ‘waiting for low tide’

An Instagram account linked to the alleged “Pam the Bird” graffiti artist, who is still perched atop the Bolte Bridge in Melbourne, says the man will come down “peacefully” at 12pm:

Just waiting for the tide to get a little bit lower.

According to some media reports he is believed to have accessed the tower through a door at its base, which is only accessible at low tide.