Hanson-Young brands Pauline Hanson ‘coward’ for barring media from presser
Josh Butler
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has rubbished Pauline Hanson’s decision to bar the Guardian, the Age and the ABC from a One Nation press conference today.
Hanson-Young claimed Hanson was “running scared of scrutiny”, calling her “a politician who thinks that she should have the right to say whatever she wants, but no one else should have the right to ask questions”.
“Pauline Hanson is showing herself to be a political coward by hiding from certain media because she doesn’t like questions from journalists, and this is a very very bad start to any political campaign,” the Greens senator told a press conference in Parliament House this afternoon.
As we reported earlier, reporters from the ABC, the Age and the Guardian were not provided with the time or location of the press conference to announce One Nation’s Victorian state election candidates.
“I’m not putting up with the spin, gotcha moments, wanting to have a go at me … [and] treat us totally different to what you do the other major political parties. Enough is enough,” Hanson said of her decision at the press conference.
Key events
Two men sustain neck and leg injuries after building collapse in Sydney
Two people are being treated for leg and neck injuries after a partial collapse of a seven-metre-high building in Sydney’s inner-city area.
Emergency services responded to the incident just before 11am on Wattle Street in Ultimo, where a total of seven people were assessed by paramedics.
The two men, both in their 60s, were taken to Royal Prince Alfred hospital and St Vincent’s hospital, where they are now in stable condition.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that one of the men was in his 30s.
Fire and Rescue NSW said the wall collapsed on to an adjoining service station, where debris damaged several parked cars.
The service station remains closed as a precaution, and its employees have been evacuated. Some neighbouring buildings have also been cleared.
Josh Butler
News Corp claims media bargaining changes ‘gut’ scheme
The government’s changes to the News Bargaining Incentive have also not impressed News Corp, with the publisher claiming the updates would harm Australian media outlets.
News Corp’s Australian chair, Michael Miller, was unhappy with the changes to settings which would see narrow the charge base of how the fee is calculated on big tech companies, but increase the rate of charge. He said:
These changes gut the incentive for tech platforms to strike fair deals with Australian media, right when those rules need strengthening, not softening.
On an already uneven playing field, getting this wrong won’t just hurt Australian media. It will erode the quality and independence of news every Australian relies on.
Tech giants cannot keep dodging their obligations. Australia deserves full revenue transparency, backed by severe, non-negotiable penalties for any platform that flouts local law.
Josh Butler
News code changes will ‘short-change’ Australian media, Coalition says
The Coalition claims Australian journalists will be “dudded” by the government’s changes to the News Bargaining Incentive, and that the new framework will not collect enough money from big tech platforms.
Shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson and shadow assistant treasurer Kevin Hogan have released a statement on today’s announcement, calling it “a concerning free kick to the multinational tech giants at the expense of Australian news outlets” and raising concerns it would lead to “dramatically short-changing Australian media companies.” They said:
While the government has increased the charge rate to 2.5 per cent, it is estimated this about-face will mean billions of dollars of revenues earned by the tech giants will not be included in the scheme.
Henderson accused Labor of letting big tech “off the hook” with the changes. She said:
Not only will Labor’s scheme mean less money for Australian journalism, the government is now doing even less to encourage commercial deals with big tech which is extremely disappointing.
Labor’s dithering and delay on a promised replacement scheme has left tech giants unaccountable for their use of Australian copyrighted news content, while newsrooms and regional newspapers face uncertainty about their future.
Hogan said the Coalition welcomed the inclusion of LinkedIn in the scheme – which had previously been given a carveout under the draft framework.
Penry Buckley
NSW Icac hears of potentially illegal meetings between Reformers after summons
The NSW Icac has adjourned early for the rest of the day. Not long before lunch, Reformers witness Robert Assaf admitted to having three meetings with another person named in allegations, Jeremy Greenwood, after receiving a summons to appear at a private hearing before the inquiry this year.
Under section 114 of NSW’s Icac Act, it can be a criminal offence if a person discloses any information about a summons from the watchdog “that is likely to prejudice the investigation to which it relates”, punishable by up to 12 months imprisonment.
Asked about meetings at a cafe in Belfield and another on the Cooks river track in Sydney, Assaf admitted the men left their phones and laptops in Greenwood’s car before going for a walk so their conversations could not be traced.
Assaf said during the meetings they discussed the nature of evidence they would give to Icac, including potential vulnerabilities for the group at the inquiry.
Counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, asked: “Did you understand at that point in time, given what you were told when you received the summons, that it was important not to discuss your evidence?”
Assaf, who has described being stressed and nervous after receiving communication from Icac, admitted that he did.
The inquiry will return tomorrow with the NSW shadow attorney general, Damien Tudehope, and businessman Frits Maré expected to give evidence first.
Nick Visser
That’s all for me. Achol Arok will take things from here, take care.
Garma festival 2026 in pictures
The theme of the 26th Garma festival was Bukmak, meaning all of us, everyone together in Yolngu language. The four-day gathering at the Gulkula ceremonial grounds in Arnhem Land is the largest First Nations cultural event in Australia.
See more here:
Aerial surveillance has detected a suspected H5 bird flu mortality event in Victoria
Lisa Cox
The Victorian government said a cluster of dead and sick greater crested terns had been identified through aerial surveillance in the Glenelg River estuary near Nelson and across Lawrence Rocks over the weekend.
The government has not yet provided the number of birds observed but state authorities will speak to media later this afternoon.
Victoria’s chief biodiversity officer, James Todd, said the observations were consistent with what was recently reported in South Australia, where mass deaths of crested terns at Baudin Rocks were confirmed earlier today as Australia’s first mass mortality event from the deadly disease.
Victoria’s chief veterinary officer, Dr Graeme Cooke, said investigations were under way to better understand the progression of the virus in wildlife.
This event is consistent with the type of wildlife impacts we have been preparing for as H5 bird flu becomes established in a bird population.
Sampling has taken place today, along with further aerial surveillance, to determine any further impacts in other species.
There have so far been seven confirmed positive H5 bird flu cases in Victoria in crested terns, five in Portland and two in Nelson.
‘Holding public figures to account is the role of a free press,’ Guardian Australia says after blockage from One Nation press conference
Guardian Australia has released a statement after being barred from Pauline Hanson’s press conference earlier today.
As reported earlier, reporters from the ABC, the Age and the Guardian were not provided with the time or location of a press conference to announced One Nation’s Victorian state election candidates.
A Guardian spokesperson says:
Holding public figures to account is the role of a free press and an essential part of the democratic process. It is disappointing that One Nation continues to prevent the Guardian and other news outlets from reporting on its press conferences. Our journalists should be able to ask questions in the public interest and not be deterred from doing their job.
The Guardian has published important public interest journalism on Pauline Hanson and One Nation and stands by the rigour of its work.
Tom McIlroy
Crossbench hopeful Liberals will step up on gambling bill
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the Coalition should work with the crossbench to make Labor’s gambling bill tougher, challenging the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, to “man up”.
There is some optimism that Liberal MPs could convince Taylor to differentiate from Labor on the issue of gambling advertising and the growing harm sports betting is having in Australia. Liberals including Cook MP Simon Kennedy have already pushed for a tougher response.
“The reason the government didn’t want this inquiry is because they didn’t want focus on how bad this legislation is,” Hanson-Young said.
Labor members and Coalition members and senators are being bombarded every day from their constituents to say ‘put in place laws that protect us and stop protecting the gambling industry.’ We’re all hearing the same thing. The question is, do you have the guts to deliver it?
Luke Bateman tells inquiry gambling companies gave him drugs and alcohol – video
Former rugby league player turned BookTok influencer Luke Bateman has alleged to a parliamentary inquiry he was supplied with drugs by gambling company promoters at the height of his spiralling addiction.
Watch his testimony below:
Hanson-Young brands Pauline Hanson ‘coward’ for barring media from presser
Josh Butler
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has rubbished Pauline Hanson’s decision to bar the Guardian, the Age and the ABC from a One Nation press conference today.
Hanson-Young claimed Hanson was “running scared of scrutiny”, calling her “a politician who thinks that she should have the right to say whatever she wants, but no one else should have the right to ask questions”.
“Pauline Hanson is showing herself to be a political coward by hiding from certain media because she doesn’t like questions from journalists, and this is a very very bad start to any political campaign,” the Greens senator told a press conference in Parliament House this afternoon.
As we reported earlier, reporters from the ABC, the Age and the Guardian were not provided with the time or location of the press conference to announce One Nation’s Victorian state election candidates.
“I’m not putting up with the spin, gotcha moments, wanting to have a go at me … [and] treat us totally different to what you do the other major political parties. Enough is enough,” Hanson said of her decision at the press conference.
Sian Cain
Two blockbuster David Hockney exhibitions opening in Australia
Two blockbuster exhibitions dedicated to the late David Hockney are opening in Australia later this year, months after the British artist’s death at the age of 88.
The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, home to the largest collection of Hockney’s work in Australia, will stage David Hockney: Portraits in Print from September to February. The exhibition will span more than 60 works made over 30 years and offers “an intimate view of his personal life, creative practice and deep engagement with portraiture”, the NGA said.
And from October to January, Carriageworks in Sydney is staging David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), an immersive exhibition created by Lightroom London with Hockney himself, who recorded narration that guides visitors through his processes and philosophy.
Read more here:
Australian shares dip despite oil prices easing after Trump walked back Iran threat
Australia’s share market is edging lower, despite oil prices easing after US president Donald Trump opted not to follow through with a major attack on Iran over the weekend, AAP reports.
The S&P/ASX200 fell 17.1 points by midday, down 0.19%, to 8,959.7, as the broader All Ordinaries dipped 13.9 points, or 0.15%, to 9,123.1.
Markets appeared to take the news with wary optimism, as Brent crude eased to US$83.81 a barrel, while the local share market shrugged off Friday’s tech-led rally on Wall Street to begin the week lower.
The Australian dollar is buying 70.34 US cents, roughly on par with its price on Friday at 5pm.
CSIRO confirms first mass mortality event from H5 bird flu
Lisa Cox
Tests by the CSIRO have confirmed Australia’s first mass mortality event from the deadly H5 bird flu and the environment minister, Murray Watt, has warned more mass wildlife deaths will occur as the disease continues to spread.
Watt told a media conference in Canberra:
I want to level with people: this is the beginning of what is likely to be a long, difficult journey in terms of the impacts on wildlife.
The mass deaths of greater crested terns were announced in South Australia over the weekend, with 49 dead terns and 35 unwell terns detected by aerial surveillance.
Samples from some of those animals were sent to the CSIRO for verification and have come back positive.
Watt said:
The reality is, you can’t stop native and wild birds flying around, and you can’t stop wild animals moving around, and that will mean more mass mortality events like the one we have now seen.
What we can do, and what we have been doing, is build up the resilience of the populations of our native birds and mammals.
Agriculture minister, Julie Collins, said Australia now had 74 confirmed H5N1 cases – 54 in SA, 10 in Western Australia, seven in Victoria, two in New South Wales and one in Queensland.
Two people taken to hospital after building collapse in Sydney
Achol Arok
Two people have been taken to hospital and remain in serious condition after a building collapsed in Sydney’s inner-city.
Emergency services responded to reports of the incident just before 11am on Wattle Street in Ultimo, where paramedics assessed a total of seven people.
The two men, reported to be in their 30s and 60s, were taken to Royal Prince Alfred hospital and St Vincent’s hospital.
Penry Buckley
Icac witness claims staffer in Perrottet’s office discouraged him from appearing at parliamentary inquiry
The NSW Icac’s Operation Rosny has moved to a parliamentary inquiry which took place in 2023 into allegations of branch stacking in the Hills shire, which preceded Icac’s inquiry.
The inquiry has previously heard that Liberal figures named in Icac’s allegations, Christian Ellis, Jean-Claude and Charles Perrottet, avoided being served summons to appear at the parliamentary inquiry.
Reformer Robert Assaf said that after he voiced support for appearing at the inquiry, believing the group had “nothing to hide”, it became a joke among the group to call him a “rat”, including sending him rat emojis.
He has also described a staffer in the office of then Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet, Angus McCaffrey, discouraging him from appearing at the inquiry, saying McCaffrey was acting as an intermediary “between other people” including Charles Perrottet.
Assaf says:
Angus [McCaffrey] wasn’t part of it. He was just passing on, you know, what he heard to me … Basically, it was when I told him about my view of: ‘Why don’t I just go down and say this, tell them what I know’. He wasn’t a fan of it primarily because others had said this can’t happen … basically your career will be over if this happens.
Asked if he felt intimidated by this, Assaf says he did but “it was more like, I just took it as they’re stressed, they have a view, they disagree with me, and they’re applying max pressure on me to not do what I thought was right”.
Dominic Perrottet is not accused of any wrongdoing, while Charles Perrottet has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Hanson bars ABC, the Age and Guardian from press conference
Benita Kolovos
Pauline Hanson has held a press conference in Melbourne to unveil eight upper house candidates running for the party in the Victorian state election.
Reporters from the ABC, the Age and the Guardian were not provided with the time or location of the press conference. Asked whether all media should have access to a press conference in a democracy, particularly given her ambition to form government at the November state election, Hanson responded:
Democracy doesn’t happen on the ABC at all.
She claimed it was not the first time she had denied ABC access to her events, having done so in 1996 “for eight months” and added, “the same will go with The Guardian”. Hanson went on:
I’m not putting up with the spin, gotcha moments. wanting to have a go at me … [and] treat us totally different to what you do, the other major political parties. Enough is enough.
In a later follow up question, another reporter asked:
Aren’t you cutting off your nose to spite your face here? Don’t you need your message to get out to regional Victoria in particular, and you need the ABC, the national broadcaster to be able to carry it?
To which Hanson responded: “We’ve got Rebel News here, I am happy with them.”
Rebel News Australia is run by Avi Yemini, a former Israeli soldier and self-styled investigative journalist.
Penry Buckley
Icac witness describes Perrottet’s ‘vendetta’ against federal Liberal MP
Reformers member Robert Assaf has described his concerns about alleged branch stacking efforts in the Hills shire in north Sydney.
Assaf says the belief that centre-right faction member and federal MP for Mitchell, Alex Hawke, had “backstabbed” the former premier Dominic Perrottet, “took branches, split the right, and now Hawke is this kingmaker because he has enough of a percentage to pick who wins each time” was “standard brainwashing” to those who joined the right Liberal faction. Mitchell includes parts of the Hills shire.
He told the inquiry Dominic and his brothers Charles and Jean-Claude “were known to have this big vendetta against Hawke ever since”.
Asked if he was concerned the Reformers work was being used to pursue this, he says:
It was a concern at the time, which is part of the reason why I didn’t want to have too much to do with the Hills [shire]. I just kept doing my own thing, you know, under the banner of the Reformers.
Branch stacking itself is not illegal, and neither Hawke nor Dominic Perrottet are accused of any wrongdoing. Charles and Jean-Claude Perrottet have previously denied any wrongdoing.
