ABC ombudsman to review deleted Four Corners episodes by former bikie turned reporter
Amanda Meade
The ABC 0mbudsman is reviewing two episodes of Four Corners by former reporter Mahmood Fazal following concerns about the veracity of sources.
Fazal’s employment was terminated by the ABC in May after he appeared on an unauthorised external podcast in 2025, the managing director, Hugh Marks, told Senate estimates.
The ABC announced today it has removed from its digital platforms the Four Corners programs reported by Fazal: Meth Highway (2024) and Cocaine Nation (2023) and associated content.
This action has been taken following concerns identified about the veracity of certain sources used in both programs.
The matter has been referred to the ABC Ombudsman for an independent review of whether the programs complied with the relevant editorial standards as set out in the Editorial Policies. The ABC will consider whether any further action will be required once that review is complete.
The ABC is committed to the highest standards of editorial integrity. Maintaining the trust of Australians depends on upholding those standards, and we take any concerns about our journalism seriously.
The ABC said the decision to remove the content is separate to the internal investigation which led to Fazal leaving the ABC earlier this year.
Key events
Josh Taylor
Microsoft investigating Teams outage
Tech giant Microsoft has said it is investigating an outage to its Teams platform used for meetings, which is affecting users in the Asia-Pacific region.
In a post on X, the company said:
We’re investigating an issue causing impact to joining or creating Microsoft Teams meetings or calls for users in the Asia-Pacific region.
DownDetector reported outage reports for Teams began just before 10.30am AEST, peaking at 11.09am.
Microsoft was approached for comment.
Worker dead, another seriously injured after mine crash
A worker is dead and another has been seriously injured after a truck collided with a vehicle at a remote mine, AAP reports.
Emergency crews arrived at the Peak Downs coal site, operated by the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance, in central Queensland near Mackay about 5am on Friday.
A worker died while another suffered “potentially life-threatening injuries” and was taken to Moranbah hospital, Queensland Ambulance Service said.
Operations at the mine located in the Bowen Basin have been suspended as investigators head to the site.
The resources health and safety Queensland CEO, Claire Cooper, said in a statement:
A worker has died and another has been injured in a serious incident that occurred at a Central Queensland coal mine earlier today.
Preliminary information indicates two vehicles collided at the site early this morning.
Caitlin Cassidy
Synagogue congregation described as ‘genocidal’ and ‘maggot rat Jews’ in unknown phone call, royal commission hears
Victoria police did not log a phone call to a synagogue where the congregation was described as “genocidal” and “maggot rat Jews” as a prejudice-motivated crime, the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion has heard.
Appearing on Friday morning, Victoria police assistant commissioner, Martin O’Brien, was asked about an incident in October 2025 where a synagogue congregation received a phone call from an unknown woman. The woman allegedly abused the caller, stating the Jewish community were “genocidal”, that their “days were numbered” and that they were “maggot rat Jews”.
There was no incident fact sheet (IFS) recorded in the police report, which is required for any prejudice-motivated crime that relates to racial, political or ideological circumstances, O’Brien confirmed.
Another incident, where a 5.5m swastika was graffitied on to a construction site, was similarly not recorded as an IFS.
Assistant commissioner of the Australian federal police, Stephen Nutt, is next to appear before the commission but will give evidence in closed hearings due to the sensitive nature of his testimony.
Krishani Dhanji
Labor to debate allowing access to voluntary assisted dying via telehealth
Day two of the ALP national conference is under way, with the health portfolio now under debate.
This will include debate on an amendment to allow access to voluntary assisted dying via telehealth.
The amendment reads:
Labor will remove barriers that exist in federal law to the provision of end-of-life care (including via telehealth) as part of lawful access to voluntary assisted dying in the states and territories, while maintaining appropriate clinical safeguards.
Later on, the conference will also debate enshrining a conscience vote on issues involving voluntary assisted dying in Labor’s constitution. The other issue that Labor members get a conscience vote on is abortion.
ABC ombudsman to review deleted Four Corners episodes by former bikie turned reporter
Amanda Meade
The ABC 0mbudsman is reviewing two episodes of Four Corners by former reporter Mahmood Fazal following concerns about the veracity of sources.
Fazal’s employment was terminated by the ABC in May after he appeared on an unauthorised external podcast in 2025, the managing director, Hugh Marks, told Senate estimates.
The ABC announced today it has removed from its digital platforms the Four Corners programs reported by Fazal: Meth Highway (2024) and Cocaine Nation (2023) and associated content.
This action has been taken following concerns identified about the veracity of certain sources used in both programs.
The matter has been referred to the ABC Ombudsman for an independent review of whether the programs complied with the relevant editorial standards as set out in the Editorial Policies. The ABC will consider whether any further action will be required once that review is complete.
The ABC is committed to the highest standards of editorial integrity. Maintaining the trust of Australians depends on upholding those standards, and we take any concerns about our journalism seriously.
The ABC said the decision to remove the content is separate to the internal investigation which led to Fazal leaving the ABC earlier this year.
Goldminer shrugs off earthquake’s impact on production
Two earthquakes in central western NSW have weighed on the output of the world’s biggest goldminer, as it continues to keep an eye on costs after a sharp rise in the oil price, AAP reports.
Dual-listed Newmont Corporation holds the Boddington and Tanami goldmines in Western Australia, along with the Cadia mine in NSW.
At dawn on 19 June, a magnitude-3.4 underground quake was recorded at its Cadia site, about 25km south of Orange.
The jolt came just two months after underground operations at the site were suspended for five weeks following a magnitude-4.5 earthquake that trapped employees in underground refuge chambers for more than 10 hours.
Both quakes resulted in halts to production and Newmont chief executive, Natascha Viljoen, told an earnings call on Friday that the company was still learning from the events, although it was pleased its emergency procedures worked and there were no injuries.
Attributable gold production at Cadia fell to 34,000 ounces in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, down from 94,000 ounces in the first quarter. It was also sharply down from 104,000 ounces in the second quarter of 2025.
While Newmont mined plenty of gold from its other mines across the world, including in the US, Canada and Mexico, overall fourth-quarter production slipped 1% to 1.29m ounces from the previous quarter.
Krishani Dhanji
Protecting children from inducements in games and social media part of gambling amendments
Labor will adopt amendments into its platform calling for stronger action on gambling inducements in games and social media, and to ensure relevant national regulators report back to parliament yearly to show their action on minimising gambling harm.
We can now see the amendments agreed to by the minister (which avoids a fight on the floor of the conference) ahead of them being debated a little later today.
The amendments state that the government has a “responsibility to prevent harm, intervene early when harm is occurring and to support individuals experiencing harm”.
The amendments also include:
Labor will explore how to better prevent online gaming and social media platforms from offering children and young people embedded inducements within games and social media that incentivise and normalise gambling.
To support the effectiveness and impact of this work, we will endeavour to strengthen the powers of the relevant national regulators, who will report to parliament annually on their actions. Labor will continue to monitor the success of these actions to ensure the correct regulatory settings are in place.
Krishani Dhanji
Chinese delegation departs from ALP conference
There’s been a few members of the diplomatic community spotted at the Labor conference this week – we saw the Danish ambassador on the same set of escalators the PM yesterday tripped on, and we’re aware of a few others.
There were also representatives from Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Canberra, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia.
But the Chinese delegation, who had made an appearance at the conference yesterday, is nowhere to be seen today and is understood to be back in Canberra. Some have linked their return to the presence of Taiwan’s representatives.
Diplomatic officials are able to come to the conference as “observers”, the same as another attendee who is not a delegate, MP, staffer, media or lobbyist, meaning they can watch all the proceedings on the floor, and have time to chat to anyone floating around.
Vast majority’ of pro-Palestine protesters aren’t motivated by violence, royal commission hears
Caitlin Cassidy
The “vast majority” of people who march in pro-Palestine protests aren’t seeking violence, the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion has heard.
The former principal intelligence analyst at the Jewish Community Service Group (CSG) of New South Wales, Tahli Blicblau, said four converging ideologies had created the most serious threat environment for Jewish Australians’ in history: Islamic extremism, the extreme far right, the radical far left and conspiratorial movements.
This block of hearings is looking into security arrangements for the Jewish community, including risk assessments.
Blicblau was asked by the commissioner, Virginia Bell, whether the pro-Palestine movement was part of the radical far left threat.
Blicblau said she was talking about an “extreme fringe radical element” which may have some similar ideological drivers but was “anti-democratic, anti-Australian, anti-colonial generally which extends not only to Israel but also to Australia”.
Bell asked, “You’re not suggesting that individuals who march in protests about the Palestinian cause are motivated towards violence towards Jewish people, are you?”
She replied:
I would say the vast majority of them are not.
Police seeking community assistance in alleged child abuse investigation
The Australian federal police have launched a new public appeal to help identify a boy as part of its ongoing investigation into former Sydney childcare worker Hamish Tait.
An image of the child was allegedly found on devices seized by police.
The photos, taken between March 2020 and July 2025, show a boy wearing Bluey-branded underwear who appears to have a distinctive freckle or mole on his body.
Police cannot release the images due to their sensitive nature, but hope the description could spark recognition.
AFP Detective Acting Inspector, Emmanuel Tsardoulias, said any information, big or small, might assist with the victim identification process.
We appreciate the information shared with the community may appear limited, however, any clue may assist with victim identification. Please consider the dates, locations and descriptions.
Anyone who has information is encouraged to contact the local contact point on 02 9765 1000. The LCP formally concludes on 26 July 2026. After that, the community can call the AFP on 131 237.
Police confirmed on Friday two children pictured in images released by the AFP last week were already known to them.
The AFP is also launching a fresh community appeal for information about an image depicting a two-tone T-shirt, taken from behind the child at a Putney childcare centre about 9 January 2018.
With AAP
Ultra-long distance Qantas test flight touches down in Melbourne after 19-hour journey
The world’s longest-range commercial aircraft has been greeted by plane-spotters and aviation enthusiasts after arriving in Melbourne on Friday morning.
The Airbus A350-1000ULR, built for Qantas to fly about 20 hours nonstop between Sydney and London, completed a 19-hour odyssey from Toulouse, France that became one of the most-watched flights in the world.
More than 74,000 people tracked its path on flighradar24.com as it prepared to land.
Eleven-year-old Will took the day off school to watch its descent, appearing with a crowd of other enthusiasts on Sunrise.
Krishani Dhanji
Labor avoids fight on gambling reform
An issue that was shaping up to be one of the more contentious policy battlegrounds has also avoided a fight on the floor – with some amendments to be agreed to today.
Gambling has been a hot button issue both inside and outside the party, and teams were working overnight to figure out how to get stronger commitments into the party platform.
Instead of a fight, the minister is understood to have agreed to the wording of the amendments (which we’ll bring you as soon as we get them).
Aukus construction yards to be ‘pride of the nation’
The defence minister, Richard Marles, is speaking in Adelaide after announcing an extra $4.6 billion for construction yards that will build Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet.
In the coming years as we get to a number of north of 10,000 people, and they are jobs that will be here for generations to come.
This is a hugely significant facility in terms of what our nation’s industrial capacity is.
This will be the highest tech production line in Australia, it will be one of the highest tech production lines in the world.
I really want to thank the more than a thousand workers now, but thousands to come who will be building this facility.
They should be incredibly proud of what they are doing, and the outcome of this will really be the pride of the nation.
Aukus is expected to be discussed at Labor’s national conference on the weekend, following calls to review the plan.
Earlier, Marles said the issue had already been debated at the previous national conference, where iit received “overwhelming support”.
Tom McIlroy
Farrell silent on donations from Chinese billionaire
Don Farrell, the trade minister and special minister of state, has brushed off questions about Anthony Albanese attending a fundraising dinner hosted by the son of a Chinese billionaire under scrutiny from the tax office.
The Australian Financial Review reported this week Albanese attended the event with 25-year-old Felix Lee, whose father, Phillip Dong Fang Lee, has made big donations to the Labor party.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Friday that Phillip Lee has been investigated by the ATO over large sums of money coming from China to Australia.
Other attenders at the fundraiser included the Commonwealth Bank boss, Matt Comyn, former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, the former Asic chairman James Shipton and former Future Fund boss David Murray.
Asked if the fundraising was appropriate, Farrell said he was “unfamiliar” with the media reports.
All of the issues in relation to donations are matters that are helped with and dealt with by the party administration.
Australia’s largest exports to US exempt from latest tariffs
Australian gold, beef and copper will continue flowing into the US tariff-free, despite Donald Trump’s latest wave of levies.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said those exports would continue to have a high volume of trade into the US.
The 67% increase in trade has been because those products – the value of those products, and the volume of those products – has been increasing.
I don’t see any reason to think that that’s not going to continue.
I think we will continue to have a high volume of trade into the United States.
But we’re always looking for new markets.
Tariffs on Australian exports ‘completely unjustified’
The trade minister, Don Farrell, is speaking in Adelaide after the US revealed it would slap 12.5% tariffs on Australian goods in a trade move hitting dozens of countries that Donald Trump claims have not done enough to combat forced labour in supply chains.
Farrell said:
We do not believe it was justified.
We believe that – amongst all of the countries in the world -Australia does take the issue of modern slavery seriously, and will continue to do that.
The Albanese government believes that this imposition of higher tariffs on Australia is completely unjustified, and we will continue to lobby the United States trade representative to remove all tariffs on Australian goods.
Relationship between police and Jewish security to be probed as royal commission continues
The relationship between police and Jewish security groups is set to be examined after calls for governments to entirely fund the community’s security needs.
Across a fifth round of hearings in Melbourne this week, the anti-Semitism royal commission has been told the financial burden of Jewish safety in Australia is largely being worn by families, schools, places of worship and community groups, AAP reports.
Liberal MP Julian Leeser, whose persistent lobbying was instrumental to establishing the landmark inquiry, will appear before the commission on Friday to detail the rising tide of hate speech and its impact on the community.
We’ll be bringing you the latest on the blog.
