Coalition to push for airline passenger compensation scheme
Elias Visontay
The Coalition will move to force the government to bring in an airline passenger compensation scheme that would make carriers pay cash to delayed customers, in a bill dubbed “pay on delay”.
Opposition transport spokeswoman and Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and Liberal senator Dean Smith have tabled notice their intention to move “a bill for an Act to require the transport minister to make rules prescribing carriers’ obligations, and for related purposes” when parliament returns later this month.
There have been mounting calls to introduce a compensation scheme modelled on the laws already in place in the European Union and other countries, which would see airlines forced to pay cash to passengers who are delayed as a result of the airline’s operations, and not weather related issues. Such schemes also force airlines to compensate passengers for missed connections, and stipulate payments must be made within days of the delay or cancellation.
The Coalition appears to be upping the pressure on transport minister Catherine King to consider such a scheme, as the government prepares its long term aviation sector policy to be outlined in the much anticipated white paper to be released towards the middle of the year.
You can read more about the idea for a compensation scheme – which has the support of some independent MPs as a way to bring airlines into line – here:
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Opposition transport spokeswoman and Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and Liberal senator Dean Smith have tabled notice their intention to move “a bill for an Act to require the transport minister to make rules prescribing carriers’ obligations, and for related purposes” when parliament returns later this month.
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There have been mounting calls to introduce a compensation scheme modelled on the laws already in place in the European Union and other countries, which would see airlines forced to pay cash to passengers who are delayed as a result of the airline’s operations, and not weather related issues. Such schemes also force airlines to compensate passengers for missed connections, and stipulate payments must be made within days of the delay or cancellation.
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The Coalition appears to be upping the pressure on transport minister Catherine King to consider such a scheme, as the government prepares its long term aviation sector policy to be outlined in the much anticipated white paper to be released towards the middle of the year.
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You can read more about the idea for a compensation scheme – which has the support of some independent MPs as a way to bring airlines into line – here:
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A recent successful legal action to temporarily halt logging in an area of forest south of Hobart by the Bob Brown Foundation has received a superstar spruik from Leonardo DiCaprio, who posted the news to his Instagram and called for an end to native forest logging in Australia.
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Dicaprio wrote, alongside a picture of the critically endangered swift parrot:
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Australia Conservationists have won a temporary injunction to stop logging in the Tasmania nesting sites of the Critically Endangered Swift Parrot. Only an estimated 750 Swift Parrots remain, yet forest destruction has continued in their sole breeding sites in eastern Tasmania.
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The Australian government has promised that it will prevent any new extinctions. Conservationists continue to encourage them to uphold their zero extinction commitment. The only way to protect the Swift Parrot, and hundreds of other threatened Australian forest species, is to end native forest logging across Australia and Tasmania.
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DiCaprio is a longtime environmentalist and helped found the conservation organisation Rewild.
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Here’s more on the Bob Brown Foundation’s legal action:
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In the Senate cost-of-living inquiry, Matt Canavan probed what work the treasury is doing on negative gearing, attempting to uncover whether there is any work going on to reform the controversial tax deduction.
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The treasury secretary, Steven Kennedy, said:
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I talk to the treasurer about every part of the tax system. The tax expenditure statement, released last week shows the distributional features of all parts of system, including negative gearing.
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Canavan asked if there was work on any changes, Kennedy declined to answer, which Canavan suggested meant there probably was. Katy Gallagher, the finance minister, rejected the claim.
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Gallagher said:
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It’s not something we’re looking at, it’s not something we’re working on. It’s not something before the parliament.
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Canavan noted that that’s what the government said before its changes to stage three.
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The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, is not concerned about any potential impact of the stage-three tax cuts, recently redesigned by Labor, on inflation.
Bullock told the parliamentary committee the tax plan would not affect the central bank’s forecasts.
“The point with the stage-three tax cuts is that they’re staying within the fiscal envelope, it’s a redistribution, and we don’t see that that’s going to have any material impact at all on inflation or our forecasts,” Bullock said.
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Anthony Albanese is speaking on ABC Radio Sydney now, where he was asked about Greens leader Adam Bandt saying he’d like to negotiate with the government on restricting negative gearing to one property.
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The prime minister appears to rule it out, instead referring to the government’s changes on stage 3 tax cuts, and its focus on boosting housing supply.
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We’ll determine our policies. We have a big tax agenda on the table right now that will benefit them 13.6 million taxpayers, every single taxpayer will get a tax cut.
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Q: So if you have to negotiate with the Greens, would you say bargain off negative gearing or is it too much political poison after the 2019 election?
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Albanese:
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We don’t have to negotiate with the Greens, what we’d have to do is to put forward our positive policies, [and] the case for them.
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Defence industry minister Pat Conroy is expected to announce a significant further investment today into the next-generation collaborative combat aircraft, also known as the Ghost Bat.
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It is being developed by Boeing Defence Australia under contract from the Australian government with an investment so far of $600m.
Eight planes have been produced and have been undergoing testing. The next phase will see more advanced capabilities added to them and take them a step closer to operational capability.
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MQ-28A Ghost Bat combat drone at RAAF Amberley, east of Brisbane”,”caption”:”An MQ-28A Ghost Bat combat drone at RAAF Amberley, east of Brisbane.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
It is the first military combat aircraft to be designed, developed and manufactured in Australia for more than 50 years.
The Albanese government sees this as underscoring its commitment to backing the innovation and expertise of Australia’s defence industry. More than 55 Australian companies are contributing to the Ghost Bat program, with more than 70% of program expenditure going to Australian industry. The project is supporting hundreds of highly skilled and well-paid jobs.
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The MQ-28A Ghost Bat is designed to act as a “loyal wingman” for other aircraft such as the Super Hornet or E-7A Wedgetail, as well as the F-35 and the P-8 Poseidon.
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Thanks to Martin for kicking things off this morning. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be with you on the blog today.
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See something that needs attention? You can get in touch on X, @emilywindwrites, or send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
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With that, let’s get back into it.
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According to Geoscience Australia, a 4.3 magnitude earthquake hit Leongatha in Victoria, 135km south-east of Melbourne, at 12.49am. The epicentre was 8km deep.
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There were more than 4000 “felt reports”, many of them in the city of Melbourne, concentrated on its south-eastern suburbs closest to the epicentre.
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But there have been no early reports of damage as at the time of writing – 4.3 is not big in the scheme of things, there are about 10,000 quakes of about this magnitude in the world every year.
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One of the unique features of this one was its location – because the city’s namesake on the other side of the world had also just felt a quake.
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According to the US Geological Survey, there was a 4.0 magnitude earthquake, at a depth of 10km, just off the coast of Melbourne, Florida, in the US about 10 hours earlier.
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02/08 | Did anyone feel the Earthquake last night? A 4.0 magnitude Earthquake was reported well offshore of the Brevard County coast 101.4 mi E of Cape Canaveral at 10:48 PM Wednesday. For more information check out https://t.co/0qFKBZjHuG. #FL pic.twitter.com/7mo5wCC1t3
— NWS Melbourne (@NWSMelbourne) February 8, 2024
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As you can imagine, much hilarity and some confusion ensued on social media.
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This is bizzare. I am in Melbourne, Australia, and we also just felt an earthquake, 4.6 magnitude. Map below. Don't be confused therefore if you get Australians responding to this also!https://t.co/FZbLWa22Sh
— 🎶 The MuSinGer 🦋 (@TheMuSinger) February 8, 2024
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Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer with the best overnight stories before my colleague Emily Wind comes along to take you through the day.
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First up: thousands of Melburnians have reported feeling a 4.3 magnitude earthquake that happened overnight in Leongatha, 135km to the city’s south-east. Coincidentally, it happened just hours after a quake of a similar magnitude rattled Melbourne, Florida, causing some confusion on social media. More on this soon.
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In other news, it looks as though Anthony Albanese is going to have a real fight to hold on to the federal seat of Dunkley three weeks tomorrow, with Labor only just ahead of the Coalition amid a barrage of negative cost of living-related attack ads. According to a uComms poll for Australia Institute published today, Labor has its nose in front in the Victorian byelection seat of Dunkley – but only just with a lead of 52% to 48%, well down from its 56-44 lead at the 2022 election. Attack ads paid for by the rightwing lobby group Advance Australia are targeting rising prices and the release of “paedophiles” from detention as being “on Albo … it’s us versus them”.
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Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has said she did not have all the evidence about serious allegations regarding a key United Nations agency delivering aid to Gaza before she decided to halt funding. Wong told the ABC on Thursday night that she had spoken to commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini and was working to bring an end to the suspension, including by seeking more information regarding the allegations from the agency and from the Israeli government. The Labor MP Josh Wilson broke ranks with the government, condemning Israel’s bombardment of Gaza as “unconscionable”. More on that, too, coming up.
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Key events
Josh Taylor
Alleged publication of Jewish creatives WhatsApp group led to death threats, MP says
The alleged publishing of a Jewish creatives WhatsApp group chat and the contact details of alleged participants has led to death threats and forced one family into hiding, Labor MP Josh Burns has said.
Writer and commentator Clementine Ford on Thursday published a link on her Facebook page to the log of a group chat of over 600 Jewish writers and artists. The Age, which first reported the story, alleged the link also contained a spreadsheet of links to social media accounts and another file that contained the photos of over 100 Jewish people.
Ford was not the only person to have shared a copy of the log, but she said it was to provide her 239,000 followers with an insight into “how coordinated efforts are to silence Palestinian activists and their allies” via a transcript of the leaked chat.
More on this story here:
Penny Wong on ‘two irrefutable truths’ about UN agency UNRWA
Foreign minister Penny Wong has reiterated concerns about a key United Nations agency delivering aid to Gaza, noting that while it does critical work, there remain serious allegations against its staff.
Wong, speaking at a press conference in Perth, again spoke of “two irrefutable truths” about the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the group that Australia, the US and the UK and other donor countries suspended funding following allegations that as many as 12 staff members were involved in the 7 October attacks against Israelis.
Wong said:
There are two irrefutable facts. It’s critical. The only organisation that has the infrastructure and personnel to provide assistance into a region which is experiencing a devastating humanitarian crisis in the midst of this conflict.
The second is that serious allegations have been made. I note that UNWRA itself, when these allegations were made public, described them as serious allegations against UNWRA staff, itself said that they would be terminating contracts and launching an investigation.
Now we obviously have previously increased our funding for UNWRA. We are keen to work with both the organisation and with Japan and other like-minded [nations] who have paused funding, to work out how we can gain the confidence to restore funding. We will continue to do that work.
Penny Wong calls for ‘strategic balance’ in Asia Pacific so ‘no one country can determine outcomes’
Foreign minister Penny Wong has spoken of the need to ensure a “strategic balance” in the Asia-Pacific region so that a country’s “power and size alone” doesn’t determine outcome.
Wong, speaking from Perth where she is hosting the Indian Ocean Conference, fielded questions from several foreign reporters travelling from the region.
Wong said:
We want a region that’s peaceful.
We want to ensure there is a strategic balance in the region so that no one country can determine outcomes and no one country can constrain the choices that other countries have.
We’re for peace, stability, prosperity and countries being able to make their own decisions. We are for systems of rules and norms to ensure that it isn’t power and size alone which determines outcomes.
Jordyn Beazley
I’ll now be handing the blog over to Elias Visontay. Thank you for following along, and happy Friday!
Court action against Queensland coal-fired power plant after mass outage
Court proceedings are under way against a Queensland coal-fired power plant accused of failing to comply with performance standards, AAP reports.
The Australian Energy Regulator began federal court proceedings on Friday against Callide Power Trading (CPT), which operates the Callide C power station near Biloela in central Queensland.
The regulator alleges CPT breached two national electricity rules following an investigation into a mass power outage on May 25, 2021.
An explosion in the plant’s turbine hall resulted in a trip of multiple generators and high-voltage transmission lines across Queensland, leaving 470,000 homes and businesses without power.
The regulator alleges Callide’s C4 unit failed to ensure its plant met performance standards and did not design its facilities to comply with those requirements.
Regulator board member Justin Oliver said compliance with generator performance standards is critical:
It’s vital that registered participants and generators are aware of their performance standards and comply with them at all times so that the market and consumers aren’t wrongly exposed to the consequences of adverse events.
The Callide C plant can generate up to 1540MW of electricity – about 30% of the state’s overnight demand – and units C3 and C4 remain out of action.
A spokesperson for CPT said they will work co-operatively with the regulator to resolve the matter as soon as possible.
Coalition to push for airline passenger compensation scheme
Elias Visontay
The Coalition will move to force the government to bring in an airline passenger compensation scheme that would make carriers pay cash to delayed customers, in a bill dubbed “pay on delay”.
Opposition transport spokeswoman and Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and Liberal senator Dean Smith have tabled notice their intention to move “a bill for an Act to require the transport minister to make rules prescribing carriers’ obligations, and for related purposes” when parliament returns later this month.
There have been mounting calls to introduce a compensation scheme modelled on the laws already in place in the European Union and other countries, which would see airlines forced to pay cash to passengers who are delayed as a result of the airline’s operations, and not weather related issues. Such schemes also force airlines to compensate passengers for missed connections, and stipulate payments must be made within days of the delay or cancellation.
The Coalition appears to be upping the pressure on transport minister Catherine King to consider such a scheme, as the government prepares its long term aviation sector policy to be outlined in the much anticipated white paper to be released towards the middle of the year.
You can read more about the idea for a compensation scheme – which has the support of some independent MPs as a way to bring airlines into line – here:
Call for more states to ban spit hoods
States and territories must follow suit and ban the use of spit hoods in the justice system after New South Wales became the second state to enact a legislative ban, a coalition against the restraint device has said.
The Ban Spit Hoods Coalition said the device, which has been linked to numerous deaths in custody, were an unacceptable threat to human life and dignity and the group would not stop pushing until it’s banned nationwide.
On Thursday, the NSW parliament followed South Australia’s lead and passed a ban on the the use of spit hoods in mental health care settings, and in adult and youth prisons.
It comes after the Northern Territory leader of the Country Liberal party, Lia Finocchiaro, indicated the territory may head in the other direction if the party wins government in August this year. Finocchiaro suggested she would reverse a 2016 enacted ban on the use of spit hoods on children in youth detention centres.
Gomeroi woman Alison Whittaker, a senior legal researcher at UTS, said the bill passing in NSW is a testament to the advocacy of families who’ve lost loved ones to the use of spit hoods in custodial settings:
Spit hoods are instruments of torture that strip people of dignity, humanity and life. From today, people in NSW can be assured that they won’t be lawfully used in any setting, on anyone. The Ban Spithoods Coalition will not stop pushing until all jurisdictions have banned spit hoods.
Despite spit hoods being banned in Northern Territory youth jails since 2016, police have used the device 27 times and emergency restraint chairs at least six.
In 2021, Selesa Tafaifa died after being restrained by staff at the Townsville Women’s Correctional Centre and placed in a spit hood.
The 45-year-old Samoan woman told Queensland prison guards four times that she couldn’t breathe and pleaded for her asthma medication six times before dying in custody, a coronial inquest has heard.
Declan Cutler’s mother sobs as four boys found guilty of murdering teenage son in Melbourne street attack
A mother has sobbed as four boys were found guilty of murdering her 16-year-old son in a Melbourne street attack, AAP reports.
Declan Cutler was walking alone down a dark street when he was kicked, stomped on and stabbed by a group of eight boys in March 2022.
Declan bled to death on the ground after suffering 152 injuries, including 56 stab wounds and 66 blunt force injuries.
Victorian supreme court Justice Rita Incerti on Friday found four of the attackers – known under the pseudonyms SA, DM, QDM and SY – guilty of Declan’s murder.
More on this story here:
Henry Belot
PwC Australia bans income splitting arrangements used to limit tax, affecting 230 partners
More than 230 partners at PwC Australia have been using a legal tax minimisation scheme that allows them to divert part of their income to family members, lowering their tax threshold.
The use of the scheme – known as an Everett assignment – has long concerned the Australian Tax Office, which has warned some partners may be aggressively using the scheme beyond its intended scope.
PwC Australia’s chief executive, Kevin Burrowes, told a Senate inquiry into the consulting industry that the amount of partners entering into income-splitting arrangements has declined in recent years. But the practice will now be stopped:
Our partners have not been entering into them and we have made the decision to prohibit such [arrangements] going forward.
Burrowes told the inquiry the decision to stop partners using Everett assignments was made earlier this month. During that period, members of the inquiry had publicly criticised the arrangements.
It is not clear whether PwC Australia partners who are now using Everrett assignments will need to restructure their finances.
Leonardo DiCaprio calls for an end to native forest logging in Australia
A recent successful legal action to temporarily halt logging in an area of forest south of Hobart by the Bob Brown Foundation has received a superstar spruik from Leonardo DiCaprio, who posted the news to his Instagram and called for an end to native forest logging in Australia.
Dicaprio wrote, alongside a picture of the critically endangered swift parrot:
Australia Conservationists have won a temporary injunction to stop logging in the Tasmania nesting sites of the Critically Endangered Swift Parrot. Only an estimated 750 Swift Parrots remain, yet forest destruction has continued in their sole breeding sites in eastern Tasmania.
The Australian government has promised that it will prevent any new extinctions. Conservationists continue to encourage them to uphold their zero extinction commitment. The only way to protect the Swift Parrot, and hundreds of other threatened Australian forest species, is to end native forest logging across Australia and Tasmania.
DiCaprio is a longtime environmentalist and helped found the conservation organisation Rewild.
Here’s more on the Bob Brown Foundation’s legal action:
Henry Belot
‘We are deadly serious’: senators scold PwC after it refuses to release report used to clear itself, citing legal privilege
PwC Australia’s chief executive, Kevin Burrowes, has told a senate inquiry he has once again been denied a copy of a report used by the international firm to clear its partners of wrongdoing.
The Australia Tax Office, the Tax Practitioners Board and the Senate are seeking a copy of the report to test the credibility of PwC global’s claim that a confidentiality scandal was isolated to Australia.
The report, by law firm Linklaters, was used by PwC global to state there was no evidence that confidential information received by international partners was used for commercial gain. But its executive said six partners should have raised questions about whether the information was confidential.
Burrowes told the inquiry the firm considered the report to be privileged:
I’ve formally requested the Linklaters report again from PwC International Limited and that request was refused on the basis that the information contained in that report is privileged and confidential to PwC International Limited.
Earlier today, the ATO expressed frustration about PwC’s use of legal professional privilege to stymie its investigations and suggested the firm would employ a similar strategy with the Linklaters report.
The inquiry’s chair, Liberal senator Richard Colbeck, said the Australian public deserved to know who “the dirty six” were:
Can I tell you, if we don’t see the report, it ain’t going to be pretty … we are deadly serious about this. Deadly serious … We will do what we can – noting that PwC International are hiding behind legal professional privilege – to extract that report.
Henry Belot
‘Severe concern’: Former PwC Australia partners attended ATO meeting discussing investigation into firm, senate inquiry told
Two former PwC Australia partners attended a meeting between a regulator, theTax Practitioners Board, and the Australia Tax Office, where an investigation into their former firm was discussed.
The two former partners were also members of the TPB board, which helped expose a scandal involving the firm’s misuse of confidential Treasury information.
The TPB chair, Peter de Cure, has told a Senate inquiry the two TPB board members had previously disclosed their conflict of interest and excused themselves from discussions about PwC Australia.
But Peter de Cure said this did not happen in early September, when the TPB met with the ATO with no prepared itinerary. During this meeting, the ATO spoke critically of the firm and the TPB’s investigation into it.
Here’s part of Peter de Cure’s exchange with Greens senator, Barbara Pocock:
Barbara Pocock:
They were part of a discussion which was about the investigation into PwC [Australia], both at the time holding a financial interest in PwC?
Peter de Cure:
Yes.
Barbara Pocock:
They stayed for the entire meeting. Is that correct?
Peter de Cure:
I believe so. Yes.
The Labor senator Deborah O’Neil said the former PwC Australia partners’ attendance at the meeting caused her “severe concern” given conflict of interest concerns.
Search for Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy expanded as operation enters sixth day
Victoria police are sending additional detectives and expanding the search area for missing Ballarat women Samantha Murphy after she was last seen leaving home to go for a run six days ago.
Detectives encouraged community members to continue helping in the search for Murphy.
In a press conference a short time ago, police said:
We look through that Eureka and state Forest area and today we’re focusing on the Buninyong area.
We are now in day six of the operation. We have covered a lot of areas so far so we’re just expanding search area.
Asked whether specialists relating to mine shafts or dams were involved, police said:
It’s all part of our search at the moment. We have had Victoria Police search and rescue squad involved in the search from day one. It is a challenging area and terrain within the area of the search operation … there were a lot of unused mines throughout that area as well and some thick and rugged bush.
Police said Murphy had her phone with her when she disappeared and are engaging with telecommunications technicians, but said they haven’t yet received information from the experts on her movement after she left home on Sunday morning. Police are also investigating Murphy’s movements in the lead up to her disappearance.
Police said:
We do hold significant concerns in relation to her welfare, particularly as the days go on.
Arson attack detectives investigate another tobacco shop blaze
A suspicious blaze at a tobacco shop in Melbourne’s south-east is being investigated by detectives probing a wider conflict linked to a gang war, AAP reports.
The shop on Glenhuntly Road in Caulfield went up in flames at 2.30am on Friday.
Police believed the offenders drove a stolen vehicle into the front window and set the shop alight before fleeing in another vehicle.
No one was injured but the business and a nearby apartment was damaged.
It is being treated as a targeted attack, and Taskforce Lunar detectives will look at any possible links to other recent fires, Victoria Police said in a statement.
The taskforce is investigating more than 30 arson attacks believed to be linked to an ongoing conflict between organised crime groups and outlaw motorcycle gangs over illegal tobacco.
Police have previously said criminals are demanding regular payments from shop owners and ordering lower-level criminals to carry out firebombings.
Earlier we brought you news of the 4.3 magnitude earthquake in Victoria that hit the state’s Gippsland region, 135km south-east of Melbourne, at 12.49am today.
Here’s more on this story here:
ABC’s house committee condemns ‘abhorrent’ incidents of racism towards its Jewish and Arab journalists
The ABC’s house committee has condemned increased incidents of racism targeting its Jewish and Arab journalists, including a “flood” of online remarks inciting violence against them, and a “worrying number of Islamophobic and antisemitic acts in the real world”.
In a statement, it said:
The ABC House Committee is aware of increased incidents of racism targeting Jewish and Arab ABC journalists. In the last fortnight, there has been a flood of online remarks inciting violence against them, and a worrying number of Islamophobic and antisemitic acts in the real world. We support absolutely the democratic right to protest but condemn antisemitic and Islamophobic comments.
The House Committee rejects any and all attempts to target ABC journalists on the basis of their faith and ethnicity.
To use the Israel-Gaza conflict as a means to vilify Australian Arabs or Jews is abhorrent.
The ABC House Committee stands in solidarity with all ABC staff who have a connection to the conflict and condemns absolutely all forms of racism stemming from it.
Our society can be, and should be, better than that.
To our workmates, if you’re feeling unsafe and unprotected at work, please reach out to your local House Committee rep or organiser, we’ve got your back.
Henry Belot
Regulator expands investigation of PwC Australia with nine inquiries under way
A government regulator has broadened its inquiry into the consultancy firm PwC Australia and confirmed the existence of “nine current investigations”.
The Tax Practitioner Board’s chair, Peter de Dure, said three investigations were “well advanced” and would hopefully assist six other investigations into the firm’s conduct:
We have compiled a lot of information and our team is working through that and we intend to pursue those investigations in the ordinary course of the year. I don’t want to talk about the exact timeframes for the purposes of protecting the probity of the investigation.
The allegations being investigated are not known.
The TPB’s inquiries into PwC Australia began after the ATO raised concerns a former partner had shared confidential information about future tax laws with colleagues, who shopped it to international clients.
Jonathan Barrett
Bullock encourages young women to study economics
Australia’s first female central bank governor has encouraged young women to consider a career in economics, after describing the subject as “fun”.
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, told a parliamentary committee in Canberra today:
All I’d say to young women is it’s really good fun and don’t be off-put by what you might think might be a challenging subject.
It’s a challenging subject, but it is a fun subject and economics gives you insights into everyday life that I think is valuable for everyone.
Bullock was responding to a question from Labor’s Alicia Payne, a member of the House of Representatives economics committee.
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