Australia news LIVE: Pauline Hanson addresses Melbourne anti-immigration rally; Death toll from Hong Kong apartment complex fire rises to 146

The death toll has mounted to over 500 from floods and landslides caused by torrential rains across Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, officials say, as relief efforts for tens of thousands of displaced people continue. See the flood damage, in photos.

As forensic workers continued the grim process of retrieving bodies from the blackened towers in Hong Kong yesterday, mourners arrived in their thousands with white flowers to pay tribute to the victims of the city’s deadliest fire in decades.

Some whispered prayers, others stood in silence, staring at the burnt-out husks of the towers, tears streaming down their faces.

Officials report the death toll of the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex fire that burnt for two days has reached 146.

The blaze has been compared to the Grenfell Tower fire in London – which killed 72 people in June 2017 – and it has triggered similar accusations of lax safety standards and corruption.

For more than a year, bamboo scaffolding draped in green mesh had covered the facade of the Wang Fuk towers. The site had been inspected 16 times for safety and authorities had issued six improvement notices.

The cause of the fire has not been confirmed, but Hong Kong authorities have arrested 11 people involved in the towers’ renovation, amid suspicion that the mesh and the use of styrofoam in the renovation materials accelerated the blaze.

Read the full report from North Asia correspondent Lisa Visentin.

eSafety have warned Australians that smart cars are being used by perpetrators of domestic and family violence to control victims, following a report by the e-Safety Commission’s Technology-Facilitated Abuse Support Service that found connected cars were being exploited as sophisticated tools of surveillance.

Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin, alongside e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, appeared on the ABC this morning to speak on the ways perpetrators are weaponising smart technology to monitor, intimidate and control victims.

“We found over the years countless creative ways to misuse technology, often the technologies we rely on every day, and largely it’s been low tech. For instance, harassing messages, the weaponisation of banking transactions,” said Inman Grant.

“And about three years ago, we heard from a woman whose car had a kill switch put in it by the family mechanic who was a friend of her former partner’s, and it would make the car stall every time she went beyond the child’s school or the grocery store, so she had about a kilometre perimeter that she could go to use her car.”

Cronin said frontline workers were hearing “more and more” about smart technologies being used to facilitate abuse.

“Look, we are hearing increasingly about the way, as Julie [Inman Grant] said, any form of technology where there is connectivity, where multiple people can have access to it, where there’s GPS trackers in it, which, to be frank, is most of our devices these days, that increasingly, people are using those to either just simply track or control behaviour in the way that Julie’s described. We’re hearing it more and more.”

Melbourne’s newly opened Metro Tunnel is facing its first weekday passenger test as services start at 10am on the second day of travel.

Yesterday enthusiastic passengers packed the first trains to run through to the Metro Tunnel, from Sunbury and East Pakenham.

It was standing-room only on the trains and many more people walked through the stations and underground passages to the City Loop to check out the biggest upgrade to the city’s rail network in 40 years.

There were teething issues at some of the new stations. Escalators at Parkville and State Library stations stopped working. At Anzac station, trains both undershot and overshot the platform, meaning automatic platform screen doors stayed closed.

Operators will be hoping it all goes smoothly today.

Follow live updates as services commence at our Metro Tunnel blog here.

Greens senator Barbara Pocock has called for more “systemic action” to assist first home buyers in the face of rising house prices.

The Cotality Housing Affordability Report has shown month-on-month increases on house prices.

Pocock said schemes such as Labor’s First Home Buyer Guarantee initiative, that allows first home buyers to purchase a home with only a 5 per cent deposit, are “feeding the beast”.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning, Pocock said, “[House prices] are rising extremely fast, and some of the policy interventions, like Labor’s 5 per cent deposit scheme, are actually feeding the beast. They’re driving prices up.

“And in a situation where supply is limited, where we’ve got big tax breaks for investors … someone who can own many investment properties alongside that first home buyer trying to get into the market, it’s just not fair. So we should really be taking much more systemic action to assist those first home buyers to get what we’ve always thought of as part of the Australian dream, a roof over your head.”

Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan has called on his government counterpart to commit to delivering the energy transition after the Australian Energy Market Operator warned NSW could face blackouts with the closure of the Erarang power station.

”Chris Bowen has completely ended up with egg on his face. His transition is failing. He’s wanted coal out of the system as quickly as he possibly could get it, and now we find out that we actually are going to need coal for longer,” Tehan told Sky News.

“So I think what we need to see today is this part-time minister, Chris Bowen, admit that he can’t be COP president and Australia’s energy minister at the same time, and he’s got to make a decision.”

Tehan said AEMO doubted there would be enough synchronous condensers to stabilise the grid once the power station closed.

“If you don’t have those synchronisers in place, then you need coal and you need gas. And this is where Minister Bowen has made such a mess of things because his reckless renewables push, which has been all about ideology, not about making sure we get the transition right, has left us in this state now where we’ve got AEMO coming out and saying they’re very, very worried about the stability of the grid,” Tehan said.

Four people, including three children, have been killed in a shooting at a family gathering at a banquet hall in Stockton, California, with many others wounded.

The victims who died ranged in age from eight to 21, said Heather Brent, a spokesperson for the San Joaquin County sheriff’s office.

Early indications “suggest this may have been a targeted incident”, Brent said during a news conference at the scene.

Jason Lee, vice mayor and city council member, said the hall was hosting a child’s birthday party, according to his Facebook post.

Local officials said the suspected shooter has not been caught and pleaded with the public for help. Detectives were still working to identify a possible motive.

“If you have any information as to this individual, reach out immediately. If you are this individual, turn yourself in immediately,” San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas said.

AP

Minister for Early Childhood Education Jess Walsh has declined to commit to an independent review into the sector as recommended by the Productivity Commission, but said the government was acting on other suggestions.

Walsh said a pay rise for childcare workers, also recommended by the commission, was being introduced today.

“We’re implementing the Productivity Commission’s findings. The pay rise was a big one. Another one … was to replace the activity test with guaranteed three days’ subsidy for every child, no matter what their parents do, and that will roll out from January 5,” Walsh told ABC Radio National.

“So we are certainly acting with urgency … we are strengthening the sector, not just with this pay rise, but with a whole lot of measures.”