Australia news live: police release images of children’s clothing in plea for help investigating alleged abuse at childcare centres

Former secretary of billionaire philanthropist receives more fraud charges

The former private secretary of billionaire philanthropist Judith Neilson has been charged with 16 additional counts of fraud.

Police allege Annalouise Spence, 51, used credit cards owned by her former employer to make unauthorised purchases totalling more than $1.7m, including flights and accommodation, concert tickets, luxury clothing, artwork and jewellery.

Spence was released under strict bail conditions last month, including a $1m surety, after bail was refused in the local court following her arrest in April. Spence, who did not appear at the hearing at Downing Centre local court today, had been charged with 128 counts of dishonestly obtaining property by deception, but the police prosecutor revealed fresh charges have raised the number to 144.

Spence’s defence lawyer, Bryan Wrench, told the court it was the “first time we’re hearing of fresh charges being laid now” and his client had yet to be served any of the brief of evidence, including any statement from Neilson. He said his client remained at the mental health facility to which she had been released under bail conditions. “She’s going to likely be there for the foreseeable future,” he said.

At her supreme court bail hearing last month, defence submissions released by the court state that her husband had repaid $840,708 in relation to the alleged fraud at the time of her arrest. She has yet to enter a plea.

The matter has been adjourned until 27 August for the brief of evidence to be served. Spence has been excused from appearing.

There have now been 15 detections of deadly H5 bird flu in wild birds in Australia since the first was confirmed in late June.

Australia’s chief veterinary officer, Dr Beth Cookson, confirmed on Thursday a further positive detection in a petrel, found at Hawks Nest, New South Wales. She said:

All of these have been individual wild seabirds found in coastal locations. All but one have been wild migratory seabirds.

There remains no evidence of any mass mortality events and there are no detections in poultry or in our agricultural production system. The risk to human health remains low.

It followed news that H5N1 bird flu has also arrived in New Zealand, with the first confirmed case on Wednesday sparking alarm that some of the country’s most beloved and vulnerable native birds could be wiped out if it spreads.

A single ocean-going seabird, a brown skua, returned a confirmed positive test after it was found on a beach in Wellington on 10 July, said Andrew Hoggard, the NZ biosecurity minister.

Read more in Eva Corlett’s report here:

Fuel prices are racing upwards after a week of resumed US strikes on Iran.

Oil trade is disrupted with the Strait of Hormuz closed once again and Brent crude oil prices have hovered around US$85 a barrel for nearly three days, up from just US$76 last week.

Australia’s wholesale fuel prices have leapt as a result. The Australian Institute of Petroleum reports diesel is up from 183.9 cents a litre on Friday to 196.7 cents today, in Sydney and Brisbane.

Service stations have ratcheted up their prices in response. Diesel is up more than 10 cents a litre in a week, to over $2 a litre in Melbourne and Brisbane, and just under $2 in Sydney and Darwin.

Unleaded prices are also rising for wholesalers and retailers but at a slower pace. Prices are set to jump another 16 cents on 2 August when the federal government’s excise relief expires.

Queensland Olympics minister returns to front bench after end to AFP investigation

Queensland Olympics minister, Tim Mander, has returned to the front bench, after standing aside while being investigated by the Australian federal police.

Mander was referred to the police by the Australian electoral commission in May over allegations that he had lied about his place of residence.

The former NRL referee and scripture union chief executive was enrolled to vote at the home of a staffer after divorcing his wife while in a relationship with a fellow minister, Amanda Camm.

In May, the electoral commission said there was an “absence of compelling evidence” that he lived at the house.

The federal police investigated Mander for two months, but a spokesperson said on Thursday that “no offence has been determined and the AFP has finalised the matter”.

In a press conference this morning, the minister refused to answer any questions about his “personal life”, such as where he had been living, and what evidence he provided to the AFP, saying “there’s no need to”.

All you need to be concerned about is the outcome, and the outcome is that I’ve been cleared.

Angus Taylor says he has never supported gender quotas

Opposition leader Angus Taylor also spoke this morning on the question of gender quotas for the Liberal party. He said:

Well, I’ve never supported any quotas at all.

But what I do support is more great people joining the Liberal party, and more great people – women, and from all sorts of backgrounds.

ANU acting provost denies university lost control of campus to pro-Palestine encampment

In the royal commission into antisemitism, ANU’s acting provost Joan Leach has said the university did not “lose control” of its campus to the pro-Palestine encampment.

It’s been revealed that an internal safety review found the encampment had a psychosocial risk rating of “high”.

Commission’s counsel assisting Zelie Heger SC asked:

Is it fair to say that by this point the ANU had essentially lost control of the central location on its campus?

Leach said:

I could not characterise it in that way. But I think there were concerns about the risks to students and to people in the university community at that point.

ANU tried to disband the encampment on multiple occasions.

The security services at the university tend to know many of the students and staff, and they were quite active in interacting with the encampment to ensure that they had kept a constant watch on what was going on.

And again, to encourage any students who wanted to leave or maybe were feeling peer pressure to stay on to do so.

Gender quotas ‘kill the idea of merit’ in a party and that’s ‘poisonous to cohesion’, Andrew Hastie says

When Liberal MP and shadow minister for industry, Andrew Hastie, was asked about gender quotas for the Liberal party on 2GB Sydney radio this morning, he said:

My instinct is always to come back to merit.

I think we have some amazing women in our party, we’ve got some really talented men, and I think we should have a merit-based approach.

It’s as simple as that.

We should certainly make more effort to recruit and develop and give opportunities to women.

But, once you start imposing quotas like the Labor party, you kill the very idea of merit within the party and I think that’s poisonous to cohesion.

The comments followed a story by Guardian Australia’s Dan Jervis-Bardy that the Liberal party was canvassing views on gender quotas. Read more here:

The Australian federal police has released images of distinctive clothing items as part of an ongoing investigation into child abuse and is seeking any information the community might have about them.

A former Sydney childcare worker, 35, has been charged with 329 child abuse offences allegedly committed between 2009 and 2025.

The images, allegedly located on electronic devices seized as part of the investigation, have been shared in hopes the items could be recognised by parents, carers or the general public.

They include a dinosaur puffer jacket, shorts with a blue pattern, a T-shirt with an animal pattern and a two-tone T-shirt.

AFP detective acting inspector Emmanuel Tsardoulias said:

We understand this week’s news about Operation Moonbi has been tough for members of our community. The abuse of trust we allege has occurred is confronting.

Any information, big or small, may assist the victim identification process. We encourage anyone who has information to please contact the [local contact point] on 02 9765 1000.

– with AAP

ANU acting provost fronts the antisemitism royal commission

Professor Joan Leach, acting provost and senior vice-president of the Australian National University (ANU), has been speaking at the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion.

She said the university conducted investigations into the notorious alleged Nazi salute at a union meeting.

The ANU Students’ Association meeting in question was attended by around 500 people in May last year. It received widespread media coverage after video footage was circulated allegedly showing a student performing what appeared to be a Nazi salute and another allegedly mimicking a Hitler moustache.

She said:

In the case of the alleged salute, the video was captured during the AGM. Unfortunately, it’s not fully on video. It’s very difficult to discern what was going on.

Through the investigation, other students were asked how they interpreted that gesture, and those students said it was not a Nazi salute. There was a lengthy interview and investigation. There was good reason to believe doing the salute would be pretty antithetical [to that person]. So there was a finding of no misconduct.

Treasurer releases new statements of expectations for Apra and Asic

Jim Chalmers, the treasurer, has released new statements of expectations for the financial regulators Apra and Asic, which reflect the government’s “pro-growth” agenda amid a drive to ease the regulatory burden in an underperforming economy.

The new statements update the previous version published in 2021 for the corporate cop, Asic, and in 2023 for the banking, super and insurance prudential regulator, Apra.

Chalmers said in a statement:

In both statements there’s now a bigger emphasis on promoting growth. This is all about enabling our financial regulators to unlock more productivity and more growth in our economy.

A quick comparison between the two sets of documents does not reveal any obvious major overhauls, and it’s not clear whether the new statements will trigger any immediate changes.

But there is a heightened focus on – and frequent mention of – “efficiency” and, in Chalmers’ words, on “striking the right balance between supporting productivity and investment, reducing the regulatory burden on businesses, promoting stability, and safeguarding our financial system and markets”.

The announcement follows commitments in the May budget to slash red tape, while businesses and the Productivity Commission have highlighted that reducing the regulatory burden would help lift the country’s lagging productivity performance.

Our financial regulators play a crucial role in protecting businesses and consumers, but they can also play an important role when it comes to tackling Australia’s longstanding productivity challenge.

Moira Deeming drops legal case against Victorian Liberal party and makes last-ditch bid to avoid disendorsement

Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has dropped legal action against her own party as she seeks to make a last-ditch appeal to avoid being disendorsed ahead of the state election.

Deeming launched an 11th-hour supreme court challenge against the Victorian Liberal party president, Brian Loughnane, on 3 July after she made an assault allegation against former leader Matthew Guy and subsequently rejected calls to apologise after Victoria police determined “there was no offence detected”.

In a statement posted to social media, Deeming announced that she had withdrawn the case:

The injunction has achieved exactly what it intended to achieve.

– with AAP

Read more here:

ABC apologises for temporary outage

A spokesperson for the ABC has apologised to audiences after an outage on its digital radio app and web streams this morning:

Earlier this morning a fault temporarily impacted some ABC Radio web streams on ABC listen and other platforms for approximately 30 minutes.

All services were restored and stable by 7.58am AEST and investigations into the cause of the fault are ongoing. We apologise to audiences for any inconvenience.

More than 40 civil society groups across Australia are calling on universities to protect the right to peaceful protest and academic freedom on campuses as vice-chancellors appear at the royal commission into antisemitism.

The statement, signed by organisations including the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC), Amnesty International Australia and the Australian Democracy Network, expressed “grave concern at the increasing adoption by universities across Australia of measures that restrict protest and related student and staff political speech”.

A senior lawyer at the HRLC, Regina Featherstone, said various anti-protest policies have had a “chilling effect on protest and dissent on campus”.

The president of the National Tertiary Education Union, which signed the statement, Dr Alison Barnes, said universities “should be places where staff and students can speak freely and organise without fear of surveillance, discrimination or other adverse consequences”.

On Wednesday, the interim vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Prof Glyn Davis, said pro-Palestine sit-ins on campus led to the institution “quite sharply” changing its protest policies and that further restrictions could arise.

NSW police have arrested a 36 year old man, after a body was found in a house fire in Sydney’s west.

Emergency services attended a fire at a home in Glenmore Park just before 1am, police said.

Police found the body of a man, believed to be in his 60s, in front of a partially alight property. He has not yet been identified.

Following inquiries, another man was arrested in a nearby suburb, and treated by paramedics for minor injuries before being taken to Nepean hospital under police guard.

A crime scene has been established at the property.

In an update, superintendent Trent Kin, from NSW Police, said the man arrested and the victim are believed to be related:

These people appear to be related. However, there’s no history of domestic violence between the two parties.

Indigenous conservation deal in Simpson Desert boosts environmental goals

A huge swath of the Simpson Desert in the Northern Territory’s south-east – an area two thirds the size of Tasmania – is now protected, after a landmark agreement with traditional owners.

The Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) signing took place on Wednesday at the remote Uluperte homelands, an agreement that covers 4.7m hectares of land. The area will be managed by the Central Land Council in partnership with traditional owners.

The Simpson Desert IPA is home to unique ecosystems including sand dunes, stone plains and wetlands, which are habitat for the greater bilby, central rock-rat, night parrot and princess parrot.

Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, said:

The Pmere Atherre Antenterreme/Simpson Desert IPA strengthens long‑standing efforts by Traditional Owners to protect the region’s biodiversity and keep Country healthy.

The dedication recognises the ecological and spiritual significance of this beautiful Country in Central Australia and will support environmental and economic outcomes for future generations.

The agreement achieves a major environment target for Australia ensuring a quarter of the country’s landmass is under some form of conservation agreement.

– with AAP

ABC investigates outage on digital radio app

The ABC is investigating the cause of an outage on its digital radio app ABC Listen at about 7.30am today.

Presenter Hamish Macdonald said on ABC Radio Sydney:

It was down earlier, it is now back up and running, we’re told. The ABC is investigating the cause of the outage.

Albanese says AI standards will protect artists

Anthony Albanese said on ABC Radio Sydney that mandatory standards for artificial intelligence would codify copyright rules in relation to the technology, to avoid a “free for all”.

Part of that will be a recognition that artist creativity – whether it be writers or songwriters, or other people in the creative sector, including the media – that their work is their property, and that it can’t be used without, one, control, and, secondly, without payment.

This is about our sovereignty.

It is about our control and that people’s creativity is, of course, their property effectively, and if you have property used without consent and without payment then that is a form of theft.

Hundreds of iron ore workers at BHP’s Port Hedland operations are expected to strike today, in the first protected industrial action since 2000.

Workers are expected to down tools for eight hours on Thursday, after rejecting the company’s latest offer. A last-minute meeting between BHP and the Fair Work Commission also failed to reach agreement.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union’s WA state secretary, Steve McCartney, said on Sky that workers had been trying to have discussions with BHP for months but the company had treated them with contempt.

If they had negotiated in good faith for the last seven months, we’d have an agreement now. But they’ve decided to be belligerent and now they pay a price.

Will Golsby, the chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA, said:

The Pilbara is the epicentre of Australia’s prosperity and iron ore is our nation’s most significant export. It is deeply alarming that those exports will now face major disruptions from this strike.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has defended Pauline Hanson’s decision to meet with far-right activist Tommy Robinson in the United Kingdom.

I think one of the big things there is to understand the social dynamic that brought about Tommy Robinson.

Now, I don’t support so much of what Tommy Robinson does, but I think it’s incredibly important that we understand the social dynamic and how that came about.

Tommy Robinson only exists because of the fractious nature of where England has arrived at.

Joyce also said the media should be prepared to interview Robinson.

I think we all know that there is a massive following that he has, and we’ve got to understand that. And what we’ve got to do in Australia is make sure we don’t replicate the social disharmony that has brought that about.