Australia news LIVE: US looks to set up naval base in Australia to advance AUKUS; Vance criticises Israeli parliament’s vote to annex West Bank

NSW Police prosecutors will be given the power to apply to prevent serial and violent thieves from re-entering stores as part of a suite of new measures unveiled by the NSW government aimed at combating retail crime. It follows months of mounting alarm about the heightened number of abusive and violent incidents that threaten staff and customers across the country.

As part of the new NSW Police Force retail crime strategy, NSW Police will coordinate more knife-scanning in shopping centres, run more operations to disrupt retail crime and set up dedicated points of contact in each police precinct for faster communication and response.

NSW Police will also provide further support to retailers by distributing safety packs, undertaking site assessments and holding monthly meetings with them to discuss threats.

More than $9 billion worth of goods are stolen in Australia every year, with about 10 per cent of offenders responsible for 60 per cent of total harm. Two-thirds of the 800,000 incidents lodged last year involved a weapon of some kind.

NSW Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism Yasmin Catley said the Minns government was giving NSW Police “everything they need” to keep people safe quickly and effectively.

“The presence of police tells people in no uncertain terms that this behaviour will not be tolerated and there are real consequences for those who cross the line,” she said.

The Australian Retailers Association has embraced the NSW government’s strategy, which was developed in consultation with the retail industry.

“We applaud the state’s genuine leadership in addressing the devastating impacts of retail crime – first with toughened legislation, and now with its strengthened commitment to police resourcing and the apprehension of repeat offenders,” said ARA chief executive Chris Rodwell.

Victoria, the retail crime capital, has yet to introduce legislation to combat the issue. In late August, nearly two dozen retail CEOs penned an open letter to Premier Jacinta Allan asking her to implement urgent reforms.

Australian scientists believe the deadly H5N1 bird flu has reached the sub-Antarctic Australian territory of Heard Island, after they found an unusual number of dead elephant seals.

Heard Island is some 4000 kilometres south-west of Perth and 1700 kilometres north of Antarctica in the Southern Ocean and is a marine reserve.

Observations were made by Australian Antarctic Program scientists on an environmental management visit to the island on board the icebreaker RSV Nuyina.

There were no observations of unusual levels of mortality in other species present on the island, including penguins and other seabirds.

The outbreak is not yet confirmed, but samples have been collected for testing by the CSIRO Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness for confirmatory testing when the ship returns to Australia in mid-November. It will take several weeks to get results.

Minister for Emergency Management Kristy McBain says the government’s work with telcos to improve the emergency call system is ongoing, after Telstra issued a warning yesterday to users of some old Samsung phones that had failed to connect to Triple Zero services.

“We are working with telcos to strengthen our emergency response to telecommunication outages. Just recently, we’ve strengthened requirements for more rigorous device testing, and obviously this issue has been highlighted. We are now requiring that device testing take place through the University of Technology Sydney’s National Telecommunications Resilience Centre to ensure that the telcos can work out what those devices are and fix them, so that everyone can be assured that they can reach Triple Zero in an emergency,” McBain told ABC’s Radio National this morning.

Telstra reported that yesterday’s Triple Zero issue affected up to 70 old Samsung models, impacting thousands of Australian customers. Affected users were urged to update or replace their devices immediately.

“Look, it’s an issue, obviously, because the older handsets may not have software upgrades in them. That’s why the telcos are working specifically with their customers to identify where software upgrades can take place, or whether new handsets are needed,” McBain said.

“It’s really important that the telcos identify them and work with their customers. We don’t want to give anyone a false sense of security around their ability to call Triple Zero, so we’re ensuring that the telcos do work with those customers to ensure that they have access to Triple Zero.“

The ABC is reporting a Samsung user on the Vodafone network also failed to reach Triple Zero.

Optus also announced yesterday that two executives would depart the company after a 13-hour Triple Zero outage last month that has been linked to three deaths.

The Bureau of Meteorology has changed it website design this week in a move that has drawn heavy scrutiny, with users labelling the new site confusing and calling for the old design to be brought back.

“I’m very much a daily user of this website. It’s one of the most popular websites in the country, and we’d love it to stay the same forever, but we needed to update the Bureau of Meteorology. They do an amazing job literally predicting the future for us every single day, and as we head into disasters,” Health Minister Mark Butler told Seven’s Sunrise this morning.

The redesign was part of an overhaul of the BoM’s technologies, which cost a total of $866 million across seven years.

The opposition has vowed to uncover how much, exactly, the controversial website redesign cost after reports this week that the sum was about $4 million.

Appearing alongside Butler on Sunrise was Liberal senator Jane Hume. She said, “Changing it on a day that there were extreme weather events around the country, I can understand users’ frustration at that. Was it worth $4 million, well, we’ll uncover that at estimates when we ask the Bureau of Meteorology.”

The redesign launched on Wednesday, when extreme weather warnings were in place across multiple Australian states.

Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier are among more than 30 people charged in connection with schemes involving illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the mafia, authorities said overnight.

Rozier is accused in participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information, officials said. Billups is charged in a separate indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games that were backed by Mafia families, authorities said.

The indictment of Rozier and others says there are nine unnamed co-conspirators including a Florida resident who was an NBA player and an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021, as well as a relative of Rozier.

Rozier and other defendants “had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches” that was likely to affect the outcome of games or players’ performances and provided that information to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits, the indictment says.

The NBA had no immediate comment. The league has investigated Rozier previously and still is looking into the actions of former Detroit player Malik Beasley, one of the sources told the AP.

AP

Environment Minister Murray Watt says a new federal Environmental Protection Agency would have the power to halt an industrial project before it damaged the environment.

“The key way that the [Environment Protection Reform] bill is drafted, is that that power would be mostly exercised by an EPA,” Watt told Sky News.

“It is an important new power for us to be able to have. One of the issues we have at the moment is that the community from time to time report to us their concern that some sort of major environmental damage is about to occur. We don’t have the powers at the moment to stop that from happening. All we can do is come in after the event, after the environment is destroyed. So we think it’s a good idea for a new power to exist to prevent that kind of damage occurring in the first place, rather than dealing with it after the event.”

The Albanese government promised in 2022 to bolster the EPBC Act with the creation of an Environment Protection Agency. The states have their own agencies, but a federal watchdog would police compliance of big projects that affect the environment, such as mines and tourism resorts, handing out fines for breaches.

Liberal backbencher Jane Hume has doubled down on her support for Kevin Rudd’s work in securing a successful first bilateral meeting between Australia and the US.

Her comments split from Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s calls earlier this week that the ambassador should step down from his position after US President Donald Trump directed critical comments at the former prime minister during his meeting with Anthony Albanese at the White House on Monday.

Trump and the prime minister had earlier signed a critical minerals deal.

“We should be constructive when we can, and critical when we must,” Hume told Seven’s Sunrise this morning.

“I didn’t think it was necessary to be critical over this critical minerals deal because it’s a good deal for Australia, and we should acknowledge the good work it’s done. Now, I’m no fan of Kevin Rudd. Don’t get me wrong… but he did a good job on this, and that should be acknowledged.”

The Albanese government shrugged off Trump’s comments and confirmed that Rudd would remain in his Washington posting for almost another 18 months.

Ley has since walked back her comments calling for the ambassador to step down.

Minister for Environment Murray Watt has dismissed the widespread criticism of Labor’s proposed environmental reforms, saying if all sides of politics were unhappy he must have got the balance right.

“You would expect that people who are not part of the government would be criticising legislation that’s placed before the parliament,” Watt told Sky News.

“This is just the usual argy-bargy that we see before complex and important legislation is debated within the parliament.”

Watt said the Coalition and the Greens – the government will need the support of one of them to pass the legislation in the Senate – were welcome to suggest amendments to the Environmental Protection Reform bill which will be introduced in the next fortnight when parliament returns.

Watt denied claims the reforms would slow projects such as critical minerals processing, and said delaying the bill would only hinder development.

“That’s why it’s so important that we get moving on delivering these reforms that have been going round and round in circles for five years now.”