Australia news live: Victorian buildings to be lit up for Neale Daniher; no charges laid after Kumanjayi White’s death in custody

There will be no arrests made in relation of the return of Islamic State-linked family members to Sydney, a spokesperson for NSW police has confirmed.

Briefing the media at Sydney International Airport on Tuesday evening ahead of their expected arrival from Doha at 5.30pm, the spokesperson said the women and children would be offered assistance from the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) of New South Wales when they land.

If they choose to take the assistance, which is voluntary, the DCJ will transport them out of the airport.

The spokesperson could not confirm how many women and children were expected to land in Sydney. There is a strong AFP presence at the arrivals terminal, with multiple roving police, at least one carrying an automatic weapon.

The Sydney group is expected to include Nesrine, Sumaya and Aminah Zahab and Hyam Raad, along with their children. The plane is due to land about 5.30pm.

In Melbourne, the plane carrying the detainees has landed. There is a small police presence in the arrivals hall.

You can read more on that story here:

NT coroner confirms upcoming hearing in Kumanjayi White case

Just following up on the news from earlier that Northern Territory police will not charge two off-duty officers over the death of a Warlpiri man who lived with cognitive disabilities: the inquest into the death is set to start next month.

A spokesperson for NT courts confirmed there would be a directions hearing into the death of 24-year-old Kumanjayi White in Alice Springs on 15 June.

Coronial matters are generally paused when a criminal investigation or charges are outstanding, but the conclusion of the NT police investigation means the inquest process can start.

The hearing is likely to set a course for a block of inquest evidence to be heard at a later date.

Queensland mother charged with murder of four-year-old daughter

A mother has been charged with murder after her four-year-old daughter was found dead at a home west of Brisbane, AAP reports.

The girl was discovered by emergency services when they were called to a Lowood residence about 11.10pm on Monday, police said.

Two other children were inside the property at the time but were not injured, police allege.

All three children were known to the 31-year-old woman, police said.

Police said on Tuesday that the woman had been charged with one count of murder.

She was due to appear in Ipswich magistrates court on Tuesday afternoon.

Det Insp Michael Manago said the woman had been identified as the child’s mother.

“This is an incredibly tragic situation, even more tragic given the presence of the other children at the dwelling at the time,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

The other two children were in the care of family members, he said.

“Their wellbeing remains a priority for all involved,” Manago said.

Israeli embassy says Gaza flotilla participants were not physically and sexually abused, did not act for humanitarian reasons

The Israeli embassy in Canberra says it rejects claims that Gaza flotilla participants suffered physical mistreatment and sexual abuse, and accused activists of only participating to provoke Israel, and not for humanitarian reasons.

It said in a statement:

The return of the Gaza flotilla participants has attracted significant international attention and prompted a range of serious allegations against Israel, including claims of physical mistreatment and sexual abuse.

Israel categorically rejects these allegations and maintains that serious claims of this nature must be backed by credible evidence and grounded in fact.

It is also important to recognise that this is the fourth flotilla organised for provocation rather than humanitarian concern. The flotillas have not been driven by legitimate humanitarian objectives, but by an orchestrated political campaign that serves the interests of Hamas. Some governments, including Australia, advised against participation.

Northern Territory police have confirmed they have declined to charge the two off-duty officers involved in an arrest over the death of 24-year-old Kumanjayi White, a Warlpiri man who lived with cognitive disabilities.

White died on 27 May last year during a confrontation with police in a Coles supermarket. His death sparked nationwide rallies and outrage, with calls for accountability and an independent probe.

The Northern Territory police commissioner, Martin Dole, said the Director of Public Prosecutions and territory police had conducted a fair and thorough investigation over the past 12 months.

“A brief of evidence was submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions for their opinion. Following consideration of all available evidence, including the independent expert report, the DPP formed the view that there was no reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution,” Dole said.

The commissioner acknowledged the ongoing distress, anger and grief of White’s family and the Northern Territory Aboriginal community.

“While the decision not to proceed with charges was made based on the evidence and applicable legal thresholds, we recognise this outcome may be difficult for Kumanjayi White’s family – a man lost his life.”

Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of White’s death.

A big thank you for joining me on the blog today. I’ll leave you with the wonderful Nino Bucci for the afternoon. There’s plenty more to come – including evidence at Senate estimates from the national anti-corruption commissioner, Paul Brereton, after he yesterday announced he would leave the role.

I’ll see you back here bright and early tomorrow.

• The opposition tried to corner the government on capital gains tax carve-outs, and say whether small businesses would be excluded from the changes. There were multiple attempts with tighter wording each time but Anthony Albanese wouldn’t bite.

• The independent MP Andrew Wilkie asked the government if a defence and veterans workshop could keep running at a barrack in Hobart slated for sale – the government confirmed it would continue in the space.

• The energy minister, Chris Bowen, condemned the destruction of a Wiradjuri cultural site for a renewable energy zone in NSW.

• The Nationals MP Kevin Hogan tried to ask if the return of Australian women and children from Syria was part of Labor’s “plan”, but the PM said he had “nothing but contempt” for the cohort.

• Two Coalition MPs were booted today – Nationals MP Alison Penfold and Liberal Henry Pike, but at the very end of QT the opposition welcomed back Liberal Phil Thompson, who was suspended from the chamber 24 hours earlier.

The Victorian government has announced buildings across the state will be lit up in blue to honour Neale Daniher from 5.30pm. They include:

• ⁠Flinders Street station

• ⁠Royal Exhibition Building

• ⁠National Gallery of Victoria

• ⁠Arts Centre Melbourne spire

• ⁠Geelong Arts Centre

• ⁠GMHBA Stadium

• ⁠Bolte Bridge

• ⁠CityLink Sound Tunnel

• ⁠Old Treasury Building

• ⁠AAMI Park

• ⁠Rod Laver Arena

• ⁠John Cain Arena

• ⁠Margaret Court Arena

• ⁠Kia Arena

• ⁠Parliament House

• ⁠Shrine of Remembrance

Daniher, a former AFL footballer and coach died on Monday, 13 years after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

After his MND diagnosis, Daniher became a prominent campaigner for medical research into the disease. He co-founded the charity FightMND, which among other initiatives spearheads the Big Freeze, an annual fundraising and awareness campaign that has raised more than $100m for research projects.

Last year he was named Australian of the Year for his advocacy work.

The shadow NDIS minister, Melissa McIntosh, says the opposition offers “no guarantees” it will rubber stamp Labor’s NDIS overhaul ahead of a final committee report next month.

At a presser shortly before question time, the western Sydney Liberal MP said the NDIS budget was a “runaway train” but it was important to balance that with the scheme’s importance for the 760,000 or so participants who use it.

MPs, I imagine Labor’s as well, [are] receiving so many inquiries [from] genuinely concerned Australians, and they’re not faking their anxiety, it’s really heightened right now. So I think we’ve got an obligation as lawmakers to get the law right for these people [on the NDIS], but it is definitely very much a balancing act to have compassion for people but to have the reality that the budget is just blowing out.

McIntosh said the opposition would await the inquiry’s final report in mid-June to see whether it would propose amendments to the bill.

It is understood the opposition and the Greens are in talks over whether the inquiry could be extended as part of a deal. At the moment, there will only be three days of hearings before the report is due to be tabled.

Phil Thompson returns to the chamber with applause as question time ends

Mark Butler gets a final dixer, and the PM calls time on QT.

But before everyone leaves, Liberal MP Phil Thompson – who was dramatically turfed out of QT yesterday and suspended for 24 hours – returns.

He receives applause and cheers from the Coalition benches.

We’ve diverted from the budget altogether now, with Nationals MP Kevin Hogan asking the PM to admit that the return of a “plane-load of Isis sympathisers” returning this evening is “part of Labor’s plan”.

(Plane-load seems like a bit of a stretch – there’s seven women and 12 children on board.)

The PM shakes his head, saying he’s just given an answer to a dixer about social cohesion.

He says:

I have nothing but contempt for anyone who has any sympathy with Isis, as I hope everyone in this chamber would agree. This should not be an issue of partisanship.

Dan Tehan tries to table a document of a note from Save the Children on their meeting with Tony Burke.

There’s a long kerfuffle around it, and accusations of the mic being turned off while Tehan is trying to speak and table the document.

After some back and forth the microphone issue is cleared up, but Tehan is not granted leave to table the document.

Bowen condemns ‘utterly unacceptable’ reported destruction of Wiradjuri heritage site in NSW

Independent Andrew Gee is next and asks the government about the obliteration of a Wiradjuri cultural site for the Central-West Orana renewable energy zone in New South Wales. He says that he previously raised issues of “grievous destruction” to the federal environment minister but there was no action.

The energy minister, Chris Bowen, takes the question and calls it a “serious matter”. He says he’s discussed it with the minister for Indigenous Australians and will talk to the NSW government.

Bowen says:

I completely agree with the point he made that what happened, on the face of it, is utterly unacceptable.

I’m happy to keep the honourable member fully advised of progress in the investigation and action that arises.

The point he makes in any disruption of First Nations culture is utterly unacceptable, one that I entirely agree with.

Taylor tries again to question Albanese on CGT carve-outs

Angus Taylor – after three times trying – has decided to change tack slightly.

He says he’s asked three times which small businesses will be carved out from CGT changes but “three times the prime minister has refused to be honest.”

Taylor asks: “What happened to ‘my word is my bond’?”

You can almost guess what the PM said in response.

Anthony Albanese repeats his answer around small business tax discounts and incentives in the budget, and adds that consultation on the legislation is ongoing:

We are consulting, as we said we would on budget night, including with the Council of Small Business, have had formal meetings with Treasury, we’re continuing to consult on the measures.

Calls for accountability over classified royal commission recommendations

How can the government be held to account to implement confidential recommendations made in the interim report by the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion, asks independent Nicolette Boele.

She says that if we don’t know what the recommendations are, and the government has agreed to them, how will the public know that they have been fulfilled.

The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, talks about why there are five recommendations that are confidential, and that there is a very limited group of people who have access to the unclassified version.

She says that it’s critical that operational information relating to the criminal investigation is not disclosed “to avoid risk of prejudicing the prosecution.”

But she doesn’t give us much of an answer on how the government will be held accountable. Rowland says:

Our security agencies have robust oversight, including by the inspector general of intelligence and security, as well as the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.

Nationals MP Pat Conaghan is next and asks the prime minister why his constituents Ross and Cynthia are about to be slugged hundreds of dollars of extra due to changes to private health insurance. He says Ross and Cynthia ask “why does the prime minister want to continue to push us by removing the rebate we desperately need?”

Anthony Albanese rejects the premise of the question because the rebate for private health insurance isn’t being removed – it’s just being lowered for people aged over 65, to the same rebate level as everyone else.

You can read a bit more about that here.

Albanese says:

No one is removing the rebate. The premise of the question is completely wrong. What is not appropriate is to come in here and spread this sort of information through the parliament of Australia.

After the question, Liberal MP Henry Pike gets kicked out of the chamber for interjecting over a dixer (interrupting between a question being asked and answered is an absolute no-no says Milton Dick).

We have our first booting of the day, folks, with Nationals MP Alison Penfold kicked out for talking too much during a dixer to Tony Burke.

Milton Dick says she interjected 14 times in one answer – which is “potentially a record.”

Tim Wilson is then up next at the dispatch box, and says that Anthony Albanese yesterday answered that a woman, Janet, and her daughter with Down syndrome would be exempt from discretionary trust tax changes because she was a vulnerable minor.

But Wilson says that Janet’s daughter is actually an adult, and asks if the government is “slugging Australians with disability with a new 30% death tax”.

The PM’s answer, in its entirety:

No.

Liberals continue line of attack on CGT

Angus Taylor is back for a third time, and has been tightening his question each time – to try to get the prime minister to answer it. (As you might remember, the more preamble and flowery language in a question, the more room a minister has to answer and still remain somewhat “relevant”.)

This time Taylor asks a very direct: “Which small businesses will be carved out from your capital gains tax increases?”

Anthony Albanese still won’t bite (no surprises there), and once again goes to the $3.5bn in tax incentives coming for small businesses out of the latest budget.

Dan Tehan quickly tries to pick up the baton from Taylor, telling the speaker that the opposition could not have asked a tighter question, but once again Milton Dick says he can’t compel the PM to provide a list of businesses that the opposition wants.

Hobart veterans’ workshop to remain at Derwent barracks despite government selling land

Over to the crossbench, independent MP Andrew Wilkie asks the government if it will save a defence and veterans’ workshop in Hobart that runs out of the Derwent barracks – a location due to be sold off by Defence.

After a bit of a preamble about how the government is working on the recommendations of the royal commission on defence and veterans suicides, the veterans affairs minister, Matt Keogh, confirms that the workshop will remain operating from the barracks.

He says that following consultation, the decision was made.

The defence and veteran workshop will remain on site at the Derwent Barracks. I’m pleased the prime minister could confirm this when he was in Hobart with premier [Jeremy] Rockliff weekend before last.

Angus Taylor is back and asks the PM to declare which small businesses will receive a carve-out from “Labor’s broken promises and higher taxes”.

“Good question” a bunch of opposition MPs shout from the benches, followed by a chorus of laughs as Anthony Albanese begins his answer with, “we support small business.”

Albanese talks up the budget and the reaction business and industry groups. He gets about a minute in when Taylor tries again to make a point of order on relevance.

The speaker, Milton Dick, says he knows Taylor would like a list of the businesses that are getting a carve out, but he’s not getting it.

Albanese continues:

What I am talking about is the lower taxes we’re introducing for small business … We do support small business and the opportunity of young people getting a roof over their head, something those opposite don’t support.