Hastie says falling house prices might not be ‘all that encouraging’ for recent buyers – as it happened

Warm, wet autumn for Australia this year, says BoM

South Australia had its fourth-wettest autumn on record, with the Lake Eyre basin experiencing its highest ever autumn rainfall totals, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s seasonal summary.

The national area-averaged rainfall total was 25% above the 1961–1990 average and March, nationally, was the seventh-wettest March since 1900.

The bureau said autumn rainfall was above average for most of central Australia, extending into eastern states, and below average for Tasmania, south-west Western Australia, and pockets of the eastern mainland. Widespread flooding associated with tropical activity affected large areas of northern and central Australia several times during March.

The Northern Territory recorded its seventh-wettest autumn overall but autumn rainfall totals in the territory’s Daly River catchment were the highest on record.

Mean temperatures were in the Top 10 warmest autumns for Tasmania (third warmest), New South Wales (sixth warmest) and Victoria (equal sixth warmest). Mean maximum temperatures in Tasmania were the second-highest on record for autumn.

The bureau said there had been persistent, unusually warm conditions across the south-east of the country from late April into May, with many stations in the region setting May daily temperature records.

Melbourne International film festival rejects online speculation after hack

The Melbourne International film festival (Miff) has provided an update on the ticket platform hack that saw an unauthorised person access to customer information, including names, emails and phone numbers for 26,782 customers.

Speculation has swirled online that a greater number of customers were affected by the hack – up to 340,000 – after reports the data had been advertised for sale on an internet forum.

Ticketholders reported issues after receiving emails and text messages” reading “:(” and “i feel like miley cyrus sometimes [sic]”.

A Miff spokesperson said today:

The claim that data relating to 340,000 MIFF customers has been accessed is incorrect. MIFF’s customer database does not contain 340,000 customer records and therefore it is not possible for 340,000 MIFF customer records to have been compromised in this incident.

Based on our current understanding, 26,782 customer records held within the Ferve ticketing platform were affected by this incident. Those affected customers have been contacted directly.

We can also confirm that the dataset impacted in this incident does not include purchase history, booking totals, membership details, credit card numbers or financial transaction data.

Queensland police allege a 13-year-old planned an attack on a school.

He allegedly entered a business on Thursday last week in disguise and made threats. He was arrested by police at the scene. Counter-terrorism police later searched his home and, police allege, discovered evidence of a planned attack on devices seized at the house.

Acting Det Supt Jason Hindmarsh alleged the 13-year-old was “quite well advanced” in plans to cause death and grievous bodily harm.

“There was a threat to the school, and particularly our young people at that school,” he said.

Hindmarsh said the boy had no ideological motivation for the alleged offence. His motivation is “one of our key lines of inquiry,” he said.

He said police are investigating if he was radicalised online:

That’s part of our ongoing investigation as we analyse the devices.

Support will be provided for the school community, and the young alleged offender, Hindmarsh said. He said:

We’ve got counter-terrorism investigators returning to Maryborough tomorrow. We’ll be working in partnership with local frontline police, our child protection services, just to really reassure that to make the community feel safe, and to us be certain there’s no ongoing threat.

The child has been charged with a string of offences including preparation or planning to cause death or grievous bodily harm, and was refused bail at Maryborough children’s court on Monday.

Labor says Hanson won’t back wage boosts or universal healthcare due to ‘financial backers’

Following from Andrew Hastie’s comments on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing just now, Labor’s Andrew Leigh has also stepped up the attack on Pauline Hanson and One Nation, claiming her policies are influenced by her donors.

Leigh, an assistant minister in the Albanese government, said Australians wanted things Pauline Hanson wasn’t offering them. He said:

We’ll have a Fair Work decision handed down tomorrow where Labor has backed an economically sustainable increase in wages. You don’t hear Pauline Hanson doing that because her financial backers don’t want her to back real wage increases for Australians.

You don’t see Pauline Hanson out there backing universal healthcare and the expansion of urgent care clinics right across Australia.

I think Australians, the more they get to know Pauline Hanson, will realise she is just in it for the social media grumbling and not for actually doing the hard work of serious policy.

… What she is doing is complaining about immigration, she is complaining about trust, but she is failing to put forward the solutions that would make a positive difference.

Hanson yesterday suggested minimum and award wages should not be increased this year and said workers’ rights needed an overhaul. The Fair Work Commission will announce an increase to minimum wages tomorrow.

The Brisbane Broncos are still keeping quiet after alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith visited the NRL team’s dressing rooms on Sunday.

Guardian Australia has confirmed Roberts-Smith attended yesterday’s game at Suncorp Stadium. Roberts-Smith and his daughters then visited the players’ sheds, at the invitation of Adam Walsh, the Broncos wellbeing and education manager. Walsh is a former SAS soldier, like Roberts-Smith.

The Broncos have repeatedly declined to comment on the issue, including when contacted by Guardian Australia today.

Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient, faces five charges of war crime murder over allegations he killed unarmed civilians during his service with the Australian SAS in Afghanistan.

The former SAS corporal has vehemently denied the charges, saying “I categorically deny all of these allegations.”

Sunday’s game saw the Broncos lose to the Dragons 30-26 – the same scoreline visited on the reigning premiers the last two times they played the Dragons. It was the Dragons’ first win this season, after 11 consecutive losses, while the Broncos have now lost seven matches and won five.

Hastie says Hanson doesn’t have the energy to be prime minister

Andrew Hastie has claimed Pauline Hanson lacks the energy to be prime minister, as the One Nation leader talks up her chances of higher office.

Hanson has today speculated about becoming PM, either by staying in the Senate or switching to a lower house electorate.

The Liberal frontbencher told the ABC:

I think she has to declare where she’s going to run in the lower house, if she is going to run to be prime minister, but I think it’s right to ask a few questions about her drive and commitment and her energy frankly.

He pointed to analysis in The Australian today suggesting she has attended a Senate estimates ­hearing on just 28 out of 239 days they’ve been held while she has been a senator. Hastie said:

Up until this point she has been running a political party but she is now talking about being prime minister. For that you need drive, you need commitment and you need energy. And I think the attendance record shows otherwise.

Hanson has today said she is physically up to the task and would drop out if she appeared to deteriorate like former US president Joe Biden. She told 2GB radio :

I’ve got more energy in me than a lot of these other people. My staff are flat out keeping up with me from 8 o’clock in the morning till 10, 11 o’clock at night. I can still run down the halls of parliament in my heels when I have to get to the chamber so don’t underestimate me … I’ve already told my staff, if I become like a Joe Biden, just tap me on the shoulder and give me the heel to move on.

Andrew Hastie has acknowledged an expected fall in Australian house prices, already hitting Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, is a “glimmer of hope” for those saving up to get into the market.

But the Liberal frontbencher said the price falls would not be good for buyers in heavy debt and at risk of owing more than what their home is now worth. Asked whether the slowing market was a good thing, Hastie told the ABC:

Well, it depends who you are. For a young Australian who has just managed to save up enough for a deposit, maybe that’s a glimmer of hope. But for young Australians who have just gotten into a house and are leveraged up to their eyeballs and they’re looking down the barrel of negative equity, I don’t think it would be all that encouraging.

Hastie said the Liberal party would solve the issue by cutting immigration and limiting new entrants in line with housing completions. He also discussed the causes of the downturn in prices, and said Labor’s budget was not the only factor:

I think confidence in the housing market has dropped since Labor’s announcement of new taxes that they ruled out before the last election, have sneakily brought in. I think that has diminished confidence.

But the larger geopolitical frame is also important. Inflation was already high before the Iran war but it’s higher and likely to get worse still.

Just before I came here I got an email from my bank saying my mortgage rate will go up in July. I imagine a lot of Australians have got the same email, so I think there is a lot of nervousness out there and that’s been reflected in the housing market.

Hastie says Abbott will boost morale as Liberal president

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie says Tony Abbott’s appointment to the party’s presidency will boost morale as the Coalition slides in the polls.

Hastie acknowledged the presidency was an administrative position but said that was not its limit. He told the ABC:

That is the role of the president, but it’s also a leadership position to rally the lay party.

Morale is important and I think Tony Abbott will bring a boost to morale given his stature as a former prime minister but also as a leader in the centre-right movement, so he was elected unanimously. He’s got a big task ahead but his role is largely with the lay party and I think he knows that and respects that …

The task for him is to rebuild the lay party and raise money … we need leadership at the lay party level and that is what Tony Abbott’s going to bring.

Hastie said the Liberals had to engage more Australians. He acknowledged the party has continued to struggle in polls despite Labor, its historic opponent, losing popularity after handing down its budget, saying Liberals needed to “sell” Angus Taylor’s budget reply measures.

Polls take time to reflect changes out there, I think people are still coming to terms with the budget.

Thirteen-year-old boy charged by Queensland police

Queensland terror police have arrested and charged a teenage boy over allegedly making threats at a business in Wide Bay last week.

Police allege the 13-year-old boy made threats against customers at a business in Maryborough last Thursday.

He was charged with four offences including going armed so as to cause fear and making threats.

Detectives from the Counter Terrorism Investigation Group and Maryborough Child Protection Investigation Unit executed a search warrant at his home, and seized an electronic device.

They also charged him with preparing or planning to cause death or grievous bodily harm and possessing or controlling violent extremist material obtained or accessed using a carriage service.

He was remanded in custody and will appear in Harvey Bay childrens’ court on June 5.

Unusual low-pressure system tracking east

An unusually deep-low pressure system that brought powerful winds and heavy rain to southern Western Australia over the weekend is making its way east.

Wind gusts peaked on Sunday morning at 133km/h in Cape Naturaliste, 120km/h in Busselton and 93km/h in Perth.

To start off winter, that severe weather is moving into some southern parts of the country, with damaging wind gusts of up to 90km/h expected for large parts of southern South Australia including the Flinders and Mount Lofty Ranges and Adelaide.

Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Ilana Cherny said windy conditions were also developing in Victoria in the Otways, Bellarine Peninsula, Mornington Peninsula and northern suburbs of Melbourne.

Cherny said the winds would extend into elevated parts of New South Wales from Tuesday and “we could even see some blizzard conditions developing for alpine New South Wales”.

But she added that the depth of the system, which made its impact in Western Australia so unusual, was gradually weakening:

It’s no longer looking quite as unusual in terms of the impacts that it’s bringing to southern and south-eastern parts, but it is still a strong winter system.

The bureau’s long-range forecast projects warmer-than-average maximum and minimum temperatures for large parts of Australia for winter and below average rainfall for much of southern, central and eastern Australia. Meteorologists are also watching for the likely development of an El Niño this winter.

Accused Islamic State member renounces terrorist group in Melbourne court after returning from Syria

A woman accused of travelling to Syria and joining Islamic State has renounced the terror group and violent jihad, her lawyer has told a Melbourne court.

Rayann El Houli, 34, was due to apply for bail in the Melbourne magistrates court on Monday morning, but her barrister, Peter Morrissey SC, sought an adjournment.

He told the court the prosecution had raised concerns about El Houli’s risk of endangering the community, claiming there was a lack of evidence she had renounced IS.

Morrissey said he needed more time to obtain the relevant material but he was instructed to make a statement on behalf of his client.

“She renounces Isis and violent jihad,” he told the court.

She wants nothing to do with it – not now, not in the future, not directly and not indirectly, not for herself and not for the people she loves, and especially not for her children.

El Houli was on Thursday charged by Australian federal police with travelling to a declared conflict zone and joining the terrorist organisation Islamic State.

Read more here:

Jacinta Allan has just announced an overhaul of Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, including the introduction of contentious “follow the money” powers.

Allan has just told reporters:

We are announcing today the most far-reaching overhaul of Ibac’s powers since it was established in 2012. … I am no longer satisfied that Ibac has the powers it needs to do its job in full.

Allan said the Victorian Parliamentary Integrity and Oversight Committee had offered 29 recommendations in a report on Ibac’s framework. The government is supporting 21 of those, including one that would give the commission retrospective follow-the-money powers.

Allan said:

Let me be clear: I want to follow the money investigative powers to be retrospective.

Ibac should be able to examine recent allegations and also work alongside Victoria police to ensure all criminal behaviour is investigated.

I have always maintained a zero-tolerance position on criminal behaviour in any workplace – that remains absolute.

Allegations of corruption and illegal activity on big-build work sites has been shocking.

I am personally appalled by what has happened and while these crimes were committed by a small number of individuals, the impact has been far reaching with serious consequences for workers and their families.

Sydney 18-year-old spends night locked up over boys’ football brawl

A young man was held in custody overnight over his alleged role in a brawl and pitch invasion at an under-17s boys’ football match in Sydney’s south-west.

New South Wales police said the fight broke out at 3.30pm on Saturday at the game in a park on Iluka Street, Revesby.

Police were told players had started to fight on the field before spectators invaded the pitch to join the brawl.

An 18-year-old man sustained injuries including a bite to his back and was treated by paramedics and then taken to Liverpool hospital, police said. A 47-year-old man was arrested on Sunday and charged with affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and granted conditional bail.

Police later on Sunday arrested an 18-year-old man and took him to Bankstown police station where he was charged with being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence and affray.

He was refused bail and held in custody overnight, police said. He faced Bankstown local court today where he was granted conditional bail to reappear on 25 June.

Hanson happy for extra worker visas on top of proposed 130,000 migration cap

Pauline Hanson has said she’s happy to have more migrants than her proposed 130,000 cap if they’re in jobs where they’re needed and Australian workers aren’t available.

Hanson also said workers on the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme (Palm)would not count in the cap. She told 3AW radio this morning:

Cut back the immigration to about 130,000 a year. You’d still, on top of that, have your Palm workers, have those that come in on visas to help out, work in the abattoirs or jobs that they need to do, where they can’t get Australian workers. No problem with that. But permanent residents … they say, oh, we need skilled migrants. Well, that’s an absolute lie.

Between [2022] and 23, they brought in 739,000. Only 51,605 had skills and of that only 1,800 in the construction industry.

That last line deserves a quick fact check. One number Hanson cites is the 51,605 temporary skilled visas that were granted in 2022-23, out of 8.8m temporary visas granted, according to Home Affairs. There were another 179,000 permanent migrants, about 110,000 of which were in the skilled stream. One Nation’s policy is “capping visas at 130,000 per year”, its website shows.

The other number she quotes is arrivals, which is different from grants. Out of 738,000 people arriving in Australia in 2022-23, there were 84,000 temporary and permanent skilled arrivals, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Then there were 283,000 international students, 106,000 visitor visas, 70,000 working holidaymakers, 41,000 New Zealanders, 59,000 Australians, and 90,000 others.

In 2024-25, there were 85,000 skilled, 157,000 students, 56,000 visitors, 78,000 working holidaymakers, 53,000 New Zealanders, 64,000 Australians and 74,000 others, totalling 568,000 arrivals, or 306,000 net of departures. It would take a lot of cuts to get either figure down to 130,000.

Thank you Nick Visser and hello readers. I’ll be with you on the blog for the rest of the afternoon.

That’s all from me! Luca Ittimani will guide the blog ship from here. Take care.