Fourteen people investigated for terror symbol displays
Three search warrants have been executed and 14 people are being investigated for allegedly displaying a terrorist symbol at pro-Palestinian protests, Australian Associated Press reports.
Australian federal police officers have trawled through 90 hours of CCTV and body camera footage and seized mobile phones and clothing depicting a terrorist symbol.
“If relevant thresholds are met, the AFP will provide briefs of evidence to the commonwealth director of public prosecutions to determine if charges will be laid,” acting commissioner Ian McCartney said.
The AFP is further investigating whether rhetoric over killed terrorists or events in the Middle East reached the threshold of urging violence or advocating terrorism.
A special taskforce, codenamed ARDVARNA, was set up for the rally specifically due to the volume of evidence and referrals that had to be assessed, the AFP deputy commissioner, Krissy Barrett, said.
Police have spent some 1,100 combined hours investigating.
There were 113 reports relating to the display of prohibited hate symbols between January and October 2024, which resulted in 49 further investigations by the joint counter-terrorism team.
Of these, 28 remain active but no one has been charged since the hate symbols legislation came into effect on 8 January, Barrett confirmed yesterday.
Key events
Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador to Australia, says as an ambassador she’s not supposed to talk about politics… but went on to say (after ABC Breakfast host Michael Rowland said “assuming you did vote for Kamala Harris…”:
I think the issues that are on the ballot this time are important to women.
She’s made that really clear. Donald Trump is focussing more on immigration.
And she points out that in the US, where it’s not compulsory voting, it’s “all about turnout, who shows up on election day”, and that they need to get young people to the polls. But she wouldn’t change their system:
I think our system is great. It’s so complicated, gives Australians something to talk about all year long for four years. So I wouldn’t change a thing! But the way you do it is really impressive, and I have learned a lot on that while I have been here.
She says the US has “an incredibly strong and transparent system despite attempts to interfere with it from abroad, as we heard from our national security agencies”.
“And obviously some people who don’t want to accept the result are going to start saying, you know, that there’s a problem if it’s not clear, but I think it’s shaping up to be very close,” she says, on the potential for unrest.
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has been asked about reports that shadow transport minister Bridget McKenzie did not declare more than a dozen flight upgrades. He told ABC Radio:
I don’t know that any of that’s been verified.
The “real issue”, he says, is allegations about prime minister Anthony Albanese’s upgrades.
The Australian Financial Review is reporting that McKenzie has not updated her register of interests about the upgrades, and we’ve asked McKenzie’s office for a response.
Taylor also said Australia is “absolutely at the back of the pack” getting inflation to where it needs to be”. “We’ve got a long way to go here. Australians are losing hope,” said, adding:
Everyone is helped by lower inflation and lower interest rates.
Asked whether a possible Coalition government would wind back cost-of-living measures, Taylor said they haven’t supported all of them, and that while they want lower debt for all Australians, they were against the government’s policy to reduce student debt.
He described Labor as having “magic pudding economics”.
On Dutton’s rebuke on abortion, and that call from minister for women Katy Gallagher for the withdrawal of the anti-abortion bill (mentioned below), Taylor says “it’s a state issue, and we should leave this issue to the states”:
It certainly shouldn’t be politicised in the lead up to an election… I think it’s incredibly insensitive.
There was some seriously colourful language in Senate estimates yesterday, but in this case the media regulator found radio hosts’ words were a step too far. Sarah Martin reports on what the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young described as “revolting, sexist, racist, misogynistic, divisive stuff”:
‘Dangerous anti-abortion bill’ should be withdrawn, Labor says
A “dangerous anti-abortion bill” before the Senate should be withdrawn, if the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, wants credibility on women’s healthcare, the minister for women, Katy Gallagher, says.
Dutton has warned his MPs on speaking out on abortion, after comments by the Indigenous Australians spokesperson, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and with abortion back on the agenda in the lead up to the Queensland election.
Gallagher said:
It is typical of Peter Dutton to view this purely as a matter of winning or losing votes, rather than any genuine commitment to women’s healthcare.
If Peter Dutton wants any credibility on women’s healthcare, he must immediately ensure Senators [Matt] Canavan and [Alex] Antic withdraw their dangerous anti-abortion bill currently before the Senate.
This is a test of Peter Dutton’s leadership, and a test of his commitment to the rights of Australian women.
She is referring to a “born alive” bill that has been described as misleading, and containing misinformation. A committee inquiry found there was “no legal, ethical or medical basis to support the bill”.
Labor launches pre-emptive strike over CFMEU ahead of Senate estimates
AAP reports that the Albanese government has launched a pre-emptive strike as the opposition holds its feet to the fire over the CFMEU scandal.
The employment and workplace relations minister, Murray Watt, is expected to face a grilling when his portfolios are picked apart in a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday.
The construction arm of the embattled union was placed into administration in August after allegations emerged of criminal conduct and organised crime links on job sites.
The Coalition has suggested Labor’s response did not go far enough and should have included reinstating the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
The construction watchdog was reintroduced in 2016 by the Turnbull government but abolished by Labor in February 2023, with its powers transferred to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The ombudsman has dozens of ongoing investigations into the commercial building and construction industry involving most branches of the CFMEU, its officials and employers.
The Liberal senator Michaelia Cash was employment minister when the commission was revived and said it would prompt “cultural change” across the construction sector.
Watt said bringing back the body would be “complete madness”, pointing out much of the union’s alleged offending occurred under its nose. He said:
The failures of the ABCC to bring about change to the construction sector were plain to see.
It was politicised for the gain of [the former prime minister] Malcolm Turnbull and the minister who was instrumental in removing him from office, Michaelia Cash.
Under the Coalition’s watch we saw the lowest productivity since the 1960s and higher average days lost to industrial action.
He argued the Albanese government was cleaning up the construction sector by taking the “strongest action possible” against the union and developing a building and construction industry blueprint.
Some more on our political editor Karen Middleton’s piece today, which brings with it some needed nuance:
[Anthony Albanese] doesn’t just need interest rates to start actually falling before he goes to the polls, he needs Australians to believe the depths of the cost-of-living crisis have passed and things are finally on the up.
And he needs them to start believing it now, not wait until they can feel it in the hip pocket.
Good morning, Australia, and thanks for tearing your eyes away from US politics to join me (Tory Shepherd) here. And muchas gracias to Martin Farrer for doing the sparrow’s fart shift. Let’s get started – estimates will continue apace, question time looms and hopefully some surprises await.
How would Australians vote in the US election?
It’s fair to say that some events in Canberra and Australia might play second fiddle to an election occurring somewhere else today. As chance would have it we have one or two Australian angles on the US election story, including an Essential poll showing that more Australian men would vote for Donald Trump than vice-president Kamala Harris.
The poll shows that more Australian men would vote for Trump than Harris, and a majority of men and women support key elements of his platform including tariffs and deportation of illegal immigrants. Overall though, Harris would win the vote in Australia by 41% to 33% – according to the poll which you can read about here:
Peter Lewis analyses the poll findings and concludes that it shows progressive Australians shouldn’t be complacent.
He writes:
On the core elements of Trump’s nihilistic populism, Australians are more likely to share his disdain for the system, and even the majority of those who would vote for Harris concur.
Here’s his full article:
Follow our coverage of the US election
If you want to keep up to date with the US election, check out our guide to Australian TV coverage, live results, where to watch and more:
What’s more we will have unrivalled coverage of the events in the US as the day unfolds and you can follow it all here:
Fourteen people investigated for terror symbol displays
Three search warrants have been executed and 14 people are being investigated for allegedly displaying a terrorist symbol at pro-Palestinian protests, Australian Associated Press reports.
Australian federal police officers have trawled through 90 hours of CCTV and body camera footage and seized mobile phones and clothing depicting a terrorist symbol.
“If relevant thresholds are met, the AFP will provide briefs of evidence to the commonwealth director of public prosecutions to determine if charges will be laid,” acting commissioner Ian McCartney said.
The AFP is further investigating whether rhetoric over killed terrorists or events in the Middle East reached the threshold of urging violence or advocating terrorism.
A special taskforce, codenamed ARDVARNA, was set up for the rally specifically due to the volume of evidence and referrals that had to be assessed, the AFP deputy commissioner, Krissy Barrett, said.
Police have spent some 1,100 combined hours investigating.
There were 113 reports relating to the display of prohibited hate symbols between January and October 2024, which resulted in 49 further investigations by the joint counter-terrorism team.
Of these, 28 remain active but no one has been charged since the hate symbols legislation came into effect on 8 January, Barrett confirmed yesterday.
Senate told of biosecurity breaches by United Airlines
United Airlines has breached Australia’s biosecurity reporting requirements three times in three years by failing to report that a dog was on a commercial flight, a Senate estimates committee heard on Tuesday.
Anna Brezzo, the department of agriculture’s first assistant secretary for compliance and enforcement, said in response to questions from Victorian senator Bridget McKenzie that the airline had breached the pre-arrival reporting requirements on a flight into Sydney in December 2022 and a flight into Brisbane in March 2024, and had breached requirements by invalid disinfection of a plane in August 2023.
“The dogs themselves were assistant dogs and they did have an import permit to arrive into Australia,” Brezzo said. “What we require however under the Biosecurity Act is that the airline lets us know ahead of time what is coming in on their airline.”
Brezzo said the breach was picked up by biosecurity officers at the airports because it’s “a bit hard to miss the dog coming off the commercial airline”.
United Airlines entered into a voluntary undertaking in August 2024 to undertake auditing, update its compliance framework and train its staff. Compliance with that undertaking will be monitored by the department of agriculture over the next 15 months, Brezzo said.
“Should they fail to commit or to abide by the agreement in the undertaking, we will take them to federal court and let the federal court make that decision.”
McKenzie asked why it took three breaches to enforce the voluntary undertaking.
“That looks like permissive parenting that we just let them keep getting away with a slap on the wrist,” she said.
The deputy secretary for biosecurity, operations and compliance group, Justine Saunders, said the response was “absolutely proportionate” and more effective in terms of ensuring long-term compliance.
“Our intent is not to punish but actually to address the breach,” she said.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live Australian political coverage. I’m Martin Farrer bringing you the best of the overnight stories and Tory Shepherd will be along to guide you through the day.
Our top story this morning is that ACT’s former director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold believes “something went terribly wrong” with the Sofronoff report into Bruce Lehrmann’s prosecution, which resulted in Drumgold losing his “dream job”, a court battle over its findings and a subsequent integrity commission investigation. He says media “hysteria” over the case fuelled a mob mentality against him but will return to work at the NSW bar.
The Reserve Bank’s caution about interest rates is becoming one of the biggest obstacles to Anthony Albanese winning a second term next year. Labor needs a cut by March at the latest, our political editor writes today, or his election chances will be much diminished. But RBA governor Michele Bullock is telling politicians that if they want a rate cut then they need to be careful with election promises.
Federal police have executed three search warrants and are investigating 14 people for allegedly displaying a terrorist symbol at pro-Palestinian protests. No one has been charged yet but we have more details coming up.
