Pro-Palestine student demonstrators at La Trobe University have ended their encampment amid threats of disciplinary action. Photograph: Rachael Ward/AAP
Pro-Palestine student demonstrators at La Trobe University have ended their encampment amid threats of disciplinary action. Photograph: Rachael Ward/AAP
We are wrapping up the blog for tonight. Here’s what made the news:
Telstra has announced it plans to cut 2,800 jobs from its workforce as part of changes to its enterprise business.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has confirmed the government has received clearance for two government assisted-departure flights to New Caledonia, where at least 300 Australians are stranded.
Queensland’s chief health officer declared a public health alert over the mental wellbeing of teenagers.
The prime minister weighed in on ICC prosecutor seeking arrest warrants, reiterating previously outlined government positions. Peter Duttonsaid Australia should “stand shoulder to shoulder with President Biden” who condemned the warrants.
A high court decision in Britain to allow Julian Assange to appeal his extradition to the US is a “small win” for the WikiLeaks founder but he should be freed now, the union for Australia’s journalists said.
The government announced the launch of a new network that will link cancer services across Australia, called the Australian comprehensive cancer network (ACCN).
Two Australian Palestinian men have been arrested after occupying the roof of a University of Queensland building yesterday afternoon.
The shadow education minister, Sarah Henderson, has said universities should ‘bring in the police’ to end pro-Palestine protests at campuses.
The competition watchdog has urged the Albanese government to support new airlines to enter Australia’s aviation market and help existing smaller operators expand, as it rues the likelihood that budget carrier Bonza will collapse.
NDIS minister Bill Shortenstoushed with premiers over the NDIS, saying “they’re wrong” about proposed changes to the legislation.
ANZ said it was investigating an issue affecting some customers unable to access their ANZ app or online banking.
About 7,500 staff and students have been caught up in a cyber-attack at Western Sydney University.
Australia becomes fourth country to sign a global HIV declaration
Australia has become the fourth country in the world to sign a global HIV campaign, as the government vows to eliminate transmission of HIV in Australia by 2030.
Along with the US, Canada and Vietnam, Australia has now committed to the principles of the Undetectable=Untransmittable (U=U) call to action.
“U=U” is an evidence-based principle that when a person living with HIV is on effective antiretroviral treatment for HIV, they will reach an undetectable viral load and will be unable to transmit the virus to sexual partners.
Australia becomes fourth country to sign on to the global undetectable equals untransmissible (U=U) declaration for HIV pic.twitter.com/kgztXidQFh
We are confident that embedding U=U into our approach to HIV will accelerate progress towards national and global goals to end the HIV epidemic.
This would be an achievement that all Australians could be proud of. Our nation can lead the world by showing the once impossible goal of eliminating HIV transmission is achievable.
The government has made an investment of $43.9m in the budget to fund better prevention of HIV, access to testing and information, reduced stigma, and training on HIV for the health and support workforce.
La Trobe University students end pro-Palestine camp
Students at La Trobe University in Melbourne have ended their pro-Palestinian encampment, after the university threatened to discipline the students.
The group behind the encampment, Students for Palestine La Trobe, took to Instagram to announce the end of the camp, saying it was “forced” to shut down or else students would be penalised for not complying with university orders.
On Friday, the uni issued a directive to our peaceful encampment for Palestine to dismantle within 48 hours.
Since then they have moved to discipline student activists and are threatening more students. They have also threatened to use security to smash up our peaceful protest camp.
The uni is forcing our camp to shut down.
The encampment at Monash University also shut down four days ago.
Western Sydney University staff and students caught in cyber-attack
About 7,500 staff and students have been caught up in a cyber-attack at Western Sydney University.
Police are investigating the breach, which the university says dates as far back as May 2023, when an unauthorised party got into the Microsoft Office system and accessed email accounts and SharePoint files.
WSU says they have not received any threats to disclose the information if they do not pay a ransom fee.
A breach was first identified in January - which WSU says it quickly shut down - but a subsequent investigation found there had been a hack eight months earlier.
Along with their Office accounts, the university said its Solar Car Laboratory infrastructure had also been used in the breach.
WSU told affected individuals about the breach on Tuesday, with about 7500 people contacted by phone and email.
Western Sydney University’s Parramatta campus. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian
Interim vice-chancellor Clare Pollock said the university was committed to working through the issues with staff and students.
“On behalf of the university, I unreservedly apologise for this incident and its impact on our community,” she said in a statement.
“It is deeply regrettable, and we are committed to transparently rectifying the matter and fulfilling our obligations.”
The university has been granted an injunction at the NSW Supreme Court to stop the data that was the subject of the incident being used in any way.
The NSW Information and Privacy Commission has been involved in the investigation.
Resources minister says Labor’s gas strategy ‘bears no resemblance’ to Coalition’s gas-led recovery
The resources minister, Madeline King, has given a speech to the Australian Energy Producers conference defending Labor’s future gas strategy.
Kind said:
Can I be very clear what this strategy is not. It bears no resemblance to the LNP gas-led recovery, as I have seen some suggest. The central, guiding theme of the future gas strategy is the government’s pledge to get to net zero, and how gas can support that. Indeed, the first principle behind it is the commitment to support global emissions reductions and reach net zero.
The Coalition’s ill-thought-through gas-led recovery thought bubble recklessly dumped all responsibility for the nation’s future energy security on gas as coal fired generation declined. The mirage that was the so-called gas-led recovery just piled unnecessary pressure on the industry – making it even harder to have the difficult but important discussions about how different energy and industrial heat sources participate in our future economy. As far as three-word slogans go, “gas-led recovery” is about as useful as “no new gas” when it comes to helping us balance the economic, energy and environmental challenges and realities ahead for us and our region.
King also addressed some ill-feeling by gas companies that Labor dropped changes to consultation rules for offshore projects in return for the Greens helping to pass the PRRT. Essentially, she blamed companies for not backing the government up.
She said:
I know there is some disappointment in this room about that but I want to be very clear: my disappointment is not for the industry but the community that will remain subject to inadequate and inappropriate consultation requirements, for longer. The Greens political party and the crossbench independents and others promoted widespread misinformation in relation to the proposal that would ensure the community had the benefit of clarity and certainty in consultation. This misinformation went entirely uncontested by just about everyone other than the government.
I’m not sure how gas companies lobbying for Labor’s bill would’ve done them a lick of good in the PR war but there you have it - that’s how the resources minister sees it.
Thirteen Gold Coast teenagers assessed by paramedics after ingesting a plant
Paramedics have assessed 13 teenagers after they ingested a plant at a high school on the Gold Coast.
Three Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) crews responded to a call from Pacific Pines State High School at 11.20am after reports students had become ill after coming into contact with the plant.
A QAS spokesperson said 13 students were assessed on the scene, with twelve released to their parents and one taken to Gold Coast University Hospital in a stable condition as a precautionary measure.
Minns promises to do ‘everything we can’ to help Telstra workers transition to new jobs
New South Wales premier Chris Minns says the state government will do “everything it can” to help Telstra workers after the company announced it would cut up to 2,800 jobs – roughly 10% of its workforce.
At a press conference in Helensburgh today, Minns acknowledged that many workers let go have “given years and years of service to Telstra”.
He said:
We’ll do everything we can in terms of transition to new jobs or more education or training.
Right now we’re thinking about these families and we want to do everything we possibly can to see them get new careers and new professions right here in NSW.
Dfat says ‘there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas’
Sarah Basford Canales
The federal government has released its official response to the news overnight the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for leaders of Hamas and Israel, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a similar vein to what Anthony Albanese said earlier today, a spokesperson from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to comment on the specifics but noted there was “no equivalence” between Hamas and Israel.
The statement reads:
Australia respects the ICC and the important role it has in upholding international law. The decision on whether to issue arrest warrants is a matter for the Court in the independent exercise of its functions. It is not appropriate to comment on matters before the court.
There is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It is proscribed as such in Australia. Australia has been clear and unequivocal in our condemnation of its terrorist actions. We continue to call for the release of hostages immediately and unconditionally.
Any country under attack by Hamas would defend itself. And in defending itself, every country is bound by the same fundamental rules. Israel must comply with international humanitarian law.
Australia’s focus is on a humanitarian ceasefire, the release of hostages and increased humanitarian access.
The site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah in southern Gaza on Monday. Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters
Shorten hits back again at states and territories over NDIS funding
Sarah Basford Canales
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, has hit out against “deep” concerns raised by the states and territories over changes to the federal scheme that will lead to worse outcomes for Australians with disabilities.
As we’ve covered earlier in the blog, a parliamentary inquiry is looking at a bill that promises to get the $44bn scheme “back on track” financially by making tweaks to how budgets are planned.
The bill is the federal government’s first legislative response to a comprehensive NDIS review, released late last year, recommending access to the scheme be determined by functional impairment, rather than diagnosis.
As part of the switch, the review recommended the states and territories lift their disability services outside of the NDIS – known as “foundational supports” – in order to pick up those who fall outside of the scheme.
But the premiers and chief ministers have repeatedly aired concerns the changes will cost more and leave more Australians without support. They have also warned there hasn’t been enough consultation or detail for them to fully support the overhaul.
Speaking to ABC radio in Perth today, Shorten said it was time for them to “step up and look after people who were never intended to be on the NDIS”.
This is not about slash and burn, as the states would sort of scare people with. But why would we keep growing inefficiently at 20% when we can use some of that margin and reinvest it with the states in partnership with the states.
Shorten said the premiers and chief ministers had other priorities, such as expensive infrastructure projects, and were “cash strapped so they just don’t want to do anything”.
Not because they’re bad people, but because NSW [is] upset at its share of the GST. You know, Victoria’s building some very expensive infrastructure and they start saying, well, that’s our priority. You just worry about people with disability, but that’s not how it rolls.
The NDIS minister said he was worried the calls to slow down the changes would become “an excuse to keep doing the minimum possible”.
Scott Morrison says ICC has ‘defined the victim as the perpetrator’ with pursuit of Israeli PM
Sarah Basford Canales
The former prime minister, Scott Morrison, has weighed in on the international criminal court prosecutor’s (ICC) decision to seek arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials, including for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
Morrison posted on X on Tuesday afternoon saying the ICC had “surrendered its legitimacy in creating a moral equivalence between terrorists and a nation”.
“The ICC has defined the victim as the perpetrator. That is not justice.”
The former member for Cook’s support of Israel is long documented. Earlier this year, Morrison accused the UN of antisemitism and applying double standards against Israel “not expected of any other democratic nation”.
While he was prime minister, Morrison’s Coalition government recognised West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, instead of Tel Aviv, but decided not to follow the US in moving its embassy there until after a peace agreement.
