Australia news live: ex-NSW premier Nick Greiner to chair new committee overseeing state Liberal branch as federal intervention extended

Nick Greiner to lead new Liberal committee as intervention extended

Dan Jervis-Bardy

Former NSW premier Nick Greiner will chair a new committee in charge of the state Liberal branch after the panel installed after the council elections bungle was dumped. The Liberal party’s federal executive voted to create the new committee at a meeting in Canberra on Tuesday, extending a federal intervention into the branch for another nine months.

The federal executive was also considering who to appoint to lead two separate reviews after the party’s worst federal election result in its 80-year history. The party’s peak administrative body launched an intervention into the NSW branch in September after the local government election nominations fiasco, installing an administrative committee to run the division for 10 months.

Victorian Liberal elders Alan Stockdale and Richard Alston and former NSW state MP Peta Seaton were charged with reviewing the party’s constitution, overhauling the administrative machinery and helping to conduct the federal election campaign.

A man with white hair. — Former NSW premier Nick Greiner. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

The term was due to expire on 30 June, creating an early test for the new Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, as the competing factions in her home state wrangled over the future of the division. The federal executive had the option to extend the committee’s term or end the intervention, handing control back to the NSW division.

A third option emerged in recent weeks, in which a federal-backed committee would remain in place but the current members would be replaced with NSW figures. The internal push to replace the committee members gathered momentum after the 80-year-old Stockdale said Liberal women were “sufficiently assertive” and perhaps male candidates needed a leg up.

Seaton will remain on the new committee.

Key events

Caitlin Cassidy

University of Melbourne expulsions may contravene human rights charter, law centre warns

The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) has written to the vice chancellor of the University of Melbourne (UoM), Emma Johnston, requesting an “urgent meeting” over the expulsion of student protesters and warning the move may be incompatible with human rights norms.

Earlier this month, Johnston informed two students that they had been terminated and two that they were suspended after taking part in a pro-Palestine demonstration at an academic’s office last October, prompting concern from some academics and the Greens.

The letter, sent by the HRLC legal director, Sarah Schwartz, who is also the executive officer at the pro-Palestinian Jewish Council of Australia, on Tuesday expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s decision.

As a public authority, the university has clear obligations under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities to act compatibly with human rights, and to give due consideration to those rights in all decisions. The university’s commitment to rights and freedoms is recognised in its many policies. It should also comply with international human rights norms, given the university’s global standing and reach.

In our view, the response of the university in these cases is neither compatible with the Charter nor with international human rights norms. In addition to the severe harm to the individual students, this decision will have a chilling and stigmatising effect on protest, intellectual and student life on campus.”

Johnston told Guardian Australia the university respected the rights of individuals to protest, reiterating “this has not changed”.

Universities are places where free and open debate must take place, but the safety of our students and staff must also be protected as this is integral to enabling free and open debate.

Tory Shepherd

Dfat says Indo-Pacific can ‘count on’ Australia as it pivots more aid to region

“We’re stepping up where others are stepping back,” the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) says.

The Australian Council for International Development (Acfid) this week revealed the impact of the Trump administration’s and Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency’s gutting of US foreign aid.

Australian non-government organisations and their partners took a $400m hit, and at least 20 offices have closed, with devastating flow-on effects on the delivery of health, education and climate change support.

Acfid wants the government to increase foreign aid spending from 0.65% of the budget to 1%.

A Dfat spokesperson said on Tuesday that the region could “count on” Australia as a partner, as it pivots more aid to the region. They said:

Recognising the impact of global aid cuts, we have reprioritised our development assistance to dedicate 75c of every Australian development dollar to support the Indo-Pacific next year. We’ve also reprioritised global funding this year to meet immediate needs in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and South Asia as a result of global aid cuts.

We have also provided temporary additional flexibility to Australian NGOs to mitigate the impacts of some of the cuts on local partners in the Indo-Pacific.

The Greens support Acfid’s call to increase aid to at least 1%.

Deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, said Australia should show leadership, and bears “ultimate responsibility for the adequacy and stability of our aid program”. She said:

Trump’s callous aid freeze and funding cuts are devastating the world’s most vulnerable communities and the Albanese government is letting them get away with it.

Nick Visser

Thanks for following along today, that’s all for me. Cait Kelly will be your guide through the afternoon’s headlines.

Nick Greiner to lead new Liberal committee as intervention extended

Dan Jervis-Bardy

Former NSW premier Nick Greiner. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Seaton will remain on the new committee.

Caitlin Cassidy

More on death cap mushrooms: scientists warn some deadly fungi look like supermarket varieties

Death cap mushrooms are among wild fungi that look ‘just like a mushroom you’d buy from the supermarket’, an expert says. Photograph: Tom May

New South Wales and South Australia residents have been warned to stay away from wild mushrooms after a surge in the detection of highly poisonous death caps, including in Sydney.

Amanita phalloides, commonly known as death cap mushrooms, have been found growing in Sydney, the southern highlands, southern NSW and the Adelaide hills after high rainfall, health officials say. It is estimated that half a death cap mushroom can kill an adult, and the species has caused 90% of the world’s mushroom-related fatalities.

The chief scientist at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, Prof Brett Summerell, said some poisonous varieties could look “just like a mushroom you’d buy from the supermarket”, making them extremely dangerous to forage.

Paul Keating says Marles’ comments on Australia’s role in possible US-China tussle a ‘dark moment’ in history

Former prime minister Paul Keating has accused the Labor government of “intellectually ceding Australia to the United States” after the defence minister, Richard Marles, spoke about the growing might of China on the world stage and how the country may be drawn into a future conflict. Marles said yesterday Australia’s military contingent was now “more relevant to [the] great power contest now than [it has] ever been before”.

Keating wrote in a long statement:

Yesterday’s statement by defence minister Richard Marles that Australia’s geography and continent would be crucial to any United States prosecution of a war against China will go down as a dark moment in Australia’s history.

A moment when an Australian Labor government intellectually ceded Australia to the United States as a platform for the US and, by implication, Australia, for military engagement against the Chinese state in response to a threat China is alleged to be making.

And ceding the continent to the United States devoid of an electoral authority – a month after an election where the government had the opportunity – but declined to make explicit, its strategic intentions and policies.

Keating went on to say Marles’ remarks amount to “nothing more than a careless betrayal of the country’s policy agency and independence in its ability to make decisions in its own national interest and not in the interest or interests of another country”.

Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

NSW police say crime taskforce leading to arrests, guns off the streets after Auburn shooting

The head of NSW police’s taskforce into violent crime in Sydney said the body’s work has already resulted in arrests and gun seizures after the lunchtime shooting of three people at a kebab shop in the suburb of Auburn yesterday. Detective superintendent Jason Box addressed concerns about public safety at a press conference earlier:

Taskforce Falcon, with over 150 police, has been saturating places of interest and speaking to persons of interest. We’ve warned people about their safety. We’ve made arrests and recovered firearms from the street.

We will keep putting forward our concerns for every offender that we arrest that’s connected to these organised crime networks. You know, this conflict and this violence is something that we’re trying to suppress, and every time there is an incident and we arrest someone, we’re putting forward our concerns for these people not to be on the streets. And it’s quite obvious that they shouldn’t be.

Three people were injured in the shooting yesterday. Photograph: Steven Markham/AAP

Police identify remains of Pheobe Bishop, missing Queensland teen

Queensland police have confirmed human remains found near the state’s Good Night Scrub national park are those of missing teenager Pheobe Bishop. The remains were found during a search of the area on 6 June.

Police charged Bishop’s housemates with her murder earlier this month, with officials alleging they killed her before moving her body from the national park. James Wood, 34, and Tanika Bromley, 33, remain behind bars on individual charges of murder and two counts each of interfering with a corpse. Their next court appearance is set for 11 August.

Investigations are ongoing and police are still appealing for information about her movements and those of a grey Hyundai IX35 between 15 May and 18 May in the greater Gin Gin area.

Pheobe Bishop.

Kate Lyons

Pacific faces ‘critical moment’ in fight for press freedom, media watchdog warns

The Pacific is facing a “critical moment” for press freedom, the region’s media watchdog has warned, as a number of senior journalists in a range of Pacific countries are facing costly lawsuits and criminal prosecution for alleged defamation. Robert Iroga, the chair of the Pacific Freedom Forum, said:

We have seen a few cases coming up … challenging the fundamentals of press freedom in the region.

Palau journalist Leilani Reklai (left), chair of the Pacific Freedom Forum Robert Iroga (centre) and Katalina Tohi, the Polynesian co-chair of the Forum. Photograph: Pacific Freedom Forum

Iroga said that Pacific countries – while all distinct and with separate laws governing media – often face similar cultural and economic challenges that affect press freedom. These include the fact that news outlets are often small with very limited budgets, which means defending lawsuits brought against them can often bankrupt an outlet.

Read more here:

Anne Davies

NSW Council for Civil Liberties says decision shows ‘disregard for our democracy’

A key issue for the inquiry is when Minns knew that police suspected the caravan plot could be part of a criminal hoax.

Both the premier and the police minister, Yasmin Catley, have refused to appear and cannot be compelled to appear. Minns said on Tuesday he did not want his staff to give evidence either. Minns argued that if he attended all the inquiries he was requested to appear at he could not do his job. He said he was available during question time and at estimates twice a year.

Both the premier and the police minister, Yasmin Catley, have refused to appear and cannot be compelled to appear. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Timothy Roberts, the president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, said Minns had played into the hands of those who allegedly concocted the caravan plot and had used it to rush a repressive and fear-based legislative agenda. Roberts said:

This is just another example of premier Chris Minns’ disregard for our democracy. It should be of deep concern to all NSW residents that his government is refusing to answer questions from their elected representatives in parliament.

Anne Davies

Human rights group criticises Minns for not speaking at inquiry in handling of Dural ‘fake terrorism plot’

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties has criticised the NSW premier, Chris Minns, for his decision not to appear at an upper house inquiry investigating the handling of information about the caravan “fake terrorism plot” at Dural earlier this year.

Three of Minns’ staff are being summoned to appear at the inquiry but the premier says he does not want them to give evidence.

New South Wales premier Chris Minns. Photograph: Steven Saphore/AAP

A previous hearing heard that NSW police briefed the premier and the police minister “very early on” that the incident was likely a criminal hoax but the premier continued to use language including “mass casualty event” and “terrorism” in the media.

NSW parliament subsequently passed laws including the Places of Worship Act – which restricts protest “at or near places of worship” but will be challenged in the NSW supreme court later this week.

Minns told 2GB radio on Tuesday he did not conceal information but acknowledged a hoax was one possibility put forward by NSW police.

Burst water main leads to evacuations at Sydney’s Downing Centre court

Judges and magistrates had just taken the bench to hear 550 cases in Sydney’s Downing Centre courtrooms on Tuesday morning when the power suddenly went out throughout the building, AAP reports.

After a few moments of confusion, an alert asked everyone to leave the building due to a “street emergency”. Crowds of lawyers, judicial staff, accused criminals, and a gaggle of schoolkids on an excursion streamed down fire escape staircases onto Liverpool Street in the city centre.

People wait outside the Downing Centre Court complex after it was evacuated this morning. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Three people were trapped in the busy elevators inside the court complex. Fire and Rescue NSW confirmed crews had released one person while two others remain stuck in an elevator trapped between two floors.

In a statement, Ausgrid said a burst water main had flooded an underground substation in the city, causing the power outage. More than 400 customers in the CBD are still without power just before 1pm.

A burst water main and power outage at the Downing Centre and JMT Court complex forced an evacuation. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Rafqa Touma

Woman identified after body found in bushland in Sydney’s west

A man has been charged with murdering a woman whose body was found in western Sydney by a passerby on the weekend. New South Wales police officers were called to Irwin Street in Werrington on Sunday after the body of 47-year-old Leanne Akrap was located in bushland. She was discovered lying next to clothing and rubbish.

Police search a park in the suburb of Werrington, Sydney on 16 June. Photograph: Steven Markham/AAP

A crime scene was established and an investigation commenced with the homicide squad. NSW Police did not comment on the alleged cause of death. A report was to be prepared for the coroner. Bryan Steven Johnson, 47, was arrested at a home on Powell Street in Hobartville on Monday evening and charged with murder, police said.

He was refused bail to appear before Penrith local court on Tuesday.

Cait Kelly

Police looking at link between burnt-out cars and Sydney shooting

NSW detectives are investigating the links between three burnt-out cars and a shooting in Auburn yesterday. In a statement, NSW Police said about 1.15pm yesterday officers were called to South Parade after two men, with their faces covered, entered a kebab shop and fired eight shots.

They left in a black Audi Q7 bearing cloned numberplates. NSW Ambulance paramedics treated three people for gunshot wounds before all were taken to a hospital for further specialist treatment.

In a statement, NSW Police said about 1.15pm yesterday officers were called to South Parade after two men, with their faces covered, entered a kebab shop and fired eight shots. Photograph: Nswpf Mmu/NSW Police Media

A 26-year-old man suffered wounds to his shoulder and arm, a 47-year-old woman was shot twice in the torso, and a 25-year-old man was shot in the face. The first two victims are said to be in a stable condition while the second man is said to be in a serious condition.

A crime scene was established, and three cars were subsequently found burnt out on Wigram Street in Harris Park, Hilltop Road in Merrylands and Gerald Street in Greystanes. Crime scenes were established at all three locations with officers attached Taskforce Falcon deployed to assist with the investigation.

Police are currently examining potential links between the three fires and the shooting at Auburn.

Ley says Albanese should have been ‘more proactive’ in seeking Trump meeting

Tom McIlroy

The federal opposition leader, Sussan Ley, says the Albanese government should have done more to secure a meeting with US President Donald Trump before his early exit from the G7 in Canada today.

In a statement, she said Trump’s decision to leave a day before his meeting with Anthony Albanese is understandable but regrettable.

“Given the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, this decision is understandable but to the detriment of Australia.

“This was an important opportunity for the prime minister to seek assurances on Aukus and protect Australia from tariffs.

“Given global volatility and the growing list of issues in our relationship with the United States, this underscores that the Albanese government should not have merely relied on meeting with the president on the sidelines of international summits.

“The prime minister should have been more proactive in seeking to strengthen this relationship – Australia’s most important – and we encourage him to change his approach to advance our national interest.”

Dan Jervis-Bardy

Fate of NSW Liberal party to be decided at crunch meeting after federal takeover

The fate of the New South Wales Liberal party will be decided at a crunch meeting today, where the party’s federal executive will weigh up whether to end or extend its control over the division.

The federal Liberal party forcibly took over the NSW division in September last year after the NSW branch failed to lodge nominations for 140 candidates in 16 councils before the local government elections. A committee was appointed to replace its state executive for a period of 10 months.

On Tuesday, the Liberal party federal executive will decide the next steps for new Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s home state division in one of her first major challenges.