Gareth Ward’s lawyer says NSW parliament acting as ‘kangaroo court’ in expulsion move
Jordyn Beazley
Convicted rapist MP Gareth Ward is facing an urgent court hearing this morning after he sought an injunction to stop his parliamentary colleagues expelling him from the New South Wales parliament.
Ward’s barrister, Peter King, is providing his arguments now before the three judge bench in the court of appeal. King argued the NSW Legislative Assembly was seeking to expel Ward via a “kangaroo court” because Ward’s “existing right as a member of the assembly to speak in the debate to oppose the resolution is lost”.
Ward, the independent MP for Kiama, is in Silverwater jail, where he has been remanded pending sentencing in September. King told the court this was one of a number of reasons why he would argue the government’s resolution to expel Ward was “punitive in nature”.
Another reason he argued it was punitive was because Ward’s expulsion would trigger a byelection and “he’s further punished in that respect, by losing the opportunity to regain his seat”.
A judge interjected to say Ward’s inability to attend parliament and oppose the resolution was “driven entirely” by the fact he applied for bail but was refused.
King responded the difficulty was the resolution being “brought on hurriedly” and in “circumstances in which it means that his existing right as a member of the assembly to speak in the debate to oppose the resolution is lost.”
Key events
Australian office vacancy rate highest in 30 years
The vacancy rate for Australian office buildings is at the highest level in three decades, according to new figures from the Australian Property Council.
The body released new data today finding office vacancies had risen from 14.7% to 15.2% nationally.
Mike Zorbas, the chief of the council, said many tenants were increasingly opting for premium offices that have been hitting the market in greater numbers. Those upper-tier choices have seen a year and a half of positive growth, while lower-grade choices had seen falling rates of occupancy. The council notes that offices are graded on levels of quality, with Premium and A Grade the highest and B, C and D grades considered of ‘secondary’ quality.
Zorbas said in a statement:
Tenants are capitalising on opportunities to occupy premium buildings in prime CBD locations, with premium space continuing to see higher demand levels than lower-grade buildings.
Much of this demand is centred on Premium and A Grade buildings, with B, C and D grade office buildings experiencing negative demand over the last six months.
Gareth Ward’s lawyer argues criminal convictions alone not the ‘unworthy conduct’ needed as grounds for expulsion
Gareth Ward’s lawyer has argued the MP for Kiama’s convictions cannot alone be considered the “unworthy conduct” needed as grounds to expel him from parliament.
Ward was found guilty in July of sexually abusing two young men in 2013 and 2015. He is appealing his convictions, which include three counts of indecent assault and one for sexual intercourse without consent.
Ward’s barrister, Peter King, said:
It’s not, in our respectful submission, justice according to law to say to someone, ‘well you’ve been convicted, we’re now going to punish you by expelling you from the parliament’.
We submit that the [common law] privilege doesn’t work that way.
King said the four convictions cannot alone be the basis for the expulsion given the judicial process is yet to conclude, and that the government has identified no other “unworthy conduct” in its reasons to expel him.
If he’s acquitted, and he’s lost all the rights that an innocent man would otherwise have, his career has been trashed.
Chief justice Andrew Bell – one of the three judges overseeing the matter – interjected to say the criminal convictions were serious. Bell said: “He’s had, as you say, a nine-week trial, and he’s been convicted by 12 of his fellow citizens.”
King later compared Ward’s absence from parliament to someone who has a “serious malady or illness or cancer or something” and cannot attend parliament for nine months.
Labor says it has not been approached by US about Iranian man
Tom McIlroy
Continuing from previous post:
Documents provided by US authorities suggest Zavvar could be sent to Australia or Romania, despite Zavvar having no links to either place. He has never lived in either country.
Guardian Australia approached the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, and the foreign minister, Penny Wong, for an explanation about the case, but Labor says it has not been approached by the United States in relation to it.
A government spokesperson said there was no new agreement for transfer of US immigration detainees to Australia. They said:
We consider any application for a visa on its merits, we have not been contacted by the US government about this matter.
There have been no new agreements made with the Trump Administration on immigration.
Tom McIlroy
Trump administration threatens to deport Iranian man to Australia
Labor has cast doubt on the possibility of the Trump administration transferring an Iranian-born man from US immigration detention to Australia, saying it has no knowledge of the case.
The US government is threatening to deport Reza Zavvar, a 52-year-old recruiter from Maryland, to either Australia or Romania.
Zavvar is being held in detention, despite holding a US immigration green card, due to a historical conviction for marijuana possession which dates back to the 1990s.
Zavvar cannot be sent back to Iran due to risk of persecution there, and his lawyer Ava Benach says he has been told he could be sent to a third country.
The Trump administration has taken a hard line on deporting non-citizens from the US, often to countries in South America. The deportation policy has seen people arrested without warning by federal officials around the US, and has sparked a series of legal challenges.
Albanese says work-from-home arrangements benefit ‘workers and employers’
Albanese was asked about his position on work-from-home after Victoria premier Jacinta Allan outlined plans to legislate flexible working rights.
The prime minister said during a press conference today:
We think that working from home and flexible working arrangements can benefit both workers and employers. And during the election campaign … the Coalition promised, of course, to send people back to the office five days a week.
That ended up with some of them not having an office any more.
I think that flexible working arrangements benefit both workers and employers.
When asked if he would support a legislated right to work from home on a federal level, Albanese said Labor had already amended the Fair Work Act in 2022 with the Secure Jobs, Better Pay amendment.
Jacinta Allan is Victorian premier. She’s putting forward her views. I’ve got to say it’s consistent with our views, which are that working from home is something that’s important, something that Australians voted for, something that Peter Dutton tried to clamp down on, and Australians responded accordingly.
Gareth Ward’s lawyer says NSW parliament acting as ‘kangaroo court’ in expulsion move
Jordyn Beazley
Convicted rapist MP Gareth Ward is facing an urgent court hearing this morning after he sought an injunction to stop his parliamentary colleagues expelling him from the New South Wales parliament.
Ward’s barrister, Peter King, is providing his arguments now before the three judge bench in the court of appeal. King argued the NSW Legislative Assembly was seeking to expel Ward via a “kangaroo court” because Ward’s “existing right as a member of the assembly to speak in the debate to oppose the resolution is lost”.
Ward, the independent MP for Kiama, is in Silverwater jail, where he has been remanded pending sentencing in September. King told the court this was one of a number of reasons why he would argue the government’s resolution to expel Ward was “punitive in nature”.
Another reason he argued it was punitive was because Ward’s expulsion would trigger a byelection and “he’s further punished in that respect, by losing the opportunity to regain his seat”.
A judge interjected to say Ward’s inability to attend parliament and oppose the resolution was “driven entirely” by the fact he applied for bail but was refused.
King responded the difficulty was the resolution being “brought on hurriedly” and in “circumstances in which it means that his existing right as a member of the assembly to speak in the debate to oppose the resolution is lost.”
Albanese and Butler tout new Medicare urgent care clinics
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the health minister, Mark Butler, are in Melbourne to speak about the government’s efforts to open 50 Medicare urgent care clinics. The prime minister told media of three new clinics in Victoria:
When you need healthcare, you can get it and you can get it for free. That is why this is so important going forward. My government is really proud that we’re doing this. We want to see, if possible, our objective of the 50 urgent care clinics, additional [ones] opened as soon as possible. Certainly within a year, but we’ll see how we go about how many we can get open in 2025.
My government is determined that this will be a year of delivery – delivery on the commitments which Australians voted for.
The three existing clinics in Warrnambool, Sunshine and Warragul were state-funded urgent care services, but have been brought in to the federal urgent care clinic network. Nine new clinics will be established in Victoria between 2025 and 2026.
Butler said the new urgent care clinics were already taking pressure off hospital emergency departments, saying eventually four in five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive to an urgent care clinic. Butler said:
It’s taking pressure off the hospital system, it’s providing people with that option for care seven days a week, extended hours, and fully bulk-billed. And it’s a central part of our strengthening Medicare agenda.
Search for missing plane enters sixth day along Tasmania’s coast
Tasmania Police are continuing the search for a small plane that went missing on Saturday after leaving the state’s George Town airport. Two people – identified as Gregory Vaughan, 72, and his partner, Kim Worner, 66 – were on board, along with their dog, travelling to regional NSW.
A police helicopter will search the coastline along northern Tasmania today after early searches found no sign of the light sport plane. No boats have been able to join the hunt since Tuesday due to challenging weather conditions and no new search areas have been identified.
The matter is now part of an active investigation, officials said. Police said previously there has been no contact with the couple, or their plane, since it left the George Town airport near Tasmania’s north coast.
Parts of central NSW still under evacuation orders as flood waters move downstream
Some residents in the towns of Gunnedah and Narrabri remain under flood evacuation orders after last weekend’s heavy rain.
The NSW SES notes 20 emergency warnings are active in parts of NSW, including 16 “evacuate now” alerts. About 2,200 volunteers have responded to more than 2,600 incidents since the latest weather event began, with 40 flood rescues so far. Officials said on social media those threats remain for those along the Namoi River at Wee Waa:
The Namoi River at Wee Waa is continuing to rise and the flood risk in the town is increasing today and NSW SES has prepositioned crews and assets in the affected areas in preparation.
SES officials urge residents in potentially impacted areas to stay up-to-date with the HazardWatch app.
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Graham Readfearn
Some electric cars fall short of claimed range by up to 23%
A government-funded program to test the true performance of vehicles has found the driving range of five popular electric cars is between 5% and 23% lower than results from laboratory testing.
The Australian Automobile Association tested vehicles from Tesla, BYD, Kia and Smart – the first EVs to be put through its four-year, federally funded Real World Testing Program to give consumers more accurate information on vehicle performance.
The extended range variant of the BYD Atto3 had the largest discrepancy, according to the AAA, with a real-world range of 369km, 23% lower than the 480km achieved in laboratory testing. The Smart #3 had the lowest, with only a 5% difference.
The Tesla Model 3 had a real-world range 14% lower than the lab test. Tesla’s Model Y and the Kia EV6 both had a real world range 8% lower.
Read more here:
National Union of Students calls for student referendum on Palestine
The National Union of Students is endorsing a national student referendum on Palestine, and will poll students on whether to pass motions censuring the Australian government and their universities amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
The union said mass meetings of students will take place at campuses across the country from 20 to 28 August, where those gathered will debate two motions. One includes students censuring the Australian government for its “complicity in the genocide in Gaza”, including a demand to end all weapons sales to Israel. The other calls on Australian universities to end their partnerships with weapons companies.
James McVicar, the education officer for the union, said in a statement:
In the face of our own government’s complicity in the crime of genocide, students are standing up and demanding to be counted. The National Student Referendum on Palestine will be a chance for students across the country to vote no confidence in our government and demand an end to weapons companies on our campuses.
Hundreds more CSIRO jobs on the chopping block
Sarah Basford Canales
Hundreds more jobs could be axed at Australia’s national science agency, sparking concerns the country is gutting its research capability just as the Trump administration makes deep cuts into the sector in the US.
The latest potential research job losses at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) follow 440 positions being cut last financial year and earlier deep reductions under the Coalition government, including 300 in 2016.
They coincide with the Trump administration slashing science agencies in the US, with warnings the loss of expertise could have global ramifications in health, climate science and weather forecasting.
Read more:
Peak welfare body calls for property tax breaks to be rolled back before productivity roundtable
The Australian Council of Social Services (Acoss) says the government should roll back tax breaks for property investors, the latest major body to do so ahead of the treasurer’s productivity roundtable later this month.
Acoss, the nation’s peak welfare body, says the capital gains tax should be halved and negative gearing should be limited. There should also be a commonwealth royalty payment for offshore gas, the group says, adding revenue generated by those changes should be invested in social housing. Cassandra Goldie, the chief executive of Acoss, told the ABC:
We are very clear we would phase out the very generous 50% tax discount and get it down to 25%. So there’d be some tax reward for property investment, but nowhere near as generous.
On Sunday, the head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sally McManus, also called for changes to the capital gains tax and negative gearing. She said at the time bold reforms were needed to help younger people, saying it was time for the country to “bite the bullet” on the ABC.
NSW to introduce stronger laws targeting sexually explicit deepfakes
The NSW parliament will introduce legislation to strengthen laws surrounding the creation and distribution of intimate and sexually explicit deepfake images, as well as criminalise the creation and distribution of sexually explicit audio.
If passed, the expanded law would encompass sexually explicit content created entirely using artificial intelligence. It is already a crime in NSW to record or distribute intimate images of a person without their consent, including those that have been digitally altered.
The amendments will see the production of a sexually explicit deepfake meant to depict a real, identifiable person become an offence subject to a punishment of three years in jail. Anyone convicted of sharing or threatening to share deepfake images, even if the person hasn’t created them, will also be punishable by up to three years in jail. NSW attorney general, Michael Daley, said the changes would close a gap in the law that leaves women vulnerable to “AI-generated sexual exploitation”. He added to media:
These images can look very, very real. They can also be very, very harmful. And their prevalence is well on the increase. Almost all of the images circulating online are pornographic in nature. 99% of them are images of girls and women.
One signatory says Gaza letter represents ‘strong, shared frustration’ at furrowed brows over action
Peter Rodgers, a former ambassador to Israel, said the letter represents a call to action after a long period of “worried looks”. He told RN Breakfast this morning:
I think there’s a strong, shared frustration, and indeed anger, at all the furrowed brows and the expressions of deep concern, growing concern, etc. etc, and very little action. And so I think that’s what this letter represents.
It is time for action, not just worried looks.
Rodgers said arguments the recognition of a Palestinian state would embolden Hamas were “nonsensical”, saying not doing so actually rewarded Israel’s campaign:
It rewards the government of Benjamin Netanyahu for its campaign of genocidal violence in Gaza, for its campaign of ethnic cleansing and apartheid in the West Bank. And so it’s a nonsensical argument. The problem here is, certainly on the Palestinian side, there are some very nasty people. On the Israeli side, there are also nasty people …
I think we need to be very careful of pointing the finger in one direction and forgetting what’s going on the other side.
Former ambassadors and diplomats urge Albanese to do more, quickly on Gaza
A group of former Australian ambassadors and diplomats have urged prime minister Anthony Albanese to do more to see the end of Israel’s war in Gaza, including the recognition of a Palestinian state.
The coalition includes former ambassador to Israel, Peter Rodgers, former diplomat, Alison Broinowski, Australia’s first ambassador to China, Stephen FitzGerald and former ambassador to Japan, John Menadue. The letter says the recognition of a Palestinian state is deeply important as repeated calls for a two-state solution make “no sense when only one state exists, and that heavily-armed state, Israel, is engaged in apartheid, war crimes, and potential genocide of almost totally defenceless people”.
The letter, sent Monday, reads in part:
We are distressed that Australia has done so little to prevent the progressive erosion of international law, the persistent armed assaults on Palestinian people, and the violation of their human rights in Gaza and the West Bank.
We acknowledge your statements, together with other leaders, about the need for cautious consideration of recognition of a Palestinian state, and about the need for a two-state solution. Your approach is supported by a growing number of Australians, of Jewish, Palestinian, and other backgrounds.
This process, while welcome, is far too slow. It is taking more time than the famine-affected people of Gaza and the displaced Palestinians of the West Bank have, if they are to survive. Time is of the essence for them.
You can read the full text of the open letter here.
Cait Kelly
Treasurer says Australia can be ‘big player’ in future of data centres
Chalmers was also asked about the former CEO of Atlassian, who recently said he wants to see Australia host massive data centres and see a change in the copyright law to allow exemptions for data mining for AI companies.
Chalmers said the data centres were “a major opportunity” for Australia, adding:
As it turns out, I’ve spent a few hours this afternoon with $3tn of Australian capital, the biggest investors in Australia, super and other institutional investors, we’ve been grappling with this question: how does Australia make the most of this opportunity when it comes to data centres and AI infrastructure more broadly?
We have got a big chance, we’ll be mad not to grab it. We need to get the energy piece right, the zoning approvals piece right, the skills piece right as well. We can be a big player in data centres.
Cait Kelly
Chalmers says he will err on the side of workers when it comes to AI
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, appeared on 7.30 last night, where he was talking about how AI will be a key topic at the government’s productivity roundtable in a few weeks.
He was asked if he would support the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ call for workers to be able to veto AI in their workplace. He said he would err on the side of workers:
We need to be realistic about it. And certainly, I agree that workers need to be part of the conversation when it comes to rolling out a technology that has this game-changing potential.
And where there’s very real potential risks in the labour market. I would always err on the side of workers having a say in how their work is done.
Good morning
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Nick Visser, I’ll be bringing you updates as the day gets rolling. Let’s start with this:
The Australian Council of Social Services (Acoss) is calling for the government to roll back tax breaks for property investors before the treasurer’s productivity roundtable. Acoss is calling for the 50% capital gains tax discount to be halved “so there’d be some tax reward for property investment but nowhere near as generous”, the group’s chief told the ABC.
Also today, a court is expected to hear jailed MP Gareth Ward’s bid to prevent the NSW parliament from expelling him. We’ll bring you all the developments.
Stick with us.
