Wong says Israeli strikes on Qatar ‘the wrong thing to do’
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said she hopes Israel’s strikes on Qatar will not make a ceasefire highly unlikely, but admitted it will “obviously make it harder” to reach one.
Wong just spoke to ABC News:
The Australian government believes this was the wrong thing to do. Qatar, as you know, has been one of the parties seeking an immediate ceasefire. It has been working with the United States on the return of hostages. This is a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty. It imperils that work on the ceasefire and it risks escalation.
Wong added that Australia was limited in its ability to stop the war between Israel and Hamas as the nation is not a central player in the conflict:
We can’t end the war. What we can do is support the calls for a ceasefire and the work and the work of the United States and others to try to broker a ceasefire.
Key events
Krishani Dhanji
Bob Katter finally discloses interests, three weeks after deadline
Queensland MP Bob Katter, has finally put in his register of interests (which all MPs and senators must do), after missing the deadline by three weeks.
Katter submitted his register yesterday after questioning by Guardian Australia, with every declaration due by 19 August.
Members are supposed to disclose things like shares, properties, interests, gifts and assets over a certain threshold, owned by them or their partner. Not publishing them within 28 days of parliament being opened can be treated as contempt of the House (but it’s very unlikely there would have been action against Katter on this matter).
In Katter’s list of family trusts and businesses, he stated “I may have some interest in cattle operations in the gulf”. He also stated rather candidly:
In mining, nothing definite at this stage, but I intend to take up old mining tenements discovered by myself prior to entering parliament.
But he says there are “no specifics yet”. He gave the same response in previous declarations.
He also writes that his in-laws have “extensive dealings with the government”, but we have no details on what those dealings are, and that some family members have “interests in cattle”.
Australia Post details what parcel shipping will look like once service to US resumes
Gary Starr, the executive general manager of Australia Post’s parcel, post and e-commerce services, detailed how parcels will make their way to the US once the agency restarts postage to the country later this month. AusPost said yesterday it would resume operations for packages to the US by 25 September after a temporary pause to deal with Donald Trump’s tariff regime.
Under the changes, any parcel valued more than US$100 will be subject to duties linked to the sending country’s tariff rate, which is 10% for Australian goods.
Starr said the new system was complex, noting AusPost had partnered with a company vetted by the US so those duties and taxes could be paid before a parcel leaves Australia. He told RN Breakfast earlier:
What’s now required is for the duties and taxes to be collected before the item leaves Australia. And without an authorisation code, the US Customs and Border Protection won’t assess the product and it’ll just get returned …
As soon as we had the detail a couple of weeks ago, we engaged with one of the partners, and just really now it’s about getting integrated into that new system so that the taxes and duties can be paid and we can get cross-border commerce flowing again into the US.
Researchers make breakthrough on koala STI vaccine
A breakthrough vaccine for a common sexually transmitted disease has provided fresh hope for Australia’s most beloved endangered animal – and maybe a blueprint for human use, AAP reports.
Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast spent more than a decade developing a single-use vaccine for chlamydia in koalas. Prof Peter Timms, from the university’s Centre for Bioinnovation, said studies on koala populations using the vaccine over a 10-year period had shown reduced rates of disease and improved health outcomes, particularly for animals of breeding age.
After habitat loss and vehicle strikes, chlamydia is one of the main threats to koala populations, leading to blindness, pneumonia, urinary and reproductive tract infections, infertility and death.
The vaccine has been approved by the national regulator, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medical Authority. Timms said he hoped the vaccine would begin to be rolled out early in 2026, starting with koalas in wildlife hospitals before progressing to wild populations.
Safe partying hub will help young Australians understand risks overseas, Wong says
Penny Wong spoke about the new Partying Safely Hub, saying the effort would help ensure more young Australians are “aware of the risk” associated with going out overseas.
She told ABC News this morning:
We lost Holly and Bianca, two beautiful young Australians, to methanol poisoning in Laos, and we were determined after talking with the grieving families, that one of the things we could do is to try to make sure that more young Australians were aware of the risks.
So we want people to protect themselves when they go overseas.
Wong was asked about the investigation into the deaths, saying the government shared families’ frustrations with the lack of progress:
I’ve pressed the Laos authorities on numerous occasions, as have others, about the need for there to be a full and thorough investigation of these tragic deaths.
Tom McIlroy
Wong launches new information hub to guard travellers against methanol poisoning
Australian travellers will have access to new information to help them avoid methanol poisoning in drinks when travelling overseas.
Ahead of Schoolies Week celebrations, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has launched the new Partying Safely Hub on the Smartraveller website.
It has information about partying safely while overseas and what to do if something goes wrong abroad.
Release of the resources follows the tragic deaths of Australian travellers Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones in Laos last year.
The Albanese government is continuing to press the government of Laos for a transparent and thorough investigation into their deaths, which followed drinking at a popular tourist spot.
The hub has practical information for parents, universities and schools on key topics involving alcohol safety, methanol poisoning, drink spiking, drug safety and travel insurance.
Wong said:
The tragic deaths of Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles as a result of methanol poisoning in Laos are a heartbreaking reminder of the dangers young people face when travelling abroad.
We want young Australians to explore the world with confidence, but above all we want them to have the knowledge and resources to come home safely.
Wong says Cop 31 negotiations remain ‘pretty difficult’
Penny Wong said negotiations surrounding the Cop 31 summit, which the government wants to see next year in Adelaide, remained “pretty difficult” as Turkey hopes to win the bid itself. She said the government would continue to compete for the UN climate conference in an effort to elevate the issue of climate breakdown in the Pacific, telling ABC News:
We obviously have been to two elections with this commitment, and the fundamental drive for our commitment is because we want to elevate Pacific voices. The Pacific is on the frontline of climate change. …
We want to have a Pacific conference of the parties to elevate the experience of the Pacific peoples in the face of climate change.
Wong says Israeli strikes on Qatar ‘the wrong thing to do’
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said she hopes Israel’s strikes on Qatar will not make a ceasefire highly unlikely, but admitted it will “obviously make it harder” to reach one.
Wong just spoke to ABC News:
The Australian government believes this was the wrong thing to do. Qatar, as you know, has been one of the parties seeking an immediate ceasefire. It has been working with the United States on the return of hostages. This is a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty. It imperils that work on the ceasefire and it risks escalation.
Wong added that Australia was limited in its ability to stop the war between Israel and Hamas as the nation is not a central player in the conflict:
We can’t end the war. What we can do is support the calls for a ceasefire and the work and the work of the United States and others to try to broker a ceasefire.
Australia ‘perfectly positioned’ to host next UN climate conference, Thistlethwaite says
Thistlethwaite added that the government believes Australia is “perfectly positioned” to host Cop 31, the UN’s major climate summit, next year. The country is still vying with Turkey for the right to host the event alongside Pacific nations.
Thistlethwaite told RN Breakfast:
We think that Australia is perfectly positioned to host this Cop 31 given the urgency of climate change in the Pacific. And really, we want to see some of those northern hemisphere leaders come to the southern hemisphere, come to Australia, to Adelaide, and hopefully use the time that they’re here to think about perhaps travelling to Pacific neighbours and engaging with their governments and their people around the urgency of climate change.
Labor condemns Israeli missile strike on Qatar
Matt Thistlethwaite, the assistant minister for foreign affairs and trade, said Israel’s strikes against top Hamas members in Qatar violated the nation’s sovereignty and imperilled ceasefire talks, adding the Australian government was not informed of the actions beforehand.
Thistlethwaite told RN Breakfast this morning the government condemned the strikes, adding:
These strikes violate Qatar’s sovereignty and they imperil a ceasefire and the release of the Israeli hostages. And unfortunately, they risk further escalation in the conflict.
Qatar’s been working quite hard behind the scenes alongside the United States and Egypt to try and broker a ceasefire and a release of hostages deal. So these strikes will imperil that. Nonetheless, it’s encouraging to hear Qatari leaders say that they remain committed to trying to broker an agreement and a ceasefire.
Meta blocks and sends legal threats to makers of deepfake nude apps
Josh Taylor
Two days after the eSafety commissioner issued a notice to a UK company behind a “nudify” deepfake AI app, Meta announced it has issued cease and desist notices to 46 companies attempting to advertise similar products on its platforms.
Meta, which is already suing one such company to try to prevent it advertising on Facebook and Instagram, announced on Wednesday cease and desist notices have been sent to 46 companies attempting to advertise nudify apps on their platforms.
Meta said it has removed over 5,000 ads and 96 ad accounts linked to those companies, and blocked links to more than a dozen apps and websites offering nudify services.
On Monday, the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, told ABC’s 7.30 on Monday the platforms were not expressing remorse about not doing more to curb the rise of such apps.
“That’s what makes it all the more disturbing, having worked in the technology sector for 22 years,” Inman Grant said, adding:
I know what they are capable of, and not a single one of them is doing everything they can to stop the most heinous of abuse to children, being tortured and raped, and this imagery being perpetuated online.
Read more here:
Good morning
Nick Visser
And happy Wednesday. Nick Visser here to take over from Martin Farrer for the morning. Let’s see what the day has in store.
More on the WA abuse settlement
Dion Barber launched the legal case in 2021 for the repeat abuse and harm caused by his stepfather as well as other perpetrators over subsequent years while in care.
A trial was held earlier in the year before judge Linda Black, who described Barber as a “completely credible witness in every respect” when she handed down her judgment.
Barber said he was happy with the result, but there was more work to be done.
I’m still going to fight because I want change in the system so this doesn’t continue happening.
I would like an apology [from the department] but it doesn’t mean anything to me because unless there’s change, it don’t mean nothing.
Judge Black’s comment about his evidence was also significant, he said.
“You always get put down as being a liar all your life and to have that come through by a judge and actually say you’re believed, it’s massive,” he said.
– AAP
WA makes ‘extraordinary’ $2.85m payout after state care abuse
A man repeatedly sexually abused as a child in state care has won a landmark legal case after being awarded almost $3m in compensation, Australian Associated Press reports.
Dion Barber, 45, sued the state of Western Australia for the “extraordinary” abuse he suffered in the 1980s and 1990s.
He was awarded $2.85m in the WA district court yesterday, the largest award of damages made to a child sexual abuse survivor in the state.
It also marked the first historical sexual abuse case against the state of WA to proceed to a judgment since a 2017 royal commission into child sexual abuse removed time limits for survivors to bring claims.
Barber was eight years old when he reported sexual abuse by his stepfather to his mother and authorities, his lawyers said.
The then community services department (now department of communities) and the children’s court confirmed he was abused, and he was placed under the guardianship and care of the welfare department.
Over the following months, he was forced to have counselling with his stepfather before he was sent back into the home, where he was raped and abused by the same perpetrator.
“The treatment of Dion is the worst I’ve seen,” lawyer Hugo Seymour told reporters outside court.
The sheer negligence in this case was extraordinary.
The decision to send him back to his abuser, knowingly, to force him into counselling with his abuser, to then place him with his alcoholic, clearly unsafe, violent father, and to let the wardship lapse was extraordinary, inexplicable.”
NSW Labor pounces on Coalition’s koala park disarray
The New South Wales minister for the environment, Penny Sharpe, was keen to exploit the Liberals’ disarray over the koala issue and called on the party to make their position clear.
She said in a statement:
Koalas in NSW hang in the balance. This decision to protect the Great Koala National Park will secure their future in the wild.
Liberal Party members need to make clear their position in relation to the park. They can’t be both for and against the park, and they need to be upfront for voters ahead of the Kiama by-election on Saturday.
NSW Coalition embroiled in koala wars as Liberals skip Nationals motion to shrink park
Anne Davies
The koala wars are alive and well in NSW, it seems, and again look set to cause serious marital strife for the Nationals and Liberals.
The Minns Labor government set the ball rolling on yesterday afternoon by moving a public interest debate, patting itself on the back for finally declaring the 176,000 hectare great koala national park, an election promise made in 2019 and again in 2023.
The Nationals then tried to amend the motion calling on the government to shrink the park to 37,000 hectares and protect timber worker jobs.
In an unusual move, the Liberals did not show up for the vote on the Nationals’ amendment, which failed 11-51, or for the motion itself.
The Liberals’ no-show has left the Nationals furious with firebrand MP Wes Fang posting on X:
The gutless NSW Liberal party members didn’t turn up to the Lower house to vote in support [of] the NSW Nationals on #ForestryTimber jobs.
More fallout is expected.
In 2020, the Nationals, then led by John Barilaro, briefly left the Coalition after a dispute over clearing of koala habitat on private land, which the environmentally-conscious former planning minister Rob Stokes had sought to protect using the planning laws.
The split only lasted a few days, but was politically costly. Both Barilaro and Stokes have now left politics.
With the opposition leader, Mark Speakman, under pressure over his “cut-through”, the politics of koalas may be his undoing as well.
Or it could be the hunting bill, or support for net zero. The Coalition is not happy.
The Liberals’ Jacinta Nampijinpa Price problem – Full Story podcast
And we also have today’s Full Story podcast tackling the very same subject:
Nationals leader says Jacinta Nampijinpa Price should apologise for migrant comments
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has joined several leading Liberals in calling for Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to apologise to the Indian community for her remarks that the government was only allowing them into the country because they would vote Labor.
Asked on ABC’s 7.30 whether Price should apologise, Littleproud said:
Yeah, I think she should. I think she’s admitted that she’s made a mistake. She regrets it. But I think it’s the right thing to do to simply say – you’ve made a mistake, I’m sorry for any offence that I’ve caused, and move on.
We all make mistakes in life, and I think it’s important that, when you do, you own up to them … We all get into these predicaments from time to time as politicians. That’s the sensible thing to do, and I think that’s what the Australian community should expect of her.
For more on this, read our report from last night as rightwing MPs rally around the senator:
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories before Nick Visser reports for duty shortly.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has joined several leading Liberals in calling for Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to apologise to the Indian community for her remarks that the government was only allowing them into the country because they would vote Labor. More coming up.
A man in Western Australia who was repeatedly sexually abused as a child in state care has won a landmark legal case after being awarded almost $3m in compensation. More on that shortly.
And we bring you the latest in the koala wars in NSW, where Chris Minns’ Labor government finally declared a 176,000 hectare great koala national park, and the Coalition has been consumed by infighting over the plan.
