Australia news live: safety in childcare centres top priority when parliament resumes; Husic warns antisemitism definition curbs freedom of speech | Australia news

Josh Butler

Albo’s agenda today? The Great Wall of China and the country’s panda capital

Prime minister Anthony Albanese will visit the Great Wall of China as his trip continues today. Albanese, who met president Xi Jinping and premier Li Qiang yesterday, will also move on to the city of Chengdu – known as the panda capital of China – where he is expected to make an announcement related to pandas.

Albanese will also reportedly make an announcement about a tennis tournament.

In Beijing yesterday, Albanese told Xi: “In Chengdu tomorrow, I will look at where Australia has growing ties, particularly on medical technology and sports.” He added:

Tomorrow I’ll also visit the Great Wall, where Australia’s prime minister, Gough Whitlam, who of course, initiated the recognition of the People’s Republic of China when he came as Labor party leader in 1971.

You could expect to see more of the prime minister’s trip and any public statements sometime in the afternoon.

The health minister, Mark Butler, has vowed this morning that the government will introduce urgent legislation when parliament sits next week. This comes after revelations yesterday that an additional 800 children should be tested for STIs after Victoria police said alleged paedophile Joshua Dale Brown had worked at more childcare centres than disclosed initially.

Butler spoke with Nine’s Today, saying “so many” Victorian parents would now be wondering whether they were going to “get a call” about their child’s health. He said:

We have to fix this, and we have to fix it urgently. And the government’s committed to doing that. We’ve been talking to the opposition to make sure that it’s something that has a broad base of support and can happen as quickly as possible.

Tom McIlroy

More on the teenage vaping data released this morning

The federal government believes dangerous vaping rates among younger Australians may have turned a corner after years of rapid growth, with new research showing take-up could have peaked among teenagers and high school-age children.

Data released by the health minister, Mark Butler, on Wednesday showed that vaping rates fell from 17.5% at the start of 2023 to 14.6% in April this year among children aged 14 to 17. The report says the data follows the July 2024 vaping reforms, which were designed to curb youth access and use, and to reduce the social acceptability of vaping.

The figures come as the Therapeutic Goods Administration and Australian Border Force announced more than 10m illicit vapes had been seized since January 2024, worth a combined street value of $500m.

Read more here:

Women who experience birth trauma report high levels of unmanaged pain

Women who experience birth trauma are reporting high levels of unmanaged pain and physical injuries leading to significant mental health impacts, AAP reports.

Research by Birth Trauma Australia has found distressing or emergency procedures and poor management of pain or physical injuries are the most significant contributors to birth trauma. The study has been released during birth trauma awareness week, held each year to highlight the issue and provide support to women and their families.

Birth injuries are linked to a range of physical, psychological and social impacts including conditions like pelvic organ prolapse, painful sex and urinary incontinence.

Relationship strain, reduced body confidence, difficulty returning to work and ongoing social or physical limitations can all be experienced as a result of these injuries. Birth Trauma Australia co-founder Amy Dawes said:

Birth trauma is not new but it’s just historically been shrouded in secrecy and there is an ongoing culture of dismissing women’s problems. At the moment access to care after trauma is based on your post code but we need a holistic approach that all women have access to.

Health minister Mark Butler says he is confidence the “peak of vaping” is behind us amid new data that shows vaping rates have fallen among Australian children aged 14 to 17. Overall, rates for those over 15 reduced by more than a third, while vaping rates among the 30- to 59-year age group also dropped by about half.

Butler spoke to the ABC this morning, saying fewer young people were now smoking both vapes and cigarettes, and there were now fewer positive messages about vapes circulating. The data comes a year after Labor introduced world-leading laws restricting the sale of vapes to pharmacies, as well as other requirements. Butler said:

We know we’ve got a long way to go. This is a tough fight against some pretty tough opponents – big tobacco. Organised crime is still determined to make money out this public health menace, but I’m pleased that we look like we’ve turned the corner.

I am confident that we have seen that peak of vaping behind us and we’re starting to see a reduction, particularly among children and teenagers, which was our primary focus. But in no way am I sanguine about this.

I know this is a really, really tough fight and we’ve got a lot more to do, not just in the area of vaping, but illicit tobacco as well, which is probably now the biggest threat we have, the largest public health objective we have as a country, which is to stamp out smoking, still the biggest preventable killer of Australians.

NT police say it is ‘deeply regrettable’ Bradley Murdoch died without disclosing location of Peter Falconio’s body

NT police acknowledged the death of murderer Bradley John Murdoch, saying his refusal to disclose the location of Peter Falconio’s remains had denied the backpacker’s family “the closure they have so long deserved”. The force said:

It is deeply regrettable that Murdoch has died without, as far as we are aware, ever disclosing the location of Peter Falconio’s remains.

His silence has denied the Falconio family the closure they have so long deserved. Our thoughts are with the Falconio family in the United Kingdom, whose grief continues.

NT Police said it remained committed to finding Falconio’s remains, pointing to the reward of up to $500,000 for information that leads to the discovery of his body:

We continue to appeal to anyone who may have information that could lead us to Peter Falconio’s remains to come forward, no matter how small the detail may seem.

Torres Strait community leaders will keep ‘knocking at government’s door’ after court dismisses landmark climate case

The lead plaintiffs in the federal case arguing the government breached its duty of care to protect the Torres Strait Islands from climate change, which was dismissed yesterday, said they will keep urging for more action to protect their homes.

Uncle Pabai Pabai and Uncle Paul Kabai from the islands of Boigu and Saibai had asked the courts for orders requiring the federal government to take steps to address climate harm in their communities, including increased efforts to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The class action case, filed in 2021, was dismissed in a decision that said while there was merit to their factual allegations, the common law of negligence was not a “suitable legal vehicle” to claim damages or relief.

Uncle Paul told the ABC this morning the pair were exploring next steps and would continue to call for more action:

It is time now for us to keep knocking at the government’s door. We need to a better outcome for our future, our kids and our kids and the next generation to come.

It’s time for us to pass the message to the community and the people out there, Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, and let them know that climate change is happening. To battle together and give a strong voice to the government.

SUV driven into luxury Sydney CBD store in ram raid targeting handbags, police say

Police in Sydney are investigating after an SUV was driven into a luxury store in the city’s CBD early this morning, part of a ram raid targeting handbags.

NSW police said officers had been called to the store about 3.45am by reports the vehicle had been driven through a shop window. An unspecified number of luxury handbags were taken before a group of people left in a white BMW wagon and grey Audi S3. The SUV remains at the scene.

All three vehicles were stolen, police said.

A crime scene has been established and police are investigating how many people were involved and what was stolen. Authorities urge anyone who sees vehicles matching the description to report them to police immediately.

Husic says envoy’s report makes critical point all must play role to combat antisemitism

Ed Husic added that Jillian Segal’s report made several stark points about the spread of antisemitism across Australia and the threats of hatred spreading among young people. He told RN Breakfast:

I think the critical point that it makes is we’ve all got a role to play in combating antisemitism, that everyone, not just government, has a role to play. Because, as the report points out, antisemitism poses a threat not just to Jewish Australians, but when hatred goes unchallenged, our democracy is at risk.

He added that claims in the envoy’s report that younger Australians were at risk of becoming “fully fledged anti-Semites” run the risk of being “a bit too sweeping”:

I appreciate the point that’s trying to be made, but I think that’s a statement we’ve got to be careful as taking as an evident truth.

Husic went on to say that he had regularly spoken out against antisemitism out of a feeling that all Australians should never feel fear “for who they are”, adding:

I’ve spoken up against antisemitism, conscious of the intergenerational trauma caused by the Holocaust … As the special envoy points out, antisemitism has been an ancient hatred. I just have to emphasise I’ve never needed a definition to do so.

I just knew I never wanted a fellow Australian to feel fear for who they are.

Ed Husic says Australia shouldn’t “necessarily get hung up on definitions” after a report from the federal antisemitism envoy called on the government to adopt a working definition of it. Husic spoke to RN Breakfast about envoy Jillian Segal’s plan to address anti-Jewish hatred, saying he’d much prefer an effort to “bring people together without necessarily having to use sticks and threats of funding”.

Segal has proposed universities and artists could have funding withheld if they fail to act against antisemitism, among other recommendations in a wide-ranging plan released this month. Husic said this morning:

I would much prefer us finding ways to bring people together rather than being heavy-handed in response. We should always be focusing on what brings us together. …

We shouldn’t necessarily get hung up on definitions. I understand the government will go through and take on board the recommendation that’s in the special envoy’s report. I just think the issue of definition instantly brings into question whether or not people will be able to raise their concerns about the actions, for example, of what the Netanyahu government is doing in Gaza and how that would be treated under a definition.

Read more here:

Anne Davies

NSW releases housing pattern book with architectural home designs for $1

What if you could buy architect-designed drawings for a new home for $1 – and have certainty your council would approve it within 10 to 20 days?

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, will release the state’s housing pattern book on Wednesday, which contains eight blueprints for architect-designed townhouses, terraces and manor houses, chosen from internationally renowned firms including Sam Crawford Architects, Carter Williamson Architects, Saha and Anthony Gill Architects.

The designs – which will be available for $1 for the first six months and then for $1,000 – can be adjusted to fit a family’s needs and are designed with sustainability, ease of construction and cost effectiveness in mind. By comparison, getting custom architectural plans can cost upwards of $20,000.

The plans are intended to boost the state’s sluggish housing construction rates and help alleviate cost of living pressures.

Read more here:

Bradley John Murdoch, the man who killed British backpacker Peter Falconio in 2001, has died from throat cancer. He was 67.

Murdoch died yesterday at a hospital in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. He had been moved to the hospital from jail in June.

In 2005, Murdoch was convicted and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum period of 28 years. The body of Falconio, believed murdered in 2001, has never been found, and Murdoch always maintained his innocence. Last month police offered a $500,000 reward for information on the location of Falconio’s remains.

Murdoch had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2019.

Read more here:

Good morning, Nick Visser here to take you through the day’s news. Let’s get into it.

Make US relations our priority, Angus Taylor urges PM

Caitlin Cassidy

The shadow defence minister, Angus Taylor, has urged Anthony Albanese to shore up Australia’s relations with the United States, including signing on to a deal with Taiwan despite the prime minister’s trip to China.

Speaking on ABC’s 7.30 on Tuesday, Taylor said Australia should have strong trade relations with China, but singled out the United States and the need for the federal government to avoid tariffs on exports:

After over 250 days of this new US administration we should have seen a face-to-face meeting between the prime minister and the president of the United States and we should be seeing relationship-building and work going on … around the Aukus alliance, around our strategic alliance more broadly.

Taylor singled out a joint commitment with the US on the security of Taiwan and peace in the Taiwan Strait as something Australia should strive towards, adding that was why Aukus was “so important”.

Asked if the Coalition would be prepared to guarantee to Donald Trump that Australia would join a war with the US over Taiwan, Taylor said you couldn’t “codify your response in every scenario” but the security and peace of Taiwan was needed:

You can make principled commitments to the security of Taiwan, to peace through deterrence and capability in the Taiwan Strait … that does mean you’re prepared to act under certain circumstances.

Woman charged with murder of seven-month-old baby in Perth

A woman has been charged with murder after the death of a seven-month-old baby in Perth on Monday.

Emergency services were called to a residence in Balcatta, north-west of Perth, about 3.10am by reports of a “serious assault”, Western Australian police said.

Police and St John WA attended and found the infant with critical injuries. The baby was later declared dead.

On Tuesday 15 July, homicide squad detectives charged a 31-year-old Balcatta woman with murder.

She is due to appear in Perth magistrates court today.

Relations between China and Australia reached a “low point” but are back on track under Anthony Albanese’s leadership, the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, said last night after the pair met in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

China’s premier congratulated Albanese on his re-election, Australian Associated Press reports, and for his “personal efforts” to stabilise the China-Australia relationship, which soured under the former Liberal government during the Covid pandemic.

“China-Australia relations have moved beyond a low point and returned to the right track of stability and development,” Li said.

Since the pair last met in October last year “a lot has happened in the world”, Li said, and there was growing instability and uncertainty in the global economy.

“The development of all countries is faced with new challenges. Given such circumstances, China and Australia as important trade partners, should strengthen dialogue and cooperation,” he said.

Albanese said he looked forward to the two nations exploring new opportunities in trade, climate change, tourism and culture.

“We’ll also have an opportunity to have a frank and open dialogue that enables us to navigate issues that need to be discussed,” he said.

For more on Albanese’s visit and his meeting with Xi Jinping yesterday, check out Tom McIlroy’s report here:

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the stories making the news this morning and then it’ll be Nick Visser to take the controls.

China’s premier, Li Qiang, last night hailed Anthony Albanese for his “personal efforts” to stabilise the China-Australia relationship, which went south under Scott Morrison’s leadership and the Covid pandemic. After a meeting in the Great Hall of the People wrapped up a busy day of diplomacy for Albanese, Li said relations had “moved beyond a low point”. More coming up.

As Albanese continues with his diplomatic offensive in China, the shadow defence minister, Angus Taylor, told ABC’s 7.30 that he believes the prime minister should be making more progress on shoring up Australia’s relations with the US. Taylor said the reset of relations with Washington should include a deal to protect Taiwan – despite the problems that it might pose with China. More coming up.