Bruce Lehrmann outside the federal court in Sydney last month after losing his defamation action against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson. Photograph: Don Arnold/Getty Images
Bruce Lehrmann outside the federal court in Sydney last month after losing his defamation action against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson. Photograph: Don Arnold/Getty Images
The Victorian health minister confirmed public prosecutors had dropped charges against the health department over its handling of the hotel quarantine program that contributed to the state’s deadly second Covid-19 wave.
Qantas is investigating an issue with its app after customers reported seeing strangers’ data.
We will see you back here for more news on Thursday.
Australian and South Korean ministers condemn settler violence against Palestinians in West Bank
Let’s return to the meeting between the Australian and South Korean foreign and defence ministers held in Melbourne today. A joint statement gives more details about what Penny Wong and Richard Marles and their South Korean counterparts agreed regarding the Middle East:
The Ministers expressed deep concern at the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. They condemned the horrific Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 as acts of terror against innocent civilians.
The Ministers agreed on the need for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, and called for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and a massive and sustained increase in the delivery of humanitarian relief to Gaza. The Ministers reiterated the importance of all parties adhering to international humanitarian law and protecting civilians.
They also voiced their deep concern at ongoing high levels of settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and called on all parties to refrain from actions that inflame tensions and undermine stability.
Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong and defence minister Richard Marles speak with their South Korean counterparts in Melbourne. Photograph: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AAP
Notably, the Australian and South Korean ministers also “agreed on the need for a negotiated political solution to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict and agreed that a secure and prosperous future for both Israelis and Palestinians will only come through a two-state solution”. The statement said the ministers “discussed how the international community can help build momentum towards a lasting peace” and how South Korea’s approach to a recent vote at the UN security council on full Palestinian membership “reflected this aspiration”.
This line is interesting in light of Wong’s speech three weeks ago when she noted that the international community was “now considering the question of Palestinian statehood as a way of building momentum towards a two-state solution”. South Korea was among 12 of the 15 members of the UN security council to vote on 18 April in favour of a Palestinian request for full UN membership, but the initiative was blocked because of a US veto.
Qantas planes at Sydney airport. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters
Qantas says its app remains stable after an issue earlier today resulted in customers being able to view the private details of others.
It said in a statement at 4.50pm:
The Qantas app is currently stable and operating normally following an issue with its homepage today.
There were two periods today where some customers were shown the flight and booking details of other frequent flyers.
This didn’t include financial information, and no customers were able to transfer or use the Qantas points of other frequent flyers.
We have processes in place to make sure that customers were not able to board flights using the boarding pass of another customer and there were no reports of this happening.
We sincerely apologise to all customers impacted and continue to monitor the Qantas app closely.
Australia not worried about sale of Austal to South Korean firm, Marles says
The defence minister, Richard Marles, says the government is not worried about the potential sale of Australian shipbuilder Austal to the South Korean company Hanwha.
Austal – which designs and builds a number of vessels for the Australian and US navies – confirmed last month that Hanwha had proposed to buy the company, subject to conditions.
Those conditions include being able to secure approvals from Australian and US regulators. Austal said at the time that it was not yet satisfied the necessary approvals would be granted, but was “open” to further talks with Hanwha about a potential sale.
Richard Marles and South Korean foreign minister Cho Tae-yeol at a press conference in Melbourne. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Marles was asked about the matter after a 2+2 meeting with South Korean ministers in Melbourne today. He said the proposed acquisition was “a matter for Austal as a private company”, but added:
From the government’s perspective, we don’t have any concern about Hanwha moving in this direction. We have identified Austal as a strategic shipbuilder for Australia in WA.
Wherever Austal goes, whatever it does, there will obviously need to be security arrangements put in place in respect of sensitive technologies and intellectual property that would have to be managed no matter what the future of Austal. And were there anything that were to transpire in relation to Hanwha, that would need to be managed in that context as well.
Pauline Hanson’s counsel, Kieran Smark SC, is continuing to summarise Hanson’s defence against Mehreen Faruqi’s racial discrimination case. Faruqi brought the case after Hanson tweeted “piss off back to Pakistan” in response to Faruqi’s critique of colonisation on the day the queen died.
Smark is arguing that the timing of Hanson’s response to Faruqi is also relevant.
Hanson told the court on Tuesday that she doesn’t have access to Twitter herself, but her staff brought Faruqi’s tweet to her attention and she dictated a response, because she was “upset, offended and angry” at Faruqi’s critique on the day the queen died.
Hanson’s counsel says is important as “the timing of her saying that about the queen and the fact that Senator Faruqi had used the occasion of the death of the queen to advance the nominated political causes, whatever the readers thought about those causes, might be favourable, might be negative, [was about becoming a republic]”.
Smark says it is “one thing to say that generally” in the first few months of Charles’s reign, but another to say it “within hours” of the regent’s death.
Pauline Hanson outside the federal court in Sydney. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
Justice Angus Stewart asks Smark a question here:
“I’m still trying to understand why the response targeted as it is at the individual and their characteristics is political speech.”
Smark gives a response about political speech which ends with:
“Politics involves the deployment of rhetoric, powerful language, emotion, all with a view to persuading the audience towards a particular view and, in this case, a particular powerful view on on issues, which were clearly ones on which Senator Faruqi and Senator Hanson were separately removed, but also just as part of the political process.”
The court then adjourns until tomorrow at 10.15am when the remainder of the final submissions will be heard, including that of the commonwealth solicitor who is intervening in this case regarding the section 18C and 18D references.
NSW records leap in pneumonia cases among children
The number of school-aged children visiting NSW emergency departments with pneumonia has increased fivefold on pre-Covid levels.
Last week, 317 children aged between five and 16 visited NSW emergency departments with pneumonia – a fivefold increase on the last week of April 2019, when there were 65 cases.
In steps echoing those advised during the pandemic, the state health minister, Ryan Park, said it was important people exhibiting cold and flu-like symptoms not leave the house, and that if they needed to do so wear a mask.
NSW Health continues to monitor an increase in pneumonia cases among young people throughout the state since March 2024 and is investigating the cause of the increased spread.
Encouragingly, this increase in cases has not led to a corresponding increase in severity.
The increase in cases could be attributed to a number of causes, including increased vigilance in the community around respiratory illness following the Covid-19 pandemic or reduced immunity.
Earlier in the Senate inquiry, Richard Lee acknowledged Liber’s relationship with Chemist Warehouse as a shareholder.
In response to Senator Ross Cadell’s concerns – after coming off the supermarket inquiry – around access to markets, Lee responded:
“Chemist Warehouse sit on our register. They’re a shareholder, they’re not involved in the day-to-day running of the business as an individual shareholder, as they have no board representation. They support the prescribed access model, as do all our shareholders.”
Cadell said he had “concerns over that relationship going forward”.
“What I don’t want to create is a new big industry that is controlled by channel to market.”
Pharmaceutical firm CEO appears before vape inquiry
Natasha May
Liber Pharmaceuticals’ CEO has defended its general manager owning a telehealth platform which prescribes vapes.
The Liber Pharmaceuticals CEO, Richard Lee, is today appearing before a Senate inquiry into the latest round of vaping reforms. His company benefits commercially from the regulation of nicotine vapes as medical products sold to people with a doctor’s prescription in a pharmacy, as Liber’s nicotine vapes are stocked by national wholesalers and major pharmacy brands.
The Nationals senator Ross Cadell asked Lee: “Smokefreeclinic.com.au is owned by your managing director, Ryan Boulton, is that correct?”
Lee: “Yes.”
Cadell: “I can go on that site and get a prescription for your products … It says nicotine vaping scripts are available for local pickup in 5,500 pharmacies on that website.”
Lee: “That goes to an independent cohort of doctors with which we have no contractual relationship.”
Cadell: “So the owner of the people that makes the products has a website that goes to an independent cohort of doctors that can prescribe your products?”
Lee: “Correct. That can prescribe any products, correct. And the simple fact of the matter – the reason we created Smokefree was because there was a lack of education and a lack of people knowing where to go to speak to a doctor. That remains the biggest issue with the channel today. It’s not that there are not enough doctors, it’s that people don’t know where to go to access.”
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has confirmed in a statement that his father, John Minns, has died after suffering a heart attack earlier this week.
Minns said in the statement:
This afternoon we lost our dad, John Minns. To the end, he was surrounded by love and family, with his wife and children by his side. We thank the NSW paramedics and all the nurses and doctors at St George Hospital, who gave our dad great care this week. We have also been very moved by all the messages of support over the last few days.
Lehrmann's lawyers want more time to consider appeal
Amanda Meade
Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyers have asked the federal court for more time to consider an appeal.
The former Liberal staffer lost the defamation case he brought against Ten and Lisa Wilkinson, with Justice Michael Lee finding that on the balance of probabilities Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins on a minister’s couch in Parliament House in 2019.
Lehrmann had until 13 May to file an appeal against Lee’s decision but lawyers have now asked for an extension to 27 May.
Lee has heard an application from Lehrmann’s team that new senior counsel had been appointed and they needed more time to consider the lengthy judgement as well as more than 1,000 exhibits.
Family violence payments not enough, advocates say
Mission Australia has called for government funding to help women and children escaping family violence find affordable housing, with the number of people experiencing DV seeking help from homelessness services doubling in the past three years.
Sharon Callister, chief executive of Mission Australia, said:
Every day, brave women across Australia confront the agonising choice between escaping violence and facing homelessness, or enduring unsafe and high-risk situations to avoid homelessness. Cost-of-living pressures, coupled with the scarcity of affordable housing and inadequate income support, compounds this horrific dilemma.
Delia Donovan, the chief executive of Domestic Violence NSW, criticised the federal government’s commitment of $925m - which will permanently establish a payment of up to $5,000 to help victims of violence - as not going far enough to help with housing.
Today’s National Cabinet noted the importance of housing reforms and a one-off payment is not going to provide a pathway out of abuse for women and children that are forced to choose between homelessness or abuse.
In the other federal court hearing of the day, Justice Angus Stewart is now hearing from Pauline Hanson’s counsel, as the parties involved in Mehreen Faruqi’s racial discrimination action against Hanson comes to a conclusion.
Kieran Smark SC is appearing for Hanson today, and he is urging Stewart to look at how 18C and 18D of the Racial Discrimination Act impede on the implied right to freedom of speech.
Smark goes to fair comment and reasonableness of opinions (which has been part of Hanson’s defence).
Smark says:
Reasonableness in the context of a fair comment has a particular interesting character – it’s reasonable given that one is expressing an opinion.
One is licensed to express an opinion in a sense, within the context of it being reasonable, but it’s an opinion and people hold a range of opinions. That’s the nature of opinions.
Opinions are held on reasons which may not be able to be shared with other people on an axiomatic basis – that’s why they’re opinions.
Smark is arguing that Hanson was giving an opinion in good faith, and was making fair comment.
