Key events
What we learned: Monday 22 July
Rafqa Touma
Thanks for following along the day’s rolling news updates. Here are the headlines you might have missed:
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The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, thanked the US president, Joe Biden, for his “leadership and ongoing service” as Biden announced he would withdraw from the US presidential race. Albanese also called Kamala Harris (who has been endorsed to run for president by Biden) a “good friend of Australia”.
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Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull joined the discourse, adding: “America under Trump is a less reliable ally than it has been under Biden or under other presidents”.
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Sites in Wollongong and Lake Macquarie, south of Sydney, have been selected to trial pre-built modular homes in a bid to boost social housing stocks.
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Sydney’s housing market will remain unaffordable until at least the 2030s, according to new research from the University of New South Wales and the University of Technology Sydney. It also found that having a stable and regular income is no longer enough to comfortably enter the housing market anywhere in Sydney.
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An enhanced strike missile has been successfully fired for the first time from an Australian destroyer as the navy boosts its firepower, to replace the ageing Harpoon weapon system on Australian destroyers.
That is all for tonight. See you back on the live blog tomorrow.
Dan Milmo
Significant number of devices taken offline by CrowdStrike now back online
A “significant” number of the 8.5m devices affected by last week’s global IT outage are back online, according to the cybersecurity company at the centre of the incident.
CrowdStrike said it was also testing a new technique to reboot systems more rapidly, amid warnings from experts that a full recovery from Friday’s IT failure could take weeks.
On Friday, thousands of flights were cancelled, broadcasters were forced off air, healthcare appointments disrupted and millions of PCs failed to start after a CrowdStrike software update inadvertently crippled devices using the Microsoft Windows operating system.
CrowdStrike wrote in a social media update that it had made progress in fixing the consequences of a glitch that, according to one expert, had caused “the largest IT outage in history”.
“Of the approximately 8.5 million Windows devices that were impacted, a significant number are back online and operational,” the US company said.
Read more here:
Nine Entertainment journalists vote to take industrial action
Amanda Meade
Journalists in Nine Entertainment’s publishing division have voted to take industrial action from 11am on Friday until 11am next Wednesday.
Staff at the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review also called on management to freeze their own bonuses and spend the money on the newsroom instead of making 90 job cuts.
The unionised mastheads are seething over the company’s latest pay offer of 2.5% during bargaining for a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA). Staff have written to Fair Work to say they will be taking protected industrial action.
More on NSW nurse struck off register
In December 2021, James Ivor Horton began chatting online with an undercover police officer posing as a 14-year-old girl. After hearing the purported teen’s age, he allegedly said it was “unfortunate” she wasn’t older because then he would be able to treat her “like a princess”.
“If you were 16 … I’d love to bend you over in your netball uniform,” he wrote. “Would definitely have you make some noises.”
The tribunal heard that after further describing the sexual activity he wanted, Horton said he wanted to stop chatting as it was inappropriate due to her age. Despite this, he continued to talk with the purported teen over Skype.
Police searched his home in March 2022 and charged him with using a carriage service to send indecent material to a person aged under 16.
Horton allegedly told police he was an “undiagnosed sex addict” and it was dangerous for him to chat online due to the number of underage girls. He pleaded guilty and was eventually convicted of the charge, but managed to reduce his sentence on a successful appeal to the district court.
In February 2023, he was released under conditions that he be of good behaviour for three years and pay $1,000 in security. Horton admitted to the hospital’s manager that he had breached professional guidelines, saying his sex addiction had clouded his ethical judgment.
The tribunal found all the complaints against Horton were proven before removing him from the register of nurses.
The criminal charge was serious and his other conduct was at odds with the “integrity, trustworthiness and high moral and ethical values” the community expected of nurses, it said.
– Australian Associated Press
Nurse struck off for two years for online chat conviction, inappropriate remarks to colleagues
A nurse who allegedly told police he was a sex addict has agreed to be deregistered after making inappropriate remarks to colleagues and an undercover officer posing as a teenage girl online.
James Ivor Horton was a registered nurse at Orange hospital in western NSW in 2020 and 2021 when the unprofessional comments and criminal conduct took place.
Details of his misconduct emerged on Friday after the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal struck the 36-year-old off the register of nurses for two years and barred him from providing health services during that time.
Horton told a fellow nurse that she looked “stunning” via Facebook Messenger in early 2020, according to the tribunal. He then told her in person that he wanted sex but not a relationship with her.
“I have different values to other people and I want to take things further,” Horton said.
In mid-2021, he said he wanted to have a drink with another female nurse, telling her he would like to learn “exactly how naughty” she was.
“I would like to see you dancing to the song Wicked Games with a black thong and garter belt,” Horton told her in a message.
In late 2021, he messaged a third nursing colleague he met at a function that he would have liked to go back to her house for drinks. The woman found the comments suggestive and inappropriate, the tribunal said.
– Australian Associated Press
More to come
Daniel Hurst
General Delegation of Palestine to Australia welcome ICJ ruling
Palestinian diplomats in Australia have welcomed as “historic” the ruling by the International Court of Justice that Israel’s prolonged occupation of territory it seized in 1967 is unlawful.
The general delegation of Palestine to Australia urged all governments, including the Albanese government, to act on the court’s ruling that “all states are under an obligation not to recognise as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
The ICJ – the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN) – was asked by the UN general assembly in late 2022 to provide advice on the legal consequences arising from the prolonged occupation of territory it has occupied since 1967, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
The sweeping ruling, delivered late on Friday, is an “advisory opinion” and is non-binding, but carries authority and is likely to increase international political pressure on Israel. The ICJ found that the state of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory “is unlawful” and that it was under an obligation to bring to an end the occupation “as rapidly as possible”.
The ICJ also found that Israel’s laws and measures “impose and serve to maintain a near-complete separation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between the settler and Palestinian communities” and “constitute a breach” of Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. This article requires countries to “condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction”.
In a statement issued late today, the general delegation of Palestine hailed the ruling as “a significant contribution to justice and peace”. The delegation said Australia and other states that “have not yet recognised the state of Palestine should do so immediately, without further delay”.
The Israeli ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, reposted an Israeli foreign ministry statement that said the ICJ’s opinion was “blatantly one-sided”, “fundamentally wrong” and mixed “politics and law”.
Albanese rejects calls to revive Australian Building and Construction Commission
Despite a string of criminal allegations against the CFMEU, Albanese has rejected calls from the federal opposition to bring back the Australian Building and Construction Commission after it was abolished by his government.
The commission was not effective and the powers held by the Fair Work Commission and police were able to tackle crimes committed, he said.
The commission, which had oversight of industrial law and had prosecuted the unions and its officials, was abolished in a move criticised by the Liberals. Labor had claimed the ABCC was being politicised and was going after trivial matters.
The Victorian Liberal opposition wants a royal commission into the CFMEU allegations, but the state government has instead appointed former acting commissioner of the Victorian public sector commission, Greg Wilson, to lead a review, with an interim report to be handed down in six weeks.
The state’s opposition leader, John Pesutto, was critical of the review’s scope, declaring the terms of reference don’t allow Wilson to investigate criminality or compel witnesses. But the Labor premier, Jacinta Allan, suggested a royal commission into trade union governance and corruption a decade ago had failed to live up to its billing.
Allan also noted she had already referred allegations to Victoria police and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission for investigation.
– Australian Associated Press
PM resists Liberal push for CFMEU deregistration after allegations of criminal connection
Asked whether King’s actions were strong enough, senior Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham said there needed to be transparency and scrutiny over major federal projects.
“Australians are paying more for schools, hospitals, roads and housing as a result of a militant trade union that the Albanese government is refusing to deregister and appropriately reform and rein in,” he told reporters in Canberra.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, argued deregistering the union would make the situation worse by allowing it to act unregulated. The federal and some state Labor parties have already cut affiliations with the CFMEU’s construction branch while some charities are reviewing their connections.
The Flicker of Hope Foundation – a charity targeting the rare disease neurofibromatosis – has taken down its acknowledgement of the CFMEU on its website. Autism support charity Amaze is also reviewing links to the CFMEU.
– Australian Associated Press
More to come
CFMEU construction work under review as charities baulk
Major infrastructure projects will be reviewed to ensure taxpayer cash isn’t going to organised crime in the wake of the CFMEU scandal, which has also sparked concerns amongst some of the union’s favourite charities.
The federal infrastructure minister, Catherine King, has ordered her department to examine commonwealth-funded projects such as Western Sydney airport and the Inland rail after allegations the CFEMEU’s construction arm had been infiltrated by bikies and criminals.
It’s also alleged union officials had taken kickbacks from building companies in exchange for letting them on to CFMEU-controlled construction sites.
“The sorts of allegations we’ve seen in more recent days about the CFMEU are frankly something that we are all disgusted by,” King told reporters in Canberra. “The CMFEU needs to understand that it operates in a system where people expect that every single dollar of taxpayer money is spent properly.”
– Australian Associated Press
For everything you need to know about why the construction union is in the news, and the political furore surrounding it:
More from AAP to come
More on Queensland officer charged with accessing restricted information offences
Briohny Lee Granzien was a hairdresser, flight attendant and personal trainer before joining the Queensland police in 2014.
On her first day as an officer she responded to an 80-year-old grandmother who died from being dragged by a vehicle. In another incident, a carjacked vehicle travelling about 100km/h knocked a stun gun off Granzien’s belt.
“If the vehicle had come any closer she would have been crushed between the stolen vehicle and the police vehicle,” Eberhardt, her defence barrister, said.
Granzien was a first responder to a domestic violence incident in which a man was holding his wife and children hostage in 2019. Her actions in negotiating the family’s release were recognised as exemplary during a coronial inquest. But the man was shot dead when he rushed at another officer brandishing a samurai sword.
Granzien was nominated for a bravery award, but resigned suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.
Magistrate Louise Shephard said Granzien’s conduct was a betrayal of the position of trust held by a police officer.
She sentenced Granzien to four months behind bars, suspended for 18 months, taking into account guilty pleas to four counts of misuse of a restricted computer and two counts of disclosing official secrets.
– Australian Associated Press
Former cop ‘foolishly’ shared information from ‘secret’ report
As a police officer, Briohny Lee Granzien negotiated with a man wielding a samurai sword, had a stun gun knocked off her belt by a fast-moving stolen vehicle – and “foolishly” shared information including a secret report.
The now 44-year-old former officer was given a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty in a Brisbane court on Monday to misusing a restricted computer and disclosing official secrets.
Granzien’s crimes came to light during a drug trafficking investigation, with detectives finding she had accessed police devices to unlawfully obtain information, photographing some records before passing them on.
She was charged after police searched her home in the Brisbane suburb of Annerley and Inala police station where she was based, prosecutor Cameron Wilkins told the Brisbane magistrates court.
Granzien sent a photo of an internal intelligence report distributed to police officers to a friend over Facebook Messenger. It was related to an assault at a tavern and was classified sensitive, with a note saying unauthorised disclosure could constitute an offence. It included personal information about the complainant and suspects.
“The defendant told her (the recipient): ‘don’t tell anyone about it as I could get into so much trouble for it’,” Wilkins said.
Granzien also shared photos of an assault victim’s statement with her ex-partner – who was the alleged perpetrator – and information about a woman going through a separation.
Defence barrister Craig Eberhardt KC said Granzien’s actions were injudicious but did not compromise investigations or put anyone at risk. Granzien was prevailed on to provide information and did so but not for any corrupt purpose, Eberhardt told the court.
What we have … is a person who had perhaps a misplaced loyalty and behaved very foolishly on only these six occasions during her almost eight years as a police officer
– Australian Associated Press
More to come
Andrew Messenger
Record-breaking cold snap hits Queensland overnight
Queensland shivered through a record-breaking cold snap today, with overnight temperatures at more than 80 Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) sites lower than in Melbourne.
Brisbane’s minimum temperature of 6.3C – recorded at Brisbane airport – was more than three degrees lower than the Victorian capital’s minimum of 9.9C, the weather bureau said.
Tropical north Queensland temperatures plummeted, with Cairns recording just 11.4C degrees overnight and Townsville dropping to 8.6C.
You can read more here:
Elias Visontay
Virgin cuts Cairns-Tokyo flights
Virgin Australia has announced it will cut its only flight to Japan, axing its Cairns-Tokyo Haneda route due to poor demand from Japanese tourists.
Cairns’ international airport has long positioned itself as a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef for tourists from across Asia. But while Japan has been a top outbound tourist destination for Australians this year, the relative weakness of the yen – which has made holidaying there cheaper – has had the reverse effect for Japanese residents, making a trip to Australia an expensive proposition.
Inbound visitors travelling from Japan to Australia are up to 35% below pre-Covid levels, while the yen is now about 40% lower than during 2019.
Virgin will cease operating the Cairns-Tokyo route and the lucrative access slot at Haneda airport from 24 February 2025, with about 2,000 customers with bookings to be offered refunds.
While Cairns-Tokyo was one of the few international routes Virgin Australia has offered in its slimmed-down existence following its pandemic-induced administration and restructure, the airline will still allow customers to book tickets to Japan through flights from its partner airline, All Nippon Airways.
Alistair Hartley, Virgin Australia’s chief transformation and strategy officer, said:
Our international network continues to be a central part of our strategy. Withdrawing from Cairns-Tokyo services was a tough decision, but unfortunately the recovery of inbound visitors from Japan is significantly below forecast and therefore operating our own service to Tokyo is no longer commercially viable.
Emily Wind
Many thanks for joining me on today’s blog. I’m handing over to Rafqa Touma to see you through the rest of our rolling coverage! Take care.
The Paris Olympics is officially kicking off at the end of this week. Here is everything you need to know, courtesy of Jack Snape!
La Niña not a certainty this year: BoM
Peter Hannam
A La Niña is not a certainty for later this year, at least according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s latest model run.
We’ll get the other model runs updated tomorrow by the Bureau. Another of the climate drivers for Australia is the Indian Ocean, and the influence there may have the opposite effect of a La Niña, with odds favouring a positive phase of the dipole in that basin:
All up, what it means is we have competing influences possible in the coming season or two, making it tricky for farmers and others (eg holiday makers) to know which way to lean.
Galactic zoom-out one of three Emmys nods for Australian firm
Imagine winning an Emmy for 60 seconds of television that begins inside a single atom and zooms out all the way to the nearest star.
That’s the opening title animation for the Netflix series 3 Body Problem, designed by the Australian firm Antibody, run by Patrick Clair and Raoul Marks. Their mother of all zoom-outs has been nominated for outstanding main title design, one of three nominations for Antibody at the awards in September.
Clair said, “We feel very lucky, it’s a great time for television, everything has kind of come roaring back after the strike, and lots of great shows are being made.”
It’s the second round of Emmys for 2024, with last year’s awards delayed by the writers’ and actors’ strikes and held in January. Antibody has quietly collected 15 Emmy nominations over the last decade – and two wins for their work on the HBO series True Detective and Prime’s The Man in the High Castle.
– via AAP
Here’s the full story from our own Amanda Meade on the resignation of the Australian Financial Review’s editor-in-chief, Michael Stutchbury: