Australia news LIVE:Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins,judge finds;Labor’s deportation bill slammed by Coalition,Greens

Good evening,

Thanks for you for joining us today.

Here are the top stories this Monday:

That’s it from me today,but my colleagueCaroline Schellewill be leading our live coverage in the morning.

Enjoy the rest of your evening.

Coalition senator Paul Scarr says Home Affairs officials’ explanations about the effect of the government’s deportation laws has not given parliamentarians comfort in light of its impact on “extraordinarily vulnerable people”.

Scarr was aiming his comments at Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster,who repeatedly defended the government’s bill in a Senate inquiry as aimed at giving the Commonwealth the power to deport people who had no legal right to be in Australia.

Officials said up to about 5000 people could be affected by the bill,including between 150 and 200 people in immigration detention who were refusing to co-operate with moves to deport them.

Immigration lawyers and asylum seeker advocates warned the bill had far-reaching consequences for people temporarily in Australia,however Foster repeatedly assured the government was not intending to capture anyone who wasn’t already on a pathway to removal.

In a final remark to Foster,Scarr said officials’ comments didn’t give senators “sufficient comfort,when we’re dealing with extraordinarily vulnerable people,and the concerns of all the NGOs who have expressed their concerns in that regard”.

“We’re talking about the rights and liberties of Australians and people who have come here,extraordinarily vulnerable people,” he said.

Coming back to the Senate inquiry into supermarket prices,where it was Bunnings in the hot seat.

Last week,the inquiry heard that Bunnings had agreements with some suppliers so unprofitable that they decided to sever commercial ties.

NSW Nationals senator Ross Cadell has lashed the hardware chain’s representatives,ethical sourcing manager Laura Gaspert and category manager Belinda Rakers,for giving “a lot of opinions” and “very clever words” instead of straight answers.

When asked if Bunnings didn’t want to be bound by the conditions of thefood and grocery code of conduct, Gaspert began responding by saying “we’re committed to working with our suppliers to have strong relationships”,but was interrupted.

“This is the eighth time I’ve heard it,” Cadell fired off,adding that even Coles and Woolworths have had some suppliers saying positive things about the supermarkets.

“No one is saying anything good about Bunnings in the green life supply. All the people who have come to you,that’s great,because we’re told to ‘smile to survive’. People have said that they’ll say nice things to you because they want to keep contracts. Why is no one coming to us and saying you are good corporate citizens?”

“That hasn’t been our experience,” said Gaspert.

Cadell went on to ask what Bunnings’ average markup is on green life products and whether the chain is earning higher margins on plants and flowers than on other big box products.

Rakers said she didn’t have that information in front of her. The questions would be taken on notice. “However,we are lowest prices in the market,” said Rakers.

“I hear lowest prices are only the beginning because the rest of the story is a bit of a horror story so far,” retorted Cadell.

Related Article

Updated

Supermarkets

‘Not a supermarket’:Bunnings rejects calls to be included in grocery code

Tasmanian senator Tammy Tyrrell noted the fact that Rakers and Gaspert were fielding questions instead of Bunnings managing director Michael Schneider.

“We actually think that we’re best placed to support this committee. We work with our suppliers daily. We have interactions with them all the time and can provide further clarity around how Bunnings actually does business with our suppliers,” said Gaspert.

“OK,I don’t agree,but thank you,appreciate it,” said Tyrrell.

Former Australian Test cricketer Michael Slater has been remanded in police custody after being charged with more than a dozen offences.

Slater,54,had his case mentioned in Maroochydore Magistrates’ Court today.

He is facing 19 charges relating to alleged offences perpetrated on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast on various dates between December 5,2023 and April 12.

The charges include domestic violence offences of unlawful stalking or intimidation,breaking into a dwelling with intent at night,common assault,assault occasioning bodily harm and choking or suffocation.

The former opening batsman and TV commentator was also charged with breaching bail and 10 counts of contravening a domestic violence order.

Police confirmed they arrested a 54-year-old Noosa Heads man at a Sunshine Coast address on Friday following alleged domestic violence incidents over several days.

Slater has been remanded in custody with the case due to be mentioned in the same court tomorrow.

AAP

Earlier,the special manager of The Star,Nicholas Weeks,has told the second Bell inquiry into its operations that its former chief financial officer,Christina Katsibouba,lost faith in the group’s leadership in June last year.

Katsibouba resigned from the business in March after nine years at the company.

The regulator,the NSW Independent Casino Commission,had made it clear it was concerned with the continued employment of any senior leaders who were in senior positions when it was disgraced by Bell’s last inquiry.

“She shared with me that she’d been in discussions with the company since December 2023 about leaving,” Weeks said.

“She shared a range of reasons including the fact her working relationship with the chief executive officer and the board had deteriorated ... She said she considered the group leadership team to be dysfunctional for some period of time and that she’d lost faith and confidence in the integrity of The Star.”

He then said Katsibouba had felt this way since about June 2023.

“It had been a very difficult period for her personally,” he said.

In breaking news,Bruce Lehrmann has lost his multimillion-dollar defamation suit after a judge found Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson had proven the former federal Liberal staffer raped his then-colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.

In a historic decision,Federal Court Justice Michael Lee upheld Ten and Wilkinson’s truth defence to Lehrmann’s defamation claim over an interview with Higgins broadcast on The Projectin February 2021.

Lee was satisfied that Ten and Wilkinson had proven to the civil standard – on the balance of probabilities – that Lehrmann raped Higgins in the Parliament House office of their then-boss,Liberal senator Linda Reynolds,in March 2019.

“I am satisfied that it is more likely than not that Mr Lehrmann’s state of mind was such that he was so intent upon gratification to be indifferent to Ms Higgins’s consent and hence went ahead with sexual intercourse without caring whether she consented,” Lee said.

This is lower than the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt. Lee’s decision does not amount to a finding of criminal guilt.

Here’s the more on the decision.

A further escalation in the Middle East conflict could affect world oil supplies,lifting fuel prices which in Australia are already near or at record highs and adding pressure to consumer budgets and inflation.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said it was too soon to say what would happen,as the US financial markets have not yet resumed for the week,and it was unclear how Israel would respond to Iran’s drone attack.

“If it settles down,then you continue to get global supply of oil coming out of Iran to the global economy,and we continue to see all flow through the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

“If those things are threatened,then it becomes a much bigger issue.”

Iran launched a drone strike on Israel on Saturday in retaliation for the killing of senior Iranian military figures at an embassy in Syria. Israel has labelled the attack an “unprecedented escalation”,but it’sunclear how the country will respond.

Iran produces about 3 per cent of the world’s oil supply,and Oliver said disruptions to that supply would have a significant impact on prices.

Oliver said the bigger issue was the Strait of Hormuz,which forms part of the journey for 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply on a daily basis.

Oliver said a $10 a barrel increase in oil prices roughly translated to a 10 cents-per-litre lift in petrol prices,and with those prices in Australia already near records,it would add significant pressure to household budgets.

“Obviously,it could add to inflation,which then concerns the Reserve Bank[as] yet another supply shock,” he said.

“The other aspect is that it acts as a tax on consumer spending,which of course central banks also have to allow for[if] the price goes up.”

Oliver said there was a chance the conflict does not escalate,but he acknowledged there were plenty of risks ahead for the world and the Australian economy.

The Star’s special manager,Nicholas Weeks,has told an inquiry into the businesses culture that a defect in one of the Sydney casinos cash machines had allowed gamblers to take $3.2 million in cash they hadn’t won over a series of six weeks.

The Star has a number of “ticket in,cash out” machines which allow punters to redeem their winnings via exchanging their “ticket” or token indicating their earnings for cash.

One of these machines allegedly broke in June which meant customers were able to put their tickets through the machine,get their winnings,but also re-use their ticket to take more money out.

“What occurred was small additional amounts of cash being provided to customers when they shouldn’t have received it. Then over a six-week period it appeared that very large amounts of cash were provided to customers when they should not have received it.”

The total amount of money that was accidentally issued to patrons who detected this fraud inadvertently or deliberately over the six weeks was $3.2 million.

“This incident identified deep cultural problems in relation to the level of rigour through which controls are followed and the level of care in which work is conducted ... I was also concerned about the control environment because I anticipated that balancing the books and counting money was something I anticipated the casino would be very good at,” Weeks said.

Returning to the second probe into the suitability of The Star to run its Pyrmont casino.

Special manager Nicholas Weeks is providing evidence,and has told an inquiry into the culture an investigation is looking into The Star’s compliance with required welfare checks on pokie players at its Sydney and Queensland casinos following an alleged breach of regulation.

Weeks said officers from Liquor and Gaming had observed a punter being able to play on the poker machines at Star Sydney for a period of more than three hours without being checked on by a guest support officer.

This account was contradicted by the company’s records which indicated a check had been completed.

Weeks said it became clear the company’s records had been falsified to indicate the company was complying with the regulation. Weeks said he then uncovered the instance was not a one-off but part of a widespread and regular practice.

“It’s concerning because it seemed to be endemic and ongoing for some time,” Weeks said.

“It’s a real impediment to transitioning to the type of culture that The Star wants to move to ... It’s very concerning in the current circumstances that such a significant and widespread breach related to an apparent deliberate falsification of records,” Weeks said.

He said he was concerned these breaches were only raised by Liquor and Gaming inspectors and not members within the company itself.

The president of the Australian Human Rights Commission has described the entirety of Labor’s deportation bill as “problematic”,and urged parliament to shoot it down.

Rosalind Croucher faced the Senate inquiry alongside lawyers from the Australian Human Rights Law Centre,which warned that the legislation could result in the children of parents forcibly removed from the country put into state care.

Piumetharshika Kaneshan,a 19-year-old Canberra student who accompanied the law centre,told the inquiry that under the bill she could be sent to Sri Lanka despite knowing nothing about the country.

“We thought the Australian community accepted us until we learnt the government was looking to pass this law,” said Kaneshan,whose family is in a Federal Circuit Court fight to stay in the country after arriving in Australia more than a decade ago.

“If I was to return to Sri Lanka,I would be frightened for[my] life … as a woman,I can’t imagine living there.”

The Australian Human Rights Commission recommended the bill not be passed,however also made several suggestions to alleviate the severity of the measures in it.

Croucher said elements of the bill were “egregious”.

“The whole bill is problematic,” Croucher said,arguing that Australia’s migration system would lack integrity if it didn’t uphold the nation’s obligations under international law.

Sanmati Verma,the acting legal director of the Human Rights Law Centre,said provisions in the bill forcing the deportation of parents whose legal options to stay in Australia had been exhausted could have major impacts on children who were Australian citizens.

“Children[will be] placed into state care if their parents removed under this,” Verma said.