gshc2020.com

Asked about comments by Elliott in 2019 about constituents complaining of defects in apartments built by his company Toplace, Nassif describes Elliott as “a racist person and ... corrupt politician”.

Nassif says: “I want to stop at that for now, because I’ve got plenty to say”.

Elliott, who has told the commission that Nassif began to target him after he opposed his developments, is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asks how Nassif came to know with Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis, who, alongside Charles Perrottet, are alleged to have taken $2m in prohibited donations from Nassif. Greenwood and Charles Perrottet have rejected that payments were for political outcomes, while Ellis, who has moved to the UK, is not expected to give evidence.

Nassif says he spoke at a function to the Liberal figure JP Abood and the former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott, during which he says he complained to Abbott about “my problems with the centre-right”, including federal and state Liberal MPs.

Nassaf says Abood suggested he speak to Ellis and Greenwood, claiming Abood said: “They might take over the Hills soon, so talk to them and see if they can help you.” Abbott is not named as a person of interest in Icac’s inquiry and is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Key events

• 23m ago

  Australia records first bird flu case in pelican

• 38m ago

  Three Australians found dead in Bali in suspected murder-suicide

• 1h ago

  Fugitive developer Jean Nassif details feud with David Elliott

• 1h ago

  Hundreds of jobs cut at Whyalla steelworks in SA

• 1h ago

  Australia’s old tech is vulnerable to AI hacking, top intelligence chief says

• 1h ago

  Sussan Ley appointed to Snowy Hydro board

• 2h ago

  ‘I’m not even the decision maker’: Albanese denies involvement in golf club grant

• 2h ago

  Albanese says Coalition’s golf club grant question ‘wasn’t so much a question as a smear’

• 2h ago

  Jean Nassif tells Icac ‘I’m going to speak my heart’

• 2h ago

  Question time begins

• 2h ago

  Fugitive developer Jean Nassif appears at NSW Icac inquiry

• 3h ago

  Hastie says expected closure of Whyalla steelworks is a ‘brutal blow’

• 3h ago

  Australia must reject Pauline Hanson’s ‘toxic agenda’, Indigenous Australians minister says

• 3h ago

  Coalition still unhappy about digital duty of care bill

• 4h ago

  Middle East escalation to drive up petrol prices

• 5h ago

  OpenAI says it wants to train models in Australia

• 6h ago

  Hastie says Australia will be ‘supplicant state’ without US AI deal

• 7h ago

  First female high court justice Mary Gaudron remembered

• 7h ago

  Victorian premier vows ‘no more buck passing’ after motorcyclist’s death

• 7h ago

  Hanson’s comments on Albanese’s mum ‘inappropriate’: Taylor

• 7h ago

  What’s in One Nation’s migration policy?

• 8h ago

  Pensioners to pay for half of Labor's $3bn private health savings

• 8h ago

  Joyce stands by Hanson’s comments disparaging Albanese’s mother

• 9h ago

  One Nation reveals ‘net-negative’ migration policy

• 10h ago

  Bumper weekend for auctions

• 10h ago

  Labor announces $300m grants for crisis accommodation

• 10h ago

  Save $5,000 by electrifying, organisations say

Federal government announces $10 million dollar support package for Whyalla workers

The federal government has announced a $10 million joint support package for the 500 Whyalla workers who face losing their jobs, their families and the broader community affected by the decision to abandon efforts to restart the plant’s troubled blast furnace.

The package will provide career support, transition assistance, skills recognition and funding for workers who want to upgrade or expand their skills. Wellbeing services and financial counselling will also be available.

Speaking in Canberra, employment and workplace relations minister, Amanda Rishworth, said that while it was “a very difficult day”, the decision was not unexpected and support measures had been planned.

double quotation markThe Peter Malinauskas and the Albanese Labor government have been working to plan for the event if this was to occur, so we’ve been able to immediately stand up worker support.

This package has been thought through and will provide support to those workers and, importantly, their families, because we know that these workers are not the only ones affected.

Importantly, we will be working with the South Australian government to ensure that workers who are affected and will no longer have work as a result of this closure get other job opportunities.

Australia records first bird flu case in pelican

Donna Lu

Australia has recorded its first case of H5N1 bird flu in a pelican, South Australian authorities have confirmed.

The pelican was found at Edithburgh on the Yorke Peninsula, one of five detection events included on Monday in the state’s latest testing update.

It comes after South Australia recorded the first bird flu death of an endangered Australian sea lion on Sunday.

On Sunday, the state’s environment minister, Emily Bourke, said the sea lion was found dead at Seal Bay on Kangaroo Island, Australia’s third-largest colony of the animals.

As of the latest federal figures, Australia has recorded more than 500 confirmed events of H5 bird flu in more than 30 species of wildlife, the vast majority of cases in greater crested terns, a common native seabird. South Australia accounts for nearly 300 cases.

Three Australians found dead in Bali in suspected murder-suicide

Nick Visser

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) is assisting the family of three Australians who died in Bali.

The ABC reports Balinese police are investigating the deaths as a suspected murder-suicide after a man and his two children were found dead inside a home in Kuta on Sunday morning. Dfat said in a statement:

double quotation markWe send our deepest condolences to the family at this difficult time.

Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment.

The ABC says a welfare check was conducted at a bungalow rented by the family after the man’s wife had left for Jakarta. On arrival, authorities discovered the bodies. A city police official told the broadcaster:

double quotation markInvestigators are carrying out enquiries, including crime scene analysis, reviewing CCTV footage and interviewing witnesses, including the victim’s wife to establish the exact cause of death.

The Guardian has reached out to Balinese police for comment on the matter.

Achol Arok

Thanks to Krishani Dhanji for being our guiding light through this jam-packed day.

I’ll be here to guide you through the rest of this afternoon’s news.

Krishani Dhanji

Thank you all so much for following along on the blog today!

I’ll leave you with the fabulous Achol Arok and see you here bright and early tomorrow.

Fugitive developer Jean Nassif details feud with David Elliott

Penry Buckley

Returning to Jean Nassif‘s appearance at the NSW Icac, questioning has focused on the property developer’s feud with centre-right Liberal figures, including David Elliott, who he says were “rejecting all my properties across the suburbs and putting blocking on it”.

Asked about comments by Elliott in 2019 about constituents complaining of defects in apartments built by his company Toplace, Nassif describes Elliott as “a racist person and ... corrupt politician”.

Nassif says: “I want to stop at that for now, because I’ve got plenty to say”.

Elliott, who has told the commission that Nassif began to target him after he opposed his developments, is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asks how Nassif came to know with Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis, who, alongside Charles Perrottet, are alleged to have taken $2m in prohibited donations from Nassif. Greenwood and Charles Perrottet have rejected that payments were for political outcomes, while Ellis, who has moved to the UK, is not expected to give evidence.

Nassif says he spoke at a function to the Liberal figure JP Abood and the former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott, during which he says he complained to Abbott about “my problems with the centre-right”, including federal and state Liberal MPs.

Nassaf says Abood suggested he speak to Ellis and Greenwood, claiming Abood said: “They might take over the Hills soon, so talk to them and see if they can help you.” Abbott is not named as a person of interest in Icac’s inquiry and is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time (already feels like an eternity ago)

• The PM was pressed on the $6m grant awarded to a golf club in his electorate that he is an honorary member of.

• Asked if the grant was making his property down the road more valuable, he said it wasn’t so much a “question as a smear”.

• Andrew Wallace brought a fat stack of papers to the chamber with 10,000 signatures on it calling for a reduction in private health rebates for over 65s to be reversed.

• Independent Dai Le asked if the government would cut the fuel excise to give people more cost of living relief.

• And shadow treasurer Tim Wilson was the sole MP to face Milton Dick’s wrath today – kicked out around the two thirds mark for making too much noise.

Hundreds of jobs cut at Whyalla steelworks in SA

Jonathan Barrett

About 500 Whyalla steelworks employees will lose their jobs after officials abandoned efforts to restart the plant’s troubled blast furnace.

The decision is expected to put about 500 out of work, according to the plant’s administrators KordaMentha, taking the workforce from the steelworks, the port and the associated mine down from about 1,700 to about 1,200.

The decision to abandon further revival efforts shuts down Australia’s sole local manufacturer of rail steel and idles one of only two integrated steel facilities in the country.

The Whyalla steelworks were part of British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s metals empire until early last year, when the South Australian government tipped the operations into administration after years of underinvestment.

The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, said today that the blast furnace’s “days were numbered”.

double quotation markThere was always the intention that it would close. We would have liked it to last a little bit longer, but, alas, it hasn’t been able to.

Last year, the federal and state governments unveiled a $2.4bn support package to keep the plant running, pay employees and creditors, upgrade infrastructure, and ultimately entice a new buyer to reinvigorate the plant.

The coal-fired blast furnace has been offline since April. Administrators are seeking a buyer to restore operations.

Australia’s old tech is vulnerable to AI hacking, top intelligence chief says

Luca Ittimani

One of Australia’s top intelligence agencies has warned that old technology is leaving Australian businesses and governments vulnerable to AI attacks.

Abigail Bradshaw, director general of the Australian Signals Directorate, has told the Sydney Dialogue to take note of Anthropic’s recent warning of AI agents and hacking risks. She said the ASD did not know how many agents were on the internet:

double quotation markI think that prospect of getting some sort of definition or calculation of how these agents are out there is really remote, and I would just say a lot.

She said Australian systems faced “enormous” hidden costs of maintaining outdated technology but said they needed to be addressed:

double quotation markIf we don’t move fast enough, almost certainly it would be legacy technology which is first compromised in a major AI-enabled attack.

Government and business had the same issue and neither had the funding to replace all of its old systems, she said. But she said partial replacement had to start immediately and that would mean taking down systems that Australians expect to be available all the time.

double quotation markWhat AI calls for, because of the ease and speed in which vulnerabilities are detected, and the need now to patch not every Tuesday, not every two weeks, but potentially within 48 hours, means that we are asking people to make a different decision. We are asking private owners of infrastructure to actually optimise security over system availability. And that means we’re all going to have to be a little bit patient and do it.

Sussan Ley appointed to Snowy Hydro board

Tom McIlroy

The Albanese government has named the former Liberal leader Sussan Ley to the board of Snowy Hydro Limited.

Ley, who quit politics after being rolled as opposition leader by Angus Taylor in February, was appointed by the energy minister, Chris Bowen, and the finance minister, Katy Gallagher.

Snowy Hydro, the massive hydroelectricity project in regional New South Wales, is a government owned corporation.

The government also appointed Merryn York, the former chief executive of Queensland’s Powerlink and a former executive with the Australian Energy Market Operator.

After a final dixer to Chris Bowen on cheaper home batteries, the PM calls time on QT.