Boele will defend legal challenge over Bradfield results, asks supporters for donations to help cover costs
Tom McIlroy
The independent MP for the Sydney seat of Bradfield, Nicolette Boele, says she will defend the legal challenge to the wafer-thin result lodged by the NSW Liberal party on Monday.
Liberal Gisele Kapterian confirmed she would ask the court of disputed returns to rescrutinise a small number of ballots. She lost the seat by just 27 votes, after a month-long count from the 3 May federal election. Boele said:
For three weeks, our amazing volunteers scrutineered all 118,858 ballots cast. Other volunteers brought home-cooked meals. It was a beautiful example of community democracy in action.
We have absolute confidence in the work of the AEC and in the integrity of its processes.
Boele, who is set to take her seat in federal parliament next week, said the local community supported her win. She will seek donations from supporters to cover legal costs related to the challenge. Boele added:
The Liberal party has a legal team and enormous resources. I have community. But we can’t rely on volunteers in the high court, we need good lawyers and that is expensive.
If we win and the Liberal party is ordered to cover our legal costs, I’ll offer every donor a refund.
Everything we’ve worked for is on the line. The people of Bradfield have spoken. We have complete confidence in the process that’s led to this result.
In asking the court to recount a small number of ballots, the Liberal party’s bid is similar to the 2008 challenge in the Victorian seat of McEwen, when the former small business minister Fran Bailey defeated Labor’s Rob Mitchell by about 30 votes.
Key events
NSW Police declare critical incident after man dies in Sydney
NSW Police declared a critical incident after a man died in the inner-Sydney suburb of Waterloo early Monday morning. Officials said emergency services were called to a unit complex just before 2am amid concerns for welfare.
Upon arrival, paramedics assisted by NSW Police tried to sedate the man, 45, who then became unconscious. The officers and paramedics attempted to revive him, but he was later pronounced dead at Royal Prince Alfred hospital.
A crime scene has been established and a team with the state homicide squad will investigate the circumstances surrounding his death. The investigation will also be subject to an independent review.
Card payment surcharges should be eliminated, RBA says
Luca Ittimani
Customers would no longer have to pay any extra charges for using their debit or credit cards, saving $1.2bn each year, under a Reserve Bank proposal to reform card payments.
Surcharges on EFTPOS, Mastercard and Visa card payments would be eliminated from July 2026, while fees for businesses using card payments systems could also be lowered, according to an RBA paper released on Tuesday.
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, said the declining use of cash had made it harder for Australians to avoid surcharges. She said:
We think the time has come to address some of these high costs and inefficiencies in the system.
The reform would go further than the Albanese government proposal in late 2024 to ban surcharges on debit cards only. Payment service providers had indicated it would be faster and less expensive to remove surcharges on both card types, the paper read.
Boele will defend legal challenge over Bradfield results, asks supporters for donations to help cover costs
Tom McIlroy
The independent MP for the Sydney seat of Bradfield, Nicolette Boele, says she will defend the legal challenge to the wafer-thin result lodged by the NSW Liberal party on Monday.
Liberal Gisele Kapterian confirmed she would ask the court of disputed returns to rescrutinise a small number of ballots. She lost the seat by just 27 votes, after a month-long count from the 3 May federal election. Boele said:
For three weeks, our amazing volunteers scrutineered all 118,858 ballots cast. Other volunteers brought home-cooked meals. It was a beautiful example of community democracy in action.
We have absolute confidence in the work of the AEC and in the integrity of its processes.
Boele, who is set to take her seat in federal parliament next week, said the local community supported her win. She will seek donations from supporters to cover legal costs related to the challenge. Boele added:
The Liberal party has a legal team and enormous resources. I have community. But we can’t rely on volunteers in the high court, we need good lawyers and that is expensive.
If we win and the Liberal party is ordered to cover our legal costs, I’ll offer every donor a refund.
Everything we’ve worked for is on the line. The people of Bradfield have spoken. We have complete confidence in the process that’s led to this result.
In asking the court to recount a small number of ballots, the Liberal party’s bid is similar to the 2008 challenge in the Victorian seat of McEwen, when the former small business minister Fran Bailey defeated Labor’s Rob Mitchell by about 30 votes.
Northern Territory police investigating after fatal helicopter incident linked to bird strike
Northern Territory police are investigating a fatal helicopter incident in north-eastern Arnhem Land yesterday after an aircraft allegedly struck a bird, which then caused the animal to “fatally strike” a passenger.
Officials said emergency services received reports the helicopter was carrying two occupants near Gapuwiyak before it was forced to make an emergency landing after the bird strike. The pilot was able to land the aircraft safely and was uninjured, but a 54-year-old passenger was killed in the incident. NT police said:
The impact allegedly caused the bird to fatally strike a 54-year-old male passenger. The pilot was able to land the aircraft safely and was uninjured.
Police and St John Ambulance attended the scene; however, the 54-year-old male was declared deceased.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
Sydney man charged over attack on Stone of Scone in Scottish museum
A man from Sydney has appeared in a court in Scotland charged with “malicious mischief” following reports a glass case containing the Stone of Scone was broken in Perth, AAP reports.
It follows an incident at Perth Museum on Saturday afternoon when visitors reported a man in a kilt attempting to smash through the case containing the ancient artefact, which has long been associated with the monarchy.
Police said they had arrested and charged someone after a “disturbance” at the museum, which has the sandstone block as its centrepiece exhibition. On Monday, 35-year-old Arnaud Harixcalde Logan appeared at Perth sheriff court facing a single charge of malicious mischief.
The artefact, also known as the Stone of Destiny, was moved to Perth Museum in 2024. It has been associated with the Scottish and UK monarchies for centuries and was controversially kept in England at Westminster Abbey until 1996.
It was formally returned to Scotland in 1996 to go on display at Edinburgh Castle. Read more here:
Court will decide if government has duty to protect First Nations people from climate change
A court will decide whether the federal government has a duty of care to protect First Nations people whose homes and communities are being threatened by the impacts of climate change, AAP reports.
At risk of becoming Australia’s first climate refugees, Uncle Paul Kabai and Uncle Pabai Pabai filed the landmark case against the government in the federal court in 2021. They claim it failed to protect their homelands among the Torres Strait Islands from climate change.
The uncles are seeking orders from the court that would require the government to take steps to prevent harm to their communities, including cutting greenhouse gas emissions in line with the best available science.
The court, which is due to hand down its decision on Tuesday, heard evidence communities on Boigu and Saibai could have less than 30 years left before their islands become uninhabitable.
The commonwealth has argued it is not legally required to consider the best available science or the impacts of climate change when setting emissions reduction targets.
Read more here:
Albanese set to meet with Chinese counterparts in Beijing today
Political differences will bump up against economic opportunities as Anthony Albanese meets his Chinese counterparts in the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing, AAP reports.
Today’s bilateral meetings with the president Xi Jinping, the premier, Li Qiang, and the Communist party chair Zhao Leji – the three highest-ranking members of China’s ruling committee – mark the centrepiece of the prime minister’s six-day tour of the Middle Kingdom.
The optics of Albanese’s rendezvous with one of the world’s most influential leaders will be powerful. But it’s his meeting with Li, notionally the head of government in China, that will deliver any tangible agreements from the trip if they occur.
The meetings come as the Chinese-Australian free trade agreement passes its 10th anniversary and Albanese will emphasise the potential for further developing business links at a CEO roundtable hosted by the Business Council of Australia this evening.
“It enables us to express our differences and to manage them, without our relationship being defined by them,” he will say. “This is about building stronger ties where our national interests are aligned.”
Paterson says definition of antisemitism a ‘helpful tool’
Paterson was asked about the federal antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, and her recommendations the government adopt a working definition of antisemitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). He told RN Breakfast the definition would be a “helpful tool”, but would not be used to limit free speech, despite concerns from some sectors it would do so.
Paterson said:
I think the IHRA definition of antisemitism is important because what constitutes antisemitism is a highly contested thing. So people don’t naturally accept what constitutes antisemitism and, in many ways, maliciously seek to downplay or seek to avoid attributing things to antisemitism. So I think it has been a very helpful tool and it’s a helpful guideline.
No one in Australia, though, is proposing that IHRA should be legislated or that there should be consequences under the law for transgressing IHRA. And I don’t think anyone should propose that. I don’t think that would be consistent with Australia’s approach to free speech.
James Paterson says housing targets need to be ‘realistic’, not ‘delusional’
James Paterson, the shadow minister for finance, said housing targets needed to be “realistic” and “not delusional” after the Treasury warned the federal Labor government its policies were not ambitious enough to meet a promise to build 1.2m new homes by 2030. Patterson spoke to RN Breakfast, a day after the government accidentally shared details of the advice with the ABC under freedom of information rules.
Paterson said:
It’s certainly a good thing to have targets and it is a good thing to be ambitious, but the ambition has to be realistic and achievable and not delusional and I think we’re now getting into that level of delusion because a target of 1.2m homes by 2029 would require the government to be building about 250,000 homes a year when only about 170,000 are being constructed.
Read more here:
Caitlin Cassidy
Burke says media monitoring recommendations likely not more than simply watching and observing
The minister for home affairs, Tony Burke, also took little issue last night with a recommendation in the report for the antisemitism envoy to “monitor media organisations to encourage accurate, fair and responsible reporting and … to avoid accepting false or distorted narratives”.
He said the envoy was already monitoring what happened in the media “all the time”.
Questioned over whether this was more than just watching and observing what was happening in the media and instead playing an “active role”, Burke said: “I’m not sure it is more than that”.
If you’re talking about monitoring, these are public broadcasters where what they do is public … in the same way any free-to-air TV is public and monitored and is watched. If there are examples where envoys believe there’s antisemitism, that’s something they would report on to the different networks and you try to make sure these things stop.
Mitchell Starc delivers one of the all-time great spells of fast bowling
Mitchell Starc has produced one of the all-time great spells of fast bowling, with five wickets in 15 balls putting Australia on course to sweep the Frank Worrell Trophy, AAP reports.
With West Indies chasing 204 for victory in the third Test in Jamaica, Starc took three wickets in the first over alone as the hosts fell to 6-22 at tea on day three.
Playing in his 100th Test, Starc also became the fourth Australian to reach the 400-wicket milestone and joined greats Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Nathan Lyon.
And the left-armer did it in style, ripping the heart out of West Indies with a record-breaking spell at Sabina Park of 5-6 from five overs at Sabina Park.
Starc’s 15-ball five-wicket haul marked the fastest by any bowler in Test history, beating Ernie Toshack from 1947, Stuart Broad’s 2015 Trent Bridge effort and Scott Boland’s MCG heroics of 2021.
Each of those took 19 balls.
Nick Visser
Good morning, Nick Visser here to take you through the day’s news. Let’s get to it.
Check out the Full Story – on Segal’s antisemitism plans
As chance would have it, today’s edition of the Full Story podcast is about Jillian Segal and whether her recommendations have the potential to silence debate and dissent.
Political reporter and chief of staff Josh Butler and education reporter Caitlin Cassidy speak to Reged Ahmad about why the proposed antisemitism plan has some people worried.
Caitlin Cassidy
Burke says objective of antisemitism measures not ‘cancelling people’
Burke was unwilling to weigh in on whether the federal government would take up a recommendation in the report for new powers to strip funding from universities who failed to tackle antisemitism, or if the issue had become “normalised” in higher education.
He said the objective was not to be “cancelling people” but “to never fall foul of the need to make sure that we’re combatting antisemitism”.
This is where a lot of the discussion – and I respect why – has gone straight to the edges of what would the punishment and the penalty be? The objective here is that you don’t end up in that world … We want to make sure that students can go to university and study without being harassed.
Asked if antisemitism was normalised at Australian universities, Burke said he was sure Segal “wouldn’t have put it in the report unless there were some Jewish students where that has been their experience”.
And as long as that’s been the experience of any students, that’s unacceptable.
Burke on Segal family’s Advance donations: Australia not a place where ‘you would blame a woman for decisions of her husband’
Caitlin Cassidy
The minister for home affairs, Tony Burke, has defended the antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, after it was revealed her husband had funded the right wing lobby group Advance Australia. Segal said she had no involvement in it.
Burke told ABC’s 7.30 on Monday, said he was only made aware of the donations when the reports came out but Segal wasn’t answerable for her husband’s decisions.
Advance is an appalling organisation. And that organisation does the opposite of pursuing social cohesion … [but] it’s a long time since we’ve been a country where you would blame a woman for decisions of her husband. And so with that in mind, I don’t think she’s answerable for her husband. She said she didn’t know about it. And I’ve got no reason to do anything other than believe her.
On the substance of Segal’s plan to address antisemitism and how comprehensively it would be adopted, Burke said she was independent of the government and had provided a report “to the government, not a report of the government”.
The prime minister made clear … that some aspects of the report can be implemented immediately, there’s some where you work through it slowly and there’s a whole lot where you hope that you can find pathways to avoid antisemitism where some of the recommendations never need to be considered because you found other pathways.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with some of the stories that will make the news today and then it’ll be Nick Visser to take you through the day.
Tony Burke, the minister for home affairs, went on ABC’s 7.30 last night to defend the antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, after it was revealed her husband had funded the rightwing lobby group Advance Australia. Segal said she had no involvement in it. More details on his comments soon.
Anthony Albanese will meet China’s president, Xi Jinping, the premier, Li Qiang, and Communist party chair Zhao Leji today – the three highest-ranking members of China’s ruling committee – in what will be the centrepiece of the prime minister’s six-day tour of the country. We’ll have more on this shortly as well.
And Hannah Thomas, the former Greens candidate who sustained a serious eye injury during her arrest at a protest in Sydney, will face court in Bankstown today. She is charged with hindering or resisting police and not following a move-on direction in an anti-Israel protest that police say was unauthorised. More coming up.
