Australia news LIVE: Labor to introduce student debt cuts and childcare reform; Albanese urged to go greener; Ozzy Osbourne dead at 76
Latest posts
6.50am
Ghislaine Maxwell to meet justice officials to discuss potential new evidence in Epstein saga
By Michael Koziol
Ghislaine Maxwell, the former socialite who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with her friend Jeffrey Epstein to sexually exploit girls, is set to meet with the US Justice Department to discuss potential new evidence in the sex-trafficking saga.
Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche – formerly President Donald Trump's lawyer – said he had approached Maxwell's counsel to see if she would speak with prosecutors, and anticipated meeting her 'in the coming days'. Maxwell's lawyer David Oscar Markus confirmed the discussions.
The development instantly sparked speculation Trump could pardon Maxwell if she were to provide evidence that did not implicate the president, who is a former friend of Epstein, and whose presence in the so-called Epstein files has long been rumoured.
Trump has come under intense pressure over the Epstein case in the past fortnight, especially from his Make America Great Again base, after the Justice Department and FBI said they would not release any more records from the investigation and the case was effectively closed.
Trump's new submarine chief a critic of Australia
By Michael Koziol
The man leading Donald Trump's push to build more ships and submarines is a critic of Australia who has questioned whether Canberra can be trusted to stick with the AUKUS agreement, and whether it is ready to help the United States take on China.
Jerry Hendrix, a retired navy captain who holds a senior role in the president's Office of Management and Budget, said last year that 'the Australians have been noticeably fickle' about AUKUS and queried if the deal had true bipartisan support.
Meanwhile, with AUKUS under review by the Pentagon, the heads of a US congressional committee on China have written to the Trump administration to defend the agreement, arguing it would 'dramatically enhance' collective efforts to defend against Beijing's aggression.
The letter to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is the second time in as many months that members of the US Congress from both sides of politics have written to the former Fox News host to defend AUKUS, underlining fears a US review of the pact will recommend major changes.
6.41am
What's making news today
By Daniel Lo Surdo
Hello and welcome to the national news live blog. My name is Daniel Lo Surdo, and I'll be helming our live coverage this morning.
Here's what is making news today:
The Albanese government will set forth on executing the legislative agenda promised to voters when it introduces draft laws to reduce student debt and reform childcare on Wednesday. It follows a day of first speeches and ceremonial pomp in Parliament House as federal politicians convened in Canberra for the first time since Labor's crushing election victory in May.
Albanese is facing one of his first major policy tests after his historic re-election as a business group led by Andrew Forrest's Fortescue has demanded a 75 per cent cut to Australia's emissions, and Labor's hand-picked climate adviser prepares to tell the government what its 2035 target should be.
Ozzy Osbourne has died just weeks after his farewell show, aged 76. The death of the Black Sabbath lead singer has prompted an outpouring of grief from the music industry's biggest names, with Osbourne's family saying the musician was 'surrounded by love' at the time of his passing.
The Australian sharemarket is set to rise again after Wall Street was on track to edge to another all-time high in late trading. It comes as US President Donald Trump extended his verbal attack on Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, who Trump thinks has kept interest rates too high, labelling Powell a 'numbskull' who will be 'out pretty soon'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
22 minutes ago
- Perth Now
'Crisis of trust': Epstein furore to hurt Republicans
The uproar over disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is undermining public trust in the Trump administration, as well as Republican hopes of retaining control of Congress in the 2026 mid-term elections, two congressmen say. Republican Representative Thomas Massie and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna, who want the House of Representatives to vote on their bipartisan resolution requiring full release of the government's Epstein files, said the lack of transparency is reinforcing public perceptions that the rich and powerful live beyond the reach of the judicial system. "This is going to hurt Republicans in the mid-terms. The voters will be apathetic if we don't hold the rich and powerful accountable," Massie, a hardline conservative from Kentucky, told NBC's Meet the Press program. Republicans hope to add to their current 219-212 House majority - with four seats currently vacant - and 53-47 Senate majority in November 2026, although the US political cycle traditionally punishes the party of the sitting president during midterm elections. The Washington Post reported that Trump was increasingly frustrated with his administration's handling of the furore around Epstein. Even so, the president was hesitant to make personnel changes to avoid creating a "bigger spectacle" as his top officials underestimated the outrage from Trump's own base over the issue, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources. Khanna said Attorney General Pam Bondi triggered "a crisis of trust" by saying there was no list of Epstein clients after previously implying that one existed. The change in position unleashed a tsunami of calls for her resignation from Trump's MAGA base. "This is about trust in government," the California Democrat told Meet the Press. "This is about being a reform agent of transparency." President Donald Trump has been frustrated by continued questions about his administration's handling of investigative files related to Epstein's criminal charges and 2019 death by suicide in prison. Massie and Khanna believe they can win enough support from fellow lawmakers to force a vote on their resolution when Congress returns from its summer recess in September. But they face opposition from Republican leaders including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who sent lawmakers home a day early to stymie Democratic efforts to force a vote before the break. Johnson, who also appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, said he favours a non-binding alternative resolution that calls for release of "credible" evidence, but which he said would better protect victims including minors. "The Massie and Khanna discharge petition is reckless in the way that it is drafted and presented," Johnson said. "It does not adequately include those protections." Massie dismissed Johnson's claim as "a straw man" excuse. "Ro and I carefully crafted this legislation so that the victims' names will be redacted," he said. "They're hiding behind that." Trump has tried and failed so far to distract attention from the Epstein controversy six months into his second term. On Saturday, Trump repeated his claims without evidence that 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and other Democrats should be prosecuted over payment for endorsements from celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Last week he accused former president Barack Obama of "treason" over how his administration treated intelligence about Russian interference in US elections nine years ago, drawing a rebuke from an Obama spokesperson. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
Perth Now
22 minutes ago
- Perth Now
‘They're gutless': Pauline's net zero play
One Nation senator Pauline Hanson is seizing on division in the Coalition to push through an urgency motion calling for Australia to abandon its net zero target. Senator Hanson, a long-time climate change denier, will introduce the motion on Monday following Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce's private members bill calling for the same thing. Aware of the divide in the Coalition, Senator Hanson said her motion would out opposition 'cowards'. 'They're gutless, you know, they're cowards,' she told Sky News when asked about the prospect of Coalition senators not backing her motion. 'Because a lot of these people on the floor of parliament have no understanding, cannot debate you about climate change. 'They don't even know anything about it. 'They're making decisions and voting on it.' One Nation senator Pauline Hanson says her net zero urgency motion will expose 'cowards' in the Coalition. Martin Ollman / NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia 'Scam' She went on to say Australians have 'been hoodwinked'. 'It's a scam going on and if we head down this path, what will happen to Australians?' Senator Hanson said. 'You will be restricted where you travel, where you go, what you eat, and it will be based on your carbon emissions.' Australia's renewables targets do not impose restrictions on freedom of movement or diets. Earlier, Mr Joyce asked Australia's big-city residents if they are 'prepared to hurt the poor' by pursuing a carbon neutral future. Mr Joyce, who was banished to the backbench after the Coalition's brief post-election break-up, kicked off the second sitting week of the new parliament by introducing his Repeal Net Zero Bill. Unless Sussan Ley drastically changes course in rebuilding the Coalition as a moderate opposition, the private member's bill will not get far. But as a former Nationals leader, Mr Joyce holds clout within the party and his split from more green-minded Liberal Party colleagues has grown into somewhat of a backbench rebellion. Nationals heavyweight Barnaby Joyce has asked Australia's big-city residents if they are 'prepared to hurt the poor'. Martin Ollman / NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia Mr Joyce said on Monday there needed to be more give and take between city-living Australians and their rural and regional counterparts, saying there 'are certain things' the regions could do but do not 'because we're trying to be reasonable'. 'There's absolutely no reason that Mascot Airport can't work 24/7,' he told reporters, flanked by fellow Coalition rebels and disgruntled community members. 'But we understand that people don't want planes flying over themselves in the middle of the night … but we don't want transmission lines over our head either. 'We don't want wind towers either, so there's got to be a form of good pro quo.' Mr Joyce said the question 'affluent suburbs' needed to be asked was: 'Are you prepared to hurt the poor?' 'Are you prepared to hurt them and I don't think if you really explain the issue that people do want to hurt them,' he said. 'You don't feel virtuous if you're hurting people.' Former Nationals leaders Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack are calling for Australia's net-zero target to be abandoned. Martin Ollman / NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia Mr Joyce's Bill proposes to abandon Australia's carbon-neutral target by 2050. The target is in line with goals set by other developed economies, but the task has been complicated by rapid energy demands from emerging economies and global disruptions driven by increased conflicts, such as Russia's war in Ukraine. Among Mr Joyce's supporters gathered outside Parliament House was fellow former Nationals leader Michael McCormack, another hefty voice in the party. Liberal MP Garth Hamilton also joined him, making him the only member of the senior Coalition partner to do so.
Sky News AU
34 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
Communications Minister once hailed YouTube as a place for kids — now she appears ready to ban it
Communications Minister Anika Wells once fawned over YouTube as a way to entertain her young children — now she appears ready to ban it as a legal furore erupts in the tech world. Minister wells is considering banning children under 16 from YouTube, but just a few years ago she praised the video sharing platform as a means for a young parent to navigate the "parliament hustle". "How do I handle the parliament hustle? Sturdy baby gates and The Wiggles on YouTube," she wrote in December, 2022, at a time she was sports minister. Minister Wells appeared to confirm for the first time publicly that she would formally adopt a push from eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to prohibit children from creating accounts on YouTube. 'The eSafety Commissioner made it clear in her advice to the Minister that the law relates to children under the age of 16 having their own social media accounts,' Minister Wells told 'eSafety's recommendation does not prevent children from watching videos like The Wiggles on YouTube Kids or on their parent's account.' Under this scenario, kids would still be able to access YouTube logged out, which means they would not be protected by Google's sophisticated parental controls. YouTube has argued this move would make the internet less safe, a clear contradiction with the original intent of the Act. A formal decision is expected as early as Thursday this week but the government has been criticised for confusion around the rollout of these new laws. And it isn't just parents confused by Labor's flip-flopping on the social media ban. The rushed implementation of the laws and the lack of industry clarity has infuriated multiple platforms involved in negotiations, leading to tense and highly complex legal discussions behind closed doors. TikTok is understood to have made a legal threat on constitutional grounds over the ban. TikTok denies this but in a submission to the government, the Chinese owned platform alleged the laws would be fundamentally unworkable and anti-competitive in nature, if YouTube was exempt. Labor appears to have listened to these warnings and could announce a major change to the child ban policy as early as next week. After learning Labor was preparing to U-turn on a pledge to exempt YouTube, Google also called in the lawyers. The video sharing platform argued the child ban breaches the implied constitutional protections Australians have to engage in political speech. In March, TikTok wrote a scathing submission to the government which focused almost entirely on lobbying for YouTube to also be banned. TikTok's submission alleged the laws were "unsupportable" and "anti-competitive" in nature, and accused Labor of reverse engineering legislation. "Excluding any major platform by name from the minimum age obligation on educative grounds is unsupportable without evidence," the submission said. "What is clear is that the Government has begun its analysis from the starting position that YouTube must be exempt and then attempted, half-heartedly, to reverse-engineer defensible supporting evidence. "Handing one major social media platform a sweetheart deal of this nature - while subjecting every other platform in Australia to stringent compliance obligations - would be illogical, anti-competitive, and short-sighted." TikTok also warned that an exemption for YouTube raised anti-competition legal issues which, it argued, had already been highlighted by the ACCC. 'That Google or any rational economic actor in its position would seek to lobby Government for favourable treatment is comprehensible. That the Government would accede to it, against the warnings of its own competition watchdog, is not,' the submission said. In a forward to the submission TikTok warned the government the laws "would not work" if YouTube was exempt. "For the reasons set out in this submission, we have grave concerns that the Rules, if implemented in their current form, would not work," TikTok said. "We are particularly concerned that carving out any major platform by name - in this case, YouTube - from the minimum age obligation would result in a law that is illogical, anti-competitive, and short-sighted." eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant was accused earlier this month of misleading Australians after her push to have children banned from the platform was not supported in her own research. It was revealed that even Ms Inman Grant's office used YouTube to educate children as part of her own publishing strategy, specifically targeting the demographic. In late 2022, while Ms Inman Grant was in charge of the body, a series of videos called 'eSafety Mighty Heroes' including characters such as Dusty the frilled neck lizard, River the sugar glider, Billie the bilby, and Wanda the echidna was released on the same day - content clearly published with the intent to educate children.
