Tucker Carlson to headline 'Australian Freedom Conference'
Far-right pundit Tucker Carlson will visit Australian cities on a speaking tour later this June and July, where he will appear alongside billionaire mining magnate and former politician Clive Palmer.
Carlson and Palmer will be joined by by American filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza and Queensland GP Dr Melissa McCann for the “Australian Freedom Conference”.
The conference is billed as covering “a range of topics, including current and future threats to truth, democracies and personal freedoms”.
Tickets cost between $200 and $290.
Carlson, a former Fox News host, now runs his own media outlet, the Tucker Carlson Network, where he recently interviewed the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Palmer, spruiking the conference, said “Tucker has long advocated that news coverage in the west can be wrongly used as a tool of repression and control”.
Palmer added:
He believes democracy cannot function properly under these controls and the only solution to ending propaganda is fearlessly speaking the truth. I’m delighted Australia has the opportunity to hear from Tucker and our other speakers on this informative national tour.
With that, we’ll end our live coverage of the day’s news.
Here’s a summary of the day’s main news developments:
Jobseeker payments should be raised to 90% of the age pension and indexed to prevent people going “without life’s essentials”, the government’s poverty experts say.
Bruce Lehrmann has agreed to pay the columnist and author Peter FitzSimons’ costs for complying with a subpoena during Lehrmann’s failed defamation proceedings against Network Ten and former Project presenter Lisa Wilkinson.
Scott Farquhar, the Australian tech billionaire and joint chief executive of software company Atlassian, will step down from his role at the end of August to spend time with his young family and focus on philanthropy, the company says.
Thanks for reading. Have a pleasant evening and weekend.
Some breaking news suitable for a Friday night: Taylor Swift has made Australian music history, becoming the female artist with the most No 1 albums in Aria history.
Her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, is her 13th album to reach No 1 on the Aria album chart, surpassing the record held by Madonna.
She is also now the first artist ever to hold the entire top 10 on the singles chart, and currently holds 29 spots in the top 50 singles at once – a feat that has never been achieved before.
Taylor Swift’s Eras tour broke Australian attendance records earlier this year. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images
Swift remains the only artist to replace themselves at No 1 on Aria album chart, and has done so three times.
Jimmy Barnes continues to hold the overall record for most No 1 albums with 15 solo albums (and another five with Cold Chisel), followed by the Beatles with 14.
‘His mission was to protect people’: brother pays tribute to Faraz Tahir at funeral
Bondi stabbing victim Faraz Tahir has been buried by his brothers and friends from Sydney’s Ahmadiyya Muslim community, after his funeral in the city’s west.
Earlier in the day, around 700 mourners and dignitaries expressed their condolences to Tahir’s family, who arrived in Australia from overseas on Wednesday.
His brother, Mudasar Bashir, told reporters Tahir had been “the strongest person in our family”.
He said:
He was a really good, jolly person, always smiling, and always he intended to help people ... his mission was to protect people like we have seen him ...
Every time when we spoke to him, he said “I’m okay. I’m good. I’m happy. This is a good country ... I have freedom here. I can say that I am a Muslim and I can go to the mosque. I can pray. I can do everything.”
He told reporters what it was like to see Tahir’s body for the first time in six years:
“I tried to speak with him because he was my brother ... when I saw him, I just said ‘it’s been six years and now I’m meeting you finally, for the last time’.”
Mudasar Bashir (left), Muzafar Ahmad Tahir (in wheelchair) and Sheraz Ahmad during the funeral for their brother, security guard Faraz Tahir. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
‘He sacrificed his life for all Australians’: mourners commemorate Faraz Tahir’s bravery at funeral
Bondi stabbing victim Faraz Tahir’s bravery has been commemorated by friends and mourners at his funeral in Sydney’s west.
Tahir’s security guard colleague and fellow victim, Muhammad Taha, attended on special leave from hospital, wearing a gown and blanket. Sitting in his wheelchair, Taha told reporters Tahir’s last words before confronting perpetrator Joel Cauchi:
We were trying to save people at that time. and his last words at that time was ‘let’s find out what’s going on’. So we rushed towards that area.
Imam Inamul Haq Kauser leads the funeral for Faraz Tahir in Sydney Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s national president, Imam Inamul Haq Kauser, said Tahir had proven himself a martyr:
There’s one pledge which our youth make, that they will sacrifice their time, honour and life for others, for the sake of nation, and for the country. And we are very happy that he has proved it with his actions and deeds ...
Although he was a stranger in this country ... he sacrificed his life for all Australians. He was a very brave person from childhood. He saw that people are panicked, he rushed to them.”
Jonathan Kearns, a former senior RBA economist now at Challenger, is among those predicting the central bank will have no choice but to revise its own inflation estimates next month to indicate inflation won’t be slowing as fast as earlier projected.
That revision could potentially push back the timing of when the RBA thinks inflation (now at 3.6%, according to headline CPI) will be back within its 2%-3% range. Its February model had annual inflation at 2.8% by December 2025, and perhaps that won’t happen now until 2026.
One thing that’s looking less likely is a cut in official interest rates in 2024.
“The risks to easing too soon, and so eroding inflation’s return to target, are significant and so it’s appropriate that the market now does not expect the RBA to cut rates this year,” Kearns said in a note circulated on Friday.
Part of his caution comes from the rental market, where increases - at 7.7% in the year to March - remain at about the highest in 30 years. The change in rents captured by the CPI has only been about 13% since the pandemic, while advertised rents have increased about 50%.
Rental increases don't look like easing much in the near term (no matter what the RBA does to interest rates). (Via Jonathan Kearns, Challenger.) pic.twitter.com/PIhs9jerGg
Woolies fined $1.2m for short-changing former workers
Woolworths has been fined $1.2m after admitting it failed to pay out more than $1m in leave entitlements to about 1200 Victorian workers.
The supermarket giant was facing a maximum penalty of more than $10bn, but magistrate Nahrain Warda on Friday found the smaller fine to be suitable punishment.
Woolworths self-reported its breaches to Victoria’s wage watchdog in February 2022 after it undertook a review of its payroll systems.
It discovered some of its employees were not paid their long service leave entitlements after leaving the company due to discrepancies in payment calculations.
Wage Inspectorate Victoria’s investigation found the underpayments happened on 3617 occasions between January 2020 and July 2022. The company was charged for those who were underpaid more than $250, which resulted in about $1m in unpaid leave for 1227 former Victorian staff.
Woolworths pleaded guilty on 18 April in Melbourne magistrates court to the more than 1000 charges laid down by the inspectorate.
The company’s barrister, Saul Holt KC, said Woolworths had been described as a “model accused” by prosecutors as it had self-reported and self-investigated the underpayments.
The court fined Woolworths $1,277,000 without conviction, while its subsidiary Woolstar was handed a $36,000 penalty. Woolworths was ordered to pay the regulator’s $15,000 legal costs.
‘Watch this space’: education minister flags announcement ‘shortly’ on student debt reform
An announcement on student debt reform will be made “shortly”, the education minister has confirmed.
Speaking to reporters in Perth ahead of an education ministers meeting on Friday, Jason Clare was asked whether the commonwealth would change Hecs/Help indexation in the upcoming federal budget to relieve the debt burden on students.
Figures released this week showed student debts would increase by around 4.8% when next indexed on 1 June as a result of high inflation, following a 7.1% rise last year.
Clare said:
I’ve made the point inside the parliament and outside the parliament that we need to make Hecs fairer, and we’ve got the report of the Universities Accord team that sets out a number of recommendations about how we can do that.
The prime minister and the treasurer said last week that we’re looking at what we can do here. We’ll have more to say on that shortly. So watch this space.
Tucker Carlson to headline 'Australian Freedom Conference'
Far-right pundit Tucker Carlson will visit Australian cities on a speaking tour later this June and July, where he will appear alongside billionaire mining magnate and former politician Clive Palmer.
Carlson and Palmer will be joined by by American filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza and Queensland GP Dr Melissa McCann for the “Australian Freedom Conference”.
The conference is billed as covering “a range of topics, including current and future threats to truth, democracies and personal freedoms”.
Tickets cost between $200 and $290.
Carlson, a former Fox News host, now runs his own media outlet, the Tucker Carlson Network, where he recently interviewed the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Palmer, spruiking the conference, said “Tucker has long advocated that news coverage in the west can be wrongly used as a tool of repression and control”.
Palmer added:
He believes democracy cannot function properly under these controls and the only solution to ending propaganda is fearlessly speaking the truth. I’m delighted Australia has the opportunity to hear from Tucker and our other speakers on this informative national tour.
Exclusion zone established amid police operation at University of Sydney
More on the police operation under way at the University of Sydney.
Earlier this afternoon New South Wales police confirmed an operation was under way at the University’s law school in Camperdown, in Sydney’s inner west.
Police said in a statement that an exclusion zone is in place and the community is urged to avoid the area.
The University of Sydney has said the Fisher library and law library “are currently closed due to an emergency until further notice”.
Fisher/Law Libraries are currently closed due to an emergency until further notice. SciTech and Susan Wakil Health Library are open for students. We will let you know when Fisher and Law re-open.
ACT DPP responds to questions over alleged Lehrmann evidence leak
Karen Middleton
The office of the ACT director of public prosecutions has finally responded to repeated inquiries from Guardian Australia in relation to the recent findings of federal court justice Michael Lee in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial.
Guardian Australia had asked whether any action was being contemplated over the leaking of the confidential contents of an evidence brief that had been prepared for separate legal proceedings.
The question arose again this week when the Australian federal police commissioner, Reece Kershaw, suggested police were reviewing the handling of evidence to see whether further investigation was required.
The office of the ACT DPP has now provided the following response:
“The acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Anthony Williamson SC, notes the public comments made by AFP Commissioner Kershaw at the National Press Club.
It is not the practice of the DPP to comment on ongoing police inquiries or investigations. To do so has the capacity to compromise the right of a person to a fair trial.
Discussions between the DPP, his or her prosecutors, and/or the police in relation to police investigations and possible charges that might be brought against a person are the subject of legal professional privilege.”
In finding against the applicant, former ministerial adviser Bruce Lehrmann, in Lehrmann’s defamation suit against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, Justice Lee said he was “comfortably satisfied” that Lehrmann had lied about having no role in leaking private text messages obtained by police from the phone of Brittany Higgins, the former colleague who had accused him of raping her, to the Seven Network’s Spotlight program.
The messages had been included in an evidence brief prepared for Lehrmann’s 2022 criminal trial on the rape charge but were never tendered in court. The trial collapsed due to juror misconduct and was discontinued out of concern for Higgins’ mental health. Lehrmann pleaded not guilty and has always denied the rape allegation.
It was alleged during the civil defamation trial that the leak breached a rule known as the Harman principle and laid out in a high court judgment from a 2008 case, Hearne v Street. The principle specifies that evidence provided under compulsion by the court for one set of legal proceedings cannot be used for any other purpose.
Victorian government announces $900,000 for pelvic pain and menstrual health education
The Victorian government will spend $900,000 to run free pelvic pain and menstrual health education sessions for students in government schools, the education minister has announced.
Ben Carroll says the funding, allocated in the 2023-24 budget, will allow for 400 in-person education sessions for years 5 to 10 to begin from next year.
He said sessions will include curriculum-aligned, age-appropriate and evidence-based information about menstrual health and pelvic pain. Students will develop skills and confidence to recognise when and how to seek help and support.
He said most half of all Australian women experience pelvic pain, and for the one in nine women with endometriosis, diagnosis can take on average seven years:
Nobody should suffer in silence, so we are educating young people about pelvic pain, so they know what to do if and when it affects them.
The Victorian health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP
Health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, said:
We know that schoolyard conversation around menstruation and pelvic pain has historically been seen as taboo – that’s why education to destigmatise and remove the shame associated with periods is so important. We are ensuring more young Victorian girls understand their bodies and seek help before their pain impacts their overall health and wellbeing.
Many thanks for joining me on the blog today – and throughout the week. Elias Visontay will be here to see you through the rest of the afternoon. Take care, and have a lovely weekend.
Prime minister labels Faraz Tahir a ‘national hero’ at funeral service
Luca Ittimani
The prime minister has called Faraz Tahir, the security guard killed in the Bondi Junction Westfield stabbing, a “national hero” at his funeral service in Sydney.
Hundreds of mourners and dignitaries joined Tahir’s family at Baitul Huda mosque in Sydney’s west to farewell the Pakistani refugee, who would have celebrated his 31st birthday on Wednesday.
Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Tahir, speaking to the crowd outside the front of the mosque:
Without doubt, he helped save lives that day. And without question, Faraz Tahir died a national hero and he will be remembered as a hero in the history of this hard time …
[He] counted himself lucky to have come to Australia. In truth, Australia was lucky to have him.
Mourners hold up posters of Faraz Tahir during a candlelight vigil at Bondi Beach. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, joined Albanese to pay tribute, and said:
He was excited about the next chapter in his life, and one of the things that we mourn today is the loss of that next chapter, of all the good that was coming after last Saturday. Friends, as a community, New South Wales was heartbroken today, as we farewell Faraz.
Violence against women not ‘unsolvable’, Victoria police assistant commissioner says
Continued from last post:
Lauren Callaway said she doesn’t believe the issue of violence against women is “unsolvable”. She told a media conference:
It is a problem that is going to take a long time to shift attitudes. I’ve been in the role for four years but the issue of domestic violence started to get traction in Australia in the 1970s. We just had the 50th anniversary of the first women’s crisis shelter. Our understanding of what the problem was back then to what is today is very different.
She said police, the family violence sector, academics and activists were all working together to try to understand the underlying drivers of why – 50 years on – the issue remains so prevalent.
In the last four years there’ve been several high profile murders where the community gets very outraged by it, and rightly so ... and we talk about the issue and we come up with ideas. Governments have invested heavily in Victoria in trying to resolve family violence. But I think the best thing that we can hope for now is to try and work out: what are the principles within the system that we’ve got that we can strengthen, to bring more safety to victims and more accountability to perpetrators?
Circling back to Victoria police’s family violence command assistant commissioner, Lauren Callaway, who gave a press conference earlier this afternoon (you can read our first post here).
It’s not the first time we’ve been at this moment and sadly, I don’t think it’ll be the last time we’re at this moment. I understand how women are frustrated about this particular crime theme and how devastating it is to families and friends. It just seems like there’s another terrible news story every day.
Those of us who work in family violence are equally disheartened by the statistics. And they’re not just statistics – they are people who have suffered the most tragic circumstances of family violence … Some solutions, I think, place too much emphasis on women to do the changing, and we know that that’s not the long term solution.
Lauren Callaway speaking to the media earlier today. Photograph: James Ross/AAP
Social services minister says current rates of domestic and family violence ‘unacceptable’
The federal social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, says the current rates of domestic and family violence are “unacceptable”.
Speaking to 10 News First earlier today, she said no single government or organisation would be able to address the issue on their own, and “we all need to push in the same direction”.
This includes men standing up and calling out violence. That is a critical part of the response. But I will not be deterred and I’m pushing on efforts to end family, domestic and sexual violence …
We do need to invest in all areas, but this is where everyone’s responsibility comes in. If you see disrespectful attitudes or violence, it might be casual violence against a woman, it’s everyone’s role to call it out, step up and just be very clear. It is unacceptable.
Does that mean we need public campaigns about respecting women and changing behaviours? Rishworth flagged the government campaign “stop it at the start” will be promoted further in the coming months.
The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
She also acknowledged that First Nations women experience “disproportionately high levels” of domestic and family violence, and said:
We currently have a steering group of First Nations women and men leading that work to develop a standalone plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children and how we keep families safe. This is critical work that needs to be led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
