Australia news LIVE: Colleges told to stop recruiting fake overseas students; RBA holds rates steady

The High Court has ruled that the Commonwealth can be criminally liable for damage to an Indigenous sacred site, in a decision that has implications for the management of national parks.

The case was about damage to a sacred men’s site near Gunlom Falls, which is owned by traditional owners but managed as part of Kakadu National Park, after construction of a walking track.

Gunlom Falls was a popular tourist spot until it was closed in 2019 due to unauthorised work on a walking track.

The area of which the track work was carried out is sacred to the Jawoyn people and is listed under the Sacred Sites Act. The director of national parks – a body corporate responsible for Commonwealth reserves – caused the works to be carried out without permission.

The director of national parks was found not guilty by a lower court on the basis that it could not be convicted of the offence under the Sacred Sites Act, but the High Court overturned this.

Ahead of significant changes slated for the NDIS, the Disability Advocacy Network Australia (DANA) have released a report with a range of recommendations it says will improve the lives of people with disabilities immediately.

The recommendations include opening a national network of hubs where people with disability can come for information and support, and creating a mass purchasing scheme, outside the NDIS, for disability aids, equipment and home modifications.

The Disability Advocacy Network Australia launched the report at an event with NDIS Minister Bill Shorten.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“We are impatient for change, after years of fighting, of telling our stories, of figuring out solutions and campaigning for an end to the abuse so many of us live with,” DANA CEO Jeff Smith said.

“The Priorities Project Report we are launching today distils key issues from both reports, and outlines practical changes that could be up and running within a year or two.”

“These changes don’t need another strategy, or more consultation, or more delay. They need to start now.”

Smith said housing was a key priority that came up in every single conversation DANA had with fellow disability advocates while writing the report.

“Accessible homes are very difficult to find in Australia, and home modifications are mostly only available within the NDIS, which excludes many people who would benefit significantly from them from eligibility,” Smith said.

“One of the actions we’re proposing is a new scheme which would make home modifications more accessible to people not on the NDIS.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton claims Education Minister Jason Clare is unfit for his job after Clare remarked that the pro-Palestinian chant ‘from the river to the sea’ meant different things to different people.

During a press conference on Sunday, Clare said any words that stoke fear are intolerable.

A protest inside the University of Melbourne Arts West Building on Friday includes a banner with the slogan ‘from the river to the sea’.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

“I’ve seen people say that those words mean the annihilation of Israel. I’ve seen people say that it means the opposite. I’ve seen people say that they’re slogans that Israeli political parties have used too,” Clare said.

Dutton has a different view. This afternoon he claimed the phrase only has one meaning:“that is the annihilation of the Jewish people”.

Here’s what Dutton had to say:

Somehow the education minister in Australia is trying to justify or explain away these words being used and try and conjure up some different contexts where that form of words is acceptable, it’s not acceptable and it’s not acceptable on university campuses to see people of Jewish faith who are being discriminated against and the level of antisemitism we’re seeing.

Jason Clare has proven himself to be unfit for his job, the prime minister not only needs to hold him into line, but he needs to make sure that he apologises and that he says that this will never happen again.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of being weak for not picking up the phone to Chinese President Xi Jinping and condemning the superpower after a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares about 300 metres in front of and 60 metres above a Royal Australian Navy helicopter.

A Seahawk helicopter prepares to take off from the deck of HMAS Hobart.Credit: Australian Defence Force

Speaking in Rockhampton, Dutton said he understood Albanese made a “throwaway comment” that he would now pick up the phone, but it had come too late.

“It should be the prime minister’s first instinct. I will always stand up for the men and women of the Australian Defence Force and, in this circumstance, the prime minister should have from day one as well,” he said.

“It’s completely unacceptable and the prime minister should pick up the phone immediately to the Chinese president, to make sure that he understands that it will not be tolerated. And we need a good trading relationship with China, I accept that, but we shouldn’t compromise our national interest because we’ve got a weak prime minister who refuses to pick up the phone.”

A popular chant at pro-Palestine protests, “From the river to the sea”, is one that undermines a two-state solution, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says.

Albanese said at a press conference on Monday that the chant was a slogan that calls for opposition to a two-state solution, which he repeated today at his Perth press conference when asked for his thoughts on the phrase.

Protesters chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at a protest in Melbourne last year.Credit: Chris Hopkins

“What I have said is that that phrase undermines a two-state solution, the government supports a two-state solution, it supports the right of Israel to live in peace and security within secure borders,” he said.

“We also support justice for Palestinians and the right for Palestinians to live with peace, security and prosperity.”

Asked if he is concerned about the Gaza conflict causing further radicalisation of children – in Perth last week, a 16-year-old stabbed a member of the public and was later shot dead by police, and is thought to have converted to Islam and become radicalised – Albanese said it was a difficult time.

“It is a difficult time, but overwhelmingly Australians in our multicultural society do not want disputes brought here to Australia,” he said.

“I do want to congratulate WA Police on the actions that they took, I also want to acknowledge the leaders of the Muslim community here in Perth, who took strong action as well.

“We are concerned in a broader context as well. I’ve made the comment about social media, that social media can have a divisive impact, the use of algorithms can drive people towards more and more extreme views and that’s something that we need to have a discussion on.”

AstraZeneca said it initiated the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine due to a “surplus of available updated vaccines” since the pandemic.

The company also said it would proceed to withdraw the vaccine Vaxzevria’s marketing authorisations within Europe.

About 69 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the European Union, according to the European Medicines Agency.Credit: AP

“As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed there is a surplus of available updated vaccines,” the company said, adding that this had led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied.

The firm’s application to withdraw the vaccine was made on March 5 and came into effect on Tuesday, according to the London Telegraph, which first reported the development.

Reuters

Perth grandmother Ninette Simons, who was allegedly violently attacked by a former detainee, has not been visited by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Last week Albanese criticised the community protection board – a body tasked with advising the government on detainees – for failing as it advised that the detainee who allegedly attacked Simons did not need an ankle bracelet.

Asked at a Perth press conference if he had visited Simons, Albanese said he had not.

Ninette Simons is still recovering after the terrifying ordeal on April 17.

“I am not currently scheduled to visit Ninette Simons. I think I’ve made it very clear that Ms Simons has been subject to a terrible crime, the allegations are now before the court.”

The prime minister was also asked about the government’s latest deportation laws which would give it power to jail detainees fighting deportation and block foreign visitors from countries that will not take citizens back.

Albanese said he hoped the laws were passed next week.

On March 27, the government faced a humiliating defeat after the Coalition united with the Greens and other crossbenchers to defer the bill introduced to the House on March 26.

The bill went to an inquiry and a Senate report released yesterday revealed the Coalition is demanding the government rein in the toughest conditions of its deportation bill by beefing up safeguards for families visiting from certain nations and foreigners resisting deportation.

“I hope that the Senate passes that legislation next week,” Albanese said today.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia is in disagreement with China after the superpower’s fighter aircraft dropped flares about 300 metres in front and 60 metres above a Royal Australian Navy helicopter.

Speaking at a press conference in Perth, Albanese said China’s explanation given last night that Australia flew near China airspace in a threatening way was wrong.

Anthony Albanese has disputed China’s response to an incident in international waters.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“The ambassador has already been spoken to about this issue, as have people back in Beijing … I’ve said that we’ll co-operate with China where we can, disagree where we must and will engage in our national interests. This is an area of disagreement, we’ve called it out,” he said.

“The explanation given overnight by Chinese authorities does not satisfy any change to the position that we’ve taken. Indeed, in the wording that I have used, by saying that they were near Chinese airspace is confirmation that there’s no question that the Australian Defence Force personnel were both in international waters and in international airspace and are undertaking work on behalf of the international community in enforcing UN sanctions against North Korea.”

Earlier, Albanese told Perth’s 6PR there had been no ministerial contact on this incident.