Key events
What we learned today – Tuesday 14 October
Thanks for your attention today. We’ll close the blog here, but not before a summary of the day’s main events:
See you back here tomorrow!
Andrew Messenger
Police standoff in Brisbane park
A Brisbane CBD park has been cordoned off amid a police standoff with a man armed with a knife.
The City Botanic Gardens are currently blocked off, on Albert Street.
The Special Emergency Response Team arrived minutes ago through the entrance on Albert Street. There are several other vehicles on the scene and the park gates are all locked.
A police spokesperson said they are now negotiating with the man, who they said was armed with a knife. The spokesperson said the public are asked to avoid the area.
No new evidence found in first day of renewed search for Gus Lamont
South Australian police say the first day of the renewed search for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont has not brought any new evidence.
Police today resumed searching for the preschooler at a property located 43km south of Yunta. In a statement, they said:
The first day of the continuing search for the missing boy has concluded with no evidence being located.
The coordinated search has progressed in zones outside of the original search area and will continue on Wednesday. Extreme heat forecast for Thursday is expected to restrict searching to the cooler morning period.
Resources used today include 18 police officers, 82 ADF members and 33 vehicles and SES resources including seven members, a drone and two utility terrain vehicles.
The search for Gus, who was last seen on Saturday 27 September, is being conducted as part of Task Force Horizon that was announced this morning by Police Commissioner Grant Stevens.
Venezuela reportedly closes embassy in Australia
Josh Butler
Venezuela is reportedly closing its embassy in Australia. We asked the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about the change: a spokesperson told us briefly the department was “aware of reports of Venezuelan embassy closures in Norway and Australia and is monitoring the situation.”
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Venezuela’s government had announced the closure of embassies in Norway and Australia, and plans to open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe in what that country’s government said was a “strategic re-assignation of resources.”
President Nicolas Maduro’s government said consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, Reuters reported.
We’ve reached out to Venezuela’s embassy in Canberra for a response, but have received no reply.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland Katter MP resigns from parliament to run for Townsville mayor, triggering byelection
Katter MP Nick Dametto has resigned from Queensland state parliament, to run for mayor of Townsville, triggering a byelection.
In an emotional 15-minute valedictory speech, the MP relayed a series of policy and project achievements before making his pitch for the role of mayor. He said:
This will be a campaign won on policy and vision, Mr Speaker. That city that I call home deserves strong leadership. It has floundered for the last 18 months. We’ve lived in limbo. We want to make sure that the person that steps forward to run that city has the right mindset, convictions, someone who wants to instil pride and prosperity back in the capital of north Queensland.
He then thanked a list of former staff and other MPs he was close to, before thanking himself:
I want to thank me. I want to thank me for turning up whenever I could. I want to thank me for turning up when nobody else would. I want to thank me for backing me, because I believe if you don’t back yourself, Mr Speaker, who else will?
Dametto was elected in 2017 and was one of three Katters’ Australian Party MPs in state parliament. His resignation took effect immediately. He left the chamber saying “arrivederci”, reflecting his Italian heritage.
Tom McIlroy
New parliamentary friends group for urban policy planning
The collective committees representing Australia’s biggest cities have launched a new parliamentary friends group in Canberra, set to be led by independent Kate Chaney, Liberal Simon Kennedy and Labor senator Richard Dowling.
Organisers say it will be the first ever Parliamentary Friends of Cities group, established to advance long-term, place-based urban policy within federal parliament. Friends groups advocate on a huge range of specific issues around Canberra, taking advantage of bipartisan backing for important topics.
The new group has been established by the Committee for Capital Cities, which includes Sydney, Greater Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane, along with the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors.
Capital cities are home to two in three people and jobs in Australia, and contribute about 70% of Australia’s GDP. Major priorities include housing, the hunt for global talent, innovation and highly skilled employment markets. Kennedy said:
The Parliamentary Friends of Cities is about practical collaboration, not politics. It’s about making our cities more productive, more connected and better places to live and work.
Chaney said ensuring cities could grow effectively was critical:
Building sustainable, liveable cities of the future requires working together across all tiers of government and listening to the needs of our communities.
I am excited by the opportunity to bring together people and visions for prosperous and thriving cities or all sizes.
Sussan Ley calls for parliament to investigate Thorpe’s claim she would ‘burn down’ Parliament House
Krishani Dhanji
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has demanded the parliament’s presiding officers investigate the “credibility” of independent Senator Lidia Thorpe’s claim that she would “burn down” Parliament House at a Melbourne pro-Gaza rally.
The Australian federal police announced on Monday they would investigate whether her remarks at the protest breached legislation.
In a letter to the Senate president and House speaker, Ley said the parliament should do its own investigation into the “threat” and the implications of Thorpe’s comments.
“Our social cohesion is being tested by extreme ideologies and overseas conflagrations. It is beholden on parliamentarians to refrain from incendiary behaviour that may incite those unable or unwilling to differentiate between naive rhetoric and a call to arms.”
The letter was signed by Ley and the shadow foreign minister, Michaelia Cash.
Thorpe said on Monday her remarks were “clearly a figure of speech” and condemned what she called the “mock outrage” that followed them.
Police will resume the search tomorrow for a Tasmanian man who went missing in a forest without a trace.
Tasmania police say they will return, alongside SES volunteers, to the Hollybank forest reserve on Wednesday to search for missing Scottsdale man Peter Willoughby.
The 76-year-old was reported missing on the afternoon of Sunday 5 October after he went walking in thick bushland near Hollybank, in the state’s north-east. Police said:
Despite extensive search efforts in the days after Mr Willoughby’s disappearance, sadly, there has been no sign of him or new clues that could lead to his possible location.
The search effort had been paused since Friday, due in part to inclement weather which posed a risk to searchers in the heavily forested search areas.
Nick Clark, an inspector with the Tasmania Police Northern Search and Rescue (SAR) unit, said approximately 30 people would be on the ground tomorrow actively searching for Willoughby, while Sustainable Timber Tasmania staff will be offering logistical assistance.
Clark said they would look to review some of the terrain previously covered as well as some new areas to the south of Willoughby’s last known location. Searchers were determined to find Willoughby, but given it has been several days since his last contact, police hold serious concerns for his welfare, he said.
Two executives resign from Affinity Education Group
Adeshola Ore
Two executives at scandal-plagued childcare chain Affinity Education Group group have resigned. The moves come amid a difficult period for the company, after dozens of child sexual abuse charges were laid against a former employee.
In a statement, Affinity Education Group said its chief executive, Tim Hickey, and chief operating officer, Nishad Alani, had stepped down from their roles and left the organisation.
A spokesperson said Affinity Education Group’s board had appointed Glen Hurley, its senior advisor for compliance & quality, as the incoming chief executive:
Affinity remains deeply committed to providing safe, high-quality care to the families across our entire network and supporting our dedicated, professional team who nurture and educate the children in their care with compassion and integrity.
Alleged pedophile Joshua Brown, who worked at childcare centres run by Affinity, was charged in Juy with more than 70 offences including the alleged sexual abuse of children. Brown worked at 11 Affinity childcare centres in Victoria during 2024, according to a list on its website.
Australian Antarctic Division ship being assessed after it touched seafloor
The Australian Antarctic Division’s main ship has been involved in an incident after it made contact with the ocean floor off the coast of Heard Island.
The icebreaker, RSV Nuyina, is the “main lifeline” to Australia’s Antarctic and sub-Antarctic research stations and the central platform of the division’s Antarctic and Southern Ocean scientific research.
The ship made contact with the ocean floor off the coast of Heard Island afternoon at 1502 (UT+6), during seafloor mapping activities, according to a division spokesperson:
There were no injuries to anyone on board, and there is no danger to any of the passengers or crew. Expeditioners on board Nuyina felt a small vibration through the ship when the contact occurred.
The ship has moved into deep waters off Heard Island and the crew are now conducting an assessment of RSV Nuyina to determine if there has been any damage to Nuyina’s hull or underwater scientific equipment.
The AAD is working with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority as part of the assessment and response.
The safety of the expeditioners and crew remains the highest priority and all operational activity has paused while the assessment is under way.
RBA’s latest minutes shows no mention of future interest rate cuts
Luca Ittimani
The Reserve Bank board didn’t give much thought to future interest rate cuts when it met two weeks ago, according to the minutes released today.
Board members agreed there was “no need” to cut interest rates on 30 September, saying the last cut in August had helped reduce mortgage payments and household spending was rising more than expected.
Adelaide Timbrell, an ANZ economist, noted the board did not mention any more rate cuts – though it had in August, when it weighed up options for the “likely pace of reduction in the cash rate over the period ahead”.
The board was divided on whether the economy was steaming ahead strongly, which would imply no more rate cuts. The minutes read:
Members agreed that there were still risks on both sides of the forecast and debated their relative importance.
Some members believed household spending could be stronger, and the economy more stretched, than the RBA had forecast, reducing need for a cut. Others believed the forecasts were too optimistic, given weak jobs growth, slower wage growth and the puzzle of poor consumer sentiment (as this liveblog reported earlier).
Belinda Allen, a Commonwealth Bank economist, said it would take an unexpected rise in unemployment or lower-than-expected inflation to justify a cut.
Evidence is building that the onus will be on the data to prove why further rate cuts are needed for the Australian economy.
Anne Davies
Asked about the interventions, Minns said Minister Hoenig knew about a referral from Icac and he’d known that not much had been done about it for years. He said:
With an election coming up … I guarantee you, the first question from the opposition would have been: why did you sit on this information?
Maybe he [Hoenig] was caught between a rock and a hard place, but given the information in front of me, I think he made the right decision.
Saravinovski had been mayor of Rockdale and Bayside councils for 40 years, and was accused of failing to properly declare the extent of his relationship with a developer, as well as allegations he yelled at staff.
He was removed from the Labor ticket before the 2024 local government elections. Ed McDougall, the chief of staff to Steve Kamper MP (one of Minns’s closest allies), replaced Saravinovski as mayor. Sravinovski’s son was also elected to council.
Minns said in the past Labor had been criticised over inaction relating to Labor councillors and “they effectively averted their eyes in order to avoid embarrassment”:
Ron hasn’t done that, so I think the coalition is going to have to explain, if they want him to go, what course of action should he have taken? Just turn a blind eye?
In question time, Hoenig said he found it “troubling that Icac had provided advice of serious corruption” but there had been no action by his department.
He said the matter needed “to be dealt with promptly and thoroughly” and that he expected his department “to act competently and efficiently”.
Anne Davies
Minns defends Hoenig over Bayside council legal battle
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has defended the actions of his local government minister, Ron Hoenig, in attempting to hasten proceedings against the mayor of Bayside council ahead of preselections for the Labor ticket for Bayside council in 2024.
The NSW opposition is calling for Hoenig’s resignation, alleging that he attempted to improperly influence a public servant in his department over the matter.
Bill Saravinovski, the longtime Labor mayor of Bayside, had been the subject of an Icac investigation.
Icac made no findings but referred the matter to Hoenig’s Department of Local Government for further investigation which in turn took action in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) against Saravinovski. He received a reprimand.
The allegations of interference have been made previously in a parliamentary inquiry and have been probed by Mark Latham in questions on notice.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported today that in-camera evidence from Brett Whitworth, the local government deputy secretary, to a parliamentary committee alleged Hoenig spoke five times about the submission being compiled for the NCAT case against Saravinovski.
Saravinovski, who spent 40 years on Rockdale and Bayside councils, was dumped from Labor’s ticket just weeks before the local government elections. In February, NCAT found Saravinovski guilty of misconduct on three grounds and issued a reprimand.
National Park reopens as police say Dezi Freeman might have left the area
A national park shut down during the hunt for Australia’s most wanted man has reopened, as police say accused cop killer Dezi Freeman might have left the area, AAP reports.
Mount Buffalo national park partially reopened to the public on Tuesday, seven weeks after officers Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart were shot dead while serving a warrant at Freeman’s home in Porepunkah, 300km north-east of Melbourne.
There has been no sign of Freeman since the shooting on 26 August, when the 56-year-old was last seen fleeing into bushland shortly after the shooting.
Hundreds of Victoria police officers and specialist resources from across Australia and New Zealand have been involved in the search, including in large areas of the Mount Buffalo national park.
Victoria police today said their investigations had given them the confidence to reopen the park, although some areas remained off limits.
Despite the park’s reopening, Commissioner Mike Bush said finding Freeman was one of the force’s top priorities.
