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Anthony Albanese meets Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi in New York
Tom McIlroy
Anthony Albanese has met Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, at the United Nations – the first time the pair have been together since Albanese’s comments about melons in a controversial podcast.
The PM has repeatedly rejected suggestions he made offensive comments about a gift of two melons from Takaichi on the Bush Deep podcast in early July. Japan’s ambassador to Australia downplayed any possible offence and said Tokyo had been reassured by the Australian government that Albanese’s comments had been misunderstood.
Albanese wrote on social media, in a post that included a photo with world leaders including Takaichi:
Working with our international partners. Standing up for Australian interests. Finding global solutions to global challenges.
Australia’s voice matters at the United Nations. And it’s here that we’re delivering for Australians back home.
While in New York, Albanese has met Britain’s Andy Burnham, the French president Emmanuel Macron, Pedro Sanchez of Spain and the US president Donald Trump.
Key events
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Inner west council to ban AI smartglasses in public facilities
Sydney’s inner west council has moved to ban smartglasses and other wearable recording devices in its facilities, including pools, change rooms, childcare centres and public toilets.
Inner west councillor Kerrie Fergusson said that the technology is likely “just the beginning of many new challenges for local councils”.
For people with vision or hearing impairments, they offer a new level of independence. But they can also discreetly record high-definition video and live-stream, creating genuine privacy concerns …
This isn’t tearing down new technology like a bunch of 19th-century luddites, but ensuring AI technology properly serves our community without compromising its privacy or civil liberties.
Council staff have been asked to report back on how the ban will be implemented, including conditions of entry and signage requirements.
Exemptions will be provided to people who rely on the technology as accessibility devices.
As reported earlier this morning, smartglasses could soon be banned across Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches Coogee, Clovelly and Maroubra under a motion put forward to Randwick council. It has already banned the technology at the Des Renford leisure centre, citing “growing community concerns” about their potential misuse.
It also follows City of Sydney councillors voting to ban smartglasses at council gyms, childcare centres and pools on Monday.
Police appeal for information after Wagyu cow ‘unlawfully’ shot and butchered in Queensland
Detectives from Queensland’s Rural and Stock Crime Squad are appealing for public information, after a Wagyu cow was “unlawfully shot and butchered for meat” on a property in Queensland.
Police believe trespassers entered the property in Farnborough on 13 or 14 June.
Investigators urge anyone who noticed suspicious activity or captured dashcam footage along Fishing Creek Road, off Farnborough Road, between 13 and 16 June to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
Parenting advocate Georgie Dent tells National Press Club that Australians should get 52 weeks paid parental leave
More on the national press club address today by Georgie Dent, Parenthood chief executive …
Dent cited Treasury data showing that having children reduces the earnings of Australian women by an average of 55% over the first five years of parenthood.
Dent said families need two incomes to stay afloat in the current economy and even with both parents working, they have less breathing room in their household budget.
For many families it feels like a cruel game of whack-a-mole …
For parents of young children seeking to raise and provide for their family one obstacle towers over the others: early childhood education and care.
Too many face an impossible bind. They cannot access it, they cannot afford it, or they cannot trust what is available. This isn’t perceived: the options families have are largely determined by what the market has delivered.
Dent will call for a policy pathway from government for the provision of 52 weeks of paid parental leave, up from 26 weeks currently paid for by taxpayers, and meaningful parental leave for fathers and partners.
The speech comes after Monday’s intergenerational report showed that, for the first time, more Australians will be dying than being born in 40 years’ time.
Read more here:
Press Club says it will never ban journalists from ‘doing their job’
The host of today’s national press club momentarily interrupted question time to say it will never ban journalists from “doing their job”.
Just another message, we’re going to depart for our theme for a second.
[There is] a lot of news at the moment, and in recent months, about journalists not being able to, you know, attend press conferences, et cetera.
Just a note on behalf of the national press club that no journalists will ever be banned from doing their job here.
The message was greeted by applause, before returning to the topic of childcare costs.
This press club comment comes after US president Donald Trump banned journalists from CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House.
In Australia, the ABC and the Guardian have called on One Nation to reverse its ban on select media outlets from press conferences amid warnings the party is practising censorship and actively avoiding public scrutiny. Journalist Peter Greste has written for Guardian Australia about how these circumstances show “why Australia urgently needs a media freedom bill”:
Anthony Albanese meets Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi in New York
Tom McIlroy
Anthony Albanese has met Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, at the United Nations – the first time the pair have been together since Albanese’s comments about melons in a controversial podcast.
The PM has repeatedly rejected suggestions he made offensive comments about a gift of two melons from Takaichi on the Bush Deep podcast in early July. Japan’s ambassador to Australia downplayed any possible offence and said Tokyo had been reassured by the Australian government that Albanese’s comments had been misunderstood.
Albanese wrote on social media, in a post that included a photo with world leaders including Takaichi:
Working with our international partners. Standing up for Australian interests. Finding global solutions to global challenges.
Australia’s voice matters at the United Nations. And it’s here that we’re delivering for Australians back home.
While in New York, Albanese has met Britain’s Andy Burnham, the French president Emmanuel Macron, Pedro Sanchez of Spain and the US president Donald Trump.
Plan to shift $4bn of NDIS spending snagging on lone holdout state
Health minister Mark Butler says he is frustrated that Queensland is the only state or territory not to sign up to the government’s Thriving Kids program, a week before the first phase is due to begin.
The health minister told ABC Radio on Wednesday:
I’m a little frustrated they haven’t signed because all other states and territories, Liberal and Labor alike, CLP government in the NT has signed on.
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, was shirking a responsibility he had previously promised to accept, according to Butler. He said:
I can’t imagine a Queensland government that, for the next 15 months, would sit on its hands and pretend it does not have a very serious obligation to follow the rest of the country.
Frankly [it should] implement commitments that the premier made at the national cabinet meeting earlier this year.
Tory Shepherd
Gus Lamont’s parents make teary plead for information about missing boy
Gus’s parents, Josh Lamont and Jess Murray, have spoken in a video shown by police.
Williams said Gus was “learning so much and had such a bright future ahead of him”:
He should have celebrated his fifth birthday and his little brother’s first birthday with us.
Lamont thanked family, friends, the community and those who were part of the search for Gus, and said:
We believe someone knows something. Someone knows what happened to Gus. Someone knows where he is.
Fielke emphasised that neither of them are suspects and vowed to keep searching for answers.
Police offer $1m reward for information about missing boy Gus Lamont
Tory Shepherd
A $1m reward for information about missing four-year-old Gus Lamont is on offer, as police say they have found no evidence to suggest he is still alive.
It has been almost a year since four-year-old Gus went missing from his family’s enormous sheep farm in the South Australian outback.
He was last seen playing outside at 5pm on Saturday 27 September. Half an hour later, he was gone.
His disappearance sparked one of the biggest searches the state has ever undertaken, with new searches launched as new information or theories came to light.
Volunteers, police, emergency service and defence personnel, along with dogs and divers and drones scoured the 60,000 hectare Oak Park Station, about 300km inland from Adelaide.
One of the biggest moments in the saga came in February this year, when the South Australian police declared his disappearance a major crime, and said they had identified a suspect.
Det Supt Darren Fielke said at the time they had effectively ruled out Gus wandering off or being abducted, and that they were now investigating someone in his household.
The suspect was not one of his parents, Fielke said.
The SA premier, Peter Malinauskas, said they stand ready to do “everything they can” to help police. He said it would go to anyone who had information leading to a body or a conviction. He said it was a “crystal clear” message:
If you know something you’ve gotta speak.
The disappearance of Gus Lamont has deeply shocked and saddened all South Australians. I cannot imagine the anguish that Gus’s parents Jess and Josh are going through, and my thoughts remain with them.
Fielke said the police would do everything they could “to locate Gus and reunite him with his family”.
Police arrest Melbourne man who allegedly pledged allegiance to Isis
Counter-terrorism police have arrested a Melbourne man, who they allege acted as an Isis propagandist.
The 65-year-old was arrested during a raid of a home in Carlton this morning.
Police allege he pledged allegiance to Isis and has played a significant role in spreading propaganda for the terrorist group, sending about 10,000 files of violent extremist material.
The man is alleged to have shared information about avoiding detection from authorities and instructions on how to plan and conduct mass casualty attacks.
AFP acting assistant commissioner counter-terrorism, Paula Hudson, spoke to reporters just after midday.
We will allege the videos, photographs, audio files and documents contain messages relating to current content, being executions, mass murder, torture and propaganda ….
Let me be clear, terrorist propaganda is not harmless online content. Terrorist organisations like Isis rely on online platforms to distribute propaganda and recruit supporters.
Hudson added that police launched an investigation after Australian Border Force officers found suspicious material on electronic devices seized as the man flew out of Melbourne.
She said the man was a “principal distributor of Isis propaganda within the group”.
The man lives with his wife and is an Australian citizen, according to police.
