Australia news live: Higgins and Reynolds in defamation mediation talks; first apparent lithium battery-related fire deaths in NSW | Australian politics

The Greens have described Australia’s political system as one of “legalised bribery” after a government-chaired committee knocked back its attempts to introduce laws that would ban corporate donors from donating for 12 months while they apply for government contracts.

The Greens senator, Larissa Waters, introduced the bill last September, saying it sought “to prevent donors from swaying donations in their favour”.

But the committee recommended the bill not pass, noting that witnesses, including respected academic Anne Twomey, said the bill makes the “unjustified assumption that every donation is made for corrupt purposes and corrupt advantage”.

The committee chair, Labor senator Louise Pratt, described the bill’s proposed tweaks as “overreach”:

The committee views the bill’s approach to preventing donations to a governing party as overreach without demonstrating that those donations are intended to improperly influence a government decision, while simultaneously disregarding the potential for corrupt influence in donations made to other non-governing parties and independents.

Waters responded she was “incredulous but perhaps not shocked” that the “big political party duopoly” would reject her proposal to stop “political access and political influence” being bought by big donors in the Greens’ dissenting report.

The Queensland Greens senator pointed to donations made by consulting firms and mining companies as examples of corporations gaining advantage after handing money to political parties:

This bill is one small step towards getting big money out of politics and restoring public confidence in our democracy. This reform, among a suite of others, are sorely needed.

Henry Belot

Asio declines to comment on Paul Keating’s ‘latest contribution’

The domestic spy agency has declined to comment on criticism from former prime minister Paul Keating, albeit with an interesting grammatical emphasis.

In a statement, Keating accused Asio director general, Mike Burgess, of running “a goon show” and seeking to undermine Australia’s diplomatic relationship with China.

Keating’s criticism is a response to Asio’s decision to reveal a foreign intelligence service had recruited a former Australian politician. While Burgess and Asio have repeatedly refused to name the intelligence service, Nine Newspapers have linked the saga to “a division of China’s Ministry of State Security devoted to Australia”.

Keating accused Burgess of being a “resident conjurer” for the “kabuki show” and someone who had displayed “utter contempt for the so-called stabilisation process that the prime minister had decided upon and has progressed with China”.

When contacted for a response to Keating’s statement, an Asio spokesperson said:

We will not comment on Mr Keating’s latest ‘contribution’.

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Former political staffer Brittany Higgins and her fiance, David Sharaz, have attended mediation in Perth in an attempt to settle the ongoing defamation dispute brought against them by Liberal senator Linda Reynolds.

The former defence minister is suing Higgins and Sharaz over a series of social media posts that she says have damaged her reputation.

The couple left Australia in December to start a new life in France, but on Tuesday appeared at the David Malcolm Justice centre in Perth.

Lawyers for the parties appeared in the Western Australian supreme court last month to determine key dates in preparation for a trial should the mediation session fail.

Justice Marcus Solomon encouraged the parties to work together to resolve the matter. The mediation session is closed to the public and media.

Reynolds is suing Sharaz over tweets he made and a Facebook comment in 2022.

Reynolds claims the tweets were defamatory as they implied she put pressure on Higgins not to proceed with a genuine complaint to police, “is a hypocrite in her advocacy for women’s interests and empowerment”, interfered in Bruce Lehrmann’s trial, and bullied Higgins.

Reynolds claims she was also defamed by Sharaz’s reply to a comment on her Facebook page relating to her treatment of Higgins.

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Higgins is accused of posting defamatory material on two occasions on her Instagram and X accounts.

– AAP

WA to offer free RSV immunisation for babies

Melissa Davey

Western Australia will become the first jurisdiction in Australia to offer free immunisation against RSV for infants.

RSV, a common and contagious respiratory virus, is the leading cause of hospitalisation in Australian children under five years.

Symptoms can be mild through to life-threatening, and it often affects otherwise healthy babies. One quarter of those infants hospitalised require intensive care.

Babies aged under eight months, or up to 19 months for those at increased risk of severe RSV, can be immunised in WA from April. It comes after the drug, called Beyfortus, was approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in November.

Director of the Immunisation Foundation of Australia, Catherine Hughes, said: WA:

[WA] was one of the first to adopt a maternal whooping cough immunisation program, the first to provide influenza vaccines for children, and will now be the first to protect all infants against severe RSV.

The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) Western Australia chair, Dr Ramya Raman, said Beyfortus uses monoclonal antibodies to supplement the body’s immune response. The drug is administered via a single injection.

In clinical trials, Beyfortus has been shown to reduce the number of children hospitalised with RSV-associated infections by 83%. It has already been used widely in Europe and the United States.

Raman said:

RSV must be taken seriously.

My message to families is to please be patient when contacting your local practice to secure a vaccination. This announcement has only just been made and rolling out the program may take time.

Henry Belot

Malaysian PM ‘dropped a huge rock’ in Penny Wong’s pond: Keating

Former prime minister Paul Keating has accused Malaysia’s leader of dropping “a huge rock into [foreign minister] Penny Wong’s pond”.

On Monday, Anwar Ibrahim expanded on his previous comments about a rise of “China-phobia” in the west. Alongside the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, Anwar said that if other nations had a problem with China, “they should not impose it upon us”:

We do not have a problem with China.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Keating said Anwar’s comments demonstrated the differing views on China within south-east Asia:

Anwar is making it clear Malaysia for its part is not buying United States hegemony in east Asia – with states being lobbied to ringfence China on the way through. That difficult task, the maintenance of US strategic hegemony, is being left to supplicants like us.

What this week’s Asean meeting makes clear is that Australia and Australian policy is at odds with the general tenor of Asean’s perceived strategic interests – that is, interests which relate to China and the United States and relations between them.“

Emily Wind

Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, Stephanie Convery will take you through the rest of today’s rolling coverage. Take care.

Paul Keating accuses Asio of undermining diplomatic relations with China

Henry Belot

Anthony Albanese has flatly rejected former prime minister Paul Keating’s criticism of the domestic intelligence agency, which he alleges is destabilising Australia’s relationship with China.

In a statement issued today, Keating noted reporting by the Nine newspapers which linked the alleged recruitment of a former politician to “a division of China’s Ministry of State Security devoted to Australia”. The story said Asio boss, Mike Burgess, had repeatedly refused to name any overseas intelligence agency.

Here’s part of Keating’s statement:

The kabuki show runs thus: Burgess drops the claim, then out of nowhere, the Herald and The Age miraculously appear to solve the mystery – the villain, as it turns out, is China after all. The anti-China Australian strategic policy establishment was feeling some slippage in its mindless pro-American stance and decided some new China rattling was overdue.

Keating also addressed this criticism to Burgess and other national security officials:

These people display utter contempt for the so-called stabilisation process that the prime minister had decided upon and has progressed with China. And will do anything to destabilise any meaningful rapprochement.

During a press conference on the sidelines of the Asean summit, Albanese was asked about Keating’s statement and whether the actions of Asio had threatened diplomatic relations with China. He was also asked if Australia was sending mixed messages to Beijing. His response was curt:

No.

Asio has been contacted for a response to Keating’s statement.

Fire and Rescue NSW is urging caution after what appears to be the state’s first recorded deaths in a lithium-ion battery-related fire last week.

Around 4am on Thursday, four people were inside a townhouse at Teralba, in Lake Macquarie, when a fire broke out. FRNSW investigators believe a battery was compromised and went into “thermal runway” – a process where a lithium-ion cell overheats and gives off toxic gases before exploding in flames.

A statement from FRNSW said two occupants escaped but two were killed, with their bodies recovered from the unstable ruins on Friday and Saturday. Police are working to formally identify the victims and prepare a report for the coroner, who will formally determine the cause of the deaths.

FRNSW is regarding this as the first deaths in the state due to a lithium-ion battery-related fire, and said in a statement:

According to the latest FRNSW statistics, there have been 45 lithium-Ion battery-related fires in NSW so far this year, or five incidents a week.

There were 269 such fires in this state last year at the same weekly rate.

FRNSW is reinforcing its public warnings about the dangers of such batteries when comprised, damaged or allowed to overheat. Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said:

These fires are extremely intense and volatile, even our firefighters find putting them out challenging because they burn so hot.