Australia news live: Wakeley bishop says church stabbing video should not be censored, court hears | Australia news

Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, Elias Visontay will guide you through the rest of today’s rolling coverage. Take care.

Police to address media about joint counter-terrorism raids across Sydney

NSW deputy commissioner David Hudson and AFP deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett will address the media this afternoon about the search warrants executed in Sydney by the joint counter-terrorism team.

AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw earlier confirmed the raids were in relation to the Wakeley church stabbing.

The press conference will be held at 4pm, and we will bring you the latest here on the blog once that begins.

Elon Musk v Jacqui Lambie saga continues

The Elon Musk v Jacqui Lambie saga is continuing, with the independent senator stating Musk should “put his big boy pants on and do the right thing”.

Lambie posted on Instagram (not X, as she deleted her account yesterday) reiterating her call for Musk to delete 65 tweets relating to the Wakeley church stabbing, as requested by the eSafety commissioner.

Lambie shared a photo of herself wearing face paint and wrote:

Elon Musk should put his big boy pants on and do the right thing – but he won’t because he has no social conscience.

This comes after X boss Musk called Lambie the “enemy of the people of Australia” in a tweet overnight, and stated that she has “utter contempt for the Australian people” in another tweet.

Woodside Energy has suffered a sharp rebuke of its climate credentials after the company conceded it was “unlikely to receive majority support” for its emissions plans at its annual general meeting today.

Woodside chair Richard Goyder told shareholders in Perth:

The board will seriously consider the outcome when reviewing our approach to climate change. We take the shareholder feedback seriously.

The result will represent the strongest protest vote recorded against any of the dozens of listed companies around the world that regularly put climate-related resolutions to shareholders.

Climate reports outline how a company plans to align operations with rising environmental concerns.

While they are subject to non-binding votes, and therefore don’t automatically trigger a policy change, they are a way for shareholders to express their disapproval, placing pressure on directors to change direction.

The voting results will be disclosed shortly.

Families of two Australians missing in Taiwan want search resumed ‘once its safe’

The families of two Australians reported missing during an earthquake in Taiwan earlier this month have called for the search and rescue operation to resume “once it is safe to do so”.

Australians Issac Sim Hwee Kok and Ann Neo Siew Choo were holidaying in Taiwan but were caught up in the earthquake that struck on 3 April.

The search to find the pair was under way but paused on 12 April “when it became dangerous for the rescue teams to operate”, a statement from the families said.

The families dearly want them to be found but cannot allow this to be at the risk of someone else’s life … We ask that they resume the search and rescue operation once it is safe to do so. However, we also ask that they do so by always putting their own safety first.

In a statement, the families thanked every member of the Hualien County Fire Department, and the search and rescue dogs, for their “dedication and tireless efforts” regarding the search.

The families thanked numerous other agencies for their assistance during the search including local police and the Australian office in Taipei.

The bishop who was allegedly stabbed in his Sydney church has written an affidavit for Elon Musk’s X arguing that the video of his alleged stabbing last week should not be censored as the Australian online safety regulator has ordered, the federal court has heard.

X’s legal representative Marcus Hoyne told the federal court in a case management hearing this afternoon that X would need to put on a lot of documents in the case over the eSafety ordered takedown of 65 tweets of the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at a Wakeley church last week.

Hoyne indicated X had obtained an affidavit from the bishop that the footage should be available. He also said the case was “above his paygrade” and X was approaching barrister Bret Walker SC for the case.

Justice Geoffrey Kennett extended the interim injunction ordering the posts be hidden from view until 5pm 10 May 2024, when the court will hold an injunction hearing.

Counsel for the eSafety commissioner, Christopher Tran, said the current order had not been complied with.

Hoyne said there were significant legal issues to do with eSafety’s powers over content overseas to be dealt with:

I’m not dealing with the political or media issues here. I’m just dealing with the legal issues.

Universities Australia backs calls for government to ease burden of student loans

The peak body for the tertiary sector has backed calls for the federal government to ease the burden of student loans after today’s revelations debts will rise by 4.8% in June.

Ceo of Universities Australia Luke Sheehy said the commonwealth’s recent consideration of changes to Hecs/Help payments was welcome in light of the increase:

Universities are very supportive of the government’s focus on changing the way student repayments are made … we recognise young people are facing increasing cost-of-living pressures and have called for targeted support for students in the May budget.

Help has led to a significant expansion of the university system, and it is essential that we continue to open the door to university for more Australians as our need for graduates grows.

Today’s CPI figures showed that millions of Australians with student loans will be hit by increases of more than $1,000 in June. Here’s an explainer (from last year) on how Hecs/Help loans are linked to CPI:

Westpac among those pushing back expected first RBA rate cut

The slightly higher than expected March quarter inflation rate confirmed Australia is likely to face a gradual – rather than sudden – slowdown in price increases. Much like the US, UK and so on.

Banks that had been tipping the first Reserve Bank interest rate cut to land in September are likely to pare back those expectations. Westpac has become the first, and now expects the first cut to come in the following RBA board meeting in November.

(CBA had forecast rate cuts in the September, November and December RBA meetings that round out 2024. It was also among the more dovish about today’s inflation figures, tipping a 0.7% quarter on quarter result and 3.4% annual paces – versus the 1% and 3.6% actual result.)

David Bassanese, BetaShares economist, had a slightly more gloomy take, saying “another interest rate rise can no longer be safely ruled out”. Still, he’s “anticipating” at least one RBA rate cut this year, but now “much closer to Christmas than mid-year”.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, meanwhile, said inflation had “almost halved” since the government took office, but was “still too high”.

The budget next month will focus on easing cost of living pressures, not adding to them.

That won’t be so easy, though.

While energy rebates, childcare and rental assistance have kept some inflation indicators more subdued than they would otherwise have been, that help isn’t neutral. Extra money in the pocket/e-wallet typically gets spent somewhere.

Woodside chair Richard Goyder has been re-elected to the board after defending against a push from shareholders who sought to remove him over the company’s climate credentials.

He was re-elected with more than 80% of votes cast in his favour, according to early results displayed at the annual general meeting in Perth today.

Goyder said in his opening address that the oil and gas company was committed to conducting its business in a sustainable manner. He told shareholders:

This means responding to climate change. It means ensuring everyone who works at Woodside goes home safely.

Our strategy is to thrive through the energy transition for the benefit of our shareholders, our employees, our communities and the environment.

Woodside is facing a significant protest vote against its climate report, with results to be disclosed later in the meeting.

Mehreen Faruqi to attend pro-Palestine occupation at Sydney University

Deputy leader of the Greens, senator Mehreen Faruqi, will be attending the ongoing occupation of the University of Sydney this afternoon.

The sit-in, attended by students and staff, began yesterday evening in solidarity with similar actions in the US calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and university divestments from Israel.

Faruqi told Guardian Australia the movement for justice for Palestine was “sweeping the world”.

From Columbia University to Gadigal land at Sydney Uni, the momentum is shifting. And we know that it is inevitable that Palestine will be free. The Greens are with the students and the staff who are doing this Gaza solidarity encampment and asking for universities to divest from Israel.

New South Wales premier Chris Minns has launched an urgent review to determine if the government should reform bail laws related to domestic violence, following the killing of a young mother in regional NSW whose alleged murderer was released on bail on a slew of serious charges in the days before her death.

Childcare worker and mother Molly Ticehurst, 28, was found dead inside her home at Forbes, in central-western NSW, on Monday. Her former partner Daniel Billings, accused of raping and stalking her in the months before the killing, has been charged with her murder.

On Wednesday, Minns said he has instructed the state’s attorney general, Michael Daley, to seek urgent advice from the crown advocate David Kell SC “to determine whether urgent law reform is required in relation to bail laws in state”.

The advice will look at the role of registrars when it comes to bail application matters, particularly on the weekend and in regional communities. It will also relate to decisions made in the lead up to Ticehurst’s death.

Minns said:

The system has clearly let down Molly … The status quo isn’t working.

Minns said he expects to receive the advice back by the end of May.

Federal court hearing in eSafety case against Elon Musk’s X over tweets of Wakeley stabbing video

The federal court will hold a case management hearing at 2.15pm today in the case eSafety has brought against Elon Musk’s X over the company refusing to remove tweets of the video of the Wakeley stabbing attack.

An interim injunction issued on Monday ordered X to hide the tweets behind a notice globally, not just geo-block from access in Australia. The injunction is currently due to expire at 5pm today, and the hearing will likely focus on whether to extend the injunction pending a further hearing.

Guardian Australia has confirmed many of the 65 tweets X was told by eSafety to take down remain available outside Australia.

NSW police note findings of inquest into death of man shot by police

New South Wales police say it has noted the findings of an inquest into the death of a man who was shot by police three times while experiencing a psychosis and will review the recommendations.

Todd McKenzie, 40, was suffering from a psychosis when he was shot three times by police in his Taree home in 2019 following a nine-hour siege after police responded to reports he was on the street yelling and holding a knife.

Deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame deemed in her judgement the “police operations which ended Todd’s life was flawed in a number of significant respects.”

Grahame recommended NSW police catch up to other states and require its tactical police officers – which are tasked with responding to high risk incidents – wear body worn cameras. The judgement also recommended a review and audit of police training in responding to mental health incidents every two years.

More on this story here:

Reece Kershaw says the AFP is reviewing material relating to the Bruce Lehrmann criminal trial and how Brittany Higgins text messages came to be released to channel 7’s Spotlight program “to see if it meets threshold for investigation”.

He was asked if the texts were under investigation from the AFP and if so, when could a conclusion be expected? Kershaw:

I’ve seen reports of that. We are reviewing that material and that case as we speak … Without me getting technical, it is not an investigation, it would be reviewing the material to see if there is a threshold for an investigation.

Kershaw quizzed on how often encryption legislation is utilised by AFP

Our very own Paul Karp has asked Reece Kershaw about how often “urgent” legislation around encryption has been used – it was introduced more than five years ago.

Karp said that technical assistance requests (voluntary cooperation from tech companies) had been used 66 times in the last financial year, but the compulsory powers (technical assistance notices and technical capability notices) haven’t been used at all by agencies.

So, why ask the tech companies for more cooperation instead of escalating and using the powers that already exist to compel it?

Kershaw responded:

I think you’ll see in this financial year, a 100% increase on that zero! That’s one thing I’ll say.

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I don’t want to go into details of that but you know, it goes back to the tech companies – we just want what we currently had as far as that arrangement of them being able to share material and referrals to us that we can act on. So we don’t know what we’d need to request if it goes dark, if you understand what I mean.

Karp: But 100% of zero is zero. So are you actually going to issue a technical assistance notice and technical capability notice?

Kershaw: “What I’m saying is that I’m aware that there has already been one issue recently.”

Mike Burgess added:

I will use the law if I need to, but I’m asking for their help.

Asio involved in raids being carried out in Sydney in relation to Wakeley stabbing

Mike Burgess says Asio is involved in the raids being carried out in Sydney today, as a member of the joint-counter terrorism team.

He said:

My officers are connected and involved and embedded inside the joint counter-terrorism team. And on the back end, Australia’s security services are always doing its thing to provide security intelligence that enables the police to deal with these problems when we have immediate threats to life or anything else that’s evolving.

AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw confirmed there is a “major operation in Sydney” under way currently by the counter-terrorism team.

Speaking at the press club he was asked about counter-terrorism from a policing perspective and said:

We get across these matters pretty quickly, like we have right now, and there is a major operation right now in Sydney.

Are these relations in relation to the Wakeley attack?

Kershaw responded “yes” but did not provide more information.