The Prime Minister responds to a letter from the family of an imprisoned man in Beijing, An emotional plea from Doctors Without Borders for a ceasefire in Gaza, and Melbourne City coach Rado Vidosic fired early in the A-League season.
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TRANSCRIPT
- The Prime Minister responds to a letter from the family of an imprisoned man in Beijing.
- An emotional plea from Doctors Without Borders for a ceasefire in Gaza.
- And in football, Melbourne City coach Rado Vidosic is fired early in the A-League season.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to keep up his advocacy for Australians held in custody after he received a letter from the children of a man imprisoned in Beijing urging him to bring their father home.
Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun was arrested in August 2019 on suspicion of espionage and has spent more than four years in a Beijing prison.
The academic's two sons in Australia have renewed their pleas after last week receiving a letter from their detained father.
Mr Albanese says he has responded to the family and was sympathetic to their concerns.
"I informed the family that I approved a draft this morning to go to the family who wrote to me just indicating that I had raised the issue previously and that we will always raise these issues and make representations on behalf of Australians and we're very sympathetic and understand the concerns that they would have."
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Israeli airstrikes have hit a densely populated refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 50 Palestinians and allegedly a Hamas commander, with doctors struggling to treat the casualties.
Israeli tanks have been in Gaza for at least four days following weeks of relentless air bombardments in retaliation to an attack by Hamas militants on October 7 and the taking of more than 200 hostages.
Palestinian health officials say at least 50 Palestinians were killed in the refugee camp blast and over 150 wounded.
An anonymous representative from Doctors Without Borders has made an emotional plea for an immediate ceasefire to prevent more civilian casualties.
"We are living a nightmare with our eyes open. We lack basic human needs. More than a million Gazans have been displaced, including my family and I. We moved from the north to what they called the safe area south of Gaza Valley. But nowhere is safe. Massacres are being committed here. We have entire families wiped off."
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Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has outlined new rules to investigate and fire underperforming federal departmental secretaries after the failings identified in the Robodebt royal commission.
Under the new rules, it will be mandatory for secretarial roles to be merit-based appointments - following allegations secretarial appointments had been politicised by the previous Coalition government.
During Ms Gallagher's delivery of the Australian Public Service Reform review, she says more needs to be done to improve the sector.
"There is a lot of good work going on supporting a very busy government. But it is also important to admit there are areas that need to improve, and areas where we need to implement further reforms to strengthen the APS. The government recognises the Public Service has come under heavy scrutiny over the past 15 months. These reports and various recommendations show that there is more work to do to strengthen the trust, integrity and independence and capability across the APS."
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Residents and firefighters in northern New South Wales say they're facing shocking conditions as several bushfires reach rural areas and urban zones.
The full extent of the damage may not be known for some time but fire crews hope easing weather conditions will help the situation.
Tenterfield, just south of the Queensland border, has been the epicentre of firefighting efforts after seven dangerous blazes flared up in the town's north, west and south.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has encouraged residents to stay up to date with the latest advice from authorities.
"I really want to express our gratitude as well, for all of the people who are reinforcing the efforts in those affected communities people flying in from across the ditch and from around Australia to help out to give some of our local firefighters the break that they desperately need after fighting these fires for a week or more. Minister Murray Watt has been on the ground speaking with affected families and affected communities. We encourage people to stay on high alert in those parts of Queensland and northern New South Wales."
Meanwhile, more than 60 Victorian firefighters are heading north to provide welcome relief for fatigued fire crews battling numerous ferocious blazes across Queensland.
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And in football,
Melbourne City have fired coach Rado Vidosic just two games into the A-League Men's season, replacing him with Aurelio Vidmar in a caretaker position.
Vidosic paid the price for losing the first two games of the new campaign, headlined by a disastrous 6-0 hammering by Adelaide United on Sunday.
The 62-year-old guided City to the premiership last season but oversaw a 6-1 thrashing by Central Coast Mariners in the grand final.
