TRANSCRIPT:
- The Opposition stepping up calls for Australia's Immigration Minister to be sacked;
- Hopes fading for survivors in the P-N-G landslide;
- Victoria to introduce live tracking of greyhounds to improve industry transparency.
Greens Senator Dorinda Cox says an investigation into the actions of police before a Perth double murder needs independent oversight.
An internal inquiry has been launched after Mark Bombara's daughter Ariel said police repeatedly ignored her warnings that her father was violent before he killed the friend of his ex-wife, and her 18-year-old daughter in their Floreat home, then took his own life.
Senator Cox, a former police officer from Western Australia, says an independent investigator would be able to ask to ask "difficult questions" that sometimes an agency aren't able to pose internally.
She says it's not about blame or criticism, but improving police responses and saving the lives of women and children.
Opposition spokesperson Sussan Ley has backed those sentiments, saying women need to feel confident authorities will protect them.
"I think the police do an incredible job. It's a tough job. It's a job many people could not do. In the circumstances where all of the issues around this will be examined, it is important that we acknowledge the failures that women feel the system is making for them at this time."
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Officials say chances of finding survivors in the wake of the landslide in Papua New Guinea are now very slim.
The United Nations estimates at least 670 villagers have died so far, but it's feared at least 2000 are buried under mud and debris almost two storeys high, and covering an area that's three to four football fields wide.
Authorities fear a disease outbreak is looming at the scene of the disaster in Yambali, because of constant rain and bodies trapped beneath the debris.
International Organisation for Migration spokesperson Itayi Viriri says there are significant challenges in retrieving the bodies because of the weather and the inaccessibility of the village itself.
"Just today, this morning, one of the main thoroughfares leading to this area, a bridge there collapsed, and now they have to fix it to make sure that all the convoys that are going to provide support have access.”
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Australians may have been caught up in another major cyber security breach, this time Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that they've sighted a dark web forum post by a renowned hacker called ShinyHunters, who says they have 1.3 terabytes of customer data.
They claim the data package contains the names, addresses, emails and credit card numbers of 560 million customers across the globe.
Ticketmaster has not yet confirmed the suspected breach.
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A string of cabinet ministers have defended Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, as the Opposition continues to call for him to be sacked.
Mr Giles has come under intense pressure from the Coalition over visas issued to immigration detainees, especially this week when it emerged that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal reinstated a visa for a New Zealand man known as C-H-Y-C, who pleaded guilty to raping his stepdaughter.
Education Minister Jason Clare says this isn't what they expected or wanted.
"We want serious criminals to be deported. And it's worth making the point that ministers in this government, in the first two years of this government, have cancelled the visas of more serious offenders than the previous government did in their last two years."
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Plans are underway to establish a new federal body to oversee the environment - but conservation groups and some crossbench MPs are not happy.
Laws have been introduced into federal Parliament to set up a national protection agency, with the body given stronger enforcement powers and a mandate to examine illegal land clearing as one of its first priorities, following audits that found one-in-seven companies could be in breach of offset conditions.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has described the agency as something that will be a "tough cop on the beat" - but the Climate Council's Jennifer Rayner says the agency is unlikely to be effective.
Lock the Gate Alliance's national coordinator Carmel Flint says the laws would not do enough - an assessment Greens MP Senator Sarah Hanson Young agrees with.
"This piece of legislation isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Does nothing to stop native forest logging. It does nothing to stop coal and gas pollution. It does nothing to save native species and habitat. What's the point of it?"
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Inflation has risen in Australia once again.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics monthly consumer price index has clocked a small increase for the second month in a row, coming in at 3.6 percent.
It's largely due to increases in rents.
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Victoria is set to introduce the tracking of greyhounds in a bid to improve industry standards and transparency.
An incoming digital platform will record the health and location of registered greyhounds from birth, throughout their racing career and into retirement and death.
Racing Minister Anthony Carbines says greyhound data is currently collected manually and sits across multiple platforms.
