TRANSCRIPT:
- Politicians and groups in Australia condemn an Israeli plan for a military takeover of Gaza City;
- Optus sued over a mass data breach from three years ago;
- Western United stripped of their A-League licence.
Israel's cabinet has approved a plan from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to complete a military takeover of Gaza City, hours after he said Israel intended to take control of the entire strip.
Netanyahu's office has said in a statement that the Israeli Defence Forces will prepare to take control while also providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones.
Israeli officials have reportedly described a previous meeting this week with the head of the military as tense, saying chief Eyal Zamir had pushed back on expanding Israel's campaign.
But Netanyahu has insisted on total victory over Hamas, telling Fox News his plan is for the best.
"We don't want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter; we don't want to govern it. We don't want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving the Gazans a good life. That's not possible with Hamas."
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There's been strong reactions in Australia to the plan.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief Alex Ryvchin says Mr Netanyahu's words are welcome because it would mean the defeat of Hamas and enable the remaining hostages to be freed.
But the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network says any Israeli occupation would be a declaration of colonisation and ethnic cleansing, with Network President Nasser Mashni saying Australia must act beyond what he's called flimsy acts of diplomacy to prevent it.
The federal Opposition says the takeover plan is a matter for Israeli government, while Foreign Minister Penny Wong has urged Israel to reconsider, and that permanent forced displacement would be a violation of international law.
Minister Murray Watt says the Australian government does not support it.
"I don't have that level of detail about discussions that may or may not have occurred between the Australian government and Israeli embassy. But what I can say is that the Albanese government strongly opposes the suggestion of forced occupation of Gaza or displacement of the Palestinian people from Gaza. We do not believe that those steps would be in the interests of finding the peace in that area that I think all Australians want to see happen."
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The government and opposition have both welcomed the resignation of Gareth Ward, who quit the New South Wales parliament earlier today before a vote on his expulsion.
Speaker Greg Piper says Ward wrote to him to quit his seat just over an hour before the vote - narrowly avoiding becoming the first lower-house MP to be expelled from the state parliament in more than 100 years.
Mr Ward had earlier resisted widespread calls to resign after his conviction on sex offences.
Premier Chris Minns says Ward should have listened much earlier.
"Obviously we believe this resignation should have come earlier, and circumstances relate to it meant that a lot of time, effort and energy was spend in the New South Wales Supreme Court proving what most people who live in this state would have known instinctively, and that is that if you're convicted some of the most serious charges - sexual assault in New South Wales - you can't sit as a serving member of parliament, drawing a parliamentary salary."
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Australia's privacy commissioner has launched legal action against Optus for a 2022 data breach.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has filed proceedings in the Federal Court, alleging Optus failed to take reasonable steps to protect users' data.
The lawsuit could result in hefty fines for the telco giant.
The Federal Court can impose a civil penalty of up to $2.22 million for each contravention of the Privacy Act, and the Commissioner is alleging one breach for each of the roughly 9.5 million individuals impacted.
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New South Wales Opposition leader Mark Speakman says the $2 million in compensation for Kathleen Folbigg is "not enough".
Ms Folbigg was convicted in 2003 of killing her four children between 1989 and 1999, and was in jail till 2023 when scientific evidence cast reasonable doubt on her conviction.
Mr Speakman says he is in agreement with MS Folbigg's lawyer that the payment is inadequate.
"Compared to Ms Folbigg is Lindy Chamberlain. Lindy Chamberlain was wrongly convicted, went to jail for about three years, and received $1.7 million in compensation. That's four times per annum than Kathleen Folbigg even before you take inflation into account."
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And now for something completely different: Britain's postal service has issued stamps celebrating the absurdist comedy of Monty Python.
The Royal Mail says the 10-stamp series celebrates some of the troupe's most iconic characters and catchphrases.
Six stamps depict scenes from the sketch-comedy TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus, and another four mark the 50th anniversary of the cult classic 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
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To sport and in football news,
The Western United Football Club has lost its licence for the men and women's A- League competitions.
Football Australia's first instance board has revoked the licence, saying it has been determined United has failed to meet the criteria required.
The decision has left the embattled club on the brink of folding just three years after their first championship.
United have been unable to register players due to a FIFA ban related to an ongoing dispute with former striker Aleksandar Prijovic, and the club has also been in financial turmoil for months, with players and staff paid late in April, May and June.
