TRANSCRIPT
- Penny Wong seeks further evidence U-N staff were involved in the Hamas attacks on the 7th of October
- A 4.3 magnitude earthquake has struck Victoria waking thousands
- Australia claims their first swimming gold medal at the aquatic world championships
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Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says she's seeking more evidence from Israel amid allegations United Nations aid staff were involved in the Hamas attacks of October 7.
The decision to suspend funding was made after allegations were raised some UN Relief and Works agency staff were involved in the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7 last year.
Ms Wong says she's talked with the agency following reports an Israeli dossier relied upon to suspend funding contained no evidence its staff were involved.
The Australian government considers Hamas a terror organisation and has paused funding while the claims were investigated.
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A magnitude 4.3 earthquake has ratttled Melbourne and many parts of Victoria.
The quake struck in the early hours [[about 12.50 am]] with its epicentre near the South Gippsland town of Leongatha.
Several other tremors have been reported in Victoria over the past year.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has condemned any form of anti-Semitism as well as Islamophobic comments and behaviour.
It follows increased concern of discrimination between Jewish and Muslim communities during the Israel-Hamas war.
This includes Greens MP, Jenny Leong apologising for using "offensive" comments on Jewish and Zionist groups at a pro-Palestinian forum in December last year.
"I condemn, totally, any form of anti-Semitism, including - including the comments by my local member, with regard to the Jewish community, I find offensive, I find it had its origins in anti-Semitism, and I condemn it unequivocally. Hear hear, Just as I condemn forms of, hear. that I have seen, Islamophobic comments and behaviour as well."
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Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister says once their country becomes a better place Australia will live in a better region.
James Marape's speech to the Australian National University highlighted further goals the country hopes to achieve, including better healthcare services.
Mr Marape says there has been greater improvements to healthcare, which he believes can be more helpful across the Pacific.
"We envisage I'm being very bold, hold me to my word. This time next year we envisage to do kidney transplants in Port Moresby General Hospital. I made a pledge that when I took office that by 2025 we don't want to export medical patients, today I want to announce that we're receiving patients from Solomon Islands and other Pacific Islands they're coming to Port Moresby for heart and deep endiogram testings."
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Casual workers, rideshare drivers and employees being hassled after hours are the biggest winners under wide-ranging changes to industrial relations laws.
The Albanese government's Closing the Loopholes bill has passed the Senate by 32 votes to 29, after the introduction of a right to disconnect secured support from the crossbench and the Greens.
Business groups and the coalitions have criticised the reforms, which redefine casual employment and introduce minimum standards for gig workers, arguing they will add unnecessary cost and complexity to operations
Greens senator Barbara Pocock, who championed the addition of the right to disconnect, told the Senate it was a long-needed and important advance in Australian labor law.
"Expecting a worker to stand up alone to their boss when they receive a call. They have no control, they have no back up to say no to their boss. They may never get another shift if they even raise a question about it, and this amendment may give those workers a bit of a backup which is exactly what they need to get some control and boundary around their working time."
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Advocates for Indigenous Australians have called on federal, state and territory governments to do better to improve Indigenous outcomes.
This comes after the Productivity Commission's first three-yearly review of government action on the national Closing the Gap agreement found progress was weak.
The review found measures focusing on increasing life expectancy, reducing over-representation in prison and improving access to education and employment are all falling behind, fifteen years after the framework was launched in 2008.
Denise Bowden, CEO of the Yothu Yindi Foundation, based in northeast Arnhem Land, has told the NITV governments need to "get on" with actioning the recommendations and implementations that have already been made.
"We can not stagnate on this as a nation. We're seeing here in the Northern Territory, education measures, we're seeing youth justice, I mean this is going to impact youth justice level, I don't think this is responsible for our children and our grandchildren."
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Australia has claimed its first swimming gold medal at the aquatic world championships in the Qatari capital of Doha.
The team of four clinched a nail-biting win the 4 by 1500 metre mixed open-water event.
They were able to beat Italy by two-tenths of a second.
West Australian Kyle Lee touched in a time of one-hour-three-minutes 28 seconds.
