Finance Minister Katy Gallagher denies accusations she misled Parliament about knowledge she had regarding Brittany Higgins' rape allegation.
Leaked texts suggest Senator Gallagher was told about Ms Higgins' accusation before it was publicly known, despite appearing to tell a Senate Estimates hearing that she had no prior knowledge of it.
Senator Gallagher says she was responding to a specific accusation from Liberal senator Linda Reynolds that she had known of the story two weeks before its release to the media, which she says was not true.
Senator Gallagher since admitted she was told about the allegation a few days before it went public, but denies that she misled Parliament or had any involvement with making the story public.
The Senator says the opposition's attack on her and Ms Higgins' is damaging to women.
"We want Parliament House to be one that sets an example for other workplaces and that if staff experienced harassment or assault that they feel supported and confident enough to come forward and report it. The events of the past week with the media coverage the questions surrounding the publication of a young woman's personal phone records that had been provided for use in a court splashed across TV and newspaper with opposition members giddy with the coverage has done nothing but seriously damaged this confidence."
Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison also denied he possibly mislead Parliament about what he knew about Ms Higgins' allegation.
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More charges are expected to be laid against a driver accused of being responsible for one of Australia's worst bus crashes, which killed ten wedding guests and injured dozens more.
Brett Button is currently charged with ten counts of dangerous driving causing death in the New South Wales Hunter region after a bus crashed in foggy conditions on Sunday.
Nine of the 35 passengers died at the scene, while a tenth died a short time later on the way to hospital.
The 58-year-old has been granted bail today with the judge considering Mr Button’s need to provide family support to his two children.
His lawer, Chris O’Brien, told reporters that his client was happy to be going home.
Reporter: "Have you spoken with your client?"
O'Brien: "I've spoken to my client. He's happy to be going home."
Reporter: "How's he doing?"
O'Brien: "He's doing okay. Under all of the circumstances, he's holding up very well."
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The federal government has agreed to amend parts of its signature housing policy to appease the Greens, but they still won't support the government's bill.
The Greens have been holding out their support for the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund bill.
They are demanding $2.5 billion of direct funding into affordable and social housing each year and a national freeze on rent increases.
The government has now agreed to lift the cap on spending and has guaranteed a fixed disbursement of $500 million per year from 2024-25 and indexed from 2029-30, the year proposed by multiple stakeholders to the Senate inquiry on the bill.
They will also allow for the yearly disbursement amount to be increased in the future by the Treasurer and Minister for Finance.
Greens Housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather says all the government has offered is a glaring loophole.
"All they're offering now is not spending any money for 12 months and then $500 million in 12 months time and then locking in real term cuts to that funding for the next six years because they haven't indexed it. Our deep frustration is Labor have yet to move on our two key issues we have been talking about ad nauseam for eight months. Firstly, real extra guaranteed funding for public and affordable housing and money on the table to incentivise a freeze on rent increases."
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A man has been charged with murder in Western Australia following the death of a young police officer.
28-year-old Constable Anthony Woods was placed in an induced coma and later died, after being run over in Perth.
Constable Woods had been following a car, allegedly bearing stolen number plates in the city's east at about 1am on Thursday.
Reagan Ainsley Chown has been charged with multiple offences including committing an act intended to prevent arrest which caused grievous bodily harm and reckless driving to escape police pursuit.
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In rugby league,
New South Wales has made five changes to its side for next week's game two of the State of Origin series in Brisbane.
Parramatta halfback Mitchell Moses replaces an injured Nathan Cleary at halfback, whilst South Sydney's Damien Cook returns to the side at hooker to replace the injured Api Koorisau.
The Wests Tigers' Stefano Utoikamanu replaces Tevita Pangai Junior in the forwards, whilst North Queensland's Reece Robson replaces Nicho Hynes in the utility role.
Latrell Mitchell returns from injury to take Stephen Crichton's place at centre.
New South Wales must win game two to have a chance of winning the series, after Queensland was victorious in game one last month.
