TRANSCRIPT:
Childcare record-keeping is under fire as police link more centres to accused sex offender Joshua Dale Brown.
More than 800 children are being urged to undergo infectious disease testing after authorities identified four additional Affinity Education-run centres where Brown previously worked.
He faces over 70 charges involving eight children under two at a Point Cook centre between April 2022 and January 2023.
The new sites include Kids Academy in Mickleham and Milestones Early Learning in Tarneit, Greensborough and Braybrook.
Education Minister Jason Clare tells Channel 7 there must be a register tracking where educators have worked.
"The company should have picked this up in the first place where this worker was. The Victorian Government and Authorities are doing everything they can to track the details of where he worked. But this highlights an example of why you need a database or a register so you know where all childcare workers are and where they're moved from centre to centre. That's just one of the things that we need to do Parliament starts again next week, I'll introduce legislation next week that will cut off funding to childcare centres that aren't up to scratch."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese Premier Li Qiang signed several trade agreements in Beijing, including one allowing Australian apples into China for the first time.
Mr Albanese also met President Xi Jinping during his six-day visit, which focused on boosting trade and stability in the relationship.
Premier Li says China and Australia have highly complementary economies and urged closer co-operation.
Mr Albanese says the agreements represent both the strong cooperation between Australia and China and a shared ambition to do even more.
"This round table is a symbol of cooperation, but it's also a sign of ambition, the cooperation that has delivered profound economic benefits for the people of both of our nations, and the ambition to build on those complementary strengths and go beyond them, to deepen and diversify our trade and business links."
Bradley John Murdoch, the man who murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio in the Australian outback, has died of throat cancer aged 67.
He was serving a life sentence without parole at Darwin Correctional Centre.
Murdoch was convicted in 2005 of killing Mr Falconio and assaulting his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, near Barrow Creek in 2001.
Ms Lees escaped and later gave key evidence, but Mr Falconio’s body was never found.
The case shocked both Australia and the UK.
His death leaves the mystery of Mr Falconio’s final resting place unsolved, for now.
In rugby union..
A combined First Nations and Pasifika team have assembled in Melbourne ahead of a match against the British and Irish Lions at Docklands Stadium next week.
Twenty players of Pasifika heritage and seven of First Nations heritage have come together for the historic game.
Assistant Coach Fa’alogo Tana Umaga says the team is about more than just rugby.
"We're a group of men, especially our groups, come together and it's the one place where we can't stop men talking. Everyone talks about men not talking. I think when they're talking about their culture you see their eyes light up and you'll see them want to talk about it. because they feel a connection to it. So I think there is something in that, in terms of helping in that space. "
