TRANSCRIPT
The makeup of the Senate for the next federal parliament has been finalised.
The Labor Party will have 28 senators in the 76-seat upper house.
The Liberal Party-National Party coalition will have 27.
The Greens will have 11.
One Nation will have four.
And independents and other minor parties will have the remaining six.
The makeup has been finalised with the count finally having been finished in New South Wales, where One Nation's Warwick Stanley has picked up the last of the six seats up for grabs.
His win giving One Nation its fourth Senate seat- their equal-best-ever result in the Senate at a federal election.
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The federal opposition's newly-installed Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, Michaelia Cash, is urging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to take up any invitation to visit Israel.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has requested a visit after Mr Albanese sharpened his criticism of Israel this week for its obstruction of humanitarian aid access in Gaza.
Ms Cash has urged the Prime Minister to visit as soon as reasonably possible, in order to try and reset the relationship between the countries.
She is due to meet Israel's Ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, within the next week.
It comes ahead of a major summit on Palestinian statehood in New York next month, for which Australia has not yet confirmed a representative.
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U-S President Donald Trump's tariffs are being blamed for a drop in Australian retail spending.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the retail trade figures for April, showing a 0.1 per cent fall in turnover.
There was a 0.3 per cent rise the previous month.
Only Queensland and Western Australia had increases in retail turnover in April.
On an annual basis, sales have risen 3.8 per cent in the twelve months to the end of April, as opposed to 4.3 per cent in the twelve months to the end of March.
Mr Trump's announcement of U-S tariffs on the 2nd of April shook consumer confidence, and took billions of dollars off superannuation balances after financial markets were rattled.
Surveys from Westpac and A-N-Z Bank showed a marked decrease in consumer metrics after Mr Trump's announcement.
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A 24-year-old woman has been charged after four people were injured in a stabbing in the Gippsland region of Victoria.
Police in Bairnsdale, a town 279 kilometres east of Melbourne, allege the woman first stabbed a staff member at a supermarket, then a man in a car park, a man at a nearby hotel and a man at a train station.
She has been charged with intentionally and recklessly causing injury.
All four victims were taken to hospital; the first in a serious condition, and the others treated for minor injuries and released.
Investigator Mark Rossiter of Victoria Police says the motivation for the attack is still unclear.
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Australian Alex de Minaur has joined calls for the men's tennis tour to be shortened after his elimination in the second round of the French Open.
De Minaur has fallen from a 2-0 ((two sets to love)) lead to to lose 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 to Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan.
The number nine seed says while it is not an excuse for his defeat here, many players are exhausted from the frenetic pace of the tour, and careers will be shortened as a result if something is not done.
Earlier in the week, another of the world's best men's players, Casper Ruud of Norway, likened the men's rankings system to a rat race, saying that it made players feel obliged to play in events, even when injured.
