Australia news live: police investigating alleged online threats to third Sydney mosque; teenager charged after allegedly trying to board Jetstar flight with gun
Police investigating alleged online threats to third Sydney mosque
NSW police say investigations are under way after online threats were allegedly made to a third Sydney mosque.
Police said on Thursday they were investigating an alleged Islamophobic social media comment targeting Lakemba mosque in Sydney’s west.
The mosque in Sydney’s west was allegedly targeted by a comment invoking an Australian man’s terrorist attack in New Zealand in which 51 worshippers were murdered during prayers.
The reference to the 2019 attack in Christchurch was allegedly posted on a video Lakemba mosque shared on TikTok showing worshippers leaving during Ramadan.
On Friday police said they were also investigating an online threat allegedly made the day before against Padstow mosque.
Police believe the two alleged incidents may be linked and urged anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Following the report of the alleged threats, the NSW premier, Chris Minns, said:
The NSW police force have launched an urgent investigation … Every single person in our state deserves to be able to practise their faith free from threats … racism and Islamophobia has absolutely no place in NSW.
Earlier this month the Australian Islamic House – Masjid Al-Bayt Al-Islami in Edmondson Park reported an alleged online threat made against it on Instagram.
A 16-year-old boy has been charged in Western Australia over the alleged threat.
Key events
Protest to be held opposing Brisbane Olympic stadium plan
A protest rally will be held in Brisbane on Saturday to oppose an Olympic stadium at inner-city Victoria Park after reports it will be a long-awaited 2032 venue plan’s centrepiece, AAP reports.
Brisbane’s infrastructure blueprint is yet to be revealed almost four years after the city was named host, sparking questions for 2032 boss Andrew Liveris from the International Olympic Committee.
The committee urged Liveris to confirm the venue plan at a meeting in Greece overnight, telling him “the sooner the better”.
But Liveris has allayed fears at the gathering that elected Kirsty Coventry as the committee’s first female president.
With 2032 infrastructure to be unveiled on Tuesday, Liveris assured the committee it would deliver a positive way forward after venue speculation played out in the media.
If you’re reading the Australian media, you will know of the ongoing discussion and debate about legacy infrastructure and venues.
Whatever you’re reading, please understand we are being consulted. We are at the centrepiece of the conversation.
This three years has not been wasted … I am very positive about the way forward.
Opposition to a Victoria Park stadium is expected to bubble over at a protest rally on Saturday.
Campaigners including former premier Campbell Newman had already sent a letter to the Queensland government claiming Brisbane would be embarrassed on the world stage if it “destroyed” heritage-listed Victoria Park to build a stadium.
They are now planning the protest rally as the countdown begins for the long-awaited venue reveal.
Severe thunderstorm warning for parts of NSW
The Bureau of Meteorology is warning of severe thunderstorms for parts of the mid north coast and northern tablelands of NSW.
Andrew Leigh says he hopes US tech companies don’t interfere in Australia’s election
The assistant minister for competition, Andrew Leigh, tells ABC’s Afternoon Briefing he hopes the tech companies, including Elon Musk’s X, don’t intervene in the federal election, following US tech companies lobbying the Trump administration on Australian media law.
We ought to be running an election which is free of foreign interference and one which is a contest of ideas. I hope that in every single election.
You don’t always see it but we need to remember that goal and that the Australian democracy really is an extraordinary creation. We are a great democratic innovator and part of that innovation is ensuring we can have a contest of true ideas and strong policies and I really hope the Liberal and Nationals actually start coming up with some of those policies because I think it is good for the nation when we have competing policy portfolios, not just a government with a big agenda and strong ideas against an opposition with hot air and a bunch of slogans.
He said the government was prepared to take on the tech companies.
The social media minimum age laws that were passed through last year were a marker of that and the news media bargaining code ensures that those platforms which benefit financially from great journalism make a financial contribution towards it. These are sensible measures which don’t seek to curtail the platforms that many of us use and benefit from but which recognise that in a modern economy, we need the results to advance to keep pace.
Light plane reported to have crashed in Western Australia
WA police say a light plane has crashed in Ogilvie, around 47km north of Northampton.
The incident was reported to police at 11.15am local time after a member of the public saw a plane wreckage near Ogilvie Road west.
The pilot is believed to be the only person onboard, and the level of injuries is currently unknown. Emergency services are on the scene, and there is a 70m exclusion zone around the wreckage.
Teenager charged with allegedly attempting to hijack plane at Victoria’s Avalon airport
Elias Visontay
A teenager who allegedly tried to force his way on to a Jetstar flight at a Victorian airport with a shotgun before being dramatically overpowered by passengers has been charged with attempting to hijack the plane.
On Friday, Victoria police announced that its illicit firearms squad had last week served an additional four commonwealth charges on the 17-year-old over the 6 March incident, when officers from the local police station were called to Avalon airport – which does not have a permanent onsite law enforcement presence.
The latest charges include attempted hijack, assault member of airline crew, prejudice the safe operation of an aircraft with intent to kill.
Police had previously charged the youth with multiple offences including unlawfully taking control of an aircraft, orchestrating a bomb hoax and possessing a firearm.
The matter remains before the court.
The teenager allegedly tried to climb the front stairs into the plane cabin but was noticed, by passengers, carrying the shotgun and subsequently overpowered by three civilians, police said earlier this month.
Passenger Barry Clark said he tackled the male who was allegedly dressed as a maintenance worker when he became agitated while speaking to the flight attendant.
Adam Morton
State minister says salmon concerns are ‘unverified claims’
We reported earlier on calls from the independent MP Andrew Wilkie and the independent candidate for the seat of Franklin, Peter George, for an inquiry into allegations Tasmanian salmon companies could be selling diseased fish to the public.
The state business, industry and resources minister, Eric Abetz, has now responded:
We deal in facts, and these unverified claims are coming from anti-salmon groups that are actively trying to shut down the industry.
Salmon harvested for human consumption must meet all the usual food safety requirements.
I understand that the Federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry have deployed staff to undertake audits of each company’s processing facilities and will undoubtedly confirm or reject these allegations made by Mr Wilkie in due course.
[Health authorities have] been clear that there is no risk to public health, and I encourage people to get out and support our world-class salmon industry and continue enjoying sustainable salmon.
Australian media law plans unchanged despite lobbying by US tech
The federal government has responded to the earlier news that US tech giants are lobbying the Trump administration to take action against Australian media laws, including the news media bargaining incentive, AAP reports.
A federal government spokesman said the media laws would be unchanged.
The Albanese government will always stand up for Australian media and Australian journalism. It matters. We respect it. We will fight to protect it.
It is designed to encourage big digital platforms to continue to enter into commercial deals with news media organisations.
Everything we’ve proposed in the digital space applies equally to countries who operate in Australia, regardless of where they are based.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the reaction from the US companies was predictable.
“It’s not surprising that the tech giants would have that view,” he told Sky News on Friday.
Our job is to make decisions in Australia’s national interest, to protect kids online, for example, or to make sure that there’s a level playing field in our media with our media organisations.
It’s self evident that [tech billionaires] are very close with the US administration. Our focus and our job is to make our case in the US, as we have been doing.
A lot of people around the country, not just parents but including parents, they want to make sure that they’re appropriate protections for people online. The tech giants won’t always like that.
Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, I’ll hand over to Josh Taylor for the rest of the afternoon. Take care, and enjoy your weekend.
Queensland criticised for scrapping pill-testing as deadly opioid emerges
The Queensland government has been slammed for abandoning permanent pill-testing clinics after extremely potent synthetic opioids were found in Australian wastewater for the first time.
As AAP reports, Queensland has decided not to renew contracts for fixed pill testing sites at Brisbane’s Bowen Hills and Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast, with doors set to close on 4 April.
Australian Medical Association Queensland president, Dr Nick Yim, said he was disappointed the state government had discontinued the service, and feared it would lead to higher rates of harm.
It is disappointing the Crisafulli government, who was elected on a promise that they would listen to the experts, has once again dismissed the evidence supported by doctors.
Dr Yim was concerned the sites were closing after a deadly synthetic opioid 40 times more powerful than fentanyl was detected for the first time in wastewater testing across Australia over the New Year period.
Two highly potent and addictive variants of nitazene – a psychoactive synthetic substance – were detected at five separate sites in Australia and the United States.
The health minister, Tim Nicholls, stood by the decision to rip up the clinic contracts, citing the Liberal National party’s stance against drugs.
Read this week’s edition of the Weekly Beast
It’s Friday afternoon, which means it’s time for the latest edition of the Weekly Beast – you can have a read below for the latest from Amanda Meade:
Man arrested after suspicious fires throughout Sydney’s east
A man has been arrested following a series of suspicious fires in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
On Tuesday, police responded to reports of a car on fire at Edgecliff at 3.20am. Fire and Rescue NSW extinguished the fire, but it was destroyed. There were no reports of injuries.
At 3.30am, police located a burnt chair at the intersection of Glenmore Road and Cascade Street in Paddington.
Police are also continuing to investigate a fire on Jersey Road at Paddington on 19 September, and believe the three incidents are linked.
A 20-year-old man has been arrested at Waverley police station, and inquiries are ongoing. No charges have been laid.
Department pauses jobseeker cancellations and deductions amid legal review
The department of employment and workplace relations secretary, Natalie James, has paused more cancellations and deductions of people’s jobseeker payments.
In a statement, she said an independent assurance review was examining the IT system operating mutual obligations, and a legal review was “also examining whether decisions are being properly made and whether decision making processes are aligned with the law”.
I have taken decisions to pause some parts of the system. The work under way by my department has identified examples where the system is not operating in alignment with the law and policies, or is not operating with the rigour that I expect.
James said in the statement that while these reviews are under way, payments “may still be suspended when people fail to comply with their mutual obligations, however, those payments will be reinstated when people re-engage”.
Acoss is demanding the “urgent removal” of the entire targeted compliance framework amid the latest revelations, claiming “at least 10,000 people may have been subjected to unlawful or invalid financial penalties or payment cancellations”.
The Antipoverty Centre is also demanding the secretary immediately stop all current payment suspensions under the mutual obligations framework, and provide compensation to those impacted by potentially unlawful payment reductions or cancellations.
For more on this ongoing issue, you can read Cait Kelly‘s story from earlier this month:
Showers and thunderstorms forecast for north and central Australia this weekend
The Bureau of Meteorology says widespread showers and thunderstorm are forecast for much of northern and central parts of the country this weekend:
Children’s commissioner says Victoria latest jurisdiction to respond to youth crime in ‘reactive way’
The national children’s commissioner, Anne Hollonds, says Victoria’s new bail laws are likely to lead to a “significant increase in the incarceration of children” – particularly because detention will no longer be a “last resort” for children.
In a statement, she said new data shows the number of children involved in crime has decreased in the state by 3%, with “most of the crime currently involving repeat child offenders who typically become involved with the criminal justice system very young”.
Hollonds said that many of these children have “unmet needs such as disabilities, health and learning problems, and trauma”.
Locking up these children does not rehabilitate them. It costs $1.3m per annum to lock up a child, and this is not making our community safer.
Hollonds said Victoria, after Queensland and the Northern Territory, was the “latest jurisdiction to respond to youth crime in a reactive way”.
The NSW and South Australian governments are also in the process of implementing discredited punitive measures, moving in the opposite direction to that of other developed countries.
Governments across the country are looking for a quick political fix rather than acting on evidence from experts … showing that we need to improve therapeutic treatment and support for children and their families, and take a preventative rather than punitive approach.
Victorian premier backs bail laws dubbed ‘dangerous’ by advocates
Tougher bail laws won’t trap young people in a cycle of reoffending, the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, says, as retailers in her state grapple with the nation’s highest number of violent attacks.
AAP reports that Allan today defended the laws against claims by advocates who say the reforms aren’t evidence-based and risk entrenching criminal behaviour. She told reporters:
After listening to Victorians, to victims of crime, to the advice of Victoria police, and to other representatives across the justice system, we needed to bring about a jolt to the system. We are seeing too much of a pattern of behaviour.
Allan conceded more people will be remanded but said there is capacity in the system to handle the influx.
You can read more from advocates earlier in the blog, here.
