Wong says evacuating Australians difficult amid Iran airspace closure
The foreign affairs minister says it will be extremely difficult for Australians to leave Iran because the airspace is closed. There are about 2,000 Australians and their family in Iran and around 1,200 in Israel who want to evacuate.
Wong said:
We are really conscious it is difficult. I wish it were not so, I wish that we had more capacity to assist but the difficult reality is the situation on the ground is extremely unstable.
The security situation is obviously very difficult.
Again, I emphasise the airspace remains closed.
What that means is, we cannot fly aircraft in or out because of the security situation and because of the possibility of strikes. What we can do is what we have done, which is deploy consular staff to Azerbaijan from Tehran, [which is] eight hours [away]. It’s the closest land crossing available, and we are doing that to assist Australians who get to the border.
Key events
Caravan plot inquiry chair says body will seek warrants for staffers to be arrested
Jordyn Beazley
The committee for the inquiry into the NSW government’s handling of information about the caravan “fake terrorism plot” has agreed to seek arrest warrants for five Minns government staffers in a bid to force them to appear before an inquiry.
Earlier today, three of premier Chris Minns staffers and two of police minister Yasmin Catley’s staffers were due to appear before the inquiry. But they did not appear, despite a summons for them to do so. Given they are not members of parliament, declining to appear before a committee after being summoned can risk arrest.
Independent MP Rod Roberts, who chairs the committee, has confirmed that the committee has agreed to seek warrants for the staffers to be arrested, and then escorted to appear at the inquiry. However, it’s not yet clear on how likely the warrant will be approved.
Roberts will meet with the president of the legislative council, Nationals MP Ben Franklin, to present the case for why he thinks arrest warrants should be sought.
If Franklin agrees, he will then need to present the case to the NSW supreme court who will have the final say.
The staffers that were summoned to appear include: Chris Minns’ chief of staff James Cullen, his deputy chief of staff Edward Ovadia, and Sarah Michael, who works in Minns’ office.
Police minister Yasmin Catley’s chief of staff, Ross Neilson, had also been summoned, and so had her deputy chief of staff, Tilly South.
Amanda Meade
Chalmers pays tribute to ABC’s Peter Ryan after 45 years in journalism
Treasurer Jim Chalmers paid tribute to ABC senior business correspondent Peter Ryan, who is retiring today after 45 years in journalism, 35 of them at the ABC. Chalmers said:
Peter Ryan is an absolute legend. Every day as you wake up and you think about what’s happening in the economy, if you only needed to listen to one voice to be sure that you got its essential elements, it would be Peter’s.
ABC news director Justin Stevens said Ryan has metastatic thyroid cancer and is moving to palliative care and focusing on his wife, Mary Cotter, and daughter Charlotte.
Recognised with the Order of Australia medal in 2022, Ryan has reported for flagship radio programs AM, The World Today and PM and his roles have included Washington bureau chief, head of TV news and current affairs in Victoria, executive producer of Business Breakfast and founding editor of Lateline Business. Ryan recently gave advice to colleagues:
Work closely with top people – shut up and absorb like a sponge. Maintain a fastidious contact book – some low-profile contacts could soon move into higher powered roles or more importantly work in back rooms where the big decisions are often made.
Show up to work early and prove that you’re ready to take on the big story of the day. Try to have a Plan B in your back pocket just in case your original brilliant idea doesn’t go anywhere and the EP comes walking your way.
Finally: Be kind and caring to people who need it.
Court case of Molly Ticehurst’s accused murderer delayed
The man accused of the domestic violence murder of Molly Ticehurst was due to face court today, only for his case to be delayed for another two months, AAP reports.
Daniel Billings, 30, was due to face Parkes local court charged with the domestic violence murder of Ticehurst. It would have been the first time Billings has appeared since June 2024.
But as Ticehurst’s parents and a large group of relatives and friends watched on from the small public gallery, the court was told Billings would not appear and the matter was adjourned until August.
Ticehurst, a 28-year-old childcare educator, was found dead in her home at Forbes, in the NSW central-west, in the early hours of 22 April 2024. Billings, her former boyfriend, is charged with her domestic violence murder, along with 16 other offences. He was also charged with four counts of stalking and intimidating Ticehurst, destroying her property and aggravated animal cruelty against her 12-week-old dachshund puppy in 2023.
Four more serious charges, including one count of aggravated sexual assault, were laid last December.
Legal documents before the court accused Billings of threatening to cause Ticehurst further physical harm during the alleged aggravated sexual assault.
Billings has not entered pleas. The case returns to court on 15 August.
Rafqa Touma
Sydney Trains working with NSW police after vandalism prompts rail cancellations
Critical cables were cut by vandals at Guildford, suspending all trains between Cabramatta and Granville, a Transport for NSW spokesperson said. Signalling failures were detected in the area around 3am today, the spokesperson said, noting:
Incident response teams were dispatched and found that critical cables had been cut by vandals.
Sydney Trains are working closely with NSW police, who are investigating the matter.
Repair teams are on site, and once the cables are repaired signalling engineers will test the signalling system.
Transport for NSW expect services to be restored for the afternoon peak.
Buses are replacing trains on the T2 Leppington and Inner West and T5 Cumberland lines.
More from McCarthy’s call on states to remove hanging points from Australia’s prisons
The minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, says she has raised the presence of hanging points in prisons “directly” with her colleagues after a Guardian Australia investigation last week.
In a five-month investigation of 248 hanging deaths spanning two decades, the Guardian found that 57 inmates had died using hanging points that prison authorities and state governments knew about but failed to remove.
The hanging points often remained despite repeated suicides and explicit coronial recommendations that they be removed, in one case allowing 10 hanging deaths from a single ligature point at Brisbane’s Arthur Gorrie prison over 20 years.
Read more from Guardian Australia’s Christopher Knaus and Ariel Bogle here:
Graham Readfearn
Should Australia get serious about recycling more bottles and cans? Double the 10c refund, campaigners say
It’s a block of text almost ubiquitous on every bottle or can of drink that Australians buy: “10c refund at collection depots in participating state/territory of purchase.”
More than 7bn bottles and cans were returned under the schemes last year but conservationists and the recycling industry have told Guardian Australia that, on an individual level, the schemes are underperforming. Some blame the 10c refund rate and argue it should be doubled.
Analysis carried out by organisations in the recycling industry shows that “return rates” – the percentage of eligible containers returned for recycling – are well below successful schemes in Europe.
Read more here:
PM won’t attend Nato summit, Marles likely to instead
Josh Butler
Anthony Albanese will not attend the Nato summit after all, with defence minister and deputy PM Richard Marles likely to attend instead.
The prime minister had flagged he was considering going to the Nato conference, next week in the Netherlands, amid growing concern over the Middle East conflict – with the added benefit that Albanese may have had another chance to meet with US president Donald Trump at the conference too.
After his scheduled meeting with Trump at the G7 was cancelled this week as the president went back to Washington early, Albanese was asked if he might attend Nato instead. “Yes that is being considered,” Albanese replied on Wednesday.
But government sources said on Friday afternoon Albanese would not attend the conference, with plans under way for Marles to represent Australia instead.
The Coalition’s shadow finance minister, James Paterson, had told Channel 7 this morning Albanese should go to the Nato meeting even if he wasn’t able to lock in a rescheduled chat with Trump, as the PM could speak with European counterparts about the war in Ukraine and the growing conflict in the Middle East.
Nine charged over ‘wood-hooking’ after alleged theft of Tasmanian timber
Tasmania police have charged nine people on allegations of stealing timber for firewood, a practice known as “wood-hooking”, saying an estimated 200 tonnes of wood had been illegally removed from the state’s central highlands.
The nine individuals from the town of Queenstown have been charged with a combined 141 counts of trespassing and stealing. Tasmania police senior constable Jessica Weston said:
Police will be paying close attention to anyone suspected of being involved in illegal wood collection and will intervene where appropriate. Anyone caught engaging in illegal wood collection may be proceeded against for breaches of legislation including stealing, unlawful possession, trespass and relevant traffic offences.
Officials noted that to collect firewood in Tasmania, you must do it on your own land, have permission from the landowner, or have a permit from Sustainable Timber Tasmania. Permits must be carried, but in all other cases it is classified as stealing.
Police say reputable firewood dealers should be able to provide you with assurances of where the wood came from.
Jordyn Beazley
Caravan plot inquiry chair says staffers’ failure to appear ‘extremely serious’
The five Minns government staffers who were summoned to appear before an inquiry into the NSW government’s handling of information about the caravan “fake terrorism plot have not shown up.
The chair of the committee, Rod Roberts, conducted a roll call for the second time, but the seats set out for them remained empty. Roberts told the committee their failure to comply with the summons was extremely serious. He said:
For any witness, not a member of parliament, to decline to appear before a committee, having been properly summoned to do so, is an extremely serious matter.
I am disappointed in the government’s continued efforts to hinder and frustrate the work of this committee and, ultimately, the role of the legislative council to scrutinise the actions of the government.
Leading up to the hearing, there was much focus on the fact that if the staffers failed to appear and comply with the summons, they could risk arrest.
Roberts did not indicate before closing the hearing for the day whether or not he would be seeking permission from the president of the legislative council, Nationals MP Ben Franklin, to seek warrants for the staffers’ arrest.
The staffers that were summoned to appear include: Chris Minns chief of staff James Cullen, his deputy chief of staff Edward Ovadia and Sarah Michael, who works in Minns office.
Police minister Yasmin Catley’s chief of staff, Ross Neilson, has also been summoned, as has her deputy chief of staff, Tilly South.
ADF deployed to Middle East to help evacuate Australians
Wong also stressed the Australian defence force was being sent to the region to help Australians get out, not to fight.
The foreign affairs minister said:
ADF personnel and aircraft are being deployed to the Middle East as part of the operation – to help Australians but not for combat.
Wong urges Iran to return to negotiations
Wong says Iran should come to the table:
We want dialogue, diplomacy and we want de-escalation and we want Iran to return to the table. We want Iran to stop any nuclear weapons program. That is the call we have made and that is the call the other countries have made.
Iran has the opportunity, the president has given them the opportunity to engage in diplomacy, and they should take it.
Dfat sending crisis team to Azerbaijan to help Australians who can reach border
Wong says the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is sending a response team to Azerbaijan to help Australians who can get to the border:
We are seeking to – in the process of getting a crisis response team into Azerbaijan and the purpose is to [get] the Australians back into that border, and that is the border crossing [that is] most vitally exit from Tehran.
Wong says overnight bus to Jordan had almost 40 Australians
Wong:
That is what we seek to do, we are putting people on the ground in Azerbaijan, we are involved in assisting Australians and providing advice to Australians in Israel. We had another bus overnight go to Jordan, with I think some 38 people, in addition to the small group the day before.
Obviously it is a challenging situation on the ground. We will seek to provide and assist people to safety in the weeks and days to come.
Wong says evacuating Australians difficult amid Iran airspace closure
The foreign affairs minister says it will be extremely difficult for Australians to leave Iran because the airspace is closed. There are about 2,000 Australians and their family in Iran and around 1,200 in Israel who want to evacuate.
Wong said:
We are really conscious it is difficult. I wish it were not so, I wish that we had more capacity to assist but the difficult reality is the situation on the ground is extremely unstable.
The security situation is obviously very difficult.
Again, I emphasise the airspace remains closed.
What that means is, we cannot fly aircraft in or out because of the security situation and because of the possibility of strikes. What we can do is what we have done, which is deploy consular staff to Azerbaijan from Tehran, [which is] eight hours [away]. It’s the closest land crossing available, and we are doing that to assist Australians who get to the border.
Wong says ability to provide consular services in Iran ‘extremely limited’
Wong:
We urge Australians who are able to leave Iran to do so now if it is safe. Those who are not able to do so or who do not wish to leave are advised to shelter in place. We continue to plan to support Australians departing Iran and we remain in close contact with partner countries.
Unfortunately at this stage our ability to provide consular services is extremely limited.