Dezi Freeman killed two police officers and injured another in the Victorian town of Porepunkah in August, and was later shot dead by police. Photograph: Supplied
Dezi Freeman killed two police officers and injured another in the Victorian town of Porepunkah in August, and was later shot dead by police. Photograph: Supplied
Police have arrested a 58-year-old New South Wales woman as part of investigations into the movements of Desmond “Dezi” Freeman.
Freeman, a 56‑year‑old self‑described “sovereign citizen” who killed two police officers and injured another in the Victorian town of Porepunkah in August, was shot dead by police.
On Friday afternoon, Victoria police said detectives would question the woman. No further details have been released, as the investigation remains ongoing.
‘Darling, I don’t care’: Barnaby Joyce defends Pauline Hanson’s attendance at Dolce & Gabbana show in Sicily
Pauline Hanson has fitted some high fashion into her European sojourn, having attended a Dolce & Gabbana fashion show in Sicily, Italy, this week.
In a photo shared to Instagram, the One Nation leader is seen wearing a $700 (reduced to $229) Anthea Crawford gown to the event, also attended by Gina Rinehart, Norwegian football star Erling Haaland and actor Jennifer Lopez, according to photos shared to social media.
Speaking to the Today show,the One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce defended Hanson’s trip and conceded that billionaire Rinehart had likely sponsored her tour.
It’s a holiday, isn’t it? I don’t care if its Dolce & Gabbana or Prada. As long as you’re paying for it, darling, I don’t care. I would say it would be a fair bet that Gina supported it somehow … It’s her money.
While in Europe, Hanson also visited the UK, where she recorded an interview with far-right British activist Tommy Robinson.
AI credit added to Josh Fawaz’s Like A Prayer coveron Spotify
One of the most popular songs on the Australian charts has quietly had its credits changed to acknowledge the use of generative AI in its creation following widespread speculation.
Josh Fawaz’s cover of Madonna’s Like A Prayer has had an AI credit added on Spotify three months after its release, and one week after multiple musicians and AI experts pointed out the song showed hallmarks of AI music generators like Suno.
The song’s credits on Spotify, where it has been streamed 38m times, now confirm that generative AI created the vocals and the drums.
However, the credits for Like a Prayer have not been updated on every streaming service. On Apple, the credits for all his tracks list only Fawaz as the “performer” and his uncle Fadi Fawaz, George Michael’s former partner, on synths and production.
Fawaz has so far not responded to requests for comment from media outlets, but he has acknowledged using AI in the past, writing on an Instagram post that criticised his music:
I use AI as a tool. What I care about [is] providing my listeners with good music.
Fawaz has gone from a little-known artist to viral sensation in a matter of months with his dance covers of other artists’ hits.
Like a Prayer reached No 1 on Australia’s Radio Monitor Hot 100 in June, meaning it was the most-played song on Australian radio that week. It is now at No. 2 on the Official Independent Singles Breakers chart in the UK, having previously reached the top spot.
Earlier this week, Spotify announced it had removed 75m low-effort, “spammy tracks” from its database in 12 months.
Police have arrested a 58-year-old New South Wales woman as part of investigations into the movements of Desmond “Dezi” Freeman.
Freeman, a 56‑year‑old self‑described “sovereign citizen” who killed two police officers and injured another in the Victorian town of Porepunkah in August, was shot dead by police.
On Friday afternoon, Victoria police said detectives would question the woman. No further details have been released, as the investigation remains ongoing.
Queensland’s new outback youth jails are akin to ‘boot camps’, parliamentaryinquiry hears
A parliamentary inquiry has heard Queensland’s new “circuit breaker” sentencing legislation for youth criminals is similar to the decade-old “boot camp” scheme developed under Campbell Newman.
The draft legislation gives judges the power to sentence children to one of two facilities to be established in rural or remote settings, rather than to an ordinary juvenile prison. They can do so either as a bail condition before conviction or as a sentence. The intention is to remove the child from “negative peer influences and environments that enable offending behaviour” in order to further their bail condition while offering “hands-on learning”.
The facilities will be funded by the state but operated by a non-government service provider.
Multiple submissions to the parliamentary inquiry compared the program to the youth boot camps established under the former premier Newman, by attorney-general Jarrod Bleijie, now the state’s deputy premier. A series of reviews of that program found it did not offer value for money and was ineffective, partly because children would return home to the same criminogenic environment. It was eliminated by the former Labor government in 2015.
The director general of the youth justice department, Michael Drane, said the new model was different, with a “broadened eligibility criteria” and longer sentences, typically three to six months, among other changes. It will also operate at an “increased scale,” he said.
The Youth Advocacy Centre CEO, Katherine Hayes, told the inquiry there were similarities between the two models, but the new one didn’t include the most effective elements of the Newman-era scheme. She said:
The previous bootcamp iteration found that the community integration phase in the previous model gave the highest prospect of success to participants, whereas in the circuit breaker model there is no community integration phase, which is unfortunate because that’s the phase that really helps the young people on a positive trajectory.
The $80m cost of the scheme would be better spent addressing criminogenic factors like housing pressures, domestic violence and mental health issues, she said.
Baby humpback whale dies after stranding on Sydney beach
A humpback whale calf has died after becoming stranded on Greenhills beach in Cronulla, according to the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA).
Responders were deployed early Friday morning after a member of the public reported the stranded whale to ORRCA’s rescue hotline about 6.30am.
Despite efforts to save the 4.5‑metre‑long calf, it died shortly after responders arrived.
It remains unknown why the whale became stranded, with ORRCA saying it is too early to determine what led to the incident.
As part of standard biosecurity procedures, samples have been collected for H5N1 avian influenza testing. At this stage, it is not yet known whether a full necropsy will be undertaken.
A humpback whale calf has died after becoming stranded on Greenhills beach in Cronulla. Photograph: supplied ORRCA
Mehreen Faruqi slams Hanson’s ‘disgraceful racism’ after Tommy Robinson podcast interview
The acting Greens leader, Mehreen Faruqi, has accused Pauline Hanson of “dog-whistling and scapegoating migrants and Muslims” during her interview with far-right UK activist Tommy Robinson.
Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Faruqi – who is herself a Muslim and an immigrant – said the comments were “scary stuff”.
That is the lowest you can go, and that is disgusting and disgraceful. This sit-down interview she did with a convicted criminal, a professional anti- migrant, anti-Muslim hatemonger and a white supremacist is … the latest in a decades-long career of hate messaging from Pauline Hanson.
Harking back to a white Australia and piling on racism on migrants and Muslims does have real-world consequences and harm for people in this community, and we should call it for what it is.
Assistant treasurer condemns Pauline Hanson’s comments on far-right podcast
Assistant treasurer Daniel Mulino has criticised Pauline Hanson over remarks she made during an appearance on a podcast hosted by far-right UK activist Tommy Robinson, saying the One Nation leader “needs to explain herself” for her “ludicrous statement”.
Hanson, who is visiting the UK for conference appearances and a holiday with billionaire benefactor Gina Rinehart, used the interview to repeat unsubstantiated claims about the spread of sharia law and accuse Muslim communities, without evidence, of rorting the national disability insurance scheme.
Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Mulino said:
At the very least, what Pauline Hanson has been doing in this interview is throwing around, far too casually, very divisive comments where she has singled out people of a particular faith group, and that kind of behaviour is not appropriate in modern Australian public life.
What she’s also done is made statements with no factual backing, no evidence sitting beside them. She really needs to substantiate what she is saying and, frankly, she has to come up with a fulsome explanation about how it can be justified to make such divisive, inappropriate comments.
University regulator says multiple students were required to provide funeral notices for special consideration
The Ceo of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Teqsa), Dr Mary Russell, has told the royal commission there was a “pervasive” lack of trauma informed responses to student grievances at universities.
On Thursday, the commission heard an Australian National University student whose relatives were allegedly killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza was asked to provide their death certificates to get an exam extension.
Russell pointed to another student who had a family member directly impacted by 7 October 2023 who had to provide evidence to seek an academic adjustment.
Russell told the commission that after 7 October 2023, Teqsa experienced an increase in students and providers expressing concern about student safety and wellbeing.
She said the pro-Palestine encampments were “initially generally respectful and peaceful, but over time strayed into more antisemitic activity”, pointing to the use of offensive slogans and signs.
Russell said there were multiple instances of students seeking adjustments that were required to provide funeral notices and said the lack of trauma informed approaches was “so significant and important and so pervasive that we’ve developed a statement of regulatory expectations”.
Former NSW Fire and Rescue commissioner calls for Singleton coalmine expansion to be scrapped
Friday’s hearing before the NSW Independent Planning Commission is the second of three public hearings considering a broad range of submissions about the Hunter Valley Operations continuation project, the state’s largest proposed coal development.
The first hearing on Thursday heard from mine workers concerned about the mine’s potential closure as well as members of communities from around the state who told the commission about the ways climate change had already affected their lives, from fires and floods that had destroyed homes and businesses to health concerns.
Friday’s hearings have been more technical with the commission hearing evidence from experts.
Greg Mullins, a former commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW and member of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action told the hearing on Friday afternoon the government’s highest duty was “to keep its citizens safe” and called for the project to be rejected:
The illusory and short-term benefits of approving this extension will help a small number, but will eventually harm everybody, particularly those who have no voice, those who have not yet been born.
This is too high a price to pay for an industry that is in terminal decline.
Greg Mullins is a former commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW and a member of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action. Photograph: The Guardian
Academic boards pushed back against universities adopting IHRA definition of antisemitism, royal commission hears
Chair of the Group of Eight’s expert advisory committee on combatting antisemitism, Dr Alan Finkel says that academic boards pushed back against adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism lest it reduce academic freedom.
Australian universities will be required to adopt definitions on antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from next year, under a legally enforceable standard designed to stamp out discrimination on campuses.
Appearing before the royal commission, Finkel was asked why he felt the Universities Australia definition of antisemitism, which states criticism of the Israeli government is not necessarily antisemitic but could be if it was ground in “harmful tropes, stereotypes or assumptions”, should be adopted sector-wide. He said academic boards were “reluctant to accept” the IHRA definition.
The IHRA definition is contentious because of concerns it could be used to shut down criticism of the state of Israel.
Finkel said there was“a lot of concern” that the IHRA definition would “reduce freedom of expression and academic freedom” and the Universities Australia definition was “easier … to operationalise”.
They needed something that would be suitable for the university environment. It’s a coherent definition. It’s not calling out to other descriptors. It’s not calling out examples. It’s a very, very clear statement of what antisemitism is. Nothing’s perfect, but it is pretty clear.
Ex-chief scientist: Singleton coalmine expansion would make meeting NSW emissions target ‘51% more difficult’ in 2030
Continuing with former Australian chief scientist Penny Sackett’s evidence to the NSW Independent Planning Commission, Sackett told the hearing NSW was already on track to overshoot its legislated 2030 and 2035 emissions reduction targets by about 7.5Mt.
She said the direct – or scope 1 – emissions from the proposed extension of the Hunter Valley Operations mine in Singleton “would make meeting New South Wales’ target 51% more difficult in 2030 and 68% more difficult in 2035” by adding a further 4Mt of emissions to the projected overshoot – increasing the need to make up for the emissions elsewhere in the economy.
Sackett said also the project’s total emissions would negate the climate benefits of meeting Australia’s national targets out to 2035.
She told the hearing her analysis excluded carbon offsets – which HVO has said it plans to use to reduce its emissions – because she did not think they reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Late last year, the NSW Net Zero Commission warned the Minns government could no longer approve coalmine expansions because they were incompatible with the state’s legislated emissions targets.
Guardian Australia has sought comment from the NSW government and Hunter Valley Operations.
