This is where we will wrap up the live blog for the evening. Here’s what made the news:
The federal parliament continues to debate the gun and hate speech legislation rushed into the parliament this week following the Bondi terror attack.
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, says that Virginia Bell has formally commenced her role as commissioner for the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion.
NSW police have extended a protest declaration preventing the authorisation of public assemblies after the Bondi attack, but drastically reduced the area to allow Invasion Day marches through the Sydney CBD on 26 January to go ahead.
Rob Hirst, the drummer and founding member of Australian rock band Midnight Oil, has died aged 70.
Hirst was diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer in 2023. The band confirmed his death on Tuesday afternoon.
“After fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain - ‘a glimmer of tiny light in the wilderness’,” they wrote in a statement on social media. “He died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones. The family asks that anyone wanting to honour Rob donate to Pankind, Pancreatic Cancer Australia or Support Act.”
Campsites on K’gari closed after woman found dead on beach
Two campsites have been closed and park rangers are increasing patrols after a 19-year-old Canadian woman was found dead on a beach surrounded by a pack of dingoes on a popular Queensland tourist island.
Two men made the grisly discovery while driving down the eastern beaches of K’gari (formerly known as Fraser Island) at about 6:15am on Monday. The discovery came up to 75 minutes after the woman left the backpacker hostel at which she had been working for six weeks, where she told colleagues and friends she was heading to the beach that morning.
Her body was found near the Maheno shipwreck, transported to the mainland and was expected to undergo a postmortem on Wednesday.
‘Dirty deal’ on hate speech bill threatens protest rights, Greens say
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said he couldn’t see how it would be possible for the hate speech bill to be used to silence criticism of countries undertaking human rights abuses.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, tells Afternoon Briefing she was “surprised” by Burke’s claim because analysis the Greens have conducted on the bill led to that concern.
She said:
We don’t want to see those impacts that silence people from peaceful political expression. That’s not what a free country does. And I think the haste with which this has been done has really meant that as a nation, we’ve missed the opportunity to get it right. We could have hate speech laws that protect everyone, that don’t just selectively choose groups of people.
Waters said that a “dirty deal” between Labor and the Coalition for the bill will put political expression and freedom of association under threat.
She added that LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities also deserve protection from hate.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, says a ‘dirty deal’ between Labor and the Coalition on the hate speech bill threatens protest rights. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
Gun reforms would mean alleged Bondi attackers would have had no guns, minister says
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing that instead of having six weapons, the alleged Bondi attackers “would have had zero” under the gun law changes working their way through parliament today.
Those reforms are really significant and they matter.
Burke also said the hate speech reforms are not as strong as the government wanted. He said the Liberal party had long called on this legislation:
It would have made a difference. And I am disappointed that it’s not there.
In response to a suggestion it would have had a chilling impact on free speech, Burke said it “would have had a chilling impact on racist bigotry”.
I don’t accept that racist bigotry is within the free speech domain. I just don’t. I’ll go through my whole life in Australia without ever receiving racist bigotry. But that’s not true for a whole lot of Australians. And some but not all of the people who’ve been in the free speech brigade are people who will never have a racist word said against them.
Burke said he would continue to negotiate with the states on gun buybacks.
Federal politicians’ travel rules updated following expenses saga
Tom McIlroy
The Commonwealth Remuneration Tribunal has updated the rules for politicians’ travel, following the expenses saga which dogged parliament before Christmas.
The tribunal has recommended MPs’ family members fly economy class for so-called family reunion travel, and that extra spending benefiting ministers and other senior office holders be wound back.
MPs will be allowed to access one return economy fare per year to an Australian location outside of Canberra for their family members, provided their travel is for parliamentary business, the family member needs to accompany them and the dominant purpose of the spending is “facilitating the family life of the member’s family.”
Communications and sports minister, Anika Wells, defended her use of travel entitlements late last year. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
In a statement, the tribunal said 194 of 226 federal MPs did not access any Australia-wide family reunion travel in the 2024-25 financial year.
Ministers and other senior office holders will have access to three return airfares for their spouse to accompany them to official events, when the spouse has been invited as a guest. The event must be related to the minister’s portfolio or official duties.
The tribunal said “parliamentary life is not family friendly.”
In undertaking their duties parliamentarians are required to live interstate for long periods. Therefore the availability of family reunion travel is important, particular for parliamentarians with children.
The federal government has begun consultation on reforms that would compel supermarkets to be more transparent about prices, promotions and loyalty programs.
It is seeking community and stakeholder views on the following proposals:
That all supermarkets, including remote stores, publish prices in-store.
That large supermarkets publish prices online, ensure web-scraping technologies can be used by third parties such as online comparison websites and apps.
That large supermarkets display minimum information about promotions, supported by record-keeping requirements.
That very large supermarkets provide members with six-monthly information summaries for loyalty programs.
The proposals respond to recommendations from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) supermarkets inquiry, which found supermarkets were making it hard for customers to judge if something was actually a good deal.
The assistant minister for productivity, Andrew Leigh, said in a statement:
Supermarket prices shouldn’t be a guessing game.
Clear, accessible information allows shoppers to compare prices fairly and make informed choices.
Submissions to the consultation paper can be made until 17 February.
A shopper looks at items displayed on a shelf at a supermarket in Sydney. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters
Greens call for more federal action on shark mitigation, criticising ‘lazy and ineffective’ nets and drumlines
The Greens are calling for more federal funding for shark mitigation measures after a spate of shark attacks across Sydney and NSW over the past 48 hours.
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, the Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, said the recent incidents have “ignited public discussion about what creates the perfect storm for shark encounters to spike, and how best to reduce risks to both oceangoers and marine wildlife”. He said the federal government needed to urgently act, including the establishment of a national summit of experts to drive shark risk education, as well as provide better information and resources to states.
He said in a statement:
Resorting to lethal shark mitigation measures, such as nets and drumlines, is a lazy and ineffective approach. …
If we want to transition from lethal shark control programs that don’t work, to more effective and sophisticated approaches that protect marine wildlife and oceangoers, the federal government has an important role to play.
Greens welcome police backdown on Invasion Day protests
NSW Greens MP, Sue Higginson, said the NSW police “rightly bent to the will of the people” in allowing Invasion Day protests to occur in Sydney on 26 January. But she said the extension of the public assembly restriction declaration for another 14 days raised questions about why the restrictions are in place.
Higginson said:
It seems fairly obvious they have been extended to try to continue to capture the pro-Palestine protest movement and in particular any protest against the Israeli president’s apparent visit in early February.
Thank you all for joining me on the blog today for this extra sitting day. The politics coverage isn’t nearly over though, there will still be plenty more debate in the Senate – with the lower house voting on two bills tonight.
I’ll leave you with the excellent Josh Taylor to take you through all of that!
Sydney protest declaration extended but area reduced to allow for Invasion Day rallies
Penry Buckley
NSW police have extended a protest declaration preventing the authorisation of public assemblies following the Bondi attack, but drastically reduced the area to allow Invasion Day marches through the CBD on 26 January to go ahead.
A 14-day extension to the declaration preventing the authorisation of protests under NSW’s form 1 system was due to expire today, following an original declaration made on Christmas Eve under new police powers rushed through parliament following last month’s terror attack.
In a press conference just now, the NSW police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, said the declaration had been extended but the area covered had been reduced to include locations which go “from Darling Harbour through the north of the CBD ... and then out through Oxford Street and take in all of the eastern suburbs police area command.” The area includes Bondi beach, but not Hyde Park, a typical focus point of marches.
Lanyon said the decision was about “getting the balance right between community safety and a right to protest.”
The protest that is planned by the First Nations community on Australia Day will be managed down through College Street and out of southern Sydney. I’m satisfied that that reduces the risk to the community. On Australia Day I expect we’ll have tens of thousands of community members, mums and dads, boys and girls wanting to come into the CBD. This is about ensuring that we enable people to protest, enable free speech, but make sure that the community remains safe.
People walk through Sydney during an Invasion Day rally on 26 January 2025. Photograph: Steven Markham/EPA
The prime minister said he was sorry the Bondi attack happened on his watch, and also said that antisemitism has occurred in Australia long before Labor was elected in 2022. He warned the opposition not to politicise the attack.
Tony Burke said individuals are radicalising younger, faster and predominantly online, with detection of radicalisation far more complex for intelligence agencies – in response to a question from Allegra Spender.
Independent MP, Rebekha Sharkie, pressed the health minister on the rise in older Australians being stuck in hospitals instead of being in residential care.
Leader of the opposition, Sussan Ley, presses prime minister, Anthony Albanese, over his delay to call a royal commission. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
