Australia news as it happened: Littleproud survives Nationals leadership challenge; police reveal ‘strong belief’ Dezi Freeman is dead amid search for body in Victoria’s High Country
What we covered today
By Isabel McMillan
Thanks for reading the national news blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage. We will be back tomorrow with the latest news.
To conclude, here’s a look back at some of the day’s major stories:
- The leadership challenge by rogue Nationals MP Colin Boyce against leader David Littleproud failed, but there is mounting pressure on the party to reunite the Coalition.
- Liberal MP Aaron Violi criticised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for comparing the Coalition to the reality-TV show, Married at First Sight, saying the government had failed to protect Australians from cost-of-living pressures.
- An Australian snowboarder has died after a ski lift accident at a Japanese resort.
- Police revealed they have no proof that alleged double police killer Dezi Freeman is still alive, and have returned to Victoria’s High Country in a hunt for his body.
- Former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison has questioned the policy platform of One Nation, suggesting the minor party can’t hope to be considered a party of opposition without feasible policies.
- And overseas, Billie Eilish became the highest profile artist to add her voice to the ICE Out protest movement at the Grammys on Monday, concluding her speech while accepting the award for song of the year (for Wildflower) with “f--- ICE … sorry.”
Thanks again for joining us. This is Isabel McMillan signing off.
Morrison addresses comments made in Jerusalem
By Brittany Busch
Scott Morrison has rejected Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly’s criticism that he risked inflaming community tensions for singling out Muslims in comments he made in Jerusalem last week.
Morrison had called for Australia’s Muslim leaders to license preachers, translate all sermons into English and set up a board to police radicals in a speech at an antisemitism conference.
“[Aly’s response is] predictable, and it follows the pattern of not wanting to confront this issue, and setting up a sort of a straw man argument for things that frankly, I’ve never said,” Morrison told Sky News.
“I don’t want there to be any sense of blame against the Islamic community at all. But what I do want is for religious leaders to be part of the solution here, and to be able to protect their own people in their own faith from that radicalisation.”
Russia does not want a global conflict, Medvedev says
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Senior Kremlin security official Dmitry Medvedev said in remarks released for publication on Monday that the world was getting very dangerous, but Russia did not want a global conflict.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered the biggest confrontation between the West and Moscow since the depths of the Cold War, though US President Donald Trump wants to end the war.
Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, a kind of modern-day politburo of Russia’s most powerful officials, praised Trump and said it was encouraging that contacts had resumed with Washington.
But Medvedev, who has repeatedly hurled invective at Kyiv and Western powers while warning of the risks of an escalation of the war towards a nuclear “apocalypse”, said the West had repeatedly ignored Russian interests.
“The situation is very dangerous,” Medvedev told Reuters, TASS and the WarGonzo Russian war blogger in an interview at his residence outside Moscow.
“The pain threshold seems to be decreasing.”
While saying a global conflict “cannot be ruled out”, he added: “We are not interested in a global conflict. We’re not crazy.”
Reuters
‘Challenging year’ for Liberals, but Morrison silent on Ley’s leadership
By Brittany Busch
Staying with the former prime minister, and Scott Morrison has refused to comment on the speculation surrounding Sussan Ley’s leadership, saying it is a matter for the Liberal party room, while conceding “it’s a challenging year for the party”.
“As a former leader, I always respect whatever the party room decides. I’m not a member of it any more. And when I was the leader, I expected that from other leaders who preceded me,” he told Sky News.
“And so I’m going to pay the same courtesy to those who are here now and to Sussan, but it’s a challenging year for the party. I think there’s no doubt about that, and they’ve got to work through these issues and be able to put forward a platform, particularly on the economy, which gives people that hope and that confidence, that the party is a party of government. That’s what we’ve always been, that’s what we were built for.”
Former prime minister questions One Nation’s policies
By Brittany Busch
Former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison has questioned the policy platform of One Nation, suggesting the minor party can’t hope to be considered a party of opposition without feasible policies.
“Yes, [One Nation is] attracting a lot of support. Maybe that’s out of grievance, frustration, any number of things they’re identifying with. But you know, when a party starts to be attracting those sort of polling numbers, then I think people have a right to ask, OK, well, what are their policies?” Morrison told Sky News.
“What’s their policy on taxation? What’s their policy on immigration? They say, well, we’re trying to cut it. Well, where? Which programs and what are the implications of that? They say they want to do something about the NDIS. Okay, which area is it going to pull back on? And how’s that going to be worked out? How’s that going to get through the parliament?
“I don’t raise those issues necessarily to draw criticism, but I think, you know, parties who pretend to be parties of government have got to have answers to those sorts of questions.”
Nepal travel executives arrested for scamming millions with fake mountain rescues
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Authorities in Nepal have arrested six travel and mountain rescue executives accused of conducting fake rescues on the Himalayan nation’s high mountains to scam millions of dollars from international insurance companies, officials said Monday.
Nepal’s Central Investigation Bureau arrested six people from three different travel and mountain rescue operators last week, accusing them of submitting fake claims for close to $20 million between 2022 and 2025 and receiving the money in their accounts. All six are Nepali nationals.
Bureau spokesperson Shiva Kumar Shrestha said Monday that authorities were still investigating.
Fake documents including passenger and cargo manifests for helicopter rescue flights, medical invoices and hospital reports had been sent to insurance companies, the bureau said.
The agency said 171 of the 1248 rescues claimed by one company were fake, leading to unjustified payouts of more than $10 million. Another is accused of fabricating 75 of 471 claimed rescues and fraudulently claiming $8 million, while the last one is accused of making 71 fake claims with payouts totaling over $1 million.
Thousands of climbers come to Nepal every year to scale the highest Himalayan mountains, while tens of thousands more also come to hike the mountain trails leading up to the base camps of these high peaks.
Every year, several climbers die and hundreds are rescued suffering from extreme exhaustion, altitude sickness or other medical issues.
There are few roads and limited medical facilities in the mountains, so rescuers are often forced to charter expensive helicopter flights to transport patients to hospitals in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.
High-altitude climbers are required to show proof of insurance covering helicopter rescue before they are issued climbing permits.
AP
Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny add voices to ICE Out protest at the Grammys
By Karl Quinn
Billie Eilish became the highest profile artist to add her voice to the ICE Out protest movement at the Grammys on Monday, concluding her speech while accepting the award for song of the year (for Wildflower) with “f--- ICE … sorry.”
It was perhaps inevitable – and arguably right – that the Grammys would become a platform for commenting on the craziness of modern America. And so it was that the Trump administration’s brutal treatment of immigrants became the cause du jour of this year’s ceremony.
The first artist to broach the topic during the telecast was English singer Olivia Dean, who has Jamaican and Guyanese heritage.
Accepting the prize for best new artist, Dean took a soft swipe at the crackdown on undocumented immigrants by Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents, which has taken on a fresh sense of urgency since the killing of emergency room nurse Alex Pretti on January 24.
“I want to say I’m up here as the granddaughter of an immigrant,” said Dean. “I’m a product of bravery and those people deserve to be celebrated. We’re nothing without each other.”
Read the full story here.
Littleproud facing mounting pressure to reunite Coalition
By Paul Sakkal
Nationals leader David Littleproud is being urged by his own MPs to reunite the Coalition.
A motion put by Nationals MP Darren Chester to reconnect with the Liberals after a damaging split was backed by the majority of MPs in a Nationals party room meeting on Wednesday.
Littleproud is due to meet with Opposition Leader Sussan Ley at 6pm.
Liberal sources do not expect Ley to accept the Nationals’ demand to reinstate three MPs who resigned from the frontbench over a breach of shadow cabinet solidarity.
Perth Invasion Day bomb attack could be terrorist act: Premier
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The failed bomb attack on Perth’s Invasion Day rally last week may be labelled a terrorist attack.
WA Premier Roger Cook has indicated that Commonwealth authorities may be preparing to make a call on whether the incident was an act of terror in the coming days.
A 31-year-old man, whose name is suppressed, is accused of throwing a home-made bomb into the 2500-strong crowd who had gathered at Forrest Place in the CBD to protest against the date of Australia Day.
The device, which was allegedly designed to explode on impact, did not detonate.
A week on, Cook told media this morning that from his point of view, the incident appeared to be a terrorist act, but that there were certain definitions that must be met for it to be formally deemed as such.
“The actual assigning of an act of terror is undertaken by a joint taskforce between Commonwealth and state agencies, and then ultimately the Commonwealth agency is the one that declares whether it is a terrorist attack,” he said.
“We look as bystanders at the circumstances of this horrible act, and you would not be surprised if ultimately, the Commonwealth makes that decision.
“I understand that’s in front of them at the moment, and they’ll be making that decision this week.”
Cook said he had spoken with police and event organisers about the incident.
“This is a potentially an act which would have caused a mass casualty event, and because of that, we have to treat it with the utmost serious concern,” he said.
Boyce issues statement after failed leadership spill
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Following a failed leadership spill earlier today, Nationals MP Colin Boyce says it is critical the Coalition is restored.
In a statement released this afternoon, he said he had been calling for reunification “from the start”.
“We must stand up for everyday Australians against an incompetent Labor government whose spending is out of control, whose energy policies are reckless, and whose approach to national security is weak,” he wrote.
“As always, I am committed to the people of Flynn and will continue to advocate for their future as well as the core values of the National Party.”
