First Nations call for national day of action in response to anti-immigration rallies
In Sydney, the Blak Caucus, working with Gadigal people and other Sovereign owners of the region, will hold a major rally on 13 September with the slogans:
Sovereignty Never Ceded, Racism and Fascism Not Welcomed, No to Nazis, No to White Supremacy, Stand With Camp Sovereignty, Corroboree Not Colony
It is part of a national day of action being led by First Nations groups across Australia in response to the attack on Camp Sovereignty and the March for Australia demonstrations.
Aunty Rhonda Dixon Grovenor, a Gadigal elder, urged supporters to attend:
We were shocked to … hear about the violence put on our people at Camp Sovereignty on Wurundjeri country in Melbourne.
This brought back memories of how our camps of our people were attacked back during the invasion that took our lands, or how the police attack out people, like in 1972 when they tried to tear down the Tent Embassy. We must take a stand to say: no more.
All people who are true and strong and love everything that is beautiful about these lands, you are welcome here.
Key events
Jonathan Barrett
Alan Joyce has secured a final bonus worth $3.8m, two years after the prominent Qantas chief executive left the airline after a series of corporate decisions sparked a reputational crisis.
While Joyce’s various incentives were reduced due to several scandals occurring under his watch, the final payout was linked to a 2023-25 incentive plan that is now vesting.
The airline’s share price is at record highs, which has lifted the value of the incentive.
Qantas was previously found to have illegally sacked more than 1,800 workers, and agreed to pay a $100m civil penalty after striking a deal with the consumer watchdog for allegedly selling tens of thousands of tickets to flights that had already been cancelled in its system.
The airline lodged its annual report today, which showed that his successor, Vanessa Hudson, received $6.3m last financial year, up more than 40% on the prior year.
Hudson had her short term bonus reduced in response to a major cyber attack on Qantas customers.
Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell refused bail
Adeshola Ore
Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell – who allegedly led an attack on a sacred Indigenous burial site in Melbourne over the weekend – has been refused bail.
Sewell, 32, appeared in the Melbourne magistrates court on Friday morning, where he was told he would have to remain in custody over multiple alleged violent offences.
Police charged Sewell on Tuesday with the offences, including violent disorder and affray, over the alleged incident at Camp Sovereignty on the weekend.
Magistrate Donna Bakos said she found Sewell’s alleged offences to be “serious”.
To lead and participate in, if not incite, an unprovoked attack on a sacred site … can only be viewed as serious conduct.
Bakos said Sewell was not charged over his political view and ideology “whether racially motivated or otherwise”.
She said the charges related to allegations of “unlawful and violent conduct”.
As Sewell was lead out of the court room, he said “we fight for white Australia.”
A group of Sewell’s supporters in the court room said “hail white Australia”.
Historic portrait of Vadim de Waart-Hottart shared in Victoria Police tribute
Victoria Police have also shared a photo of Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart receiving a portrait painted of him amid his funeral in Melbourne.
In a statement uploaded to social media, Victoria Police said some years ago, de Waart-Hottart attended a mental health incident with a colleague where they supported someone in crisis.
As a thank you, that person painted portraits of both officers. In this photo, Vadim can be seen proudly holding the artwork. We think you’ll agree it’s a pretty great painting.
Police said the moment was shared by de Waart-Hottart’s former colleagues at St Kilda as a “small but powerful reminder of the quiet, positive impact our members have in the community every day – often without recognition or expectation”
It’s through gestures like these that we remember Vadim as someone who devoted his career to helping others.
Today we farewell Vadim and honour the lasting impact of his service and dedication.
Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart farewelled in Melbourne
A sea of navy blue has surrounded the coffin of a young officer gunned down in his prime as the hunt continues for his alleged killer.
Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart, 34, is being farewelled by loved ones, friends, colleagues and political leaders with full police honours at a private funeral at the Victoria Police Academy on Friday.
Before the service, the area around the academy in Melbourne’s east was eerily quiet as hundreds of members, alongside police dogs, gathered both inside and outside the on-site chapel.
The chapel’s capacity was doubled from 500 people to more than 1,000 people but it still wasn’t enough, with officers spilling into hallways and overflow rooms.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, the premier, Jacinta Allan and the Victorian police chief commissioner, Mike Bush, are among those in attendance at the private ceremony.
A table was set up in the chapel with medals, which he will be awarded, along with a statue of Batman, a childhood favourite.
Once the ceremony is over, the police air wing will perform a flyover as his colleagues line the surrounding streets in a guard of honour for the exiting coffin.
– AAP
Andrew Messenger
Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union members accept pay deal
Members of the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union have voted to accept a state government pay deal.
The health minister, Tim Nicholls, announced the deal last week, which guarantees an 11% pay increase and double time for overtime, a national first for nurses and midwives.
The QNMU secretary, Sarah Beaman, told media on Friday that about three-quarters of members had recently voted that the deal was good enough to go to a formal ballot.
This offer has been won on the hard work of nurses and midwives taking protected industrial action (for the first time in 20 years).
Their strength, their determination, their professionalism, has seen this offer be a significant improvement on first two offers, and they should be proud of themselves. This is an offer that will recruit, retain and respect nurses and midwives now and into the future.
The enterprise bargaining agreement still has to go through additional consultation and voting before taking effect, which Beaman said could take several weeks.
Josh Taylor
Meta questioned definition of ‘celeb-bait’ in scams court case but used the term this week
Meta argued in the federal court it did not understand the Australian consumer watchdog using the term “celeb-bait” to describe alleged scam ads on its platforms, however the Facebook and Instagram parent company used the term in press material this week.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is suing Meta over the scam ads featuring deepfakes of public figures such as the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, with the 2022 case yet to go to a hearing.
A judgment in the federal court on Friday revealed Meta had sought to strike out the ACCC’s further amended statement of claim in part because “Meta contended … that they do not understand the term celeb-bait” in the context of the company being expected to take reasonable steps to prevent such ads ending up on its platform.
The court ruled against Meta. Justice Wendy Abraham said she did not consider “that there is any lack of understanding” by Meta “as to what is meant by clickbait advertisements”.
“Their attributes are identified in the pleadings … There is an artificiality to this complaint.”
Meta’s global head of counter-fraud and security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, who is US-based, used the term in a press release to reporters this week, in explaining the action the company was taking on scams:
In Australia, between April and May 2024, 102 reports were provided by the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange Intel Loop, enabling Meta to remove more than 9,000 spam pages and over 8,000 AI-generated celeb-bait scams across Facebook and Instagram.
Meta said in a briefing that users were encountering scam ads 60% less often on its services than a year ago. In July 2024, the number of scam ads reported globally was at 4.5 per million total ad views, compared to 1.8 scam ad reports per million views as of July this year.
Police to address media after Singleton dog attack
Still in New South Wales, police will address the media after a teenage girl was seriously injured during a dog attack at Singleton yesterday.
Emergency services were called to a home at about 11.30am and found a 16-year-old girl suffering critical injuries to her head, neck and body.
She was treated by paramedics before being flown to Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital, police said. The 10-year-old dog – described as a large dog of mixed breed – was destroyed with the consent of the owner.
The Hunter Valley police district dommander, acting superintendent Justin Cornes, will speak outside Cessnock police station at 12.30pm.
We’ll bring you the latest updates.
Man accused of using cryptocurrency to buy child abuse material
In New South Wales, cybercrime squad detectives have charged a 21-year-old man after he allegedly used cryptocurrency to buy child abuse material online as part of an ongoing state investigation into alleged offenders.
A search warrant was issued about 6am yesterday at an address in South Grafton.
During the search, police located and seized two laptops and a mobile phone, MDMA, ketamine and LSD.
A forensic triage of the electronics was conducted with child abuse material, images and videos allegedly located saved in the devices.
The man was arrested at the address and was taken to Grafton police station.
He has been charged with seven offences including two counts of possessing child abuse material, possessing a prohibited drug, supplying a prohibited drug more than indictable and less than a commercial quantity, supplying a prohibited drug more than or equal to a commercial quantity, possessing instructions for manufacture of a prohibited drug, and hindering or resisting a police officer in the execution of duty.
He was refused bail to appear before court today.
Robodebt victim says record-breaking settlement a major win: ‘what they did was unjust’
Nathan Knox was a young man paying off a crippling robodebt when a split-second decision stopped him from stepping in front of a train. He is one of the hundreds of thousands of people impacted by the unlawful robodebt scheme, which hunted down welfare recipients for money they didn’t owe.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese’s government has agreed to pay an additional $475m to its victims, marking a record-breaking class-action settlement.
Knox was in his early 20s and working when he received a robodebt worth about $15,000 after a period of jobseeker payments. The debt notice turned his world upside down.
A royal commission into robodebt found there were at least three known suicides as a result of the scheme, but was confident of further tragedies.
The scheme forced many people into dire financial circumstances as they took out loans and sold their cars or ran down savings to pay off the supposed debt. Knox, now in his mid-30s and raising a young family, said the size of the settlement was a major win:
No amount of money is going to return those individuals and it’s really sad. It says the government was wrong and what they did was unjust.
-AAP
First Nations call for national day of action in response to anti-immigration rallies
In Sydney, the Blak Caucus, working with Gadigal people and other Sovereign owners of the region, will hold a major rally on 13 September with the slogans:
Sovereignty Never Ceded, Racism and Fascism Not Welcomed, No to Nazis, No to White Supremacy, Stand With Camp Sovereignty, Corroboree Not Colony
It is part of a national day of action being led by First Nations groups across Australia in response to the attack on Camp Sovereignty and the March for Australia demonstrations.
Aunty Rhonda Dixon Grovenor, a Gadigal elder, urged supporters to attend:
We were shocked to … hear about the violence put on our people at Camp Sovereignty on Wurundjeri country in Melbourne.
This brought back memories of how our camps of our people were attacked back during the invasion that took our lands, or how the police attack out people, like in 1972 when they tried to tear down the Tent Embassy. We must take a stand to say: no more.
All people who are true and strong and love everything that is beautiful about these lands, you are welcome here.
NT parliament to be lit in honour of fallen Victorian police officers
In the Northern Territory, Parliament House will be lit up in blue tonight and on Monday night to honour the lives of Victorian police officers Vadim De Waart and Neal Thompson who were killed in the line of duty last month in Porepunkah.
The chief minister and police minister, Lia Finocchiaro, said the Territory stood united with Victoria in grief.
The loss of Officers De Waart and Thompson is felt across the entire nation. Every day, police officers put their lives on the line to keep us safe, and their service and sacrifice must never be forgotten. On behalf of all Territorians, I extend my deepest condolences to their families and colleagues.
The speaker of the legislative assembly, Robyn Lambley, said that as a mark of respect Parliament House will be illuminated in blue on 5 and 8 September 2025.
The acting commissioner of the NT police, Matt Hollamby, attending today’s funeral service in Melbourne, said the tragedy has deeply affected policing families across Australia. Flags at police stations in Victoria will be flown at half mast.
