Australia news live: Icac hears of friendship breakdown between Reformers members, third Victorian teachers’ strike announced

Icac hears of friendship breakdown between members of Reformers

Penry Buckley

Returning to the Icac’s Operation Rosny, the inquiry has heard this afternoon about how relationships between some members of the conservative right factional Liberal group the Reformers began to break down.

That includes the friendship between today’s witness, Robert Assaf, and Christian Ellis, who yesterday we heard had founded the Reformers together in 2017 after forming a strong bond while working on the No campaign for the same-sex marriage plebiscite.

Assaf said he later came to distrust Ellis, including in relation to the payment of finder’s fees to him for finding Ellis new clients.

Ellis ran Beckington, a registered lobbyist set up by the group, which allegedly took on funds under the guise of consulting services to support branch-stacking efforts, including from schools governing body Catholic Schools NSW, Beckington’s first client in 2019.

The inquiry heard that in 2021 Catholic Schools NSW CEO, Dallas McInerney, allegedly wanted to end the relationship with Beckington. Assaf said he gave the following advice to McInerney on multiple occasions in an attempt to keep payments flowing to a different company, run by Reformer Jeremy Greenwood.

He told the inquiry the advice “would have been something like”:

Christian’s a liar. He’s greedy. I don’t trust him, and I’m not sure he’s doing much for you at the moment. Jeremy seems to be picking up most of the slack. Jeremy’s starting his own company up, you may want to consider going to Jeremy.

Key events

Lisa Cox

H5 bird flu detection in seagull ‘significantly widens’ geographical spread of virus, experts say

BirdLife Australia says the suspected detection of H5 bird flu in a seagull in South Australia “significantly widens the area across which the virus can be spread”.

The South Australian government said this morning state tests returned a suspected positive result for H5 bird flu in a silver gull – or seagull – found at Robe on the Limestone Coast. Samples have been sent to the CSIRO for verification.

Seagulls are one of Australia’s most common birds.

BirdLife said the development increased the risk the disease would spread into new places – including wetlands, inland or urban areas. Gulls are highly mobile, gather in large flocks, mix with other species, and are known to scavenge on carcasses.

BirdLife national affairs adviser Sean Dooley said:

The reason silver gulls elevate our concern is that they move around far more widely than greater crested terns.

That broadens the area across which the virus could appear next.

He said governments and communities would need to be extra vigilant in more places and “targeted surveillance will need to broaden beyond the coastline”.

What we’re seeing now suggests very strongly that we’re at the beginning of a long and difficult fight against a virus that has decimated wildlife populations overseas.

Icac hears of friendship breakdown between members of Reformers

Penry Buckley

Assaf said he later came to distrust Ellis, including in relation to the payment of finder’s fees to him for finding Ellis new clients.

He told the inquiry the advice “would have been something like”:

Christian’s a liar. He’s greedy. I don’t trust him, and I’m not sure he’s doing much for you at the moment. Jeremy seems to be picking up most of the slack. Jeremy’s starting his own company up, you may want to consider going to Jeremy.

Victorian teachers vote to strike for third time this year in pay dispute

Victorian teachers will walk off the job for a third time in five months after negotiations stalled in their bitter pay and conditions dispute with the state government, AAP reports.

Earlier today, the Australian Education Union announced a 24-hour stop work action in Victorian state schools on 19 August after an internal meeting.

Unless the parties can come to an agreement, it will be the state’s third major teachers’ strike this year.

The most recent strike took place on 23 July, with school gates locked across Victoria as 20,000 educators descended on Melbourne’s CBD to demand better pay and working conditions.

Teachers march through Melbourne’s city centre to protest over pay and conditions earlier this month. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images

The statewide strike took place a week after Victorian union members narrowly rejected a revised government pay offer.

The deal, which was opposed by 51.8%, would have increased pay for teachers and support staff by at least 28.3% over four years, with an increase of 12.75% by October this year.

The newly minted Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, who served as education minister under former leader Jacinta Allan, argued the latest rejected pitch was a “watershed moment for education” that would have made Victorian teachers the best paid in Australia.

The president of the Victorian branch of the teachers’ union, Justin Mullaly, said negotiations with the government had not progressed since the last pay offer was put on the table on 17 July.

Mullaly acknowledged the latest pay offer was “significant”, but said it was not enough to meet the needs of overworked, underpaid educators.

He said:

Only three-in-10 teachers are saying they’ll stick around until retirement.

That’s no good for our public education, that’s no good for our children and young people that we teach.

Penry Buckley

Sloane has previously declined to provide running commentary on Icac’s hearings after other current shadow ministers were named during hearings, but Rath’s admission relates to conduct prior to the current inquiry.

In a statement today, she said:

I have spoken with Chris directly. I have expressed my disappointment about what occurred and made it clear to him the standards I expect of every member of my team. Those standards are high, and I expect them to be upheld at all times.

I respect the Parliament’s processes. It is not appropriate for me to simply substitute my own judgment years later for the findings and sanctions imposed by the Parliament after it had considered all the facts.

NSW opposition leader, Kellie Sloane. Photograph: Nadir Kinani/AAP

NSW opposition leader backs minister linked to Reformers

Penry Buckley

The NSW Liberal leader, Kellie Sloane, has backed in a minister who has been linked to the conservative rightwing factional group called the Reformers, which is being investigated under Icac’s Operation Rosny.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported today that NSW Liberal shadow planning minister, Chris Rath, had been captured by wire tap helping members of the Reformers evade summons to appear before a 2023 parliamentary inquiry which preceded the Icac’s Operation Rosny inquiry.

In a statement, Rath, who later recused himself from the committee, said he was “apologetic” for the incident, which had been dealt with by the NSW Privileges Committee, which had issued him a caution.

Rath said in the statement:

This Inquiry commenced in the highly politically charged context of an election campaign, and at the time I didn’t comprehend the gravity of the allegations.

As resolved by the Labor majority Privileges Committee, the Clerk reminded me of my obligations, and I was, and am, apologetic. No further action was taken.

I am not under investigation by ICAC, nor have I been called as a witness to the inquiry or asked to provide any evidence.

Catie McLeod

Hi, I hope you’re having a nice Friday. I’ll take it from here.

Nick Visser

That’s it for me. Catie McLeod will pick up the blog from here. Take care!

Safety failings compounded deadly wedding bus crash

Fatalities in one of Australia’s worst bus crashes could have been reduced with better protections for ejected passengers, a three-year investigation has found.

AAP reports 10 mostly young wedding guests were killed in a bus tip-over at a roundabout in Greta in the NSW Hunter Valley in 2023, with a further 25 injured.

Driver Brett Andrew Button, 60, received a decades-long prison sentence for his role in the crash, as he was under the influence of an opioid painkiller and driving too fast at the time.

The Office of Transport Safety Investigations on Friday handed down an investigation report into the crash. Chief investigator Jim Modrouvanos said Button should not have been behind the wheel on the night of the crash, but added passenger protection systems had not worked effectively.

He said not all passengers wore seatbelts fitted in the coach and they were not issued with a pre-trip safety warning as was company policy.

Modrouvanos delivered 41 recommendations in total, and government regulators, operators and organisations have accepted wholly or in principle the 34 recommendations relevant to them.

They included strengthening medication management, developing a centralised driver performance system, increasing seatbelt management and a review of minimum rollover-protection requirements.

Trial for mother and daughter over alleged Islamic State ties

Two accused women with links to Islamic State have been committed to stand trial as their cases are fast-tracked to the supreme court, AAP reports.

Kawsar Ahmad, 54, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad, 31, appeared in Melbourne magistrates court via video link on Friday as they entered their “not guilty” pleas.

The two women were charged with slavery offences in May after returning to Australia with other family members of former Islamic State fighters.

It’s alleged Kawsar migrated to the Middle Eastern country to join IS with her husband, Mohammed, Zeinab and their other children about January 2015. It’s alleged while in Syria in 2017, Mohammed bought a teenage girl as a slave for $US10,000.

The two women each made a bid for bail in June but only Kawsar was successful, with a magistrate finding she posed a very low risk to the community. Kawsar’s bail was extended to her supreme court date, with conditions including a prohibition from attending any mosques to continue.

Zeinab was refused bail because there was no compelling evidence she had renounced the terrorist group. She was remanded in custody after not making any further bail applications.

Penry Buckley

Icac witness describes being ‘hangry’ before lunchtime break

The NSW Icac’s hearings have resumed after a break for lunch. Just before lunch, the Icac presiding commissioner, Fabian Gleeson, who has frequently intervened during Reformer Robert Assaf’s evidence today, told Assaf he had become “a bit argumentative in your response”.

“I believe they call that hangry commissioner,” Assaf said.

Gleeson said:

I’m not aware of what young people’s speak is these days, Mr Assaf. What I’d like you to do is to sit there, concentrate and answer a further question which council assisting has, and then we’ll adjourn. Understand?

The commission heard how Assaf, 30, came to be employed in communications at Catholic Schools NSW, the governing body for 600 schools in the state, in 2019, alongside Reformers associate Dylan Whitelaw, who gave evidence earlier in the week.

The Catholic Schools NSW chief executive, Dallas McInerney, is alleged to have arranged and approved payments to the Reformers to support branch stacking efforts through registered lobbyist Beckington, where Whitelaw later came to be employed.

Under intense questioning before lunch from counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, Assaf admitted that he knew that money being paid to Beckington was to fund work that Whitelaw was doing for the Reformers. “I knew that, yes,” Assaf said.

Australia’s golden sprinters speak out on cycling defector: ‘Good riddance’

Leigh Hoffman has bade Matt Richardson good riddance after Australia’s gold medal in the team sprint on day one of the Commonwealth Games track cycling program, AAP reports.

Teammate Ryan Elliott also joked they had cleared Hoffman as their leader, checking his passport to make sure he will stay in the Australian program. While expressing sympathy for Richardson after a recent nasty race crash in Japan, his former teammates finally spoke freely about the shock defection.

Leigh Hoffman, Ryan Elliott and Daniel Barber. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Their big win over England was one of Australia’s three cycling gold medals at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, along with the women’s team pursuit and para-cyclist Tara Neyland.

But England gained some revenge for the Paris Olympics, beating Australia in the men’s team pursuit final. Two years ago, Australia narrowly downed Great Britain in a pulsating ride-off for gold. Soon after Paris, Richardson stunned the sport by switching allegiances to Great Britain.