Australia news LIVE: Brittany Higgins sued by Linda Reynolds for defamation; Debate over housing bill continues

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has responded to the prime minister’s call to attend the Garma Festival this weekend.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged the Liberal leader to “get out of his dirt unit” and attend the festival.

Speaking on Sydney’s 2GB radio station with host Ray Hadley this morning, Dutton responded to the challenge.

He told the host he had been to east Aboriginal communities across the country, and had been to east Arnhem Land twice this year.

Dutton said he knew what people in those communities were saying, and while he backed the festival, he said it was going to be a “love-in” for the Yes campaign.

“Garma is a celebration and a good thing, but it will be largely occupied by the CEOs and ... others from publicly listed companies and all of those who have been out there funding the Yes campaign, and it will be a love-in for the Yes advocates and proponents,” he said.

“I’m not going up there to pretend I’m somebody that I’m not.”

The opposition leader said he was a genuine and straightforward person, and he was not supporting the Voice because it wasn’t in the country’s best interests.

He said the prime minister should announce the detail on the Voice at Garma this weekend.

In breaking news, Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has made good on her threat to sue Brittany Higgins for defamation for a social media post accusing her of harassment, issuing a writ against her former staffer in the West Australian Supreme Court.

According to the writ lodged on Monday, Reynolds is suing Higgins for aggravated damages over an Instagram story on July 4 and a Twitter post on July 20, both of which she claimed were defamatory of her.

The former defence minister is also claiming the posts constituted a breach of a deed of settlement and release the pair signed in March 2021, which contained a non-disparagement clause.

Reynolds is demanding two injunctions preventing Higgins from publishing defamatory material about her and preventing her from further breaches of the deed.

The news comes just weeks after Higgins took to social media accusing her former boss of harassment and confirming she had received a legal letter from Reynolds’ lawyers.

Updates on this story available here.

In the latest development on the war in Ukraine, Russia attacked the country’s main inland port across the Danube River from Romania, sending global food prices higher.

The attacks destroyed buildings in the port of Izmail and halted ships as they prepared to arrive there to load up with Ukrainian grain in defiance of a de facto blockade Russia reimposed in mid-July.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Russia’s attacks on port infrastructure showed Moscow was intent on creating a “global catastrophe”, with a crisis in food markets, prices and supplies.

“For the Russian state, this is not just a battle against our freedom and against our country,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

“Moscow is waging a battle for a global catastrophe. In their madness, they need world food markets to collapse, they need a price crisis, they need disruptions in supplies.”

More on this here, from AP and Reuters

Anthony Bergin’s opinion piece on why Australia should establish a national militia training program is sparking plenty of discussion with our readers.

@Annie says: “The big problem is that the type of people who would jump at this proposal are the type of people we definitely don’t want armed and trained. They are dangerous enough without giving them quasi-military authority.”

@Ian writes: “Conscription is un-Australian, pure and simple. It was rejected by our soldiers in the First World War because they knew - none better - that no-one should be forced into that sort of hell. We have, and have always had, a rich tradition of volunteering, not just in military, but in many other areas from bushfire fighting to Olympic Games coordination. That’s the way to build up an effective reserve. I’m sure most boffins in the military would agree.”

@Carmine says: “Never again. Australians remember Vietnam. No more old men sending our young men (and women) off to die. You are dead wrong that anyone would welcome this.”

But @Gavin Gatenby has a different take: “All the options here need to be very seriously considered and the Ukrainian nation-in-arms experience should be studied in depth, and quickly. They have indeed managed to mobilise skills and experience in a remarkable way.”

What do you think? Let us know using the link above.

Reforms to the university sector have been introduced in parliament to help more students from disadvantaged backgrounds to graduate.

The first tranche of measures outlined in the Universities Accord interim report were brought to parliament this morning, amid an overhaul of the sector.

Under the changes, there would be a 50 per cent pass rule, which was previously introduced as part of the Job-Ready Graduate scheme, which is being abolished.

Students who failed more than half of their subjects would no longer be eligible for Commonwealth funding.

Education Minister Jason Clare said those from disadvantaged backgrounds needed to be better supported through their university career.

“(The rule) has seen a disproportionate number of students from poor backgrounds being forced to leave university,” he told parliament on Thursday.

“We should be helping students to succeed, not forcing them to quit.”

In the past two years, more than 13,000 students have lost their funding for university because of the rule.

Under the laws, universities will be required to have support plans in place for students at risk of falling behind.

Universities will face new fines if they fail to meet the guidelines.

AAP

Muslim groups, religious leaders and experts have voiced alarm at the federal government’s push to ban a flag associated with Islamic State, saying it risks criminalising legitimate displays of Islamic imagery and infringing Muslims’ right to practise their religion.

The government has introduced legislation that would ban the terrorist group’s flag, as well as the display of Nazi symbols such as the swastika.

The Australian National Imams Council said the push to ban the IS flag was analogous to banning the display of the Christian cross because it had been misappropriated by the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group.

“The bill places Australian Muslims in jeopardy of having their religious practices policed and even criminalised,” the imams said in a submission to the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, which is scrutinising the bill.

The religious leaders said the terrorist group had deliberately sought to hijack core elements of Islamic imagery to further its violent agenda.

Continue reading about this issue here.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has contradicted sacked minister Tim Crakanthorp’s claim he “self-reported” his potential conflict of interest over his family’s substantial property empire in the Hunter region.

Speaking this morning, Minns said he had been provided with information relating to the commercial property holdings of Crakanthorp’s wife and father-in-law across Newcastle. The findings resulted in a formal letter from the premier to the Newcastle MP.

Minns’ explanation appeared incongruent with a statement provided by the former minister for the Hunter to parliament late on Wednesday night.

“In recent days I have made a subsequent disclosure to the premier’s office to self-report an omission on my ministerial disclosures as required by the code of conduct,” he said.

Crakanthorp said he made a series of disclosures after discovering he had initially omitted property owned by his wife and later assembling a “full list” of his in-laws’ interests.

“I also took steps to subsequently notify the premier that I had now become aware that properties owned within Broadmeadow by my in-laws also now represented a conflict of interest,” he said.