Australia news LIVE: Alan Jones charged with 24 offences against eight alleged victims; Lidia Thorpe censured for King Charles protest

Nationals senator Matthew Canavan and Greens senator Barbara Pocock were on a rare joint-ticket earlier on Monday when they voted against Lidia Thorpe’s censure for disrupting the visit of King Charles III – but each had different reasons.

Appearing on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing this hour, Canavan said some sort of censure “probably was appropriate” but voted against the motion because he thought Thorpe was denied “natural justice” as she wasn’t present for the vote due to a delayed fight.

“I believe she was told an hour before the chamber met to discuss this that it would happen,” Canavan said.

“She deserved more warning of it. She deserved an opportunity to hear the arguments against her and to defend herself. And for those reasons, I voted against.”

Canavan said he “most likely” would have voted for a censure if Thorpe was present and afforded due process to have her say.

Meanwhile, Pocock said she voted against censuring her former Greens colleague because she believed the Senate was being inconsistent.

“We need to be consistent in what we do in the Senate. There was no censure motion against Pauline Hanson for her racial vilification of senator Mehreen Faruqi,” she said.

“I believe the issues that senator Lidia Thorpe is talking about are important.

“People may disagree with her tone and the way she does it, but talking about the legacy of colonialism and intergenerational cost that First Nations people are suffering still … those issues deserve to be talked about.”

Early Childhood Education Minister Anne Aly says she is “pretty confident” the government’s pay boost for childcare workers would pass the Senate this week.

Appearing on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program earlier this hour, Aly was asked why the government’s childcare bill – expected to be debated in the upper house on Monday night or early on Tuesday – used a unique account to store grants for childcare providers to boost the pay of their workers by 15 per cent over two years.

In response, Aly said:

We know from all reports that we’ve had, but also through engagement with the sector, that this is an essential service, and that workers in early childhood education and care are not getting a fair wage. It was not a wage that met their needs nor reflected their professionalism or level of skill.

But there was a workforce crisis in early childhood education and care. And since coming into government, we worked diligently to address that workforce crisis … [ensuring] that there are workers who can come into the system through our fee-free TAFE, workers who stay in the system through this worker retention payment, and through our $72 million professional development packages well.

The reason that we needed to do it as a grant is because we realised how urgent it was. We gave powers to the Fair Work Commission to have a look at the wages of early childhood educators. But considering where the workforce was – and the absolute essential need to address the wages issue for the workforce – we put it in as an interim grant for two years, granting them that 15 per cent.”

Aly said the grants included conditions that childcare centres don’t increase their fees above 4.4 per cent and the extra money goes directly into workers’ pockets.

South Australia will attempt to bolster its bid to host a future United Nations climate summit when Premier Peter Malinauskas heads to COP29 to promote Adelaide as a potential site.

Malinauskas will travel to Azerbaijan this week to attend the conference, where he will press the case for Adelaide to be the host city for the 2026 summit if the Albanese government’s bid to host COP31 is successful.

“This conference will attract tens of thousands of people and hundreds of millions of dollars into our state,” he said on Monday.

“It will provide an incredible opportunity to market our state to investors across the world, enhance global visibility and deliver long-lasting benefits for our tourism and events industry.”

AAP

Back to federal parliament now, where the climate wars have fired up once again in question time.

The opposition has used a report by analysts Frontier Economics to criticise the cost of the government’s renewable energy policies and step up its attacks on the government’s promise to cut energy bills.

Analysis by the Australian Energy Market Operator projects it will cost $122 billion by 2050 to switch from fossil fuels to clean energy. This figure is generated by using the net present value, in today’s dollars, of what future projects would cost, which is a common measure for infrastructure assessments.

However, Frontier’s analysis shows that by factoring in inflation, costs would rise to $642 billion by 2050.

Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien asked: “Why is this weak and incompetent Labor government hiding the true cost from Australian families, [which] will have to foot the bill for its renewable energies-only plan?”

Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles, who is filling in for Anthony Albanese while he’s on overseas duties said: “What is clear in the world today, whether those opposite understand it or not, is that the cheapest form of electricity is renewable electricity.

“That’s why we have got the renewable sector going again. Something which those opposite did their absolute best to crush.”

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald has praised the bravery of alleged victims of Alan Jones, who has been charged with 24 offences in connection with alleged indecent assaults and sexual touching incidents across two decades.

Speaking at a press conference in Parramatta moments ago, Fitzgerald said police allege the offending occurred between 2001 and 2019. The youngest of the alleged victims was 17 years old at the time.

“They fully are aware, as are the investigators, that the hard work is just beginning, and they have given their statements fully aware that they will go before the court,” Fitzgerald said.

He also highlighted Strike Force Bonnefin investigators’ “tenacity and hard work in bringing this matter before the courts”.

“Historical matters such as this are incredibly hard to investigate and bring before the courts, and I again congratulate them on their ongoing investigation that will continue,” he said.

Strike Force Bonnefin was formed following a lengthy investigation by this masthead, which revealed in December that Jones had used his position of power, first as a teacher and later as the country’s top-rating radio broadcaster, to allegedly prey on a number of young men.

“The reports in the Herald and The Age did result in victims coming forward and the creation of Strike Force Bonnefin but … a number of witnesses have been assisting police over the years,” Fitzgerald said.

Alan Jones has been charged with 24 offences against eight alleged victims spanning two decades, after a lengthy police investigation into allegations of indecent assault and sexual touching.

The broadcaster and former Wallabies coach was arrested at his luxury Circular Quay apartment on Monday morning over allegations he indecently assaulted, groped or inappropriately touched multiple young men.

Jones has been charged with 11 counts of aggravated indecent assault, nine counts of assault with an act of indecency, two counts of sexually touching another person without their consent and two counts of common assault.

He was granted conditional bail and will face Downing Centre Local Court on December 18.

NSW Police are speaking now about the charges. Stay tuned.

NSW Police have called a press conference after controversial broadcaster Alan Jones was arrested this morning over allegations he indecently assaulted young men.

Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald and Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett addressed the media at police headquarters in Parramatta from 3pm.

Watch below.

Woolworths has told the competition watchdog’s supermarket inquiry that it has not engaged in land banking, despite claims from IGA operator Metcash that the major supermarket had done so.

Woolworths managing director of property Ralph Kemmler told barrister Naomi Sharp, SC, the counsel assisting the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, several times in a public hearing on Monday that the supermarket is not land banking.

“Mr Kemmler, is it your evidence that Woolworths has never, say, in the last 10 years, acquired an interest in land without an intention to develop that land?” Sharp asked.

“As far as I know, yes,” Kemmler replies.

Referring to internal balance sheets from 2023 under a section called “sites held for strategic reasons”, Sharp pressed Kemmler on whether this counted as land banking, to which Kemmler said “I don’t believe so.”

Sharp asked: “It says that the properties are held on the balance sheet, and they’re not planned for future development, and that they’re held for strategic reasons … Do you want to give us an example of what that means?”

Kemmler replied: “They’re a combination of company homes, surplus land from developments that we’ve completed that are to be sold or land held pending other developments, and also would include some land that has long term underlying leases that have been developed for other purposes.”

Sharp wasn’t convinced, and asked again what “sites held for strategic reasons” meant. “It means that they didn’t fit into the previous buckets,” Kemmler replied.

“Well, that sounds like a strange explanation of the word ‘strategic’,” Sharp reponded.