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Australia news live: NSW police to ‘actively monitor’ returning family linked to IS fighters; banks told to support struggling customers | Australia news
NSW police will monitor anyone with links to IS if they return, but won’t preempt arrests, commissioner says
Mal Lanyon, the New South Wales police commissioner, spoke to Sky News this morning as several women and children linked to Islamic State fighters are on their way back to Australia. A woman and her child are expected to settle in Sydney as part of that cohort.
Lanyon said his responsibility was to ensure the safety of those in NSW but added he could not preempt if anyone would be arrested when they landed in the state. He told Sky News:
My responsibility is to make sure the community of NSW is safe. So obviously with people returning from declared areas, people who have been associated with terrorist organisations, we will actively monitor those people if they return to NSW.
For operational reasons, I won’t go into who may be arrested but obviously we’re working very closely with commonwealth authorities.
The Australian federal police said yesterday that a number of people will be arrested when they land in Australia, saying the details would be revealed if and when that happens. Lanyon added this morning:
Again, for operational reasons, I don’t want to go into specifically who will be arrested.
Key events
James Paterson speaks about ‘bit of excitement’ at pre-polling booth after confrontation with One Nation volunteer
Liberal senator James Paterson said there was a “bit of excitement” yesterday after he clashed with a One Nation volunteer at a pre-polling booth in Albury before the Farrer byelection. Paterson was in Albury to campaign for the Liberal candidate, Raissa Butkowski.
Video of the incident shows a One Nation volunteer confronting Paterson about a sign that criticised One Nation’s own candidate, David Farley, before the volunteer allegedly grabbed Paterson’s phone.
The One National leader, Pauline Hanson, apologised for the volunteer’s behaviour in an interview with Sky News last night, saying Farley had reached out to make sure Paterson was “OK”, adding the party had apologised “for what happened”.
Hanson added to Sky that the volunteer had been “dismissed and sent home straight away”. One Nation’s chief of staff, James Ashby, later walked back the leader’s remarks, telling Sky while he didn’t condone the behaviour Paterson had been “rage-baiting a pensioner”.
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Woolworths brings back soft plastics collection points at some stores
Soft plastics recycling collection points are returning to Woolworths stores more than three years after the Australia-wide REDcycle supermarket scheme collapsed, AAP reports.
Woolworths says more than 700 of its stores across five states will accept chip packets, lolly wrappers and similar packaging.
“With this initiative, we have made it easier for Aussie families to recycle their soft plastics as part of their weekly shop,” Woolworths says.
The supermarket giant started a trial of the new scheme in five Victorian Woolworths in February 2024, and several stores in South Australia were the latest to join this week.
Some of the plastic collected through the scheme is recycled and turned into in-store wall panelling and Woolworths-brand bread bags.
Bridget McKenzie says rollback of inland rail project sends ‘chill’ through community
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, the shadow minister for infrastructure, said the Labor party has sent a “chill through the infrastructure pipeline” after the Albanese government abandoned a beleaguered inland rail project connecting NSW with Queensland.
McKenzie spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying plans to dramatically scale back the project, originally envisioned as a 1,700km stretch from Melbourne to a port near Brisbane, were the wrong place to save money:
People were surprised and shocked and dismayed at this announcement by the Labor government, they’ve been making their concerns heard loud and clear.
This Labor government has actually derailed this project and, indeed, sent a chill through the infrastructure pipeline investment community because no project would now be safe from some future government turning off the tap.
McKenzie was asked what she would cut from the budget to address inflation. She pointed to efforts to get the NDIS “under control” but said she would look to Indigenous funding for more cuts, also expressing concern at the cost to monitor women and children with links to Islamic State families. She went on:
You’re cutting the wrong things, not the things that are going to drive a productive economy.
NSW police will monitor anyone with links to IS if they return, but won’t preempt arrests, commissioner says
Mal Lanyon, the New South Wales police commissioner, spoke to Sky News this morning as several women and children linked to Islamic State fighters are on their way back to Australia. A woman and her child are expected to settle in Sydney as part of that cohort.
Lanyon said his responsibility was to ensure the safety of those in NSW but added he could not preempt if anyone would be arrested when they landed in the state. He told Sky News:
My responsibility is to make sure the community of NSW is safe. So obviously with people returning from declared areas, people who have been associated with terrorist organisations, we will actively monitor those people if they return to NSW.
For operational reasons, I won’t go into who may be arrested but obviously we’re working very closely with commonwealth authorities.
The Australian federal police said yesterday that a number of people will be arrested when they land in Australia, saying the details would be revealed if and when that happens. Lanyon added this morning:
Again, for operational reasons, I don’t want to go into specifically who will be arrested.
Lenders told to ‘support customers’ facing hard times
Lenders are being warned they remain in the frame of Australia’s corporate watchdog as the nation heads into uncertain economic times, with households set to face financial hardship, AAP reports.
The outgoing head of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission will deliver the advice in his final keynote speech at a conference on Thursday, before he packs up his desk at the end of this month.
“These are difficult times for many people in Australia, which makes it all the more pressing that lenders support customers experiencing financial hardship,” the chair, Joe Longo, will say, adding:
We are not taking a backwards step on this issue and are continuing to keep an eye on how lenders are supporting their customers.
And if hardship supports break down, debt management and credit repair services should not leave people in even greater financial difficulty.
Defence industry minister says agreement over strait of Hormuz would be welcome
Pat Conroy, the minister for the defence industry, said reports that there may be some sort of an agreement between the US and Iran over the strait of Hormuz would be “welcome” but warned things have changed rapidly as the conflict has dragged on.
Conroy spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying:
Any move towards that is welcome. Obviously, things change rapidly in that conflict, so we’re not providing a running commentary, but we certainly have been calling consistently for de-escalation.
And we’ve been very clear that we think the United States’ stated objectives have been met and that’s justification for de-escalation.
Read more here:
Penny Wong says government remains focused on fuel security
Penny Wong, the foreign affairs minister, says the government is continuing to focus its diplomacy on fuel security as the situation in the Middle East remains “challenging”.
Speaking on ABC Melbourne last night, Wong said she had been involved in talks with a number of countries to ensure post-conflict freedom of navigation through the strait of Hormuz.
It’s certainly a very challenging situation and there’s been a lot different phases in it. I said quite early on in this discussion that it’s very difficult to secure the strait of Hormuz militarily. And that’s one of the reasons why countries have been engaging in diplomatic outreach and discussions about how, post-conflict, we can assure freedom of navigation through the Strait.
She said that although the Trump administration had not been able “to resolve the issue yet”, the government continued to work on partnerships around the Asia-Pacific region to secure supplies.
It’s why I spent last week in north Asia, in Japan, Korea and China, and in the weeks before that with the prime minister in south-east Asia, in Singapore and Malaysia and Brunei, and these are countries that export to us. And one of the things we want to do is continue to work with our partners to secure supply.
Good morning, Nick Visser here to take over the blog. Let’s get to it.
Adeshola Ore
NT child protection minister says processes ‘appeared not to have been followed’ in lead-up to death of Kumanjayi Little Baby
The Northern Territory’s child protection minister, Robyn Cahill, says there are “concerns processes weren’t followed correctly” in the case of Kumanjayi Little Baby, with three department workers stood down pending the outcome of an investigation.
The child protection workers were stood down on Wednesday morning after the minister requested an investigation into “actions taken, or not taken” in relation to the case.
Speaking to the ABC’s 7.30 program on Wednesday night, Cahill said she received a brief on Friday that indicated police had made child protection reports about the five-year-old girl:
Clearly the processes that should have been followed appeared not to have been followed, and it was for that reason I asked for advice as to how that process has failed, which led to the investigation that has resolved today in three staff members being stood down from their positions.
The fact the investigation has led to three people being stood down from their positions would indicate that there are concerns that processes weren’t followed correctly.
The Warlpiri girl Kumanjayi Little Baby, a name used in line with cultural tradition after her death, was discovered last week after she was reported missing.
Police have charged Jefferson Lewis, 47, with her murder.
Man charged with hate speech following neo-Nazi rally outside NSW parliament
Penry Buckley
A man has been charged with an alleged hate speech offence in relation to a protest by a neo-Nazi group outside NSW parliament in November last year.
On 8 November, about 60 members of the now-disbanded National Socialist Network stood in formation on Macquarie Street, allegedly carrying a large banner that read “Abolish the Jewish Lobby”. Police did not oppose a “form 1” application for the protest after receiving legal advice the banner did not meet the threshold for hate speech.
In a statement yesterday evening, NSW police said after an investigation into the protest and two speeches allegedly made by participants, a 32-year-old man had been arrested at a house in South Penrith at 1.45pm. He was taken to Penrith police station, where he was charged with publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race and causing fear. He has been granted conditional bail to appear at local court on 3 June.
“An investigation into this matter was undertaken by the security investigation unit, counter-terrorist and special tactics command, who sought legal advice in relation to the public assembly and content of the speeches,” police said.
The offence for publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race, 93ZAA in the NSW Crimes Act, was introduced in August 2025. The NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, told budget estimates in February this year that six people had been charged under the offence.
The National Socialist Network disbanded in January before legislation to proscribe alleged “hate groups” was introduced to federal parliament.
BHP cannot appeal against ruling it is liable for 2015 dam collapse
BHP cannot appeal against a UK ruling that it is liable for the 2015 collapse of a dam in south-eastern Brazil, London’s court of appeal has ruled in a case potentially worth billions of dollars, Australian Associated Press reports.
In November, London’s high court ruled BHP was responsible under Brazilian law for the collapse of the Fundao dam in Mariana, south-eastern Brazil, which was owned and operated by Samarco, a joint venture between Australia-headquartered BHP and Brazilian company Vale.
BHP’s application for permission to appeal was refused at the court of appeal in London overnight, saying there was “ample evidence” to justify the high court’s findings.
Brazil’s worst environmental disaster unleashed a wave of toxic sludge that killed 19 people, left thousands homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River.
At the London trial that started in 2024, lawyers representing hundreds of thousands of Brazilians and other claimants accused BHP, the world’s biggest miner by market value, of trying to avoid responsibility.
BHP, however, argued the lawsuit duplicated legal proceedings and reparation and repair programs in Brazil. In the trial’s first week, Brazil signed a 170bn reais ($A48bnn) compensation deal with BHP, Vale and Samarco.
BHP said it was confident that work done since 2015 and the agreement with Brazil “provide the quickest and most efficient solution” to compensate those affected by the dam failure.
It also said about 240,000 claimants, representing roughly 40% of the claimant class, had received compensation in Brazil meaning their claim will be discontinued.
Pogust Goodhead, the law firm representing the claimants, called the appeal decision “a further victory” for the victims and “a major setback” for BHP.
The initial stage of the case was to determine whether BHP was liable to the claimants, with a further trial to decide on any damages to be paid expected to begin in April 2027.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
A man has been charged by police in New South Wales with an alleged hate speech offence in relation to a protest by a neo-Nazi group outside NSW parliament in November last year. More coming.
BHP cannot appeal against a UK ruling that it is liable for the 2015 collapse of a dam in south-eastern Brazil, London’s court of appeal has ruled in a case potentially worth billions of dollars. More details soon.
Penny Wong says the government is continuing to focus its diplomacy on fuel security as the situation in the Middle East remains “challenging”.
