Australian news and politics live: Eye-watering amount ABC has spent on legal costs in Antoinette Lattouf case

Foundational work around Labor’s decision to phase out live sheep export in WA was outsourced to a string of east coast consultancy firms, Senate Estimates has heard.

New figures released by the Federal Agricultural Department on Tuesday showed interstate consulting firms were engaged in supporting the live sheep phase out panel and cataloguing submissions.

Canberra-based consultancy 1 and One, who was paid $89,000 for its role, was among firms listed but others received figures to the tune of $123,000.

An announcement in May 2024 by then-Ag Minister Murray Watt that the Federal Government would phase out live sheep exports by 2028 had angered many WA producers.

The agriculture sector also expressed frustrations at the Government’s initial $107 million transition support package to help the industry wean off live exports.

When Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins took on the portfolio in July, she committed an additional $32.7 million to help cushion sheep farmers from the decision.

The ABC has spent $1.1 million on external legal costs related to the Antoinette Lattouf lawsuit.

The journalist has taken the public broadcaster to court, accusing them of unfair dismissal after she was fired three days into a five-day casual role in late 2023 over her social media posts linked to Gaza.

With the court case still ongoing, the matter is a hot topic in Senate estimates on Tuesday afternoon, where ABC officials are being grilled by senators.

Acting managing director Melanie Kleyn said the broadcaster understood the $1.1m cost was “an impost on public funds”.

“The ABC has tried on multiple occasions to settle the matter,” she said.

Executives have also said the broadcaster does not always examine a potential employee’s social media activity before hiring.

They said that would be a massive HR resource it doesn’t necessarily have at its disposal.

Outgoing ABC Managing Director David Anderson is not appearing, with his colleagues telling the Senate he is on a “period of approved leave”.

His tenure expires next week, before Mark Hughes takes over.

Former defence minister Linda Reynolds and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher have clashed in a tense exchange at senate estimates over “damage wrought” in the wake of Brittany Higgins’ accusation of sexual assault.

“As this is most likely my last senate estimates, I just want to ask you minister, will you now apologise, not just to me, but to my staff and my family for all of the damage that has been wrought on them by you and by others in the Labor party,” Ms Reynolds asked.

Senator Penny Wong and Senator Gallagher became involved in the erupting Higgins scandal after interrogating Senator Reynolds over the alleged sexual assault in an office at Parliament House.

Senator Reynolds has said the two inappropriately used parliamentary privileged.

Offering an apology of sorts, Senator Gallagher said: “I am sorry that you have been hurt by all of this.”

“I’ve gone back and had a look at the questions I’ve asked, and I believe the questions I’ve asked of you when you were a minister and accountable for what happened in your office were reasonable.”

Senator Thorpe told the room that she hates going to Parliament House but that she has to do it for her “people and for all our ancestors”.

Mentioning her protest during King Charles and Queen Camilla’s visit to her workplace in 2024, Senator Thorpe said: “It was my ancestors that threw me out into the middle there and told that king off, it was my ancestors that done that.”

Senator Thorpe shouted “you are not my king” at the completed of King Charles’ address in the Great Hall before being taken away by security.

“I am just the body, I am just the mechanism.,” Senator Thorpe added.

The Nightly’s Latika M Bourke reports Australian intelligence chief Andrew Shearer has labelled China’s unpredented warship presence off Australia as a “demonstration of Beijing’s increasing intent to project military power into Australia’s immediate region”.

Mr Shearer’s warning came as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was confronted on live television on Monday and told that he gave the public no confidence that he would encourage China to respect Australia’s autonomy.

China sent a task force comprising a destroyer, frigate and a supply ship to the Tasman Sea to conduct live-fire exercises between Australia and New Zealand on the weekend.

While the military drills are allowed in international waters, China did not provide sufficient warning for its drills, causing commercial pilots flying overhead to reroute — something the Government described as disconcerting and complained to China about.

Mr Shearer, Director-General of the Office of National Intelligence (ONI), said it was the first time that the Chinese had sent its Navy so far south and that it was a deliberate provocation aimed at testing and shaping Australia’s response.

Read the full story here.

Audio has surfaced of Senator Lidia Thorpe encouraging a room of Indigenous Australians to take on and “f**k the colony”.

“We need to start putting our own flags into our own land and f**k the colony,” Senator Thorpe told the room.

The audio, obtained by The Australian, captured Senator Thorpe’s address at a Queensland University of Technology anti-racism symposium in January.

“It’s the only way we are going to do it. We need to mobilise, we need to heal, we need to decolonise,” Senator Thorpe said.

“We need to take on the colony.

A member of the Bali Nine who spent almost two decades behind bars has avoided punishment over a charge of joyriding in a stolen vehicle dating from before he left Australia.

Matthew Norman was convicted of attempted heroin trafficking and locked up in Bali’s Kerobokan Prison alongside eight others, two of whom were ultimately executed.

Following his release and return to Australia, the now 38-year-old was charged with riding in a stolen car, in March 2005, when he was 18.

On Tuesday, Norman pleaded guilty at Waverley Local Court in Sydney and the charge was dismissed with no conviction recorded.

Read the full story.

Katina Curtis reports that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended the delay in approving the extension of the Woodside North West Shelf lifespan - and denied it was due to crossbrench pressure.

The Federal environment department has pushed back its deadline by a month for a decision on allowing the project to operate until 2070, citing a delay in receiving paperwork from WA counterparts.

The WA department took some six years to consider the application before making a decision in December.

But asked whether the Government was delaying a decision because of crossbench concerns, Mr Albanese gave a blunt: “No.”

​Read the full story here.​

The Coalition have accused Labor of “secret planning” to reinstate their proposed biosecurity levy which would have seen $50 million per year collected from the agricultural sector.

In senate estimates on Tuesday, National Party Senator Bridget McKenzie questioned something that had been on a parliamentary notice paper in the Senator’s last sitting week.

Labor Senator Anthony Chisholm, however, said the issue was off the table ahead of the looming Federal Election.

“We won’t be taking the biosecurity levy to the election,” Mr Chisholm said.

The proposed levy had been unpopular with farming groups and failed to get the support of the Coalition or the Greens.

Ms McKenzie claimed Labor had to be “dragged kicking and screaming” on the last day of the Senator to have it discharged from the notice paper.

“So please don’t spread misinformation to the agricultural sector that somehow the minister and you as her spokesperson here in the Senate somehow supported the discharge,” she said.

Anthony Albanese says defence were “aware” of Chinese live fire danger ahead of time, despite Airservices Australia claiming a Virgin Australia pilot was the first to alert a government agency.

Asked if he was concerned a Virgin Australia pilot had been the first to alert about the military exercise in the Tasman Sea on Friday - after testimony from Airservices Australia chief executive Robe Sharp at Senate estimates overnight - the PM says he’s spoken to the defence chief about what occurred.

“The Australian Defence (Force) were certainly aware … Australia has had frigates, both monitoring by sea and by air … of the presence in the region of these Chinese vessel,” he said.

The department of defence are due up before Senate estimates on Wednesday, where questions about the military exercise are expected.