We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.
1 of 4
Thanks for joining us today. Here’s a brief recap of some of our main stories:
Cindy Williams, who was among the most recognisable stars in America in the 1970s and ’80s for her role as Shirley opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the beloved sitcom Laverne & Shirley, has died in Los Angeles at age 75 on Wednesday after a brief illness.
The royal commissioner examining the unlawful robo-debt scheme has blasted a top government department lawyer over her involvement in the program. Former chief counsel for the Department of Human Services Annette Musolino was asked how the robo-debt scheme was allowed to continue, despite advice the scheme was not legal.
Despite the lure of Boxing Day sales, retail turnover fell by 3.9 per cent. It was the only fall in retail turnover for 2022, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and followed a strong surge in spending over November. Retail turnover for the year was up 7.5 per cent.
Indigenous leader Warren Mundine has criticised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for spending more time watching the tennis than he did in Alice Springs where Aboriginal communities struggling with crime.
Mundine told ABC Radio on Tuesday that Albanese had spent just hours in Alice Springs where Aboriginal communities were battling crime before flying to Melbourne to lounge around at the tennis.
“He was the one who said that he didn’t want to be like the previous Prime Minister. You know, go off to Hawaii while Australia was on fire,” he said. “Well Aboriginal communities are on fire today, and yet he went off to the tennis.
“If he’s really serious about this, then bloody do something about the problem today.”
Warren Mundine.Credit:Brook Mitchell
Mundine said he did not support The Voice as a panacea and because it would be difficult to extract from the Australian Constitution if it failed in the same way that similar advisory bodies had failed in the past. He said Australia has had four bodies representing Aboriginal people since 1973, and they had all failed. He said The Voice would replicate the failures.
“We’ve been trying this for 50 years and we’ve failed for 50 years,” he said. “So if it’s in the Constitution, and it fails then how do we get that out?”
Australia’s trade minister Don Farrell will meet with his counterpart in China when they both meet via video link next week, according to the ABC.
ABC News has reported the virtual meeting, which will be the first between trade ministers for the two nations in three years.
Assistant trade minister Tim Ayres in Davos for meetings with other ministers.Credit:Hans van Leeuwen
Australia’s Assistant Minister for Trade Tim Ayres last month called for the removal of China’s “trade impediments” on Australian exports in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, his office said.
China’s Xinhua news agency reported that the meeting at Davos between Australian and Chinese officials had agreed that trade ministers from the two nations would hold virtual discussions “in the near future.”
With Reuters
Clubs NSW has issued a statement confirming the chief executive of the state’s powerful clubs lobby, Josh Landis, has been sacked after he linked NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s religion with his push for gambling reform.
The official statement said Landis’ tenure would end with immediate effect.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, left, and ClubsNSW boss Josh Landis.Credit:Anna Kucera, DDominic Lorrimer
“Clubs NSW has met today to discuss the comments made by CEO Josh Landis yesterday after careful consideration the board has made the decision to end Mr Landis’ employment with ClubsNSW with immediate effect,” the statement said.
“The board acknowledges Josh Landis’ exemplary service to the industry over more than 15 years through some very difficult times.”
Landis was forced to issue a public apology on Tuesday after comments he made to the Sydney Morning Herald suggesting the premier was motivated by his “Catholic gut” rather than evidence in pursuing statewide cashless gaming.
Clubs NSW boss Josh Landis has resigned after failing to turn up for a scheduled interview on Radio 2GB.
Presenter Chris O’Keefe had just finished telling his listeners that Landis’s position was untenable after Premier Dominic Perrottet said he was offended by comments Landis made about his Catholic faith to the Herald. Landis suggested the premier was motivated by his “Catholic gut” rather than evidence in pursuing statewide cashless gaming.
Landis was forced to issue a public apology on Tuesday before he issued a statement to 2GB saying his tenure at Clubs NSW would end.
Dominic Perrottet, Josh Landis, Chris Minns.Credit:SMH
Shortly before making the announcement, Labor leader Chris Minns told O’Keefe that Landis should stand aside and that Perrottet should not be questioned on the basis of his Catholic faith.
Minns, who is also a Catholic, said Landis should completely withdraw the comments and resign.
“I think the point here is that given the charged atmosphere I don’t believe that he can continue in his role,” Minns told 2GB.
Minns said that although ClubsNSW had an independent board they would need to think about their interaction with the government in the context of debate over the future of gaming reform in NSW.
“We just can’t have a situation in NSW politics where sectarian and divisive nature or commentary or even people’s ultimate motives are questioned on the basis of their religion when there is absolutely no evidence of it,” Minns said. “I know Mr Perrottet and I don’t believe it’s the case in any event.”
O’Keefe then told his listeners that Landis had resigned as chief executive officer with immediate effect.
London: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied Boris Johnson’s claim that Vladimir Putin personally threatened him with a missile strike that would take out the former British prime minister “in a minute”.
Peskov told reporters that it was “more precisely, a lie”.
“There were no threats with missiles,” Peskov said.
“While talking about security challenges to Russia, President Putin said that if Ukraine joins NATO, the potential deployment of US or other NATO missiles near our borders would mean that any such missile could reach Moscow in minutes.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has denied Boris Johnson’s allegations that Vladimir Putin threatened to take him out with a missile before the invasion of Ukraine.Credit:AP
The former British Prime Minister made the extraordinary revelation in a BBC documentary in which he recounted a telephone conversation he had with Putin to warn him against invading Ukraine.
“He threatened me at one point, and he said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that,” Johnson told the national broadcaster.
Johnson said Putin’s words were said in a “very relaxed tone” with an “air of detachment”, which led Johnson to consider the threat as Putin “playing along” with attempts to negotiate with him.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says it is crucial that his first overseas trip in his new job will be to Australia.
“The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as prime minister was to Australia,” Hipkins said.
Hipkins’ trip is a similar dash to the one carried out by Ardern in June last year, when she became the first world leader to visit Albanese in office and gifted him a bunch of indie Kiwi records.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.Credit:Getty Images AsiaPac
This year is a banner one for trans-Tasman relations, marking 40 years of the Closer Economic Relations (CER) free trade deal and half a century of the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement.
Live issues for discussion between New Zealand and Australia include a review of citizenship rights in Australia and deportations.
AAP
Cindy Williams, who was among the most recognisable stars in America in the 1970s and ’80s for her role as Shirley opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the beloved sitcom Laverne & Shirley, has died, her family revealed on Tuesday (AEDT).
Williams died in Los Angeles at age 75 on Wednesday after a brief illness, her children, Zak and Emily Hudson, said in a statement released through family spokeswoman Liza Cranis.
Cindy Williams (right) found fame in Laverne & Shirley.
“The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed,” the statement said.
“Knowing and loving her has been our joy and privilege. She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possessed a brilliant sense of humour and a glittering spirit that everyone loved.”
Read the full story here
The royal commissioner examining the unlawful robo-debt scheme has blasted a top government department lawyer over her involvement in the program.
In her second day of questioning at the royal commission, former chief counsel for the Department of Human Services Annette Musolino was asked how the robo-debt scheme was allowed to continue, despite advice the scheme was not legal.
Former chief counsel of the Department of Human Services Annette Musolino told the Royal Commission into the robo-debt scheme she relied on legal advice from the portfolio department of Social Services.
The Centrelink debt recovery scheme used annual tax office data to calculate fortnightly earnings and automatically issue welfare debt notices. The controversial program recovered more than $750 million from over 380,000 people and led to several people taking their own lives while being pursued for false debts.
During questioning, royal commissioner Catherine Holmes took aim at the lack of response by the department and Musolino following tribunal decisions on the legality of the scheme.
“You were chief counsel, you were supposed to keep an eye on this, weren’t you? You seem to have been oblivious to what was going on in the AAT [Administrative Appeals Tribunal],” the commissioner said.
“It seems to me you let this system run, getting decisions from the AAT that told you there was a fundamental problem with its legality.”
However, Musolino said the department had operated in the framework that had been laid out by government departments in charge of the scheme.
“Each and every one of those decisions was looked at by a lawyer, reviewed and a recommendation was made. I couldn’t do the work of every lawyer in the division,” she told the commission.
“But I was confident that there were systems in place.”
Later today the commission will examine the response from media advisers in ministerial offices once significant concerns with robo-debt emerged.
Rachelle Miller, the former adviser to then human services minister Alan Tudge will be among the key witnesses at the commission, as well as Bevan Hannan, the former acting manager of media engagement within the Department of Human Services.
Tudge, along with former social services minister Christian Porter, will appear at the commission later in the week.
AAP
We’ve just been told the new Prime Minister of New Zealand, Chris Hipkins, will visit Australia on February 7.
Hipkins recently replaced Jacinda Ardern as Labour leader.
New Zealand’s new PM Chris Hipkins.Credit:Getty
Here’s what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had to say about the upcoming trip:
I am delighted to welcome Prime Minister Hipkins to Australia. Australia and New Zealand have an extremely close relationship, underpinned by our shared history and generations of personal, business and government links.
I offer my condolences to all those affected by the devastating floods and loss of life in Auckland. We stand ready to support our family and friends in New Zealand, if needed.
I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Hipkins to Canberra and discussing ways to build on trans-Tasman cooperation.
1 of 4
Copyright © 2023