As it happened: Chalmers confronts faltering economy; Pressure builds on Netanyahu in Israel

Ousted CFMEU leaders are attempting to wrest back control of the union from a government-appointed barrister in a legal battle that will be decided by the High Court.

The challenge was filed on Tuesday by a team of lawyers led by the High Court’s most prolific barrister, Bret Walker, SC.

The long-expected challenge to the special laws the government introduced to force the rogue union into administration will hinge on the argument that only courts can enforce punishments, not parliaments, and if successful could pave the way for the return of former Victorian branch secretary John Setka.

Administrator Mark Irving, SC has extensive powers to investigate issues in the union, appoint people to run branches, and negotiate for members. Ousted officials can be banned from some labour roles for life.

The government seized control of the CFMEU after the Building Bad investigation by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes reported allegations of corruption and infiltration by bikie gangs.

Hall Payne Lawyers and barristers Christopher Tran, Naomi Wootton and Craig Lenehan, SC will run the case alongside Walker, who won the acquittal of the late cardinal George Pell and hasrepresented high-profile clients including Qantas, Google and Gladys Berejiklian.

Shadow Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson says it would be concerning if Palestinians who entered Australia during the Israel-Hamas conflict had not been properly vetted, because it is “very easy” to leverage the Australian legal system and extend their stay.

Speaking to ABC News on Tuesday afternoon, Paterson claimed the Coalition had never criticised ASIO director-general Mike Burgess, rather that the opposition had questioned the application of character provisions in the Migration Act, which are set out by the government.

In an interview with ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday, Burgess said people had distorted his initial remarks, which sparked a political fight that dominated parliament in August as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said no Palestinians should be let into the country.

“I said that if you support a Palestinian homeland, that may not discount you [from entering Australia] because that by itself is not a problem,” Burgess said.

“But I also said if you have a violent extremist ideology, or you provide material or financial support to a terrorist organisation, that will be a problem.”

Paterson said he believed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had used Burgess as a “political shield” and there may have been visas improperly granted to Palestinians fleeing the Israel-Hamas conflict.

It would be of great concern to me if any of the 1300 [visa-holders] require any further security checks, because the government has assured us that all the necessary security checks happened before they were granted these tourist visas and before they came to Australia.

The reason why it would be a problem is once you are in Australia, it is very easy to use the legal system to extend your stay, even after the government has determined that you should not be here, particularly if you come from a war-torn area and cannot easily return.

Of the 1700 people from Gaza who have been granted a visa to Australia but are unable to travel, Paterson said his preference is that they are processed offshore, with “stringent security and identity checks”.

Former radio and television journalist, broadcaster and author Tim Bowden has died aged 87, the ABC said on Tuesday afternoon.

Bowden was the ABC’s Asia and North American correspondent during the 1960s, and was the founding executive producer of radio show PM, but he became widely known as the host of television program Backchat.

The broadcaster’s managing director David Anderson said Bowden was part of the fabric of the ABC for decades and made a huge contribution to the national broadcaster and to the nation.

“He was generous to his colleagues and was known as much for his sense of humour as his passion for journalism and the ABC,” he said.

“Our condolences go to Tim’s family and many friends and colleagues.”

The NSW Liberals will be forced into a federal takeover for 10 months from September 12, with all powers to be delegated to a federal committee made up of former Victorian senator Richard Alston, former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale and former NSW minister Rob Stokes.

The decision was carried at a federal executive meeting on Tuesday afternoon, which met to consider a report from former federal director Brian Loughnane into the NSW Liberals’ spectacular failure to nominate 140 candidates in 16 councils ahead of this month’s local government elections.

The move will cause huge unrest in the moderate faction, which is the largest grouping in NSW. A senior moderate Liberal said this was an “incredible takeover of the NSW division by Peter Dutton”.

“The NSW Liberal Party will now be run by two Victorians, with Rob Stokes added for window dressing. The message Peter Dutton has sent to the NSW Liberals is that he wants the party run by a committee that is old, white and right,” the Liberal, who cannot speak publicly due to party rules, said.

Labor frontbencher Dr Anne Aly has accused Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of “punching down” on those who travelled from Gaza to Australia legitimately.

Earlier today, Dutton said that the national security agency ASIO had been put in a difficult position by a government that has “brought in 1300 people from Gaza without the requisite security checks”.

“It’s reckless, it puts our national security at risk,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Speaking to ABC News this afternoon, Aly said the federal government had elected to ensure those fleeing Gaza could get out of a “desperate” situation swiftly, but security checks on those entering the country had been thorough.

“First of all, if they are coming out of Gaza – which is quite extraordinary … considering the Rafah Crossing has been closed since early May – they have been checked by the Israelis, the Egyptians and by ASIO,” she said.

“This is not a matter of the tourist visas or anything else.

“I have seen Peter Dutton and the Coalition time and time again [try] to whip up fear in the community and punch down on people who are simply seeking to escape a war zone.”

The Australian sharemarket was treading water in early afternoon trade after economic data showed that falling commodity prices have pushed Australia into its biggest current account deficit in six years, raising concerns about the strength of the local economy.

The S&P/ASX 200 was down 9.9 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 8100 as of 1pm AEST. Eight of its 11 industry sectors declined, with consumer staples (down 1.8 per cent) recording the sharpest losses as the shares of supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths both went ex-dividend.

Woolworths lost 80 cents, or 2.3 per cent, as it traded without the right to its final 97¢-a-share dividend for the first time. The nation’s largest supermarket this week agreed to sell its final 4.1 per cent stake in spun-off liquor business Endeavour Group, the owner of bottle shop chains Dan Murphy’s and BWS.

Endeavour shares shed 2 per cent. Ex-dividend Coles dropped 0.6 per cent.

Mineral Resources (down 2.3 per cent) was the biggest large-cap laggard, followed by EBOS Group (down 2.2 per cent) and Qantas (down 2 per cent).

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has visited an inner-city Perth school to sign an agreement for the Commonwealth to pump $785.4 million in extra cash into West Australian public education from 2025 to 2029 – though the other states are being “a bit stubborn”.

The WA government will match that funding, which will mean school resourcing will total $1.6 billion and for the first time reach the standard outlined by the Gonksi review completed more than a decade ago – according to that state’s government and the federal government, that is.

The visit signalled that election mode is well and truly in full swing. After the very lengthy press conference, Albanese walked out to a crowd of students eager to get selfies with him. A staff member yelled at the students to put their phones away.

During the press conference, Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the other states were being “a bit stubborn” over the issue.

Clare and WA’s Education Minister Tony Buti spruiked the new deal, which will see the federal government increase its share of funding from 20 per cent to 22.5 per cent of public schools’ recommended standards, and the state lift its share from 75 per cent to 77.5 per cent.

The State School Teachers’ Union (both WA and national) say the amount promised will still leave schools 4 per cent short because the funding share is “artificially inflated” through the inclusion of costs not directly related to the education of students in schools, such as capital depreciation, transport and regulatory costs.

Other state governments have refused the deal to get a greater funding percentage from the Commonwealth.

When asked whether the other states were being stubborn Clare said: “I think you could say that.”

Clare said his message to the other states holding out was if the Commonwealth chipped in and the states chip in, the country could close the education gap and make a better life for all Australians.

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds’ lawyer has accused Brittany Higgins of concocting a plan to weaponise her alleged rape in an “unprovoked attack underpinned by visceral hatred” aiming to bring the former defence minister down.

Higgins’ barrister, Rachael Young, SC, used the final hour of her closing address on Tuesday to savage the conspiracy arm of Reynolds’ Supreme Court defamation claim over several social media posts from July 2023.

Young told the court that Reynolds’ evidence had failed to support her claim Higgins and the ex-staffer’s now-husband David Sharaz had devised a malicious plan to attack her by handpicking and briefing journalists, curating the timing of the bombshell story and aiding her political opponents.

She downplayed the relevance of a five-hour recording before Higgins’ tell-all interview with The Project in 2021, in which Sharaz told journalist Lisa Wilkinson Higgins’ motivation was for Reynolds to lose her job.

Heard in its entirety, Young said the audio showed Higgins’ real desire was for cultural change, which was evidenced by her continued advocacy for reform and support for victims of sexual assault.

“Ms Higgins wanted to call out the perpetrator and the way she was treated afterwards because she felt she had a moral obligation to do so … she wanted to generate reform, and that is evidenced by her continued advocacy on such issues,” Young said.

“Ms Higgins has talked about her motivation at length, which is corroborated by the evidence … at no point did Ms Higgins ever state to [journalist Samantha] Maiden that her motive was to injure Senator Reynolds.

“This bold and surprising plan is said to have been devised by one of two people in their mid-20s, including a junior staffer with long-held associations with the Liberal Party.”

But Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett began his closing submissions by dubbing the recording the strongest proof of a co-ordinated attack by Higgins alongside Sharaz – her “co-conspirator” – based on a “litany of lies”.

Former defence minister Reynolds made a shock appearance just before 11am, sitting in the front row of the public gallery before Bennett lambasted Higgins for “arrogantly” trivialising his client’s suffering from her new home in France.

Read the full report here.