Pilot escapes crash during military exercise
Daniel Hurst
A large military exercise in the Northern Territory has been suspended after one of the participating aircraft crashed. The pilot ejected from the aircraft and is “safe and well”, according to Australian defence officials.
A Defence spokesperson said in a statement issued this afternoon:
Defence can confirm an international participant in Exercise Pitch Black 24 is safe and well after ejecting from their aircraft this morning during flying operations.
Australian Defence Force personnel responded immediately and professionally at 10:45am to an aircraft emergency in the exercise area and coordinated recovery of the pilot with a search and rescue helicopter.
The exercise participant made immediate contact with aircrew in the area via radio following their ejection.
The pilot arrived at hospital by helicopter around 1:30pm (local time).
All flying for the remainder of the day has been cancelled.
News Corp cited social media report as saying it was an Italian aircraft, but Defence has yet to confirm the country.
Key events
Barnaby Joyce claims Lucas Heights as example of how city can handle nuclear reactor, despite expert opinion
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce told a Hunter Valley press conference today that Muswellbrook could “handle” a nuclear plant, pointing to the Lucas Heights Ansto (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) facility in Sydney.
After remarks from Peter Dutton, Joyce added:
Peter gave some great examples. I’m gonna give you one more – one more.
And you’ve got to hear this – you’ve got to hear this: Australia does have a nuclear reactor. People don’t realise it, [but] we do.
It’s bang smack in this city – might’ve heard of it – a town called Sydney, right, Sydney. And around Sydney are houses worth $1.5m to $1.6m. And if they look out their front or back door, whichever way they want to face, they see Lucas Heights.
So if Sydney can handle it, I reckon Muswellbrook can handle it.
The Lucas Heights facility, however, is different to a nuclear plant. Last month, NSW’s chief scientist, Hugh Durrant-Whyte, explained that “this is a ‘zero-power’ pool reactor where the complexities of high pressure, high power, high radiation environments do not exist”.
The capabilities learned at the Lucas Heights facility would make “little contribution” to supporting a nuclear power industry in the country, he wrote in his 2019 report.
Read more about the federal opposition’s plans to build seven nuclear power stations in five states at existing coal plant sites, here:
More details on RAAF operation in which aircraft crashed
It is not yet known what type of aircraft was involved in the crash, or what caused the incident. Australian Associated Press reports:
Pitch Black, one of the largest tactical air operations in the world, is hosted by the Australian Royal Air Force and includes 20 countries, more than 140 aircraft and 4,500 personnel.
The exercise is being held out of both the RAAF Base Darwin and RAAF Base Tindal. The Air Force’s website describes the operation as its “most significant flying activity for strengthening international engagement and enhancing our ability to work with overseas partners”.
Pilot escapes crash during military exercise
Daniel Hurst
A large military exercise in the Northern Territory has been suspended after one of the participating aircraft crashed. The pilot ejected from the aircraft and is “safe and well”, according to Australian defence officials.
A Defence spokesperson said in a statement issued this afternoon:
Defence can confirm an international participant in Exercise Pitch Black 24 is safe and well after ejecting from their aircraft this morning during flying operations.
Australian Defence Force personnel responded immediately and professionally at 10:45am to an aircraft emergency in the exercise area and coordinated recovery of the pilot with a search and rescue helicopter.
The exercise participant made immediate contact with aircrew in the area via radio following their ejection.
The pilot arrived at hospital by helicopter around 1:30pm (local time).
All flying for the remainder of the day has been cancelled.
News Corp cited social media report as saying it was an Italian aircraft, but Defence has yet to confirm the country.
NSW ministers visit farmer’s conference
While NSW’s environment minister, Penny Sharpe, acknowledged there had been problems with the rollout of renewable energy she said things were turning around.
“I know many of you struggle with the renewable energy zones … the rollout is complicated but the rollout is well under way,” the minister told delegates on Wednesday.
I’m not going to tell you that it’s perfect, but it is turning it around.
I would hope that we are learning all the time from the mistakes of the past and we’re getting better on the way through.”
The minister again ruled out sending transmission lines underground. “It is too expensive and it will take too long, our government’s been really upfront about that,” she told reporters.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, also addressed the conference, acknowledging the threat posed by fire ants and feral pigs. The premier outlined efforts that had seen 110,000 pigs killed in a nine-month period but conceded there were still feral pig “hotspots” across the state.
– Australian Associated Press
Farmers call for more renewable energy planning control
Farmers want to force renewable energy developers to maintain the agricultural productivity of the land.
At their annual conference in Sydney, farmers were fired up over renewable energy but want more control over how projects are planned. Delegates also called for payments to farmers hosting renewable energy projects to be paid for the life of the project and not the 25-year term currently being offered.
“Delegates are expressing their frustration … most are saying in living memory they can’t remember anything so badly thought through,” said Xavier Martin, the freshly re-elected president of NSW Farmers. “The impact on the landscape on some of our prime agricultural land is just appalling.”
– Australian Associated Press
More to come.
Two police suspended after 35-year-old man who became unresponsive during arrest dies
A 35-year-old man who became unresponsive during his arrest by police earlier this month has died in hospital, Victoria Police said in a statement.
A male sergeant and a male constable, both from North West metro region, have been suspended while the investigation is carried out.
The man was arrested in the car park of a convenience store at the corner of Heaths and Tarneit Roads at Hoppers Crossing at about 2am on 15 July. He became unresponsive during the arrest, and police subsequently performed CPR and called for further medical assistance. He was then conveyed to hospital.
“The investigation by the homicide squad remains ongoing and this investigation is being oversighted by professional standards command, as per standard practice when a person is seriously injured or dies while in custody,” the statement said.
Emily Wind
Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, Rafqa Touma will guide you through the rest of our rolling coverage today. Take care!
Call for ad ban on easy credit for groceries, medicines
So-called “Buy Now Pay Later” arrangements for essentials such as food and medicines should be banned, consumer groups say.
As AAP reports, federal parliament is considering changes to credit laws that have not covered wage advances or the increasingly popular short-term form of borrowing that allows shoppers to obtain goods immediately, but pay for them in instalments.
Providers have told a parliamentary hearing the service could be a better option than high-interest credit cards or bank loans. But financial counsellors warned of financial distress, with cash-strapped clients already behind on rent or their mortgage juggling more lines of credit and being stung by late fees.
Paul Holmes, a consumer lawyer at Legal Aid Queensland, said there should be an advertising ban on using the service to pay for grocery shopping or health care.
Choice’s spokesperson, Tom Abourizk, said more people were using BNPL schemes to pay for essentials such as food during the cost-of-living crisis. He said deferring payments for essentials was “a recipe for disaster” that could add extra fees to already strained budgets.
While some are using the service to buy solar panels, wedding dresses, furniture and home upgrades, the average transaction was $132, according to industry data.
Report handed down following multicultural framework review
The immigration minister, Andrew Giles, has released a report stemming from the multicultural framework review – the first deep dive into multiculturalism in Australia in over half a century.
Giles said the report “notes the vital role of education, English language learning and effective translation services in ensuring that all Australians can enjoy the benefits of this country”:
It challenges standard perceptions that the home of multiculturalism lies in the suburbs of our big cities by pointing to the increasing cultural diversity of regional, rural and remote Australia.
It finds that successful multiculturalism starts with greater understanding and celebration of First Nations peoples, who for at least 65,000 years have sustained many cultures on this continent and built trade and cultural connections between groups and with neighbouring peoples in Asia and the Pacific.
It calls on governments and all citizens to actively combat racism, which is still experienced by far too many Australians.
You can read more about the report online here.
AFP dismisses allegations a witness gave false testimony to robodebt royal commission
Sarah Basford Canales
The Australian Federal Police has dismissed allegations a witness gave false testimony in the robodebt royal commission, saying it did not “identify sufficient admissible evidence” that the alleged offender had intended to mislead.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the AFP said it had received the allegation in July 2023. Giving false testimony is an offence under the Royal Commission Act.
The AFP said it had undertaken a “thorough investigation” by reviewing all material, including additional evidence and documents submitted to the royal commission, but ultimately could not identify proof of intent:
A key component in proving the offence is obtaining sufficient evidence to prove intent. The AFP has finalised the investigation and has informed relevant parties of the outcome.
The investigation was overseen by its sensitive investigations operation board, which is chaired by an AFP deputy commissioner.
‘Unprecedented’ rise in Islamophobia since 7 October, inquiry hears
Josh Butler
An “unprecedented” rise in Islamophobia around Australia has been reported since the 7 October terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel, according to the leading group tracking such incidents in this country, a Senate committee has heard.
Mariam Veiszadeh, founder and chair of the Islamophobia Register Australia, told the inquiry into right-wing extremism that there was major concern around how such extremist groups perpetrated abuse and attacks against Muslims.
The register has documented an increase on last count of around 581%.
Veiszadeh added and acknowledged there had of course been a rise in antisemitism since that time too.
She said Islamophobia was also a gendered issue, with 78% of victims reported as women and 70% of perpetrators being men, according to a 2023 report from the register.
The committee’s chair, Liberal senator Paul Scarr, spoke of his admiration for Veiszadeh’s “courage in pursuing the work you do, in the face of that awful, despicable intimidation”.
Josh Butler
‘Uncertainty’ in world turning some young Australians to rightwing extremism, Senate committee hears
Rightwing extremism is being fuelled among young Australians partly through major “uncertainty” in the world and even issues around the housing market, according to an expert giving evidence to a federal Senate committee.
The Senate’s legal affairs committee is conducting a hearing into right-wing extremism today, as part of a long-running inquiry. Dr John Coyne, head of the strategic policing and law enforcement program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, was one of those appearing.
Asked what issues may be leading Australians to become radicalised and involved in right-wing extremism, Coyne said there were people “vulnerable” to adopting those ideologies due to societal factors around politics and the environment:
We face a period of time where there’s a great period of economic uncertainty, social uncertainty, environmental uncertainty for our young people. In that, we’re seeing a great deal of loss of faith in political systems, a loss of faith and loss of confidence in their future, whether [that’s] home ownership for those in their 20s or paying off a huge HECS bill.
In all of that, we have incredibly vulnerable people to being radicalised, from a point of view of pushing blame on some part of the community, and that divisiveness.
Coyne went on to say that “highly personalised wraparound services, focused on supporting an individual, have a better chance of working, than institutionalised courses or interventions”.
The inquiry is currently hearing evidence from the Islamophobia Register and the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network. Later, the Australian Human Rights Commission, Asio and the AFP will be among those giving testimony.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population passes one million: ABS
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of Australia is now over one million people, according to new projections from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
This is an increase of 56,300 people since June 2021.
The projections are based on a series of assumptions on levels of fertility, paternity, mortality and internal migration, which are guided by recent data, the ABS said in a statement.
The bureau’s head of demography statistics, Beidar Cho, said the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of Australia is projected to reach around 1.2 million by 2031.
We are projecting a higher proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in major cities, and a smaller proportion living in remote and very remote Australia.
We are also projecting that the majority of Indigenous regions will continue to see population growth between 2021 and 2031.
Perth is projected to be the fastest growing Indigenous region – growing by 2.7% to 2.8% on average annually for the next ten years – followed by Brisbane, at between 2.6% to 2.8%.
The median age of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is also projected to increase from 24 years old in 2021, to between 25.4 and 25.7 years old in 2031.
Accused killer allegedly stole from 85-year-old victim
An accused murderer allegedly stole jewellery, cash and personal items from an 85-year-old woman on the same day she killed her, AAP reports.
Court documents lodged by police state Milena Bogojevska, 49, allegedly trespassed with an intent to steal at Lolene Whitehand’s West Footscray home on 12 July. She then allegedly stole items valued at $2000 from the 85-year-old, including jewellery, cash, a wallet and personal identification documents.
Bogojevska has been charged with murdering Whitehand on the same day. Whitehand’s body was found floating in the Maribyrnong River in Melbourne’s west on 14 July. Police allege Bogojevska knew Whitehand.
Bogojevska faced Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday where a suppression on her identity was lifted during a closed-court hearing. She was remanded in custody to appear in November for a committal mention hearing.
Adeshola Ore
Melbourne city council vote on billboard curfew proposal
Large digital billboards in the Melbourne CBD could be turned off late at night as early as next year to crack down on light pollution and reduce its health and environmental impacts.
Guardian Australia reported last week that a review, commissioned by the Melbourne city council, recommended the introduction of a curfew for illuminated signs above ground level.
The council yesterday evening voted to endorse the review’s recommendations and begin the planning scheme amendment process to implement the proposals.
The review proposed banning above-ground illuminated signage between midnight and sunrise on Monday to Thursday nights, and 1am to sunrise on other days. The proposal comes comes amid growing research into the impact of light pollution on sleep and circadian rhythms.
If approved by the planning minister, the curfew could be introduced as early as next year.
The Bureau of Meteorology has published a severe weather update, with more details about the damaging winds, showers and cold temperatures forecast for the southeast:
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