News and politics live updates: Burke says Hanson’s ISIS fighters bill would ‘last 30 seconds in High Court’

Former prime minister Tony Abbott, then-future premier Dominic Perrottet and then-future Nationals leader Matt Canavan spoke at events of a right-wing group that funded the stacking of Liberal Party branches with social conservatives, an anti-corruption inquiry has been told.

Robert Assaf, a former Liberal Party staffer, told the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s Operation Rosny inquiry on Thursday that Mr Abbott, now the Liberal Party’s Federal president, Mr Perrottet as then-State treasurer and Senator Canavan as Federal resources minister addressed Sydney recruitment events run by the Reformers group in early 2018.

He also confirmed he had emailed then Liberal State MP Kevin Conolly, the member for Riverstone, about the need to keep a March 2018 event with Mr Perrottet a secret so there would be more attendees who weren’t Liberal Party members who could be potential branch recruits.

“You explain in that email to Kevin, ‘Once again, your discretion is important as not everyone is aware or invited to this event. This is because we are wanting a large contingent of non-members in the room’,” counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer said.

“That’s right,” Mr Assaf replied. “There would have been a lot of people who wanted to suck up to Dom and that so we wanted to protect the seats for non-members, yes.”

Read more.

Key allies of former Victorian premier Jacinta Allan will quit politics as a make-or-break cabinet reshuffle looms.

Health Minister Harriet Shing and Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio on Thursday announced they would not contest their seats at the November state election and would step down from cabinet.

The exit of the pair, who are prominent allies of Ms Allan’s socialist left faction, creates room for new Premier Ben Carroll to reshuffle cabinet in coming days.

Ms Shing said she met with Mr Carroll on Tuesday afternoon, hours after he was sworn in as premier, to notify him of her decision.

Read the full story here.

American officials have sought urgent assurances from the Albanese government over the planned rotation of US nuclear-powered submarines out of Western Australia after a senior minister suggested the arrangement would be limited to five years.

During an interview from Washington, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the AUKUS program known as Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-West), and is scheduled to begin next year, would end in 2032.

“This is a time-limited rotation,” Mr Conroy told the ABC on Wednesday evening, in comments which The Nightly has been told sparked a flurry of conversations between US and Australian defence officials.

“It’s a five-year commitment beginning in 2027... That’s the arrangement that we’ve put in place, with the plan being that as we acquire our own nuclear-powered submarines, they would move into HMAS Stirling and the rotational presence would come to an end.”

Under the AUKUS optimal pathway, US and British submarines will first deploy to WA’s HMAS Stirling, before Australia begins to receive second-hand Virginia-class boats in the early 2030s.

Read the full story here.

Children left unprotected and vulnerable to sexual abuse have received a landmark apology for decades of mistreatment at government schools.

Victorian Premier Ben Carroll delivered the apology in parliament on behalf of the state government on Thursday, as promised in response to an inquiry into historical abuse.

Mr Carroll, who also serves as education minister, reflected on decades of abuse and neglect under the government’s watch.

“Today, we offer our formal and sincere apology to every person who was sexually abused as a student of a Victorian government school,” he told the house.

Read the full story here.

The Reserve Bank wants Australians to remain anxious enough to cut their spending even if inflation has fallen to levels last seen before the Iran war pushed up crude oil prices — diluting expectations of another rate hike.

Whether it’s a tightrope or a so-called “narrow path”, the RBA’s monetary policy board is grappling with a classic economic Catch 22.

Inflation has consistently been above the Reserve Bank’s 2-3 per cent target for almost a year, well before US President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran caused average petrol prices to soar above $2 a litre.

But raising interest rates again, for the fourth time this year, would only crush an already weak economy and squeeze much-needed home building activity during a housing crisis.

Read the full story here.

The identity of the most persuasive person urging the Federal Government to bring ISIS fighters and brides back to Australia would come as a surprise to most people.

It isn’t a human rights advocate. Far from it.

It is actually someone who is routinely accused of denying the human rights of his own citizens.

That person is Donald Trump.

The US President has for many years been pressing countries such as Australia to repatriate their ISIS-aligned citizens from the Middle East.

Read Mark Riley’s full opinion piece here.

Jacinta Nampinjinpa Price has called for Labor MP Luke Gosling to step down from his duties as special envoy for defence, veterans’ affairs, and northern Australia following his arrest over an alleged assault.

The Liberal frontbencher and NT senator said the Prime Minister should step in to stand Mr Gosling aside.

“That a federal MP has been arrested and taken into custody over such a serious allegation is a deeply concerning development,” she said in a statement.

“Given the seriousness of the allegations, the Prime Minister should stand Mr Gosling aside from his special envoy responsibilities while the matter is investigated.

“No one is above the law, and everyone is entitled to due process.”

Mr Gosling was released on bail after being arrested on Thursday morning following allegations he assaulted the Northern Territory Administrator earlier this month.

The Member for Solomon was earlier taken into custody after Northern Territory Administrator David Connolly made a complaint about an alleged incident that occurred in Darwin on July 18.

Tony Burke has criticised Pauline Hanson’s bid to block Australian citizens with terror links from returning back to the ocuntry, saying it “would last about 30 seconds in the High Court”.

In a letter outlining the poroposal, the One Nation leader said the government should have the power to “refuse, cancel or suspend a passport where a person is subject to an exclusion order or has been charged with or convicted of a terrorism offence”.

But the Home Affairs Minister shot down the propsoed bill, saying it wouldn’t hold up in court due to constitutional rights.

“The laws that we’ve already got go to basically the limit of what you can do under the Australian constitution,” Mr Burke told ABC radio.

“So on all the advice that I’ve had, something like what’s being proposed here would last about 30 seconds in the High Court.”

Former prime minister Tony Abbott, future premier Dominic Perrottet and future Nationals leader Matt Canavan spoke at a forum of a right-wing group that funded the stacking of Liberal Party branches with social conservatives, an anti-corruption inquiry has been told.

Robert Assaf, a former Liberal Party staffer, told the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s Operation Rosny inquiry on Thursday that Mr Abbott, now the Liberal Party’s federal president, Mr Perrottet as then-State treasurer, and Senator Canavan as Federal resources minister addressed Sydney recruitment events of the Reformers in early 2018.

Asked by counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer if this event took place, he replied: “It did, yes”.

Mr Assaf also confirmed he had emailed then-Liberal State MP Kevin Conolly, the member for Riverstone, about the need to keep the event a secret so there would be more attendees who weren’t Liberal Party members who could be potential recruits to branches.

“You explain in that email to Kevin, ‘Once again, your discretion is important as not everyone is aware or invited to this event. This is because we are wanting a large contingent of non-members in the room,” Ms Dwyer said.

“That’s right,” Mr Assaf replied. “There would have been a lot of people who wanted to suck up to Dom and that so we wanted to protect the seats for non-members, yes.”

Mr Assaf had joined the Reformers when it formed in 2017 as someone campaigning against same-sex marriage during a nationwide postal vote survey.

He also confirmed to the hearing he had attended Redfield College in Sydney’s Hills District with Mr Perrottet’s brothers Jean-Claude and Charles and had joined the Liberal Party after hearing a speech by Damien Tudehope, a right-wing State MP who was then the member for Epping.

Police have charged Labor MP Luke Gosling over the alleged assault on the Northern Territory administrator earlier this month.

In a statement, NT Police have confirmed investigations began last week and the member for Solomon was arrested earlier today.

“He has now been charged with two counts of Assault on the Administrator and was bailed to appear before Darwin Local Court on 1 September.”