Australia news LIVE: Netanyahu intends to take full control of Gaza; Albanese to consider Palestine recognition without Trump’s approval

Thanks for joining us today, have a great weekend! We’ll be back soon with more live coverage. A quick recap as we knock off:

• Israel’s security cabinet deciding on a military takeover of Gaza City has dominated the day’s news. Foreign Minister Penny Wong is against the idea, but the Greens have said the government needs to go further than words and sanction Israel the same way it has imposed sanctions on Russia.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet US counterpart Donald Trump next week to discuss Putin’s war on Ukraine. This afternoon we learnt Trump will still meet with Putin even if the Russian leader doesn’t meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
• Celebrated orthopaedic surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis has lost his marathon defamation case against Nine, the publisher of this masthead, over a series of reports alleging negligent surgery.
• Mushroom cook killer Erin Patterson will make her plea for leniency to a Supreme Court judge in Melbourne later this month.
• Virgin Australia has renewed its calls to the government to remove status credits – a secondary form of loyalty points offered by Qantas that offers flyers lounge access and other perks which have long been seen as a way they curry favour with Canberra’s decision makers. Virgin’s comments come after a government report this week review public servant travel policies.
• Optus is facing a potentially mammoth fine after Australia’s Information Commissioner launched civil Federal Court proceedings over a September 2022 cyberattack in which the personal information of nearly 10 million Australians was stolen.
• And more than three months after the federal election, Liberal hopeful Gisele Kapterian’s challenge to the election result in the NSW seat of Bradfield will go to trial before the Federal Court. Teal Nicolette Boele won that seat by 151 votes after several recounts.

It was a moment that even stopped the trams.

Not for more than a century has Melbourne had the grand opening of a new store quite like the Mecca on Bourke Street this morning, when thousands of people lined up to witness and partake in the crowning moment of a cosmetics business that began out of founder Jo Horgan’s living room in the same city.

Incidentally, the last time a store opened to this much fanfare in the CBD was right across the road: Myer reopened its eight-storey Bourke Street premises in July 1914 with a gala and advertising blitz, including in The Age.

“The staff, so considerably augmented, is now reasonably familiar with the numerous sections … Will you permit us a few days to swing into our stride? Thank you!” reads one of the ads of the time.

It seems that even in the 1910s, customer politeness was a most valuable commodity to retail workers.

Incidentally, here is what Bourke Street looked like back then.

For more on this, read this week’s report by our city editor Cara Waters.

Secrecy surrounds why Kathleen Folbigg has been offered $2 million for decades of wrongful imprisonment, with concerns the compensation system risks undermining the principles of open justice.

The NSW government is refusing to budge on the sum, and Premier Chris Minns said Folbigg would need to go to court for more, despite widespread criticism of the payout amount.

High-profile lawyer Sam Tierney said $2 million appeared to be low for her 20 years in jail.

Tierney represented David Eastman in his $7 million compensation win against the ACT government after being wrongly convicted of murdering AFP assistant commissioner Colin Winchester.

Serious concerns about the transparency of the ex gratia payment process would persist until governments handed over powers to the courts or released reasons for their decision, he said.

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“It seems only fair and reasonable and sensible that the decision maker would issue reasons explaining why they arrived at a particular figure,” Tierney told AAP.

“State and commonwealth legislatures should look very seriously at implementing Human Rights Acts so that courts can be empowered to properly review these situations.”

Folbigg was jailed over the deaths of her four children before being freed in June 2023 after new scientific evidence cast reasonable doubt about her convictions.

Minns said Folbigg’s lawyers were free to sue the government if they felt the offer was inadequate, but he wouldn’t budge without a court order.

“There’s no future action that cannot be pursued by Ms Folbigg or her lawyers,” he said on Friday.

NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley’s office declined to comment when asked whether it would release the reasons for the decision.

Despite his former client’s success, Tierney said Folbigg would struggle to appeal against the offer she received on Thursday.

“If there are no reasons issued by the decision maker, then it’s very difficult to attack the decision that’s been made,” the lawyer said.

Unlike court-run compensation claims, which have precedents, ex gratia payments are one-off matters and are a decision of state cabinets.

Arguing about the viability of a $2 million payment in a state budget of billions of dollars was “a little trite”, Tierney said.

Against the NSW annual budget of $128 billion, the amount offered to Folbigg represents about 0.0015 per cent.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said the government’s offer was unfair and far too low.

AAP

Outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem on Thursday evening, hundreds of demonstrators gathered to protest against the notion of an expanded war, demanding an immediate end to the military campaign in Gaza in return for the release of all hostages held by Hamas.

Protesters held signs bearing the faces of hostages still held in Gaza and voiced deep frustration with the Israeli government’s handling of the crisis.

“I’m here because I am sick and tired of this government. It’s ruined our life,” said 55-year-old Noa Starkman, a Jerusalem resident who was born in a southern Israeli community close to where Hamas attacked in October 2023.

The Hostages Families Forum, which represents captives held in Gaza, urged military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to oppose widening the war and the government to accept a deal that would end the war and free the remaining hostages.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the military would carry out the government’s decisions until all war objectives were achieved.

Israeli leaders have long insisted that Hamas be disarmed and have no future role in a demilitarised Gaza and that the hostages be freed.

Israeli officials believe Hamas is still holding about 20 living hostages in Gaza.

Reuters

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Returning to one of the top stories from this morning.

The Department of Home Affairs has cancelled a visa it had issued to a Palestinian woman who allegedly celebrated Hamas’ October 7, 2023 massacre of Israelis, reversing course just days after Immigration Minister Tony Burke vowed to block potentially divisive visitors.

In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, hours after social media posts from an account in Mona Zahed’s name emerged that celebrated Hamas’ massacre of about 1200 Israelis almost two years ago, a spokesman for Burke said her visa had been revoked.

Read more here.

Staying on Matt Thistlethwaite on ABC News’ Afternoon Briefing for a moment, and the Assistant Foreign Minister was also asked about reports that the government has lowered English test score requirements for some visa categories.

The reports in News Corp papers say Thistlethwaite made the order earlier this week.

“I can assure members of the public there’s been no reduction whatsoever in the English language proficiencies that are required for skilled visas in Australia,” he said.

“There’s a number of providers that provide English language testing capacity for the Australian government to use in assessing whether an applicant has the requisite capacity. We have standardised a means for those tests to be looked at, and we get a standard outcome. So there’s been no reduction whatsoever.”

Directly after Thistlethwaite on the show was opposition home affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie, who was adamant that “there’s been a lowering of English proficiency for migrants to this country”.

“The question for the home affairs minister is, ‘What is going on?’” Hastie said.

“Labor has let in 1 million people over a two-year period, the highest by 70 per cent for any two-year period in our nation’s history.

“The Australian people are feeling the pressure from this immigration under Labor. We’re seeing it through the housing demand crisis, young Australians are locked out of homes, they’re finding it very hard to get a rental or buy a property, our hospitals and roads are congested and there’s social cohesion issues

“The Albanese government needs to explain its immigration policy and lowering this English proficiency standard is one such explanation we all deserve.”

Assistant Foreign Minister Matt Thistlethwaite was just on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, where he was asked several times whether the Netanyahu government’s plan to take over Gaza City would hasten Australia’s moves to recognise Palestine.

“Well, we’ve been working with those international partners,” Thistlethwaite replied.

“We think it’s a pretty unique opportunity for the world to come together. If you’re going to get a lasting solution to this, and one that ensures a permanent ceasefire, the release of hostages, and eventually a two-state solution.”

Host Patricia Karvelas asked: “So this doesn’t hasten your push for Palestinian statehood?”

“Look, it doesn’t stop the negotiations. And the conversations that have been occurring between Australia and nations like …”

Karvelas: “Does it change them? Because the other day [Foreign Minister] Penny Wong said if you don’t act quickly, there won’t be any Palestine to recognise. We now are looking at the potential occupation of Gaza as announced by the Netanyahu cabinet. Doesn’t that mean there is a sense of urgency based on the metrics the foreign minister set out the other day?”

Thistlethwaite: “The foreign minister is correct … That’s not an outcome that our government wants.”

Karvelas: “So do you want to get ahead of it?”

Thistlethwaite: “That’s why we’ve said this decision by the government today in Israel is a setback for that. We want to work through those international organisations and with our partner nations on trying to achieve that effective outcome through international action.”

Brisbane’s Story Bridge could be shut for a march mirroring the protest on the Sydney Harbour Bridge last weekend – but Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has criticised the plan.

Organisers Justice for Palestine Magan-djin has sought permission to rally between Raymond Park in Kangaroo Point and Centenary Park in Fortitude Valley from 1pm on Sunday, August 24, as part of a “nationwide march for Palestine”.

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They said in a statement on Friday that the protest was being organised to reflect the “urgency of the situation in Gaza”.

“This is the same bridge our lord mayor refused to light in the colours of the Palestinian flag, denying solidarity to a grieving community,” the group said.

In response, Crisafulli said: “Police will assess the application independently based on community safety but shutting down a city is no way to endear Queenslanders to your cause.”

The new events being planned follow Sunday’s march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge by what police estimate was a crowd of 90,000, and organisers put at 200,000 to 300,000 people.

Protests are also planned for Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth on August 24.

Read more here.

Overnight, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his nation intended to take military control of all of Gaza in the latest development in the bloody war in the strip that began almost two years ago.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief Alex Ryvchin said Netanyahu’s proposal would mean the defeat of Hamas, the designated terrorist organisation whose actions began the war on October 7, 2023.

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“The proposal, as I understand, it is to conquer Gaza, to remove the last bastions of Hamas strongholds, to dismantle infrastructure, hopefully rescue the hostages and then hand over control of the strip to an international force made up of Arab nations as a transition towards Palestinian self-government,” he told ABC News.

“The Palestinians have to determine their own future, but Hamas has to be removed from power as well.”

Australian Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni said the Albanese government must go beyond “flimsy acts of diplomacy” to prevent a takeover of Gaza.

“There can surely be no remaining pretence that Israel is doing anything other than permanently erasing Gaza in order to occupy and annex it,” he said.

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“Gaza has already been occupied, besieged and bombed by Israel for decades.

“What is happening now is the final stage of ethnic cleansing and the world is enabling it.”

The Israeli government has said it wants total victory in its war with Hamas, which attacked the nation’s south on October 7, 2023, killing about 1200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Israel’s retaliatory assaults have killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Almost 200 people, nearly half of them children, have reportedly died of starvation.

AAP