Australia news live: Shoebridge and Hodgins-May ticket expected for Greens leadership; Home Affairs orders ‘rapid’ cyber stocktake

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Shoebridge and Hodgins-May expected to announce Greens leadership joint ticket

Josh Butler

The Greens are expected to hold a leadership vote today, and party sources yesterday and today said two new contenders are likely to enter the contest – David Shoebridge and Steph Hodgins-May.

A formal confirmation is expected shortly, which we’ll bring you. Shoebridge yesterday didn’t rule out running for the leadership role, and we’re told that he and Hodgins-May are looking at a joint ticket.

They would join Mehreen Faruqi and Nick McKim, who announced a run for leader and deputy respectively, and Sarah Hanson-Young who has also announced her candidacy.

More to come through the day.

Key events

• 31m agoShoebridge and Hodgins-May expected to announce Greens leadership joint ticket
• 1h agoThree charged over mistaken-identity shooting of Sydney student
• 1h agoAlbanese to announce next stage of Melbourne airport rail link
• 1h agoHome Affairs orders rapid review of government-wide cyber systems after OpenAI hack
• 1h agoWelcome

Hume says Reserve Bank had no choice but to raise rates after Chalmers ‘unable to control’ domestic factors

Jane Hume, the deputy opposition leader, said the Reserve Bank “of course” had no choice but to raise interest rates yesterday, laying blame on the Labor government’s spending.

Hume spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, touting the Coalition’s proposed petrol price “shield” to cut the fuel excise at a certain threshold. But she added:

The real issue here is whether your economy is resilient enough to be able to handle those international shocks. My concern here is that this particular rate rise, which we know has taken the cash rates to its highest level in 15 years, has demonstrated that Jim Chalmers has been found out as the emperor, he has no clothes. … He has been unable to control the domestic factors using the fiscal levers. That means that Michelle Bullock, as the independent governor of the Reserve Bank, has had to pull the monetary policy levers that much harder.

Hume said there was “so much more” the government could do, claiming Labor had “frittered away” windfall gains and spent them, adding to inflation.

Then we wonder why there’s domestic strains, domestic capacity issues. That’s what Michelle Bullock is referring to. She’s too polite to point the finger directly, but there is no way that she should take the blame for having to raise.

Who is potential Greens deputy leader candidate Steph Hodgins-May?

So who is the first-term senator expected to announce a leadership ticket tilt with David Shoebridge?

The 41-year-old Steph Hodgins-May was appointed to the Senate in May 2024 after Janet Rice called time on a decade in parliament the month before.

The party’s resources spokesperson, Hodgins-May in June accused fossil fuel companies of using the programs and sponsorships to “build social licence” with kids.

Get your dirty hands off our kids, that is our message to the fossil fuel industry, who have no place in early-learning centres, in schools, or in our cultural institutions in this country. Children should go to school to get evidence-based education, not to be brainwashed by fossil fuel corporations seeking to build social licence.

Born in Ballarat, Hodgins-May was head of the Pacific for Greenpeace Australia from 2020 to 2023, and also holds a law degree. She ran for the Victorian seat of Macnamara (and its predecessor, Melbourne Ports) at the 2016, 2019 and 2022 elections.

In a post on Instagram yesterday she wished Larissa Waters well, commending the outgoing leader on her “courage, wisdom and care”.

Shoebridge and Hodgins-May expected to announce Greens leadership joint ticket

Josh Butler

The Greens are expected to hold a leadership vote today, and party sources yesterday and today said two new contenders are likely to enter the contest – David Shoebridge and Steph Hodgins-May.

A formal confirmation is expected shortly, which we’ll bring you. Shoebridge yesterday didn’t rule out running for the leadership role, and we’re told that he and Hodgins-May are looking at a joint ticket.

They would join Mehreen Faruqi and Nick McKim, who announced a run for leader and deputy respectively, and Sarah Hanson-Young who has also announced her candidacy.

More to come through the day.

Australian Signals Directorate chief says OpenAI’s ‘substantive’ steps key to future security after Medicare breach

Abigail Bradshaw, the director general of the Australian Signals Directorate, said yesterday’s apology by OpenAI after a hack of a Medicare website was important, but the “substantive” steps the tech company plans to better safeguard sensitive information is the bigger takeaway.

OpenAI apologised for the breach yesterday and said an executive will front parliament next week to speak about the episode and what will be done to prevent it from happening again.

Bradshaw told ABC News:

I think that the message out of this is – this is a demonstration, in fact, about how Australia can participate in developing new norms, new behaviours, and new protocols which are beneficial to Australians but, in fact, are shaping norms which will impact people around the world.

She added the signals directorate had been working to defend Australian data from emerging technology and “fortify” itself.

There has been work and engagement over the last six months utilising – including models that aren’t publicly available – to fortify the sensitive networks of, for example, financial institutions, health institutions, energy providers. That process enabled us to – with great speed – identify vulnerabilities in code and patch those prior to the rollout of that really important national process.

Wife of Australian detained by Vietnam says she has concerns about his welfare

Chloe Dang, the wife of a missing Vietnamese Australian democracy campaigner, said she hasn’t slept for days after her husband went missing during a trip to Cambodia.

Tran Hiep, 50, was due to return to Bangkok, Thailand, earlier this month and reunite with his wife, but never returned. Dang said the government has since confirmed he has been detained by Vietnamese authorities on what have been described as “fabricated” charges.

Dang said she hasn’t heard anything from her husband, but found out yesterday from Vietnam that he was in the country. She said she does not know where he is being held, or the status of his wellbeing.

“My most concern is his wellbeing as well, because it’s been 12 days and we hadn’t heard anything,” she told ABC News Breakfast. “He’s an Australian citizen. He went into Cambodia legally. And now, the accusation is he tried to pass the border [into Vietnam] illegally.”

She’s asked the Australian government to do everything they can to secure his release, saying officials have been assisting her and her family.

Good morning, Nick Visser here once more to guide you through the day’s news. Let’s get to it.

Three charged over mistaken-identity shooting of Sydney student

Two men and a teenage boy have been charged in relation to the alleged mistaken identity shooting of Sydney student Marco Tapia – including the person who allegedly held the gun – police say.

Tapia, 23, was shot inside his family’s home in Glen Alpine early on 1 September. Police have alleged perpetrators had the wrong home and person.

The trio – aged 22, 23 and 16 – were arrested in Junee, near Wagga Wagga, yesterday and charged with a series of offences: murder, two counts of special aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offence – weapon and possessing an unauthorised prohibited firearm.

Detectives will allege in court the three – one allegedly armed with a pistol – entered the home and confronted Tapia, before he was fatally shot.

All three will appear in court today – the teenager will appear in children’s court.

Two other teenage boys have been charged and remain before the courts.

Albanese to announce next stage of Melbourne airport rail link

Benita Kolovos

Early works are beginning on the second stage of the long-awaited train line to Melbourne airport – a 7.6km stretch of the train line from Albion to Keilor East, where a new station will be built.

Anthony Albanese will be in Melbourne today with Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, to announce that site investigations, procurement and development work will begin in the coming weeks.

Built alongside the Jacana freight corridor, this stage of the project will feature a 500m rail bridge to carry trains over the Maribyrnong River.

Community engagement and early designs will follow next year, with major construction on the Keilor East station to begin in 2028 and finish in 2031.

The first stage of Melbourne Airport Rail, which involves the creation of the “Sunshine superhub” and the construction of new stations at Tottenham and Albion, is expected to be completed in 2030.

A man has been charged with murder after the deaths of two men at Gurranang, about 25km north of Grafton in northern New South Wales, police said.

About 3pm on Sunday 13 September, police were called to a house following reports the body of a 79-year-old man had been found.

Officers visited the house again on Monday when they found the body of a 59-year-old man in a shed on the property.

Detectives arrested a 32-year-old man at a hospital in Grafton yesterday afternoon.

He was taken to Grafton police station where he was charged with two counts of murder and stealing a motor vehicle.

He was refused bail to appear before court today.

Home Affairs orders rapid review of government-wide cyber systems after OpenAI hack

OpenAI’s Medicare breach has prompted a government-wide assessment of cyber systems to bolster Australia’s public sector against further AI threats – deliberate or not.

Home affairs directed all government departments and agencies to undertake a “rapid” stocktake of legacy systems, to formulate risk management for legacy technology and to report their compliance back to the department.

The directive prioritises systems of government significance – the government’s critical systems – with a review due by the end of the year, while other systems will be assessed by March.

The acting home affairs minister, Richard Marles, said AI is “changing the environment in which we operate at extraordinary speed.”

We can’t wait for an old system to fail before replacing it. We need to identify vulnerabilities and deal with them before they can be exploited.

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will be in Melbourne today with Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, to announce early works are beginning on the second stage of the long-awaited train line to Melbourne airport. More coming up.

A man has been charged with murder after the deaths of two men at Gurranang, about 25km north of Grafton in northern New South Wales, police said. More on that soon.