Bret Walker SC to represent Elon Musk/X in legal battle against eSafety commissioner
Josh Taylor
The federal court has confirmed that Elon Musk’s X will be represented by the high-profile Australian barrister Bret Walker SC in the company’s legal battle against the eSafety commissioner over the removal of 65 tweets containing video of the alleged stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at his Wakeley church.
There will be a case management hearing at 4.30pm today which will be streamed on the federal court’s YouTube page. It is ahead of an interlocutory hearing on Friday morning when the court will determine whether to order X to remove the tweets. An interim order to hide the posts globally is due to expire on Friday.
X has made the tweets unavailable to people accessing the site from Australia, but eSafety has argued Australians with virtual private network (VPN) connections can still access the tweets, in breach of the order.
At a hearing last month, X’s then barrister Marcus Hoyne said the case was above his paygrade and Walker had been approached to take on the case.
Since the last hearing, X has filed five affidavits to the court, including one from Emmanuel which Hoyne had said argued the video should be available. The eSafety commissioner has filed an additional two affidavits.
X owner Elon Musk. Photograph: David Swanson/Reuters
China comments on air incident confirm Australian account: PM
Paul Karp
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has responded to China’s foreign ministry accusing an Australian navy helicopter of deliberately flying “within close range” of Chinese airspace in a “provocative move” in the latest military altercation between the two nations.
Albanese told 6PR radio:
I reject that, I do stand by comments I’ve made.
Albanese argued that China’s position that Australian defence force personnel were flying “close to Chinese airspace” is in fact “a confirmation this chopper was in international airspace, international waters”.
He said:
The Chinese spokesperson’s comments do nothing to undermine or question what is the Australian defence force’s assessment of the PLA’s unsafe behaviour.
Anthony Albanese in Perth today. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP
The federal court has heard Bruce Lehrmann did not have a third party lined up to pay his legal costs and his lawyers agreed to a no-win no-fee arrangement.
The costs for all parties have been estimated to be between $8m and $10m for the 24-day civil trial, which Lehrmann lost.
Lehrmann’s lawyer, Paul Svilans, told the court his firm acted for the former Liberal staffer on a no-win no-fee basis.
Justice Michael Lee said according to the documents produced by the applicant there was “no agreement by a third party to pay the costs”.
“It was a conditional costs agreement whereby there’s no obligation to pay the amount of costs in the event the proceedings were unsuccessful,” Lee said this morning before adjourning until 11.30am.
Lee said the two key points are there have been a lot of costs and “they’re not recoverable because Mr Lehrmann lost”.
Ladies Lounge artist comments on decision to appeal anti-discrimination ruling
As our arts reporter Kelly Burke reported yesterday, Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) will appeal an anti-discrimination decision that ordered the museum to allow men entry to its women-only Ladies Lounge. You can read that full story below:
The artist behind the work, Kirsha Kaechele, spoke to ABC News Breakfast earlier today and said the decision to appeal was because “we need to take this conversation further”. She said:
It doesn’t seem right that the Ladies Lounge has to close. I think the court took too narrow a reading of the anti-discrimination act and that in fact if you assess the act, we already meet some of the exemptions and very small changes would allow us to meet all of them.
She said the court case is “part of the art” and if the appeal is lost, it provides “an opportunity to reassess the writing of that law, the legislation itself”.
Because I definitely believe that spaces like this, where women can get away from men, are critical, especially right now – but really in the context of millions of years, thousands of years.
Artist Kirsha Kaechele released this image when the appeal was announced. Photograph: Mona/Jesse Hunniford
In an interview posted to the Mona blog, she suggested transforming the lounge to either a church or a toilet to meet certain exemptions under the legislation:
I once visited a colonial-era mansion in Manila that had two toilets, side by side, with a chessboard in the centre. So there is real precedent for engaging in a variety of activities in the toilet.
Council’s same-sex parenting book ban threatens funding
The decision to ban books on same-sex parenting from local libraries has placed one western Sydney council’s funding under threat, AAP reports, as the NSW government investigates the action.
Cumberland city council, which covers a population of about 240,000 people living near Parramatta, narrowly voted to “take immediate action to rid same-sex parents books/materials in council’s library service”. The vote passed by six votes to five.
But the NSW arts minister, John Graham, said banning books was a bad sign for civilisations, adding local councillors should not be engaging in censorship:
It is up to readers to choose which book to take off the shelf.
We are examining the consequences this decision may have for the council continuing to receive library funding from the NSW government.
NSW arts minister John Graham. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
Costs hearing on long-running Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial
Justice Michael Lee says he hopes his decision on costs to be delivered on Friday afternoon, 10 May, will be the last appearance he makes in the long-running Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial.
At a hearing on 1 May, Lee reserved his decision on costs and granted Lehrmann an extension of time to consider an appeal. Lee said in the federal court today:
I would like to make that the last judgment I need to deliver in relation to this matter and potentially the last appearance, subject to any issue arising upon the adoption of the cost referees report.
Lehrmann’s lawyer, Paul Svilans, told the court his firm acted for the former Liberal staffer on a no-win no-fee basis.
Lee quipped that he appreciated Svilans was not being paid to appear in court and can be excused. He said:
It was a conditional cost agreement whereby there’s no obligation to pay the amount of costs in the event that the proceedings were unsuccessful.
Australia confers with New Zealand on Rafah and looming UN vote
Daniel Hurst
The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has spoken with her New Zealand counterpart, Winston Peters, to discuss Israel’s plans for a ground invasion of Rafah and the looming UN vote on recognising Palestine as a full member state.
The call, which happened yesterday before Wong departed on a bipartisan trip to Tuvalu, is part of the Australian government’s discussions with close partners about the situation in the Middle East and how to handle the UN general assembly vote slated for Friday (New York time).
Earlier this week, Wong had phone calls with Mohammad Mustafa, the relatively new prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (which is dominated by Fatah, a rival to Hamas, and exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank), and with Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed, the foreign affairs minister of the United Arab Emirates.
It is understood the call with Peters covered similar terrain: concerns about Rafah, the push to release hostages, the prospects for a ceasefire agreement, and the UN general assembly vote. The wording of the draft motion is being intensely debated and negotiated, as many countries look to find a way to attempt to give some hope to Palestinians and kickstart a process towards a two-state solution.
Australia has tended to move closely with New Zealand and Canada since December, when all three countries shifted together to vote in favour of an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. Australia, New Zealand and Canada also sounded the alarm in February about the consequences of a Rafah ground invasion.
Foreign minister Penny Wong. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Man wrongfully named as Bondi Junction killer asks police to consider prosecution of those who identified him on social media
The Sydney man Benjamin Cohen, who was wrongly named on air by Seven News as the Bondi Junction killer, has asked police to consider the prosecution of those on social media who identified him.
Cohen’s lawyer, Patrick George, said he had provided the commissioner of police with a comprehensive brief of evidence by users of the social media platform X.
These persons maliciously posted the false accusation for their own improper purposes, in some cases simply to draw attention to themselves. It spread like wildfire not just in Australia but throughout the world over the Saturday night.
The conduct raises serious concerns for the welfare and safety of people in the community as a result of such malicious and irresponsible use of social media.
Cohen reached a confidential settlement with the network last month. On the Saturday night after the stabbings, Cohen’s LinkedIn profile was shared on X by accounts falsely claiming he resembled the attacker. After he settled with Seven, Cohen said:
Users who abuse a platform to target individuals or communities should be held accountable for the consequences of their actions and platforms should be more accountable for the content they host.
Back to the Victorian budget: Allan on housing, scrapping of sick leave for casuals
The premier, Jacinta Allan, says housing remains a priority for the government despite little funding in the budget. She suggests the government is allowing the private sector to build more homes thanks to changes introduced via its housing statement last year.
She says a scrapped medical precinct near Arden station in North Melbourne will be replaced with more housing:
We know though that there is so much more that we need to do in this area, which is why the opportunity comes at Arden to build more homes on that site.
Allan says the decision to wind down its shared equity scheme for first home buyers next year is because the federal government has stepped in:
We have in so many different areas across the government, where we had a failure of the previous federal Liberal National government, whether it was priority primary care centres, whether it’s with childcare, or in this instance, the homebuyer fund. We stepped in. We made the decision to step in and provide programs and support to the Victorian community. Now that we have a federal Labor government who is focused on these issue, it just makes sense to bring to a conclusion the work that we’ve done.
Victorian premier Jacinta Allan. Photograph: Con Chronis/AAP
She says the same principle applies with the paid sick leave scheme for casuals, which was also scrapped yesterday, much to the dismay of the unions.
Allan says:
We stepped in during the pandemic. We established the sick pay guarantee as a pilot during that period of time when we didn’t have a government in Canberra that had a focus on supporting workers. And that is why now that we have a federal Labor government who have reformed industrial relations laws in this country to provide more support to casual workers it makes sense that that pilot has come to a close.
Greens senator ‘disappointed’ government has ruled out greater divestment powers for supermarkets
In case you missed it: the final report of the supermarket Senate inquiry was handed down yesterday, recommending that major supermarkets should be forcibly broken up if they engage in anti-competitive behaviour.
You can read the full details, and all the recommendations, below from Jonathan Barrett and Amy Remeikis:
The chair of the committee, Greens senator Nick McKim, was on ABC News Breakfast earlier this morning and responded to news that the government has ruled out greater divestment powers. He said:
I’m disappointed because ultimately, the Greens established this inquiry because we wanted to put downward pressure on food and grocery prices because we understand how millions of Australians are really struggling to make things meet. Divestiture powers would accomplish that. And ultimately, the prime minister and Labor have now taken the sides of the corporate supermarket giants and their billion-dollar-plus annual profits, and in doing so, they’ve failed to take the side of millions of Australian shoppers who are really struggling to make ends meet.
McKim said a core recommendation in the report was to make price gouging unlawful, and if the recommendations are taken up as a whole, he has “no doubt that they will bring food and grocery prices down in Australia”.
Greens senator Nick McKim. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
