‘My heart breaks into a million pieces’: emotional tributes to Kumanjayi Little Baby at Alice Springs funeral

Hundreds gathered with flashes of pink to farewell the five-year-old girl, who was allegedly murdered in April

A sombre funeral service for Kumanjayi Little Baby has been attended by hundreds of people from the Alice Springs community and surrounds.

Wearing pink and some dressed in T-shirts bearing the face of the five-year-old girl, the crowd gathered under grey skies in the red centre capital on Saturday.

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Fears for missing Sydney teen who hasn’t been seen since leaving for hike on Wednesday

Fresh search teams to scour Nattai national park for Lily Hooper, 18, who failed to return home from a bushwalk

The search for an 18-year-old bushwalker missing in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales since Wednesday is continuing, with fresh teams arriving at the Nattai national park on Saturday morning.

Lily Hooper left her home in Sydney’s south-west about 8am on 12 August, after telling family she was going for a hike in the national park, north-west of Mittagong.

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French court blocks Macron’s social media ban for under-15s

Constitutional council says curbs infringe freedom of expression and privacy as president vows to rework legislation

France’s top court has blocked a ban on social media access for under-15s, ruling that it infringed freedom of expression and privacy.

The decision is a blow to President Emmanuel Macron as momentum builds around the world for Australian-style restrictions on children’s use of social media.

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Pocock and crossbenchers call Labor’s NDIS overhaul ‘too far, too fast’ in scathing Senate inquiry report

Greens say Labor’s reform set to ‘rip life-changing supports away from disabled people instead of raising additional revenue through taxing gas exports’

Cross-benchers have slammed the Albanese government’s proposed overhaul of the NDIS as going “too far, too fast” as the changes to curb the growth of the $52bn program appear set to pass the parliament as early as next week.

The Greens and independent ACT senator, David Pocock, delivered scathing assessments of the bill they warn will enable blunt and indiscriminate cuts to individual budgets supporting more than 770,000 Australians with disabilities in a final Senate inquiry report released on Friday afternoon.

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Lending to property investors falls sharply in ‘tiny’ step towards fairer housing market in Australia, expert says

ABS data shows an almost 9% slump in new lending to investors after three interest rate hikes this year

In what one economist is describing as a “tiny step” toward a fairer housing market after decades of bad policy, property investors are shying away from established homes, and putting money into new builds instead, new data shows.

New lending to property investors fell sharply in the three months to June, slumping almost 9%, ABS data showed, while the number of total new home loans dropped by 5.4% in the June quarter.

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One Nation staffer accused of posing as leftwing content creator in ‘undercover’ videos

Exclusive: The videos, filmed at anti-One Nation rallies, were posted to party’s social pages and appear to be endorsed by Pauline Hanson

The owners of a progressive social media page have accused One Nation of impersonating them at anti-Pauline Hanson rallies while shooting a series of “undercover” videos.

Hanson’s party has recently published a string of videos with a young male host attending leftwing protests. In the clips – published on pages owned by One Nation and Hanson on Instagram, TikTok and X – a party staffer seeks to embarrass protesters in filmed interviews.

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Is Australia’s Buy Now Pay Later boom at an end?

Several firms promised to disrupt the consumer credit market by offering consumers their purchases instantly and the bill later. Did it work?

Afterpay has never turned a profit in Australia. Last month, it spent millions to take over a Sydney Olympic Park arena.

The company says Afterpay Arena will be the first venue where Australians can “buy now, pay later” for their event tickets, merchandise, dinner and even alcohol.

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Transport watchdog investigates third near miss at Sydney airport

Two planes came close to collision on the runway on Sunday – hours after another near miss – making a total of three in recent weeks

The transport safety watchdog is investigating a a third near-collision between two planes at Sydney airport – the latest incident occurring hours after one that made national news and raised concerns about air traffic control.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said on Thursday night that it was investigating a second “runway incursion” on Sunday 9 August.

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Alan Jones’ lawyers accused by defence of ‘intimidating’ witness in indecent assault case

Judge rejects intimidation claim as high profile trial continues with complainant J’s ex-girlfriend cross-examined by shock jock’s defence team

The prosecutor in the Alan Jones trial has accused the defence team in court of “intimidating” an alleged victim’s former girlfriend after she asserted she wasn’t financially motivated to provide evidence supporting her ex’s allegations.

On Thursday, complainant J’s ex-girlfriend was cross-examined by Jones’s defence team, during which she maintained she had a conversation with J more than 20 years ago in which he alleged Jones touched him.

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Australia’s largest aluminium smelter to run on renewables by 2033 after Rio Tinto strikes $2.5bn taxpayer bailout deal

Rio Tinto makes power supply deal with federal and NSW government to cut emissions and decarbonise, preventing potential closure

Resources giant Rio Tinto says Australia’s largest aluminium smelter will run entirely on renewable energy by 2033 after it struck a $2.5bn subsidy deal with the federal and New South Wales governments to prevent a potential closure.

The deal – announced by Anthony Albanese and the NSW premier, Chris Minns, at the Tomago smelter near Newcastle on Thursday – is for a 10-year below-market power supply guarantee that begins after the facility’s existing coal-focused electricity contract with AGL ends in December 2028.

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Students shun calls to stay in school as anti-Hanson protesters gather across Australia

High schoolers join university walkouts in major cities and several smaller locations amid urge to ‘stand up against the far right’

Calls for striking students to stay in school are unlikely to deter thousands across the country preparing to take part in a major walkout in protest against Pauline Hanson.

High schoolers have begun joining the coordinated university union protests taking place in every major city and several smaller locations across the country on Thursday afternoon.

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Countries in ‘armed conflict’ barred from hosting Eurovision

Organisers says new rule will ensure contest provides ‘safe and welcoming environment’ for participants

Broadcasters will no longer be eligible to host the Eurovision song contest if their state is involved in an “armed conflict” or “sensitive geopolitical situation”.

Eurovision is traditionally hosted by the previous year’s winner’s broadcaster, with next year’s show due to take place in Bulgaria after the singer Dara’s victory for the country in May.

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Barnaby Joyce claims One Nation ‘one of the gayest parties in Australia’ as former candidate’s comments surface

One Nation MP says failed WA candidate’s comments describing same-sex attraction as a mental illness are ‘highly offensive’

Barnaby Joyce has defended One Nation as “one of the gayest parties in Australia” after comments surfaced from one of its failed candidates describing same-sex attraction as a mental illness.

The former National turned One Nation MP was asked to respond to a series of homophobic comments made by a former Western Australian legislative council candidate for One Nation in a video last month, as first reported by ABC on Wednesday afternoon.

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Andrew Bragg stands by proposed migration limits – even as Liberal colleagues decline to back him in

Angus Taylor and other Coalition members not supporting shadow housing minister’s target migration numbers, which would be the lowest figures since the mid-2000s

The Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has stood by his proposal to lower net migration to 180,000 a year in a wide-ranging speech where he lamented not stopping the Morrison government’s “madness” – even as colleagues side-stepped supporting the target figure publicly.

The opposition frontbencher said a housing “shortfall” – comparing the number of dwellings against population size – could be rectified if the net overseas migration (Nom) target was set at 180,000 or under over four years.

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Car owners should challenge insurers on steep price hikes and ‘call their bluff’, Asic says

Regulator finds many insurers raising premiums faster than inflation and advises customers to ask for better deals

Car owners should challenge motor insurers over steep premium hikes, the corporate regulator advises, after finding many companies were raising prices faster than inflation.

In a report released on Tuesday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) found that none of the eight insurers it reviewed adequately explained the reasons behind premium calculations to customers or why prices had changed in quote or renewal documents.

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Victorian Liberals promise weekly red bin garbage collections for all, calling fortnightly system ‘disgusting’

If opposition wins November’s state election, leader Jess Wilson vows households will not pay more under the change

The Victorian Liberals have vowed to restore weekly rubbish collections if they win November’s state election, with leader Jess Wilson describing the current fortnightly system in her local area as “disgusting”.

Thirty-three Victorian councils have switched general rubbish collections from weekly to fortnightly, with a similar shift occurring in other states.

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Two workers temporarily stood down after near-miss collision at Sydney airport

Transport minister says improved staff rostering will be in place from next month after ‘unacceptable’ delays and incident involving Qatar Airways and Jetstar planes

The transport minister, Catherine King, has said improved staff rostering will be in place at Sydney airport from next month after “unacceptable” delays and a near-miss collision that resulted in two workers being stood down.

King called in the Airservices Australia chief executive officer, Rob Sharp, for a meeting in Canberra on Monday, the day after a Jetstar plane narrowly avoided hitting a Qatar Airways plane that was pulled across the runway in front of it.

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Body of woman found in suitcase by side of road in regional NSW

Police called to Oallen, about 40km south of Goulburn, on Sunday afternoon after suitcase discovered near Wolgon Road

The body of a woman has been found in a suitcase by the side of a road in regional New South Wales south of Goulburn.

NSW police said they were called to Wolgon Road, near Oallen Ford Road, in Oallen at about 12.50pm on Sunday “following reports a body had been located”.

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Sydney gardener fined almost $200,000 for removing 287 trees to improve harbourside mansion’s water views

Local council described incident as ‘worst act of environmental vandalism in Lane Cove history’

It began with a gardener being hired to trim grass at a harbourside mansion in Sydney – and escalated to payments being left in a shoe for the unlawful felling of hundreds of native trees in protected bushland.

Now a court has fined Yi Wang $187,500 for his role in organising and carrying out the destruction of 287 trees from council-owned foreshore bushland at Woodford Bay in Longueville in late 2023.

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Labor open to ‘sensible amendments’ on gambling reforms, minister says – as it happened

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Coalition demands NDIS changes focus on fraud, corruption

Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson also called on the government to focus more on fraud and corruption issues in the NDIS, as the Coalition and Labor negotiate on changes to the disability scheme.

We have people who are awarding either packages to people when they shouldn’t be used, we’re having people taking advantage of the system and we know this is being exposed.

And so as a consequence we’ve seen this massive growth continue to go on and we need to make sure that that’s the focus, not the targeting of the clients. You know, if you go out to voters in Australia, there are a lot of people who are on disability support packages who are very nervous about their future and it’s because of how this government has looked at reforms and they feel like they’re being targeted, not the fraudsters.

We’re not wowsers, we do believe in protecting children, particularly from harm.

Under the government’s proposed bill, it doesn’t limit the capacity to advertise to children and that’s something that I’m concerned about, making sure that we’ve got the measures that are consistent, appropriate, and also reflecting the changing nature of technology

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