The Veronicas hit back after being kicked off Qantas plane over bag dispute

Sisters Jessica and Lisa Origliasso say reporting of incident ‘in conflict with video’ evidence, and they will take legal action over ‘intimidating and confusing’ removal from flight

Pop duo the Veronicas have disputed the account of their removal from a Sydney plane over an “incredibly intimidating and confusing” cabin baggage dispute, and are taking legal action.

Sisters Jessica and Lisa Origliasso were asked to leave Qantas QF516, which was bound for Brisbane on Sunday morning, amid an argument with cabin crew.

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Angus Taylor says Josh Frydenberg knew of family interest before grasslands meeting

Then environment minister knew of Taylor family’s interest in farm being investigated for alleged illegal clearing

Josh Frydenberg, then the environment minister, knew his ministerial colleague Angus Taylor had a family interest in a farm being investigated for alleged illegal clearing of grasslands when Taylor met with environment department officials to discuss endangered grassland regulations, according to Taylor.

The 2017 meeting between Taylor – then the assistant minister for cities – and environment department officials over critically endangered grasslands came while Taylor’s family’s company, Jam Land Pty Ltd, was being investigated for allegedly illegally poisoning grasslands on property on the Monaro plains of New South Wales.

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Scott Morrison insists Australia will not be drawn into any military conflict with Iran

Prime minister says there is no discussion of Australian involvement after Donald Trump’s recent comments

Scott Morrison insists Australia will not be drawn into any military conflict with Iran, declaring our commitment is limited to protecting freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

Donald Trump, who flagged the prospect of a military strike against Iran, including, possibly, with nuclear weapons, during a meeting with Morrison in the Oval Office, before backtracking and saying his preference was for restraint – has sent additional troops and enhanced air and missile defence systems to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in response to a drone attack on Saudi oil facilities on 14 September.

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‘Gossip’: Morrison sidesteps claim Hillsong pastor snubbed by White House

Prime minister dismisses reports he lobbied unsuccessfully to have Brian Houston attend state dinner

Scott Morrison has sidestepped questions about whether he wanted the Hillsong Church pastor Brian Houston to be a guest at Friday night’s glittering black-tie state dinner hosted by Donald Trump, characterising the reports as “gossip”.

Asked whether it was true that he had lobbied to have Houston attend the dinner and been knocked back by the White House, the Australian prime minister told travelling reporters: “I don’t comment on gossip. It’s all gossip.”

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Scott Morrison to unveil $150m support for Trump’s mission to Mars

PM says five-year commitment designed to make Australia ‘partner of choice’ to support expeditions to moon and Mars

Scott Morrison has used a visit to Nasa on Saturday local time to unveil a $150m investment in Australian businesses and new technology to support the American space agency launch expeditions to the moon and to Mars.

The Australian prime minister on his second day in the American capital visited Nasa, and also laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery. Morrison visited the graves of Australian military personnel and visit the tomb of The Unknown Soldier.

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Two dead after small plane crashes into forested area west of Coffs Harbour

The men who died in the northern NSW plane crash are believed to be a Gold Coast father and son

Two men – believed to a Gold Coast father and son – have died after their small plane crashed into steep, forested terrain in northern New South Wales.

Police confirmed the deaths after trekking to the crash site in the Dorrigo national park on Saturday afternoon.

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Global climate strike: Greta Thunberg and school students lead climate crisis protest – live updates

Millions of people from Sydney to Manila, Dhaka to London and New York will march for urgent action on climate breakdown

Glorious scenes in Edinburgh as thousands of children, parents, students and musicians gather at the Meadows for the Climate Strike.

“This is our Earth and our Future. We need to take care of it ,” said 11-year-old Leila Koita, pictures here with friends Eilidh Tedesco, Norah Turner, Tilly Torrie, Megan Berger and NaN Zhang.

Norah’s mum, Jo Spencely says she hasn’t been on a demo for decades but she is here to show support. “I’m massively concerned about their future. I almost can’t bear to read about the climate. It’s so scary.”

The march sets off at 11:30am and will pass through Edinburgh city centre and end with a rally in front of the Scottish Parliament. As in London, police have imposed restrictions, in this case by refusing permission for the marchers to walk down Princes Street.

As elsewhere, this is just the start of a week of climate action. On Saturday, activists will stage a “die in”, Monday will be a “day of disruption”, musicians will join a “Love the Planet Festival” on Wednesday, and there’ll be another rally outside parliament the following day.

Even Emmeline Pankhurst has joined in the protests in Manchester. A statue of the suffragette hero has donned a bright orange lifejacket and a placard that asks: “Ready for rising sea levels to reach this height?”

The stunt was the idea of Katie Bradshaw and Ryan Griffiths, both 31, who described themselves as first-protestors who felt the need to act today.

“Emmeline still carries that Mancunian spirit of standing up for what she believes in and great causes,” said Griffiths. “Climate change is so important and we think it’s something herself would be an issue she would be at the forefront of if she were around today.”

Bradshaw added: “We’ve got to do our bit and even if it’s just putting some signs up and making people realise we need to look after our planet. If she was around today she’d be supporting it.”

Emmeline Pankhurst showing the world the way in Manchester pic.twitter.com/Z1TFjYCAuN

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Boss of closed Gold Coast nursing home admits he wasn’t up to running facility

The head of the Earle Haven nursing home admits failings but claims government auditors were ‘anti-Semitic’

The boss of a Gold Coast aged care facility where more than half the high-care residents were malnourished before it closed has said he is “fed up” and is getting out of aged care.

Arthur Miller admitted to a Queensland parliamentary hearing on Friday that he was not up to the task of managing the high-care facility at his Earle Haven centre, which closed suddenly on 11 July, effectively leaving 69 residents homeless.

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Scott Morrison lands in US promising ‘another 100 years’ of friendship

Australia and the US will discuss trade, the Middle East and collaboration on space exploration during prime minister’s visit

Scott Morrison has declared his week-long visit to the US – his first as prime minister – will lay the foundations for another hundred years of mateship between Australia and America.

Arriving at the Joint Base Andrews on Thursday night Washington time, the Australian prime minister said the visit would improve the defence, security and economic partnership between the two countries, and joint activities in the Indo-Pacific region and the Middle East.

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Climate strike in Australia: everything you need to know about Friday’s protest

Time and location for the 20 September school strike for climate change in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide, Hobart and more

Thousands of Australian school students are again preparing to walk out of classrooms across the country to demand action on the climate crisis.

The global mass day of action will take place on Friday 20 September, three days before the United Nations climate summit in New York.

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Scott Morrison heads to Washington for state dinner with Trump – politics live

Michael McCormack the acting prime minister as the government prepares to hand down its final budget statement. All the days events, live

From Josh Frydenberg’s office:

These outcomes demonstrate that the Government’s economic plan is working and confirm that the Budget will be back in the black and back on track for the 2019-20 year.

Importantly Australia has completed its 28th consecutive year of economic growth and maintained its AAA credit rating.

Josh Frydenberg (who is not yelling and for that we are all grateful)

The Australian economy is strong and ready for the challenges ahead.

As a result of the Morrison government’s economic plan and responsible economic management, the underlying cash balance in the final budget outcome for the 19/20 year is $13.8bn better than estimated at the time of the 2018/19 budget.

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Cryogenic cylinders full of cattle semen destroyed in fire

Fire broke out at artificial insemination facility in regional Victoria, Australia

Cryogenic cylinders full of cattle semen have gone up in flames at an artificial insemination facility in Australia.

A fire broke out at Yarram Herd Services in regional Victoria at about 3am on Tuesday. A crew of more than 30 firefighters brought it under control within three hours.

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Australian bushwalker rescued after crawling for two days with leg ‘clean snapped in half’

Neil Parker said he had to ‘carry his leg’ after breaking it in a six-metre fall down a waterfall at Mount Nebo, north-west of Brisbane in Queensland

A Queensland bushwalker has said he had to “carry his leg” as he crawled for two days to safety after it “clean snapped in half” in a six-metre fall down a waterfall.

Neil Parker, 54, fractured his leg and wrist in the fall on Sunday while walking by himself in Cabbage Tree Creek on Mount Nebo, north-west of Brisbane.

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Spy scandal: Canada reassures allies over leak that may be linked to Australian drug syndicate

Intelligence officer Cameron Ortis had access to classified information from Five Eyes allies, including Australia

Canada is seeking to reassure its Five Eyes intelligence allies in the wake of a massive alleged spying leak that may be linked to an Australian drug-smuggling criminal syndicate.

Cameron Ortis, the director general of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s intelligence unit, has been charged over allegations he was trying to sell secrets to a foreign agent or terrorist group. He had access to classified information from Canada’s Five Eyes global allies, including Australia.

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Iran confirms it has detained three Australian citizens

Cases of British-Australians Kylie Moore-Gilbert and Jolie King, and King’s Australian partner, Mark Firkin, were revealed last week

Iran’s judiciary has confirmed it has detained three Australian citizens, alleging they were arrested for spying and taking images from sensitive areas.

Judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Esmaeili confirmed the arrests in a press conference in Tehran.

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Huang Xiangmo: judge to reveal why she froze $140m of Chinese businessman’s assets

Anna Katzmann said Huang could only use the money to pay debt to ATO or for living or legal expenses

A judge will today reveal her reasons for slapping a $140m asset freezing order on controversial businessman and political donor Huang Xiangmo after an application by the Australian taxation office.

At an urgent hearing in Sydney on Monday, federal court judge Anna Katzmann ordered Huang not to dispose of assets worth up to the $140.9m claimed by the ATO, including more than $6m worth of property in Sydney and an apartment in Hong Kong.

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Exiting the cashless welfare card trial is almost impossible, critics say

Government accused of ‘demonising vulnerable people’ after only 100 of the 5,000 people on the program allowed to leave

Only 100 of the more than 5,000 people on the cashless welfare card trial have been allowed off the scheme, and the process for exemption has been labelled humiliating and hard to understand.

The government argues the card, which stores up to 80% of a welfare recipient’s payment for use at selected stores, leads to a reduction in violence and harm related to drinking alcohol, illegal drug use and gambling.

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Coalition backbenchers sign off on ‘big stick’ energy laws but fear amendments

Some Liberals are concerned about the power to break up big companies being extended economy-wide

The Morrison government’s backbench economics committee has signed off on the long telegraphed “big stick” package but MPs, already uncomfortable about the proposal, have expressed reservations about how it might be amended in the Senate.

The package, which contains a power to break up big energy companies if they engage in price gouging, will go to the Coalition party room for approval on Tuesday.

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Government steels itself for further scrutiny of Gladys Liu – politics live

Labor will resume demands for MP to make a statement to parliament on her links to Chinese Communist party groups. All today’s events in Canberra, live

Frank Bainimarama will meet Scott Morrison today – it is his first visit since becoming Fijian prime minister.

The parliament is all set up with the official welcome mat – there will be canons - and we’ll have the happy cool friends photo opportunity a little later this morning. It’s also the pair’s first meeting since Bainimarama criticised Morrison’s attitude at the Pacific Islands forum, but both have since said everything is fine.

The other big issue apparently keeping the National party up at night, is plant and legume based foods and liquids being sold with the same terminology as animal products.

Because apparently, vegetarians and vegans are very, very confused and don’t realise that almond milk doesn’t come from cows. As Helen Davidson reported on the weekend from the National party conference:

The Nationals meeting also voted in favour of a motion to lobby the federal government to change labelling requirements on vegan food, preventing products such as soy milk, almond milk and vegan meat from being branded as such.

Under current laws, only milk from cows can be labelled “milk” without an added qualifier.

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Cyclist dies after crashing while under attack by swooping magpie

Seventy-six-year-old suffered head injuries when he veered off a bike path and hit a fence post in Wollongong

A man has died of head injuries after he was startled by a magpie and crashed his bicycle in Wollongong.

The 76-year-old was riding a pushbike on an off-road path alongside Nicholson Park at Woonona on Sunday morning when he veered off to avoid a swooping magpie, witnesses reported.

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