Muslim groups call for NSW police commissioner to resign
Dozens of Muslim organisations across Australia, including the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, the Lebanese Muslim Association, the Muslim Vote and Stand for Palestine have condemned the NSW police disrupting a Muslim prayer and the use of force at the protest in Sydney on Monday.
The groups said in a joint statement:
What occurred was completely unacceptable. Police officers knowingly intervened in a moment of religious observance, forcibly interrupted prayer and used physical force against individuals who posed no threat to public safety.
The use of force against people who were stationary, peaceful and engaged in prayer cannot be justified by vague references to public order. Interrupting prayer mid-act demonstrates a lack of respect for religious freedom and raises serious concerns about discriminatory and heavy-handed policing.
In addressing the police actions earlier at the protests, against the visit of Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, the NSW premier Chris Minns said it took place during “riotous behaviour” but clarified he was not suggesting those praying were doing that.
The groups have called for an apology from the premier, the police minister and police leadership and the resignation of the police commissioner “whose leadership bears responsibility for a policing culture in which such conduct was permitted to occur”.
They are also seeking an investigation and the police officers involved to be held accountable.
Key events
House passes bill to establish Australian Tertiary Education Commission
Things have been moving fairly quickly already in the House this afternoon, which just started sitting at 12pm, due to all the party room meetings. Over in the Senate, estimates is still going on, and public servants are still facing a grilling.
The House has just voted to pass a bill establishing the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC) which is a body that will be charged with designing university reforms, following the university accord.
The ATEC will also look at more contentious policies like the Job Ready Graduates Scheme and possible ways to fix it.
The body was supposed to be established last month, but the bill was only introduced on the last sitting day of last year.
Coalition calls for government to take action against Laos over methanol-poisoning deaths
The Australian government should take stronger action against the Laotian government over the deaths of two Australian women, Sussan Ley and the shadow foreign minister, Michaelia Cash, have said.
In a statement, the pair said the Laotian ambassador should be brought in to give a formal explanation over revelations that workers at a hostel responsible for the deaths of Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles by methanol poisoning have only received fines of A$185.
Ley and Cash said Australia makes a “significant contribution to Laos through our foreign aid program and other development assistance”:
A year ago we learned the Laos government was refusing Australian Federal Police assistance in the investigation. A year ago Australians were told by the Albanese Government that the matter was in hand.
We now know there has been no meaningful justice for Holly and Bianca, and their families did not learn of these outcomes from their own government but via the British woman’s family.
The Albanese government should remind the Laotian government of the important contributions Australian taxpayers make to key programs in Laos in line with the friendship between our two countries.
Lisa Cox
Climate groups say big emitters should pay for disaster recovery
Climate groups are calling for a pollution levy to be paid by major emitting companies, including gas and coal producers, as communities are hit by the costs of increasing global-heating driven disasters.
Climate Action Network Australia (CANA) and Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action said data from the Insurance Council of Australia showed fires, floods, heatwaves and storms had resulted in about $1.6bn in insured losses in Australian communities this summer so far.
The groups said Australia’s biggest emitting companies should “pay their fair share for the damage now being caused” via a levy that could fund disaster recovery in hard-hit communities, adaptation measures, and accelerating the clean energy transition.
Jan Harris, the co-chair of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, lost her home to a bushfire in 2018. She said “it is families just like mine who are shouldering the burden of climate change and we are close to breaking”.
Barry Traill from CANA said:
Communities are paying for this savage summer with their homes, livelihoods and, in too many cases, their lives … It’s time our parliament made those profiting from climate pollution help pay for the cleanup and the protections we need.
Penry Buckley
How many people attended last night’s protest in Sydney?
Police have so far declined to provide an estimate an how many attended last night’s protest, although as Guardian Australia has reported, police and organiser estimates can differ significantly.
When the Palestine Action Group unsuccessfully sought to challenge the government’s invocation of “major event” powers at the supreme court this week, organisers said they expected about 5,000 people to attend the protest at Town Hall square, which they said had a capacity of about 4,500.
The NSW upper house Labor MP Stephen Lawrence who attended the rally, told the ABC this morning he thought about 20,000 to 30,000 people had been present, a number echoed at a press conference by the Palestine Action Group and the NSW Greens a short while ago.
Police have confirmed there have been charges laid among the 27 protesters arrested yesterday, but are yet to identify the alleged offences.
Tom McIlroy
Albanese thanks Labor MPs for discipline and ‘dignity’ in partyroom meeting
Anthony Albanese has thanked Labor MPs for their discipline and “dignity” in recent weeks, using remarks to a caucus meeting in Canberra to highlight ongoing instability in Coalition ranks.
The prime minister told the closed door meeting on Tuesday that Labor must continue to be “the adults in government” as the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, looks set to be challenged within days.
Albanese said the Coalition was a circus but government MPs should talk up their record on economic matters, on schools funding and a new agreement with the states and territories to fund hospital services and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Albanese also mentioned his successful visit to Indonesia alongside the foreign minister, Penny Wong, last week.
Ahead of the May budget, Albanese said Labor would work to strengthen the government’s fiscal position and provide assistance to households with the high cost-of-living, and reminded Labor MPs of the week’s closing the gap report on Indigenous disadvantage.
He said the annual Closing the Gap statement would be delivered in the wake of an alleged terror attack against Invasion Day protesters in Perth on 26 January. Albanese restated his view that it was time to “turn the temperature down” in Australia.
Josh Taylor
Lots of parents would like us to ban Roblox, Wells says
The communications minister, Anika Wells, is holding a press conference outlining the government’s concerns with gaming platform Roblox.
Wells said she believes “many of you I think, like me, were probably disgusted by the fact that children as young as four or five are seeing graphic and gratuitous violence on this platform”.
She confirmed she has written to Roblox to seek a meeting, and asked the eSafety commissioner for any other measures she can undertaken to stop kids from seeing this type of content on Roblox. Wells has also asked for Roblox to assess again if it should be classified at PG, given it was last classified in 2018.
Wells said lots of parents would like to see Roblox banned under the social media ban, but noted the ban “is not there to cure the internet, cannot cure all the ills of the internet and it is designed specifically to [target] predatory, persuasive algorithms features and functions that kids experience”.
Josh Butler
Watt complains about ‘absolute explosion’ of Senate estimates questions
Greens senator David Shoebridge and minister Murray Watt have had a tense stand-off in senate estimates, over the timeliness – or lack thereof – of answers to questions about the department of home affairs.
Watt, the environment minister, claimed opposition and crossbench senators were being “over the top” and seeking to “jam up the system” in how many questions they’re asking at Senate estimates.
Senate estimates always gets a bit tetchy, and when ministers or public servants can’t or won’t answer questions at the table, they’re often asked to take them “on notice” (to respond later in writing).
Shoebridge was asking the department of home affairs about previous questions he’d asked – about the Dural caravan bomb hoax, and the department’s contracting arrangements around offshore detention – saying he’d been waiting a long time for responses.
Watt, representing the minister for home affairs, explained there had been “an absolute explosion of questions on notice” in this parliament and the last one, compared to the last time Labor was in opposition, and that Labor had been more “responsible” with their questions. He claimed the department had responded to about 90% of the questions on notice put to it, and hit back: “Senators need to take some responsibility for the sheer number of questions being asked”.
Shoebridge responded:
These are matters of public interest and they deserve timely answers.
Watt:
With respect senator, every senator thinks their questions on notice are significant … it takes time to resolve in addition to the important work this department does.
Patrick Commins
Gloomy Aussie households ‘bracing for more rate rises’
Australian households “are bracing for more rate rises”, according to Westpac’s latest sentiment survey which revealed a deepening pessimism among consumers.
The mood among Australians has soured over the past couple months as a rebound in inflation sealed the case for tighter monetary policy.
Matthew Hassan, a senior economist at Westpac, said the first Reserve Bank rate hike in over two years “has put renewed pressure on finances, dented attitudes towards major purchases and raised concerns about medium-term prospects for the economy”.
Eight in ten respondents said they expected the RBA to hike again in the next 12 months, after the central bank lifted its cash rate target to 3.85% last Tuesday.
Just over a third of those surveyed even expect mortgage rates to climb by 1 percentage point or more over the next 12 months – a far more gloomy prediction than the one-and-a-bit RBA rate hikes priced into financial markets.
Despite this rates outlook, Australians are incredibly bullish when it comes to house price expectations, as the index tracking this question lifted to a 15-year high.
In contrast the “time to buy a dwelling” gauge dropped to its lowest since late 2024.
Muslim groups call for NSW police commissioner to resign
Dozens of Muslim organisations across Australia, including the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, the Lebanese Muslim Association, the Muslim Vote and Stand for Palestine have condemned the NSW police disrupting a Muslim prayer and the use of force at the protest in Sydney on Monday.
The groups said in a joint statement:
What occurred was completely unacceptable. Police officers knowingly intervened in a moment of religious observance, forcibly interrupted prayer and used physical force against individuals who posed no threat to public safety.
The use of force against people who were stationary, peaceful and engaged in prayer cannot be justified by vague references to public order. Interrupting prayer mid-act demonstrates a lack of respect for religious freedom and raises serious concerns about discriminatory and heavy-handed policing.
In addressing the police actions earlier at the protests, against the visit of Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, the NSW premier Chris Minns said it took place during “riotous behaviour” but clarified he was not suggesting those praying were doing that.
The groups have called for an apology from the premier, the police minister and police leadership and the resignation of the police commissioner “whose leadership bears responsibility for a policing culture in which such conduct was permitted to occur”.
They are also seeking an investigation and the police officers involved to be held accountable.
Tom McIlroy
Turnbull stops short of endorsing Taylor for Liberal leadership
Malcolm Turnbull has stopped short of endorsing his former cabinet colleague Angus Taylor for the Liberal leadership.
In a well-timed visit to Parliament House, the former Liberal leader said Taylor should front up and state his intentions on a possible challenge against Sussan Ley.
“I think it is important to stand up and be counted. This is a place where we vote in public,” he said.
If Angus wants to be leader of the Liberal party, he should stand up and say so, and say why, which is exactly what I did in the Senate courtyard nearly 11 years ago.
Asked if Taylor, the shadow defence minister, was fit to be leader, Turnbull chose his words carefully.
He is absolutely fit to be leader, because the only qualification for being leader of the opposition is to be member of the House of Representatives.
Angus has rather unenlightened views on energy nowadays but I remember when he worked for Rod Sims, years ago, when he was a young economist at Port Jackson Partners. He was very strongly in favor, and very eloquently in favor, of an economy-wide price on carbon, as the most efficient way to reduce emissions, but I gather he no longer shares that view.
‘It’s a rough business’, Turnbull sympathises with the Liberals
Tom McIlroy
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has weighed in on the Liberal leadership saga slowly unfolding at Parliament House this week, accusing his own party of abandoning the centre for an ideological “la la land”.
Turnbull was in Canberra to speak about hydro-electricity, but took a series of questions about the fight between Sussan Ley and Angus Taylor for the opposition leadership.
Asked if a challenge against Ley would be unfair less than a year on from the election, Turnbull said politics is a rough game.
“Everyone gets treated badly in parliament,” he said. “Look, it’s a rough business.
I sympathise with all of my former colleagues. They are in a terrible state. The Liberal party is facing an existential crisis.
Turnbull said the party had to face up to hard truths about who it seeks to represent.
This is the inevitable consequence for the Liberal party of imagining that the goal of politics is to seek the approval of the Sky News audience.
Now that may well represent many of the members of their branches, but it does not represent Australia.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland parliament holds minutes’ silence for Bondi massacre victims
Queensland parliament has held a minutes’ silence for the victims of last year’s massacre at Bondi, on its first sitting day of the year.
The premier, David Crisafulli, moved a motion that the parliament “convey its deepest sorrow” for the massacre, condemn antisemitism and express its admiration and gratitude for the heroism of those who responded to the shooting.
Crisafulli said the attack, on 14 December 2025 “will forever be remembered as one of our nation’s darkest days” and was “an act of terror driven by antisemitism”.
“Hatred, fear and extremism must never be allowed to fracture the values that bind us. Queensland is a diverse state. Our strength comes from this diversity; people of different backgrounds, beliefs, cultures, identities and they choose to live here,” Crisafulli said.
No one should have to second-guess their place based on faith; no-one.
My message to Queensalnd’s Jewish community is – you matter, this is your home. We’re determined that you can go and worship, you can go to school, you can go to the shops, to university, without looking over your shoulder.
Both party leaders read out the 15 names of the people who were killed in the attack and vowed to do everything they could to prevent it happening again.
All MPs then stood for a minute to remember their lives. The government is expected to introduce legislation allowing the attorney general to ban slogans – including pro-Palestine phrases such as “From the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada” – later today.
Confrontation between Greens MP and NSW police commissioner
Penry Buckley
NSW Greens upper house MP Abigail Boyd, who has alleged she was assaulted by police at yesterday’s protest, has just confronted the NSW police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, at NSW parliament. Lanyon was giving a press conference alongside the premier on yesterday’s protest a short while ago.
The interaction was witnessed by media outlets who had come down from the press conference, including Guardian Australia. Boyd, who posted a picture of herself in the neck brace this morning, has alleged she was pushed and shoved by police at the protests last night, despite telling them she was a member of state parliament.
“It’s not OK,” said Boyd, after describing her alleged assault to Lanyon.
“Are you happy for me to get a police office to come and speak to you?” said Lanyon.
We’ll take it seriously.
NSW Greens MP says community can no longer trust police to handle protests
Following Chris Minns, pro-Palestinian protesters are addressing the media this morning, and say the NSW police can no longer be trusted to deal with peaceful protests.
Greens MP Sue Higginson says NSW police created a “literal pressure cooker” by surrounding protesters from being able to disperse.
There is a large part of NSW now that does not, cannot and should not trust the NSW police under the current NSW premier to be able to deal with … peaceful protests
What we saw last night was a monumental failure. You only have to look at what took place. The police created a literal pressure cooker. They surrounded people at Town Hall. There were no safe avenues of dispersal.
Higginson says she has asked the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission to establish an investigation.
She says there was no “compromise” and no movement from police.
I thought we would never return to this [as in] 1978 when a state and police thinks they can suppress, oppress and control a mass peaceful movement.
I dealt with police officers last night who I know themselves were shocked at what took place and that some of those police officers were emboldened …
Independent MP says protests were ‘entirely foreseeable’
The independent MP Zali Steggall says last night’s protests were “entirely foreseeable” and that any instances of excessive police force must be investigated.
Steggall told Sky News she understands that Jewish Australians are feeling vulnerable and that Palestinian Australians are also feeling hurt and angry at the “continued killing of innocent civilian lives”.
Host Laura Jayes, pushes Steggall on whether phrases like “globalise the intifada” are damaging. Stegall says:
I don’t dispute that it is damaging, but what I am really disappointed that at no point am I hearing anything in relation to what is to happen to the Palestinian people. We are seeing today the announcement that the Israeli government has further passed laws to legalise taking occupied [Palestinian] territories.
It was entirely foreseeable, considering the last two years and the issues and the damage this has been social cohesion, that events like last night were going to happen.
Why are we having the leader of a foreign state here causing social disruption and impacting our social cohesion … inviting the head of another state that has highly foreseeable consequences on our social cohesion is something the prime minister should have taken much greater care in considering.