source : the age
Bondi gunman Naveed Akram has been denied a visit from family members after a search of their car found a fruit knife and a handwritten note.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon confirmed Corrective Services stopped the family of the 24-year-old prisoner outside the super-max jail in Goulburn on Saturday.
“A search was conducted with the vehicle and found what has been described as a fruit knife and other pieces of writing,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Counter-terrorism police investigated the note and deemed it unrelated to terrorism matters. Lanyon would not divulge details of what the note contained.
AAP
Climate activist group Rising Tide has confirmed its members disrupted Anthony Albanese’s speech today to protest against new coal and gas projects.
Two protesters were removed from the Future Victoria Summit in Melbourne, minutes into the prime minister’s address.
The organisation said in a statement that 18-year-old Myles Wilkinson asked Albanese: “Why are you selling my future to gas companies in the Otway basin?”
Rising Tide said a second protester, Nell Sudano, lived four kilometres from Harcourt, the Victorian town devastated by bushfire last month, and demanded polluters pay for social and environmental damage.
Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry has revealed how the “disaster” in Australian housing policy has affected him and his family.
Henry said he had stood alongside his children as they sought to buy a home in Sydney, only to be out-bid by investors who had the financial advantage of the tax system supporting them.
“There would be tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, if not millions of parents in Australia who could tell the same story: stories of standing at an auction, seeing their kids – potential owner-occupiers – being out-bid by investors,” he said.
Henry pushed back at claims by the housing industry that the sector was over-taxed.
He noted that because of negative gearing, rental housing actually cost the federal budget.
Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry has bemoaned the state of the nation’s tax system, saying it was full of holes, suffered from deliberate negligence and encouraged higher-income earners to find “creative ways” to reduce their tax.
Henry, giving evidence this afternoon to a Senate inquiry into the capital gains tax, said the tax system was clearly struggling with little reform in recent years.
He said given the Hawke and then Howard governments had sliced the top marginal tax rate from 60 per cent to 45 per cent, it should be even lower today.
“After all the work that was done, we should have been able to get the top marginal rate of tax … to [one with] a 3 in front of it,” he said.
Henry said the current tax structure, including capital gains tax and negative gearing, effectively made investment in the rental market a tax avoidance system.
“Rental property investments are primarily under Australian tax law a vehicle for sheltering wage and salary income from tax,” he said.
An email sent to organisers of a Chinese dance troupe yesterday falsely claimed that explosives placed around The Lodge would be detonated unless performances were cancelled, and forced Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to evacuate his Canberra residence.
A report in The Epoch Times, a news outlet affiliated with the Falun Gong religious movement banned in China, said Chinese language emails sent to the Shen Yun Performing Arts dance troupe linked to the movement threatened that performances must be cancelled or the prime minister’s residence would be “blown into ruins”.
The reports, confirmed independently by this masthead, the ABC and news.com.au, say the dance troupe received the emails in the afternoon and referred them to the Australian Federal Police.
Albanese was evacuated at 6pm.
Police spent three hours combing The Lodge before judging it was safe for the prime minister and his staff to return. No signs of explosives were found.
The AFP refused to comment on the incident.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has taken part in a word association game to wrap up his appearance at the summit in Melbourne.
He stuck to the one-word answer rule for some more successfully than others. Here’s what he said:
Sussan Ley: “Best wishes.”
Angus Taylor: “Leader.”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor: “Grub.”
Craig Tiley: “Legend.”
Oscar Piastri: “Winner.”
One Nation voters: “Frustrated.”
Pauline Hanson: “Divisive.”
Australia Day: “Great.”
Grace Tame: “Difficult.”
Donald Trump: “President.”
Barnaby Joyce: “You know, I just, I can’t do that in one word. I am just looking forward to the Barnaby Joyce versus Pauline Hanson, you know it’s coming.”
ISIS brides: “Made their bed, they’re lying in it.”
AFL or NRL: “That’s unfair.”
Rabbitohs or Hawks: “I was on the board of the Rabbitohs for a long, long time, but I support both.”
Anthony Albanese has been momentarily stumped when asked what Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s strongest attributes were.
“Persistence,” the prime minister told the Future Victoria Summit, after a pause, and to laughter from the crowd. “Confidence,” he added.
And Taylor’s biggest weaknesses?
“Removing the first female leader to lead the Liberal Party,” Albanese said. “That sends a message to the population. As well as his record on energy … [and] tax cuts he opposed. I couldn’t believe last year’s budget, when they opposed the tax cuts.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called for calm after his speech in Melbourne was interrupted by protesters.
Albanese was, separately, forced to evacuate The Lodge in Canberra last night over a security threat.
Albanese was addressing the Future Victoria conference where two protesters, who appeared to be yelling about environmental concerns, were removed by security.
He has now sat down for a Q&A session. He opened by calling for calm.
“I think it’s just a reminder. Take every opportunity to tell people, turn the heat down for goodness’ sake. You know, we can’t take these things for granted,” he said.
Traditional owners from Banjima Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, represented by Gordon Legal, have commenced proceedings in the Federal Court against the state of Western Australia over the cultural and ecological devastation wrought by the Wittenoom mine site.
The mine, which closed 60 years ago this year, created 3 million tonnes of asbestos waste, and represents the largest contaminated waste site in the southern hemisphere.
The Banjima people suffer the highest per capita incidence of asbestos cancer in the world, and the ABC has reported that 1200 miners and residents have died as a result of asbestos exposure.
Gordon Legal alleges the WA government failed to take remediation action for decades, despite extracting $70 billion in royalties from mining in the Pilbara.
The WA government has been contacted for comment.
Thank you for following our national news live blog for Wednesday, February 25. Stay with us as we bring you rolling updates throughout the afternoon. Here’s what we have covered so far today, in case you missed it.
- Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show annual inflation was steady at 3.8 per cent through the 12 months to the end of January. Underlying inflation, closely watched by the Reserve Bank, was up by 0.3 per cent in January, which took the annual rate up slightly to 3.4 per cent.
- Government ministers have been directed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to find billions of dollars in cuts and delay spending to avoid adding fuel to the inflation fire ahead of the May budget. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher confirmed this morning that the government was seeking “significant savings” in its next budget.
- MPs have responded today to the news that Albanese was forced to evacuate from The Lodge, his Canberra residence, last night as police searched the premises following a security threat. Nationals leader David Littleproud said the incident proved the “deterioration” of Australian society, while Liberal deputy Jane Hume said that any threats to MPs were threats to Australian democracy. Authorities said there was no ongoing danger to the public, but the nature of the threat has not been disclosed.
- US President Donald Trump will deliver the annual State of the Union address shortly, set to start in a few minutes. He is expected to discuss tariffs, immigration and foreign policy. Follow our live updates from his address on our 2026 State of the Union blog.
I’m Emily Kaine, handing over now to my colleague Brittany Busch, who will helm our coverage for the rest of the day.
