Live updates: Elon Musk chides Anthony Albanese over 'censorship'

2.15PM

Low-profile Victorian crossbench senator Ralph Babet has drawn criticism for reposting graphic footage of the alleged Sydney terror attack, along with an incendiary message to the Albanese government.

Babet, elected as part of Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party at the last election, played into the escalating row between Australia’s eSafety Commissioner and tech billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday.

Senator Ralph Babet. Alex Ellinghausen

“To the Australian government and the eSafety commissioner, go f— yourselves,” he wrote.

Babet’s account includes a paid verification tick from X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

He accused federal Labor of not caring about Sydney cleric Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was stabbed during a church service last week, and instead wanting to control information and narratives.

“The government and their bureaucrats themselves are regular spreaders of misinformation,” he claimed.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland slammed the post.

“The Albanese government supports efforts by the eSafety Commissioner to have this content removed from digital platforms in Australia,” she said in a statement.

“This is appalling behaviour by a serving senator and he needs to explain why he’s sharing this harmful content”.

1.32PM

Billionaire and owner of X Elon Musk has doubled down on his refusal to remove videos of the Wakeley stabbing incident from his social media website.

In a post to X on Tuesday, Musk questioned why the Australian eSafety Commissioner should have the authority to force his social media platform to block videos of the terror attack.

“Should the eSafety Commissar (an unelected official) in Australia have authority over all countries on Earth,” Musk tweeted.

Earlier in the day, Musk sarcastically praised Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “for informing the public that this platform [X] is the only truthful one”.

12.06PM

Meta’s local representatives say they had begun removing videos of last week’s terror attack at the Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley even before receiving an order from Australia’s eSafety Commissioner to take down the content.

In a blog post published on Tuesday, Meta’s Australian and New Zealand policy team outlined the steps the social media company took in the immediate aftermath of last week’s knife attacks at Westfield Bondi Junction and on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Wakeley.

“Our Australia specialist teams started to review and action any content related to the incidents reported by users that violated our policies and we used internal tools to surface all livestreams and block any copies of videos that depicted the attacks,” the company said.

Both attacks violated Meta’s policies, triggering the social media giant to remove the perpetrators’ accounts and any glorification, praise or support of the attackers or attacks.

“For videos showing graphic footage of the immediate aftermath of the act, we applied a ‘mark as disturbing’ interstitial,” Meta said.

“When we received the ‘Class 1 Removal Notice’ from the eSafety Commissioner in relation to the Wakeley attack, we quickly responded to confirm that we had already been taking action in relation to the content that was the subject of the Notice.”

Meta’s response is in sharp contrast to X, formerly Twitter, which has defied the eSafety Commissioner’s orders to remove the content from its platform.

11.12AM

Crown Sydney has finally secured an unconditional casino licence from NSW regulators, marking the first time since the precinct opened that it can operate the members-only gaming floors without extra restrictions.

The Barangaroo site was originally planned as a high-roller-only casino with a focus on overseas VIPs, but Crown shifted direction amid tough scrutiny on problematic junket operators from gaming and anti-money laundering authorities concerned about their links to organised crime in Asia.

Crown Sydney has finally secured an unconditional casino licence from NSW regulators Oscar Colman

The NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority – now the Independent Casino Control Commission – barred it from opening the gaming floors after the revelations in 2020.

Eighteen months later, it granted the Blackstone-owned Crown a provisional licence in June 2022 that imposed rules such as limits on the cash that patrons can gamble with at certain table games, and the establishment of an independent monitor to oversee cultural reforms.

It comes as Crown’s cross-town rival Star Entertainment battles to retain its restricted licence amid a new inquiry into cultural issues and regulatory failures at the casino.

10.59AM

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is setting off to hike part of the Kokoda Trail this week as he works to promote Pacific stability and solidify Australia’s relationship with Papua New Guinea.

Speaking from Port Moresby on Tuesday morning, the prime minister said Australia’s relationship with its northern neighbour was integral, and pointed to an upgraded defence agreement the two countries signed last year.

Anthony Albanese and James Marape in Port Moresby on Monday. Dominic Lorrimer

“It was certainly forged during World War Two and ever since then we’ve been mates and will continue to be so into the future,” Albanese told Channel 9’s Today program.

Part of a major diplomatic effort with Australia’s northern neighbour, Albanese’s visit comes days after China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, criticised jostling for regional influence, during which he said Pacific countries “are not the back yard” of any nation.

Albanese and his PNG counterpart, James Marape, will walk part of the Kokoda Trail this week ahead of Anzac Day.

10.02AM

Former NSW deputy Liberal leader Stuart Ayres has been appointed chief executive of Urban Development Institute of Australia’s NSW branch, his first role since exiting NSW politics last year.

Ayres served in NSW parliament as a Liberal MP for 13 years. He resigned from his senior cabinet role of trade minister in August 2022 over a potential breach of ministerial standards stemming from the appointment of former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro to a plum US trade role.

Ayres lost his seat of Penrith at last year’s NSW election.

Former NSW Liberal deputy leader Stuart Ayres has been appointed chief executive of Urban Development Institute of Australia’s NSW branch. Rhett Wyman

The UDIA board said Ayres was appointed because he was a long-time advocate of increasing housing in western Sydney.

Before securing the UDIA role, Ayres was also shortlisted to replace Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott, but the role was given to Bran Black, who was chief of staff to former premier Dominic Perrottet.

“As a prominent member and advocate of Australia’s fastest-growing region in western Sydney, Stuart has a great understanding of both the economic opportunities and inherent challenges involved in the delivery of major projects that will create jobs and additional housing supply for NSW,” the UDIA board said.

“He also understands the power of collaboration between industry and government, and what can be achieved when there is alignment of policy, investment and resourcing between the public and private sector.”

9.54AM

Thousands of West Australian teachers will walk off the job on Tuesday morning, affecting close to 80 schools as they demand a 12 per cent pay increase over two years.

The teaching strike is the latest in a series of clashes between the WA government and public sector unions, which are demanding meaningful pay increases after several years of wage freezes under former premier Mark McGowan.

WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti.  Hamish Hastie

The teachers strike follows a months-long battle between the state government and the WA nurses’ union over pay and conditions.

State School Teachers’ Union of WA president Matt Jarman said his members had run out of patience amid a cost-of-living crisis.

“In the current climate, our members have taken on additional workload and are facing unprecedented cost-of-living pressures on top of having their wage rises capped for four years, which saw salaries fall far behind the rate of inflation,” he said.

WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti said while the government had allocated more cash to public sector wages in the most recent budget, she needed to balance pay increases against competing pressures.

9.23AM

Former Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo has admitted his behaviour using lobbyist back channels to influence government decisions was a mistake and that he let his department and others down.

In his first public interview since being sacked last November, Pezzullo said that “no matter how much rough and tumble there is in a place like Canberra”, the “gaining of influence and personal advantage” through lobbyist back channels “crosses the line in terms of conduct”.

“I accept that, and I’ve paid a price ... I made mistakes and I need to own those mistakes and I need to learn from them,” Pezzullo told the ABC’s 7.30.

Former Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo. Alex Ellinghausen

“I let people down, people I cared about in terms of who I worked with, and I regret not being able to continue to work with them.”

Pezzullo said he believed at the time he should have been reprimanded, but this was not accepted by the investigator, former public service commissioner Lynelle Briggs.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil called Briggs in after Nine Entertainment metropolitan mastheads revealed the content of numerous text messages between Pezzullo and former Liberal Party operative and lobbyist Scott Briggs.

Lynelle Briggs recommended Pezzullo be terminated after finding 14 breaches of the public service code of conduct. This included using his power to gain advantage for himself, acting apolitically and failing to maintain confidences.

“I accepted at the time that there had been conduct that was … that fell short of the appropriate standards,” Pezzullo said.

He said Lynelle Briggs had acted fairly when she dismissed his arguments for a lesser sanction.

8.53AM

Independent senator Jacquie Lambie has shrugged off suggestions of a scare campaign being mounted against any new negative gearing reforms, rejecting the suggestion that Labor lost the 2019 election as a result of its tax reform agenda.

Lambie and her Senate colleague David Pocock have asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to model a range of changes to generous tax concessions for investment properties that they said could raise billions of dollars and bring homeownership back to 1990s levels.

Lambie said most Australians struggling to make ends meet amid the current housing crisis would not “give a stuff” about reforms cracking down on tax concessions for investment properties.

“People can go back to Bill Shorten’s election and say it was the negative gearing talk that blew him out of the water, that’s rubbish,” Lambie told ABC Radio.

“I can tell you now, running around during that period of time trying to win my own seat back, I heard nothing about negative gearing.”

Pocock said many of the arguments against major tax reform were based on myth.