As it happened: Billion-dollar pay rise for childcare workers; Ex-Qantas boss Alan Joyce docked $9 million

Following on from the South Australian opposition leader’s resignation earlier today, Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham says it was David Speirs’ own decision to leave.

Speaking on ABC Afternoon Briefing, Birmingham noted Speirs made the call a “long distance” out from the next state election, and thanked him for his work as an energetic leader focused on some of the “critical early failings” of the Malinauskas government.

“He has led a stacked parliamentary team that has shown significant unity in that time, and I hope that unity can continue forward under a new leader who will bring their own drive and zeal to the job of holding government to account here,” Birmingham said.

When asked about suggestions Speirs’ confidence was undermined by his colleagues, Birmingham said it was a “huge undertaking” to lead a political party.

“He came to his own decision and is clear about the fact that there are personal, family and other reasons attached to that,” Birmingham said.

“We respect that and the party will now regroup under a new leader and those discussions will happen among my state colleagues over the next few days.”

Speirs earlier told media the leadership would be declared vacant at a joint party room meeting on Monday.

He said he thought he made a “fairly good attempt” at consolidating the party after taking on its leadership when it was at the “depths of despair” in 2022.

“To be honest, I’ve had a gutful,” Speirs said.

“It’s not easy being leader of the opposition - and doing it for two years and four months has certainly taken its toll on me, and it’s taken its toll on my family and my friends.

“It’s extremely easy to throw rocks at the leader of the opposition… it’s extremely easy to have different ideas as to how you might do it better.”

Back in the WA Supreme Court, Senator Linda Reynolds is being cross-examined by Brittany Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young about text messages she shared with Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer ahead of his high-profile criminal trial.

Young grilled Reynolds about her decision to volunteer the names and contact details of staff members who may have been able to assist Lehrmann’s barrister Steven Whybrow, SC, in preparing a defence.

Reynolds defended this, and insisted it was done in consultation with her lawyer.

When asked about remarks Whybrow made in their text message thread, including “shit is going to get real soon” and, “karma comes to those who wait”, Reynolds told the court she could not remember receiving them and the inclusion of a “prayer emoji” in response was intended as a “thank you”.

Young pressed Reynolds on her decision to request copies of the daily transcript during Lehrmann’s criminal trial, one both Whybrow and her own lawyer deemed “inappropriate”.

Reynolds said this was purely to aid her civil case and made because she was unfamiliar with the legal process.

Young quizzed Reynolds about why the text messages were no longer on either of her mobile phone devices, putting it to Reynolds that she deliberately concealed them.

The senator said she couldn’t recall whether the text messages were wiped manually or automatically, but rejected claims she was attempting to hide their existence.

Lehrmann’s rape charge was ultimately withdrawn and the criminal trial against him aborted due to juror misconduct in 2022. He maintains his innocence.

The cross-examination continues.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare says childcare centres will have to sign a legally enforceable agreement to limit fee increases to 4.4 per cent over the next 12 months as part of a pay increase policy for workers.

Clare said the agreements would be with the Department of Education, and suggested those centres unwilling to sign up would risk losing their staff to other workplaces.

“I suspect the educators [who] work at your centre will go down the road and work at the other centre that’s signing up to this,” Clare told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

When asked whether the deal caveat would be abandoned after 12 months, Clare said it was the federal government’s intention to keep imposing a fee increase limit on centres taking advantage of the pay rise for workers.

The government would lean on advice, including from a Productivity Commission report, to determine what that fee increase limit would be in the next two years and the long term, Clare told the ABC.

The commission’s report is sitting with the federal government after it tasked the body with investigating how the government could chart a course towards universal, affordable early childhood education and care.

In Darwin, a prominent crocodile expert and Charles Darwin University academic has been jailed for more than 10 years over his “grotesque” depravity and cruelty in torturing and killing dozens of dogs.

Adam Robert Corden Britton was sentenced in the Darwin Supreme Court on Thursday, having previously pleaded guilty to 56 offences related to the torture and sexual exploitation of more than 42 dogs on his rural property.

Chief Justice Michael Grant warned the public gallery that he would have to describe Britton’s offending that included “grotesque cruelty toward animals”.

“Your depravity falls outside any ordinary human conception,” Grant told Britton.

Britton began his offending in 2014 until his arrest in April 2022 after one of the videos of his offending, which he had shared online, was anonymously provided to Northern Territory animal welfare authorities.

Members of the public gallery at times sobbed and gasped as the details of Britton’s extensive and violent offending, resulting in the deaths of 39 dogs including nine puppies, were read out.

Animal advocates had earlier demonstrated outside court holding signs labelling Britton a “zoosadist” who should face the death penalty.

The agreed facts stated Britton extensively filmed his offending and shared some of the videos to others online while encouraging them to commit similar offences and offering advice on how to do so.

“Your sheer and unalloyed pleasure is sickeningly evident from the recorded material,” Grant said.

Britton was a prominent NT crocodile expert and a senior researcher at CDU.

None of his offending is alleged to have been against the reptiles.

Britton was sentenced to 10 years and five months with a non-parole period of six years, backdated to his April 2022 arrest.

Grant ordered that Britton be banned from owning or having on his property mammal-type animals for the term of his natural life.

AAP

A 9½ tonne heavily armoured vehicle rocked when a volley of gunshots was fired at the windscreen, a police officer has told an inquest into the Wieambilla shootings.

The specialist officer had responded to a Wieambilla property where two police colleagues and a civilian were ambushed and shot dead on December 12, 2022.

The Queensland Coroners Court inquest is being held into the deaths of Constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow and neighbour Alan Dare who were shot by Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train at the property in the Western Downs area, west of Brisbane.

Officers tried calling mobile phones linked to the Trains before using a loud hailer to call on the shooters to put down their weapons.

Attempts to negotiate were met with no response, other than gunfire, Queensland State Coroner Terry Ryan was told.

The three shooters were almost robotic, not gesturing or yelling, a specialist officer, who cannot be named, said on Thursday.

“They just went about placing themselves in suitable positions to get lethal gunfire towards us.”

The officer was in the front seat of the heavily armoured, 9½ tonne vehicle about 100 metres from a house on the property when a light shone in their direction and a volley of gunfire followed.

“How we rocked when a number of those rounds hit the front of the BearCat [armoured vehicle], it was quite surreal,” he said.

“I’ve never experienced that before – just the magnitude of the calibre we were dealing with.”

The court has been told police considered whether any of the Trains were being held against their will but it seemed clear all three were there voluntarily when they continued firing at police vehicles and a helicopter.

PolAir officers sent screenshots of vision to police on the ground to show where the Trains were positioned.

Officers in vehicles attempted to negotiate with the Trains for over an hour while trying to avoid coming under heavy fire.

The inquest is set to continue on Monday.

Read more here.

AAP

In world news, Bangladesh’s next leader Muhammad Yunus is heading home from an overseas trip to take office today after imploring people to stay calm and be ready to rebuild the country after an uprising that ended the 16-year, increasingly autocratic rule of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Before leaving Paris, where he was attending the Olympics, Yunus appealed for calm in Bangladesh amid tensions over the country’s future. Bangladesh’s military chief will welcome Yunus when he lands at Dhaka’s main international airport on Thursday afternoon local time.

Yunus was named as Bangladesh’s interim leader following talks among military officials, civic leaders and the student activists who led the uprising against Hasina. Yunus made his first public comments in the French capital on Wednesday before boarding a plane to return home.

He will be sworn in on Thursday night by President Mohammed Shahabuddin, authorities said.

Yunus congratulated the student protesters, saying they had made “our second Victory Day possible”, and he appealed to them and other stakeholders to remain peaceful, while condemning the violence that followed Hasina’s resignation on Monday.

“Violence is our enemy. Please don’t create more enemies. Be calm and get ready to build the country,” Yunus said.

Bangladesh’s military chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, said in a televised address on Wednesday he expected Yunus to usher in a “beautiful democratic” process.

Yunus, who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in developing microcredit markets, told reporters in Paris, “I’m looking forward to going back home and seeing what’s happening there, and how we can organise ourselves to get out of the trouble that we are in.”

AP

South Australia’s Opposition Leader David Speirs has resigned, saying it’s the right time 18 months out from the next state election.

Speirs said he used the mid-winter break to reflect on his priorities, and speak with his family and friends about his future.

“Ultimately, I want to spend more quality time with them and the demands of the role as leader makes this difficult,” Speirs said in a statement.

“With just over 18 months until the next state election, I feel now is the right time to depart from the role and give the next leader the best possible opportunity to succeed in 2026.”

The Opposition Leader said he was proud of his achievements leading a team that rebuilt after a “devastating” 2022 election loss.

South Australians were doing it tough and deserved a better government that would put them first, Speirs said.

“I look forward to playing my part in supporting the next Leader of the Liberal Party in offering a fresh and strong alternative government to the people of South Australia,” he said.

“I have given it my all and I look forward to continuing to serve the people in my electorate of Black, in the southern suburbs.”

Speirs was due to address the media at 3.30pm AEST.