As it happened: RBA rules out rate cut this year; Kamala Harris names VP pick

Newly elevated cabinet minister Pat Conroy says the federal government wants to move quickly to allow Pacific Islanders to serve in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) as a way to help address the military’s recruitment crisis.

The government announced in June that it would change eligibility criteria to allow citizens from the Five Eyes nations – New Zealand, Canada, the United States and United Kingdom – to serve in the ADF.

Pacific Islanders were left out of the announcement despite enthusiasm for the idea from key regional leaders such as Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape and Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.

Conroy, who serves as Minister for the Pacific and Defence Industry, said at a McKell Institute event in Sydney on Wednesday: “I have been very open that we want to see Pacific recruitment into the ADF.

“We want to see that, and we’re working on it right now.”

Conroy said the government was still finalising its plan, and that the issue was complicated because the government did not want to deplete Pacific Island nations’ own defence forces.

While the Five Eyes recruits are already living in Australia as permanent residents, he said Pacific Islanders would be recruited from their countries.

He said that allowing Pacific Islanders to enlist would allow, for example, a school-leaver from Papua New Guinea to work as a diesel mechanic with the ADF for several years before returning to their home country with new skills and an Australian military pension.

The government has loosened eligibility criteria for the military to help address a recruitment shortfall as it tries to boost the number of uniformed personnel by 30 per cent by 2040.

Conroy said Pacific Island nations were understandably seeking closer economic ties with China but said it was important that Beijing’s increased presence in the region not “be accompanied by coercion and interference”.

“China should be more transparent in the aid it is giving and should treat infrastructure projects as opportunities for the Pacific to grow local employment, skills and procurement,” he said.

Back again to senator Linda Reynolds’ defamation case against Brittany Higgins unfolding in the WA Supreme Court, and the former defence minister has compared herself to a “punching clown” while detailing the impact of claims she covered up Higgins’ alleged rape.

Reynolds told the court the saga and the unrelenting barrage of press coverage that followed – perpetuated by social media posts published by Higgins and her husband David Sharaz – took a toll on her and those in her orbit, including her elderly parents.

“It was just part of the pile-on,” Reynolds told the court.

“I felt like one of those punching clowns at the fairground – you get punched down and punched down again, and you have to get up smiling.

“They keep reminding the public of the lies about me, the media keep reporting it, and it keeps doing damage to me and the people I love over and over again.”

When asked to review a post published by Higgins with a quote that read, “I won’t stay silent so you can stay comfortable”, Reynolds became visibly upset.

“I can assure you that I’m taking these proceedings, putting everything on the line, including my house of 40 years, to be heard and seek some justice,” she told the court.

“I’m not doing this to ‘stay comfortable’. That ain’t comfortable.”

Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young, SC, will begin cross-examination this afternoon.

A traditional owner and Kimberley tourism operator say they led authorities to four illegal fishing boats intercepted off the coast of WA.

Dambimangari man Adrian Lane told the ABC he was monitoring mangroves at Kuri Bay, about 370 kilometres north of Broome, on Monday evening when he spotted the first illegal boat.

Lane met up with Kimberley tourism operator Peter Tucker and the pair reported the find to border officials, who arrived in the area on Tuesday morning to find another three illegal vessels, the ABC reported.

Tucker said he had seen illegal fishing boats in the area for “a while”.

“Border Force have come up here once or twice and have had no luck, and we’ve been a bit frustrated because we continue to see them,” Tucker told the ABC.

“We bump into them, we ring Border Force, nothing happens. But the Australian Navy happened to be in the area, they responded to a call and they … with our assistance, reacted swiftly.”

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher earlier confirmed four illegal boats were intercepted off WA’s coast.

The Australian Border Force said the Maritime Border Command intercepted a single vessel and, following further inquiries, another three foreign fishing vessels.

A government department could be fined up to $1.5 million after a child caught fire during a visit to a Canberra science institution.

The nine-year-old was touching a plasma globe when their hands caught alight during a visit to Questacon in July 2022.

The child had used alcohol-based hand sanitiser provided by Questacon, an investigation by national safety authority Comcare found.

When they came into contact with the globe, a spark ignited the hand sanitiser, causing burns to their hands and wrists.

The Department of Industry, Science and Resources, which oversees Questacon, has been charged with a criminal offence under the Work Health and Safety Act.

The National Science and Technology Centre could have eliminated risks by removing the plasma globes, limiting their use to trained Questacon workers, warning visitors of the ignition risks or provided non-alcohol-based sanitiser, Comcare found.

The government department will return to the ACT Magistrates Court on September 12.

Questacon is one of Canberra’s biggest attractions, drawing more than 500,000 visitors every year including large groups of children on school excursions.

Its galleries are filled with a variety of science exhibits and experiments, from a slide that emulates the weightlessness of space to an earthquake simulator.

Plasma balls are often used in physics demonstrations and create lightning effects when users come into close proximity.

AAP

In NSW, a warehouse employee has been charged with stealing $600,000 worth of unreleased Bluey themed coins from the back of a truck.

The state’s police force formed Strike Force Bandit – also the name of Bluey’s dad in the long-running cartoon – to investigate the alleged theft.

A 47-year-old man was ultimately charged and is due to front Parramatta Local Court today.

The haul allegedly included unreleased “1 dollarbuck” $1 gold coins, taken from a storage facility in Wetherill Park in Sydney’s west.

Read more in this story from Jessica McSweeney.

Back in the WA Supreme Court, Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds has detailed the moment she heard a recording of a meeting between former staffer Brittany Higgins, Higgins’ husband David Sharaz and journalist Lisa Wilkinson ahead of Higgins’ tell-all interview on The Project, saying it was the first indication the attack was “premeditated and personal”.

The recording of the five-hour pre-interview briefing on January 27, 2021 was aired in 2023 during Bruce Lehrmann’s unsuccessful defamation trial against Network Ten and Wilkinson over its segment detailing Higgins’ allegation she was raped in Reynolds’ parliamentary suite and that it was part of a political cover-up.

Lehrmann, who was not identified by name in the broadcast, maintains his innocence.

In the recording, Sharaz was heard recounting how Higgins said “best-case scenario, Linda Reynolds” when asked what she wanted out of going public with her allegation.

When Reynolds was asked whether she remembered the moment she heard the recording on Wednesday, she told the court she would remember it until the day she died.

“I heard it during the defamation case and there was extensive reporting of the evidence, including the transcript of a very long pre-interview session done with Lisa Wilkinson,” Reynolds said.

“Until that point, I hadn’t believed there was malice in it, but hearing it [the recording], it was clear it was premeditated and personal against me.

“I had blamed Labor, but I had no idea of just how well-prepared this plan was. They [Higgins and Sharaz] had a package for the media, for the #MeToo movement, a package for disaffected Liberals ... it was premeditated and it was personal.”

Both Higgins and Sharaz have rejected allegations they were involved in a campaign of harassment via the media.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton addressed the media in Darwin this afternoon.

Watch what he had to say: