eSafety commissioner accuses Elon Musk of ‘dog-whistle’ against her – as it happened

What a day it has been. Let’s leave it there, shall we? Enjoy your respective Wednesday evenings – the unparalleled Amy Remeikis will be back first thing tomorrow. I will be sleeping in and hiding from the cold.

Here were the major developments of the day:

• Australia’s economy slowed to just 0.1% in the March quarter, which was slower than expected. The nation’s gross domestic product barely grew, expanding just 0.1% in the first three months of 2024. On an annual basis, growth was 1.1%.

• Question time was certainly A Time. The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, accused some pro-Palestine protesters of being Holocaust deniers. And the Greens leader, Adam Bandt said “severe and direct misrepresentations” were made of him after a move to suspend standing orders to debate the issue of whether Australia is sending parts which are being used in F-35s used by Israel was rejected, with the PM using the Greens of inflaming “tension” at pro-Palestine protests outside electoral offices.

• Elon Musk’s X has said “free speech has prevailed” after the eSafety commissioner dropped the federal court case over X’s refusal to remove tweets of the Wakeley church stabbing attack. Speaking on ABC, the commissioner revealed she had received death threats as a result of Musk’s tweets.

• An internal survey of ABC news staff has found 25% of people who answered the survey experienced bullying and 13% experienced sexual harassment.

• Townsville council has passed a unanimous motion of no-confidence in its embattled mayor Troy Thompson.

• And the federal government will spend almost $1bn in the next four years to provide infrastructure to private schools while the public system has been allocated just $225m.

Karen Middleton

PM reportedly reaffirms Australia’s security relationship with Nauru

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has held talks with visiting Nauruan president David Adeang in Canberra but his office has declined to say whether they discussed the offshore detention arrangements for asylum seekers.

Guardian Australia reported on Tuesday that the number of asylum seekers on Nauru now topped 100, with 37 people transferred there from Australia this week – the fourth such transfer since September last year.

Senate estimates has been told that over the nine months to March, Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru cost $240m.

In today’s meeting, Albanese is understood to have told Adeang that Australia was committed to remaining Nauru’s development and security partner of choice.

The talks follow Nauru’s decision early this year to cut its diplomatic ties with Taiwan and restore them with Beijing.

Albanese is believed to have also committed to work with Nauru to ensure its economic structures adequately support its economy.

It is not clear whether this involved a further financial commitment from Australia, although the government is committed to expanding cooperation with Nauru on climate change along with security, boosting sporting ties and increasing aid and development.

The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has appeared on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing after revelations the federal court case on Elon Musk’s X platform has been withdrawn.

She says she received death threats following the public “dog whistling” of her by Musk.

The case was centred around the company’s refusal to take down the video of the stabbing of a bishop at a church in Sydney in April. Inman Grant says the body is fighting the battle “on dual fronts”, while also balancing the “prudent use of public funds”.

We have got five different cases going with X corp right now. They are consistently noncompliant. I think the average Australian is with us here. We don’t expect to see violent attempted murder videos on broadcast because there have been laws that have been in place that broadcasters comply with. Why do we think it is OK to have that content on the internet, which is available 24/7 to a bunch of overseas companies that have no regard for our children’s safety and don’t even have age assurance or age verification tools in place?

[Musk] issued a dog whistle to 181 million users around the globe which resulted in death threats, directed at me, which resulted in doxing of my family members, including my three children. I think with great power comes great responsibility and exercising that restraint, in terms of targeting a regulator who is here to protect the citizens of Australia – that is really beyond the pale but it is not surprising, given that we have seen him litigate and target and personally tarnish NGOs, academics and other researchers that dare to criticise the safety of the X platform …

I will not be cowed by those kinds of threats. I am sure more will come. I am here to do the right thing, to keep Australians safe online.

Dreyfus is asked about recent revelations that there have been 725 threats to parliamentarians in the current financial year.

How many MPs’ electorate offices are either unused or substantially unused because of attacks on them or threats made to them?

He says this is “variable”, however “quite a number of MPs’ electorate offices have been attacked, criminally damaged”, then points his finger at the Greens.

There have been threats made against electorate office staff, including criminal damage to my own electorate office just last Friday when the office was unable to be used. Of course it is a concern. I am very concerned about the role of the Greens political party has played in this …

We will question them about that if we get the opportunity.

Cait Kelly

Study reveals ‘profound’ depths of housing crisis

A seven-year study by RMIT University and Unison Housing Research Lab has revealed more than 70,000 households have accessed help from frontline homelessness services across those years.

There’s been an increase in presentations at the front end of the homelessness service system from people who are employed – which rose from 4.5% in 2014 to 7.7% in 2020 and a near doubling of those reporting family and domestic violence at their first presentation: increasing from 7.5% to 15.8%.

Most people (57.5%) were light users – that is they used services once and did not return. Just fewer than one in four (24.5%) were regular users, who repeatedly returned.

While there was an uptick in people with work accessing the service, 45.5% were on income support, not including the pension.

Guy Johnson, an honorary professor at RMIT, said the number of employed people seeking support is “a clear sign that problems in the housing market are more profound and more far reaching than ever before”.

While some households have a range of vulnerabilities, most do not – other than being on a low income and struggling to meet their housing costs or find affordable housing.

Toni, a social worker at an inner-city Launch Housing entry point, said:

I’ve seen clients returning again and again and when that happens, my heart often drops. It’s nice to know that they are alive, but at the same time we recognise that the service system has failed them yet again.

Homelessness service entry points work at the intersection of multiple struggling service systems, often with clients deemed too challenging for other supports. Our limited resources mean that securing appropriate, affordable, long-term housing for clients is near impossible.

Calla Wahlquist

Avian influenza detected at fourth site in Victoria

Avian influenza has now been detected at four poultry farms in western Victoria, with Agriculture Victoria confirming this afternoon that another property had tested positive for the virus.

In a statement, Agriculture Victoria said three “infected properties” near Meredith, 100km from Melbourne, are confirmed to have the high pathogenicity H7N3 strain of the virus, while a fourth property at Terang has the high pathogenicity H7N9 strain.

It said:

Three of the infected properties are located in the Restricted and Control Areas in Meredith and Lethbridge, in the Golden Plains shire and one is in the Corangamite shire where movement restrictions were already in place.

All properties have been placed in quarantine and all poultry will be safely disposed of. The sites will be cleaned and cleared of the infection.

For those trying to follow the timeline: the first infection at an egg farm in Meredith was reported on 22 May, the Terang property which shares ownership was detected on 23 May, the infection at another property within the 5km restricted area near the first Meredith egg farm was reported yesterday 4 June, and the fourth property, also within that 5km zone, was reported today, 5 June.

Karen Middleton

Peter Garrett welcomes Jabiluka decision

Former federal environment minister and Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett has welcomed the Northern Territory’s decision to issue a reservation order over the Jabiluka uranium mine which will take effect from when the mining lease expires in August.

The order prevents any mineral exploration or extraction, or any new mineral title to be issued to the land, until a lease extension application has been resolved.

Garrett has posted on social media site X, calling for territory and federal governments to confirm they will reject the Energy Resources Australia application for another 10-year extension to the lease and give the area heritage protection instead.

Now for the final step after decades of waiting. C’wealth & NT please don’t renew existing lease, instead commit to Jabiluka going into Kakadu National Park.’

The order giving the area temporary reserve status will be reviewed within two years, if no decision is made by then.

Quarter of ABC staff surveyed have experienced bullying

Amanda Meade

An internal survey of ABC news staff has found 25% of people who answered the survey experienced bullying and 13% experienced sexual harassment.

In the first survey of its kind undertaken by the ABC, a total of 745 news people, or about a third of the division, took the anonymous survey.

The most commonly identified behaviour was intimidation and belittling and humiliating comments, ABC staff were told today by managing director David Anderson. He told staff:

The report findings show that staff in ABC News have experienced bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace during their employment at the ABC.

Bullying behaviour and sexual harassment is unacceptable in any workplace.