Australia news live: Dutton says Labor’s caravan briefing claims ‘utter nonsense’; Sydney multimillionaire faces new child abuse material charges

And that’s where we’ll leave you this evening. Here’s the short version of what happened today:

• The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, accused Labor’s Tony Burke of seeking “political opportunity” out of the caravan hoax.

• The NSW premier, Chris Minns, defended calling the caravan hoax “terrorism”.

• Malcolm Turnbull said Australia should be “free to speak the truth” about Donald Trump as the Albanese government attempted to secure an 11th-hour exemption to steel and aluminium tariffs.

• WA Labor MP Patrick Gorman said Turnbull’s interventions on the US and Trump were “immature” and he was just “looking for some headlines”.

• The federal government is facing renewed pressure to substantially increase jobseeker payments as research showed recipients are at a higher risk of suicide and poor health.

• The Victorian government announced it will lease the sites of public housing towers to a private consortium, which the Greens have slammed as undermining housing for the most vulnerable.

• The NSW arts minister, John Graham, was grilled in state budget estimates over a $30,000 party involving a live “sashimi performance” on a large yellowfin tuna.

• The Australian share market plummeted in early trading, shedding more than $A56bn after US markets tanked overnight on recession fears.

• High-profile former corporate tycoon Ron Brierley was allegedly caught with child abuse material three years after he was let out of prison on a successful appeal.

• Search efforts resumed for a missing surfer in Western Australia, after reports of a shark sighting and a surfer in distress yesterday afternoon.

• And the Queensland city of Ipswich appears to have avoided more severe flooding by mere centimetres as Brisbane and Lismore residents returned to inspect damage after ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

Thanks so much for your company today. We’ll be back with you bright and early tomorrow for all of Wednesday’s news. Look after yourselves until then.

Sarah Basford Canales

Linda Reynolds urges Nato to make decision on sending troops to Ukraine

The former defence minister, Linda Reynolds, has urged Nato countries, including Italy, Germany and France, to make a decision on whether to base troops in Ukraine ahead of a key meeting in Paris.

It comes as the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said he will consider any proposals to send Australian peacekeepers to the war-torn region as part of a “coalition of the willing” designed by European leaders.

Australia will be represented by Air Vice-Marshal Di Turton at a meeting of defence force chiefs in Paris in the coming hours. A defence spokesperson said:

Australia continues to stand with Ukraine in its defence against Russia’s unprovoked illegal and immoral aggression.

The Russian ambassador to Australia, Alexey Pavlovsky, warned Australia not to send any troops to Ukraine, flagging it would “entail grave consequences”. He said in a statement first provided to the Sydney Morning Herald:

Once again, western boots on the ground are unacceptable for Russia, and we will not remain passive observers.

Reynolds, who co-chairs the Parliamentary Friends of Ukraine, said the war in Ukraine in “closer to home than ever” and she remained committed to supporting the country’s efforts to defend its democracy.

Asked whether she supported a proposal to send Australian troops to ensure peace in Ukraine, the retiring Western Australian senator said:

Nato nations must step up their efforts and lead the charge in defending their Ukrainian neighbours. With Italy, Germany and France making no decision yet to base troops in Ukraine, these countries must first commit to defending Ukraine.

A defence spokesperson said:

Australia continues to stand with Ukraine in its defence against Russia’s unprovoked, illegal and immoral aggression.

Benita Kolovos

Victoria’s community housing chief applauds government’s public housing plan

The Victorian government’s housing announcement we mentioned earlier comes as the government awaits an outcome in class action court proceedings against the redevelopment of the towers.

The class action was brought on by Inner Melbourne Community Legal on behalf of about 1,000 residents of the three towers, with the firm alleging the government failed to properly consider the human rights of residents when it decided to redevelop the towers.

IMCL described the announcement as “disrespectful” to residents:

It is extremely disappointing to hear that there is no commitment to build publicly owned and managed housing in place of the towers. This means our clients can’t return to their estates as public housing residents, as many of them wanted to do.

Meanwhile, Community Housing Industry Association Victoria chief executive Sarah Toohey applauded the plan. She said in a statement:

During the worst housing crisis in living memory, every dollar the government invests to turn it around must maximise the number of homes created. When the government teams up with not-for-profit community housing providers, taxpayers get more bang for their buck. Not-for-profit community housing organisations consistently build quality affordable homes at lower costs than government projects can achieve. More community housing partnerships mean more Victorians housed with the same public investment.

She said under the government’s plan for North Melbourne, there would be a doubling of the number of “social homes”.

Josh Butler

Dutton on divestment confusion: ‘We will divest if that is what’s required’

Let’s return briefly to Peter Dutton’s press conference, where another of the Coalition’s policy offerings got even more confusing and unclear.

While most of that media appearance was focused on the Dural caravan explosives, a question toward the end – on the Coalition’s policy of forced divestiture – again seemed to expose real divisions inside the Liberal party on exactly how that would work.

To recap: last week we saw Peter Dutton and his shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, at complete odds over whether the Coalition’s proposed divestiture powers would extend to the insurance industry. Three weeks ago, Dutton said they would; this week Taylor claimed “we’ve been clear” that they would not. We unpacked that all here:

Now, since we published that piece on Saturday, deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley and shadow finance minister Jane Hume made it crystal clear that it would NOT extend to insurance. Don’t take our word for it, here is what Ley said yesterday:

We do not propose divestiture with respect to insurance companies, and we’ve made that clear.

Confused? Understandable. Clear? As mud. So it was over to Dutton, at his press conference, where he was asked about the seeming total contradictions in him saying the powers would extend to insurance while other senior members of his team said they wouldn’t.

Dutton’s response:

Our policy, and I will state it very clearly, is if the advice to our government is that there is a concentration of power or market share vested in the big insurance companies in this country, and that concentration of market share has led to businesses and families not being able to get insurance cover, or indeed has led to people paying astronomical prices for their premiums, and therefore market failure, my government will act and we will divest if that is what’s required to get competition into the marketplace.

Long answer, but that boils down to “we will divest if that is what is required”.

He was further asked, in a cheeky question: “Will you let Angus Taylor and Sussan Ley know?”

Dutton doubled down further, indeed claiming: “I have looked at what they have said and I think there is a consistency there as well.”

Make up your own mind about that.

Benita Kolovos

Greens accuse Victorian Labor of ‘washing their hands of public housing’

Further to the previous post, the ground lease model has been used by the Victorian government in the past and has been criticised by those who want social housing to remain state owned and operated.

Following Shing’s announcement on Tuesday, the Victorian Greens issued a statement in which they said community housing was more expensive than public housing, with residents in the former not provided with the same rights.

Their statement read:

Public housing tenants have rent capped at 25% of household income and rights to a lifelong lease, whereas community housing tenants have to renew every three years, and can pay upward of 30% of their income. “Affordable” housing has no strict definition and has been found to be leased at higher than market rent even in some government managed properties.

The Greens accused the government of a “total retreat from public housing”. Their housing spokesperson, Gabrielle de Vietri, said in a statement:

This announcement confirms our fears that Labor is washing their hands of public housing in Victoria. Labor is hand-balling people’s lives and the housing crisis to a private consortium.

We’re in a housing crisis where we should be building more public housing on public land, but instead Labor’s handing over our public land and demolishing the public housing we already have.

Benita Kolovos

Victoria to lease public housing sites to private consortium

The Victorian government has announced it will lease the sites of public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne to a private consortium that will handle the redevelopment and management for the next four decades.

The housing minister, Harriet Shing, on Tuesday announced the government will be using its “ground lease model” to redevelop three towers in the precinct, which are among the first of the state’s 44 highrises slated for demolition.

Under the model, the government leases the land to a private consortium to build, operate and maintain housing for 40 years, after which it is returned to public ownership.

Shing’s media release read:

This means that the land remains owned by the government.

She said the Flemington development will be managed by a private consortium, dubbed “Building Communities”, while the government was calling for expressions of interest for the North Melbourne development.

She said the plan will deliver 400 “social homes” and up to 300 affordable homes – which are leased to low- to middle-income earners at below median market rent – in Flemington.

Shing said:

We are continuing our work in partnership with not-for-profit housing providers to build hundreds of social and affordable homes in the communities where people want to live. Increasing the volume of new social housing on these sites by 39% will give more Victorians the modern, energy efficient, accessible, safe and secure homes they deserve.

Amanda Meade

Broadcaster’s lawyer concerned about ‘anti-Jones crusade’

Alan Jones’s lawyer has told the court in his committal hearing today he is concerned about an “anti-Jones crusade” while arguing that Sydney Morning Herald journalist Kate McClymont should not have a dual role as a reporter of his client’s case and as a witness.

Jones has been charged with 35 historical sexual assault offences allegedly committed in various places in New South Wales, including Newtown, the Sydney CBD, Fitzroy Falls, Alexandria and Tamworth. He has denied all the allegations and indicated he will plead not guilty to all charges.

Jones was excused from Tuesday’s committal hearing, but his lawyer Bryan Wrench told the court that he had now received the brief of evidence and was aware that “the journalist who broke this story” had given a witness statement.

Read the full story here: