Australia news as it happened; Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell arrested outside Melbourne court; Migrant program to remain unchanged following mass protests, says Burke

Communications Minister Anika Wells has backed the government’s push to charge for freedom-of-information requests, creating barriers for journalists seeking information from the government.

Wells said the current system, which she categorised as being “from the ’80s”, was no longer fit for purpose and was overwhelmed by “automated, frivolous, vexatious” FOI requests.

Communications Minister Anika Wells at Parliament House on Tuesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I have noticed how much the volume has ticked up, and public servants, if they are spending a million hours a year, and that’s the number, on FOIs, they are not doing work to advance news media bargaining, they are not doing work to advance online safety and holding tech platforms to account,” Wells told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

While the change falls under the portfolio of the attorney-general, Wells said the FOI system was an important principle and the government was “trying to make it modern and fit for purpose so its important use can continue.”

A South Australian man has been charged after a poster of Victorian fugitive Dezi Freeman was displayed at a March for Australia rally in Adelaide on Sunday.

The 39-year-old man handed himself in at a police station on Tuesday following investigations by detectives, police said.

The poster of alleged police killer Freeman was sighted in the crowd at the Adelaide rally.

Freeman, 56, is accused of fatally shooting Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart, 35, and injuring a third officer last Tuesday while being served a warrant.

Freeman fled into dense bushland and remains at large. Police have deployed more than 450 officers to Victoria’s High Country, vowing to continue the search until he is found.

Alleged Porepunkah gunman Dezi Freeman.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

On Monday, South Australian police said they believed they had identified the individual responsible for holding up the poster, which drew widespread condemnation from politicians and retired police.

Acting Commissioner Linda Williams said officers were unable to locate the man at the time of the protest but had since identified him.

“This [Freeman] is a man who is wanted by Victoria Police for the shooting of two police officers whose families would no doubt have seen this image and would be likely distraught by what they have seen – as would every right-minded person – particularly every right-minded police officer,” Williams said.

“I can only underscore how outrageous that behaviour is on the face of it and that’s why we seek to locate this man and speak to him about the behaviour.”

After being interviewed, the man was charged with displaying offensive material in a public place. He has been bailed to appear in Adelaide Magistrates Court on October 28.

Prominent Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell has been arrested outside a Melbourne court after his group attacked an Indigenous sacred site on Sunday.

Two supporters of Sewell’s were also arrested outside the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday afternoon, where about 25 police officers and protective officers had gathered.

The arrests came after two unidentified men entered courtroom 27, where Sewell had been contesting unrelated charges against him, and got into a heated confrontation with Sewell and his supporters. The fight was broken up by about a dozen police officers.

Just hours before the arrests, Sewell derailed a press conference being held by Premier Jacinta Allan and Treasurer Jaclyn Symes on his way to his court hearing.

Sewell, the leader of the National Socialist Network, was in court as part of a three-day contest hearing after he was accused of intimidating a police officer and contravening two personal intervention orders last year.

Read the full story here.

Independent MP Allegra Spender has asked the prime minister what assurances he will give to Australia’s Pacific neighbours to address the threat of climate change, ahead of his attendance at the Pacific Island Forum in the Solomon Islands next week.

Independent MP Allegra Spender. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Albanese said climate change was an existential threat to nations such as Tuvalu and Kiribati.

“When I attend the Pacific Island Forum … I’ll be attending as a participant, not as a block to climate action,” Albanese said.

Spandau Ballet may have to re-issue their classic new wave song Gold to cash in on another surge in the price for the precious metal.

The price of gold today reached an all-time high of $US3573.80 an ounce over growing fears about Donald Trump’s interference in the Federal Reserve and his tariff policies.

The rise marks a 34 per cent increase since the start of the year, almost all of which has occurred since Trump moved into the White House.

US President Donald Trump.Credit: AP

It’s helped Australian gold producers, who in June registered an all-time record in exports worth $5.8 billion.

One of the big winners from the surge is the Reserve Bank. The value of its gold reserve has soared in line with the price lift, climbing from $9.6 billion at the start of the year to $13.1 billion at the end of July.

Not bad for some gold bars that sit in a vault beneath the Bank of England in London.

Indonesian police have fired tear gas into crowds of protesters near two universities in a major regional city, student bodies and authorities said, adding new tensions to deadly protests that have rocked the country since last week.

Local police official Hendra Rochmawan said authorities did not enter the campuses but were trying to break up non-student protesters who were seeking protection inside university grounds, because the crowds were blocking roads in the area.

People scatter in Jakarta on Friday as police fire tear gas during a protest over the death of a man struck by a police vehicle.Credit: AP

University students have long been regarded as vanguards of Indonesia’s democracy.

The protests started in Jakarta a week ago, targeting government spending such as enhanced perks for lawmakers, and have since escalated nationwide, with some rioting and looting, after a police vehicle hit and killed a motorcycle taxi driver.

At least eight people have died in the protests, a senior minister said on Monday. President Prabowo Subianto has warned that the police and military would stand firm against violent escalations.

International rights groups have criticised the security response to the protests.

Reuters

Opposition emissions reduction spokesperson Dan Tehan has been ejected from the chamber for pointing and calling out at the prime minister.

Anthony Albanese was answering a question about an incident at a regional forum in the Victorian town of Ballarat last week in which he was booed and jeered while discussing net zero.

Tehan rose to his feet and a verbal altercation took place across the table. The prime minister called Liberal MP Angus Taylor, who while in government approved transmission lines that have outraged locals, a coward, and Tehan shouted back, “You’re the coward.”

Albanese said he was merely repeating the same ‘coward’ Taylor had said to him.

Opposition spokesman for energy and emissions reduction Dan Tehan (left) and opposition defence spokesman Angus Taylor.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Tehan has left the chamber, but Speaker Milton Dick said he could not ask the MPs to withdraw their comments because he could not hear the sledges over the furore.