Australia news LIVE: Gaza hostages freed as world leaders back Trump’s peace deal; AFP probes Thorpe’s ‘burn down Parliament house’ comment
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7.29am
Search for missing SA toddler resumes today
By Alexander Darling
Police will return to the bushland outback of South Australia today, as the search for missing four-year-old boy Gus enters its third week.
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August “Gus” Lamont was last seen at a rural property 40 kilometres south of the hamlet on Yunta at about 5pm on Saturday September 27.
On Monday, SA Police confirmed they would be aided by Australian Defence Force personnel in their search.
“[We] will concentrate on an expanded area outside of the zone already searched extensively following Gus’ disappearance,” police said in a statement.
“There continues to be regular and close engagement with the Lamont family who are continuing to assist with the investigation.”
7.12am
Former PM was consulted on super tax changes
By Michelle Griffin
Former treasurer and prime minister Paul Keating was consulted about the backdown on the superannuation tax changes late last week, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has told ABC’s 7.30.
“I don’t pretend that Paul didn’t have strong views. And I – as someone who respects Paul Keating a great deal and speaks to him regularly – I take his feedback and his views very seriously, of course I do, given his seminal role in compulsory superannuation,” Chalmers said.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced six changes to the superannuation system on Monday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“And I’ve been speaking to him for a really long time, not just about this, but a whole range of policy issues, including last week, as I finalised this package to take to the expenditure review committee. I probably spoke to him half a dozen times in the second half of last week alone.”
Keating had been an opponent of the original plan. He released a statement shortly after Chalmers announced the changes, saying that “bringing equity and an important measure of tax justice to super’s current runaway arrangements with the nomination of a $3 million limit taxed at 15 per cent and 30 per cent thereafter, is a huge policy achievement by the treasurer, as is the added increment of a higher rate of tax on accumulations above $10 million”.
7.00am
‘Trump deserves an enormous amount of credit,’ says deputy PM
By Emily Kaine
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has praised US President Donald Trump for his work in negotiating the first steps towards peace in Gaza after 20 living hostages held by Hamas and thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel walked free yesterday as part of a ceasefire deal.
“It is an incredible achievement on the part of Donald Trump that is very much going to be remembered by history,” Marles said. “This is an extraordinary day. It’s obviously a wonderful day ... the last two years and more, we have seen just an appalling tragedy play out in the Middle East. I think it’s all gone to places that none of us expected.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport on Monday.Credit: Getty Images
“We’ve seen a massive loss of life, and for the hostages who have been released in the last 24 hours, more than two years there being spent as hostages, and so to see them released and returned to their loved ones, to see an end to those hostilities, to see the possibility now of Gaza being reconstructed, to see all of this over, it’s just a momentous day and there is no doubt that President Trump deserves an enormous amount of credit,” Marles told Sky News this morning.
Pressed on whether Australia plans to play a role in future peacekeeping efforts in the region, the deputy PM said the government would consider any request made of Australia and that it plans to maintain its “constructive” approach towards a two-state solution.
“I wouldn’t be speculating about what we would do in the future,” he said. “There’s certainly been no request on us of any particular role. We want to be as constructive as we can be, and that’s how we’ve sought to be over the last two years ... obviously we consider any request that comes to us, but I don’t really want to speculate on this beyond that.”
6.44am
AFP probe Thorpe’s ‘burn down Parliament House’ comment
In a statement to this masthead, an AFP spokeswoman said the force was aware of Thorpe’s comments and had initiated an investigation into a possible breach of legislation by the senator, following criticism of Thorpe’s comments from across the political spectrum.
Senator Lidia Thorpe made the comments at Sunday’s pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“The AFP is aware of comments made at a protest regarding Australian Parliament House. The AFP’s National Security Investigations team in Victoria began investigating almost immediately into whether the comments breach legislation. This will be done methodically,” a statement to this masthead read. The AFP would not say what legislation may have been breached.
On Sunday, while speaking at a Melbourne pro-Palestine protest, the senator said: “We will fight every day ... and if I have to burn down Parliament House to make a point ... I am not there to make friends. I’m there to get justice for our people.”
6.44am
Gaza hostages released, Palestinian prisoners freed as world leaders back Trump
By Emily Kaine
All 20 living hostages held by Hamas and thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel walked free yesterday as part of a ceasefire pausing two years of war that decimated the Gaza Strip and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
The first seven hostages were transferred by Hamas into the care of Red Cross personnel, then handed over to the IDF, while Palestinians gathered at a hospital in Gaza where buses brought home some of the nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees to be freed by Israel as part of the peace agreement.
World leaders threw their support behind a Middle East “peace deal” brokered by the US and President Donald Trump as they gathered for a summit on postwar Gaza in Egypt.
In a speech to the Israeli parliament, Trump staked his claim as a great global peacemaker, congratulated Israel for winning the war against Hamas and foreshadowed a deal with Iran.
Thousands of Palestinians have returned to Gaza City in a procession of trucks, donkeys, carts and families on foot who travelled north.
Many are returning to suburbs razed by Israel over the past two years of war, including an intensified bombardment of the city in the final months of the war that forced about 700,000 people to flee in September, according to the Israeli military.
6.44am
What’s making news today
By Emily Kaine
Good morning and welcome to our national news live blog for Tuesday, October 14. My name is Emily Kaine, and I’ll be helming our coverage this morning. Here’s what is making headlines today.
All 20 living hostages held by Hamas and thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel walked free yesterday as part of a ceasefire, pausing two years of war that decimated the Gaza Strip and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. The first seven hostages were transferred by Hamas into the care of Red Cross personnel, then handed over to the IDF. In Gaza, Palestinians gathered at a hospital where buses brought home some of the nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees to be freed by Israel as part of the peace agreement.
Police will return to the bushland outback of South Australia today as the search for missing four-year-old boy Gus enters its third week. August “Gus” Lamont was last seen at a rural property 40 kilometres south of the hamlet of Yunta about 5pm on Saturday, September 27. On Monday, SA Police confirmed they would be aided by Australian Defence Force personnel in their search.
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