Australia news LIVE: Karl Stefanovic leaves Nine; Venezuela toll rises after twin earthquakes

Hello and welcome to our national news live coverage for Thursday, June 25. I’m Clare Sibthorpe and I’ll be keeping you up to date with today’s news.

Here are today’s main headlines.

Karl Stefanovic to leave Nine ‘immediately’: Less than three days after Today host Karl Stefanovic posted his now-deleted podcast with far-right British activist Tommy Robinson, Nine has confirmed he will not return to TV screens. In an email to staff sent on Friday, the company’s chief executive, Matt Stanton, said it was “the right time for Karl to move on from the Today show and Nine”. Fighting back tears, Stefanovic’s co-host Sarah Abo told viewers that the show had received mixed feedback to the scandal, and they all wished they could have said goodbye to “Karl, our friend, in a different way”.

Carbon credits give states off-ramp for logging: Forests will be protected under a landmark new funding scheme whereby states will earn carbon credits to underwrite the creation of new national parks, providing a pathway to end native forest logging on public land. The approval of an Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) method for native forest management will be announced on Friday, paving the way for the NSW government to fulfil its election promise to create the Great Koala National Park before the state heads back to the polls in March 2027.

International aid heads to Venezuela after deadly earthquake: Governments and humanitarian organisations worldwide have begun sending cash, rescue teams and other forms of aid to Venezuela after two powerful earthquakes on Wednesday killed at least 188 people and left more than 1500 injured, with estimations that casualties could run into the thousands. The quakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude and striking about 160 kilometres west of the capital, Caracas, damaged at least 250 buildings and left, at the most recent tally, about 200 people trapped in debris.

Hundreds of dollars extra a year for childcare: Parents will pay more for childcare after the government increased the cap on fees under its $3.6 billion deal to keep propping up worker salaries. The government staved off a national strike, pay cuts for workers and fee hikes by extending the worker pay funding in a move that was widely welcomed by the sector. But parents still face rising costs after the maximum amount that centres can raise fees by was lifted.

Zali Steggall has suggested other MPs could join the party she is forming with fellow independent Allegra Spender now their plans are public.

“They now have an opportunity to go and consult with their communities, with their volunteers,” the Warringah MP told Nine’s Today program this morning.

“By having made the announcement yesterday, it enables our constitution to be public, which then allows a much greater level of consideration by current MPs and crossbenchers,” she said.

The party, Community Strong Australia, offers a place for people “wanting to do politics differently”.

Employers will “understand” if workers take an extra-long lunch or don’t return to the office today, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said as he tipped the Socceroos to win this afternoon’s match against Paraguay.

Asked by journalists at Parliament House in Canberra whether he was giving the green-light for employees to call in sick today, Chalmers said: “That’s not for me. Sick days are not part of my responsibilities as treasurer.”

“I suspect there will be a bit of that. I suspect there might be a few long-ish lunches, particularly if we win. I think a lot of people might be finding a reason not to go back to the office after lunch if we win, and you know that’s a good thing,” Chalmers said.

“I think a lot of employers around the country would understand if people don’t come back on site or back to the office after lunch. If we win.”

The treasurer expects the Socceroos to beat Paraguay 1-0 when they meet for their final group stage match at midday (AEST).

As news broke this morning that Karl Stefanovic is leaving Nine immediately following the fallout from his controversial podcast, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it matters how public-facing people conduct themselves.

Asked on ABC News Breakfast about Stefanovic’s departure, Albanese said that while it was a matter for Nine, “words do matter”.

“What people who are very prominent in our public discourse do, and how they conduct themselves, matters as well,” he said.

“And it’s unfortunate, the way that what has been a very big career has ended in this way ... But that’s a matter for Karl Stefanovic, to think about his actions and the decisions that he’s made. And Nine have made a consequential decision.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has derided the Coalition and One Nation, claiming the Liberal and National parties are “dying in Angus Taylor’s arms” because the opposition leader was pushing the party further to the right.

“Well, it’s impossible to distinguish the damage that all three of the right-wing parties would do to the interests of workers and first home buyers, whether it be in the best state in the Commonwealth or the rest of the Commonwealth,” Chalmers said, referencing his home state of Queensland.

“The three right-wing parties share this very divisive, very dangerous anti-worker, anti-housing agenda. It’s hard to distinguish them when it comes to that anti-worker agenda that they share, and I think one of the reasons why the Liberal Party is dying in Angus Taylor’s arms is because his efforts to out One Nation – One Nation just look more and more pathetic each day.”

In this masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor, the Coalition has fallen to a record low of 20 per cent of the primary vote. It appears that the majority of their vote is being usurped by One Nation, who are now leading the government 29 per cent to 28 per cent.

“He’s only been there five minutes, and they’re already talking about replacing him, and that’s because I think it looks pathetic the way he’s just trying to be a paler shade of orange. It’s impossible to distinguish them. All three of them are exactly the same,” Chalmers said.

Chalmers’ response came after he was asked about whether One Nation posed a threat to south-east Queensland electorates, one of which (the seat of Rankin) he represents.

The tax overhaul that passed the parliament yesterday “gives every young Australian a fairer crack at owning their own home”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said, adding that no one is “out there arguing that the housing system is OK”.

“Everyone knows that we have a housing system in Australia that is broken. We’re looking at prices that we’ve had less than half of that increase in wages, and that means that it is less and less affordable, more and more difficult for people to get into the market,” he told ABC News Breakfast.

“This is just about levelling the playing field, and also treating income earned from wages more equally with income earned from assets.”

Meanwhile, he was asked about his plans to strengthen Australia’s under-16 social media ban, and said that he wanted to ensure the laws would “withstand any legal challenges”.

“When we made this change to the law, and it was made in a bipartisan way, it was a bold and some say courageous step that we made because there are consequences for these big global giants that have so much power,” he said.

“We’re just looking at, are the laws as strong as possible given some of the feedback that said, does the safety commissioner have every power at her disposal? – and we’ll adjust things accordingly.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was possible Australians could be “caught up” in powerful back-to-back earthquakes that officials say have killed at least 188 people and left more than 200 trapped in Venezuela.

Many more were feared dead.

Albanese told ABC News Breakfast that he had just been briefed on the “horrific consequences” of the earthquakes.

“It’s not clear yet if Australians are caught up in this because Australians are great travellers, of course, right around the world,” he said.

“Given the numbers that have been impacted, it is certainly possible that Australians are caught up in it. We’re continuing to monitor the situation, and our heart goes out to anyone here who has relatives or friends in Venezuela, because this is one of the worst earthquakes that we’ve seen in recent times, with catastrophic human consequences, with a massive loss of life, but also massive infrastructure damage, and real consequences for the people of Venezuela.”

Employers should treat their workers “kindly … and with thoughts of our national interest” ahead of the Socceroos’ World Cup match with Paraguay today, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Asked on ABC News Breakfast if people who called in sick or disappeared at lunch could say “the prime minister told them so”, the PM clarified that he was “not giving people instructions”.

“What I’m saying is that I know that Australian workers will be, of course, very passionate about the Socceroos, and I know that Australian employers will be generous in their approach towards these things,” he said.

“A bit of common sense would be good”.

Asked about his hopes for the much-anticipated game, Albanese said: “All we need is a draw, but a win would be nice”.

Keep up to date with every World Cup update today by following our live blog.

Health Minister Mark Butler has refused to say whether the government would have done anything differently in handing down its budget last month, as he celebrated the passage of tax legislation yesterday.

“Every significant tax reform package this country has had has a series of implementation details that take place over the course of months, and we’ll see that in the months coming. But yesterday was such a terrific day for Australian workers, for young Australians wanting to break into housing, and for small business as well,” Butler told Seven’s Sunrise this morning.

Butler pointed to tax cuts for workers and “almost $4 billion of tax relief” for small businesses, saying: “It’s a strong package, it really is, and it’s the package Australia needs”.

Butler brushed off changes made to the budget package since its delivery, saying: “We were saying to people, there is going to be a whole lot of work that has to happen over coming months to finalise these implementation details”.

Appearing alongside Butler was deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume, who called the budget a “balls up from go to whoa”.

“Anthony Albanese looked Australians in the eye and said there would be no changes to negative gearing, no changes to capital gains tax. Then his budget was writ large, the lie was writ large, but then when the backlash came from business – because this was a tax on business; it was a tax on innovators, it was a tax on housing, it was a tax on savers,” Hume said.

A United Nations agency has halted an evacuation of hundreds of ships that had been stranded in the Persian Gulf during the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The International Maritime Organisation’s decision was a response to a US official stating that Iran’s military struck a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, undermining efforts to restore shipping traffic through the crucial waterway.

A spokesperson for the maritime organisation said that the Ever Lovely had not co-ordinated its passage with the agency’s evacuation effort. The Ever Lovely is owned by Evergreen Marine, a large shipping company based in Taiwan, according to Equasis, a ship database.

Ship traffic through the strait surged in recent days as shipping companies calculated that the waterway had become safer after the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding last week to try to find a lasting peace.

About 70 vessels transited the waterway on Wednesday, including 29 tankers, making it the busiest day since March 1, the day after the war began, according to Kpler, a maritime data company. But earlier on Thursday, the naval arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said in a statement that only routes announced by Iran were authorised, warning ships against using any other corridor. Many ships have been using a route on the southern side of the strait, hugging the Omani coast.

The New York Times

Controversial higher education funding changes that risk making it harder for students to get into Sydney and Melbourne universities have passed the federal parliament.

The government says the overhaul will provide places for an extra 230,000 commencing students in the coming decade, but critics say it has failed to bring down the cost of $50,000 arts degrees and de-prioritised student choice.

The reforms, which passed the House of Representatives on Thursday, attempt to address the situation where prestigious capital city universities have grown their student numbers at the expense of smaller and regional institutions.

As revealed by this masthead last month, a “soft launch” of the funding model this year caused ATAR cut-offs across the Sydney basin to skyrocket because of a smaller allocation of places.

Read more in Sally Rawsthorne and Christopher Harris’s story in this morning’s paper.