Australia news LIVE: Lack of transparency criticised as ISIS brides return, fog blankets Sydney, Ben Roberts-Smith’s arrest referred to NACC

Welcome to our live coverage of news from around Australia and the world.

Here’s what you need to know this morning.

• Seven women and children, part of a cohort of so-called “ISIS brides”, have returned to Australia at Sydney and Melbourne airports.
• Independent MP Dai Le has criticised a lack of transparency over the returns and where the families will live, worrying about members of her community who had “fled ISIS”.
• Australia’s new ambassador to the United States Greg Moriarty has shared a picture from his recent meeting with US President Donald Trump.
• Australia’s war crimes investigator has referred concerns to the National Anti-Corruption Commission over media coverage of Ben Roberts-Smith’s arrest over alleged war crimes at Sydney Airport last month.
• The 2026 Rugby League World Cup will get a $12.4 million investment from Australia to “take the great game of rugby league to an even bigger stage”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced.
• Kooyong MP Monique Ryan says women and children linked to Islamic State returning to Australia should be spared from “aggressive media”.

Opposition NDIS spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh has denied the Coalition is using the disability scheme as a political football as the opposition keeps the door open to holding up reform to get an inquiry into the government’s tax changes.

She said she understood why manager of opposition business in the Senate Jonno Duniam might want to link the NDIS and tax changes.

“I get what Jonno is doing there, and trying to push the government to be transparent. You only have a certain number of levers when you’re in opposition,” she told Radio National.

“By no means from my perspective as the shadow portfolio of the NDIS, would I allow this to be a political sort of football for people on the NDIS,” she said.

“I’m completely focused on ensuring that a Senate inquiry goes ahead, and if the result of negotiations in the Senate means that the NDIS Senate inquiry goes for longer, well, that’s not a bad thing in itself.”

Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has emerged as the money behind former Kerry Stokes-ally Bruce McWilliam’s near-10 per cent stake in Southern Cross Media, the owner of Network Seven and Triple M.

Rinehart, a mining magnate who has previously held interests in Network 10 and Fairfax Media (the publisher of this masthead), has now emerged as a key player in the biggest media company in Perth, which also publishes The West Australian.

An ASX disclosure filed on Wednesday morning showed that McWilliam’s fast-growing stake in the newly merged media company has been mostly financed by a company associated with Rinehart and her company Hancock Prospecting.

Read more: Gina Rinehart emerges as money behind Bruce McWilliam’s stake in Seven owner

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has inked a series of agreements overnight at the Quad.

The meeting of Australia, the United States, Japan and India is being held in New Delhi after last year’s summit was abandoned as President Donald Trump’s tariffs hit India, souring relations.

Leaders agreed overnight to mobilise $20 billion in government and private sector investment to strengthen critical minerals supply chains and accelerate development in the sector.

The four nations will also boost maritime surveillance cooperation across the Indo-Pacific.

Finishing a lap of the breakfast television circuit this morning, Housing Minister Clare O’Neil continued her defence of the budget and the controversial changes contained within as rebalancing the tax system to make housing fairer.

O’Neil told ABC News Breakfast a young, low-income family is now half as likely to own a home than they were in 1980.

“This is actually changing Australia in ways that are very negative.

“We don’t want to live in a country where the only way you can get into your own home is because you inherited wealth from your parents, that’s not Australia.

Fog has started to clear around Sydney after cancelling and delaying flights at the airport this morning.

Sydney Airport has advised anyone travelling today to check the status of their flight. Several international and domestic flights have been delayed, some for more than two hours. Others have been cancelled altogether.

“Fog has descended at the airport resulting in delays and cancellations across the network,” a Sydney Airport spokesperson said.

“We will continue to monitor the weather conditions as the morning progresses.

“We advise passengers to check the status of their flight with their airline.”

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has refused to say that Australia is safer after a second cohort of women linked to Islamic State returned last night.

“The prime minister’s been really upfront about this. We actually don’t want these people to return to Australia. These women made horrific decisions to go overseas and join a death cult,” O’Neil said in a back-and-forth with Today host Sarah Abo.

Abo repeated: “Are we safer with them here? It’s a yes or no question.”

“Again, I just say to you, we’ve got the best national security agencies in the world, and we’re going to be making sure that these are monitored,” O’Neil said.

The Albanese government has downgraded its commitment to build 117 electric vehicle charging stations on key highway routes, slashing the funding by millions of dollars and reducing the number of charging stations to 77.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced in April 2023 that the government would provide $39 million to partner with NRMA to plug the gaps in the EV charging network in key highway routes across the country, including rural and remote areas.

The government pledged to complete the rollout of 117 charging stations by mid-2026. So far, $21 million has been spent and 50 charging stations installed.

However, under questioning by Liberal senator Sarah Henderson in a senate estimates hearing yesterday, departmental officials said difficulties in getting power supply to some remote locations had delayed progress.

The Commonwealth special investigator into alleged Australian war crimes has referred concerns to the national corruption watchdog over how media appeared to know in advance about Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith’s arrest at Sydney Airport last month.

The Office of the Special Investigator says it has asked the National Anti-Corruption Commission to examine whether operational details were improperly disclosed before Roberts-Smith was taken into custody on April 7 and charged with five counts of war crimes.

The former SAS corporal has rejected the charges, saying “I categorically deny all of these allegations”.

Director-general Chris Moraitis told Senate estimates the referral had been made jointly with the Australian Federal Police.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has hit back at criticism from ABC chair Kim Williams as relations between the public broadcaster and the rising political party continue their souring trajectory.

ABC chair Kim Williams criticised One Nation for barring the broadcaster from events during the Farrer by-election, which the party’s candidate David Farley won.

“[One Nation] think that they anoint who will question them. Perhaps their concern is because they are such a policy-free zone,” Williams said on a podcast this week.

Responding, Joyce told 2GB radio this morning the ABC was biased.

The 2026 Rugby League World Cup will get a $12.4 million investment from Australia, the prime minister has announced.

Anthony Albanese said the tournament was an opportunity for Australia and its Pacific neighbours, who will host teams from 16 nations across nine cities in October.

“It will take the great game of rugby league to an even bigger stage with games held in PNG, New Zealand, but here in Australia – games in Townsville and Newcastle, as well as Sydney and Brisbane, of course,” Albanese told SEN.

“It’s a chance to really promote the game and to also build harmony in our region.”