Dfat liaising with Israel after Australians reportedly detained – as it happened

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) says its officials at the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv are travelling to Ketziot to provide consular assistance to “any Australian who requests it”.

Members of the Global Sumud flotilla – which was intercepted by Israel on its way to deliver aid to Gaza – will be handed over to the police before being transferred to Ketziot prison, a large facility in the Negev desert.

It’s been reported that at least five Australians who were on board are among those detained.

This afternoon, Dfat said in a statement that its officials in Tel Aviv were liasing with Israeli authorities and had formally requested confirmation of the detention of any Australians.

The department added:

Australia calls on all parties to respect international law, to ensure the safety and humane treatment of those involved.

We understand that people want to help deliver aid to those suffering in Gaza – we also want to see critical aid delivered.

For some time, we have warned against attempts to breach the naval blockade and strongly advised Australians not to do so because of the risks to their safety.

We repeat our call on Israel to enable the sustained, unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

You can read more here:

Related: At least five Australians reportedly detained while carrying aid to Gaza on pro-Palestinian flotilla

Dfat says Australians in need of emergency consular assistance should contact the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135, or +61 2 6261 3305 (if calling from overseas).

The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak has been interviewed on the ABC about his views on the Trump administration’s peace plan for Gaza.

Barak said the plan was the best chance at a ceasefire and, even though it was a “good starting point for Israel to have a serious discussion about ending the war”, it could have been done at least six months ago.

Barak, who has previously publicly urged Israel to agree to a ceasefire deal, said the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had inadvertently committed an “irony of history” with his assault on Gaza, because:

He came to kill or block any possibility of Palestinian state and ended up mobilising the whole world to impose upon Israel the Palestinian state.

Barak said he supported the aspect of Trump’s plan which states Gaza would be governed by a transitional “apolitical” committee, which would be headed by US president and include former British prime minister Tony Blair.

Barak told the ABC the committee would be beneficial for both Israel and the nearby Arab countries, and that:

The international body is very important and these are people who are well accepted, especially Tony Blair.

It helps both sides in fact, because for Israel it is easier to discuss with Tony Blair than with any other Palestinian figure and even for the Arab countries, for Egypt, for the Emiratis, the Saudis, it is easier to talk to Tony Blair than direct to Israel.

The Palestine Action Group has vowed to fight in court the police’s decision to oppose a march to the Sydney Opera House.

The group had announced on social media two days ago its plan to march from Hyde Park to the Sydney Opera House on 12 October to mark the two year anniversary since October 7 and to call for an end to genocide in Gaza.

Earlier today, NSW police said they had knocked back the group’s application to facilitate the protest, citing safety concerns.

The group submitted what is known as a “form 1” to police. The form is a notification to hold a public assembly that, if accepted by police, protects those attending from being potentially charged under anti-protest laws.

Now that organisers have vowed to challenge the police’s decision to deny the application, the supreme court will have the final say over whether protesters will be afforded legal protections or not.

Assistant commissioner Peter McKenna told reporters earlier today “it’s not even a matter about it being at the Opera House itself. It’s about public safety”.

He said the police were trying to negotiate an alternative route with organisers and that they “understand that this is a significant anniversary”.

The group said in a statement:

We have the right to march, the right to protest, and the right to demand an end to Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.

South Australia police are scaling back the search for Gus, a four-year-old missing since last Saturday, at a regional property about 40km south of the township of Yunta.

Assistant commissioner Ian Parrott said “considerable” police resources had been searching for Gus since he was last seen at his family property. Parrott told those at a press conference SA police had thrown “absolutely everything we can in an effort to try to locate Gus safely and safe as well and alive”.

He went on:

Whilst we have all been hoping for a miracle, that miracle has not eventuated and the last 48 hours, despite the professional advice, it would be unlikely that Gus would have survived. We have maintained and in fact, increased the effort to try and locate him and bring him back to his family.

Unfortunately, at no point has there been any significant evidence that has enabled us to really focus in a direction for our search, give us any clues as to where he may have gone. We’re confident that we have done absolutely everything we can to locate Gus within the search area.

But despite our best efforts, we have not been able to locate him and unfortunately we are now having to scale back this search for Gus.

Parrott said officials would not rest until they can try and find the answer to Gus’ disappearance.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) launched federal court proceedings against a man who allegedly distributed unauthorised electoral pamphlets during the 2025 federal election.

Related: ‘Misleading and offensive’: Allegra Spender denounces unauthorised pamphlet as AEC launches investigation

The AEC said Jarrod Davis allegedly breached the Commonwealth Electoral Act by failing to put his name and address on about 47,000 pamphlets that were distributed in the electorate of Wentworth. The alleged pamphlets contained material opposing the local member, Allegra Spender.

Jeff Pope, the AEC election commissioner, said in a statement the court action demonstrated the agency’s role upholding Australian elections:

Australia’s democracy is rightly regarded as world leading, and central to that integrity is the ability for any voter to know the source of electoral advertising through authorisation messages.

The AEC takes cases involving the complete absence of authorisation information and its widespread dissemination particularly seriously.

Failure to authorise electoral communication can carry a penalty of up to $39,600 per contravention, at the discretion of the court.

The Palestine Action Group is deciding whether to go before the supreme court once again about a planned protest after the police opposed a march to the Sydney Opera House.

Assistant commissioner Peter McKenna addressed reporters a short time ago to say police had decided to oppose the planned route outlined in the group’s ‘Form 1’ protest permit because of safety concerns linked to limited exit points from the Opera House forecourt.

He said police would lodge an objection to the protest in the NSW supreme court, but were still discussing altenative routes with the action group.

Mckenna said:

They have indicated to us that they will give us a response later about whether they themselves will test this matter in the supreme court, or whether they will consider the alternative routes that we may be able to negotiate.

We understand that this is a significant anniversary

We’re not anti-protest. We facilitate thousands of protests, and in fact, in this particular group, we’ve been facilitating protests and public assemblies for the last two years. So it’s not a matter of us not wanting them to have a public assembly.

It’s not even a matter about it being at the Opera House itself. It’s about public safety.

Mckenna said organisers had estimated in their Form 1 that 10,000 people would attend. However, he said he was skeptical of the estimate, given how the number of people that marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in August vastly exceeded what organisers expected.

Underworld figure Tony Mokbel has had two convictions set aside by the Victorian court of appeal, in the most significant case yet involving the gangland lawyer and police informer Nicola Gobbo.

The court of appeal handed down its judgment on Friday morning in relation to several appeals filed by Mokbel.

He was successful in overturning his convictions for trafficking not less than a large commercial quantity of MDMA and for incitement to import a commercial quantity of MDMA.

The convictions were set aside and new trials were ordered on both charges.

But Mokbel was unsuccessful in his bid to appeal a conviction for trafficking not less than a large commercial quantity of methyl amphetamine.

Mokbel had been in custody for almost 18 years before he was released on bail in April pending the appeal judgment.

A police officer has been charged over online child abuse material after he allegedly uploaded material to a social media platform.

The 26-year-old police officer, who is a constable with Sydney’s central metropolitan region command, was arrested and charged on Thursday.

NSW police on Friday morning said the officer was charged after a joint investigation with the Australian federal police under Strike Force Lautersee.

He was charged with four offences, including two counts of possessing child abuse data using a carriage service, transmit to self child abuse matter by carriage service, and soliciting child abuse matter.

NSW police said in a statement:

Police will allege in court that the man uploaded child abuse material to a social media platform.

The officer’s employment is under review and he has been suspended from duty without pay.

The man has been refused bail and will appear before Bankstown local court today.

The Liberal senator Jane Hume has said the flotilla was “not the way to go about” voicing opposition to the situation in Gaza.

Hume spoke to Sunrise this morning:

The concerns that people have for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza are very real and perfectly understandable. If people would like to help they should go to maybe Oxfam or Save the Children or Unicef.

There are organisations that are fit for purpose to help with humanitarian crisis, putting yourself in danger and getting on a flotilla of boats.

Putting yourself in a war zone that is partly run a terrorist organisation is not the wisest cause of action.

The NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, says a police decision as to whether to challenge an application by the Palestine Action Group to march on the Sydney Opera House is likely by the end of today.

Speaking to 2GB earlier, Catley said the group, which organised August’s Harbour Bridge protest, has submitted an application for a protest on Sunday, 12 October – which marks over two years since the start of the war in Gaza – starting at Hyde Park, before marching to the Opera House.

Catley said police were meeting with organisers to discuss the details of the application this morning.

Asked if she opposes the protest, Catley said she did not want to pre-empt the police’s decision, although she has claimed the Opera House’s trust has a bylaw which prevents protests on its forecourt. She said:

We’re not going to solve the problems of what is going on overseas on the forecourt of the Opera House, and social cohesion is the most important thing that we need to do. And I think I just ask people to be peaceful.

If police oppose the application, it will be subject to a supreme court hearing to determine whether protesters will be legally protected if the march goes ahead.

The New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) has handed down a decision finding the state’s psychiatrists will receive a temporary pay rise of 20% for a 12-month period.

The case comes after 200 psychiatrists threatened to resign in January, saying it was not about the money but being unable to continue working in a system causing them moral injury, knowing they were providing substandard care to their patients when one in three permanent psychiatrists positions were vacant.

The Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (Asmof), the doctors’ union representing the psychiatrists against NSW Health, argued that the special levy was necessary to avoid the “collapse” of psychiatric care in the state.

This morning Justice David Chin announced that a special case had been made out which justifies the payment of a temporary allowance for the purpose of attracting and retaining psychiatrists.

Chin said the psychiatrists would receive a “combined interim uplift of 20% for period of 12 months”.

He said this increase was including the 10% abnormal duties allowance paid to psychiatrists since 3 February, and that the increase would be absorbed into any increase in the general award for doctors across the state. Asmof was separately still in negotiations for a new award which would apply across all doctors working in the public sector.

The NSW government has said they will accept the IRC’s decision, whatever the outcome.

Read the full report here:

Related: Public hospital psychiatrists to receive 20% pay rise after winning dispute with NSW Health

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) says that Australian officials in Tel Aviv were “liaising with Israeli authorities and have formally requested confirmation of the detention of any Australians and early consular access”.

Dfat said in a statement this morning:

Australia calls on all parties to respect international law, to ensure the safety and humane treatment of those involved.

We understand that people want to help deliver aid to those suffering in Gaza – we also want to see critical aid delivered.

For some time, we have warned against attempts to breach the naval blockade and strongly advised Australians not to do so because of the risks to their safety.

We repeat our call on Israel to enable the sustained, unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Opposition leader Sussan Ley has expressed her “grief and shock” after the Manchester synagogue attack. She said in a statement this morning:

Our thoughts are with the families of those who have been killed and injured in this cowardly, evil attack.

The threat of terrorism requires continual vigilance and courage from our police and first responders. To target worshippers and families as they gather together for the holiest period of the Jewish faith is despicable beyond words. All people, regardless of religion have the right to worship in peace and should feel they can do so without fear or apprehension.

She went on to say all Australians extended their “deepest sadness, solidarity and compassion at this terrible time”.

Defence minister Richard Marles says he expects Australia and Papua New Guinea to sign a defence pact “very soon”, after PNG said the deal won approval from the country’s prime minister and cabinet on Wednesday night.

Related: PNG to provide troops to Australia under first new alliance since Anzus

Marles spoke to RN Breakfast about the deal, saying:

We’ve been working on this now for some time, and it really is a very historic agreement. It’s a historic agreement from Papua New Guinea’s point of view, but it very much is from ours. This will be our third alliance after the United States and New Zealand, and it’s the first alliance.

We will have entered into since 1951, which was when we signed the Anzus Treaty. So, this is a very significant moment in Australia’s national security.

Marles said he wasn’t worried about a further delay, saying the ultimate decision was “completely” in line with what the government had been expecting.

I think that these are, this is going to happen imminently, and it is a very significant treaty that we are about to enter into with Papua New Guinea.

Anthony Albanese has sent condolences to the people of Manchester after a man killed two people and injured four others in an attack on a synagogue on the holy day of Yom Kippur.

Related: Manchester synagogue terror attack: two killed and suspect shot dead

Police said a British citizen used a car to ram into the grounds of the synagogue then stabbed worshippers in a six-minute rampage. The man was shot dead by police. Officers have since arrested three other people on suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism.

Albanese said in a statement:

I send my condolences to the people of Manchester after the heinous attack on a synagogue on the most sacred day on the Jewish calendar.

There is no place for terrorism in our streets and all Australians stand with the UK at this dreadful time.

The likelihood of finding a little boy lost in the outback is fading as family and searchers cling to hopes he has found shelter and is waiting to be rescued.

Defence personnel have joined the search for the four-year-old who has not been seen for almost a week.

August, known as Gus, went missing from his family’s sheep station in the remote South Australian mid-north on Saturday afternoon.

The only trace found of the preschooler is a tiny footprint in the dirt about 500 metres from the family homestead, which brought hope, but police now admit it “could have been there a week”.

“A four-year-old lad, they just don’t disappear into thin air,” Supt Mark Syrus said yesterday.

“Our job is to try and find which way he has gone and once we find those little clues, it gives us a bit of an idea.”

Searchers turned their efforts to the homestead area after the footprint was found, but no further clues were discovered.

The search was expanded as almost 50 Australian defence force personnel joined the operation.

Alone in searing temperatures and without food or water, authorities’ best-case is that Gus has crawled into shelter and is waiting to be rescued from the property near Yunta, about 300km north of Adelaide.

But hope is fading and police have prepared the family for the worst as the search shifts from a rescue to a recovery operation.

– via AAP

The former head of Australia’s submarine squadron has urged Australia against outsourcing boat construction overseas, as bureaucrats express confidence the US won’t scuttle Aukus.

A parliamentary inquiry yesterday ran the rule over the Geelong treaty, a 50-year Aukus cooperation agreement between Australia and the UK signed in July.

Under Aukus, the US has promised to sell at least three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia from the early 2030s.

A submarine solution closer to home should be examined instead, retired navy rear admiral Peter Briggs argued.

“Depending on an overseas supply chain for such a critical capability as our submarines is a folly,” he told the inquiry.

Briggs had serious concerns with the plan, including limiting Australia’s commercial interests, and said the nation should build more submarines as it had done previously with the diesel-electric Collins class.

There is no minimum protection in the treaty for a guaranteed work share for genuine Australian industry.

The Collins project has established a viable submarine supply chain within Australia.

We should build on this, not sign a treaty mandating it out of existence.

Briggs cast doubt Australia would receive submarines from the US on time, pointing to it falling behind in building its fleet.

– via AAP

The NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) will this morning announce its decision whether the state’s psychiatrists will receive a 25% pay increase.

The doctors union, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (Asmof), representing psychiatrists, is arguing psychiatric care in NSW is facing “collapse” because of poor pay and conditions, and the special levy would stem the flow of specialist doctors leaving the state’s public system.

In January, more than 200 psychiatrists threatened to resign, saying it was not about the money but being unable to continue working in a system causing them moral injury, knowing they were providing substandard care to their patients when one in three permanent psychiatrists positions were vacant.

In response, the mental health minister, Rose Jackson, submitted a request to the IRC to urgently arbitrate the dispute and said the government would accept whatever its decision.

The hearing was supposed to take place across a single week in March but issues raised by NSW Health with Asmof’s expert evidence, and subsequently Asmof proceeding with statewide industrial action against the IRC’s direction, saw the hearings delayed and only concluded in late June.

While over 60 psychiatrists have followed through on their resignations, other psychiatrists held off awaiting the outcome of the IRC decision. In the meantime before the outcome is announced at 9.15am, you can read our report on the hearing’s closing submissions in June:

Related: Psychiatrist body holds firm on 25% pay bid but NSW Health says shortages are ‘more nuanced’

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will be here to take you through that day.

The former head of Australia’s submarine squadron has urged Australia against outsourcing boat construction overseas and said it would be “folly” to rely on other countries. More coming up.

The New South Wales industrial relations commission will hand down its decision this morning in a wages dispute between the state’s public psychiatrists and the government. The dispute brought the system to a standstill earlier this year. More details coming up ahead of the decision, which is expected any time after 9.15am.