Victorian DPP confirms it will appeal Erin Patterson’s sentence on the basis it ‘is manifestly inadequate’ – as it happened

Labor-led committee warns fast-tracking Nauru deportations could breach human rights obligations

The Albanese government does not have a “legitimate objective” in denying fair hearings to those set to be deported to Nauru and could place Australia in breach of international human rights obligations, a Labor-chaired parliamentary committee has found.

The joint human rights committee’s scrutiny of the law said the changes would “likely exacerbate the underlying human rights concerns” with the regime to offload more than 350 NZYQ-affected noncitizens to Nauru as part of a $2.5bn deal.

The law, which passed in early September, amended the Migration Act to remove natural justice – access to a fair hearing and to a decision without bias – for noncitizens on a removal pathway. It also validates government visa decisions made before the high court’s NZYQ ruling in November 2023 that could subsequently have been deemed unlawful.

Read more about the committee’s report here:

Related: Australia lacks ‘legitimate objective’ in fast-tracking Nauru deportations, Labor-led committee finds

Coalition playing a ‘long game’ amid Liberal internal turmoil, McCormack says

The Nationals MP Michael McCormack says Sussan Ley is doing the “best job she can do” amid inner turmoil in the federal Liberal party room.

Speaking to the ABC, McCormack says Ley has a “difficult job”:

Of course there will be feedback … I’ve known Sussan for a quarter of a century and she is doing the best job that she can do.

You have all these internal ructions … These will take time. We’re playing Test cricket. We’re not playing Twenty20. It’s a long game we have to play and these things do take time because you have to do the proper analysis, whether it’s net zero, whether it’s … various reviews parties do after an election loss.

Pacific affairs minister says landmark PNG defence treaty is about ‘helping peace’

Pat Conroy is speaking to the ABC after Australia and Papua New Guinea signed the Pukpuk defence treaty today:

This is about the PNG-Australia relationship and how we bring that to another level … This is about helping peace rather than going to war.

Australians detained in Israel claim ‘degrading and humiliating treatment’

Australian activists detained in Israel have told their country’s officials of “degrading and humiliating treatment” they claim to have received after being arrested onboard a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza – with one, Surya McEwen, saying he had been slapped and had his arm dislocated and head slammed into the ground.

Another, Juliet Lamont, said she was “gravely” concerned she was at risk of stroke after her daily medication was confiscated by Israeli security forces. She said her request for more medication was not being met while she was being held in a prison environment she described as “dystopian”.

McEwen and Lamont are among seven Australians confirmed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) to have been detained in Israel. They are being held in a high-security prison in the Negev desert after being arrested as part of the pro-Palestinian flotilla carrying aid to Gaza, and allege that they and fellow inmates were offered water that was undrinkable due to a strong chemical taste.

Read more about the Australian activists detained by Israel:

Related: Australian Gaza flotilla activists detained by Israel complain of ‘degrading and humiliating’ treatment

That’s all from me today. I’m going to hand over to my colleague Adeshola Ore who will take you through the rest of this afternoon’s news.

Year 12 exams begin in Victoria

Today marks the soft-launch for year 12 exams in Victoria, with the beginning of assessments for some language and performance students.

Oral examinations for most languages kicked off today, as well as Auslan, along with dance, drama and theatre studies solo performances, and music performance.

More than 50,000 year 12 students will sit the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) English exam later in the month, on Tuesday 28 October. The English exam is traditionally considered the marker of the main exam period for core subjects.

No serious injuries in V/Line bus crash

Just circling back to our earlier post on the V/Line bus crash in Foster, south-east of Melboune.

It was the 9.02am Southern Cross to Yarram coach involved in the incident, which occurred at 11.55am.

There were no serious injuries to the 11 passengers or the bus driver on board. The passengers were transported to Fish Creek for a replacement coach service after being rescued from the coach by emergency services.

An investigation into the crash is ongoing.

A V/Line spokesperson said:

The safety of passengers and staff is our priority and we are working with emergency services following a road incident at Foster.

Coalition calls for transparency over telco meeting with Wells

The shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, has called on her government counterpart to make public the details of the meeting she is having with the chief executives of Australia’s mobile telcos tomorrow over the triple-zero outage.

Anika Wells has summoned the chief executives of Telstra, Optus and TPG to Canberra on Tuesday, when she has said she will “lay down the law” to the companies in a bid to restore public confidence in the triple-zero system after the Optus outage last month.

McIntosh said the meeting “should not be a closed-door meeting” and Wells should at the very least front the public afterwards and explain what actions she is taking to give confidence in the triple-zero system.

She said the Coalition had yet to receive draft legislation to give the triple zero custodian powers, which Wells has promised will be introduced into parliament this week.

The Coalition is still awaiting legislation to give the triple zero custodian the powers it needs to keep telcos responsible and enforce the reliability of the end-to-end performance of the triple zero network.

McIntosh has called for a fully independent inquiry into the triple-zero system.

Teenagers charged with arson over alleged Tasmanian youth detention centre fire

Three teenagers are facing arson charges, accused of setting fire to a detention facility and causing significant damage, AAP reports.

Police were called to the Ashley youth detention centre in Tasmania at about 3pm on Sunday after reports of a disturbance involving three armed youths.

The trio, two aged 16 and one 15, allegedly set fire to a building while police were there. No one was injured.

They were charged on Monday with arson and destroying property and were scheduled to appear in a youth court.

A Tasmania fire service investigator and police forensic officers returned on Monday to the centre, which suffered “significant” damage to one area.

The centre’s kitchen had been closed and the government was working with staff to ensure services and meals could be provided, the police minister, Felix Ellis, said.

Emergency services responding to bus accident in Foster, Victoria

The Country Fire Authority is responding to a V/Line bus that has fallen down an embankment on Fish Creek-Foster Road in Foster, south-east of Melbourne.

The CFA says there are three units at the scene alongside Fire Rescue Victoria.

All passengers and the driver are evacuated.

The spokesperson says:

Upon arrival, crews found a bus sitting on angle, approximately 2.5 metres down an embankment.

Crews stabilised the bus using a rope system and were able to evacuate all passengers and the driver.

The bus has been winched and is awaiting heavy haulage to remove from the scene.

The incident was declared under control at 12.23pm.

Crews remain on scene.

V/Line was approached for comment.

Victorian premier denies hypocrisy over minister’s sponsorship of development petition

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, says there’s “nothing unusual” about her police minister, Anthony Carbines, sponsoring a petition opposing a four-storey development in his electorate – despite the government’s efforts to increase density in the suburbs.

The petition calls on the minister for planning, Sonya Kilkenny, to oppose the planning permit application for a four-storey, 17-apartment development on 125 Mountain View Parade in Rosanna. It says the “quiet suburban street” was “not designed for such density” and criticised the government’s Future Homes program.

The program, introduced in 2022, predates the government’s plan to create 50 activity centres near train and tram stations across Melbourne’s inner suburbs. The survey says the Future Homes program “has not resulted in a single approved planning permit” and “has the capacity to drastically and quickly alter neighbourhood character by applying bulk-scale, cookie cutter designs that overwhelm the area”.

But Allan says that Carbines’ sponsoring of the petition was in his capacity as local member and didn’t mean he was a “nimby”. She went on:

Our government is committed to building more homes, and you look at the recent ABS data that shows that we are building more homes than any other state, and it’s not unusual for any member of parliament to meet with residents in their local community, to represent the views of their local community.

‘Alarms going’ on rise of political violence in Australia

Turning to domestic news, the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is asked about the rise in political violence and threats against politicians.

Albanese says the threats are real, and have been seen in the US and the UK. He says there is a need to “turn down the temperature” of debate and to agree and disagree respectfully.

Albanese says no one is trying to stifle free speech but the “level of threats which have been made have been elevated substantially”.

He says:

It has meant changes to what I am able to do and how I am able to do it, and people will have seen that around, and I just say that for everyone, including in the media, but in politicians, we all have a responsibility as well. Turn down the temperature is really what we need to do.

He says the number of reports from Asio he has received are “substantial” and there are “alarms going”.

I like the idea that I can go get dog food for Toto at Woolworths here, and I like the idea that during the campaign I can walk through shopping centres and walk through malls and all of that. We don’t want to lose that. It’s a great thing about Australians, and the great thing about our country. But there are alarms going. And I think that we should all be conscious of it.

Treaty a ‘construct of peace’, Marape says

On how the Papua New Guinean PM, James Marape, is allaying concerns that the treaty might drag PNG into a wider Pacific conflict, Marape describes the treaty as a “construct of peace” but says leaders have to consider the worst-case scenario.

Asked whether the treaty will “frame China as the enemy”, Marape says: “This is not a treaty that sets up enemies but consolidates friendships.”

He says PNG has been transparent with China and told the country that Australia has become its security partner.

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the treaty is about the Australian relationship with PNG.

Transparency promised over PNG and Australia treaty

The two prime ministers are first asked how the treaty would work in the event of another Bougainville crisis.

PNG PM James Marape said there will be clarity in the legislation put to the PNG parliament that it will be a demilitarised zone, and no stepping into Bougainville for defence or police.

On local opposition criticism of the pact and whether it would survive a change of government, Marape said there will be a parliamentary ratification process, with transparency and full disclosure to all in PNG and in Australia as to what the treaty entails.

The opposition leader is most welcome to comment on this matter.

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the treaty is “lifting our relationship to the next level”.

We will release today the full text of the treaty. We will be transparent, both of our parliaments will go through the processes which are there but this has been done in a very orderly way and I think it will be very much considered after the prime minister and I have gone from, maybe not from this world ... but our respective positions. This will be looked at as something that was very much in the interests of both of our nations and in the interest of the region.

PNG-Australia treaty ‘a historic moment’, James Marape says

PNG prime minister James Marape, speaking after Albanese, said the signing of the treaty was a “historic moment”.

Marape continued:

I want to say thank you very much Prime Minister Albanese. My brother, my friend. You accepted the proposal from our government to enter into this treaty. It is a landmark for our two nations …

This treaty was not conceived out of geopolitics or any other reason. But out of geography, history and the enduring reality of our shared neighbourhood. It is about one bigger fence that secures two houses that has its own yard space. It is in this construct that we’re going about in signing this treaty.

As part of the treaty, Albanese says, both nations have agreed not to undertake any activities or enter into any agreements that would compromise its implementation.

Prime ministers Albanese and Marape are signing the Pukpuk treaty, which is described in the ceremony as an agreement to “support each other’s defence and contribute to a region that is peaceful, stable and prosperous.”

Australian bird of the year: an avian popularity contest with a deeper purpose

Bird of the year is an antidote to an increasingly grim news cycle, and a celebration of Australia’s extraordinary and unique native wildlife. But it’s also a numbers game.

Taking history as a guide, more than 300,000 votes could be lodged over nine days, starting at 1am AEDT on 6 October, as people from across the globe vote for their favourite Australian bird species for 2025.

The victorious aviator (assuming it is a bird that flies – likely, but not guaranteed) will be elevated alongside previous winners: the Australian magpie, the black-throated finch, the superb fairy-wren and 2023’s champion, the swift parrot.

Australia has about 850 native bird species. Nearly half are not found anywhere else on the planet. That total has been whittled down to 50 for this year’s voting, based in part on thousands of reader nominations.

While you are thinking about how to vote, read more here about some of the other numbers you might like to consider:

Related: Australian bird of the year: an avian popularity contest with a deeper purpose

We’re expecting the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, James Marape, to speak to media about the new defence treaty shortly.

Here’s how to vote in the 2025 Australian bird of the year poll

In exciting news, you can now vote in the 2025 Australian bird of the year poll! Matilda Boseley explains how the voting works, while definitely not at all encouraging you to vote for a particular bird.

With the news of the completion of the final station of Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel, here’s something we prepared earlier on “the biggest change to Melbourne’s rail network since 1981”.

Jacinta Allan says Metro Tunnel next step is to add it to rest of network

Jacinta Allan said the next step before the Metro tunnel opens is rewriting the city’s entire transport timetable – trains, trams and buses – to make way for it. She says this is one of the key difference between Melbourne’s Metro and Sydney’s, which opened last year.

Allan said:

That Sydney Metro project, it’s a great project. It’s a great public transport project as well. That’s a standalone line - it runs on its own line. It doesn’t have to intersect with the rest of its network. That adds to the complexity here with the Metro Tunnel in terms of how we connect it in to the rest of Melbourne and Victoria’s train network.

Allan also used the opportunity to have a dig at the Liberal party, who she says called the project a “cruel hoax” when it was first proposed more than a decade a go.

She continued:

They said it would be an absolute disaster for Melbourne. And worse than that, not only were they critics of it, when they were in government, they refused to fund the Metro tunnel project.

Well Labor, not only did we fund it, we’ve been building it, we’re delivering it, and it’s going to open later this year, a full year ahead of schedule. And we’ve done this because we’ve understood that when you look to the future of our great city and state, you need to invest, work through the complexities of projects like this and, yes, I can say very clearly, there were challenges along the way, you’ve got to roll up your sleeves.

Moreton Island fire caused by campfire, RFS says

A holidaymaker could be charged after allegedly lighting a campfire during a total fire ban, sparking the massive blaze on Queensland’s Moreton Island over the weekend, AAP reports.

Rural Fire Service Queensland Acting Chief Supt Neil Parker said the cause of the blaze was a campfire at Eagers Creek, on the island’s eastern coast.

Parker told AAP:

When careless things like this happen, it has a big impact, particularly on our volunteers who go out at all hours of the night to keep our community safe.

As we reported earlier, the fire’s warning level was downgraded this morning to “advice” level after firefighters worked over the weekend to contain it.

‘It sounded considered’: Croydon Park witness on gunfire

Returning to the alleged shooting incident in Sydney’s inner west last night, Matt Iocco, who lives locally, arrived in the area at about 8pm to find the road blocked off. He and his family waited at one end of the street as the police operation unfolded. He shared a video in which a burst of gunfire can be heard.

Iocco, who works at the vet next door to the apartment the gunman allegedly opened fire from, said “it is very scary” to think what could have happened if he had been walking through only minutes earlier.

Michelle Baldock was at home across the street about 7.30pm when she heard what she thought were firecrackers. She says the shots were going off in bursts. “It sounded considered,” she says.

Baldock says her home didn’t appear to have sustained any damage, but there are visible bullet-holes in the windows in the home of her neighbours, who Baldock says are a family with young children.

NSW Ambulance has confirmed that five people were taken to hospital last night. One, a taxi driver in his 50s, self-presented at Canterbury hospital and was transported to Royal Prince Alfred hospital in a serious condition. A man and a woman, both in their 30s, self-presented at Campsie police station last night with minor injuries and were taken to hospital. Two more men were treated at the scene on Georges River Road before being taken to hospital.

Australia and PNG to sign major defence treaty

Australia and Papua New Guinea will ink a major defence agreement in Canberra on Monday to entrench ties between the two countries.

The PNG prime minister, James Marape, will join Anthony Albanese in Parliament House later this morning to officially sign the Pukpuk mutual defence treaty.

The treaty will elevate Australia’s relations with PNG to the same status as the US and New Zealand, and includes provisions requiring that both countries come to the other’s aid in the event of a military attack.

It will also allow citizens of the two nations to serve in the other’s military, paving the way for potentially thousands of PNG residents to join the Australian Defence Force.

The treaty was expected to be signed last month when Albanese travelled to Port Moresby for the 50th anniversary of PNG’s independence but concerns over sovereignty and the lack of a quorum in Marape’s cabinet held up the deal.

Award-winning porridge jaffles

If the thought of porridge jaffles with rum bananas tickles your fancy, you’re in luck: the Golden Spurtle website has Caroline Velik’s prize-winning recipe, which makes use of a jaffle iron – the modern incarnation of which is an Australian invention, and food history enthusiasts trace it to a Bondi man in 1949.

Images of apparent damage from shooting in Sydney’s Croydon Park

Guardian reporter Penry Buckley has been down in Croydon Park this morning at the scene of the alleged shooting last night, and has taken some snaps of the damage.

Inside the new State Library station

Earlier, we brought you the news of the final station in the Melbourne Metro Tunnel, State Library station, being completed. Here’s a peek at what it looks like.

‘I heard a bang-bang-bang on the left side of the car,’ Sydney shooting eyewitness says

A taxi driver, who was an eyewitness to the shooting in Croydon Park, has described his experience to the ABC:

I was just happened to be driving by, and as I was driving by, I just heard a bang-bang-bang on the left side of the car, the taxi. And then I looked next to me, and I saw a couple of holes through the window right next to – on the passenger side. And I didn’t realise there was actually a hole on the roof as well. And I smelled the gunpowder, but I assumed because it was [NRL] Grand Final night, [it was] somebody throwing firecrackers or something.

Police say Sydney shooting ‘incredibly concerning’ but they do not suspect terrorism

The shooting in Sydney’s Croydon Park overnight was “incredibly concerning” and it was lucky more people weren’t hurt, the acting assistant commissioner for New South Wales police Trent King has said.

A 60-year-old man allegedly used a longarm rifle to fire “at least 50” bullets from a residence above a shop on Sunday night. In addition to the man in his 50s who had been taken to hospital with a gunshot wound and remained in a serious condition, King said up to 16 other people had received minor injuries “from glass shattering and other shrapnel as a result of the shots being fired”.

King told ABC RN:

It’s unprecedented for Sydney to have something like this, with such a large number of shots fired. And we’re very fortunate that we didn’t have more damage and certainly more injuries or indeed fatalities.

Police who initially attended the incident were also allegedly fired upon, King said, and a large tactical response including highway patrol, the air wing and dog unit were called in, set up a perimeter and “initiated tactical response to the active shooting”.

King said:

Just like [for] the community, it would have been terrifying [for the police]. What I can say is that those initial police were fired upon. We have damaged police vehicles, and we’re very fortunate that no police have been injured.

There was no understanding as yet about what prompted the incident, but police did not suspect terrorism, King said.

The 60-year-old man, he is undergoing medical treatment in hospital. Once that treatment is resolved, we will have him in custody and then we’ll speak further with him. But certainly there’s nothing in relation to history, in relation to any relation to gang or other associations that would indicate why this has occurred.

Hastie did ‘the honourable thing’ by moving to backbench, Paterson says

Andrew Hastie has done “the right thing and the honourable thing” by stepping down from the Liberal party’s frontbench given his disagreement on immigration policy, Liberal senator James Paterson has said.

Paterson, speaking to ABC RN this morning, defended Hastie against criticism that was reportedly levelled against him by Peter Dutton in a submission to the party’s election review.

Paterson, while he hadn’t seen that submission, said:

I don’t agree with the characterisation of Andrew’s contribution. He was a key voice in our national security and defence team, which was one of the strongest areas that we put forward during the last term … We have to accept collective responsibility for our election loss. We all contributed to that, and Peter Dutton has taken public responsibility for that, as have I.

Paterson continued:

What I would say is: if there are any current members of the parliamentary party or their staff who are playing games with an important process like this for internal positioning or advancement, then I think that will end very badly … We have to have a review that can look at the last election result holistically and in a way that has confidence and trust in the party, and that when it is handed down, we can implement the recommendations. And get on with our business. Leaks from a process like that undermine trust in that process.