Police took ‘bizarre approach’ to Lehrmann case, inquiry hears
Tory Shepherd
Police had a “bizarre approach” to the Bruce Lehrmann case, and Brittany Higgins’s allegation of rape would have been ignored had it not allegedly taken place in parliament house, a lawyer has told an inquiry into Lehrmann’s trial.
Mark Tedeschi, acting for the Australian Capital Territory director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, appeared this morning at an inquiry into how that trial was handled by police and prosecutors.
Tedeschi said a report had found ACT police were “undercharging” when it came to accusations of sex abuse.
Drumgold knew that, he said, and it was part of the reason his relationship with police was poor. Tedeschi said:
That’s one aspect, one of three aspects.
Step two is the other side of the coin, the attitude of the police to the DPP because they knew that he’d been responsible for this committee being set up and they were resentful of the fact that the DPP was in effect going back and looking at all of their decision making.
The third thing is that we anticipate making a submission at the end of the day that what we say is the bizarre approach of the police about whether Mr Lehrmann should be charged is just an example of a general attitude.
We want to prove that it’s true they did have this attitude to sex cases generally and this was just a classic example of it.
Tedeschi is cross-examining Lehrmann’s lawyer, Steven Whybrow, who said in his opinion it was Drumgold who was hostile to police.
Lehrmann has consistently denied allegations that he raped Higgins, a colleague and fellow political staffer, in the office of the then defence industry minister, Linda Reynolds, in March 2019. He pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.
Key events
Red Rooster accused of 355 breaches of Victorian child labour laws
Two fast-food businesses in Victoria are facing hundreds of charges for allegedly breaking child labour laws, AAP reports.
Red Rooster in Wodonga has been hit with 355 charges while iconic ice-cream chain Cold Rock in Shepparton is facing 124 charges, amid a crackdown by the state’s child employment watchdog.
Wage Inspectorate Victoria alleges both businesses breached the Child Employment Act on various occasions, including for employing children for more hours than they were allowed to work.
Read more here:
Benita Kolovos
Victorian government to overhaul building laws after Porter Davis collapse
The Victorian government is set to overhaul its building laws and strengthen domestic building insurance requirements in the wake of the collapse of Porter Davis.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, today announced a review of the Domestic Building Contracts Act to ensure Victorians building or renovating their homes are better protected. He told reporters:
We don’t know what the outcomes of that review will be because it’s a genuine look at each and every line of the act, each and every provision that’s there at the moment. What we can say is that we will introduce a specific offence for builders who take a deposit, and are meant to take out insurance for that customer [but don’t].
Porter Davis went into liquidation in March, leaving about 1,700 homes in Victoria and Queensland unfinished.
In Victoria, the building watchdog is currently investigating whether the company broke the law by not taking out domestic building policy insurance for customers when they received their deposits. These homes had not started at the time the company entered liquidation.
Andrews said about 560 families lost their deposits due to the failure of the company to take out insurance cover on their behalf:
They paid their deposit, they paid their insurance and no money had been forwarded on to the insurer in order to protect them as it should.
Royce Kurmelovs
Carbon capture and storage has been ‘judged too soon’ and ‘does work’, Woodside CEO says
The Woodside CEO, Meg O’Neill, says Australia’s oil and gas industry requires “regulatory certainty” from government to underpin future investment.
O’Neill, who is also the Appea chair, began her address at the industry group’s annual conference with a sneak peek of a national advertising blitz that will hit television screens to tell Australians about the role of natural gas in achieving net zero.
She said Appea wanted to work with government to develop a plan for developing carbon, capture and storage technologies.
In Australia, this is a technology that has been judged too soon. It does work.
O’Neill said research Appea has commissioned suggests Australia’s heaviest polluting industries were clustered together in specific areas around the country and could be grouped together in order to develop strategies to help them decarbonise.
She also said hydrogen represented an opportunity for the industry:
The challenge is in scaling up from where we are today. We know there is strong demand for hydrogen and the oil and gas sector as the commercial and technological expertise to meet that demand. All options must be on the table.
Police took ‘bizarre approach’ to Lehrmann case, inquiry hears
Tory Shepherd
Police had a “bizarre approach” to the Bruce Lehrmann case, and Brittany Higgins’s allegation of rape would have been ignored had it not allegedly taken place in parliament house, a lawyer has told an inquiry into Lehrmann’s trial.
Mark Tedeschi, acting for the Australian Capital Territory director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, appeared this morning at an inquiry into how that trial was handled by police and prosecutors.
Tedeschi said a report had found ACT police were “undercharging” when it came to accusations of sex abuse.
Drumgold knew that, he said, and it was part of the reason his relationship with police was poor. Tedeschi said:
That’s one aspect, one of three aspects.
Step two is the other side of the coin, the attitude of the police to the DPP because they knew that he’d been responsible for this committee being set up and they were resentful of the fact that the DPP was in effect going back and looking at all of their decision making.
The third thing is that we anticipate making a submission at the end of the day that what we say is the bizarre approach of the police about whether Mr Lehrmann should be charged is just an example of a general attitude.
We want to prove that it’s true they did have this attitude to sex cases generally and this was just a classic example of it.
Tedeschi is cross-examining Lehrmann’s lawyer, Steven Whybrow, who said in his opinion it was Drumgold who was hostile to police.
Lehrmann has consistently denied allegations that he raped Higgins, a colleague and fellow political staffer, in the office of the then defence industry minister, Linda Reynolds, in March 2019. He pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.
Royce Kurmelovs
‘We cannot do net zero without you,’ SA energy minister says to oil and gas conference
The South Australian energy and mining minister, Tom Koutsantonis, has followed federal resources minister Madeleine King’s opening address by telling the Appea conference that it is not possible to decarbonise without the oil and gas industry.
You must feel as if you’re under siege, [as if] you’re not welcome, that the risks and endeavour you undertake are not thought of as productive for the country.
Nothing could be further from the truth. This industry, as Madeleine said, is a key pillar in our path to decarbonisation.
We cannot do it without you. We cannot make the advancements without you. We cannot do net zero without you. We can’t decarbonise our steel industry without this industry. We cannot make electricity without this industry. We cannot transform our economy to net zero without this industry. Those people who are misinformed outside, who attempt to belittle or criticise this industry, do not understand the contribution you make.
Koutsantonis says South Australia is committing $600m to developing hydrogen production for export and that investment in gas technology would allow South Australia – and Australia – to “save on the cost of the transition”.
This means rather than having to build billions and billions and billions of dollars of renewable resources, we can sweat our gas generators harder.
In an extraordinary close, Koutsantonis tells his audience “you are welcome here”:
We are thankful you are here. We are happy to a be recipient of Appea’s largesse in the form of coming here more often.
The South Australian government is at your disposal, we are here to help and we are here to offer you a pathway to the future.
Royce Kurmelovs
Resources minister says carbon capture and storage ‘necessary’ for wider decarbonisation
The federal resources minister, Madeline King, has announced the government will develop a future gas strategy during her opening address at the Appea conference today.
King says it was necessary to ensure Australia continue to support “reliable, essential” energy for its domestic and export markets.
King also said capture and storage is a “necessary part of a wider decarbonisation effort” with the government having released new acreage for greenhouse storage projects for the “first time in years”.
The will is there, the knowhow is there. We want a regulatory system for carbon capture and storage that is robust and responsive and positions Ausstralia’s resources sector to bring new CCS projects on line.
But King also said the emissions reductions would only count towards credits under the safeguard mechanism if they are successful or lowering limits below their baseline – “if they are verified and scientifically sound”.
‘There’s policy debates about everything’ at ALP conference: Albanese
Albanese goes on that debating policy is what’s supposed to occur at the national conference:
I saw the article and it says there will be a policy debate about issues at ALP national conference. Ho-hum. There’s policy debates about everything. That’s why we have an ALP national conference. We are a party that debates our policy live on national TV.
PM says government’s position on negative gearing ‘very clear’ despite backbench dissent
The PM was also asked about the internal pushback within Labor ranks, which the Nine newspapers are reporting this morning, with backbenchers wanting to see more ambitious housing policies and limit negative gearing.
Reporter:
The evidence is really clear about needing to make tax changes including to negative gearing. Your MPs have also expressed a hope to revisit negative gearing. Do you take all of that on board?
Albanese:
The government’s position is very clear and it’s a position for which we received a mandate at the 2022 election and I’m someone who keeps the commitments that we made and our 2022 election commitments we’re busy implementing.
(So that’s a no on changes to negative gearing.)
Strongest threat to security has been rightwing extremism ‘for some time’: PM
Albanese says there is no place in the country for the neo-Nazi demonstrations which took place in Melbourne over the weekend at an anti-immigrations rally:
For some time the strongest threat that has been identified for our security has been rightwing extremism.
There is no place in Australia for the sort of demonstrations that we’ve seen now on a number of occasions here in Melbourne with people paying tribute to nazism, an evil doctrine that resulted in the mass murder of people on the basis of their religion, on the basis of who they were, on the basis of their sexual preference.
The time for tolerance of those matters has long gone. People should have a look at the consequences of that hatred. And it is an ideology of hate.
It’s rejected overwhelmingly by all fair-minded Australians and certainly the authorities will continue to monitor and will have every support for any recommendation that is put forward by those authorities to the government.
PM says Greens also blocking medium-density development in Brisbane
Albanese says the Greens “can’t have it both ways”, blocking the government’s housing bill at the same time as their housing spokesperson runs petitions against developments in Brisbane.
One of the things that I find remarkable is that at the same time as the Greens are blocking additional support for social housing, they’re also running petitions of their housing spokesperson to block any development in medium-density and development of more housing supply in Brisbane. You can’t have it both ways.
PM expresses frustration over blocked housing bill
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been speaking in Victoria expressing his frustration at the government’s $10bn housing future fund being blocked in the senate without support from the Greens or the opposition.
This is a commonsense position that last week in the Senate we couldn’t even get put to a vote.
Sports minister agrees with PM that betting ads are ‘annoying’
Wells – who is also sports minister – agreed with her boss, Anthony Albanese, that she too finds sports betting advertisements “annoying”. However, she isn’t going as far as the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, who wants them banned.
Wells says she’s deferring to the inquiry looking into the issue:
I agree with the prime minister that [they’re] annoying …
I listen to national sporting organisations as the sports minister and they have so far been putting constructive submissions into the inquiry … being run by my excellent friend and colleague Peta Murphy. And I trust Peta’s judgment and I wait for the results of her inquiry.
Pressed on the urgency of an issue ruining people’s lives, Wells says the Albanese government responded to the urgency by setting up an inquiry in the first year of government to work through the issues.
