Australia news live: Two high profile Liberals defect to One Nation; Qantas removes passenger from flight for allegedly biting attendant
Taylor dismisses defection of two high-profile Liberals to One Nation
Krishna Dhanji
Angus Taylor has dismissed the defection of two high-profile Liberals to One Nation, saying its “their choice”.
Former NSW Liberal senator Hollie Hughes (who was dumped by her party before the 2025 election), and former Liberal vice-president Teena McQueen exited the party on Saturday – first reported by the Daily Telegraph.
Speculation was rife on Friday when my colleague Josh Butler reported that Hughes was hosting Pauline Hanson at her pub in regional NSW at the weekend.
Asked for his response on Sky News earlier, Taylor said, “Oh, it’s their choice,” before promptly pivoting. Then asked a follow-up, he said:
It’s their choice. I mean, they can. I love the fact in this country we have democracy and choice. It’s a great thing. They are strong Liberal values.
Hughes has been publicly scathing of Taylor after she was dumped from a winnable spot on the NSW Senate ticket. McQueen has previously attracted controversy over her attacks on the party’s moderate faction.
Key events
Man dies after fall in Sydney
Police are investigating after a man died after a fall in Castle Hill in Sydney’s west overnight.
In a statement today, NSW police said emergency services were called after a man was heard shouting from the balcony of a unit complex.
NSW ambulance paramedics found a 44-year-old man seriously injured in a garden outside the building. They started treatment but he died at the scene.
A crime scene has been established and police said at this early stage in the investigation the death was being treated as suspicious.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
Andrew Messenger
‘Steven is absolutely the best person to lead us’
Queensland Labor’s four most senior factional leaders have declared their support for Steven Miles as leader, amid speculation of a challenge.
Right faction chief Cameron Dickold guard leader Grace Grace and fellow left faction MP Shannon Fentiman joined Miles at a press conference on Sunday. All three said they backed him to remain leader until the next election.
There’s been speculation of a challenge against Miles, almost certainly by Fentiman, as a result of the swing against the party at the byelection.
Fentiman said Miles was the best person to lead the party to the next election and its MPs were united behind him:
Truly, there is more work to do. Steven is absolutely the best person to lead us, and we are 100% behind him.
Miles said he “absolutely” had every intention of leading Labor to the next election but conceded that the party’s primary vote had gone backwards:
Clearly Labor has a long way to go to keep listening to Queenslanders and developing our offering for them in 2028 and that’s the hard work that we’re all up for.
Stafford had been won by Labor at the 2024 election but two-term incumbent Jimmy Sullivan was expelled from the party last year and became an independent. A byelection was triggered after he died in April.
Labor candidate Luke Richmond – who also joined the press conference on Sunday – said he was likely to win the seat back for the party. Counting continues, but Labor is now 715 votes ahead on a two-party preferred basis.
Taylor dismisses defection of two high-profile Liberals to One Nation
Krishna Dhanji
Angus Taylor has dismissed the defection of two high-profile Liberals to One Nation, saying its “their choice”.
Former NSW Liberal senator Hollie Hughes (who was dumped by her party before the 2025 election), and former Liberal vice-president Teena McQueen exited the party on Saturday – first reported by the Daily Telegraph.
Speculation was rife on Friday when my colleague Josh Butler reported that Hughes was hosting Pauline Hanson at her pub in regional NSW at the weekend.
Asked for his response on Sky News earlier, Taylor said, “Oh, it’s their choice,” before promptly pivoting. Then asked a follow-up, he said:
It’s their choice. I mean, they can. I love the fact in this country we have democracy and choice. It’s a great thing. They are strong Liberal values.
Hughes has been publicly scathing of Taylor after she was dumped from a winnable spot on the NSW Senate ticket. McQueen has previously attracted controversy over her attacks on the party’s moderate faction.
Earlier we brought you the news that Labor is likely to have retained the seat of Stafford in Queensland despite a swing against it in this weekend’s by-election. Queensland state reporter Andrew Messenger has the full report here:
Qantas removes passenger for allegedly biting flight attendant
A Qantas flight from Australia to the US was diverted to Tahiti on Friday, after a passenger allegedly bit a flight attendant.
Qantas confirmed on Sunday that a disruptive passenger had caused the diversion of the QF21 Melbourne to Dallas service, which landed in Papeete, capital of French Polynesia on the island of Tahiti, after the incident.
Passengers and other crew came to the assistance of the attendant during the incident.
The flight was was met by authorities on arrival in Papeete and the passenger was issued a no fly ban by Qantas.
The aircraft was refuelled and the flight resumed its journey to Dallas, arriving Saturday morning.
The Qantas spokesperson said:
The safety of our customers and our crew is our number one priority and we have zero tolerance for disruptive or threatening behaviour on our flights.
Josh Taylor
Canvas hack: is it ever a good idea for companies to pay hackers a ransom?
After a week of outages, hundreds of millions of students’ data stolen, delayed assignment due dates, and school login pages being defaced by hackers, US tech firm Instructure – which operates the education platform Canvas, used by education providers worldwide – announced it had “reached an agreement with the unauthorised actor” behind the ransomware attack.
Experts read the careful language as a sign that a ransom has been paid. The company has not confirmed.
The question of whether firms should pay ransomware attackers to regain access to their systems, and potentially prevent further harm from the release of personal information of – in some cases millions – is one that thousands of companies face each year. Although governments across the globe advise against it, many ultimately do.
Read the full story here:
Five Melbourne men facing charges over alleged violent extremist material
A fifth man Melbourne man has been charged as part of a federal police investigation into the alleged access and distribution of violent extremist material online, just over a week after another four men were charged.
On Saturday, a 25-year-old Meadow Heights man was arrested on arrival at Melbourne International Airport on a flight from Malaysia and charged with possession of violent extremist material, which has a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment, the Australian federal police said in a statement.
Two Roxburgh Park men aged 20 and 21, and two Clyde North men, aged 19 and 29, were arrested and each charged with possession of violent extremist material on 7 May.
The charges came after investigations that began when one of the Roxburgh Park men was intercepted at Melbourne international airport on 29 November 2024 after returning to Australia on a flight from Turkey, police said.
During an examination of the man’s mobile phone, border force officers located suspicious content and reported it to the AFP, police said. A second Roxburgh Park man was searched at Melbourne international airport on 1 June 2025, and his luggage searched ahead of his departure to Turkey.
Police alleged forensic analysis of their devices revealed the men had been sending, sharing and receiving suspected violent extremist material, which included images and videos of previous terrorist attacks and other Islamic State propaganda.
Four search warrants were executed at homes in the Melbourne suburbs of Roxburgh Park, Clyde South and Meadow Heights on 7 May when the men were arrested.
Albanese congratulates Delta Goodrem after Eurovision fourth-place finish
Anthony Albanese diverged briefly from housing in his press conference this morning to congratulate Delta Goodremwho came in fourth in the Eurovision song contest earlier this morning, after being widely tipped as a likely winner.
Albanese said:
Can I just give a shout out to Delta Goodrem who finished fourth in Eurovision this morning and did Australians proud? We were all cheering on, watching SBS, watching the coverage as the votes rolled in and Delta Goodrem I think is someone who can be very, very proud of her efforts, and all Australians are proud of Delta. Well done.
You can find the full story about the Eurovision results here:
CGT changes ‘designed to assist young people’ secure housing, PM says
Anthony Albanese has been speaking with the housing minister, Clare O’Neilin Melbourne this morning, reiterating his government’s claim that the capital gains tax changes are “designed to assist young people”.
The PM said:
People have written in the newspapers in this country for years have spoken about the need for tax reform. What we’re doing is delivering tax reform, real tax reform that treats in a fair way income that people earn from their work, better aligns it with income that people legitimately earn from assets and from their wealth that they own.
So, better aligning those things is a sensible thing to do.
The capital gains tax changes are about real gains. That is the amount in which an asset increases less inflation. That is the system that occurred right up until 1999. Before 1985, of course, there was no tax in this country about capital at all.
So what it is, is it is only Labor that makes the big reforms. This is a difficult reform, but it’s one that people have spoken about for a long period of time. People have said that we need tax reform in this country. What we’re doing here is delivering tax reform, but with a clear objective tax reform to better align those income from assets compared with income from working. But importantly as well, tax reform that will result in 75,000 Australians getting access to their first home.
Some style for your Sunday: Guardian Australia’s lifestyle team have captured the bright colours, homemade garments and vintage gems worn by the crowd in Sydney at this year’s Australian fashion week.
