Australia news live: Plibersek condemns Israeli minister’s ‘disgraceful’ treatment of flotilla activists; Guzman y Gomez pulls out of US
From 2h ago 23.12 BST Plibersek says behaviour by Ben-Gvir ‘disgraceful’ as Greens call for stronger response Tanya Plibersek, minister for social services, said the
From 2h ago 23.12 BST Plibersek says behaviour by Ben-Gvir ‘disgraceful’ as Greens call for stronger response Tanya Plibersek, minister for social services, said the behaviour by Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was “shameful” and “disgraceful”. Plibersek, speaking to RN Breakfast, had this to say: double quotation mark I think it was absolutely disgraceful behaviour and I’m very pleased to say that the foreign minister has said that in the strongest terms to the Israeli government. Our Australian ambassador in Israel has made the position of the Australian government very clear that this behaviour is acceptable, completely unacceptable. Greens senator Nick McKim went a step further, telling RN: double quotation mark That is abhorrent treatment of people by a senior figure in the Israeli government. People are being degraded. They’re having their human rights abused. It is effectively a form of torture. And the simple fact is that Israel is now a rogue state. They’re kidnapping people, including Australian citizens, from international waters on the high seas. It’s basically an act of piracy … I mean, this demands the strongest possible response from our prime minister and our foreign minister. A far, far stronger response than they’ve delivered to date. Nick McKim. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images Share Updated at 00.14 BST 7m ago 01.21 BST Lisa Cox Feral horse numbers surge in Kosciuszko national park Feral horse numbers in the Kosciuszko national park have surged, with new survey data estimating populations climbed by thousands after the New South Wales government paused aerial culling in 2025. Conservation advocates say the rebound in numbers demands an urgent rethink of retention zones that allow thousands of horses to remain in the park. View image in fullscreen Brumbies or feral horses on the plains above Kiandra in the Kosciuszko Park. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian The government’s annual survey of feral horse populations, released Friday, estimated there were between 6,476 and 16,411 feral horses in the national park in late 2025. This is a sharp increase on the previous year – the first survey after aerial shooting of horses resumed – when numbers dropped to an estimated 2,131-5,639 horses. Read more here: Feral horse numbers surge in Kosciuszko national park after pause in aerial culling, survey shows Read more Share 37m ago 00.52 BST Dan Jervis-Bardy Pauline Hanson announces Norway-inspired gas policy In case you missed it last night: One Nation has vowed to replace the contentious offshore gas profits tax and acquire 30% equity stakes in new ventures under an interventionist policy designed to extract “vastly greater returns” for Australian taxpayers from the resource. The proposal for the commonwealth to co-own gas projects drew a mix of criticism and cynicism from the government, industry and the Coalition, which accused One Nation of importing ideas from Venezuela. Pauline Hanson used a speech to a major gas industry conference in Adelaide on Thursday to detail a policy first flagged on the night of One Nation’s win in the Farrer byelection. Hanson said the public was “rightly unhappy” and “public unrest is building” about the return to taxpayers from the Australian oil and gas sector, voicing the same concerns as the broad coalition of groups campaigning to replace the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) with a 25% export levy. Read more here: Pauline Hanson announces Norway-inspired gas policy as she decries 25% export tax as ‘economic vandalism’ Read more View image in fullscreen Pauline Hanson.
Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images Share Updated at 00.54 BST 1h ago 00.33 BST Guzman y Gomez suddenly leaves the US market Guzman y Gomez, the Mexican-themed fast food chain, is pulling out of the United States in a spectacular turnaround on its American market ambitions, AAP reports. The decision was made because the financial performance of the US business was not acceptable or meeting targets. “I have always been confident in the differentiation of our food and guest experience, however this was not translating to an improvement in sales momentum,” founder and co-chief executive Steven Marks said. View image in fullscreen Photograph: James D Morgan/Getty Images Guzman’s US experiment lasted about six years, after it opened its first store in Chicago in January 2020. “I realised this was going to take significantly more time and capital than we had expected,” Marks said. Guzman on Friday reiterated that its Australian operation was still growing strongly. Share Updated at 00.36 BST 1h ago 00.13 BST Victoria police investigating fire at car dealership in Melbourne Victoria police are investigating the latest suspicious fire, at a car dealership in Richmond overnight. Police believe up to three offenders smashed their way into the business at around 11.20pm on Thursday night. Once inside, they allegedly used accelerant to light the fire before fleeing. Two cleaners inside at the time were able to escape without injury. The building sustained minor damage. A crime scene has been established, and police are appealing for anyone with footage or knowledge of the incident to contact them. Share Updated at 00.15 BST 1h ago 00.00 BST Parramatta Powerhouse museum takes flight with inaugural exhibition The first items to go on display at a highly-anticipated museum have been installed, including a replica of the first Qantas plane, AAP reports. A skilled group of technicians have manoeuvred the plane and two other pioneering aircraft into place in Parramatta Powerhouse’s largest exhibition space after construction wrapped in April. The maiden exhibition, Task Eternal, will explore humanity’s quest to overcome gravity and take to the skies and will open to the public, along with the rest of the museum, later in the year. The Qantas Avro 504K aircraft – weighing more than 760kg and measuring nine metres long with a wingspan of 11 metres – will feature alongside 3000 other objects. View image in fullscreen An Autogiro VH-USR and the ultralight Scout Skycraft Mark 1, during a preview of the first items being installed in the Powerhouse museum in Parramatta, Sydney. Photograph: Jane Dempster/AAP View image in fullscreen Photograph: Jane Dempster/AAP Share Updated at 00.02 BST 2h ago 23.40 BST Three charged with murder in Sydney after man dies from fall Three people have been charged with murder after a man died after a fall in Sydney’s north-west last week. NSW police said emergency services were called to a unit complex in Castle Hill on 17 May amid reports a man had been shouting from a balcony. On arrival, officers found the man, 44, suffering serious injuries in a garden outside the building. The man was treated by paramedics at the scene but could not be revived. After inquiries, police arrested two men, 38 and 30, and a woman, 34. All three have been charged with murder. They have all been refused bail and will appear in court today.
Share Updated at 23.42 BST 2h ago 23.25 BST Luca Ittimani Public transport use back to normal in NSW New South Wales residents have stopped switching to public transport as the fuel price spike fades. The state government had flagged a spike in public transport use amid high petrol and diesel costs. Data from Transport for NSW showed average daily trips surged in April. There were about 2.1m trips a day throughout April 2025, but there were 2.3m a trips a day by mid-April 2026. Trips rose across trains, metro services, buses, light rail and ferries. View image in fullscreen Photograph: Jessica Hromas/AAP The 10% uplift is significant considering NSW did not cut its fares. In Victoria, where public transport is free until the end of May, public transport use was 20% higher in April. However, while Victoria’s uplift was expected to endure, NSW’s has eased. Fuel costs fell over April, with unleaded in Sydney averaging 242 cents a litre at the month’s start but 182 cents at its end, according MotorMouth. It now costs 187.7 cents a litre. Network use has also dropped in NSW, with daily trips falling to 2.2m last week, the same as in the equivalent week last year. While train trips are still slightly higher, average daily bus use in NSW is now lower than it was a year ago. Share 2h ago 23.12 BST Plibersek says behaviour by Ben-Gvir ‘disgraceful’ as Greens call for stronger response Tanya Plibersek, minister for social services, said the behaviour by Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was “shameful” and “disgraceful”. Plibersek, speaking to RN Breakfast, had this to say: double quotation mark I think it was absolutely disgraceful behaviour and I’m very pleased to say that the foreign minister has said that in the strongest terms to the Israeli government. Our Australian ambassador in Israel has made the position of the Australian government very clear that this behaviour is acceptable, completely unacceptable. Greens senator Nick McKim went a step further, telling RN: double quotation mark That is abhorrent treatment of people by a senior figure in the Israeli government. People are being degraded. They’re having their human rights abused. It is effectively a form of torture. And the simple fact is that Israel is now a rogue state. They’re kidnapping people, including Australian citizens, from international waters on the high seas. It’s basically an act of piracy … I mean, this demands the strongest possible response from our prime minister and our foreign minister. A far, far stronger response than they’ve delivered to date. View image in fullscreen Nick McKim. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images Share Updated at 00.14 BST 2h ago 23.01 BST Josh Taylor Father of Australian on flotilla detained by Israel rejects ambassador’s claim no one harmed Also last night, Chris O’Connor, father of Neve O’Connor, one of the 11 Australians that was on the humanitarian flotilla to Gaza that was detained by Israel, rejected Israel’s ambassador to Australia’s claim that those detained in flotillas have not been harmed. O’Connor told ABC’s 7.30 he had not spoken to Neve since before the flotilla was intercepted but alleged the first time his daughter was taken hostage “she was beaten”, subjected to psychological torture and hospitalised. double quotation mark And as she said to me – the beatings were not bad compared to what happened to men of colour that she saw, and she heard the screams.
O’Connor said it was the Israeli Defence Force behind the alleged attacks. He said: double quotation mark She said she was kneed in the face. She was punched in the ribs. She was dragged across the outdoor area. The psychological torture she had was being in a stress position for many hours. They were sprayed with water and were subject to hypothermic conditions overnight, because it was very cold in the containers. O’Connor said the claims made by Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Dr Hillel Newman, that flotilla detainees were not mistreated had been countered by video testimony. double quotation mark So no, I absolutely reject that. Share Updated at 23.19 BST 3h ago 22.47 BST Israel’s ambassador tells ABC 'no one was harmed' on flotilla Josh Taylor Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Dr Hillel Newman, claimed last night no one taken into custody from humanitarian aid flotillas headed to Gaza were harmed, after a far-right Israeli minister posted a video of himself abusing bound activists captured drew widespread condemnation. The footage showed Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, waving an Israeli flag and mocking and taunting the detainees. Newman said on ABC’s 7.30 Thursday night the actions of Ben-Gvir “have been condemned from wall-to-wall – from the leadership of the entire state of Israel” but as the election processes were beginning to get under way in Israel, he would not say whether Ben-Gvir would be fired. While condemning the incident, Newman claimed those detained from the flotilla weren’t being mistreated. He said: double quotation mark No one, out of the 400 plus people that were on the flotilla, no one was harmed. The interception itself was done with great sensitivity by the state of Israel, by our security forces. He rejected claims of violence and sexual abuse towards those who had been detained from flotillas in the past: double quotation mark There are many accusations which are thrown out there … which are untrue. View image in fullscreen Hillel Newman. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA Share Updated at 23.20 BST 3h ago 22.37 BST Australian onboard flotilla says group was treated ‘really poorly’ after detention by Israel All of the activists travelling aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla who were detained by Israeli authorities this week have been released from detention and are now in Istanbul. A statement from the flotilla’s Australian delegation said 428 people, including 11 Australians, were free after spending about 80 hours in detention. The Australians were undergoing examinations at a hospital and will meet with lawyers in the coming days before their return to Australia. Zack Schofield, one of the Australians onboard, said the group was taken to prison and “treated really poorly”: double quotation mark Many of us haven’t eaten for days. We were denied water for two days. … But it is nothing compared to what happens to Palestinians in the occupied territories every single day. … The message to our Australian government is that they need to cut ties with Israel. We need to cancel the alliance, stop sending them weapons parts, stop giving them political support. Share Updated at 22.40 BST
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