Australia news live: Albanese says AFP knows who is behind Medibank hack; Victorian Covid-19 cases jump 63% in a week

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Good afternoon, this is Mostafa Rachwani with you for a short while, taking over from the always amazing Amy Remeikis. As she mentioned, we are on standby for an upcoming AFP presser.

Mostafa Rachwani will take you through the afternoon, including the coming AFP press conference Anthony Albanese has spoken about this morning.

Take care of you, Ax

Anthony Albanese said he has given the AFP permission to give more information on who is behind the Medibank hack:

I am disgusted by the perpetrators of this criminal act and I’ve certainly authorised the AFP Commissioner later today to disclose where these attacks are coming from. We know where they’re coming from, we know who is responsible and we say that they should be held to account.

Updated at 20.14 EST

Victorian push for more focus on women’s mental health

The Victorian election is heating up and there are hopes it will lead to a better focus on mental health.

Prof Jayashri Kulkarni, a professor of psychiatry at Monash University and director of Her Centre, which performs leading research into the treatment of women’s mental health in collaboration with Cabrini, has launched a campaign in the Victoria election calling for $33mn to quickly address the crisis in women’s mental health.

Women experience twice as much depression and four times the anxiety of men. And the way the mental health system is structured right now, many women leave mental health facilities more traumatised than when they entered,’ Kulkarni said.

The second biggest suicide cohort is peri-menopausal women aged 45-52, and we know that it’s also the leading cause of maternal death during pregnancy.

We also know that antidepressants are an ineffective course of treatment for menopausal women and that hormone replacement therapy is, yet there are no clinical trials under way to determine the best course of treatment that can be rolled out widely to health professionals.

We’ve had a royal commission but there are no robust measures in place in the commission recommendations to safeguard women’s mental health and properly address the substantial issues women face here.

Kulkarni is hoping to put women’s mental health on the agenda for the Victorian election, but also on the federal stage, and is campaigning for:

· 12 specialist women’s mental health centres in Victoria staffed by GPs, set up by clinical psychologists, with consultant psychiatrists available to guide – $20m

· clinical trials on the efficacy of hormone replacement therapy versus antidepressants for women suffering depression (multicentre trial) – $10m

· the rollout of online education to GPs and the general public on menopausal depression – $3m

The campaign has been launched in the Victorian seat of Caulfield, where a three-prong contest is playing out between independent Nomi Kaltmann, Labor’s Lior Harel and the incumbent, Liberal deputy leader David Southwick.

Updated at 20.22 EST

ACCC on telcos fined over broadband speeds: they ‘should be better informed about their obligations towards customers’

The Australian competition and consumer commission head, Liza Carver, has released a statement on the fines for three of Australia’s telcos, who were found to have misled customers about NBN internet speeds:

Fast and reliable internet is a necessity for Australian households, and consumers need accurate information when choosing the best internet plan to meet their needs.

These significant penalties reflect the seriousness of the breaches of consumer laws by these large and sophisticated businesses that should be better informed about their obligations towards their customers, particularly given the promises they made to their customers and in undertakings previously provided to the ACCC regarding speed claims for their NBN plans in 2017.

The ACCC statement continued:

Telstra, Optus and TPG also each admitted that by failing to notify consumers whose maximum attainable speeds were lower than the speed of their purchased plan, they had falsely represented to those consumers that their NBN connections were capable of attaining the higher speeds.

Some customers may have paid for a 50 or 100 Mbps plan believing their NBN connection could support the higher download speeds, even though they would have been better off paying for a lower speed plan,” Carver said.

It is illegal for businesses to make false or misleading representations to consumers about the performance characteristics, nature, standard or quality of products and services.”

Telstra, Optus and TPG have each implemented remediation programs and have already contacted impacted customers to provide refunds. The court has ordered that Optus re-contact affected customers who have not already responded to previous contact or been credited, to offer compensation within 120 days. These Optus customers can expect to receive an update on their speed data and there will be a dedicated customer service line for them to contact Optus regarding compensation.

Updated at 20.18 EST

Expect an announcement on the Medibank hack a little later today from the AFP:

Updated at 20.14 EST

Law Council says more time needed on anti-corruption commission legislation

From president Tass Liveris:

We welcome the proposals to tighten the ‘corrupt conduct’ definition, include a proactive inspector audit function, enable individuals to disclose information which is subject to a non-disclosure notation to their medical practitioner or psychologist, and ensure that persons investigated are notified of findings that they have not engaged in corrupt conduct.

We also welcome the acknowledgement that broader reforms for press freedom and whistleblowers are needed; and that Coalition committee members reflected the Law Council’s concerns on a range of issues such as the abrogation of the privilege against self-incrimination and client legal privilege, removing the ability of the commission to investigate future corrupt conduct, and access to judicial review.

However, this legislation is extremely complex, running to over 300 pages. It also raises a number of complex and important issues and further detailed consideration of these is still required.

Liveris says more time is needed to reach a unified view:

We would strongly urge against rushing these bills through parliament as these outstanding matters are worthy of further attention and debate. It is essential the Nacc legislation works well for all Australians.

In the Law Council’s view, the committee was unable to sufficiently evaluate certain issues owing to the truncated period made available for the inquiry, with the bills being introduced on 28 September 2022 and submissions open until 14 October 2022, before the committee reported yesterday.

We urge the government to ensure further careful attention be given to certain matters including post-charge coercive powers and information sharing, the privilege against self-incrimination and client legal privilege, application to future conduct and thresholds for investigation. Several of these matters go to the heart of the right to a fair trial.

Updated at 20.12 EST

Tanya Plibersek urged to reject wetlands project in Queensland

Scientists and shorebird experts have written to the environment and water minister Tanya Plibersek to urge her to reject a residential and marina development in protected wetlands in Queensland.

Last month, Walker Corporation published the draft environmental impact statement for the project, which proposes the construction of up to 3,600 dwellings at the Ramsar-listed Moreton Bay wetlands in Queensland.

Scientists have written to Plibersek in the same week international talks between parties to the Ramsar convention are taking place in Geneva.

They said the development – which would destroy 42ha of the Moreton Bay Ramsar site – would contribute to the “death by a thousand cuts” that has reduced wetland habitat globally.

Proposed clearing for the Toondah development will affect habitat for the critically endangered eastern curlew, the great knot, the lesser sand plover and the bar-tailed godwit, which migrate to the site.

The letter, led by BirdLife Australia, says:

A private development of this scale, within the boundaries of internationally important Ramsar wetlands, has never been approved in Australia , which has to date maintained an important global role model for protection of its Ramsar estate.

The scientists said if the federal government approves the development it would result in a weakening of flyaway connectivity and stand in “harsh contrast” to Australia’s publicly-stated commitments under international treaties to protect wetlands, biological diversity and migratory birds.

With the Ramsar talks under way and with international talks for a new global agreement for nature to take place in December, the scientists wrote Plibersek should “embrace this opportunity to continue Australia’s leadership role in wetland and migratory shorebird conservation and to reject the Toondah Harbour proposal”.

Public consultation on the development continues until early December.

Updated at 20.08 EST

Albanese on Remembrance Day: ‘an important day for our nation’

Anthony Albanese has attended the Sydney Remembrance Day march, and from there will head to the airport for the first of his summit appearances

We must always remember the brave men and women who have defended our nation at our time of need, who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and today’s a day in which Australians do just that. Today’s a day also that we remember those who didn’t come home but also those who have come home with issues that are ongoing, many of which have been identified by the royal commission into veteran suicide, that is doing its ongoing work. Today is an important day for our nation, and I wanted to make sure that I was here this morning prior to [leaving for the airport].

Updated at 20.06 EST

Simon Birmingham on relationship with China: it’s important to ‘hold firm to issues in Australia’s strategic interest’

The opposition foreign affairs spokesperson gave his thoughts on the possibility of a meeting between Anthony Albanese and China’s president Xi Jinping while talking to Sky News:

This is a meeting that should take place. It was always counterproductive of China to put this pause on having ministerial-level dialogue. Now, the last high-level dialogue between an Australian prime minister and a Chinese leader was actually at the last lot of face-to-face leaders summits that occurred back in 2019 pre-Covid. When Scott Morrison then met with the then Chinese premier, Li Keqiang. I obviously hope that this meeting takes place because even where there are differences, dialogue is important to have and to be able to work through those differences and to pursue the areas where there is potential for mutual agreement and mutual cooperation. And it’s certainly in China’s interests and Australia’s interests for us to both pursue peace and prosperity across this region.

But there are some threats and some challenges to that, including in the way in which China has engaged across the region. It’s important that the government does as they have said they are doing. Which is that they hold firm to issues that are in Australia’s strategic interest, that they don’t deviate from those, that the talk of meeting halfway, which was in the editorial that you referenced in your introduction and your question, is not something that Australia can do.

The things that we have done in recent years to strengthen our democracy, to protect our systems and our critical infrastructure across Australia are all important things.

The actions of China in terms of seeking to apply economic coercion through trade sanctions and others are deplorable, and the test of meetings and dialogue as they occur will be whether we get outcomes that can see better improvement for Australian industry in terms of removal of those trade sanctions, better treatment for Australians facing sensitive consular issues and legal matters in China. And ultimately better engagement by China in the region that doesn’t threaten the stability in ways that some of their actions have.

Updated at 19.48 EST