Australia news as it happened: Hong Kong fires death toll climbs as recovery efforts continue in Tai Po; Environment laws overhauled for first time in 25 years

Thank you for joining us today, and this week, on our national news live blog. Here’s a recap of what we’ve covered today.

• Hong Kong fire authorities said they expected to wrap up search and rescue operations after the city’s worst fire in nearly 80 years tore through a massive apartment complex, killing at least 94 people and leaving dozens still missing.

• Two people, including a 16-year-old boy, are in hospital being treated for serious injuries after a stabbing attack at a major Adelaide shopping centre. South Australian Police were called to the Elizabeth City Centre just after 2pm, following several calls to Triple Zero. At the scene, emergency services found the 16-year-old with life-threatening stab wounds before taking him to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. A 20-year-old man was also treated for stab wounds to his abdomen. It is understood they both remain under police guard.

• Ashlee Good and Pikria Darchia may have survived the Bondi Junction Westfield massacre had alarms gone off earlier, lawyers for their families have told the inquest into the tragedy. NSW State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan this week heard closing submissions from parties linked to Joel Cauchi’s attack on April 2024, which left him and six innocents dead. Barrister for a number of the families, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, told the inquest today that Good might have taken evasive action – potentially sheltering in a lift – had alarms sounded earlier during Cauchi’s rampage.

• Former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, who was dumped from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s frontbench in factional machinations after the May election, has been appointed as Special Envoy for International Human Rights. The government announced the appointment to the newly created role in a statement this afternoon.

• A police sergeant who was told not to pursue a 16-year-old riding a trail bike has been told he caused the death of the teen when he positioned his unmarked car in the boy’s path. Benedict Bryant, 47, was found guilty today of dangerous driving occasioning the death of Indigenous teen Jai Kalani Wright in the inner Sydney suburb of Alexandria in February 2022.

• Labor’s signature environmental reforms were today voted into law, delivering the first expansion of federal nature protections since former prime minister John Howard created the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act in 2000. The updated laws create the nation’s first-ever environmental watchdog, impose federal laws on native forest logging, crack down on illegal land clearing and create new national standards to better protect nature. The reforms were delivered with the support of the Greens.

I’m Emily Kaine, signing off for the week. We will be back with you bright and early on Monday morning for more live news coverage. Have a wonderful weekend.

Nationals MP Michael McCormack said this afternoon that ex-Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce “should have taken the summer to consider his position and his future”, following Joyce’s announcement yesterday that he was quitting the party.

“The Nationals are disappointed that he has chosen to quit yesterday; he should have taken the summer to consider his position and his future. He’s chosen not to,” McCormack told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today.

McCormack also said that, if Joyce announced a move to One Nation, his popularity would increase the party’s vote-winning power.

“He is a star performer. He has been a political luminary for 20 years ... I mean, he’s, he’s one of those people like Elvis and Madonna, someone says their name and, the first time, everybody knows who you’re talking about.

“That’s pretty rare in life, let alone politics. He’s got a huge following … He’s got a huge social media presence, mainstream media are hanging off every word that he says. So he’s a large, larger than life character.”

Staying with Bragg, the opposition spokesman for housing has said the Liberal Party needs to focus its efforts next year on building a suite of policies that will “resonate with people”.

He said this was where the party failed in the lead-up to the May election.

“I think ultimately we’ll be judged on our policy offering. I mean, we can go through the entrails of all these different things that happen every week, but ultimately, if we are able to pull together a coherent policy agenda that is going to resonate with people, which is economically based, then we are back in the game. If we fail to do that, then we’ll be in a worse position than we were last [time],” he told Sky News this afternoon.

“If we can fashion together a proper policy agenda, as we propose to do, across tax, deregulation, housing, whatever, then I think we are in with a good chance. The problem was, last election, we had not many policies and they were not sold very well. In fact, many of the policies, actually.”

The Liberals suffered their worst election result in decades at the last federal election, winning only 28 of 150 seats in the House of Representatives. Recent polling also shows public support for the party, and its leader Sussan Ley, hitting record lows.

Opposition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg said he was doubtful that the amendments the government offered the Coalition on its new environmental law reforms during negotiations were “serious”.

Speaking on Sky News’ Afternoon Agenda, Bragg said, “There were efforts made to try and negotiate with the government, but I don’t believe that the amendments were provided to the Coalition in any serious manner.

“I’m just not sure how serious the government was in terms of their dealings with the Coalition.”

The government struck a deal with the Greens on the new Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation bill earlier this week. The reforms were formally enacted into law this morning.