As it happened: Labor deliver consecutive budget surpluses; Hezbollah protesters face visa scrutiny

Dozens of stores across the nation will shut and hundreds of jobs will be lost after embattled budget retailer Mosaic Brands announced it would be shutting down the Rockmans, Autograph, Crossroads, W.Lane and BeMe brands.

Mosaic chief executive Erica Berchtold said the move was part of a broader effort to simplify the retailer’s portfolio and focus on other brands it operates, including the Katies, Noni B, Rivers and Millers.

“Mosaic will wind down five brands which have become marginal and non-core, allowing us to focus on five core growth brands,” Berchtold said in a statement to the ASX.

“Each of those core brands will have a clearly differentiated market proposition, target customer, price point and product range.”

Nationals senator Matt Canavan has cautioned against jailing people for displaying Hezbollah symbols at pro-Palestine protests on Sunday, a sharp contrast to Coalition leader Peter Dutton saying he thought it was “completely unacceptable that the government wouldn’t be arresting people already”.

Appearing on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program shortly before 5pm, Canavan was asked what he thought should happen if someone showed public support or sympathy for Hezbollah at yesterday’s rallies.

In response, he said:

Well, look, I’m happy for the police to look at this and see whether any laws are broken. But, look, I’m a little bit reticent to start jailing people – arresting people – for just displaying a sign.

Obviously there’s certainly symbols – like swastikas – that we ban, but where do you end here?

I do support people expressing their views as long as it’s peacefully. And really, the test about whether you defend the right of someone’s free speech is to defend those rights of the people you disagree with, right? I certainly don’t agree with these protesters. I especially don’t agree with any kind of elevation of a listed terrorist organisation.

But what would clamping down actually signify or deliver? I think it would make the situation worse. The best thing is to ostracise these people, to isolate them as extremists and radicals.

And especically for members of parliament, not to associate with them. We see the Greens political party run shoulder-to-shoulder sometimes with these extreme groups. They should condemn them and set them apart from the broad brush of Australian society that find these views objectionable.

Several Sydney mosques are holding memorial services for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut.

At least three mosques have advertised memorial services for Nasrallah, who led the powerful terrorist group from 1992 until his death at the weekend.

Hezbollah is officially listed as a terrorist organisation in Australia and other countries.

The Masjid Arrahman mosque in Kingsgrove, the Husaineyat Sayeda Zaynab mosque in Banksia and the Al Zahra mosque in Arncliffe are each holding services across several days. Some services were held on Sunday night after news of Nasrallah’s death broke and will continue on Monday and Tuesday night.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has accused the Coalition of “running a protection racket for big tech” after the opposition confirmed it would not support Labor’s proposed laws to fight misinformation.

Earlier today, Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said the federal government’s bill was a bad piece of legislation and gave social media companies “unprecedented powers to decide what is misinformation”. Hume also raised concerns about the bill leading to “two tiers of public opinion” and giving too much power to a minister.

The Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 was introduced to the House of Representatives on September 12. It has since been referred to a Senate committee.

The bill gives federal authorities the power to force tech giants to act on alerts about damaging falsehoods and stop falsehoods spreading before they cause serious harm. But the revised draft retains a controversial feature that allows ministers to ask the Australian Communications and Media Authority to investigate a social media platform, despite Coalition calls for this to be removed because it could allow political leaders to meddle in decisions.

Kathmandu: The death toll from floods and landslides in Nepal has reached 193, police say.

A police statement, reported by Associated Press moments ago, said 31 people were still reported missing and 96 had been injured in the Himalayan nation.

Many of the deaths were in the capital, Kathmandu, which received heavy rainfall that flooded much of the southern part of the city over the weekend. At least three buses headed to Kathmandu and stuck in a traffic jam on a highway were buried by a landslide that killed three dozen people.

Weather improved on Sunday and Monday, allowing rescue and recovery work following three days of monsoon rains.