As it happened: Rate rise on RBA agenda after inflation bump; Julian Assange returns to Australia

Woolworths customers have been limited to two cartons of eggs in NSW, the ACT and Victoria to manage stock delays as the bird flu outbreak stifles supplies.

“Their supply is expected to recover over the next week as they ramp up operations at their other sites,” a spokesperson for the supermarket said.

Coles introduced a similar policy earlier in June.

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“You were not willing to allow her to move on in her life and you resented the presence of Mr Mayne in your children’s lives, so you determined to kill them,” Justice Jago said.

“Tragically, you achieved that in respect to Mr Mayne, but your plan was thwarted in respect to Ms Harris by the brave and desperate actions of [her 16-year-old son] T, who was awoken by the screaming and intervened, dragging you away from his mother. That, and the first aid he later provided to his mother, undoubtedly, in my view, saved her life.”

Whiting had been abusive and violent during their 20-year relationship, which ended in June 2021, Justice Jago said. After moving out, Harris met Mayne online, and they had been living together for four months with two of the children she shared with Whiting, T and K, then aged 16 and 14.

In the weeks leading up to the crime, Whiting made threats to injure or kill Mayne, which were heard by the children.

Justice Jago said Whiting rode a bike to the couple’s home and entered it in the early hours of November 25, going to their bedroom with a kitchen knife.

“You immediately started stabbing Mr Mayne. You launched an attack on a vulnerable and defenceless person,” she said.

Mayne tried to protect Harris, throwing himself over her body and yelling “don’t stab her”, she said.

“She got out of the bed and you continued stabbing her. At one point when you were attacking Ms Harris, she said to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ You responded by saying, ‘You caused this’.”

Her screams woke the children, and T rushed to protect his mother.

“Even after his intervention, you continued to stab Ms Harris,” Justice Jago said.

“T pushed you up against a wall and challenged you. He said he would grab the knife and hurt himself if you did not drop it. He said to you, ‘You’re my Dad, why are you doing this … I don’t ever want to see you again’. You replied. ‘Oh, it’s not like you message me anyway’.”

“It is difficult to envisage a more arrogant and cold-hearted act,” Justice Jago said.

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If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

“The Albanese government needs to be transparent about what costs it has incurred,” he said.

“And the prime minister needs to be transparent about his homecoming welcome call to Mr Assange, and whether it was all just small talk, or whether he put the national interest first and actually said to Mr Assange: there are expectations that he will not be promoting misinformation in the future, or publishing classified and sensitive documents in the future – which, of course, he’d just only yesterday pled guilty to under the US Espionage Act.”

The Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesman was then asked whether Assange should be put on notice about any attempt to monetise his story, given the Commonwealth previously prosecuted Schapelle Corby’s family for receiving proceeds of crime when the convicted drug smuggler was paid for writing a book about her story.

“I think that many Australians would find it pretty distasteful if he did go off on some profit-driven motive to seek advantage out of what are crimes that he pled guilty, finally, to doing,” Birmingham said.

“Now, this whole saga could have been dealt with potentially much, much sooner if he had engaged with the US justice system much, much sooner.”

Birmingham later hit back at suggestions that Assange was a journalist.

“Of course, we’re all for transparency and accountability,” he told ABC host Greg Jennett. “But it’s an insult to journalists like you, Greg, to suggest that what Julian Assange did was journalism, when in fact it was a data dump – and a reckless data dump at that.”

“When it comes to housing, there’s been a vote over there in the Senate this morning where, once again, we seem to see ‘No-alition’ – and the Coalition and the Greens get together once again,” he said.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather earlier criticised the build-to-rent scheme for handing out money to property developers, who “helped create the housing crisis in the first place”.

Albanese mocked this notion: “The reason why the Greens say they oppose it is because developers will build the new housing. And they voted for that proposition! Who do you think built houses?”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers later got stuck into them as well.

“The consequences of your vote could be 160,000 fewer homes for homeless people and young people to rent,” Chalmers said.

“Now, if you really gave a stuff about homelessness in this country, you would vote for the policies that would build more housing supply in this country. And you wouldn’t conduct this ridiculous, underhanded, hypocritical campaign, which sees you vote more frequently with them [the Coalition] than with us.”

The speaker soon told Chandler-Mather to cease interjecting as back-and-forth barbs were exchanged between Labor MPs and the Greens housing spokesperson.

Two MPs have previously made complaints to the Speaker of the House of Representatives about “vicious” attacks from Labor MPs towards Chandler-Mather.

The first-term MP has led the Greens’ efforts to force the government to adopt more radical measures to improve housing affordability, often claiming Labor’s solutions don’t go far enough.

His approach has made him a particularly loathed figure among many Labor MPs, who see him as a grandstander.