As it happened: Senate accepts lock-up laws after child sex ringleader charged; Attorney-general to probe undercover police safety

Australia’s first lunar rover will be named Roo-ver after thousands of people cast their votes in a public competition.

The semi-autonomous rover will travel to the Moon as part of a NASA mission as soon as 2026, helping to collect lunar soil from which scientists hope to extract oxygen, a key element in rocket fuel.

More than 8000 submissions were made during the Australian Space Agency’s naming competition, with almost 20,000 votes received.

Earlier today, we reported on Anthony Albanese’s tribute to Peta Murphy, the Labor MP for the Victoria seat of Dunkley, who died on Monday aged 50 from cancer.

Murphy had been in parliament since 2019, with her breast cancer returning just two weeks before she was sworn in.

Flowers were placed on Ms Murphy’s seat in the lower house in her memory, with many MPs wiping away tears during the condolence speeches.

While Albanese led the condolences, here are some of the other remarks made by fellow parliamentarians.

A Sudanese-born man has become the fourth detainee to be charged after being released from indefinite detention, following his arrest in Melbourne for theft and breaching his visa conditions.

The 45-year-old man was arrested at a Melbourne hotel after he allegedly breached the conditions of his Commonwealth visa last Friday, by failing to observe his curfew obligations.

The man is alleged to have visited Melbourne Airport and stolen luggage from a traveller who was asleep in a terminal.

The Australian Federal Police arrested the man earlier today and charged him with one count of theft and one count of failing to comply with a curfew condition under the Migration Act. The new laws were passed on November 16 and carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $93,000 fine.

The man is the fourth former immigration detainee to be charged following a High Court decision against indefinite detention on November 8.

The influential Bank for International Settlements has warned that rapid global growth in buy now, pay later (BNPL) services could create risks in the financial system due to a potential build-up of loans that are more likely to go bad than credit cards or personal loans.

As regulation looms for Australia’s BNPL sector, a new report from the Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said BNPL had surged globally, and Australia and Sweden had the highest usage rates relative to their population.

The study credited Australia with leading the way in BNPL regulation, after the government earlier this year unveiled its plan to subject the sector to responsible lending obligations.

But the BIS raised concerns about global risks, saying data on BNPL around the world suggested users were generally younger and tech-savvy, but often less financially literate than older generations.

Climate activists have gathered outside Labor MP Peter Khalil’s office in Melbourne’s north, the second demonstration from Extinction Rebellion today designed to put pressure on leaders to take action to protect the environment.

The group briefly blocked traffic on Sydney Road in Coburg, during what they say will be the first of four days of disruptions culminating in a large-scale demonstration on Saturday.

Activist Violet Coco said the group has targeted Khalil’s office because Labor had approved or expanded eight gas projects since their term in office began.

Coco, who was briefly jailed for blocking the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2022, said new gas projects were the “opposite of what the science tells us needs to be done”.