Australia news as it happened: Five arrested after Melbourne students’ pro-Palestine walkout; Teal MP Chaney proposes GST reform; Butler defends PBS as Trump threatens fresh tariffs

Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher looks at what history tells us happens once a country’s leader starts controlling facts.

Listen to the full episode here:

“The group marched from that location to Flinders Street, where they blocked the intersection.

“One male was moved on for breaching the peace and five protesters were arrested for obstructing the roadway. The five arrested are expected to be charged on summons.”

“Two years after the hottest July on record, the recent streak of global temperature records is over – for now,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S.

“But this doesn’t mean climate change has stopped. We continued to witness the effects of a warming world in events such as extreme heat and catastrophic floods in July.”

While not as hot as the record-setting July 2023 and second-warmest July 2024, Earth’s average surface temperature last month was still 1.25 degrees above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, when humans began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale.

Moreover, the 12-month period from August 2024 to July 2025 was 1.53 degrees warmer than pre-industrial levels, exceeding the 1.5-degree threshold that was set as a maximum in the Paris Agreement that sought to curb global warming and entered into force in 2016.

Southern Europe has had multiple large fires this summer. Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires.

Last month, a wildfire that reached the southern port of Marseille, France’s second-largest city, injured about 300 people.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the C3S.

AP, Reuters

The plan comes months after Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s offer to shelter wounded Palestinians drew criticism from Indonesia’s top clerics for seeming too close to US President Donald Trump’s suggestion of permanently relocating Palestinians out of Gaza.

It comes as a former Israeli prime minister has said most Israelis are not in favour of what its government is doing in Gaza.

Speaking on ABC News’ Afternoon Briefing, Ehud Olmert said: “The idea of conquering all of Gaza is something which is not going to do any good, not to the Israeli hostages, and not to the prospect of ending the war, and definitely not of refraining from killing unnecessarily the Palestinians, which will become victims almost inevitably, of this military operation.”

Olmert also said recognising Palestinian statehood was not a punishment for Israel.

“When I was prime minister, from 2006, early 2006, ’til mid-2009, I proposed a Palestinian Authority with comprehensive peace plan that will allow, as part, the creation of a Palestinian state on the basis of the borders of 1967 with the Arab side of Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine,” he said.

“I don’t need the Australian prime minister today to tell me there is an idea of two states. The Palestinian side didn’t have the courage and the wisdom to then agree to it, which may have changed history for millions.

“I definitely support the creation of a Palestinian state. I think it’s a mistake to present it as a kind of a threat, as a punishment to Israel. Really, what does the Australian prime minister say? He says Israel will not behave itself until the September assembly of the United Nations, they will recognise the Palestinian state, which doesn’t exist.”

Olmert said countries around the world could continue to build a coalition to influence the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority to reform themselves.

With Alexander Darling

“The protesters were being taken away one by one by police, but they have actually decided to move on and are now in Fed Square, so traffic is not blocked any more,” Davidson said a few minutes ago.

“They probably took away three to four protesters before the group decided they’d move on to Fed Square instead.”

Victoria Police is yet to confirm how many people were arrested.

Thursday’s action follows major protests on Sunday in both Sydney and Melbourne, which saw the Sydney Harbour and King Street bridges filled with people. The Sydney protest attracted an estimated 90,000 people for the Palestinian cause.

Further protests are planned on August 24 in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth.
With AAP

Australia continues to weigh up when to recognise Palestine as a state, and has begun co-ordinating with other nations on the issue as France, Canada and the UK in this regard.

On Thursday, a former ambassador to Israel, Peter Rodgers, told the ABC that failing to do this would reward the Israeli government for its “campaign of genocidal violence”.

A genocide case has been brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which is yet to rule on the matter.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called the allegations “false and outrageous”, and his government has repeatedly claimed it targets only Hamas and not civilians.

More than 50,000 children have been killed or injured by Israel since October 2023, UNICEF says.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said the recognition of Palestine would need to guarantee Hamas played no role in the future nation. Foreign Minister Penny Wong has repeatedly emphasised the Palestinian Authority has condemned and sought to distance itself from the terrorist group.

With AAP