As it happened: Abbott backs ADF personnel in Gaza, says he respects Hanson; Optus execs depart after fatal Triple Zero outage; Greens, Coalition criticise environment reform plan

Thanks for joining us, we will be back tomorrow with continuing live coverage, here’s a quick recap of the day:

• A major overhaul of Australia’s environment laws has a rocky road ahead as it faces fierce criticism from the Coalition and the Greens. Labor plans to bring debate over environmental policy to a head in the next fortnight when it introduces the reforms into federal parliament.
• Breaking his media silence, Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has ruled out abandoning the Coalition altogether, and urged Barnaby Joyce not to leave the Nationals. Former prime minister Tony Abbott urged the same of Joyce while on the ABC this afternoon.
• Optus has said that two executives will depart the company after last month’s Triple Zero outage that has been linked to three deaths and before a crucial Senate inquiry into the saga.
• In Victoria, the men who drowned during yesterday’s wild weather have been identified as British surfer and someone who tried to rescue him.

• In NSW, upper house MP Jeremy Buckingham used parliamentary privilege to identify the man who admitted to killing three-year-old British tourist Cheryl Grimmer in 1970. After Buckingham’s speech, Cheryl’s brother Paul broke down in tears.

• And overseas, the International Court of Justice has said Israel must allow the UN aid agency in Gaza – UNRWA – to provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian territory.

With AAP

The family of a young Indigenous man who died in police custody have been told an inquest will aim to uncover the truth after they lashed out over investigation delays.

Coroner Elisabeth Armitage made the assurance after Kumanjayi White’s family vented their frustration, flagging a protest rally targeting the “racist” Northern Territory government.

Family members said they were “deeply distressed” ahead of a coronial directions hearing on Thursday, repeating calls for the officers involved in the death to be stood down.

White, 24, died in an Alice Springs supermarket in May after being forcibly restrained by two off-duty police officers, sparking national outrage and calls for an independent investigation.

The NT Director of Public Prosecutions is yet to decide whether charges will be laid against the officers, five months after the tragedy.

On Thursday, Armitage expressed her condolences to White’s family, saying the inquest was a “slow but careful and considered process”.

Just returning to the eSafety commissioner on ABC News earlier this afternoon: Julie Inman Grant also said she won’t seek another term in her role.

Inman Grant began her role in 2017, and is serving her second five-year term at the moment.

“If I make it to 10 years, that is a pretty good run,” she said.

“It’s a very bruising role. I have just been doxxed again on Telegram by Australian neo-Nazis to a UK-based neo-Nazi group. When it puts yourself but mostly your family and your kids in jeopardy, it does make you take a step back.”

Inman Grant was also asked about the upcoming social media ban for under-16s, and whether the sites Roblox and Reddit would be included in the ban.

“You will get that clarity soon ... in the next week or two ... I’d much rather get the legal assessments right than be rushed,” she said.

Before he finished his time on the ABC this afternoon, former PM Tony Abbott was also asked about current Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s statements that she is considering voting against the government’s new environmental reforms.

Host Patricia Karvelas noted Abbott himself extracted political mileage from opposing the Gillard government’s carbon tax during his time as opposition leader last decade.

“My understanding is of these new laws that they are going to make it harder, not easier to get development of projects up and running,” Abbott said.

When he had it pointed out to him the stated aim was to make developments faster, Abbott replied: “That is not how I read the fine print here. If it’s a choice between cutting emissions and economic growth, I think you have to go for economic growth every time.”

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has issued legal notices to four popular AI companion providers requiring them to explain how they are protecting children from exposure to a range of harms.

Notices given to Character Technologies (character.ai), Glimpse.AI (Nomi), Chai Research Corp (Chai) and Chub AI (Chub.ai) require them to answer a series of questions about how they are complying with the government’s Basic Online Safety Expectations, and to report on the steps they take.

Speaking on ABC News’ Afternoon Briefing, Julie Inman-Grant said: “We know in Australia some of these platforms are encouraging people to engage in explicit sexual behaviour.”

Inman-Grant said the commission had seen success recently in using its transparency powers.

“With our first transparency report on child sexual exploitation material, Omegle was one of our targets, and they have since ceased to operate,” she said.

“Skype, which is owned by Microsoft and was being used for livestreamed child sexual abuse material – they have now deprecated that – and Apple has really upped its safety game as a result of a lot of our transparency powers and has markedly improved their communications and safety features. We hope to do the same with these chatbots that are very popular with young people.”