Australia news as it happened: CCTV childcare centre trial launched; AUSTRAC demands audit of crypto exchange Binance; report says Gaza’s hunger crisis at a tipping point

Thanks for joining us today. Here’s what we covered:

• Up to 300 small and medium childcare operators will be part of the CCTV trial from October or November, as part of a $189 million federal government funding package aimed at improving child safety.

• In other politics news, former opposition leader Peter Dutton has addressed the Liberal-Nationals’ annual convention in Brisbane. While there, he ruled out making a comeback despite the reception, saying he was “too old for that” (he’s 54). At the same convention, his successor Sussan Ley vowed to win back Dutton’s seat of Dickson, as well as others they lost in Queensland, and to go to the next election with a “complete economic plan”.
• A woman has been charged with concealing the birth of a deceased child after the body of an infant boy was found in a stormwater drain in Perth’s north earlier this week.
• Australian sunscreen brand Ultra Violette is recalling one of its most popular products from the market two months after failing a controversial SPF test conducted by consumer watchdog Choice.
• AUSTRAC, the nation’s anti-money laundering authority, has ordered crypto exchange Binance Australia to appoint an external auditor after the regulator found serious concerns with Binance’s anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing controls.
• The hunger crisis in Gaza is at a tipping point, with critically low supplies of fortified milk and special nutritious pastes exacerbating food shortages and pushing greater numbers of children into starvation, according to aid agencies, malnutrition experts and the United Nations.
• In Victoria, a man living under a bridge when he set fire to an east Melbourne synagogue allegedly told police he believed it was a home and not a place of worship.
• In NSW, the stressed parents of 17,559 students have had their agonising wait for the NSW selective school results extended after the website crashed.

And staying in NSW, Australia’s largest outdoor music festival has also kicked off. The Mundi Mundi bash near Broken Hill runs until Saturday, and there’s no decibel-measuring so no one knows how loud it gets out there!

Have a great weekend, we will be back soon with more live coverage.

Environmental advocates have lost a legal bid to overturn the final Commonwealth approval allowing Woodside Energy to start up its $19.5 billion Scarborough natural gas project off Western Australia.

A national group of more than 2000 doctors and medical students, known as Doctors for the Environment Australia, launched a case in the Federal Court alleging the offshore environmental regulator was wrong to approve ASX-listed Woodside’s giant new fossil fuel development because it had not properly evaluated the impact and risks caused by the planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions it will release into the atmosphere.

However, Federal Court Justice Shaun McElwaine dismissed the case on Friday, confirming the approval granted by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority was valid.

Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill said the decision would enable the oil and gas producer to confidently proceed with the project, 375 kilometres off the coast of the Burrup Peninsula, which was generating thousands of jobs and would become a key driver of economic growth.

“The project is expected to contribute more than $50 billion in direct and indirect taxes to Australia’s economy,” she said.

Woodside, the largest Australian energy company, forecasts a significant lift in global demand for gas in the coming decades, even as governments and companies step up efforts to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century.

A woman has been charged with concealing the birth of a deceased child after the body of an infant boy was found in a stormwater drain in Perth’s north earlier this week.

In a press conference on Friday afternoon, WA Police Acting Inspector Jessica Securo said community information led to the woman coming to police’s attention, two days after workmen found the infant’s body in a stormwater drain on La Salle Road in Alexander Heights.

Police confirmed the baby was a newborn boy, who had been in the drain for “several days”.

“This of course is highly distressing for the entire community, detectives and, as you can imagine, the family of the infant,” Securo said.

“The family and [other] community members have provided us with so much information and we’re thankful for that.”

Securo said police were continuing to investigate. “The baby was not killed violently, however the circumstances around the death of the child are ongoing,” she said.