Son of Palestinian refugees projected to win Calwell for Labor
Earlier we brought you news that electoral analysts Ben Raue and Antony Green have called the Melbourne seat of Calwell for Labor candidate Basem Abdo.
Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents – his father left a village in the occupied West Bank after the Six Day War in 1967 – Abdo’s family sought refuge in Jordan during the Gulf War before migrating to Australia in 1991.
He has previously spoken of how his father was trained as an electrical engineer but couldn’t find a job in that field in Australia.
“I have always had that instilled in me – a deep appreciation for the dignity of work and the impact that social and economic displacement has on people. I think it can be tackled by governments,” Abdo said last year.
“That’s a strong part of what has driven me within the movement,” he said of his position in Labor.
You can read more about Abdo here:
Key events
Home auctions spiking already after RBA’s rate cut
Auction clearance rates jumped immediately after the Reserve Bank’s second interest rate cut of the year, in a sign home buyers are regaining confidence, the Australian Associated Press reports.
The volume of auctions held in capital cities surged more than 40% to 2512 last week, with 71.3% reported as sold, according to property data analytics firm Cotality.
That’s the second-highest preliminary clearance rate in 2025.
Strength in the Melbourne market underpinned the recovery, with almost three quarters of homes under the hammer recording a successful auction. Meanwhile, Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate passed 70% for the first time in 10 weeks.
While buyer confidence improved, sellers’ expectations are in many cases still above what the market is willing to pay.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
PM sends army to help NSW floods clean-up
Seventy Australian defence force personnel will be deployed to the New South Wales mid-north coast to assist with the cleanup from the devastating floods.
The troops will be on the ground from Tuesday alongside the veteran-led Disaster Relief Australia, helping to clear debris, reopen roads and conduct welfare checks on residents in the flood zone.
Anthony Albanese announced the ADF deployments as the massive cleanup operation began for communities across the region.
“Unfortunately we are getting far too much experience in dealing with extreme weather events,” the prime minister told a press conference inside the national situation room in Canberra.
Read more:
Elias Visontay
I’ll now pass over the blog to my colleague Nick Visser. Have a good afternoon!
Healthscope says it’s ‘business as usual’ and no hospitals will close
The head of private healthcare provider Healthscope has sought to reassure patients that it’s “business as usual” and hospitals are not at risk of closing.
Tino La Spina, speaking at a press conference at the John Faulkner private hospital in Melbourne, which Healthscope operates, insisted: “There will be no hospital closures, there will be no redundancies.”
La Spina, a former airline executive who joined as Healthscope’s CEO about three months ago, said:
We have announced today the holding companies of Healthscope Operations have entered into receivership, essentially a process whereby the lenders can be, can oversee the sales process that the company has already started. My key message is: it’s business as usual for Healthscope in all its 37 hospitals.
Labor expects Healthscope to minimise hospital disruption – Butler
Health minister Mark Butler has responded to news of the collapse of Healthscope into receivership, calling the development “highly distressing to the patients, staff and local communities that depend on Healthscope’s services”.
Butler said
While Healthscope have announced they will remain operating as normal with no change to patient care or staffing, this will still be difficult for the hospital’s employees and their patients.
As Healthscope have today stated, if you have a planned procedure in one of their hospitals, it will go ahead.
Throughout this process the government has been meeting regularly with Healthscope and we have clear expectations the hospital group, lenders and landlords to act cooperatively and deliver the least disruptive outcome for patients, staff and the broader health system.
Butler said the government has met with the administrator and the receiver to outline our priorities and expectations, and said he expects “all parties to continue to put patient care and workers as their priority”.
We expect that these hospitals remain a critical part of our healthcare system. The government does not want any of these important assets to be put in jeopardy to satisfy international investors.
Butler added:
As the government has said all along, there will be no taxpayer bailout. We remain steadfast in our view that an orderly sales process that maintains the integrity of the entire hospital group will provide the best outcome for patients, staff, landlords and lenders.
Receivers appointed at embattled hospital operator Healthscope
Jonathan Barrett
The indebted private healthcare provider Healthscope, operator of Sydney’s embattled Northern Beaches hospital, has fallen into receivership after its lenders withdrew support.
Healthscope, backed by global investment firm Brookfield, had been renegotiating its finances with lenders after accruing $1.6bn in debt and defaulting on various lease payments.
The private hospital owner said in a statement that its 37 hospitals would remain open and operating on a business-as-usual basis with no impact on staff, doctors or patient care.
Restructuring firm McGrathNicol has been appointed to sell the business. It has been provided with a new $100m funding package by financier Commonwealth Bank to support operations during the sale process.
“Our immediate focus is to engage constructively with all key stakeholders to ensure uninterrupted operation of Healthscope hospitals and continuity of best practice standards of patient care,” McGrathNicol partner Keith Crawford said.
Receiverships are used by creditors to sell or reorganise assets to recoup debts.
Healthscope chief executive Tino La Spina said:
The receivers and management share the same goal of maintaining our market-leading standards of patient care and protecting the business, the hospitals and our amazing people.
Concerns over patient care at the Healthscope-run Northern Beaches hospital have sparked criticism of public-private partnerships in the health sector.
Chinese envoy blasts Australian plan to buy back Darwin port
China’s ambassador in Australia has condemned a push to block a Chinese company running a strategically important Australian shipping port, calling it “ethically questionable”.
The Landbridge group was granted a 99-year lease on the northern port of Darwin in 2015, a widely criticised decision that led to stricter scrutiny of major infrastructure sales.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese last month said the port should be “in Australian hands” and vowed to buy back control of the “strategic asset”.
But ambassador Xiao Qian urged Canberra to honour its contract with Landbridge, a sprawling energy and infrastructure firm increasingly setting its sights beyond China.
“Such an enterprise and project deserves encouragement, not punishment,” he said, according to a transcript published on the Chinese embassy’s website over the weekend.
“It is ethically questionable to lease the port when it was unprofitable and then seek to reclaim it once it becomes profitable.”
Albanese had criticised Australia’s former conservative government for “flogging off” the port to “a company with links to the Chinese government”.
AFP
Couple reunited with calf amid deluge
As New South Wales man Dan Patch speaks with a reporter, his partner Heather Middleton finds their calf wandering around their flood-stricken property.
The couple had been evacuated from their Ghinni Ghinni property the week earlier as a deadly deluge hit parts of the state and were forced to leave behind their livestock.
Son of Palestinian refugees projected to win Calwell for Labor
Earlier we brought you news that electoral analysts Ben Raue and Antony Green have called the Melbourne seat of Calwell for Labor candidate Basem Abdo.
Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents – his father left a village in the occupied West Bank after the Six Day War in 1967 – Abdo’s family sought refuge in Jordan during the Gulf War before migrating to Australia in 1991.
He has previously spoken of how his father was trained as an electrical engineer but couldn’t find a job in that field in Australia.
“I have always had that instilled in me – a deep appreciation for the dignity of work and the impact that social and economic displacement has on people. I think it can be tackled by governments,” Abdo said last year.
“That’s a strong part of what has driven me within the movement,” he said of his position in Labor.
You can read more about Abdo here:
Benita Kolovos
Police allege rival gangs planned Melbourne shopping centre fight
Victoria police deputy commissioner David Clayton is holding a press conference on the alleged fight between rival groups that forced Northland shopping centre into lockdown at the weekend.
He says “police completely understand the concern and fear created by the incident” and noted it was “not very commonplace in Victoria”.
Clayton says officers arrived “within minutes” of the altercation breaking out and that it involved two groups of four individuals. He says it was a “planned fight between two rival youth gangs” and confirmed “no innocent bystanders” were hurt during the incident.
A 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy, allegedly the “primary offenders”, were arrested at the scene. Both have since been charged with affray, intentionally causing injury and possession and use of a controlled weapon. They were remanded to appear at the children’s court this afternoon.
A 20-year-old man remains in hospital with serious head injuries, while two additional arrests were made this morning – a 20-year-old man from Thornbury and an 18-year-old man from Bundoora, who are currently being interviewed.
Clayton says:
These people and the gangs that they align themselves with are well known to police, especially our investigators from Operation Alliance. As such, we’ve already identified all of those who were involved, with more arrests imminent. So I urge anybody who was involved to hand themselves in to police.
Police allege a total of four machetes were used and three were seized by officers.
Clayton says general duties police are engaging with shopping centre management and store owners to “provide reassurance” today.
And thank them for their support yesterday, particularly the many shopkeepers and staff who assisted in keeping the community calm and safe during that frightening experience.
Protester shouts at judge in Erin Patterson murder trial
Adeshola Ore
We’ll be bringing you live updates from Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial, which has entered its fifth week.
Shortly before midday, a protester seated just in front of Patterson leapt to his feet and shouted at Justice Christopher Beale, asking how he can be a judge. The man was marched swiftly from the court by Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall.
Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, in regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Andrew Messenger
Windfarm project cancelled by Queensland government
The Queensland government has killed a billion-dollar, 450 megawatt windfarm project near Rockhampton.
The project was approved in December. But planning minister Jarrod Bleijie called it in for reassessment earlier this year and cancelled it last week.
He said about 88% of local residents opposed the Moonlight Range windfarm in submissions to the planning process. Bleijie said he was concerned about planned clearing of native vegetation and a lack of off-site workers’ accommodation.
It would have required clearing about 430 hectares of regulated vegetation in an area that has been “heavily impacted by historical land clearing, primarily for cattle grazing”, according to its environmental impact statement.
The premier, David Crisafulli, said his government would back renewable energy “if they back their commitments”:
We want renewable energy projects to drive a balance in our energy mix. They have to treat communities with respect and decency, and they have to be there for the long term in supporting those communities.
Meanwhile, the Queensland Conservation Council’s senior campaigner, Stephanie Gray, said the state government was “sending a lot of mixed signals to the clean energy sector by revoking this approval”.
Effectively, they’re sending the signal that Queensland is closed for clean business.
Impact of floods ‘heartbreaking’
The New South Wales Reconstruction Authority’s chief executive, Mal Lanyon, says support is available to people unable to move back into their damaged homes.
He toured some of the regions damaged by the flooding and provided this statement:
What I have seen is heartbreaking. To see people’s possessions on sidewalks, to see the impact on dairy cattle, to see the impact right across this region is really difficult.
We understand a number of people who haven’t had access to their homes are starting to go home. I also know that some of those people will go home and find that their house is not suitable to live in at the moment. Support is available.
