As it happened: PM fights back tears after revealing terror threats to family; Treasurer approves ANZ acquisition of Suncorp

In business news, tech, banking and healthcare stocks kept the Australian sharemarket in the green on Friday as it lost almost all of its morning momentum.

The S&P/ASX 200 eked 7.9 points or 0.1 per cent higher to 7,767.5 as the miners dragged on the bourse.

Strike Energy finished the day at the top, closing 12 per cent higher after benching plans to construct a $3 billion fertiliser plant to focus on producing electricity instead.

In second place is insurance firm IAG, which lifted 7.2 per cent after announcing it had signed a five-year deal with global insurance giants including Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which will cap its costs from natural disasters after a horror run.

Suncorp Group climbed 3.6 per cent after Treasurer Jim Chalmers gave his blessing to ANZ to take over the Brisbane-headquartered financial services group. Meanwhile, ANZ dipped 0.2 per cent.

Read a wrap of today’s sharemarket news here.

Infrastructure Minister Catherine King says the government won’t publicly release a full mediator report recommending a skyrail station at Melbourne Airport, despite opposition calls to do so.

The Commonwealth appointed mediator Neil Scales to intervene in the long-running dispute between the airport’s owners and the Victorian government over whether the proposed train station is built above ground (like the state wants) or below ground (like the airport wants).

Scales handed a report with three key recommendations to King this month. Yesterday, the federal infrastructure minister revealed the report recommended the underground option should not be considered by state and federal governments, and that if the airport’s owners wished to pursue this idea, they should provide a comprehensive business case for consideration.

Federal opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie called on the Albanese government to release the full report because questions remained about whether the process was a true mediation.

Speaking on 3AW this hour, King said she wouldn’t as the mediator had recommended against it as he thought it was not in the public interest.

“It contains some significant commercial-in-confidence information from the airport,” King said. “The other [public interest reason] is just Commonwealth-state relations – just in terms of how the Commonwealth and states have been working through some of these issues.

“So we’ve respected that that’s his view. We’ve provided the report where we can and most of the report to the two parties so that they’ve got the same information before them that I have.”

In legal settings, mediators do not usually make findings or produce reports and instead focus on encouraging discussions between two sides. The Commonwealth has at times referred to Scales as a “negotiator” instead.

With Patrick Hatch

Hungry Australians struggling with the cost-of-living crisis could benefit from laws that will drive down the price of fruit and vegetables.

Western Australian senator Dean Smith will table a private senator’s bill that incentivises food businesses, such as farmers and grocery store chains, to donate surplus food instead of dumping it.

“Food-relief charities are fighting to meet unprecedented demand while at the same time, an unbelievable amount of food is dumped each year,” the Liberal senator and opposition charities spokesman said.

“My private senator’s bill is aimed at turning that around and delivering meaningful help to Australians in need.”

The bill will be introduced to the Senate on Wednesday. It is based on a tax incentive proposal developed by food relief organisations Foodbank, OzHarvest and SecondBite, and reflects similar policy in the US, France and Canada.

The proposal was a key recommendation of the House of Representatives agriculture committee’s probe into food security.

However, without government support, the bill is unlikely to become law.

AAP

Good afternoon.

I’m Lachlan Abbott, and I’ll be keeping you updated with the latest Australian news for the rest of the day.

Thanks so much to Josefine Ganko for her blogging efforts this morning.

Let’s look back at the news of the day so far:

• Anthony Albanese fought back tears this morning after revealing the manifesto of a teen terror suspect, arrested in Newcastle this week, allegedly included threats to the prime minister’s family.

• Meta has denied that teenagers’ use of social media has contributed to steep rises in mental health and body image disorders. Executives from the owner of Facebook and Instagram faced tense questioning in a parliamentary committee this morning.

• Outspoken Labor senator Fatima Payman says she may cross the floor again over Palestine despite being rebuked by the prime minister for defying party convention.

• In NSW, Fadi Ibrahim, a central member of the Kings Cross nightclub family, has avoided prison for an act of “familial generosity” after his underworld brother, Michael, repaid a loan with $600,000 sourced from a black market tobacco deal.

• In Victoria, a man died in Melbourne’s west this morning after being hit by a car, hours after the police union says the state’s new sobering-up squad refused a police request to help him.

• In Queensland, the Brisbane City Council has warned thousands of bus commuters could be left behind at the city’s bus stops each week if the state government’s 50¢ fare trial creates too much demand.

• In Western Australia, the state’s corruption commission has slammed WA Police for its bungled handling of the unlawful arrest of a 14-year-old Aboriginal girl in 2022, calling it “oppressive and unjust”.

• In business news, ANZ Bank’s $4.9 billion takeover of Suncorp’s banking arm has been given the green light from Treasurer Jim Chalmers, subject to conditions requiring the merged bank to protect jobs and retain a regional presence.

• In international news, the first presidential debate of the 2024 US election rapidly descended into a nightmare for Democrats as Joe Biden, 81, tried unconvincingly to persuade a deeply sceptical nation that he’s capable of a second term.

• In sport news, Bronny James, the son of basketball superstar LeBron, was drafted to his father’s Los Angeles Lakers this morning, bringing him a step closer to the unprecedented possibly of a father-son duo playing together in the NBA.

Washington: The first presidential debate of the 2024 US election rapidly descended into a nightmare for Democrats as 81-year-old incumbent Joe Biden tried unconvincingly to persuade a deeply sceptical nation that he’s capable of a second term.

Five months from an election involving two candidates many voters say they don’t want, the debate also put the spotlight on the issue of Donald Trump’s criminal convictions, as Biden accused his Republican opponent of having “the morals of an alley cat” while highlighting Trump’s affair with porn star Stormy Daniels and his sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll.

“How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for molesting a woman in public?” Biden asked, “(or) having sex with a porn star while your wife was pregnant?”

“I didn’t have sex with a porn star,” Trump responded, in a sentence never before heard in a presidential debate.

Read more from our US correspondent here.

Employees on new enterprise agreements have reached their highest quarterly levels in more than a decade.

Employment and Workplace Department figures released today have revealed agreements approved during the March quarter covered just under 365,000 employees.

Enterprise agreements now cover more than 2.14 million workers, about 480,000 more than two years ago.

During the first quarter of the year, 1022 enterprise agreements were signed off.

The figures also reveal full-time workers on awards have received an extra $5.30 a week since the Albanese government was sworn in, or $10,400 a year more before tax.

Ahead of a minimum wage rise of 3.75 per cent that kicks in on Monday, data also showed a $3.77 increase in the minimum wage since 2022.

Minimum-wage earners have received an extra $143 per week, or $7451 a year, under the rises to the minimum wages.

From Monday, the minimum wage will increase to $24.10 per hour, with 2.6 million workers to benefit from the rise.

AAP

President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump have just concluded the first presidential debate of the 2024 election campaign, and there is a lot to process.

Our world team are hosting a dedicated live blog that will continue to cover all the fallout from the debate.

Click here to follow along.