TRANSCRIPT:
- Anthony Albanese declares his reluctance to bring back a religious discrimination bill;
- US authorities defy court orders to return a wrongly deported man;
- The Kangaroos lay down the law ahead of their Essendon match-up tonight.
Anthony Albanese says he won't proceed with religious discrimination legislation without broad parliamentary support, if he wins a second term.
Labor abandoned a bill last year that was set to ban discrimination based on religious belief or activity, in public places such as workplaces, schools, clubs and healthcare settings.
The Prime Minister blamed a lack of support from the Opposition and rising community tensions for the decision.
He now says he is reluctant to re-ignite the debate on religious discrimination when the situation has not yet improved.
"This is the last time in Australia - the last time - that you would wanna have a divisive debate about religion. So I'm up for legislation that has broad support, but we do not need further issues created."
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Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has accused Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of hiding key facts about his nuclear policy from the public during campaigning today.
Mr Clare has unveiled a list of ten items that he says Mr Dutton has failed to clarify to voters, including the total cost of the seven proposed reactors, the long preparation time before they can be turned on, and how much energy they'll actually provide.
"Why Peter Dutton isn't talking about this in the last few days in this election? And that's why he isn't visiting seven sites where he wants to put these nuclear reactors, this policy is the most expensive policy that any major party has ever taken to the Australian people in the history of federation, and the only way he could pay for it is to cut funding to health and to education."
The opposition has maintained their nuclear energy plan will lower power bills while delivering reliable and clean energy, despite Climate Change Authority numbers suggesting it will lead to an extra two billion tonnes of emissions by 2050.
The debate over nuclear energy follows concern from environmental groups that climate change has been largely overlooked as an issue during this election campaign.
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The British military has launched air strikes with the United States targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels, their first attack in Washington's new intense campaign targeting the Iran-backed group.
The UK defence ministry has given detailed information on the raid, revealing that Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s dropped guided bombs at night on military targets in order to reduce civilian casualties.
UK Defence Secretary John Healey says the buildings attacked were being used to make drones used to hit ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
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A judge has ordered the Trump administration to once again report on what it is doing to repatriate wrongly deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
US Maryland District Court Judge Paula Xinis has set a May deadline for officials to provide sworn testimony on their efforts, in line with her order that he be returned to the US.
In Washington DC meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has refused to confirm if a formal request has been made for Mr Garcia's repatriation.
"Well, I would never tell you that. And you know who else I would never tell? A judge because the conduct of our foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge. So we will conduct foreign policy appropriately if we need to, but I'll never discuss it, and no one will ever make us discuss it."
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More than 135 people have been charged in New South Wales under tough laws to help protect retail workers from aggressive shoppers.
64 people have been convicted and 25 received a custodial sentence under the workplace violence laws, which passed in June 2023.
Almost one in 10 workers in New South Wales are in retail, making it the state's second largest industry.
Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association branch secretary Bernie Smith says almost nine out of 10 workers have had to put up with bad behaviour from the public.
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Artist Abdul Abdullah has won the $3,000 packing room award at this year's Archibald Prize for a portrait of his best friend Jack Phu sitting on a horse.
The West Australian painter's work entitled No Mountain High Enough has won the prize over more than 2000 entries in the Archibald Portrait exhibition.
The overall winner will be announced on May 9th.
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In AFL news,
The Kangaroos will be without George Wardlaw and suspended forward Paul Curtis in tonight's match against Essendon, as they look to end a five-game losing streak.
But it's that this will be the club's first game since their banning of Channel Seven’s Kane Cornes that is grabbing headlines.
Cornes had accused Harry Sheezel of “stat-padding” with easy touches, calling it “Sheezy Ball”, and criticised Jy Simpkin for what he called mouthing off at ex-teammate Jason Horne-Francis.
North Melbourne general manager of football Todd Viney says the club supports its players.
"We believe some of the commentary from Kane and particularly late, early this week with a couple of our players and Jy Simpkin and Harry Sheezel overstepped the line, as I said, inappropriate, targeted, vindictive, bullying behaviour that we as a club won't won't stand for."
