Australia politics live: sealed section of robodebt royal commission released; Wong urges remaining Australians in Middle East to leave

Anthropic promises to match US commitments on power, water useJosh TaylorAfter Anthropic said this week it was establishing a Sydney office, and was looking towards local infrastructure in Australia, independent senator David Pocock asked Anthropic’s head of external policy and partnerships, safeguards, Evan Frondorf, about Guardian reporting on expected AI water demand in Australia to be projected to be the equivalent of the ACT’s drinking water supply.He asked Frondorf what Anthropic was doing to make sure there wasn’t a spike in emissions, water use and electricity costs with its data centres.Frondorf said in the US, Anthropic has committed to cover the full costs of grid upgrades and bring net new power generation to meet its demand, reduce the draw of power at peak times and deploy water-efficient cooling. He said the company would expect to adopt a similar approach in other markets.At the end of the hearing, One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts said One Nation had “phenomenal growth, staggering growth, and we get so many compliments for our work” and complained the ABC “which is notorious for propaganda” was saying the party’s popularity was due to “Vietnamese bots”.He was referring to an ABC report that examined a trove of foreign-owned Facebook accounts that were promoting One Nation using deepfake AI images.“Is AI often blamed for things that are quite natural and truthful?” Roberts asked.Frondorf: double quotation markI’m not familiar with this particular situation and so can’t speak to that. But I would say we take seriously our responsibility to make the benefits of AI and maximise the benefits of AI for the world. ShareUpdated at 01.42 CETKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureAndrew MessengerStudents for Palestine speak after activists’ arrestQueensland students for Palestine have spoken at a brief press conference this morning after the arrest of Liam Parry, one of their members, yesterday.Parry was arrested for saying “from the river to the sea” at a rally yesterday, and will face court next month. Another protestor was arrested for wearing a shirt bearing the phrase, but has been given a caution.Students For Palestine Queensland convener, Ella Gutteridge said the arrests”show the real intent of these laws, which is to intimidate and silence peace activists.She said Parry would defend himself “on the basis that the speech given was educational and it was in the public interest, because what could possibly be in the public interest, if not for speaking out against a genocide that our government is supporting”.The organisers wouldn’t confirm if the group planned future rallies to challenge the laws, which ban two phrases when they “intimidate, harrass or offend”.Gutteridge compared the laws to Joh Bjelkie-Petersen’s ban on protest marches during the 1977 tour by the all-white apartheid South African rugby union team. He also declared a state of emergency.But Connor Knight, another convenor of the group, said there were “tens of thousands of people around Australia who are outraged by what’s happened to Liam, and there will be a mass campaign to have his charges dropped”.ShareUS spent nearly $16bn on Iran war in first weekThe US Department of Defense told Congress the first week of the Iran war cost $11.3bn (AU$15.9bn). The Pentagon provided the estimate in a briefing earlier this week, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting, the Associated Press reports.The military reported spending $5bn (AU$7bn) on munitions alone in the first weekend of the war.ShareUpdated at 01.42 CETDennis Richardson says he felt like a ‘fifth wheel’ in royal commissionDennis Richardson is speaking on Sky News about his decision to leave the royal commission into antisemitism.He elaborated that he was doing a review before the royal commission was started that was then rolled into the commission when it began. A royal commission, he said, is a “very different animal”.He told Sky: double quotation markI felt it had reached a point where I wasn’t adding relatively little value and I wasn’t getting a lot of satisfaction out of it, quite frankly. I have no doubt that the royal commission under Virginia Bell is going to do an excellent job, I have no doubt about that at all. Very simply I felt I was the fifth wheel. It’s a very legally driven process. The way it’s structured, and the way it proceeds is such that there’s not much need for someone like myself. Richardson said his decision was no fault of the government. double quotation markQuite frankly I didn’t believe I was adding a lot to the value, and I felt that the contribution that I could make was over time being limited. Not in any destructive or any bad way. It’s just the way the process works. The need for someone like me becomes less obvious. ShareUpdated at 01.53 CETSealed section of robodebt royal commission report releasedSarah Basford CanalesThe sealed section of the robodebt royal commission report has been made public almost three years after the final report was handed down.The 56-page document contains the names of public officials royal commissioner Catherine Holmes referred to various bodies, including the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the Australian federal police and the Australian Public Service Commission, for further investigation.Those names have now been revealed after the Nacc released its final report yesterday into the six individuals it examined for potential corrupt conduct. Ultimately, the Nacc found two former public servants – Serena Wilson and Mark Withnell – had engaged in serious corrupt conduct. However, the Nacc didn’t recommend referring the two for charges because there was “not sufficient admissible evidence to establish either of those offences beyond reasonable doubt”.Another four referred to the Nacc, including former prime minister Scott Morrison and former agency head Kathryn Campbell were cleared.The sealed chapter reveals Withnell was also referred to the AFP for potentially giving false evidence at royal commission hearings.In July 2024, the AFP said its investigation into Withnell “did not identify sufficient admissible evidence to prove the alleged offender intended to mislead the royal commission”.ShareUpdated at 01.51 CETWong says ‘you can’t sustainably impose regime change from outside’Wong says the Australian government has been “very clear” about the objectives it supports when it comes to the Iran war, including opposition to Iran’s nuclear weapons program. double quotation markWe have said we are not going to take action to strike Iran, we’re not going to be part of that, and we are not going to be deploying ground troops in Iran. I think that the challenge here is, whatever you think of the Iranian regime … history shows us that you can’t sustainably impose regime change from outside. And so ultimately the decision about who runs Iran and how they run it has to be in the hands of the Iranian people. ShareUpdated at 01.14 CETBenita KolovosMinister says Victorian plan will help alleviate some of the stress of buying a homeThe Victorian consumer affairs minister, Nick Staikos, says consultation will begin this year with stakeholders and the ACT government, which is the only jurisdiction that currently mandates the reports.He says standards will be mandated to ensure the reports are consistent: double quotation markIn an ACT report, [there are] things that any buyer [will] want to know – is the property structurally sound? Do the stumps need to be redone? Is the property leaking? Does the property contain mould? Does the property contain termites? They’re the really basic things that people want to know before they make the biggest purchase of their lives, and our government wants to support Victorians who are looking to buy a home because … it is already a very stressful process, and things like shelling out thousand of dollars for these reports, even when you don’t end up buying the property, just adds to that stress and expense. View image in fullscreenVictorian consumer affairs minister Nick Staikos. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAPShareUpdated at 00.55 CETMost Australians caught at Middle East travel hubs are now home, but Wong urges those living there to try to leaveForeign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said most of the Australians who were caught in transit in airline hubs in the Middle East have now returned home on several dozen flights that have made it out in recent days.Wong told Sky News that there are still around 13,000 Australians who have registered for assistance in the region, with more than 100,000 others believed to be living in the Middle East. She said it was “good” that those stuck in transit had been able to leave, but stressed the government was urging anyone able to secure a seat out of the region to do so. She said: double quotation markTo the Australians who are living in the region: our advice is that you should, if you can secure a seat, you should leave. Please don’t wait until it is too late. If you can secure a seat, we believe people should be leaving. We don’t want to see a situation where commercial flights that are in operation … where they dry up. We hope that will not happen, but, don’t leave it too late. View image in fullscreenForeign affairs minister, Penny Wong. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShareUpdated at 01.02 CETBenita KolovosVictoria premier speaks on mandatory building and pest inspection schemeThe Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, held a press conference to announce a plan to develop a mandatory building and pest inspection scheme, if re-elected in November.Under the plan, vendors would be required to organise and pay for the inspections and make the reports available to all potential buyers.She said: double quotation markWhen you’re selling a car, the seller needs to provide a roadworthy certificate to all of the interested buyers. The same approach needs to be taken for interested buyers looking at buying a home … We’re also making this change because we know for interested buyers, many people are having to purchase multiple building and pest inspections that can add up to thousands and thousands of dollars, and that’s money that could instead be being put into the home deposit for the purchase of the house. View image in fullscreenVictorian premier Jacinta Allan. Photograph: James Ross/AAPShareUpdated at 00.55 CETBarnaby Joyce said he still plans to run for a Senate seat, but plans could changeJoyce said he still plans to go after a seat in the Senate, but those conversations could change depending on what the party, or the country, needs. He told Sky News: double quotation markIf I’m in a party, if circumstances change as we get closer, where the party determines that what we need is to have a crack at a lower house seat, I suppose that’s what I’ll try. You try to do what’s best, obviously, for your electorate. But you do what’s best for the nation as well. If you’ve gotta change course for the betterment of your nation, then you’re highly selfish if you don’t. ShareUpdated at 00.29 CETJoyce says he thinks One Nation will regularly be on the ‘same page’ as Matt CanavanOne Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said he thinks he will regularly be on the same page with newly minted Nationals leader Matt Canavan, saying the pair have many similarities when it comes to policy.Joyce told Sky News this morning: double quotation markI wish Matt Canavan … all the best. I think it’s incredibly important for the nation that you play the game on the balls of your toes … I’ve got nothing bad to say about them. At times, I believe strongly, that Matt, myself, Pauline and One Nation will all be strongly on the same page. It’s just that the Coalition won’t be. View image in fullscreenBarnaby Joyce. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShareUpdated at 00.24 CETAnthropic promises to match US commitments on power, water useJosh TaylorAfter Anthropic said this week it was establishing a Sydney office, and was looking towards local infrastructure in Australia, independent senator David Pocock asked Anthropic’s head of external policy and partnerships, safeguards, Evan Frondorf, about Guardian reporting on expected AI water demand in Australia to be projected to be the equivalent of the ACT’s drinking water supply.He asked Frondorf what Anthropic was doing to make sure there wasn’t a spike in emissions, water use and electricity costs with its data centres.Frondorf said in the US, Anthropic has committed to cover the full costs of grid upgrades and bring net new power generation to meet its demand, reduce the draw of power at peak times and deploy water-efficient cooling. He said the company would expect to adopt a similar approach in other markets.At the end of the hearing, One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts said One Nation had “phenomenal growth, staggering growth, and we get so many compliments for our work” and complained the ABC “which is notorious for propaganda” was saying the party’s popularity was due to “Vietnamese bots”.He was referring to an ABC report that examined a trove of foreign-owned Facebook accounts that were promoting One Nation using deepfake AI images.“Is AI often blamed for things that are quite natural and truthful?” Roberts asked.Frondorf: double quotation markI’m not familiar with this particular situation and so can’t speak to that. But I would say we take seriously our responsibility to make the benefits of AI and maximise the benefits of AI for the world. ShareUpdated at 01.42 CETJosh TaylorAnthropic says it’s aware of risk chatbot could be used to automate influence campaignsAnthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, told a Senate inquiry on climate misinformation that its risk for the AI chatbot to generate misinformation was lower than those that offer image or video generation, but the company was alert to the risk Claude could be used to automate influence operations online.Anthropic’s head of external policy and partnerships, safeguards, Evan Frondorf, told senators that Anthropic took a “layered approach” to tackling misinformation with training guardrails and monitoring of potential malicious use.He said: double quotation markWe train Claude to be factually accurate and honest about the limits of its knowledge, but also to engage with a wide variety of perspectives and provide balanced commentary on political topics. Our usage policy explicitly prohibits Claude to create or spread misleading and deceptive content, and once our models are deployed, we run automated detection systems and staff a dedicated threat intelligence team that investigates coordinated misuse and includes influence operations that we’ve detected, disrupted, and reported on publicly. View image in fullscreen Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty ImagesFrondorf said Anthropic reported in March 2025 that it had detected Claude being used for a coordinated social media campaign: double quotation markThis was less even about the generation of the content itself, but a really novel attack where our systems or Claude was misused to dictate posting schedules to dictate who needs a to interact with and that sort of activity is, is a concern, and is a focus for our team. And when we detected that, we shut that campaign down and it influenced, you know, our monitoring capabilities going forward, to, to detect that activity earlier. On climate change misinformation, Frondorf said Claude is trained on decades of scientific research, and is trained not to be swayed by just one new piece of information it might be given on a topic.ShareUpdated at 01.42 CETTom McIlroyAnimal advocates call for speedy re-entry amid Iran warPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) has urged the federal government to relax some quarantine regulations for animals caught up in the Middle East war.As Australian citizens and permanent residents rush home from Gulf states, the group has written to the agriculture minister, Julie Collins, asking for family pets to be allowed into the country with their owners.“Animals don’t start wars, yet they are often the victims of them,” spokesperson Mimi Bekhechi said. double quotation markSeparating animal companions from their guardians will only result in more heartbreak and unnecessarily lost lives. PETA is calling on the Australian government to offer a solution to help humans and animals safely escape being caught in the crossfire. Peta says it usually takes at least six months to bring an animal into Australia from the United Arab Emirates, due to quarantine controls and checks for rabies and immunisation requirements.There were about 24,000 Australians living in the UAE before the war.Bekhechi said countries including Austria, Belgium, Hungary and Croatia had temporarily relaxed animal import rules to allow returning citizens to bring their animals home.View image in fullscreenDubai Municipality has launched 12 AI-powered feeding stations across the city in response to the rise in stray cats and dogs. Photograph: Government of DubaiShareUpdated at 23.30 CETDennis Richardson says he was ‘way overpaid’ for royal commission roleRichardson called into the ABC to clarify his remarks on his salary for his work on the royal commission, saying it was actually too large for the work he was doing. He told ABC Radio Canberra: double quotation markIt would be quite wrong to suggest that a royal commission is bogged down in legalese that is unnecessary. But it does take a certain amount of time and at the end of the day, to be very blunt, I was being way overpaid for what I was doing. ShareUpdated at 23.07 CETAtlassian to lay off about 10% of its workforce in shift to AISoftware provider Atlassian said on Wednesday it would lay off around 10% of its workforce, or roughly 1,600 positions, as part of a restructuring plan to push into artificial intelligence and enterprise sales, Reuters reports.The company said it expects to incur total pre-tax charges between US$225m and $236m related to the layoffs and office space reductions.The move comes as the company seeks to “rebalance” its resources to focus on the “future of teamwork in the AI era”, according to a regulatory filing.View image in fullscreenAtlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesShareUpdated at 23.04 CETRichardson said he didn’t believe he was being paid ‘consistent’ with his work on royal commissionBack to Dennis Richardson’s interview on RN earlier this morning. The former spy chief said he didn’t believe he was being paid “consistent” with his work on the royal commission into antisemitism. He told RN: double quotation markI came to a view that, quite frankly, what I was being paid wasn’t consistent with the work I was doing. When host Sally Sara asked what Richardson meant by that, he said simply: double quotation markJust that. I think most people would understand that, Sally. ShareUpdated at 22.50 CETA quick update on Australians returning home from the Middle EastMore than 3,200 Australians have arrived in the country on 23 direct flights since 4 March, with more scheduled to arrive this morning and others expected to depart from Dubai today.The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, will speak about those repatriation efforts later this morning.Emirates and Qatar Airways are still only operating limited flights from the region.ShareUpdated at 22.18 CET

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