Australia news live: gyrocopter crash kills pilot in Victoria; warning over supermarket surveillance

A gyrocopter has crashed in regional Victoria, killing the pilot

The aircraft came down at a private property on Snipey Road at Goulburn Weir, near Nagamble at about 7.15am on Sunday.

The pilot died at the scene and his passenger was airlifted to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Victoria Police said.

The exact cause of the crash is yet to be determined and police will prepare a report for the coroner.

– AAP

We’re wrapping the blog for the evening. Here are today’s major developments:

• Prime minister Anthony Albanese has received the red carpet treatment as he arrived in Shanghai at the start of his trip to meet with Xi Jinping.

• There is speculation about a potential rate rise by the RBA when it meets on Tuesday.

• Three people are dead after a plane crashed in outback Queensland[1] while assisting fire crews.

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers has rejected claims he is interfering in the operation of the RBA.

• Unpredictable conditions have hampered firefighting efforts in Western Australia as blazes continue to burn south of Perth.

• Australian officials are still seeking safe passage for citizens fleeing Gaza.

• Panda diplomacy underway as Adelaide Zoo begins negotiations to extend the stay of resident pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni.

• A large crowd has gathered in Melbourne to attend a rally in support of Palestine.

• Senator David Pocock has urged the government to abandon its sea dumping bill.

• China will pursue membership of regional trade pact.

With that, we’ll leave it there for today. Join us first thing tomorrow when we’ll bring you all the latest.

Queensland to ban sale of knives to juveniles

Selling knives and replica firearms to juveniles will be banned in Queensland, as part of a range of measures to tackle youth crime.

Police Minister, Mark Ryan, says it will become an offence to sell knives, certain other bladed items and replica firearms, including gel blasters, to anyone under 18.

Items being banned include: daggers, double-ended blades, machetes, sickles or scythes, spear-guns, spears, axes, tomahawks and swords.

It will also be an offence to try to use a fake ID to buy the contraband.

These laws will assist in keeping dangerous items out of the hands of young criminals, before violent offences can occur.

This will go hand in hand with the expansion of Jack’s Law, which is saving lives and reducing violence across Queensland every single day.”

The Labor government has expanded legislation allowing police to use personal metal detectors or “wands” to search people in so-called “Safe Night Precincts” as well as on public transport.

Officers have used the hand-held scanners in crime hotspot areas since March after the extension of Jack’s Law, created after the stabbing death of 17-year-old Jack Beasley on the Gold Coast in 2019.

Police say 904 people have been charged with almost 1600 offences between April and November, mostly drugs and weapons related.

Retailers will be required to display signs regarding the prohibition and can’t advertise certain weapons as “suitable for combat”.

– AAP

Big supermarkets are being warned that increased surveillance of shoppers, including close-up cameras on self-checkout screens, is more likely to anger shoppers rather than deter theft.

Consumer behaviour expert Nitika Garg from the School of Marketing at the UNSW Business School says it certainly won’t do much to build trust with customers.

Especially when, in Australia, we see the billions of dollars in profit that the two largest grocery retailers get.

[Consumers] feel like ‘you’re making billions of dollars of profit off my back and you’re doing this to me?’

That will trigger people to engage in deviant behaviour.

In August, Coles chief executive Leah Weckert said shoplifting by organised criminals and customers contributed to an annual 20% rise in stock losses.

Woolworths has announced plans to spend £40m on CCTV upgrades, body-worn cameras and other surveillance measures.

Coles is stepping up security guards at stores and introducing initiatives such as trolley locks and smart gates, and is trialling live camera surveillance on self-checkout screens.

Some checkouts have on-screen cameras and customers see live footage of themselves scanning items.

But many shoppers have taken to social media to voice their disapproval. Some are worried about their privacy and what happens to the footage, while others are just angry about being distrusted.

The issue has been raised on platforms like Reddit and TikTok where users have variously described it as “dystopian” and “invasive”.

– AAP

A gyrocopter has crashed in regional Victoria, killing the pilot

The aircraft came down at a private property on Snipey Road at Goulburn Weir, near Nagamble at about 7.15am on Sunday.

The pilot died at the scene and his passenger was airlifted to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Victoria Police said.

The exact cause of the crash is yet to be determined and police will prepare a report for the coroner.

– AAP

Australian universities are considering open campuses in India

The Sydney Morning Herald reports[2] federal education minister, Jason Clare, will lead a delegation of university executives on Sunday, his second trip for the year, to pitch the idea of Australian university’s setting up local campuses in India.

This would head off the need for large numbers of international students to travel to Australia, which is suggested to be putting the country’s migration system under strain.

The Modi government is considering opening up India to foreign universities, which Australian institutions consider a lucrative opportunity as they vie for high-fee paying international students.

Albanese says he’s received a positive welcome in China

The prime minister is emphasising the “positive” and “constructive” nature of discussions with China in this press conference but says that tomorrow, when he meets with Xi Jinping, discussions will be had “in a straightforward way on both sides and in a way that helps build trust”.

We have different political systems … in some areas we have different values. We will put that in a straightforward way.

Which is in Australia’s national interest but the welcome here has been very positive.

‘Pro-panda’ PM hopes for continuing presence

The prime minister is asked about the potential for pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni, currently housed at Adelaide Zoo, to return to China if their lease runs out in 2024 without an extension being negotiated.

Anthony Albanese said he wants to be very clear with the Australian people: he is very “pro-panda”.

Albanese:

Let me just say this about pandas. I am pro- panda. Let’s be very clear.

Pandas are wonderful animals and for those people on social media, there is no better Instagram accounts to follow than panda accounts. Let me just say that. So of course it is positive.

I’ve met those wonderful pandas at Adelaide Zoo and it is obviously a positive thing that they have been able to be there in Adelaide, but my understanding is the discussions, pandas do get homesick…

My understanding is the discussions between Adelaide zoo and the Chinese counterparts, the conservation organisation ongoing, but yes I would on behalf of Australia’s kids and families, I would like to see pandas maintain a presence in Australia.

Albanese believes Australian business will benefit from an easing of tensions

PM says his government has “sought to improve the relationship with China by being patient, calibrated and deliberated.”

By engaging in a constructive way, and I think we are seeing benefit from that with our trade and that’s a positive thing.

Albanese also welcomed comments from the Chinese leadership about “throwing its door open again” and engaging in open trade.

Albanese says both China and US can trust Australia

The prime minister is asked whether he thinks Australia will serve as a “bridge between the United States and China” which may help mend the relationship.

We think improve relations between the United States and China are a good thing. It is good that Antony Blinken has visited here. It’s good you are having ministerial level dialogue.

It’s a good thing that President Xi Jinping will travel to Apec for the 30th anniversary that will be held in San Francisco in a little over a week’s time. That will be important. We, though, importantly have a relationship with China, have a relationship with the United States.

It’s important that they talk to each other and I don’t think they need an intermediary to do so. We though, of course the important about Australia’s relationship and something my government has brought to our international relations as we say the same thing to the same people. In a consistent way.

That’s how you develop trust in international relations and I believe Australia’s a trusted partner.

China a ‘critical relationship’ for Australia, says Albanese

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese[3], is speaking after attending a trade expo in Shanghai. He says he was “very pleased” to meet with the premier, Li Qiang, and attend the opening banquet of the trade expo saying it was an “opportunity for us to renew the relationship that we started when we met together in Jakarta.”

One in four of Australian jobs depends on exports. And more than one in four of Australia’s export dollars are from China.

And therefore, this is a critical relationship, it’s a focus of the visit here in Shanghai.

NSW transport minister will not resign after staffing scandal

Jo Haylen will not follow her chief of staff and resign after it was revealed a staffer in her office may have breached public service guidelines.

Speaking for the first time since the revelations on Friday, Haylen said she referred the matter to the department for investigation as soon as she was made aware of emails that showed the staffer who had been seconded into an apolitical role had engaged in political work.

Haylen said:

This is a small number of internal emails which may have blurred the lines between these public servants and obligations.

As soon as these issues were brought to my attention… I referred them to his employer for investigation.

She said things could have been handled better but would not resign even if the investigation found the staffer, Kieran Ash, had breached the rules.

Earlier in the day, the premier, Chris Minns, defended his minister and said he wanted her in the job.

Guardian Australia Antoun Issa journalist says the crowd present for the Free Palestine rally in Melbourne is the largest protest the city has seen since the anti-war protests against the invasion of Iraq two decades ago.

This is the largest anti-war rally Melbourne has seen since the Iraq war 20 years ago. Tens of thousands. pic.twitter.com/B29yQzdlA1[4]

— Antoun Issa (@antissa) November 5, 2023[5]

Albanese cites ‘rules-based trade’ as source of prosperity

Still in Shanghai.

The prime minister’s office has just circulated Anthony Albanese’s remarks to the trade expo.

Australia’s prime minister didn’t criticise China’s trade sanctions explicitly. But he noted:

Along with other countries in our region, Australia and China have prospered thanks to the certainty and stability that is made possible by rules-based trade. Every country has a role to play in advancing trade that is both sustainable and inclusive.

Albanese also noted that during “a time of global uncertainty” Australia’s trade in goods and services reached a record level in 2022-23.

Again, interesting to note the prime minister’s remarks were not broadcast live.

Police are investigating after posters potentially depicting Benjamin Netanyahu as Adolf Hitler in disguise were strung up along prominent roads in Sydney’s eastern and southern suburbs.

Australian Jewish Association chief executive Robert Gregory said:

We are disgusted but unsurprised to see posters of Adolf Hitler placed around Sydney.

When governments and police fail to crack down on hate speech and incitement at protests, it’s inevitable that hatred will spread.

While he was confident Hitler was depicted, Gregory said it was harder to make out Netanyahu and that it was “potentially” Israel’s leader in the posters.

Vaucluse MP Kellie Sloane described the signs as “very disturbing”.

She said:

These antisemitic displays are targeted and vile and have no place in any community.

I know the police are doing their best to find those responsible, using CCTV and other methods.

Officers from the Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command are leading the investigation.

HITLER POSTERS PLACED AROUND SYDNEY Reports from Syd Einfeld Drive, Southern Cross Drive etc. Pro-‘Palestine’ does seem to = anti-Jewish most of the time.

They just can’t help themselves pic.twitter.com/fx7KOxIcjh[6]

— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) November 5, 2023[7]

Here’s the latest from Shanghai. China’s premier Li Qiang has opened the trade expo this morning.

In an address, the premier said the country would pursue “more high-level open platforms to expand globally oriented” free-trade agreements and “actively pursue accession” to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Australia is expecting China to ask for Australia’s support to achieve that ambition during this visit. The premier said:

China will always stand on the right side of history and keep up with the progress of the times.

Despite imposing punitive trade sanctions on Australian exports at the height of the bilateral trade war[8], the premier said China was “resolutely opposed to unilateralism and protectionism and firmly uphold the authority and the effectiveness of the multilateral trading system.”

He said China would pursue the stability of global supply chains and “promote international consensus and rules that are conducive to opening up and cooperation and removing the disruption of non-economic factors.”

Anthony Albanese has just addressed the forum but his remarks were not carried live.

The Australian prime minister is joined at this expo by political leaders from Cuba, Kazakhstan and Serbia.

Apparently there are also officials from the US department of agriculture present.

Independent senator David Pocock wants to see the Labor government abandon its sea dumping bill this week, saying it would be “an absolute indictment” if they rammed the controversial bill through with the opposition’s support.

The bill – which would give the environment minister the power to grant permits to enable CO2 captured during industrial processes to be exported and stored under the seabed in another country’s waters – is scheduled to come before the senate on Monday.

Teal MPs, the Greens and other independents, such as Pocock, have criticised the proposal as “greenwashing” for fossil fuel projects[9].

Pocock said he held concerns the bill would pass this week with the support of the Coalition.

This bill is nothing more than greenwashing for gas companies with potentially catastrophic impacts on our marine environment, sea life and climate.

It will enable the expansion of oil and gas projects that the IPCC and every credible expert says we can’t afford.

I urge Labor to have the courage to do the right thing by current and future generations and not put through legislation that will hurt our collective future.

Photos from the Free Palestine protest in Melbourne show a large crowd moving down Swanston Street.

March for #FreePalestine is on the move down Swanston St.

It’s huge! pic.twitter.com/0ps49GxGDw[10][11]

— WACA (@akaWACA) November 5, 2023[12]

Guardian Australia journalist Antoun Issa is in Melbourne for the Palestinian solidarity rally.

He says thousands have turned out to join the rally, including unionists, Jewish activists, queer activists, Palestinian activists and others calling for a ceasefire.

There are unionists, Jewish activists, queer activists, Palestinian activists and people of all strides marching for an immediate ceasefire in Melbourne today.

Thousands and thousands. pic.twitter.com/AtdJgokYAW[13]

— Antoun Issa (@antissa) November 5, 2023[14]

This is the third I’ve attended of these rallies since the war began, this is by far the largest (and loudest).

— Antoun Issa (@antissa) November 5, 2023[15]

Victoria Fire and Rescue says it had no involvement with the firefighting aircraft that crashed in regional Queensland[16] while supporting Queensland firefighters.

It said the crew and equipment were provided by a private contractor, AGAIR[17], and were unrelated to the 211 firefighters who deployed to the state last week.

For more on this story, read the full report:

Three dead in firefighting plane crash in outback Queensland