Australian news and politics live: ISIS brides charged as Labor faces taxpayer pressure, Trump escalates war

Cabinet minister Anika Wells has repaid taxpayer-funded expenses for four trips after an audit of nearly 250 claims sparked by media scrutiny late last year of her use of travel entitlements.

The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority has now audited every trip Ms Wells took as a minister between 2022 and 2025.

It found no misconduct or ethical breaches.

“The audit found, over four years of travel involving nearly 250 separate trips, I made four mistakes,” Ms Wells said in a statement on Friday.

“These were four cases where I chose what I thought was the more sensible, cheaper option, but those choices were not allowed according to the rules, which I accept and respect. I accept IPEA’s assessment and I am sorry for making these honest mistakes.

“I have repaid the money with a penalty loading.”

A witness to the Royal Commission has told how he stopped taking public transport after the October 7 Hamas attack fearing his personal safety was at risk due to a rise in anti-Semitisim.

In his testimony, Aaron Guttmann also described how a pro-Palestine protest at Sydney Opera House on October 9 perpetuated his fears.

“I stopped catching public transport after October 7,” he said.

“The reports that were coming out ‘where are the Jews?’. The Sydney Opera House. Reports in Melbourne that there were people driving around the streets after October 7 saying ‘where are the Jews?’, ‘we want to get them’.

“There were Neo Nazis going on trains looking for Jewish people.

“I am proud of being Jewish, but I also know my personal safety was at risk.”

He also shared how his family would face slurs while taking part in community sports, including his children hearing remarks about Hilter at soccer games attended by children aged 11 to 15.

“There were comments made about ‘gassing the Jews’ around ‘Hitler doing what’s right’.

“It’s traumatic for parents to hear what the kids are listening to, let alone the kids themselves.”

Mia Kline has told day five of the Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion how she was kicked out of a Canberra sharehouse for being a zionist.

Ms Kline had taught Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the Jewish Community Centre in Canberra and was the cohead of the ACT’s Jewish youth movement when she was living with two other women.

In May 2024, she claimed her former housemates held a meeting to ask her to move our as they felt uncomfortable living with her.

“My housemates started speaking about how for the past couple of months, since October 7 and the war, they felt like they’ve been walking on eggshells in the house around me.

“That the house wasn’t a safe space for them to have tough political conversations about current events.

“That they couldn’t reconcile my views with their values, and that we couldn’t live under one roof.

“This was all in relation to me being a Zionist — a proud, visible Zionist — and they said that they couldn’t live with me. I was sitting there distraught. I was sobbing.”

She described a shift in sentiment and feeling she was put on trial by others after the October 7 Hamas terror attack.

“When they saw a Jewish person, they felt that it was appropriate or welcomed to ask questions,” she said.

“About the IDF, the current government of the day in Israel, the mere existence of a country. And they were asking me those questions directly.”

Former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has cited “unprecedented and coordinated interference” for her decision to immediately resign as Chancellor of the Australian National University.

In a statement to The Nightly she has confirmed her resignation which took effect last night, saying she was “deeply privileged to have held this role since 2020” and that she continues to regard the ANU as a truly national treasure.

Ms Bishop has also taken aim at the university regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, over its move to run ANU’s council, which she believes is unlawful.

“Following unprecedented and coordinated interference, the ANU Council is no longer able to discharge its legal and ethical obligations.

“The higher education sector is at a crossroads of regulatory overreach in the governance of our institutions or autonomy and academic freedom.”

“I fear the collateral from this regulatory overreach will be the next generation of students and staff.”

Ms Bishop’s tenure was marked by a controversial and abandoned $250 million cost-cutting plan which included massive job cuts.

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop has resigned as chancellor of the Australian National University, effective immediately,

The Nightly has confirmed she informed the university council of her resignation last night, before her term was due to end in December.

Her tenure came at a time of controversy and upheaval for the university, including an aborted $250 million cost-cutting plan which included massive job cuts.

Oil prices increased in early trading on Friday morning after the US and Iran traded strikes in the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent, the global oil benchmark, rose 2.3% to $102.40 (USD) per barrel, while U.S. crude gained 2.1% to reach $96.80 (USD).

The US military said it carried out retalitory strikes against Iran, intercepting drones, small boats and missiles in a key part of the waterway.

A Royal Commission witness, known only as Benjamin F, has detailed what he described as the “scariest moment of my life” at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras which he attended with a Jewish LGBTQIA+ community group.

Throughout the parade he spoke about the hate crowds hurled at his group and then an incident afterwards where a utility van passed by and shouted “f...k the Jews”.

“I was scared for my life. It was a guttural fear that I generally thought we were going to be attacked,” he said.

“I felt that after the massacre in Bondi, what was a terrible feeling of anti-Semitism in Australia had ramped up.

“I was scared to reveal myself as a Jewish person walking up Oxford Street in an area that I once thought was safe and progressive. It was a real and genuine fear.”

The first witness on day five of the Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion is a gay man known only under the pseudonym Benjamin F.

In an emotional testimony, he spoke about converting to Judaism after being raised in a Roman Catholic environment and how it was a “second coming out” for him.

Benjamin told the Commission that while it was a “very positive experience in coming out” with his sexuality, he lost friends and faced “quite horrific” discrimination when converting.

“With the Jewish community, the level of hatred that I felt towards myself and those around me has been profound,” he said.

“I’ve been subjected to slurs. I’ve been called a genocide supporter. I’ve been told that I’m immoral.”

He said friends questioned his “ethics and morals” and spoke to him in ways he never experienced in his previous Christianity.

The Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion will enter its fifth day after dozens of testimonies of the hatred and discrimination Jewish Australians face.

The high profile probe comes after 15 people were killed during a terror attack at Bondi Beach on December 14.

Witnesses have told how anti-Semitism has skyrocketed in Australia after the October 7 Hamas terror attack and their disappointment that more hasn’t been done to stamp out hateful sentiment in the community.

Eight new witnesses will appear before the hearing on Friday, including four which will give evidence under a pseudonym to protect their identity.

It includes Mia Kline who has previously spoken publicly about being kicked out of a sharehouse in Canberra for being a zionist and Jewish studies educator and advocate Sharonne Blum.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has vowed the Budget will avoid an inflationary cash splash and indicated Labor was prepared for a political fight over contentious capital gains tax concessions for property investors.

“The Budget can’t afford a big cash splash — there are good economic and fiscal reasons why that’s not a good idea in the near term,” he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.

“They’ll be cost-of-living help in the Budget, the important part of that is the fuel tax cut which costs us almost $3 billion.”

The temporary, three-month halving of fuel excise, at a cost of $2.55 billion, expires at the end of June and is wiping 26.3 cents a litre off fuel prices.

While this policy was copied from the Coalition, Labor faces a political fight over its plan to dilute the 50 per cent capital gains tax concessions and restrict negative gearing for investor landlords who make a rental loss.

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