dailynewsnblog
Lee Hanson says her mother’s comments about the White Australia policy were ‘misinterpreted’
Lee Hanson, daughter of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, has said her mother’s comments about the White Australia policy have been “misinterpreted”.
In an interview on a podcast hosted by the far-right British activist Tommy Robinson, Pauline Hanson blamed the end of the White Australia policy for creating what she sees as problems with migration.
Lee Hanson told Sky on Sunday night that “snippets” of her mother’s comments were “misinterpreted”:
I know who Pauline is, Mum is, and I know that’s not what her intention was in any way. I do think snippets of it was misinterpreted. Under no way, shape, or form did she say she wished the White Australia policy hadn’t of been changed. She does not support it and she does not want it back. So I do believe it’s been taken out of context.
We know that media grabbed their snippets and their grabs, and it’s all about clickbait, and then Labor’s obviously jumped on it, and so are the Liberals, right? That’s how they try to better themselves, by picking out a little slogan when she was talking about the history of immigration and the change that has occurred.
She may not be the most eloquent person in the world but that is also a positive about her too, because she’s not necessarily the polished politician that speaks the talking points as everybody else. She is authentic but, yes, it was misunderstood, that’s for sure.
Key events
Ima Caldwell
The arrest unfolded in real time, behind a bank of television microphones at Perth’s busy Mirrabooka bus station. As Western Australia’s police commissioner, Col Blanch, spoke to reporters on Thursday 2 July, a camera mounted on a nearby marked police van had been quietly panning across the interchange.
It can scan hundreds of faces a minute, instantly cross-referencing their profiles against a database of about 4,000 people: those with outstanding arrest warrants, registered child sexual abuse offenders and people reported missing.
Midway through the media conference, the algorithm pinged. Officers stepped into the crowd and led away a woman wanted for failing to appear in court.
“Commissioner, can we just get your reaction? There’s just been an arrest from the cameras behind you right now,” a reporter said.
“Been happening all week,” Blanch said. “I’d love to say I planned that but I think that’s exactly what the technology is … People are being arrested because they are wanted.”
Read more on this story here:
State funeral for Derryn Hinch to be held this afternoon
The state funeral for veteran broadcaster Derryn Hinch will be held in Melbourne this afternoon. Hinch died on 10 July, aged 82, after long-term health struggles.
The Victorian government-hosted service begins at midday at the Timber Yard events space in Port Melbourne, and is expected to be attended by notable figures from politics and the media. The service will also be livestreamed from the Victorian government website.
Hinch’s friends and former colleagues, including Ray Martin, will appear and 3AW’s Darren James will be master of ceremonies.
As the Guardian’s obituary of Hinch describes, his was a life that featured imprisonment, politics, a rags-to-riches twist, multiple marriages and several serious health challenges, all played out in the public sphere, earning the Australian journalist, broadcaster and former senator his nickname: the human headline.
His death drew tributes from a broad range of public figures, including the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the opposition leader, Angus Taylor.
A statement released by the Victorian government remembered Hinch as living a life defined by his principles and an unwavering commitment to stand up for what he believed was right.
– With AAP
Luca Ittimani
Corporate cop wins record $830m for government coffers
The corporate regulator won $830m in civil penalties from courts over the past year, more than it did in the past six years combined.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has reported its enforcement figures for 2025-26 and found courts had demanded companies pay a record total in civil penalties. That included the biggest penalty ever awarded in an Asic case, a $300m penalty against collapsed foreign exchange broker Union Standard in June.
From 2019-20 to 2024-25, Asic won an average of just $137m of civil penalties against companies.
Asic said its action would lead to $643.5m worth of remediation, refunds and payments to tens of thousands of customers and investors. Penalties will also prop up the federal budget.
The regulator also issued $12m worth of infringement notices, double the amount from 2024-25. Asic’s chair, Sarah Court, said:
Our enforcement work is focused on misconduct that causes real harm and we are delivering results, forcing change, strengthening accountability and returning money to consumers and investors.
Tom McIlroy
Seven’s Spotlight on Pauline Hanson an awkward affair
Perhaps the most telling moment in Channel Seven’s special Spotlight episode on Pauline Hanson last night came right at the end.
After an hour of watching the One Nation leader revive her “greatest hits” – including divisive comments about Muslim Australians, attacks on multiculturalism and her claims to be sticking it to “the establishment” – she told reporter Liam Bartlett that he wasn’t getting an exclusive.
The show must have spent tens of thousands following Hanson to Britain, where she met with former Neighbours star Holly Valance, far-right activist Tommy Robinson and Reform MP Robert Jenrick, but in the final segment Bartlett conceded he had never expected exclusive news from Hanson and instead anticipated only “a robust conversation”.
The program included awkward moments for the Queensland senator too. Crowd sizes for her speech at the CPAC conference in London were slim, and she and Nationals defector Barnaby Joyce had to defend previous comments attacking one another. A street tour of Robinson’s home town, Luton, nearly devolved into a fight with a local resident. Robinson also denied ever trying to come to Australia, despite previously having visa applications refused because of his criminal record.
Voters considering One Nation learned little that was new, except perhaps a newfound appreciation by Hanson for so-called mass deportation policies. Asked about Reform UK’s policy to remove hundreds of thousands of people from Britain, Hanson said she favoured a similar policy for people living in Australia illegally.
“I love it,” she said, before promising to plan implementation of the policy with bureaucrats if One Nation wins government.
Despite controversy about Hanson’s tour, and her visit to Italy with donor Gina Rinehart, Monday’s Newspoll shows One Nation with a primary vote of 30%, equal with Labor and ahead of the Coalition on 19%.
Private schools pitch for more government money
Krishani Dhanji
Independent Schools Australia, the peak body for private schools, is launching a campaign today to increase government funding, targeting key Labor and teal seats across the country.
The body will roll out digital advertising, billboards and posters on buses in inner-city federal seats including the Labor-held Brisbane and Griffith in Queensland, Melbourne, as well key teal seats including Mackellar and Wentworth in Sydney, and Curtin in Perth. It will also target Goldstein, won by Liberal Tim Wilson, who was previously ousted by the teals.
The slogan? “Parents are choosing, families are contributing, and policy needs to reflect that reality.”
The campaign comes before Labor’s national conference this week, with the group arguing that as more parents choose private schools and make other sacrifices to pay for it, the government should pitch in more.
But according to Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (Acara) data from 2023, 98% of private schools were funded above the schooling resource standard (SRS) recommended by Gonski and more than 98% of public schools were funded below it.
The ISA chief executive, Graham Catt, says:
Independent school families have been stereotyped for too long. They are parents and taxpayers making careful decisions about their children’s education, often under real financial pressure.
They deserve to be seen, they deserve to be heard and they deserve policy settings that recognise the choices they are already making.
Tom McIlroy
Albanese helps launch major air combat exercise
Anthony Albanese has announced the official opening of Exercise Pitch Black 2026, Australia’s premier international air combat exercise, which is happening in Darwin.
Over the next three weeks, 100 aircraft and about 2,500 personnel from the Royal Australian Air Force and 20 countries overseas will take part in training activities and exercises in the skies over Australia’s north.
The biennial exercise is designed to strengthen cooperation using high-end training from Raaf Bases Darwin and Tindal in the Northern Territory, and Raaf Base Amberley in Queensland.
Aircraft from the United States, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, India, Singapore, Germany, France and Spain as well as embedded personnel from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Fiji, Canada, Brunei, Malaysia, Finland and Sweden will all take part.
Albanese said:
Australia is strongest when we work closely with our partners.
Exercise Pitch Black strengthens those partnerships and demonstrates Australia’s commitment to working closely across our region to support peace, stability and security.
Hanson ‘talking Australia down’ on rightwing tour: Albanese
Tom McIlroy
Anthony Albanese says Pauline Hanson should not be talking the country down as she appears at a string of conservative political events and holidays with billionaire benefactor Gina Rinehart in Europe.
The One Nation leader attended the CPAC conference in London on the weekend, after recording a podcast with far-right activist Tommy Robinson. Albanese was asked about her tour during a visit to Tiwi Island on Sunday.
He said:
When I have the opportunity to represent Australia overseas, I talk Australia up.
I don’t talk Australia down. I go as someone who’s proud to represent our nation and proud to talk about what we are as a nation. There’s nowhere you’d rather be than Australia and I think that it is up to our representatives, no matter where they stand in the parliament, when they’re overseas, to talk Australia up, not talk Australia down.
We have created in this country an extraordinary nation and it is something that the world is envious of because of what we’ve created here. And that is why, in my view, it is the responsibility of people when they travel overseas to talk Australia up and to be proud of who we are and what we have created as a nation.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to the first live news blog for this brand new week. I’m Stephanie Convery and I’ll be with you until early afternoon today.
First up, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says Pauline Hanson should not be talking the country down as she appears at a string of conservative political events and holidays with billionaire benefactor Gina Rinehart in Europe. The PM’s comments also come as an awkward interview with the One Nation leader airs on Seven.
Longtime broadcaster Derryn Hinch will be farewelled at a state funeral in Melbourne this afternoon. The so-called “Human Headline” died earlier this month, aged 82.
All that and much more to come.
