Australia news LIVE: Mass casualty events expected as H5N1 bird flu cases rise; Trump says latest talks offer Iran ‘last chance’ to strike a deal

Hello and welcome to our national news live blog for Tuesday, August 4. Here’s what is making headlines this morning.

• One Nation leader Pauline Hanson barred The Age, the ABC and The Guardian from her press conference in Melbourne yesterday, as the party’s new leader in the Victorian upper house Warren Pickering threatened legal action against journalists for “character assassination attempts”.
• Environment Minister Murray Watt has said Australians should expect more mass mortality events in Australian wildlife caused by H5N1 bird flu. As of yesterday, the Department of Agriculture confirmed there were 74 cases of the strain in Australia.
• Evidence at a parliamentary inquiry into Labor’s contentious gambling advertising package yesterday aimed to pressure senators to ban betting inducements, which are designed to lure betters back to gambling platforms.
• US President Donald Trump has told Iran that a round of newly planned talks are its “last chance” to forge a deal and avoid an escalation of military strikes on the country.
• The Board of Peace official overseeing Gaza’s postwar transition has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement, in part to discuss a new disarmament deal the board reached with Hamas.

Andrew Hastie said he hoped to receive One Nation preferences at the next election while acknowledging his own “political mortality” ahead of the minor party’s branch launch in his own backyard.

One Nation is expected to launch a branch in Hastie’s WA electorate of Canning this week. The former SAS soldier has come under attack from the minor party after providing evidence in the accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith failed defamation action against this masthead. Hastie has vowed to “never surrender” to One Nation.

“I’m not worried. Everyone who comes in this job has to have a sense of their political mortality, and if this is the end, this is the end. You do your best, and it’s up to the Australian people,” the Liberal frontbencher told News24 (formerly Sky News).

Hastie said he remained opposed to a formal Coalition with One Nation, but was open to a preference deal.

“We’re in a two-party preferred system, so preferences matter. Labor receives preferences from the Greens, and I’d hope we’d receive preferences from One Nation. It’ll be done on a seat-by-seat basis, and that’s all good and well,” he said.

“But in the end, I want to form government under Angus Taylor, by winning on primary votes. We need to get our primary vote well into the 30s to be within striking distance, and that’s the objective.”

Minister for Agriculture Julie Collins says that Australia could be dealing with the H5N1 strain of bird flu for years, and acknowledges that other countries had been battling the virus since 2022.

“This could be a long period of time and a very long journey. We have seen other countries have been dealing with this since 2022,” Collins told ABC News Breakfast this morning.

“This particular H5 strain, and we’ve certainly seen some devastating impacts overseas, particularly of birds in terms of the mass mortalities that have occurred.

“But as I’ve said, we have learnt from overseas experience. We’ve done everything we can, but we cannot stop a very virulent, very contagious disease in this bird flu.”

She also said that as the disease spreads further, spillover events would be increasingly difficult to avoid.

There are now 78 confirmed cases of the strain in Australian wildlife.

Labor frontbencher Murray Watt said testimony from yesterday’s Senate inquiry into Labor’s gambling reform is “distressing” but defended the proposed laws as the strongest Australia has ever seen.

The inquiry heard evidence from reform advocate Luke Bateman, who said gambling companies offered him drugs and plied him with alcohol and entertainment to keep him coming back. Bateman told Radio National earlier this morning that he was compelled to tell his story because gambling was killing young men.

“We all feel for him and the circumstances that he went through, and for anyone to be offering illegal drugs as an inducement or for any other reason is obviously a crime, should not be committed, and people should pay a price if they’re engaging that kind of criminal behaviour,” Watt told Radio National.

Watt said the legislation strengthened the national exclusion register, BetStop, and called for the Coalition and Greens to back the reforms.

Asked why inducements would not be banned, because people struggling with addiction may not voluntarily self-exclude, Watt said there were already restrictions on inducements.

“That includes for things like direct marketing that can only be sent to customers who’ve provided their consent to receive them.”

Environment Minister Murray Watt said the confirmation of a bird flu mass mortality event yesterday was grim news for Australia’s wildlife population.

“We’re likely to see more mass mortalities. I’m sorry to have such grim news at this hour of the morning, but it’s best to be honest with people,” Watt told ABC’s Radio National.

Watt said birds remained infected after death, which posed a threat to scavenging mammals.

He said there was a low risk of domestic pets contracting the virus, but advised to keep them away from wild birds and watch for any changes in their behaviour or health.

The Board of Peace official overseeing Gaza’s postwar transition has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement, in part to discuss a new disarmament deal the board reached with Hamas.

Nikolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza, held “constructive and detailed” talks with the prime minister and his team, the Board of Peace said in a statement.

“The goal is clear and is not in question: the complete decommissioning of weapons in the Strip and the transition away from rule by the gun to civilian governance,” it said.

According to two people familiar with the meeting, Mladenov also pressed Netanyahu to halt Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip. Mladenov and his team, including senior adviser Aryeh Lightstone, are pressuring Israel to stop striking Gaza as they push ahead with the agreement to decommission the weapons held by Hamas.

President Donald Trump announced the agreement, which is part of a broader ceasefire deal reached last year, on Friday (Australian time). After the text of the agreement was released, Israel said it had “serious security concerns” and that it shared those with the United States. It also ramped up its strikes in Gaza, killing 17 people overnight Saturday and into Sunday, according to local health officials.

AP

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth has responded to Pauline Hanson’s decision to ban The Age, the ABC and The Guardian from One Nation’s Melbourne press conference yesterday, and said a part of working in politics was fronting up to uncomfortable questions.

“She says often she has nothing to hide. As a politician, you have to turn up and answer questions. And so, by saying you’ve got nothing to hide, I don’t know why she would want to bar ABC, The Age, the Guardian. I’m not sure who was left at her press conference,” Rishworth told Nine this morning.

“Quite frankly, you need to be accountable. You need to turn up. Sometimes the questions are uncomfortable ... Well, often the questions are uncomfortable, and that is the sport of politics, isn’t it?”

Yesterday, One Nation named its first candidates for the Victorian state election, which will take place in November.

Two people have died in the cyclospora outbreak in the US state of Michigan, state health officials have announced, confirming the first deaths in the country related to the microscopic parasite.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday (US time) both people had underlying health conditions that may have been affected by the intestinal illness and dehydration. The department said it would not provide additional information about the deaths.

Cyclospora is a microscopic, spherical parasite that commonly causes watery diarrhoea “with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outbreaks tend to occur most often in the late spring and summer.

Federal health officials have identified lettuce from Mexico served at Taco Bell locations in nine states as a source of the widespread outbreak. As of late July, the number of cases linked to the lettuce was 1947, including at least 98 people who had to be hospitalised, according to the CDC.

The agency has said other “brands, restaurants, retailers, or distribution channels” could be tied to the outbreak as the investigation continues.

AP

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume remained adamant this morning that the Liberal Party would not consider merging with One Nation as polls continue to favour Pauline Hanson’s party over the Coalition.

“One Nation hasn’t announced a single policy yet between them … One Nation isn’t the solution,” she told the Today show.

Yesterday, Hanson announced former Liberal Party member Colleen Harkin as one of her party’s eight candidates in the November Victorian election.

Harkin quit the Liberal Party to join One Nation in June.

US President Donald Trump has told Iran that the newly planned talks are its “last chance” to forge a deal and avoid an escalation of military strikes on the country.

Trump, speaking at the Oval Office, said he expects negotiations that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and create a pathway for Iran to address United States’ concerns about its nuclear program will begin in the next day or two.

The US President has made a habit of threatening strikes on Iran only to dangle the prospect of a last-minute diplomatic reprieve.

Talks between the US and Iran are critical to ending the months long conflict and reviving stalled cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed before the war.

Iran’s foreign ministry said it’s negotiating with Oman, not the US prompting Trump on Monday (US time) to criticise the country’s leadership, which has grown increasingly divided over the war’s endgame.
Whether “Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking,” Trump maintained.

AP

Hello and welcome to our national news live blog for Tuesday, August 4. Here’s what is making headlines this morning.

• One Nation leader Pauline Hanson barred The Age, the ABC and The Guardian from her press conference in Melbourne yesterday, as the party’s new leader in the Victorian upper house Warren Pickering threatened legal action against journalists for “character assassination attempts”.
• Environment Minister Murray Watt has said Australians should expect more mass mortality events in Australian wildlife caused by H5N1 bird flu. As of yesterday, the Department of Agriculture confirmed there were 74 cases of the strain in Australia.
• Evidence at a parliamentary inquiry into Labor’s contentious gambling advertising package yesterday aimed to pressure senators to ban betting inducements, which are designed to lure betters back to gambling platforms.
• US President Donald Trump has told Iran that a round of newly planned talks are its “last chance” to forge a deal and avoid an escalation of military strikes on the country.
• The Board of Peace official overseeing Gaza’s postwar transition has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement, in part to discuss a new disarmament deal the board reached with Hamas.