Australian news and politics recap: Opposition Leader Sussan Ley farewells late mother Angela Braybrooks

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The Nightly’s Nicola Smith sat down with Australia’s education minister to discuss schools, bullying and toxic masculinity.

Jason Clare also opened up about that scene in the hit Netflix series Adolescence, which still haunts him to this day as a parent of boys.

He’s not the only one.

Read the full interview here.

Deputy Prime Minister, also Defence Minister, Richard Marles has met with United States Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth in Singapore.

A video of the two meeting appears to show Mr Marles fixing his hair before turning around to see Mr Hegseth approaching, jogging over to meet him.

The two posed for photos before Mr Hegseth began his remarks.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says he is “not the best placed” to comment on reports of eight suspected illegal immigrants entering Australia earlier this week.

Reports suggest eight people have been detained by Border Force after local rangers and workers discovered eight people in the Northern Territory across two days.

“I’m obviously overseas right now and so I’m probably not the best placed to comment on that other than to simply observe that since we have been in Government, there hasn’t been a successful people smuggling venture to Australia,” Mr Marles said from Singapore.

“That remains the case.”

Eight people, believed to be from China, have reportedly been detained by Border Force after being discovered in a remote part of Australia’s northern coastline.

The ABC reported that six people who are believed to have used a boat to enter Australia were seen walking through Arnhem Land on Tuesday when they were stopped by locals.

On Wednesday, two additional people were reportedly picked up by local Indigenous rangers, who handed two men over to the Australian Border Force.

It is understood that although eight people are reportedly being detained, no boat has been found, potentially meaning the suspected illegal immigrants may have been dropped off close to the coastline.

A tennis ace turned Liberal hot shot is staring down calls to quit, rejecting allegations of a drunken taxpayer-funded car rort.

Victorian Liberal deputy Sam Groth used then-opposition upper house leader Georgie Crozier’s chauffeur-driven vehicle to take him and his wife home from the Australian Open in January 2024.

The trip from Melbourne Park to Rye on the Mornington Peninsula is about 100km.

The former tennis player, who reached a career high singles ranking of world No.53 in 2015, had earlier hosted a political fundraiser with Nationals MP Jade Benham.

Mr Groth and Ms Benham, along with their respective spouses, then entered a party zone inside the tennis precinct, the Herald Sun reports.

The former Davis Cup representative was accused of getting “smashed” and misleading Ms Crozier by telling her he wanted to borrow the car for a work event.

Read the full story.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has farewelled her “extraordinary” mother Angela Braybrooks.

Ms Ley, who travelled back to her mother’s bedside after being confirmed as the new Leader of the Opposition, confirmed her mother’s death on May 17.

At Ms Braybrooks funeral on Friday, Ms Ley was overcome with emotion while delivering the eulogy for her beloved mother.

Coalition colleagues Anne Ruston, Barnaby Joyce, Michaelia Cash and Michael McCormack were seen at the service supporting Ms Ley.

New Greens Leader Larissa Waters has accused Labor of waving net zero around “as a fig leaf” after approving the North West Shelf expansion to 2070.

Senator Waters labelled the project a “carbon bomb” and warned the Government that a fight was brewing for them in the Senate when Parliament returns on July 22.

“They wave around net zero as a fig leaf while approving more coal and gas,” she said on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.

“Labor has backed the massive North West Shelf carbon bomb and the Coalition won’t even say ‘climate change’ while emissions are boiling our oceans.

“With (the) sole balance of power in the Senate, the Greens will fight to end new coal and gas.”

Australian shoppers are in a holding pattern as they await the fallout from US President Donald Trump’s tariff chaos, fresh data suggests.

New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Friday showed retail turnover fell 0.1 per cent in April, following respective 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent growth readings in March and February.

Market consensus was for 0.3 per cent growth.

“Retail spending eased in April, particularly on clothing purchases,” ABS head of business statistics Robert Ewing said.

Read the full story.

WA Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti says the State’s natural gas has both a role in supporting Australia’s transition to renewables but also other nations.

She labelled WA gas a “key transition source” while speaking in Perth on Friday after Murray Watt last week gave Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project the greenlight to continue operation to 2070.

“Gas is essential for our future,” she said.

“We need gas to make sure we can continue to provide affordable and reliable energy, and that is for households throughout the State.

“Without gas as that key transition source, then the State would not be able to move forward. It’s also part of our overall role as supporting other nations as we go through a transition in relation to energy.”