Live news and politics: John Howard slams ‘nazi appeaser’ comments, suspected bird flu case found in NSW

The Coalition says artificial intelligence companies must seek permission and pay Australian creators if they want to use copyrighted work to train their systems.

Shadow arts minister Angie Bell, who worked as a professional musician for 35 years, said Australia’s copyright laws should not be weakened to benefit multinational technology companies.

“If AI companies want to use Australian creative work, they should do what everyone else does: ask permission and pay for it,” she said. “That’s how copyright works and that’s how it should stay.”

Ms Bell said Australian creativity was “one of our greatest national assets” and not a free resource for global tech giants.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is preparing to face down a grassroots revolt at this weekend’s NSW Labor conference, with party members pushing to strip grandfathering protections from the Government’s controversial tax reforms.

Industry Minister Tim Ayres said Mr Albanese would be “very direct” with party members, insisting existing protections for property investors were a key part of Labor’s approach to negative gearing changes.

Senator Ayres said grandfathering remained a “very important principle” because Australians had made investment decisions based on the tax rules in place at the time.

He said the Government had already legislated its reform agenda, was consulting on the finer details and had ruled out changes in some areas.

Labor’s NSW branches are also expected to push for broader tax reforms including expanding the GST, introducing a tax on billionaires and increasing council rates on small business properties.

A farming business part-owned by independent MP Helen Dalton has been fined $550,000 after a “much-loved” employee and friend was killed in a quad bike crash.

Wumbulgal Agriculture, a crop and livestock farm near Yenda in southern NSW, pleaded guilty to breaching workplace safety laws over the death of the 82-year-old, who had worked there for 33 years.

The court was told that he was mustering about 800 sheep on February 3, 2023, when he hit a mound at speed, was thrown from the quad bike and suffered fatal head injuries.

The Industrial Court of NSW found the business had failed to require workers to wear helmets and had not fitted the quad bike with a roll-over protection device.

One suspected case of the H5 bird flu has been found in NSW, the State’s Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty has just confirmed.

The wild migratory sea bird was spotted by a member of the public near Hawks Nest on the NSW mid-north coast.

Local testing has returned a positive for the H5 virus, but Ms Moriarty says it’s not yet known whether it’s the worst strain. The bird has been sent to the national testing lab for further confirmation.

“Over 500 people are now working on surveillance, so they are checking this area of the state around Hawks Nest on the mid-north coast. That includes people in agriculture, looking for birds that might look ill so that we can see if there are any more,” the minister says.

“That surveillance has been increased now and will continue over the weekend.

“At this stage, there is no industry spread. We have informed the poultry industry of this case found this morning. We have not had any reports of the poultry industry being impacted.”

She tells people there is “no need for panic buying eggs” with only the one bird found sick.

Independent senator David Pocock has blasted Labor’s proposed gambling reforms, accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of “buckling” to the gambling lobby and squandering the chance to leave a lasting legacy.

Speaking to RN Breakfast, Senator Pocock said the Bill started from a “pretty weak” position and argued the Senate should strengthen it.

He also criticised Labor for voting against a Senate inquiry into its own legislation.

Senator Pocock said it was telling that even Liberal MPs believed the reforms did not go far enough, despite a Labor-chaired committee previously recommending tougher action.

He called for changes including the creation of an independent regulator and stronger measures to curb gambling inducements.

The Coalition says Labor’s gambling reforms don’t go far enough, with Liberal senator Sarah Henderson describing the legislation as “undercooked”.

She said the Coalition was committed to tackling gambling harm but had concerns the proposed restrictions were not strong enough.

The Opposition has joined crossbench MPs to send the Bill to a parliamentary inquiry, which is due to report back on August 17.

A recently departed partner with embattled auditing firm KPMG has been appointed to the board of Australia’s banking regulator for a five-year term.

David Bradbury, a former Federal Labor MP and assistant treasurer, will be a deputy chair of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, which is responsible for regulating banks, superannuation funds and insurers.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers made the announcement just three months after Mr Bradbury was appointed to the Board of Taxation and only weeks after he quit as a KPMG partner.

This latest appointment is occurring amid a scandal that has seen KPMG lose its chairman Martin Sheppard and chief executive Andrew Yates in a matter of weeks, after a whistleblower told Labor senator Deborah O’Neil in March that the auditing firm had used confidential board papers from construction firm Lendlease to win contracts with the Westpac bank and asset and property management group Dexus.

​​​Read the full story here.​​​

Anthony Albanese says the Government has struck the right balance with its gambling reforms, insisting the focus is on reducing gambling harm rather than stopping Australians from having a bet.

“I’m not against someone having a punt on a Saturday. What I’m against is problem gambling, which overwhelmingly, by the way, is poker machines,” the Prime Minister told ABC Radio.

He said poker machines were regulated by the States and the Government had spent considerable time consulting on its proposed reforms.

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume believes complaints about the social media delays are unjustified.

“This is such a Labor beat up because Anika Wells didn’t do her homework,” Senator Hume told Sunrise.

“She left this to the last minute. Now we’re not in Parliament for the next six weeks.

“Why not use that time to make sure that this legislation is right, that it’s going to work this time because it didn’t work last time?”

Senator Hume pointed out that the Government wanted to double the fines, up to $99 million, but the original penalties were yet to be imposed on any tech company.

Germany is cracking down on sick leave, with workers soon required to visit a doctor in person and provide a medical certificate from the very first day they are off sick.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced the sweeping change as part of a major package of tax, labour and pension reforms aimed at reviving the country’s struggling economy.

“We can no longer accept the extraordinarily high levels of sick leave in our companies,” he said.

He added that the nation could no longer afford the “competitive disadvantage” caused by prolonged absences.

The move has been welcomed by big business but sparked outrage from unions and doctors.

Verdi union chief Frank Werneke accused the Government of creating “a culture of distrust of employees”, while the German Association of Family Physicians warned clinics would be overwhelmed by unnecessary appointments.

Germans take an average of about 15 working days of sick leave a year — well above Australia’s average of between 6.8 and 9.7 days.