Australia news live: hiker Hadi Nazari discharged from hospital; cold-case murder accused to remain in custody
Hiker Hadi Nazari leaves hospital
The 23-year-old hiker who was lost in the NSW Snowy Mountains for 13 days has been discharged from Cooma hospital.
The hospital had been treating Hadi Nazari for dehydration, and the NSW southern local health district said in a statement he will continue his recovery at home.
Key events
Rafqa Touma
What to do if you’re lost in the Australian bush
This week Hadi Nazari was found alive after being lost in the remote Kosciuszko national park for almost two weeks.
Nazari survived in some of Australia’s most unforgiving terrain by drinking creek water, foraging for berries and – fortuitously – finding two muesli bars in a remote hut.
We asked the experts how to prepare for a hike, and what to do if you become “geographically embarrassed”.
Cold-case murder accused allegedly disappeared after interview with detectives
Continued from previous post:
The Queensland Homicide Cold Case Investigation Team obtained an arrest warrant for Keith Lees in July 2023 after he allegedly disappeared after an interview with detectives in Victoria.
Meaghan Rose’s body was discovered on 18 July 1997 at the base of Point Cartwright cliffs at Mooloolaba on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The disability and aged care nursing assistant had previously moved from Victoria to Queensland with Lees, who was more than 20 years her senior.
The death was initially ruled a suicide, but investigators reopened the case in 2009 and a $500,000 reward for information was announced in June 2023.
In charges dropped by prosecutors yesterday, NSW police alleged Lees spent roughly 18 months evading an arrest warrant by using a fake identity.
Queensland detectives travelled to Victoria in June 2023 and spoke to Lees, before his car was found abandoned at Portland on the state’s south-west coast the following day.
Lees was later spotted in Geelong and Shepparton in Victoria before being arrested in Dural in NSW.
Queensland police have confirmed the $500,000 reward remains on offer for information that leads to a conviction for Rose’s murder.
“In addition to the reward, an appropriate indemnity from prosecution will be recommended for any accomplice, not being the person who actually committed the crime, who first gives such information,” they said in a statement yesterday.
Read more here:
– Australian Associated Press
Cold-case murder accused to remain in custody
A man extradited to face court over the alleged murder of his partner almost 30 years ago will remain in custody after the case was heard for the first time.
Keith Lees, 72, was flown from NSW to Queensland yesterday in the company of detectives after being arrested in a rural area north of Sydney on 2 January and accused of the murder of Meaghan Louise Rose, 25, on the Sunshine Coast in 1997.
Lees was not required to appear in Brisbane magistrates court today during a brief mention of his murder charge.
Lee’s defence solicitor, Zane Playle, applied for the case to be transferred to Maroochydore magistrates court within four to six weeks. Police prosecutor Harry Coburn told magistrate Lewis Shillito that four weeks “was more than sufficient” and it could be done within two weeks.
The magistrate ordered the case be next heard on 24 January at Maroochydore magistrates court and remanded Lees in custody.
More to come in the next post.
– Australian Associated Press
Andrew Messenger
Police officer and another man shot in Brisbane altercation
A Queensland police officer has been taken to hospital after being shot in an incident on Brisbane’s south side on Friday morning.
Officers were called to reports of a disturbance at Tamar St in Annerley at about 9:13am.
Queensland police said there was a physical altercation between a male constable and a man. Both men were shot during the encounter.
They were both taken to hospital for treatment.
The matter will be investigated by the Ethical Standards Command, with oversight by the Crime and Corruption Commission.
Jack Snape
Kyrgios says Australia treated Djokovic ‘like shit’ during Covid deportation saga
Tennis player Nick Kyrgios said Australia treated Novak Djokovic “like shit” when it deported the Serbian during the pandemic in 2022.
Djokovic has revived the controversial period this week in the lead-up to the Australian Open in Melbourne, saying that he still carries trauma from his ordeal and claiming he was ‘“poisoned” while he stayed at a quarantine hotel.
Kyrgios has previously criticised Australia’s treatment of the 24-time grand slam champion, and said on Friday morning that, although he hasn’t heard the Serbian’s latest accusation of poisoning, Djokovic’s visa saga was not handled well.
I haven’t spoken to him about that, I didn’t even know that …
But yeah, I mean, we treated him like shit, that’s for sure, we shouldn’t have done that.
Kyrgios is in Melbourne preparing for his first-round singles match against the UK’s Jacob Fearnley in the tournament that gets under way on Sunday.
Caitlin Cassidy
Monash university apologises for underpaying casual academics
Continuing from our last post …
NTEU national president, Dr Alison Barnes, said it was “disgusting” staff were continually being underpaid by their employers while vice-chancellors earned more than $1m a year.
We need an urgent federal parliamentary inquiry into the rotten governance in universities that has fuelled a wage theft epidemic, rampant casualisation and obscene executive pay.
In an email to all Monash staff, the acting vice-chancellor and president, Prof Susan Elliott, said the affected casual academics had been paid incorrectly to their minimum engagement period or because they were compensated at incorrect rates.
These incorrect payments were unintentional and are deeply regrettable. As a university, we apologise to all staff, past and present, who have been affected. So far more than 3.4 million timesheets have been analysed as part of this review and 3.6% of these reviewed timesheets were identified as requiring remediation.
She said affected staff would be remediated before the end of March.
Caitlin Cassidy
Union calls for federal inquiry into university wage theft
The National Tertiary Education Union is calling for an urgent federal parliamentary inquiry into university governance after Monash University admitted to underpaying staff an additional $7.6m.
The university today released the results of an ongoing quality assurance review, detailing approximately $7.6m in underpayments, averaging $760 per staff member, in addition to $10m previously admitted to since 2016. Monash is currently before the federal court over alleged underpayments for unpaid consultation hours.
The NTEU said the national university wage theft tally was now at $265m, affecting more than 140,000 university staff.
The NTEU Monash branch president, Dr Ben Eltham, said the wages and superannuation had been “unlawfully withheld from hard-working teachers”.
We wrote to Monash’s governing council in November about the crisis of wage theft at our institution. They haven’t bothered to get back to us. We urgently need a thorough and independent investigation into governance at Monash.
PM says US bushfires highlight need for climate action
Anthony Albanese is asked whether he’s worried Australia might not receive the bushfire support we usually rely on during our peak season, while fires burn in the northern hemisphere’s winter. He says:
It’s one of the issues that we need to be cognisant of …
If the seasons are increasingly extended, and bearing in mind that the 2019 events began earlier, they didn’t begin in January or over the Christmas period, they began much earlier and then built up. What we have here is an event that is unseasonal and it is something we need to be conscious of.
Albanese then brings the issue back home, with his election pitch that Labor will do more on climate change than the Coalition.
It’s why we can’t afford to say ‘stop acting, don’t do anything until the 2040s and we will build you a nuclear power station down at Collie’ – that makes no sense in terms of what we need to do.
Albanese says moderates an ‘endangered species’ in Liberal party
The prime minister has also taken aim at the declining number of moderates in the Liberal party.
Two of the most senior moderate Liberals, Simon Birmingham and Paul Fletcher, announced late last year they’d be stepping down from parliament at the next election.
Anthony Albanese says the moderates are now an “endangered species”:
Increasingly the Liberal party is becoming a hard-right dominated party and we are seeing that under Peter Dutton’s leadership.
The commentary also follows reports conservatives are lobbying for Warren Mundine to run in the seat of Bradfield, which is being vacated by Fletcher.
Albanese ‘won’t respond’ to Djokovic’s claim he was ‘poisoned’ during Covid detention
The prime minister is asked about Novak Djokovic’s claim that he was “poisoned” by the food served to him in hotel detention during his 2022 deportation saga.
I haven’t seen those comments. I am not going to respond to comments that I haven’t seen. I wish Mr Djokovic very well, all the best on the court over the period of the Australian Open.
Anthony Albanese is speaking to reporters in Perth
The PM is near the end of his multi-state, pre-election tour.
Asked about the graffiti on the Sydney synagogue, Albanese says those responsible should face the “full force of the law”:
They are hateful and [there is] no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this sort of criminal activity. Australians should respect each other and overwhelmingly do, regardless of their faith. We are a multicultural nation, we need to be inclusive and cohesive and that’s what my government is determined to support.
Caitlin Cassidy
Minister says new watchdog will look at university salaries and conflicts of interest
The high salaries of university leaders and conflict of interest concerns will be on the agenda for a soon-to-be-established watchdog announced by the education minister.
The independent expert council, to provide advice to the government on the tertiary sector, was a key recommendation in the Universities Accord, handed down last year.
Jason Clare said the council would be tasked with developing more “rigorous and transparent remuneration policies” for university leaders.
Vice-chancellors have come under scrutiny for presiding over salaries in excess of $1m at the same time as major staff layoffs, underpayments and course cuts. Clare said:
It’s clear we need to strengthen governance arrangements in our universities and that’s why we are establishing an expert governance council.
This will provide advice to ministers about how universities can develop more rigorous and transparent remuneration policies and settings for senior university staff, including considering issues around external roles and conflicts of interests.
Hiker Hadi Nazari leaves hospital
The 23-year-old hiker who was lost in the NSW Snowy Mountains for 13 days has been discharged from Cooma hospital.
The hospital had been treating Hadi Nazari for dehydration, and the NSW southern local health district said in a statement he will continue his recovery at home.
Victoria police investigate fatal shooting in Melbourne overnight
Victoria police say they’ve identified the victim of a fatal shooting in Caroline Springs as a 33-year-old male, Hawre Sherwani, who had links to organised crime.
Emergency services were called to Heysen Parkway at about 10:30pm last night, after reports of shots being fired.
Sherwani was found with gunshot wounds by police and subsequently died in hospital.
Det Supt Janet Stevenson of the crime command told media they believe the attack was targeted:
Sherwani is known to police and has organised crime links and at the moment we have tried to piece together exactly what happened.
What we know is this is a targeted attack. There is nothing for the local residents to fear, it was absolutely targeted so [we’re] still trying to piece that together.
Synagogue vandals should face ‘full force of the law’, Jewish peak body says
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has responded to the vandalism of a Sydney synagogue overnight.
Co-chief executive of the council, Alex Ryvchin, wrote in a statement that those responsible should face the “full force of the law”:
The community expects swift arrests to be made and for those who deface houses of worship with the symbol of genocide to face the full force of the law. As long as these people evade justice for trying to terrorise Australian citizens, it will continue.
We’re also calling on our fellow Australians, particularly those in positions of influence across society, to end the silence and publicly denounce this behaviour as repugnant to our national values and a threat to us all.
Police say they’re investigating the offensive graffiti on the synagogue.
