LIVE - Updated at 22:16
The Greens set up Senate inquiry to wedge Albanese government on rent freeze, as advocates hail reduction in domestic violence in NT town.
Overnight in South Australia, heavy rainfall has caused flooding across metropolitan Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills.
The SES has responded to more than 240 requests for assistance, including seven separate swift water rescues as people became trapped in fast rising flood water.
The majority of those calls for assistance were for flooding but others were also for trees fallen down, and rockslides across roadways. Several roads remain closed this morning.
SES are warning:
A Watch and Act Message has been issued for Waterfall Gully Road between Waterfall Terrace and the Waterfall Gully Car Park due to flooding, with the road closed. A Flood Advice Message remains current for Swamp Road at Lenswood after a private dam spillway overtopped, resulting in localised flooding. Road closures are in place around Swamp Road. There is also flooding near the Hahndorf exit of the South Eastern Freeway on Mount Barker Road at Verdun. Members of the public are advised to avoid these areas and check traffic.sa.gov.au for updates.
A Watch and Act Message has been issued for Waterfall Gully Road between Waterfall Terrace and the Waterfall Gully Car Park due to flooding, with the road closed.
A Flood Advice Message remains current for Swamp Road at Lenswood after a private dam spillway overtopped, resulting in localised flooding. Road closures are in place around Swamp Road.
There is also flooding near the Hahndorf exit of the South Eastern Freeway on Mount Barker Road at Verdun. Members of the public are advised to avoid these areas and check traffic.sa.gov.au for updates.
Good morning! Thanks to Martin for kicking things off, I'm Natasha May and I'll be with you into the afternoon.
Voters in the Queensland seat of Fadden will find out the full list of candidates for the upcoming by-election created by the resignation of Stuart Robert
The Australian Electoral Commission will today conduct the ballot draw for the July 15 by-election, triggered by the resignation of the controversial former Coalition government minister.
It is expected there could be as many as eight candidates on the ballot paper.
The Liberal National party hopes its candidate, Gold Coast councillor Cameron Caldwell, can retain the seat Robert held in 2022 with a 10.6% margin.
The support and compensation available to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse in Western Australia will be put under the microscope, Australian Associated Press reports.
The WA parliament's community development and justice standing committee has launched an inquiry into the options available to survivors seeking justice and restitution.
"Concerns have been expressed that there are barriers to accessing the civil court remedies, such as difficulty obtaining timely hearing dates," chair David Honey said last night.
He said a lack of suitably qualified lawyers prepared to act on such matters and allegations some institutions were deliberately delaying some elderly survivor's claims were also issues.
The inquiry will investigate the experience of survivors who have used the civil litigation process and the response from the courts, government and non-government institutions.
It will also examine the effectiveness of the national redress scheme, along with any barriers to timely resolution of civil claims and the support given to survivors who used it.
Other options to provide justice, resolution and compensation to survivors and their families will also be considered.
The committee expects to report its findings by June next year.
We've reported this week on growing concern among voters about China, with three out of four Australians believing that the superpower will pose a military threat to the country within 20 years.
It's not a view everyone shares and tonight the Australian Anti-Aukus Coalition is holding an event in Melbourne to rally opposition to the government's plan to spend billions of dollars buying US nuclear-powered submarines - a deal universally regarded as a response to defence concerns about rising Chinese power.
The top speaker at tonight's rally, which has the slogan "No to nuclear submarines - no to war. Yes to peace, jobs, climate Justice" - will be former Labor minister and rock star Peter Garrett.
It also comes as a parliamentary inquiry heard yesterday that the ABC should be given much greater funding to boost its Asia Pacific coverage in order to counter Chinese propaganda.
Claire Gorman, the ABC's head of international services, told the inquiry into supporting democracy in the region that China is spending at least $3bn a year on international media, compared with $11m for the ABC.
Full story here:
Related: ABC's international budget should grow as China spends billions on information war, inquiry told
Good morning and thanks for joining us for our rolling news coverage today. I'm Martin Farrer bringing you the best overnight stories before my colleague Natasha May fires up.
The Albanese government is under pressure to freeze or cap rising rents after the Senate set up an inquiry into the crisis facing tenants in a manoeuvre by the Greens to force action by Labor in the long-running standoff between the parties. The Greens and the Coalition teamed up on Monday to delay consideration of Labor's $10bn housing Australia future fund (Haff) until 16 October. And yesterday they did it again to establish the inquiry, which will provide an interim report by 23 September.
Alcohol control groups say restrictions reintroduced earlier this year in the Northern Territory amid a well-publicised rise in crime are having a positive impact, with police statistics showing a drop in family violence callouts, property offences and other antisocial behaviour. Police data revealed a 37% decrease in domestic violence assaults from January to April, the advocates said, while all other assaults dropped 35% and property offences were down 25% over the same time period.
Civil liberties advocates are pushing back against a plan by the New South Wales Labor government to stop climate activists from livestreaming protests on Facebook. Under pressure to curb the protests, Minns announced via the Daily Telegraph yesterday that he would request a meeting with the social media giant, alongside police, to see what they can do to "stop the broadcast of illegal acts" and try to limit their impact. Independent crossbench MP Alex Greenwich said it was a "deeply concerning" development.