As it happened: Shane Drumgold unable to practise in ACT after resignation; WA repeals Aboriginal heritage laws

Lawyers for Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting have savaged the 37-year-old bombshell letter a fellow mining dynasty hailed as proof the magnate knew she had to share her iron ore billions, branding it “peripheral” evidence made redundant by a subsequent deal.

The letter Lang Hancock penned to his daughter Rinehart shortly after the death of his business partner Peter Wright set out the division of assets and his intention to retain several Hope Downs mines jointly for the “Hanwright” partnership.

The letter was dubbed “significant evidence” by Wright Prospecting’s lawyer Julie Taylor early in the high-stakes civil trial, in which Wright’s descendants are claiming a slice of Hope Downs’ royalties under a 1980s deal to share equally in the spoils of partnership assets.

But Hancock Prospecting’s lawyer Noel Hutley rubbished the characterisation, insisting it was, at best, of the most “peripheral relevance”.

“If anything, it supports our case to the extent it is even relevant and we embrace it,” he told the court.

“It confirms Lang’s understanding that there was an asset of real value to seek to obtain rights over.”

Hutley said Lang’s letter was made redundant by a deal he signed the following year with his late business partner’s son Michael, in which they agreed to divide up the partnership’s assets.

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Sticker-shocked shoppers are slashing their spending plans and are yet to be convinced that the Reserve Bank is finished lifting interest rates, as big-name retailers and the used car market point to a further slowdown across the economy.

Just a week after the RBA held interest rates steady for a second consecutive month, a key measure of consumer sentiment showed confidence among shoppers fell while their outlook for the economy deteriorated.

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute measure of sentiment slipped by 0.4 per cent in August. But the survey, carried out last week, showed confidence fell by a much larger 4.9 per cent among those people surveyed after the Reserve’s decision to leave the cash rate at 4.1 per cent.

Among people with a mortgage, consumer confidence slipped by 7.2 per cent this month and is lower than when the RBA last increased interest rates in June.

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The ABC has spent more than $700,000 in defamation settlements over the past three years, documents filed by the national broadcaster show, with total legal costs for proceedings reaching at least $1.94 million.

The documents were filed last week to federal parliament in response to Nationals senator Ross Cadell’s questions, taken on notice by ABC managing director David Anderson during Senate estimates hearings in May.

The ABC data shows legal settlements totalled $753,450: $414,000 in financial year 2021-22 and $339,450 in 2020-21.

External costs in 2021-22, including legal fees, totalled $871,088, and $315,626 in 2020-21, bringing the total the ABC spent to $1.94 million on legal costs over the four years.

However, that figure is likely to be higher because the broadcaster was not required to disclose figures for 2021-22 and 2022-23 when there were fewer than three defamation cases relating to the ABC.

The ABC declined to comment. Read the full story.

Just now at a speech in parliament, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it has been 10 years since an Australian government launched a new international development policy and that the Indo-Pacific has changed significantly in that time.

“Our nation has to deploy all of our national power, or tools of statecraft to help shape the region we want,” Wong said, naming climate change as the region’s greatest challenge.

Announcing the government’s new international development program, Wong and International Development Minister Pat Conroy said the government committed an additional $1.4 billion over four years in official development assistance to developing nations.

Conroy said the government would implement the recommendations of the Development Finance Review, which investigated how the government could more effectively address challenges facing the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

“As recommended by the review we are significantly increasing the blended finance capability of the development program by establishing Australian Development Investments,” he said. “This will be a new vehicle providing up to $250 million as a catalyst for private impact investment in the Indo-Pacific.

“ADI will build on the Emerging Markets Impact Investment Fund pilot program. This proved the enormous potential of blending government finance with the private sector to generate social and environmental impact alongside financial returns.

“The pilot program was leveraging, for every $1 of public investment, $5 of private sector impact ... so I have high hopes for the $250 million fund.”

He said the policy also focused on local employment, climate resilient infrastructure and supporting civil society.

Lithium hotshot Patriot Battery Metals’ chairman Ken Brinsden has thrown his support behind the Voice to parliament, saying that the referendum offered Australia a chance to embrace Indigenous culture.

The veteran mining executive also expressed surprise at the WA state government scrapping its Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act, telling reporters at the Diggers & Dealers forum in Kalgoorlie that it was “heading in the right direction”.

Brinsden said Australia would be “better for it” if it embraced Aboriginal culture.

“I’d say the Voice is a step in the right direction. I’d say don’t overthink it because it’s going to be important to contributing to us embracing Aboriginal culture more fully,” he said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, alongside Minister for International Development Pat Conroy, spoke this afternoon at the launch of Australia’s International Development Policy.

Watch below.

The bitter debate over the government’s housing bill, which is being blocked by the Greens, has made its first appearance in question time.

Greens’ housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather, who has been the bugbear of the Prime Minister by pushing for a national co-ordination of rent caps, asked Anthony Albanese whether he will listen to Australians calling for stronger renters’ rights.

The prime minister responded: “I understand that renters are doing it tough. I also understand that in Australia’s Federation, the Commonwealth does not control rents, the Commonwealth does not have the capacity either to abolish the private rental market.”

He said the key to fixing rental issues was more homes, and that while national cabinet would be discussing renters’ rights next Wednesday “we will not be nationalising private housing in this country”.

“I say to the member if he is at all fair dinkum, vote for – break up this Coalition over there between the Liberals, the Nationals, One Nation and the Greens in the other chamber – and vote for additional housing.”