Australia news as it happened: Missing Australians found floating in Indonesian waters; Voice support slips again

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has appeared on KIIS FM radio in Melbourne this afternoon and it was quite the journey.

“Albo’s in the house,” co-host Jason Hawkins declared at the start of the interview, as co-host Lauren Phillips admitted to “always [getting] nervous when you’re around”.

The trio got down to business, discussing the prime minister’s appearance at the Matildas’ match on Saturday.

“Question: at a sporting event like that,” Hawkins asked, “do you have to line up to get a beer?”

Albanese admitted he “tend[s] not to line up” for things like that.

And his favourite Matilda?

“I love Hayley Raso,” he said. “I think she’s awesome. She’s so good in defence and attack. She just seems to get the ball more than anyone else.”

He also nominated Sam Kerr and Mackenzie Arnold as personal heroes.

And of course – after a brief discussion on the loneliness epidemic in the country – the hosts delivered him a gift.

“We thought we’d celebrate [the Matildas] by getting you some new PJs,” Hawkins said.

“If the Matildas win you’re gonna have to get out and cut a lap of the Lodge so the paparazzi can get you in your new pyjamas,” Phillips said, referring to the now-infamous photo of Albanese the morning after Labor won the federal election.

Australian households will receive a pamphlet outlining the Yes and No arguments about the upcoming Voice referendum by late September, the Australian Electoral Commission says.

Nearly 13 million copies of the pamphlets have been printed, as the last one rolled off the printer yesterday. Delivery will begin in mid-to-late August and take about a month to complete.

“This is one of the nation’s, and the AEC’s, largest printing and distribution jobs,” said Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers in a statement today.

“It’ll take time for all deliveries to occur – delivery is getting underway shortly and will be completed by mid-late September.”

“The official Yes and No cases were written and authorised by parliamentarians,” Rogers said. “The AEC had absolutely no lawful authority to change or ‘fact check’ the material regardless of how strongly some people may feel about it.”

Let’s return briefly to Sydney Airport, where an alleged bomb threat caused a plane to turn back yesterday afternoon.

Canberra man Muhammad Arif was arrested and, on Tuesday morning, the AFP said he had been formally charged with one count of making a false statement about a threat to damage a division 3 aircraft, and one count of a passenger not complying with cabin crew’s safety instructions.

The International Air Transport Association, which represents more than 300 of the world’s airlines including Malaysia Airlines, said there has been an increase in the number of unruly or disruptive passengers since flying resumed after COVID-19 grounded the industry in 2020.

Read the full story here.

Good afternoon, Anthony Segaert with you for the rest of the afternoon.

We’ve just seen some new footage come through of what appears to show the moment three of four Australians and one of the Indonesia crew members, missing at sea for more than 36 hours, were discovered by friends on a local boat.

Surfer and friend of the group Benny Cradock posted the footage to Instagram this afternoon:

Four people appear on surfboards on mostly calm water, with no land in view.

You can keep across the latest developments on this story here.

Online furniture retailer Temple & Webster has provided more evidence that younger shoppers have curbed their homewares spending, with the company reporting a 31 per cent drop in profit for 2023.

The Millennial-focused brand told investors on today that its revenues had slipped by 7.2 per cent to $395.5 million, while its net profit after tax slid to $8.3 million for the year.

Chief executive Mark Coulter said economic pressures would continue to put pressure on the homewares industry, but said that the past six weeks of trading had been quite strong, with sales up by 16 per cent compared with the same time last year.

“We remain committed to our longer-term goal of becoming Australia’s largest retailer of furniture and homewares,” he said.

Thanks for reading our live coverage for the first half of the day.

If you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know:

• Four surfers who went missing off the coast of Indonesia are alive, with one sending a text to his father moments after his dad aired concerned about his location.
• The Reserve Bank believes the nation’s jobs market has reached a “turning point” as an increasing number of home buyers struggle under current interest rate settings.
• The figures come after the National Australia Bank reported a 5.8 per cent increase in its third-quarter profit to $1.9 billion.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said renters need more rights, but any changes can’t be done in a way that “dampens housing supply”.
• No campaign leader Nyunggai Warren Mundine has revealed he pushed two people out of his referendum campaign over allegedly racist comments.
• Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the jobs data released today showed substantial progress when it comes to the government’s plan to “get wages moving again”.
• The Victorian premier is standing by his factional ally amid allegations a Labor branch linked to the state energy minister forged the signatures of deceased people on membership forms.
• And in major international news, Donald Trump has been charged in Georgia over his bid to overturn the 2020 election.

My colleague Anthony Segaert will keep the blog updated for the rest of the afternoon.

And in breaking news, Donald Trump has been criminally charged for a fourth time, this time over election subversion in Georgia as part of a potentially damning case for which he will not be able to pardon himself even if he becomes president.

Prosecutors brought 41 counts against Trump and his associates, including forgery, conspiracy-related charges, soliciting a public officer to violate an oath, and racketeering, which is used to target members of organised crime groups.

Among the others named are Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.

Two weeks after Trump pleaded not guilty in a Washington court for his role in trying to overthrow the results of the 2020 election, an Atlanta-based grand jury has indicted the former president and 18 allies for a related scheme to overturn the result to stop Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

More details on this international story here.

Returning to Victoria now, and Opposition Leader John Pesutto has called for Premier Daniel Andrews to sack Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio.

It comes amid reports a Labor branch linked to the energy minister forged the signatures of deceased people on membership forms.

“Daniel Andrews needs to dismiss Minister D’Ambrosio [and] refer her to IBAC and to Victoria Police just as he did with Adem Somyurek three years ago,” Pesutto said.

“Daniel Andrews can’t have one standard of behaviour for his enemies, and one standard for his friends. He has to be consistent here.

“It’s an affront to multicultural communities who have been used by the Labor Party. It’s an affront to the families of the deceased.”

Asked why D’Ambrosio should lose her job when there is no suggestion she herself forged the signatures, Pesutto said it was a matter of accountability.

“Based on the reports, we are given to understand that Minister D’Ambrosio’s staff were involved, allegedly, in the forging of signatures of dead people,” he said.

“Victorians right across our state … are getting sick and tired of no one being held accountable for what’s going on.”

D’Ambrosio has denied any wrongdoing and Andrews is standing behind his factional ally today, describing her as a “person of character”.