Australia news live: government under fire over handling of rape allegations as voters lose trust | Australia news

Twenty-five more medevac refugees are being released on bridging visas in Brisbane this morning.

Twenty-three people will be released from the Kangaroo Point facility and two from Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation.

Their release follows yesterday’s release of another 25 medevac refugees in the same city.

Dozens more are expected to follow around the country this week, with some spending more than a year in hotels or detention facilities. The detainees were brought to Australia from Nauru and Manus Island for medical treatment under medical evacuation laws which have since been repealed.

Looks like people in Cairns might be in for some rough weather this morning with residents bracing for winds of up to 100km/h.

This has been caused by the formation of a tropical cyclone off the coast. Luckily Cyclone Niran is moving north-east so isn’t currently expected to hit land.

Another thing to look out for today is the continuation of the Juukan Gorge inquiry.

The International Council for Monuments and Sites and Central Land Council are set to give evidence in today’s hearings about the destruction of the 46,000-year-old caves in the Pilbara region of Western Australia by mining giant Rio Tinto.

Calla Wahlquist will be watching that and bringing us updates.

Just in case you haven’t been watching The Crown and forgot that we have a monarch, here is some slightly cute Queen news this morning.

Lizzie herself has appeared via Zoom to meet with the South Australian premier Steven Marshall and governor Hieu Van Le.

On the 24 February call, which has only recently been made public, the premier showed the Queen photos of the bronze statue of the monarch that has been erected outside Adelaide’s Government House.

I would think possibly it might be quite alarming to suddenly see it out of the window. You’d think, ‘gracious, has she arrived here unexpectedly!’

In the same call, the Queen expressed something alarmingly close to a political opinion, a fairly rare occurrence from the historically apolitical head of state.

She said people who were hesitant to take the vaccine “ought to think about other people rather than themselves”.

Anyone else remember that the former finance minister Mathias Cormann has been gunning for the top OECD spot?

Well, looks like the campaigning might pay off, as he is now one of the final two candidates in the international race to become the next Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development secretary-general.

This comes after the withdrawal of Greece’s candidate overnight on Monday.

Cormann will now face off for the leadership against Sweden’s candidate Cecilia Malmström.

The successful candidate will succeed current secretary-general Ángel Gurría for a five-year term beginning at the start of June.

Good morning, Matilda Boseley here to battle the day’s news with you.

And excitingly I’m going to be around a lot more from now on, with you most non-sitting weeks morning before passing you back into the capable hands of Amy Remeikis on the days the politicians sit down to business in parliament.

If you see anything in your travels this morning that you reckon I’ve missed or think should be in the blog make sure you get in touch with me on Twitter @MatildaBoseley, or by email on matilda.boseley@gmail.com.

Today one of the main things to look out for is the fallout from that slightly disastrous prime ministerial press conference yesterday in which Scott Morrison said the unnamed cabinet minister who has been accused of a historical rape in 1988 should not be required to step down while police continue their inquiries.

Morrison says the cabinet minister in question “vigorously rejected” the claims made by a woman who has since taken her own life.

This is the latest in a string of sexual assault allegations levelled at people involved in the government and the effects of that have begun to show. A new Essential poll shows that two-thirds of Australia believe the government has shown more interest in protecting its political interests than the interests of women who have made rape and sexual assault allegations.

This poll came after a fortnight of questions about the government’s handling of the alleged rape of then-political staffer Brittany Higgins in the defence industry minister’s office in Parliament House in 2019.

About 65% of respondents agreed with the statement: “The government has been more interested in protecting itself than the interests of those who have been assaulted.” This included 51% of self-identified Coalition supporters.

That press conference was actually called because the damning royal commission report in Australia aged care was handed down.

The government has been criticised for not giving the media enough time to actually read the huge document before a press conference was held. Now that they have had the night to pour over the 148 recommendations, we can expect some more tough questions launched at whichever politicians stand up to speak today.