Australia news LIVE: Joyce acknowledges contentious debate over Hastie, Roberts-Smith issue; UN’s atomic watchdog confirms activity at Iranian site suspected of housing nuclear activities

Hello and welcome to our coverage of national news for Friday, September 11. Here’s what is making headlines today.

• Today marks 25 years since 9/11, when twin planes hit the World Trade Centre towers in New York. Terrorists hijacked four passenger planes. Two were deliberately crashed into the towers in New York, another into the Pentagon building in Virginia. The final plane exploded in a field in Pennsylvania. The death toll from that day was 2977, including 10 Australians.
• Former prime minister Kevin Rudd used a National Press Club address yesterday to warn that Australia is operating on borrowed time, as he challenged the prime minister and business leaders to pursue a more ambitious policy agenda, including sweeping government intervention in the economy.
• One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has acknowledged the “contentious” political debate swirling around accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, after apologising to Andrew Hastie for a cartoon that branded the Liberal frontbencher a traitor.
• The Coalition rejected Labor’s proposed Digital Duty of Care Bill yesterday, which would fine social media companies for not preventing harm to users under the age of 18, calling it censorious.
• The United Nations atomic watchdog says it has observed construction activity at Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified site suspected of housing nuclear-related activities. remote imagery indicates new movement at the site just south of Tehran’s main uranium-enrichment plant, IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said.

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The United Nations atomic watchdog says it has observed construction activity at Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified site suspected of housing nuclear-related activities.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has yet to inspect inside the tunnel complex but remote imagery indicates new movement at the site just south of Tehran’s main uranium-enrichment plant, IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said.

“There are some indications that there is movement around this construction site,” Grossi said.

Grossi commented after the IAEA’s board of governors referred Iran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council for non-compliance with requirements related to its atomic activities.

“We notice there’s a little activity at Pickaxe,” US President Donald Trump said at a Republican rally on Wednesday. “I would advise Iran not to get cute because we will have to hit them very hard.”

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has acknowledged the “contentious” political debate swirling around accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, after apologising to Andrew Hastie for a cartoon that branded the Liberal frontbencher a traitor.

Party leader Pauline Hanson, who has backed Roberts-Smith as he faces allegations of the war crime of murder, has refused to scrub the episode of Please Explain from her social media. In it, Hastie is labelled a traitor for testifying in Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation action against this masthead.

Asked on News24 last night whether he was worried about backlash from veterans for the party’s attack on a former SAS captain, Joyce said many of his close friends had served, and he had been in the reserves.

“I’m not blind to this issue,” he said.

“I know that there’s a lot of contention around Mr Roberts-Smith. And you know, I’ve heard both sides of the argument on this one.”

Hello and welcome to our coverage of national news for Friday, September 11. Here’s what is making headlines today.

• Today marks 25 years since 9/11, when twin planes hit the World Trade Centre towers in New York. Terrorists hijacked four passenger planes. Two were deliberately crashed into the towers in New York, another into the Pentagon building in Virginia. The final plane exploded in a field in Pennsylvania. The death toll from that day was 2977, including 10 Australians.
• Former prime minister Kevin Rudd used a National Press Club address yesterday to warn that Australia is operating on borrowed time, as he challenged the prime minister and business leaders to pursue a more ambitious policy agenda, including sweeping government intervention in the economy.
• One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has acknowledged the “contentious” political debate swirling around accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, after apologising to Andrew Hastie for a cartoon that branded the Liberal frontbencher a traitor.
• The Coalition rejected Labor’s proposed Digital Duty of Care Bill yesterday, which would fine social media companies for not preventing harm to users under the age of 18, calling it censorious.
• The United Nations atomic watchdog says it has observed construction activity at Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified site suspected of housing nuclear-related activities. remote imagery indicates new movement at the site just south of Tehran’s main uranium-enrichment plant, IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said.