Australia news LIVE: Wells says gender ‘debates’ would not be policed in reforms; Trump administration will not livestream firing squad execution

Updated October 16, 2026 — 11:02am,first published October 16, 2026 — 6:45am

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of national news for this Friday, October 16. Here’s what is making headlines today.

In case you missed it, yesterday was a packed day in Canberra.

• Communications Minister Anika Wells introduced the government’s Digital Duty of Care bill to parliament. She revealed the reforms would capture US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform and unveiled a list of online harms proscribed under the legislation.
• Health Minister Mark Butler brought the Albanese government’s private health insurance rebate bill back to the Senate after the Coalition and Greens joined forces on Wednesday to block the legislation. Labor could lose up to $1.6 billion in budget spending to secure a deal with the Greens after the party doubled down on its rejection of the bill.
• Greens leader David Shoebridge addressed the media to respond to allegations published in this masthead against Senator Jordon Steele-John. Shoebridge said Steele-John would take leave from the party, while the WA Greens conduct an independent inquiry. Steele-John has rejected all the allegations.
• Overseas, the Vatican says Pope Leo has resumed work from the hospital as doctors said his lung recovered well from surgery. The pontiff’s lung cancer was revealed earlier this week.
• And the Trump administration has abandoned its plan to livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan following extensive backlash.

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The world leader of the secretive Exclusive Brethren sect faces a grilling by federal MPs about his church’s multimillion dollar, undisclosed campaign for the Coalition at the last election, when he makes his first public appearance in decades before a parliamentary inquiry today.

Bruce Hales and his son Gareth were called to give evidence, under threat of subpoena, by the joint standing committee examining the 2025 federal election – the first time the Brethren’s “Man of God”, “elect vessel” has ever faced such scrutiny.

The showdown comes after this masthead revealed that elders of the sect, which normally shuns the outside world, directed thousands of Brethren members to campaign for the Liberals in 2025. They also ran a second, more shadowy operation in which neo-Nazi associates were paid to tail and heckle MPs and disrupt Labor, Greens and teal events.

That secret “election influence” plot with the far-right went all the way to the top of the church, with messages leaked to this masthead showing Gareth Hales was among the elders directly involved. Gareth will also appear for questioning today.

The church has said individuals were involved in the campaign, rather than the church itself, and Bruce Hales has already denied any knowledge or involvement himself ahead of his appearance. He has also been preaching to his flock in recent weeks of keeping “our secrets” from “men in the world”.

You can follow along to the hearing from our special live blog here.

The Carroll government has committed $66 million over four years to hire 85 extra nurses at the Royal Children’s Hospital, after doctors raised the alarm that hospital beds in an expanded emergency ward would sit empty because of staff shortages.

Premier Ben Carroll and health minister Ingrid Stitt said today the $55 million hospital expansion would open in December, with 20 new beds and capacity to care for an extra 13,000 children every year.

The Age revealed last month that the hospital’s director of emergency medicine, Dr Stuart Lewena, had accused the state government of turning down a funding request for more doctors and nurses to be able to operate the new ward, despite record numbers of sick children flooding to the health service.

Stitt said that the government had been working with the hospital on commissioning and opening the expansion as construction neared completion.

Travellers are warned to expect delays upon arrival at the country’s largest airport as hundreds of security workers walk off the job.

Security workers at Sydney Airport’s domestic and international terminals will undertake another four-hour stoppage this afternoon from 5pm-9pm after striking this morning from 6am-10am.

The workers, contracted by the airport from security firm Certis Group, are demanding more full-time jobs, fairer rostering and no cuts to hours.

“There will be delays,” Transport Workers Union national secretary Michael Kaine told ABC from the airport this morning.

White House press secretary Katie Zacharia has denigrated China in an interview, remarks that could invite more scrutiny on the newly appointed chief spokesperson for US President Donald Trump.

Zacharia, who previously lived in China, was asked in an interview overnight how she balances her personal life with her work responsibilities. That led to a lengthy response in which she said Trump’s 2016 victory put America back on the path to greatness.

“I remember this very distinctly, having just come from China, thinking, ‘How is China the next country on the horizon? They don’t even have proper toilets’,” Zacharia said in an interview with right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec.

Zacharia previously lived in China with her husband, moving to the country in 2011.

Greens leader David Shoebridge has rejected the suggestion that his party is divided over Russia’s war on Ukraine after Senator Sarah Hanson-Young broke ranks to support arming the Ukrainian army to defend itself against Russian aggression.

“I’ve spoken with all of the party room in relation to this. There is a consensus decision from the party room that indeed predates my time in the party room, that makes it very clear that the Australian Greens ... like governments across the world, do not believe in international arms trade,” Shoebridge told ABC’s News Breakfast this morning.

He said the party did not want to be funding “the Russian war machine”, and were considering how best to provide aid to Ukrainians without compromising its position.

“We look at a way in which we can provide the greatest possible assistance to Ukraine, consistent with our principles of peace and non-violence.”

Earlier this week, Hanson-Young said she supported giving Ukraine military aid if necessary to protect its sovereignty.

A NSW woman is celebrating with breakfast in bed this morning after winning an enormous $100 million in yesterday’s Powerball lotto. Australia’s third-biggest lottery winner ever pocketed the entire jackpot.

The woman, from Ballina in the NSW Northern Rivers region, planned to enjoy scrambled eggs and bacon in bed before indulging in champagne. She barely believed her luck when lottery officials called her following last night’s draw.

“What the f---! I’m still in shock ... Is this my cousin pranking me? My cousin is pranking me!” said the woman, who learnt of her newfound fortune alongside family members at home.

The anonymous woman bought a ticket hours before the draw closed, following the lead of others in her family. She had a “bit of FOMO [fear of missing out]” , lottery officials were told.

“We’ve just won the $100 million! F---ing hell! We’ve won the $100 million,” the woman’s relative screamed into the phone. “We’ve won the f---ing lotto!”

The new multimillionaire planned on paying off the mortgage on her home and supporting her family, before making any long-term financial decisions. She said her miraculous luck was a sign from a loved one who had recently died, and that she had been getting “signs all day” that their spirit was with her.

The Australian Defence Force is grappling with a “cultural issue” regarding women, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said this morning, as it investigates a recording device found on an Australian naval vessel.

“This is obviously a cultural issue … we will continue to grapple with as we see more and more female Australians serving in the ADF,” he told ABC’s Radio National.

“One in five ADF personnel are women. They need to be treated with respect and dignity, like all service personnel. And the culture has to change to accommodate that.”

He said he did not want the incident to deter women from serving in the military.

“We want you to serve. We want to make sure you can serve in a safe and respectful environment, and we’re working very hard to do that.”

Yesterday, Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie renewed her calls for an independent authority to handle claims of sexual assault and harassment made by members of the ADF.

Labor’s Digital Duty of Care bill is “censorship dressed up as care”, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie claimed this morning, after Communications Minister Anika Wells introduced the legislation to parliament yesterday.

She said the Coalition was concerned about “vague definitions” of harm in the bill and wanted to ensure conservatives would not be censored as a result of the reforms.

“We need to take very, very cautious steps, and the minister has given me no comfort, even in her 7:30 interview last night, that the definitions are secure, or this bill will even work. I mean, we’ve got issues around vague definitions when it comes to content which is hostile to women and gender equality,” the senator told ABC’s Radio National.

“Does that mean we’re actually going to silent debate about the efficacy of gender reassignment surgery for minors? ... Politicians like myself, a proud conservative who, unashamedly, is a Zionist as well. Will I be shut down and censored as a result of falling foul of these definitions that the Labor Party puts in place?”

Wells told 7.30 last night that the bill would not police debate about issues such as transgender rights online.

Greens leader David Shoebridge has refused to say whether the results of an inquiry into allegations against Greens senator Jordon Steele-John should be made public, as he argues he should not have a hand in determining the process of the investigation.

“This is a process that will be commissioned by the WA Greens, and the parameters that we are very clear about is it will be fair, and it will be independent, and it will be timely. But it is not my role to put parameters around what we have said must be and will be an independent process,” Shoebridge told journalists at Parliament House in Canberra this morning.

Pressed on whether the Greens had ignored allegations made against the senator in the past, Shoebridge said: “I’ve been leader now for two weeks, and when I received these complaints, I took the most timely action that I believe you could take, and I’d ask people to judge me and on the response that’s been taken, the timely response that’s been taken”.

“Everybody in this deserves a process that is fair, a process that is timely, and I think timely is critical, and a process that is independent. And we are committed to undertaking that process, and committed to doing justice to the matters that have been raised, and justice to any party that has been involved in the matter, and I think that should be actually a bedrock. That should actually be a bedrock of politics.”

Greens leader David Shoebridge has insisted he “knew nothing” of claims of inappropriate conduct against Senator Jordon Steele-John, which allegedly occurred between 2017 and 2025.

He dismissed the suggestion the party had turned “a blind eye” to Steele-John’s alleged behaviour towards women, which reports suggest was “well-known within the party”.

Shoebridge, who assumed the party leadership last month, said the letter he received from seven women on Tuesday night was the first he had heard of the allegations.

“I knew absolutely nothing until assuming this position as leader, and then when I received the correspondence, I acted with what I think is timely and appropriate urgency upon receiving the correspondence ... That’s my obligation, to try and ensure that these matters are dealt with fairly,” Shoebridge told ABC’s News Breakfast this morning.

He would not say whether he had directed Steele-John to take leave, only that the decision was made after “a discussion”.

Shoebridge confirmed Steele-John would also be taking leave from parliament.