NSW Liberal party state director sacked over administrative disaster
NSW Liberals state director Richard Shields has been sacked after the party’s failure to nominate more than 130 candidates for local government elections, AAP reports.
In a statement issued at the conclusion of an emergency meeting late last night, the party’s state president Don Harwin said its executive had unanimously decided to terminate Shields’ employment over the fiasco:
The state director was given the opportunity to explain the circumstances to the state executive. This failure to meet such a fundamental responsibility has rendered his position untenable.
As a result the state executive has unanimously resolved to terminate the state director’s employment with immediate effect.
Earlier in the evening, Shields labelled as “premature” calls for his resignation. Shields had said:
There must be a proper review of the nomination process to establish the full facts.
Eight local councils – including several in party heartland – will go to upcoming statewide elections without a Liberal candidate on the ticket.
You can read more on this below:
Key events
Google, Meta and Microsoft to weigh in on Australian AI
Four of the world’s biggest companies will be questioned about the risks and benefits of adopting AI tools in Australia as part of a national inquiry into the technology, AAP reports.
Representatives from Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon will appear before the Adopting Artificial Intelligence inquiry in Canberra today in its fifth public hearing.
The firms, which are responsible for AI tools including Gemini, Meta AI and Copilot, are expected to face questions about how businesses could deploy the technology but also ways in which it has been misused.
Microsoft is also the largest investor in OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, although the firm operates independently.
The inquiry was called in March and is tasked with examining AI trends, errors, bias and opportunities, as well as its impact on elections and the environment. Previous hearings have heard calls for restrictions to be issued for the use of AI tools in fields such as healthcare, media and art.
The parliamentary committee is expected to release its findings in September.
New Zealand-Australia talks to revisit deportations spat
Deportations, migration and closer defence partnership will be on the agenda when Anthony Albanese meets his New Zealand counterpart Chris Luxon in Canberra today.
As AAP reports, the two prime ministers are meeting for the annual Australia New Zealand leaders meeting.
Cooperation between the two governments is already broad, with more than half of the New Zealand cabinet visiting Australia since Luxon’s government took office last November. But one issue – deportations – continues to cause friction.
New Zealand has long protested against Australia’s practice of deporting criminals with NZ passports but with stronger ties to Australia. Once in New Zealand, deportees have allegedly joined gangs in huge numbers, and New Zealand argues they stand a better chance of rehabilitation in their adopted communities.
New Zealand won a concession from Albanese last year when he agreed to consider these concerns but earlier this year it was revealed that a number of deportees who won the right to stay in Australia allegedly committed heinous crimes, prompting a reversal of the policy concession.
Luxon said it was back on the agenda and he would be raising it “pretty directly” on Friday:
Because we’ve got trust and friendship, we can actually talk about those things and have differences of opinion.
NSW Liberal party state director sacked over administrative disaster
NSW Liberals state director Richard Shields has been sacked after the party’s failure to nominate more than 130 candidates for local government elections, AAP reports.
In a statement issued at the conclusion of an emergency meeting late last night, the party’s state president Don Harwin said its executive had unanimously decided to terminate Shields’ employment over the fiasco:
The state director was given the opportunity to explain the circumstances to the state executive. This failure to meet such a fundamental responsibility has rendered his position untenable.
As a result the state executive has unanimously resolved to terminate the state director’s employment with immediate effect.
Earlier in the evening, Shields labelled as “premature” calls for his resignation. Shields had said:
There must be a proper review of the nomination process to establish the full facts.
Eight local councils – including several in party heartland – will go to upcoming statewide elections without a Liberal candidate on the ticket.
You can read more on this below:
Welcome
Emily Wind
Good morning and happy Friday – welcome back to the Australia news live blog after an eventful sitting week. I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be taking you through our rolling coverage today.
Making news overnight: NSW Liberals state director Richard Shields has been sacked, AAP reports, after a failure to nominate 140 candidates for local government elections. We’ll bring you the full statement from the party’s state president Don Harwin in a moment.
Anthony Albanese is set to meet his New Zealand counterpart Chris Luxon in Canberra today for the annual Australia New Zealand leaders meeting. Also in Canberra today, four of the world’s biggest companies will be questioned about the risks and benefits of adopting AI tools in Australia as part of a national inquiry into the technology.
We’ll bring you more on both of these stories in a moment.
As always, if you see something that needs attention you can reach out via X, @emilywindwrites, or send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
Let’s get started.
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