Australian Associated Press
Alan Jones charged over 24 alleged offences, Senate votes to censure Lidia Thorpe: Australia news live
Plus the search is on for the winner of $2.5 million in Saturday's Lotto draw.
Tom Flanagan
·Homepage and Live Editor
Updated
Yahoo's live news blog for Monday, November 18 has now concluded. Alan Jones, 83, has been charged with 24 alleged offences after investigations into claims the radio broadcaster had allegedly indecently assaulted several young men. Read the full details below.
A two-year-old boy is critical after being pulled from a public pool in Sydney. Paramedics rushed to the pool in Liverpool on Sunday afternoon after lifeguards performed CPR on him.
Lidia Thorpe has been censured in a vote in the Senate following her protests during King Charles' Parliament House visit.
See all of the day's updates below.
LIVE COVERAGE IS OVER13 updates
Alan Jones faces dozens of charges for alleged assaults
Veteran broadcaster Alan Jones is facing dozens of charges after allegedly indecently assaulting a series of victims over a near-20-year period.
The 83-year-old, once one of Australia's most powerful media figures, was taken into a police station in the back of an unmarked car on Monday morning to answer historical allegations involving eight people.
The complex, months-long police investigation culminated in his arrest as investigators searched his luxurious unit overlooking Sydney Harbour at Circular Quay.
Investigators later confirmed he had been charged with 24 offences, including 11 counts of aggravated indecent assault where the alleged victim was under his authority.
Jones also faces nine counts of assault with act of indecency, two counts of sexually touching a person without consent and another two counts of common assault.
Jones was granted conditional bail to appear before Downing Centre Local Court on December 18.
The youngest of the complainants was 17 when the alleged assault took place, police said.
Jones' arrest followed a months-long investigation into allegations aired in Nine newspapers the talkback host repeatedly used positions of power to abuse young men.
Authorities anticipated other alleged victims could come forward following Jones' arrest, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb earlier said.
"This is a result of a very long, thorough, protracted investigation … I did visit the strike force some weeks and months ago to look at the work that they have been doing, it is very complex and protracted," she said.
"There's no such thing as a matter that's too old to be investigated ... what I'd say to victims is that there is no better time to come forward than now and you will be listened to and we will take your matter seriously."
In December 2023, Jones' lawyer Mark O'Brien denied the allegations on his client's behalf.
- Australian Associated Press
Senate votes to censure Lidia Thorpe
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe has vowed to keep telling the truth despite a Senate reprimand over her highly-publicised protest against King Charles II during the British monarch's Australian visit.
"You're not going to shut me down," the Indigenous senator told reporters on Monday after the upper house voted 46-12 to censure her over her protest during a parliamentary ceremony to honour the King in October.
"I don't give a damn about a censure motion - in fact, I'm going to use it for kindling."
Earlier, government Senate leader Penny Wong claimed the Victorian senator's actions sought to "incite outrage and grievance" and "create storms on social media".
The censure signalled that Australian politicians should uphold standards of respect during visits by dignitaries, she said.
Senator Thorpe, in a protest that generated worldwide coverage, claimed the monarch had "committed genocide against our people" and urged him to "give us what you stole from us - our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people".
"If you want to condemn me for being a truth teller, then go for it," she said after the Senate vote.
"I'm proud that I stood up against the king coloniser; shame that he didn't take the opportunity to apologise.
"So I'll do it again, I'll keep doing it."
Read more here.
- Australian Associated Press
Cop who tasered great-gran 'devastated' she died
The tasering of a 95-year-old woman was never meant to lead to her death but was done to prevent others from being stabbed, the police officer who fired the weapon has told a jury.
Senior Constable Kristian White discharged his stun gun at Clare Nowland in a treatment room at Yallambee Lodge aged-care home in the southern NSW town of Cooma during the early hours of May 17, 2023.
The great-grandmother, who had symptoms of dementia and was holding a steak knife at the time, fell backwards, hitting her head, and died a week later in hospital.
As White's trial entered its second week on Monday, the 34-year-old explained from the witness box that he only intended to incapacitate the aged-care resident and disarm her of the bladed weapon.
"I'm upset and devastated by it," he told the NSW Supreme Court.
"I never intended for her to be injured by it at all."
Read more here.
- Tom Flanagan
Millions of lightning strikes rain down on Australia
Plenty of you witnessed lightning strikes last night and Weatherzone has revealed the remarkable number of times lightning struck on Sunday.
According to their data, approximately 2.5 million lightning strikes were recorded across the country. A striking map shared by Weatherzone shows a red blanket indicating where the lightning strikes were.
"At the peak of the storm activity on Sunday afternoon, 3000 pulses per minute were detected Australia-wide," Weatherzone said on Monday.
"And just to prove that the NSW outback opal mining town of Lightning Ridge was well named, 25,000 lightning strikes occurred within 50 km of town."
- Tom Flanagan
Alan Jones pictured following arrest
We can now bring you images of Alan Jones being transferred to Day Street Police Station this morning. Media surrounded the vehicle as police took the 83-year-old for questioning following his arrest.
Jones is facing allegations of indecently assaulting, groping or inappropriately touching young men over a two-decade period.
- Australian Associated Press
Cop who tasered great-gran takes stand at trial
A police officer who stands by tasering a 95-year-old aged-care resident a week before she died has taken the stand at his own manslaughter trial.
Senior Constable Kristian White fired his stun gun at Clare Nowland in a treatment room at Yallambee Lodge aged-care home in the southern NSW town of Cooma during the early hours of May 17, 2023.
The great-grandmother, who had symptoms of dementia and was holding a knife at the time, fell backwards, hitting her head, and died a week later in hospital.
As White's trial entered its second week on Monday, the 34-year-old got into the witness box to explain his side of the story under questioning from his barrister Troy Edwards SC.
He is also expected to undergo a grilling by crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC later in the trial.
White has been accused of criminal negligence or conducting an unlawful and dangerous act that led to the unlawful killing of Mrs Nowland.
However, he has defended his actions, saying he was fulfilling his sworn duty as a police officer to protect others in the nursing home from the threat that the 95-year-old posed with the knife.
The trial continues.
- Tamika Seeto
NAB sued for failing hundreds of customers facing financial hardship
The corporate regulator has sued NAB for failing hundreds of customers facing financial hardship. More Aussies are reaching out to their banks for relief due to rising cost-of-living pressures and higher interest rates.
ASIC has alleged that NAB and its subsidiary AFSH Nominees Pty Ltd did not respond to 345 hardship applications made by customers within the required 21-day timeframe. The failures are alleged to have occurred between 2018 and 2023.
Read more here over at Yahoo Finance.
- Tom Flanagan
Principal stood down over sex education activity
NSW's Minister for Education Prue Car has apologised to parents of Year Six students at a Sydney primary school after a staff member allegedly engaged in a graphic conversation with students during a sex education activity.
Member for Miranda Eleni Petinos said she "audibly gasped" when she learned of what was discussed, the ABC reported.
The school's principal has been stood aside while the Department of Education investigate the matter.
- Tom Flanagan
Treasurer blasts Peter Dutton as 'reckless'
Things are heating up as Labor continues to trade barbs with the Coalition over Australia's future when Donald Trump returns to the White House.
The Opposition has been putting the pressure on the Albanese government to reach out to Trump in a bid to establish positive ties with the incoming president.
Following a weekend poll published by the Australian Financial Review that found 47 per cent of voters thought Dutton was “better placed to engage and negotiate with President-elect Donald Trump", the Opposition leader agreed.
But as it has done with China, Labor stands by its measured diplomacy and Treasurer Jim Chalmers took aim at Dutton this morning.
"I think when it comes to Peter Dutton, I think he has a kind of a reckless arrogance which doesn’t lend itself to foreign policy and maintaining and managing some of these complex relationships," he told the Today show.
“I think he would be a risk to our economy and that’s because that reckless arrogance, which has been a defining feature of his time as a politician over a long period of time now ... that kind of reckless arrogance doesn’t lend itself to managing these relationships, which are so important to us.”
- Tom Flanagan
Lithium-ion battery triggers another unit fire
Reports of these sorts of incidents seem to be coming thick and fast from firies across the country as they repeatedly warn about the dangers of lithium-ion batteries.
An apartment block in Sydney's inner-west was evacuated overnight as a fire broke out in one unit in Camperdown.
Forty firefighters rushed to the site where a fire was triggered by a lithium-ion battery "believed to belong to a power tool or similar device". Fire and Rescue NSW said the battery was charging on a sofa and caught alight.
Read about the extent of the issue here.
- Tom Flanagan
Search for winner of $2.5 million
The search is on for the mystery winner of $2.5 million in Saturday's Lotto Draw. The winning ticket that shared the division one prize was bought in The Entrance on the Central Coast.
The newsagent who sold the ticket said it was the first time his family business had sold a division one ticket in 10 years of operating.
“Our elusive winner is likely oblivious to the fact they became a multi-millionaire in the weekend’s Saturday Lotto draw,” The Lott spokesperson Matt Hart said, urging players to check their tickets.
- Tom Flanagan
Toddler critical after near-drowning
A young boy is fighting for his life in hospital after he was pulled from a Sydney public pool on Sunday.
The two-year-old was rushed to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in a serious condition after he was located unconscious at the Whitlam Leisure Centre in Liverpool shortly after 1.30pm.
A NSW Police spokeswoman said officers attended the scene and have began an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The boy was removed from the water after being spotted by patrons before lifeguards began CPR.
“Bystanders helped the 2-year-old boy before he was treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics,” the spokeswoman said. “He was taken to hospital in a stable condition for further treatment.”
The Whitlam Leisure Centre was evacuated and shared on social media they were closed on Sunday afternoon.
Read more here.
- Tom Flanagan
Alan Jones arrested over indecent assault claims
Alan Jones has been arrested by police over the allegations the radio broadcaster and former Wallabies coach indecently assaulted, groped or inappropriately touched young men.
The 83-year-old was arrested at his home in Circular Quay by specialist detectives about 7.45am on Monday and taken to Day Street Police Station.
Detectives from the State Crime Command Child Abuse Squad established Strike Force Bonnefin in March to investigate numerous alleged indecent assault and sexual touching incidents between 2001 and 2019.
“Following extensive inquiries, about 7.45am today, strike force detectives executed a search warrant at a unit in Circular Quay where they arrested an 83-year-old man,” a statement from NSW Police read.
“The search warrant is underway.”
The radio broadcast has denied the allegations, releasing a video in March responding to the accusations.
“The get-Jones campaign is nothing new in my life,” he said per ADH TV.
“I am not going to dwell, here, on the allegations made about me other than to say that I refute them entirely and the inferences associated with them.”
No charges have been laid.
- NCA NewsWire
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