Key events
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to the live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with some top overnight stories before my colleague takes the reins.
We have an exclusive this morning raising transparency questions for the Turnbull-era government. It has emerged that the administration awarded a $33m grant to a company that was developing a mental health app after months of lobbying from one of its own mental health commissioners, Prof Ian Hickie, who was also a shareholder in the months-old startup. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Hickie.
Wildlife officials and experts in Western Australia are hoping today to save a pod of pilot whales that has become stranded on a beach near Albany on the state’s south coast. At least 50 whales were seen massing off the Cheynes Beach on Monday before the stranding. Our reporter will be there this morning and we’ll bring you the latest news when we have it.
Gina Rinehart was aware that an iron ore-rich tenement from which her company has made billions was jointly owned by another company before she signed a deal with Rio Tinto to mine it, a court has been told. The revelation came in a letter presented to the court in Perth yesterday as part of the complex legal battle being waged by the heirs of her father’s business partner. Their lawyer says Rinehart was sent a letter in 1986 making it clear she was only “entitled at most to a half” of the key Hope Downs assets. Hancock Prospecting maintains it undertook all the work, bore the financial risk involved in the development and is the legitimate owner of the assets.
And health professionals have signed an open letter to Anthony Albanese calling on the government to withdraw its financial support for the Darwin Middle Arm gas hub, and are planning a rally in Canberra, saying it’s not only doctors who have a duty of care to protect the people they serve. More on that soon.
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