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

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.

The Australian Defence Force is grappling with a “cultural issue” around women, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said this morning, as the ADF 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.

Liberal senator Dave Sharma says it was the “appropriate” decision for Greens senator Jordon-Steele John to take leave from the party as it investigates allegations of inappropriate conduct from seven women.

“I think until these allegations are resolved, it would be appropriate for him to take leave from parliament as well as the party room,” he told Nine’s Today this morning.

“I respect that he rejects these claims as he’s entitled to do. He’s entitled to contest these claims, but I think not to be a distraction, I think, during this time, to make sure these allegations are properly aired, that would make sense.”

The WA Greens are conducting a separate investigation into the senator’s alleged conduct, but Sharma said an external party with experience in sexual harassment and assault allegations should be employed to investigate the claims.

“A credible party ... needs to be brought in for it to be taken seriously,” he said.

Kyiv: Ukraine attacked a Russian oil refinery on Thursday, abandoning a brief truce involving energy-related targets that it said Moscow did not heed, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he felt betrayed by US President Donald Trump.

The drone strike started a fire at the refinery about 300 kilometres south-east of Moscow in Russia’s Ryazan region, according to the Russian Defence Ministry. Russia’s Astra online news outlet posted what it said was a photograph of the blaze.

The strike could further complicate Kyiv’s relations with Trump, which have soured again in recent days amid deepening tensions between Ukraine and Washington.

Zelensky said he was outraged by Russia’s continuing aerial bombardment of energy infrastructure in apparent defiance of Trump’s demand on Sunday for both sides to halt those attacks.

Communications Minister Anika Wells says gender “debates”, including about transgender rights, will not be policed under Labor’s digital reforms, but could not provide more clarity on how the government would determine what constituted a hostile attitude towards women.

Asked whether public figures such as author J. K. Rowling – who has used her platform to promote anti-trans views – would be subject to hostile attitude restrictions, Wells said:

“No, a hostile attitude example that I used at the National Press Club is material that says to young boys that consent doesn’t matter,” the minister told ABC’s 7.30 last night.

She could not provide further clarity on the scope of the definition, and said the eSafety Commissioner would produce and publish regulatory guidance that would determine whether the intent of online content was hostile.

“The reason that that provision is in the bill is because we had more than 20 women’s groups and teachers, teachers’ coalitions from across the country ask us to incorporate that because they’ve noticed that young boys coming through the education system have these hostile attitudes,” Wells said.

“The regulatory guidance that was published around what reasonable steps were for the social media minimum age, that’s similarly going to be instructive for how big tech has to assess the risks on its platform against that detail.”

Labor could be forced to forfeit up to $1.6 billion in budget spending that had been earmarked for aged care to land a compromise deal on its contentious private health insurance changes.

The Greens doubled down on their rejection of Health Minister Mark Butler’s bill yesterday, saying the party would not pass laws scrapping the Howard-era private health insurance bonuses for over-65s unless pensioners were ringfenced from the changes.

Butler announced before this year’s budget that he wanted to get rid of more generous private health insurance rebates for 3 million older Australians. That $3 billion saving would be redirected to aged care, including 5000 extra beds, as the system deals with growing demand.

However, Butler was dealt a blow on Wednesday when the Coalition, Greens and crossbench teamed up to knock the government’s bill out of the Senate because it would saddle 1.5 million pensioners who have private health insurance with extra costs and force others onto the public health system.