Australia news LIVE: Dutton labels PM ‘incompetent’ on Voice; Government mulling super as part of aged care solution

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  • Garma director ‘bit disappointed’ Dutton not attending
  • Albanese ‘shifty’ and ‘out of his depth’ on Voice: Dutton
  • Trump returns to Washington to plead not guilty
  • This morning’s headlines at a glance

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Garma director ‘bit disappointed’ Dutton not attending

Garma Festival director and Yothu Yindi Foundation boss Denise Bowden has spoken about calls for Peter Dutton to attend the celebration.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will attend the event called on the opposition leader to attend earlier this week.

“I haven’t actually heard that news because I’ve been pitching about 5000 tents here,” Bowden said on RN Breakfast this morning.

Ceremonial dancers perform at last year’s Garma Festival.Credit: AAP

“Garma has always been a place where people’s views are respected always, and it would have been really wonderful to have all sides of the political divide here to … debate it out in a respectful place and for us all to hear it.”

She said the opposition leader had visited northeast Arnhem Land this year, and met with representatives.

“To be on the record in a very significant ceremonial ground would have been great, and we would have welcomed him with open arms.

“I am a little bit disappointed; however, it is what it is you know.”

More than 2000 people are expected to descend on the remote community of Gulkala in East Arnhem Land for the festival.

Albanese ‘shifty’ and ‘out of his depth’ on Voice: Dutton

Peter Dutton has launched his strongest attack so far on Anthony Albanese’s character and credibility, suspending parliamentary proceedings to demand the prime minister answer all his questions about the Voice and treaty.

Albanese accused his opponent of hypocrisy and intense negativity as Dutton asserted Albanese had “embarrassingly walked away” from previous treaty commitments and was a “phoney and a fraud” who was “out of his depth”.

Albanese and Dutton exchanged barbs on Thursday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Dutton’s assault on the referendum capped a week of fierce parliamentary brawling over the Voice on the eve of the influential Garma festival, which Albanese plans to use to reboot the battling referendum campaign.

The Yes movement on Friday launches its biggest advertising push yet to counter the opposition leader’s narrative about an elitist “Canberra Voice”.

The online advertisements also seek to convince Australians that the Indigenous community backs the referendum, a task that internal Yes campaign research shows is being held back largely by the campaigning of Coalition senator Jacinta Price.

Continue reading about this issue here. 

Trump returns to Washington to plead not guilty

Donald Trump has returned to Washington to plead not guilty to conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, adding to a string of explosive trials the former president will face as he campaigns to return to the White House.

Almost two-and-a-half-years after the deadly attack on the US Capitol building, Trump has appeared at a federal court a few blocks away from the scene of the riots, to face criminal charges for the third time in four months.

Former President Donald Trump arrives to face charges related to overturning the election.Credit: AP

Declaring it “a great honour” to be charged for “having challenged a corrupt, rigged and stolen election” the 77-year-old Republican left his golf course in New Jersey around 1pm on Thursday (US time) to travel to the nation’s capital.

Read the rest of this piece from correspondent Farrah Tomazin here, or tune into our dedicated live blog for the latest updates.

This morning’s headlines at a glance

Good morning, and thanks for your company.

It’s Friday, August 4. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.

Here’s what you need to know before we get started:

  • Sources close to the government said it was a “no-brainer” for super to be part of the mix for funding aged care as costs climb over the next decade.
  • The nation’s big banks believe official interest rates will have to be cut next year to prop up an economy struggling under the weight of the Reserve Bank’s inflation fight.
  • Peter Dutton has launched his strongest attack so far on Anthony Albanese’s character and credibility, demanding the prime minister answer all his questions about the Voice and treaty.
  • The ACT government has rebuked former Queensland Supreme Court judge Walter Sofronoff over the decision by his board of inquiry to leak a damning report into the handling of the Lehrmann trial.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra.Alex Ellinghausen

  • Human remains and parts of a cockpit have been found in the area where four army aircrew members died when their helicopter crashed off the Queensland coast last week.
  • In state news, sacked NSW minister Tim Crakanthorp’s own chief of staff reported the “substantial” Newcastle property holdings of his boss’s family to the premier.
  • A dispute over the way Victorian Labor MPs questioned the former head of the state’s integrity watchdog has spilled into a confrontation in the halls of parliament.
  • Overseas, a man rammed a car onto a sidewalk on in South Korea, then stepped out of the vehicle and began stabbing people at a shopping mall.

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