Court documents show Buddle has also been charged with conspiring – between March 19 and June 3, 2021 – to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.
Each offense carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Mark Buddle’s solicitor Stephen Zahr outside Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday.Credit:Nine News
The court documents also reveal Melbourne magistrate Julie Grainger granted investigators a warrant to arrest Buddle on July 23.
He’d arrived in Melbourne early on Friday on a chartered flight from Darwin, flanked by AFP officers, after a court approved his extradition from the Northern Territory.
The 37-year-old had been living abroad for six years after leaving Australia for Turkey, and then northern Cyprus, in 2016.
Following the cocaine seizure in 2021, federal authorities issued a global arrest alert. Buddle was apprehended by Turkish authorities in June and held in Ankara before being deported back to Australia this week.
Buddle arrives back in Melbourne.Credit:AFP
Australian investigators will allege Buddle was involved in a transnational criminal syndicate operating out of Hong Kong and Turkey, that saw 160 kilograms of cocaine – with an estimated street value of $40 million – imported to Melbourne but then seized by authorities.
On Tuesday, the AFP revealed federal investigators began preparing for Buddle’s arrest in October 2021 before Interpol issued a red notice – a global alert – for his capture.
His extradition came months after five people were arrested in connection to the importation, which was concealed in a shipment of air filters. Those five included the alleged co-ordinator of the crime syndicate, a 42-year-old Sydney man, and four Victorians.
The Sydney man was charged with importing a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs. Three Melbourne men were also remanded on allegations they played a role in the collection and distribution of the cocaine shipment.
Magistrate Kieran Gilligan ordered Buddle return to Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on November 25 via video link.
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An Adelaide man who stabbed an associate in the heart, killing him, has been jailed for at least four years.
Abdi Abdullah Ali, 32, was acquitted of the murder of Matthew Scott Bristow but found guilty of his manslaughter after a trial by judge alone.
Ali, who came to Australia from Somalia as a young boy, had offered to plead to the lesser charge but it was not accepted by prosecutors.
Matthew Scott Bristow died on an Adelaide footpath after suffering a chest wound. (Supplied)
Mr Bristow, 43, died on February 5, 2020 with a trail of blood leading to where his body was found on a suburban footpath.
Sentencing Ali in the Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Anne Bampton said there was insufficient evidence for her to make specific findings about the circumstances of the stabbing.
In the lead-up to the killing, the two men and a woman had been driving around in a car.
Bristow was found collapsed at suburban Prospect and died at the scene. (9News)
Justice Bampton said it had been submitted to her that both men were affected by drugs and there had been a dispute over a text message and over the music being played.
The judge said while Ali had not intended to kill, his actions were unlawful and dangerous.
“You took the life of a man, causing untold grief and distress to his mother, his cousin and other family members,” she said.
Justice Bampton said because a knife was involved, Ali’s offending could not be considered at the lower end of the scale.
She jailed him for five years and three months, taking into account his willingness to plead guilty to manslaughter, and set a non-parole period of four years, two months and 12 days.
Get it? Economic growth doesn’t come primarily from cutting down trees and digging stuff out of the ground – and the scientists are right in telling us we must do less despoiling of the environment, our “natural capital” – it comes overwhelmingly from using human ingenuity to think of ways to produce more with less.
That’s why the report says improved productivity is “the key to prosperity” and is based on “the spread of new, useful ideas”.
Credit:
To be more concrete, productivity is improved by people thinking of ways to improve the goods and services we produce, ways to make the production process less wasteful – more efficient – and thinking up goods and services that are entirely new.
This gives us a mixture of novel products, improved quality and reduced cost.
Over the past 200 years, since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the productivity of all the developed economies has improved by a few per cent almost every year. In our case, over the past 120 years the economic output of the average Australian is up seven-fold, while hours worked has consistently failed.
Trouble is, the miracle of productivity improvement has been a lot less miraculous in recent times. Over the past 60 years, our productivity improved at an average rate of 1.7 per cent a year. Over the decade to 2020, it “slowed significantly” to 1.1 per cent a year.
It’s pretty clear that, if we’re going to get back to higher rates of productivity improvement, we’ll have come up with some new ideas on how to make the service industries more productive, without diminishing quality.
The report is quick to point out that much the same has been happening in all the rich countries. (It does note, however, that the level of our productivity is now lower than it was compared with the levels the other rich countries have achieved.)
This is significant. It suggests that whatever factors have caused our productivity performance to fall off are probably the same as those in the other rich economies. But as yet, none of them has put their finger on the main causes of the problem.
If they’re still working on the answers, so are we. So the report focuses on thinking about what may be causing the problem and where we should be looking for answers. Remember, this is just the first of several reports.
So, unlike the rent-seekers and econocrats, it’s offering no magic answers. But it does come up with a good explanation for at least part of the productivity slowdown: for most of the past two centuries, one of the main ways we’ve produced more with less is by using newly invented “labour-saving equipment” to replace workers with machines in farming, mining and then manufacturing.
The quantity of goods we produce in those industries has never been greater, but the number of people employed to produce it all is a fraction of what it once was. And this accounts for a huge proportion of the productivity improvement we’ve achieved since the Federation.
Because producing more with less makes us richer, not poorer – increases our real income – total employment has gone up rather than down as we’ve spent that extra income employing more people to perform all manner of services – from menial to hugely skilled.
So successful have we (and all the rich economies) been at shifting workers from making goods to delivering services that the service industries now account for about 80 per cent of all we produce and about 90 per cent of all employment.
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See the problem? In the main, services are delivered by people. So the economy’s now almost completely composed of industries where it’s much harder to improve productivity simply by using machines to replace workers. It’s far from impossible, but it’s much harder than on a farm, mine site or factory.
That’s the more so when you remember that two of the biggest service industries are health and social assistance, and education and training.
It’s pretty clear that, if we’re going to get back to higher rates of productivity improvement, we’ll have come up with some new ideas on how to make the service industries more productive, without diminishing quality. That’s what comes next in the Productivity Commission’s series of reports.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced he is “having a bit of a break” next week as he takes leaves and travels in Australia.
Mr Albanese will be on leave from August 6 to 14, with Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles taking on acting Prime Minister duties.
“I will be on leave next week, traveling in Australia, having a bit of a break – the first break I’ve had this year,” the Labor leader told ABC Melbourne on Friday.
“And Richard Marles will be doing a great job, I’m sure, in my absence as acting Prime Minister.”
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The Prime Minister also took a swipe at his predecessor Scott Morrison, who was heavily criticized for holidaying in Hawaii during the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires.
Mr Albanese said there was a “the lack of transparency” around Mr Morrison’s trip, including the initial confusion about where he was and who was in charge of the country.
“When people didn’t even know whether Michael McCormick was the acting prime minister. And at the time they wouldn’t say where he was,” he said.
“I just think that it was a very unwise decision that added to the controversy, which was, in my view, pretty unnecessary had it been handled differently.”
The Prime Minister last month told how he had “not had a day off for a very long period of time” as he defended his overseas trips since Labor took power in May.
Mr Albanese’s leave comes after what he described as a “busy first sitting fortnight” of the 47th Parliament.
He took to Twitter on Friday morning to post a video message about how his government has “begun the work of delivering a better future for all Australians”.
“Aged care reforms were made into law. We introduced legislation for 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave. The Treasurer provided an important economic update,” Mr Albanese said.
“We made progress on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament. Our climate bill passed the House of Representatives.
“We appointed leads for the Defense Force Posture and Structure Review. And the National Cabinet came together to coordinate our response to the pandemic.”
Mr Albanese said the government will next week make a submission to the Fair Work Commission asking for aged care workers to receive a pay rise.
Yon an echo of an infamous “magic water” feature it published 20 years ago, the Sydney Morning Herald has retracted an article which touted the unproven health benefits of “structured water” and was written by the media relations officer for the company that sells the product.
“There was a story in Sunday Life on the weekend about ‘structured water’ which didn’t meet editorial standards, specifically due to a significant conflict of interest for the writer,” the managing editor of SMH sections, Monique Farmer, said the day after the article was published. “The matter is being investigated.”
Paul Sheehan was the author of the memorable 4,000-word Wonder Water feature in the Herald’s Good Weekend Magazine in 2002 which asked if a $2.80 a bottle of Wonder Water – which had not been subject to proper clinical trials – could combat arthritis, fatigue and osteoporosis and help you live longer.
The bylined author of The Shape of Water, Joanna Webber, is not a Herald journalist. She works for Phi’on Water, which sells empty glass bottles with a “magnetic vortex device” in the lid which claims to turn “ordinary tap water into life-affirming structured water”. The price tag is $340 for two bottles. The relationship between Webber and Phi’on was not disclosed.
I had a look at the print version of this article. No indication there that it’s an advisory either. But at least the word “science” doesn’t appear in the headline… pic.twitter.com/oYqSDgOXOs
Webber wrote that “some experts are talking about a fourth phase” of water and quoted Rob Gourlay “an expert in biological research and water-structure science” without disclosing that Gourlay founded Phi’on Water.
“Structured water is also found in natural, pristine flowing rivers, streams, lakes and waterfalls all over the planet, and is essential for the cellular health of not just us, but of all living things,” Gourlay said.
“There are so many health benefits of drinking structured water, including improved hydration and uptake of minerals, increased oxygen, reduced inflammation, and elimination of foreign or toxic pollutants.”
On Friday in The Conversation, a Sydney chemist explained why structured water is “nonsense”. Prof Timothy Schmidt said the companies selling structured water products “use scientific-sounding words that are generally meaningless”.
barty scoop scooped
The Courier-Mail’s senior sports journalist Robert Craddock had the scoop: Ash Barty had married longtime partner Garry Kissick in a secret setting in July and he had the exclusive Instagram photo of the happy couple for the front of the Sunday Mail and the Sunday Telegraph.
Sport’s best kept secret… Ash Barty’s wedding ceremony. Family plus great mates. Don’t fanfare. Happy days. https://t.co/tXyYDyS8dD
“Three treasured pillars of Barty’s world – family, close friends and a very private, private life – came together in perfect unison in an intimate ceremony at a mystery venue in Queensland earlier this month, just after Barty returned from watching the British Open golf tournament ,” Craddock wrote.
But when the story appeared on another News Corp site, news.com.au, on Saturday night all the details behind the “weekend Telegraph special” were published under the prize shot. “Warning not for online until Barty posts on social media. Robert Craddick jorno (sic) will come back to us when we can post.”
An embargoed photo of Ash Barty was published on news.com.au alongside the instructions not to publish until approved by the journal. Photography: Instagram
V’landys cheer squad
Just when we thought the Daily Telegraph couldn’t be more slavishly devoted to promoting the interests of Peter V’landys, the chief executive of Racing New South Wales and chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission, they go and prove us wrong.
Last month the Tele reported on page one that a Bruno Mars concert had been scheduled on the same day as The Everest at Royal Randwick, a move which had “stunned racing officials”.
In “Pop star head-to-head with Australia’s richest race”, V’landys said the state government’s decision to double book the Saturday would “undermine” the success of homegrown sporting events.
On Thursday the Tele handed over much of the paper’s real estate to V’landys’ various interests: the funding of stadiums and a puff piece about Racing NSW’s $350m funding package.
There were two news stories – an editorial and a sports story which claimed Dominic Perrottet would be shunned by his footy team because of his “refusal to fund the club’s spiritual home” – and a back page photo shaming the premier, who is a Tigers fan , for not funding the stadium. The editorial praised V’landys as an “innovative administrator”.
In one news story, the premier vowed he wouldn’t change the decision to delay funding for stadium upgrades at Brookvale, Leichhardt and Cronulla’s ground Shark Park despite the Tele campaign.
“Ultimately, I’m not accountable to Peter V’landys, I’m accountable to the people of New South Wales – they are my priority,” Perrottet said.
If only the Tele had the same view.
Tribute to ABC veteran
On Thursday Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the “sensational career” of ABC parliamentary bureau chief, Louise Yaxley, who has been covering politics in Canberra for 28 years.
“She has added to the quality of political discourse in this country through her work in the AM, PM, The World Today, ABC current affairs and ABC News programs,” he said.
“She is someone who is much loved across the parliament and is respected by all who have had contact with her. She brings to the profession of journalism honour, respect and integrity. I pay tribute to her de ella on her final day de ella, which happens to be as well the 90th anniversary of the ABC, our national broadcaster. ”
Piers Morgan’s Silent Summer
Next week Sky After Dark will launch a new program, The World According to Rowan Dean, a new offering from the commentator who warned we were facing “three years of hard-core leftwing government that will destroy the fabric of this nation” after the election of the Labor government.
Piers Morgan is being replaced (at least temporarily) by Rowan Dean on Sky News. Photograph: Sky News
We wouldn’t normally take much interest in the Spectator editor’s views but he is stepping into the 9pm time slot occupied by Piers Morgan’s global show Uncensored so we wondered what that meant for Murdoch’s £50m man. Had the terminally low ratings led to a cancellation?
Our UK colleague Jim Waterson has written about Morgan’s ratings challenge on TalkTV, a new channel launched by News UK, and in Australia the program is also failing to attract large numbers – sometimes it has under 20,000 viewers.
Sky tells us Morgan is on a five-week summer break, during which he will film a true-crime documentary, and is due to return on 5 September. But Sky stopped short of confirming Morgan will be in the same 9pm time slot when he returns.
Awkward dinner at Ultimo?
On Friday night, the ABC’s Studio 22 at Ultimo will again play host to a celebration for the 90th birthday of the corporation. But this event will not be broadcast. It is a private dinner to recognize the importance of public broadcasting, with speeches from the prime minister, ABC chair Ita Buttrose and MD David Anderson. Guests include the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, and her Ella Liberal shadow, Sarah Henderson, who may have some interesting conversations after her harsh words about Aunty on Chris Kenny’s ABC doco last week.
The leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt; former MD Mark Scott; and former chair Donald McDonald will also attend.
The federal government has declared Australia’s first offshore wind zone, giving developers the green light to ramp up planning and consultation for wind farm projects.
Key points:
The federal Energy Minister has declared the Gippsland coast to be Australia’s first offshore wind zone
Offshore wind projects aim to fill the future void left by coal-fired power station closures in the Latrobe Valley
A 60-day consultation period with community members will now commence
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced waters off the Gippsland coast, in Victoria’s south-east, would be the first offshore wind zone.
Other areas will follow off the coast of the Hunter Valley and Illawarra in New South Wales, Portland in Victoria, Northern Tasmania, Perth and Bunbury in Western Australia.
Developers last week told the ABC projects were being held up by the federal government dragging their feet on the impending declaration, which allows them to consult and then apply for permits.
Mr Bowen said other countries had been successfully producing energy from wind farms in the ocean for years, and it was Australia’s time to catch up.
“We have some of the best wind resources in the world,” Mr Bowen said.
“Just one rotation of one offshore wind turbine provides as much energy as an average rooftop solar installation generates in one day.”
Climate energy market analyst Tim Buckley said the declaration was a step forward, but all levels of government would need to work together.
“Energy Minister Chris Bowen is right to open offshore wind for public consultation,” Mr Buckley said.
“Offshore wind development is going to need a high degree of policy support and forward planning because of the complex supply chains that would have to be developed in Australia and higher costs of construction.
“We need to weigh up the additional costs related to offshore wind construction and see where it makes the most economic sense.
“We need to value the balancing or base-load nature of the generation, to support the sometimes intermittent nature of onshore wind and solar.”
Gippsland moving from coal to wind
Mr Bowen said the Star of the South proposal off the Victorian coast in Bass Strait would generate enough electricity to cater for 20 per cent of Victoria’s energy needs.
Sites of proposed wind farms off the Gippsland coast.(ABC Gippsland: Paul Sellenger)
Star of the South is Danish-owned and was the first proposed offshore wind farm, put forward four years ago.
The company plans to build up to 200 wind turbines, with the closest located 7 kilometers from the coastline.
Star of the South chief executive Erin Coldham says the company hopes to begin power generation before the expected closure of Yallourn Power Station in 2028.
“There’s a proud history here of power generation for more than 100 years so there’s really great access to the grid which supplies to the rest of the east coast, the sea depths are perfect and there’s some really unique wind conditions,” Ms Coldham said.
The company aims to begin construction in 2025 and says the project would create 2,000 construction jobs and 200 ongoing operational roles.
Offshore wind power generation is a fast-growing sector of the renewable energy industry, such as this offshore wind power plant in Yantai, Shandong Province, China.(Getty Images: CFOTO/Future Publishing)
Consultation starts now
Mr Bowen’s announcement signals the start of a 60-day consultation period with communities and users of waters in the nominated areas.
Sites earmarked as offshore wind zones in Australia.(ABC Gippsland: Paul Sellenger)
The federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water will facilitate the consultation process.
Transmission lines, which are expected to be above ground, will run from the wind zone to the energy grid in the Latrobe Valley, which currently sends power generated by the Yallourn and Loy Yang Power Stations.
“It’s important that issues surrounding transmission lines through private property to link large scale renewable projects to the national grid are handled sensitively and transparently,” federal Nationals member for Gippsland Darren Chester said.
A 17-year-old boy who fatally stabbed a teenager at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast more than two years ago has been sentenced to 10 years in jail but will only spend seven years in custody.
Jack Beasley died after being stabbed once in the chest in December 2019.
Five teenage boys, aged between 15 and 18 at the time, were originally charged over the 17-year-old’s death, but three were acquitted of his manslaughter at a judge-only trial last month.
The remaining two, including a 17-year-old boy, faced a sentencing hearing in Brisbane on Friday after he pleaded guilty to murder earlier this year, admitting to inflicting the fatal wound.
A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty to his manslaughter, accepting he had a common purpose to assault Mr Beasley and his friends, and that an unlawful killing would be a “probable consequence.”
The pair – who cannot be named due to youth justice laws – have also pleaded guilty to two counts each of grievous bodily harm in relation to the stabbing of one of Mr Beasley’s friends, who was seriously injured.
Knife used in ‘senseless’ way amid brawl
During a sentencing hearing on Friday, the court heard the group of teens had crossed paths with Mr Beasley and his friends, who were not known to them, and they had hatched a plan to chase them and pick a fight.
Crown Prosecutor Todd Fuller told the court the older offender took “a lead role” and was one of the “main protagonists” who “instigated the violence” with Mr Beasley.
“He was actively involved in the altercation from the start to finish,” he said.
Police at the scene on Surfers Paradise Boulevard where Mr Beasley died in 2019.(abcnews)
The court heard a physical fight then broke out between some members of the two groups, including Mr Beasley.
Mr Fuller told the court the younger teen then “escalated the level of violence” by using the knife “offensively rather than defensively” and in a “senseless” way.
“The grave nature of his offending speaks for itself,” he said.
‘Left to die on the footpath’
Reading a victim impact statement to the court through tears, Mr Beasley’s mother Belinda Beasley addressed the teens who were sitting in the dock, calling them “cowards.”
“You ran away… and left Jack and [his friend] to die on the footpath with not a care in the world – what sort of people are you?” she said.
“In that one moment you destroyed so many people’s lives.”
Mr Beasley’s parents established the Jack Beasley Foundation in a bid to change attitudes around youth violence among students.(ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)
Mrs Beasley described her son as a “beautiful boy” who was “cheeky, fun-loving and easy going” and said his death had turned her life into a “living nightmare”.
“The pain you have brought to our family is indescribable,” she said.
“To lose a child in the way we lost Jack altered our lives forever.
“Being a juvenile is no excuse – everyone knows right from wrong.”
‘Deeply tragic’
In a written statement by the younger teen, read by his defense lawyer James Benjamin, he said he took “full responsibility for my actions and hold myself accountable.”
“I understand I may never be forgiven but I hope one day I will be,” he said in the statement.
The 17-year-old then stood in court and told the judge: “I’m very, very sorry.”
Justice Soraya Ryan described the offenses as “profoundly tragic” and said they had “heartbreaking consequences” for Mr Beasley’s family and wider community implications.
“Good parents of young people are scared when their children leave home to go out because of people like you and your companions,” he said.
Justice Ryan sentenced the 17-year-old boy to 10 years in jail and ordered him to serve 70 per cent of the term.
The 20-year-old man was sentenced to seven years in jail and will be eligible for parole in 12 months.
NSW Police have charged four people after uncovering an alleged criminal syndicate involving identify theft and banking fraud totaling more than $1 million.
In August 2021, detectives set out to investigate numerous fraudulent transactions and payments across Sydney.
Police make an arrest in connection with an alleged criminal syndicate involved in multiple identity and banking frauds.Credit:NSW Police
Police will allege the investigation led to the discovery of a crime ring that had created a number of “shell companies” which existed only on paper.
The group used the companies to obtain checkbooks, EFTPOS terminals and to create banking profiles to gain fraudulent funds, police allege.
Police say the funds were used to withdraw cash, purchase clothing, motor vehicles and jewellery, and for the alleged fraudsters to pay for day-to-day expenses.
Just after 5am on Thursday, detectives executed four search warrants across Bankstown, Pyrmont and the CBD and seized about $130,000, $US5000, numerous EFTPOS terminals, luxury jewelery and clothing, a Mercedes Benz C200 and electronic devices.
A 33-year-old man, who police will allege was the leader of the syndicate, and a 42-year-old woman were arrested at a unit in Bankstown.
The man was charged with 52 offenses in relation to the syndicate while the woman was charged with six counts including dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.
Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has labeled Anthony Albanese a “hypocrite” after a “disrespectful” gesture from the Prime Minister in Parliament.
The members had gathered for Question Time on Thursday afternoon when the Labor leader briefly “shooed away” Ms Ley during a heated exchange.
The move caused uproar in the room and the Opposition then repeatedly demanded Mr Albanese to “withdraw” the “disrespectful” action.
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Ms Ley was questioned by Sky News Australia host Pete Stefanovic on Friday about what happened where she unleased on the Prime Minister.
“Yes, look, shooing motion across the table in the parliament, I can take the rough and tumble, every woman in this place knows how to do that,” she said.
“What I can’t accept is the hypocrisy.
“Anthony Albanese said it was going to be a family friendly parliament, there were going to be new notes of respect and this sort of sit down and shut up motion across the table to a woman who is speaking as she is entitled to in the Parliament , simply breaks all of his own rules.
Stefanovic then posed whether being “shooed was that bad”.
“Do you see it at any modern workplace? Do you see it in a boardroom?” Ms Ley argued, before the First Edition host agreed he would never make such a move.
Earlier, the Deputy Liberal leader was posed whether the passing of the Climate Change Bill in the House of Representatives will force their own party to change its targets.
The legislation – which aims to enshrine its 2030 and 2050 emissions targets – passed on Thursday in the Lower House 89 to 55 votes.
Ms Ley argued the Albanese Government had to focus on other issues that are currently affecting Australians who were struggling with inflation.
“Just remember, this was legislation that the government’s own energy minister said it did not need, spent half a day toing and froing in Parliament when the real issue this week is the rising cost of living and the government’s $275 of broken promises on power bills,” she said.
“That was the figure by which they said your power bill would go down. So, there was some grandstanding, sure, there was legislation that everyone agreed, including the government, wasn’t even necessary, and there was a deal with the Greens .”
Stefanovic then pushed again on how much the Coalition would lift its emissions targets after Australians resoundingly showed at the polls they wanted to see more climate action with nine teal independents voted in.
Ms Ley insisted there would be ongoing discussions about climate change and net zero, which the party has committed to before the election, but their first focus was on providing cost-of-living relief to households.
“We’ll be tuning in very carefully to the international situation because that’s what matters to Australians – how we keep their power prices affordable, how we don’t have manufactures that go offshore,” she said.
“How we actually, as the prime minister has often said, keep a strong manufacturing industry where Australia makes (its own) things.
“It won’t be if the energy prices continue to escalate, so right now, that’s our focus, not on legislation that the government admits itself was not actually needed, that is not what the Parliament is for.”
She added the Albanese Government are “off the training wheels” but they have not advocated for “real policies” to help struggling families and small businesses.
A Russian billionaire suing Australia’s foreign claims minister sanctions imposed over the invasion of the Ukraine have caused him severe reputational damage.
Steel mogul Alexander Abramov launched legal action against Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong after the former government’s April sanctioning of 67 Russian elites and oligarchs over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions caused severe reputational harm and the legal consequences have led to continuing financial losses, his lawyer Ron Merkel QC told the Federal Court today.
A Russian billionaire is suing Foreign Minister Penny Wong. (The Age/Joe Armao)
He wants the sanctions to be removed, arguing they’re unique to Australia as no other country has placed similar bans on Abramov, who co-founded Russia’s largest steel producer, Evraz.
“Our real point here is the approach the minister has taken is misconceived,” he said.
Australia’s sanctions have also impacted Abramov’s dealings in New Zealand, Merkel said.
He said the case was unusual as public announcements by former foreign minister Marise Payne, explaining her decision, would form part of the suit.
On April 7, Payne announced the government had decided to impose “targeted financial sanctions and travel bans” on 67 individuals “for their role in Russia’s unprovoked, unjust and illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
Shelter takes in animals haunted by horrors of war
Those sanctioned included Russian military, business and government officials.
Wong is represented by barrister Brendan Lim.
The federal government is considering an application to prevent public release of some information in the court documents, he said.
The matter will return before Justice Susan Kenny on August 26.
