Infowars founder Alex Jones listens to a supporter at the Texas State Capital building in April 2020 in Austin, Texas.
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InfoWars host Alex Jones returns to court Friday for his defamation trial, where he is being sued for falsely saying the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting was a hoax.
The jury will decide if Jones has to pay punitive damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of Sandy Hook first-grader Jesse Lewis, who was gunned down along with 25 other children and school staffers at Sandy Hook in Newtown, Conn.
Jones was ordered Thursday to pay $4.1 million in compensatory damages to the couple, who said they received death threats and were harassed due to Jones’s false claims that the federal government orchestrated the shooting to crack down on guns. Heslin and Lewis are seeking $150 million in damages in their lawsuit.
Jones said in 2015 on his InfoWars radio show that “Sandy Hook is synthetic, completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured.”
“I am a mother, first and foremost, and I know that you’re a father. And my son existed,” Lewis said to Jones on Thursday. “You’re still on your show implying that I’m an actress, that I’m deep state, and I don’t understand. Truth is so vital to our world.”
Jones conceded Wednesday that the shooting, the deadliest at an elementary school in US history, was not a fabricated event.
The conspiracy theorist has been booted off Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other mainstream platforms over hate speech and lies. But Infowars is still broadcast on many radio stations, and its website still attracts millions of visitors each month.
In this next phase of Jones’ trial, lawyers for the parents are expected to say that Jones is hiding millions of dollars in assets.
Parramatta have all but ended Manly’s season with an emphatic 36-20 victory at a sold-out Brookvale Oval on Friday night.
The win featured a try of the season contender and moved the Eels above the Broncos into fifth on the ladder with four rounds remaining.
MATCH CENTER: Sea Eagles v Eels, stats, video, teams
The Eels burst out of the blocks with winger Maika Sivo scoring two tries in the opening eight minutes to stun a pumping home crowd.
Sivo crossed untouched for both tries and with Mitchell Moses sidelined the kicking duties fell to Clint Gutherson who missed the conversions.
But Manly then scored 14 unanswered points as the sides went into halftime all locked up at 14-14.
The Sea Eagles hit back against the run of play when Daly Cherry-Evans put in a kick for Toluatau Koula to fly above the pack and score in the 20th minute.
Manly then slotted a penalty to draw level, before Jason Saab finished sensationally in the corner and Reuben Garrick converted to make it 14-8.
“What an amazing turnaround after all the pressure the Eels put them under,” Greg Alexander said on Fox League.
Parramatta center Tom Opacic finished a well-worked team try in the 33rd minute to lock the scores back up.
Manly struck first in the second half when Christian Tuipulotu burrowed his way over in the corner.
Garrick slotted a penalty in front of the sticks in the 54th minute to make it 20-14 before Eels winger Waqa Blake scored an incredible try.
Blake used every inch available to him to produce one of the best finishes of the season over the top of Morgan Harper.
“That’s an incredible try, he brought the ball well above his head, he was smashed by morgan harper but he still gets the ball down in that corner,” Alexander said.
“He is a blade of grass in from touch in goal,” Voss replied.
Eels skipper Clint Gutherson then scored from long-range after Shaun Lane broke the line and off-loaded to his skipper who raced away.
“Shaun Lane has had 10 try assists this year, it’s been a very effected year for him down that left edge,” Alexander said.
Eels center Will Penisini scored after pouncing on a smart grubber from Jakob Arthur before Dylan Brown sealed the result in the 71st minute.
RE-LIVE THE ACTION IN OUR BLOG BELOW. CAN’T SEE IT? CLICK HERE.
MATCH PREVIEW
Manly must win their remaining five games to secure a finals spot and they get back a host of stars against the Eels.
Jason Saab, Christian Tuipulotu, Tolutau Koula, Haumole Olakau’atu and Toafofoa Sipley all return after standing down last week amid the pride jersey controversy.
Marty Taupau starts for Toafofoa Sipley who moves onto the bench alongside Ethan Bullmor.
Parramatta are coming off their best win of the season, beating Penrith 34-10, but without Mitchell Moses (finger) they’ll start slight outsiders.
Jakob Arthur replaces Moses at halfback on the team sheet but Fox Sports understands Clint Gutherson has been training in the halves with Dylan Brown.
She was sent a final version of the panel report on June 15, placing Barilaro as the first-ranked candidate, several days after he had already signed a contract on June 9.
“I wasn’t aware that an offer had been made when I received this, and I wasn’t aware that Mr Barilaro [had signed a] contract,” Lo said.
She said she was never told that one of Barilaro’s informal referees was Ayres, the minister in charge of the portfolio.
Lo also said the other independent panel member, Warwick Smith, had asked her to put on the record that “had he known then what he knows now, he also would not have endorsed the report” recommending Barilaro.
She still believed Barilaro would have been successful in the US job, but maintained serious concerns about the process that placed him in the role.
The government had been highly critical of the committee for not immediately calling the commissioner to the inquiry.
It also raised concerns about the treatment of the third-ranked candidate, who had applied in an earlier recruitment round. She said the panel was given her first interview report, without being told it had been substantially downgraded for the second review.
“I had trusted that the first assessment would be carried over,” she said.
“I should have asked to see the first panel’s report. I deeply regret not doing so, and I’ve learned a hard lesson.”
Earlier, Investment NSW managing director Kylie Bell told the inquiry that Cole, a global executive, was initially ranked higher than Barilaro because of a preference to appoint a female to the role.
Cole and Barilaro were the top two candidates from a recruitment round for the New York trade commissioner role.
“[Cole] was an excellent candidate, no doubt,” Bell said on Friday. “I suspect [the recruitment manager] was trying to help us fulfill our mandate of looking at someone from a diverse background.”
Bell added that someone “should not be employed because they’re a female if they are not the best person for the job”.
Investment NSW managing director Kylie Bell gives evidence to the inquiry on Friday.Credit:Kate Geraghty
Bell on Friday said she dismissed an unflattering report about Barilaro from the recruitment firm, arguing it reflected an “unconscious bias” against him.
Leader of the Opposition in the upper house Penny Sharpe asked if she was suggesting the firm “did not like him”.
“Potentially,” Bell said.
Bell said she conducted an informal referee check for Cole, who received a “glowing” reference and had strong business credentials in Asia, but that did not make Cole right for the US role.
“Because someone is a fantastic business person in Hong Kong or China does not mean they’re going to succeed in New York.”
Asked if Barilaro had the requisite international experience, Bell conceded he had not worked offshore but said he had led “a small business, that he took overseas as an exporting business”.
The inquiry on Friday also heard evidence from Barilaro’s former chief of staff Siobhan Hamblin, who worked for him between February 2020 and October 2021.
Hamblin told the committee she urged Barilaro not to quit politics amid the COVID crisis for the good of the government and the state, after the shock resignation of premier Gladys Berejiklian on October 1.
Siobhan Hamblin the former chief of staff to John Barilaro.Credit:Kate Geraghty
“My advice to Mr Barilaro on that day was that any plans that you may have to leave politics should be shelved for the sake of stable government and for the people of NSW, as we were still in the grips of a lockdown”.
Barilaro did not heed her advice and ultimately followed through with his resignation two days later.
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Hamblin said Barilaro never raised with her any personal interest in the trade roles.
Barilaro is due to front the inquiry on Monday.
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Correction: This table has been corrected to reflect that Mandela Barnes and John Fetterman are lieutenant governors, not senators. Data: Axios research; Table: Axios Visuals
A starting number of lawmakers in President Biden’s own party have been unwilling in recent days to say he should seek re-election in 2024, amid gnawing fears he’ll be too old or unpopular to win.
Why it matters: Backing your own party’s first-term president is usually so automatic that no one would bother to ask. But behind the scenes, there’s a very real concern that going all in on Biden could be a mistake.
reality check: Some Democrats privately don’t want Biden to run again, for three reasons:
He’s deeply unpopular. Many Americans associate him with inflation, high gas prices, entrenched COVID-19 and an inglorious end to the war in Afghanistan.
Progressives want to move away from centrism and convention.
Many Democratic voters want generational change. Biden was older when he took office than Ronald Reagan was when he left office. If re-elected, Biden would be 86 at the end of his second term.
Driving the news: Just this week, two high-ranking New York Democrats cast doubt on the president’s future.
Rep. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney were asked, during a Democratic primary debate for the 12th congressional district, whether Biden should run again in 2024. Neither would answer in the affirmative.
That followed a refusal by Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) to commit to Biden ’24 while trying to get a climate change deal over the finish line, and flat-out “no”s to Biden ’24 from two House Democrats in Minnesota during local interviews.
Yes but: Some strategists see all this as a misdirection of Democrats’ nervous energy.
“The chatter right now is more about anxiety about ’22 than ’24, and it is not really helpful for Democrats,” David Axelrod, director of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and a former senior adviser to President Obama, told Axios. “This is a Washington parlor game.”
“Now’s not the time for the conversation. What voters say about an election two years and change away is about as meaningful as the Farmer’s Almanac.”
Biden’s age is “an issue he’ll have to consider and, if he runs, he’ll have to confront. But he doesn’t have to right now.”
The outcome of November contests and whether Democrats lose control of one or both chambers of Congress is likely to shape Biden’s fate.
There’s no party consensus around how to have a what’s-next conversation, or who could be the strongest alternative if Biden ultimately decided not to pursue a second term.
Vice President Kamala Harris has the standing as Biden’s No. 2 but faces concerns about her popularity within her own party as well as her general election prospects.
By the numbers: Biden’s overall approval rating with Americans has sunk to 39%.
Only one in four Democratic voters said they’d want him to run again in 2024, per a July poll from The New York Times and Siena College.
Age and job performance were the top factors. Roughly 94% of Democrats under 30 don’t want him to be the nominee next time.
What they’re saying: Democrats running competitive statewide campaigns in swing states are quick when asked about Biden to refocus on the issues they say voters want their party to address — like abortion access, the economy and inflation, crime and gun violence.
John Fetterman’s Senate campaign told Axios: “Pennsylvanians care about whether they have a senator who’s actually from Pennsylvania, understands their struggles, and will actually fight for abortion rights and to combat inflation.”
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak told us he is “more focused on lowering costs for Nevadans and continuing our state’s quick economic recovery,” but that he would support Biden’s re-election.
“Biden is the leader of our party and if he runs again I’ll support him, but if he’s going to win Ohio back in 2024 I’d urge him to keep a laser focus on lowering costs for working families – which is exactly what I’m doing in this race,” Nan Whaley, running for Ohio governor, told Axios.
Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, “takes the president at his word” that he’s running again. His campaign told Axios that Shapiro is more focused on whether his GOP opponent Doug Mastriano, if elected, would discard legitimate votes in 2024 if he didn’t like the outcome.
A handful of vocal House Democrats have been clear they don’t think President Biden should — or will — run again.
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) told a local radio show last week: “I think the country would be well served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats who step up,” after replying “no” to the question of whether he would support Biden in 2024.
Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) told MinnPost: “I think Dean Phillips and I are in lockstep and alignment with that, and I’m going to do everything in my power as a member of Congress to make sure that we have a new generation of leadership.”
Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) told Axios he has heard rumblings on the Hill that some want younger leadership, even though he doesn’t agree with that. “If the president decides not to run again obviously it’s going to be game on,” Rep. Kildee said. “But he’s got to make that decision.”
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (DN.Y.) said—on two separate occasions — that she doesn’t believe Biden will run for president again. She has since clarified that she wants him to run, but maintained during a CNN interview on Thursday: “I happen to think you [Biden] won’t be running.”
McLaren is believed to have signed Piastri initially on a reserve driver deal for 2023, one that it intends to upgrade to a race seat, assuming that a plan for Ricciardo’s early exit is eventually agreed.
Ricciardo has a signed McLaren contract for next season as part of the original three-year deal that he signed in early 2020, while still at Renault.
Ricciardo and the team will now have to agree to a settlement involving a substantial pay-off in order for him to walk away at the end of this season.
He is understood to have no interest in moving sideways into the team’s Formula E programme, and is determined to find another seat in F1.
The Woking team is confident that it can hang on to Piastri despite Alpine’s claim that it has a valid contract with the youngster for 2023.
The Enstone team made an announcement to that effect on Tuesday that was subsequently challenged by Piastri on social media.
Oscar Piastri, Reserve Driver, Alpine F1 Team
Photo by: Motorsport Images
It’s believed that Piastri’s ability to walk away from Alpine is based on a claim that his 2023 deal with the team was never properly signed. The July 31 date – widely believed to be related to an option the team had on him – is understood to have no special relevance.
The dispute looks set to go to the Contract Recognition Board, although there is also some question of whether or Alpine actually lodged a contract with the CRB that covered 2023.
It has emerged that McLaren began to explore the possibility of hiring Piastri several weeks ago as it looked for possible replacements for Ricciardo.
McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl is close to Piastri’s manager Mark Webber, having worked with him with Porsche in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
At that time Piastri looked set to go to Williams on a loan deal that would see him return to Alpine in 2024 or possibly 2025.
However, after McLaren showed an interest, it emerged that Piastri could be a free agent for 2023 after all, and with the Woking outfit seen as a step up from Williams, negotiations became more serious.
Ricciardo meanwhile is clearly high on the list of possible replacements for Fernando Alonso at Alpine, although he upset the Renault top management when he agreed his McLaren move, and that hurdle will have to be overcome.
Haas could also be an option if as expected Mick Schumacher leaves, although in theory Ferrari has a claim on who takes the seat.
Sometimes pay-off deals like the one Ricciardo is set to receive can be impacted by the driver concerned subsequently finding a seat elsewhere. When Kimi Raikkonen was dropped by Ferrari at the end of 2009 he spent two years out of F1 in part so he could retain the full amount.
However, it’s understood that given the sums involved required to satisfy Ricciardo’s original deal, one scenario is that even if he lands a drive elsewhere he may end up still being paid by McLaren not to race for the team in 2023.
Security staff at Parliament House in Canberra seized copies of a book about Julian Assange from his family members as they entered the building to meet MPs on Thursday, deeming it “protest material”.
Assange’s family and supporters visited parliament on Thursday to urge the Albanese government to intervene in the proposed extradition of the WikiLeaks founder from the UK to the United States.
They were carrying copies of a book on Assange’s case by Nils Melzer, the former United Nations special rapporteur on torture, which they intended to give to MPs and media.
But Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, said parliament security refused to let the family take the book into the building, because they deemed it to be “protest material”.
“I was saying ‘this is ridiculous. They’re books’,” Gabriel Shipton said. “I offered to call Andrew Wilkie, who was the MP who co-chaired the Parliamentary Friends of the Bring Julian Assange Home Group. He said ‘yes, go ahead, call him, but you can’t take the books in’.”
The family was able to distribute books to MPs and media from a box already stored in Wilkie’s office, and a staffer from Wilkie’s office was able to later retrieve the seized books.
But Louise Bennet, a campaigner with the Bring Assange Home Campaign, said the actions of security were “ridiculous”.
“They were incredibly adamant that it was protest material and that it was not allowed into the building,” Bennett said.
“It just blows my mind. This is the sort of thing that we see in Trump’s America, that we criticize in China. What is our parliament afraid of that we can’t bring a book in?”
The Department of Parliamentary Services said it could not comment on “specific operational security matters”.
Gabriel Shipton attended parliament with Assange’s father, John Shipton, and other campaigners.
During their visit, they raised concerns about the lack of progress since the May election. The family urged Anthony Albanese to make the issue “non-negotiable” with the US.
Gabriel Shipton said on Friday that he was disappointed in the rhetoric from the new government, which he said had undergone a “significant change” since it won office.
He said Labor had been much more forthright in its criticism of the treatment of Assange before the election.
“They were elected on that platform, [it was] one of their promises essentially, and it’s one of the first ones that they’ve gone back on,” he said.
Albanese has said that he intends to pursue the matter diplomatically and that “not all foreign affairs is best done with the loudhailer”.
Oil prices have fallen sharply from their recent peaks, but there’s still a case for buying oil stocks, according to Bill Smead, chief investment officer at Smead Capital Management.
That’s because energy prices are likely to stay high or even increase further, he told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Thursday.
He described the slide in crude prices as “the first significant correction” in a bull market that started in the spring of 2020 after prices crashed.
“You have this huge move, you go from $20 a barrel to $120 and then you pull back — and now people are going, ‘Oh yeah, that’s all over, that’s going to cure the inflation right there,'” Smead said.
We like the oil stocks here. You can buy ’em here, Warren Buffett is buying it here.
bill smead
Chief investment officer, Smead Capital Management
But several factors suggest that prices are going to increase, he said.
The US has to replace 180 million barrels of strategic reserves that were drawn down to meet demand, and supply remains tight, he pointed out.
“What happens when China’s economy gets open in full … get past their quarantines and just get out,” he asked, suggesting that demand will come back up again.
Covid flare-ups in China have spurred lockdowns this year, and caused consumption of energy to drop in the world’s most populous country.
Read more about energy from CNBC Pro
Demand will likely to spring back when more movement restrictions are eased.
“We like the oil stocks here. You can buy ’em here, Warren Buffett is buying it here,” Smead said.
Brent crude futures and US West Texas Intermediate futures both soared to levels above $120 per barrel this year, but are now at $96.88 and $90.88 per barrel, respectively.
Still, both benchmarks are more than 40% up from a year ago.
— CNBC’s Thomas Franck and Yun Li contributed to this report.
I’ve heard it said by snarky locals and visitors alike: people in Melbourne love to queue up. Shoes, croissants, nightclubs – if there’s a queue, let’s get in it and see what’s at the end when we arrive. I usually have the opposite reaction. If I must stand in line to get something, it’s unlikely I want that thing.
But, occasionally, the reason for the line is valid. Sometimes, the thing at the end of the queue is so good – and so exclusive – that an hour spent standing on the footpath is a small price to pay.
If you’ve taken the tram along Bourke Street after 5pm in the past year, it’s likely you’ve seen just such a queue outside Nana Thai Style Hotpot and BBQ. The crowd is mainly young and mainly Asian, a demographic which might be more food-obsessed than any other in our gloriously diverse and food-infatuated city.
The gold-domed barbecue is surrounded by a well that’s filled with bone broth. Photo: Bonnie Savage
The line begins to form in the late afternoon every day for the 5.30pm opening; its presence alone was enough to pique my interest. What was behind the small storefront that you couldn’t get elsewhere without standing outside in the cold?
The answer is a fantastic hybrid of barbecue and hotpot called mu kratha or mookata that owners Nuttanan Lohayanjaree and Panta Thanapaisan looked for in vain when they moved to Melbourne from Thailand. Nana Thai was originally a pop-up, but Lohayanjaree and Thanapaisan opened the permanent location on Bourke Street in 2020. The queues were almost immediate.
The barbecue comes as a set for two people ($39), and includes a mix of meat and seafood – pork neck, pork belly, squid, prawns, pork liver – that you grill on a gold-domed barbecue heated from beneath with a gas grill. Around the dome is a well that’s filled with bone broth; a pot with extra broth comes on the side. How you proceed from there is entirely up to you. There are no instructions given by the efficient but rushed staff, and there’s really no wrong way to go about it.
Raw ingredients ready for the hotpot-barbecue hybrid. Photo: Bonnie Savage
Some prefer to grill their meat slowly and carefully, seasoning the grill with the hunk of pork fat provided, adding each element one at a time, allowing it to cook and swiping it through the broth and the provided sweet and spicy barbecue sauce, before moving on to the next protein.
Others cram as much stuff onto the grill as possible, moving it into the soup as it’s done, adding mushrooms and noodles and cabbage from a second platter to create a barbecue-hotpot amalgam, then scooping it into soup bowls before eating it. There’s a raw egg to add to the mix, and a spicy and tangy sauce to add to your soup bowl that’s shot through with onions.
Nana Thai also offers a straightforward hotpot for two ($39) that comes without the barbecue element. If you’re in the mood for soup and soup alone – and if you crave intestine and marinated chicken, which the barbecue doesn’t have, but the hotpot does – this is a lovely option. But there’s all manner of hotpot in Melbourne, and I probably wouldn’t wait in line just for the version at Nana’s. For a big group with people who are happy sharing, it’s a nice thing to add to the mix, though.
Crab papaya salad. Photo: Bonnie Savage
Nana’s also has a huge menu of Northern Thai dishes, most of them larbs, salads and soups of various sorts. If you don’t want the barbecue or hotpot and you don’t want to wait in line, these other dishes are available to pre-order and take away, as well as via various delivery apps.
They are mostly intensely spicy – prepared, as the menu warns, to Thai-taste heat levels. And they’re fantastic: raw blue crab and green papaya salad with fermented fish ($20) comes swimming in lime, fish sauce, chillies and funk.
The Mama tom yum soup ($20) is not the often-miserly offering found at your neighborhood Thai joint: broth with a few carrots and celery. Here, it combines instant noodles, deep-fried pork belly, prawns, calamari, pork balls and egg in a bright and fragrant bowlful.
Mama tom yum soup. Photo: Bonnie Savage
The line might seem like a lot to deal with – even on a recent freezing Tuesday night at 6pm, the wait was over an hour – but the staff do everything they can to streamline the process. Menus are handed out and orders taken while you’re standing on the street; by the time you make it to your stools and no-frills table, your food will already be waiting for you, the grill hot, the broth bubbling.
Stumbling out an hour later, full and happy, someone passed me to the crowd and asked, “Is it worth the wait?” Without hesitation, I replied, “Absolutely.”
Storm star Brandon Smith was placed on report for an alleged hip-drop tackle on Titans skippers Tino Fa’asuamaleaui — and Craig Bellamy has pleaded the Match Review Committee to ignore the “hysteria”.
Smith took out the legs of Fa’asuamaleaui and his teammates Tanah Boyd and Sam McIntyre immediately threw up their arms in protest.
Fox League commentators Dan Ginnane and Shane Flanagan made no mention of the tackle until the Gold Coast lock pulled up licks.
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Replays then showed Smith took out the legs in ugly fashion and referee Peter Gough placed him on report.
“I understand it’s wet and he’s sliding, but it’s (that) he throws his legs out which drops the weight on the back foot, it’s on report,” Gough told Melbourne captain Jesse Bromwich.
“That could be very big. Only a two-man tackle not the familiar three-man tackle where that result occurs,” Ginnane said.
“It doesn’t really matter. You can’t do it, we know you can’t put your weight on the back of the legs when the player is going away from you and he gets himself in a bad position.”
Brandon Smith’s tackle on the Titans captain.Source: Getty Images
It comes after Broncos star Pat Carrigan copped a four-game ban for a hip-drop tackle last weekend that broke the leg of Tigers gun Jackson Hastings — an event that was heavily publicized.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy pleaded with the MRC in the post-match press conference to ignore the reports, hoping his star utility remains on the field.
“I just hope it gets judged on the tackle, not some of the hysteria that has gone on this week,” Bellamy said.
“That is all we ask.
“If you go on one last week, but how many have there been? If there is one in however many games since the last one.
“Pat Carrigan doesn’t go out on the field to break Hastings’ legs, they are an accident.”
Bellamy also said he didn’t believe hip-drop tackles were a big issue in the modern game.
“I don’t see it as a real big issue in the game, but I understand that it can injure people, but there hasn’t been a whole heap this year I don’t think.
“I just hope it gets judged on that and not on it being in the news a lot this week.”
Smith’s tackles was heavily debated on the Fox League halftime panel by ex-players Mick Ennis and Corey Parker.
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“We watched it in full speed live, Brandon Smith is just making the tackle and he falls off the tackle and the fact Tino went on that out line dragged Brandon Smith along with him,” Parker said.
“When you slow it all down to the enth degree like we do it doesn’t look great, but he’s just hanging on.
“If you don’t want to end up in that position then Brandon Smith has to let go of the tackle, otherwise what does he do, it’s a complete accident.
“I don’t see it as a genuine hip drop like we saw with Pat Carrigan last week. If he’s not to end up in that position, he needs to let go which completely goes against everything we talk about in rugby league.
Ennis agreed with Parker but said the tackle would be a “big concern” for the Storm.
“All the talk this week was two players holding the man up then that third tackler coming in and showing no duty of care, I don’t like the position that Tino gets in at the end but I’m not sure what else Brandon Smith could do there other than let go of the tackle,” Ennis said.
“Do we put that down to the duty of care? Is that where we’re going? Maybe we have to, where we’re eliminating players from getting in that position.
“That was a real difficult one, he just ended up in that unfortunate position Brandon Smith and I’m not sure what else he could have done.”
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An 11th hour Federal Court injunction has temporarily halted the construction of a contentious major highway project in Western Australia.
Key points:
The Bunbury Outer Ring Road is WA’s most expensive ever road project
Work to clear land for the road began this week, amid protests
But an 11th hour Federal Court injunction has temporarily halted work
Clearing of bushland to make way for the $1.25 billion Bunbury Outer Ring Road began this week to a chorus of backlash from local community members who say the highway will cause irreversible environmental damage.
The injunction issued late on Friday by the Federal Court of Australia prevents Main Roads and its contractors from conducting any more clearing work on the southern section of the road through the semi-rural community of Gelorup.
Clearing of the land, which sits on a 40-year-old road reserve, began on Monday following a visit to the site by former Greens leader Bob Brown.
Opponents had been campaigning for Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to reverse her decision to sign off on environmental approvals, paving the way for construction to begin.
The Bunbury Outer Ring Road has cleared all environmental hurdles at a state and federal level.
The court order is in place until a scheduled hearing on Monday afternoon.
The injunction does not prevent work from continuing on the northern section, which has been under construction for months.
Main Roads would not comment on the injunction, other than to confirm work at the site had stopped until the court hearing.
Dr Sue Chapman is the vice president of local action group Friends of Gelorup Corridor.(ABC South West: Sam Bold)
Sue Chapman — a local resident whose name is on the court application — said it was a big win for the community.
“We are just so relieved, it’s been the most traumatic week watching the beautiful trees, just simply bulldozed, and wood chipped immediately,” Dr Chapman said.
“To finally feel like there’s a sense of reprieve. It’s just been overwhelming.”
premier backs road
Earlier this week, Premier Mark McGowan said his government would be building the road and the route had been planned for decades.
“The Bunbury Outer Ring Road is designed to save lives and to reduce the pressure on traffic going through Bunbury,” Mr McGowan said.
“It’s been in the plans for the South West for [more than] 30 years. Whichever route you choose, there would be some clearing.
“It’s designed to make life much better for people in the South West. We’ve actually done Bussell Highway as well — which lots of people were dying on as well — in addition to that project.
“So look, that’s the plan. We actually got full environmental approval, the whole range of offsets, that’s replantings, preserving possum habitat and the like.”
A map of showing the route of the southern section of the Bunbury Outer Ring Road.(ABC South West: Asha Couch)
WA Police said there had been very little enforcement required to maintain order at the construction site, despite several protesters being removed for trespassing.
Since Monday when land clearing began, there have been five arrests for trespass, four move-on notices issued and one court summons.
Main Roads said it understood there were a lot of emotions at play, and the community had a right to peacefully protest.
But it said it would call police when people accessed the construction site without authorization and put workers’ safety at risk.
Construction of the northern section of the road is well underway.(Supplied: Nearmap)
A WA Police spokesperson says “engagement has been very positive between protesters and police, including those who have removed themselves from machinery or trees when requested.
“We support any person who wants to protest as long as it is done lawfully and in an orderly manner.”
