Pauline Hanson defends UK ‘fact-finding’ trip
Pauline Hanson has posted an update on social media about what she calls a “fact-finding” mission to the UK to find out what has gone “so wrong” with the country.
She sat down for an interview for the podcast of far-right British activist Tommy Robinson, whom she called a “brave man … who has always had the best interest of his nation at heart”.
After a long list of what she claims is wrong with the UK, including “cities where most women wear burkas”, Hanson says:
No thanks. That’s not what I want for Australia. Each day I’ll bring you a sneak peak of my visit before putting out a long format video once I’m home.
Robinson posted on his YouTube channel a clip from a car showing him and Hanson “about to take a walk through my town” of Luton, adding “let’s see what happens”.
Hanson also met Rupert Lowe, the leader of the far-right Restore Britain party, who split from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Lowe tweeted “we certainly share many of the same objectives”.
Key events
Victorian premier demands Telstra reimburse rail passengers affected by outage
Achol Arok
The Victorian government has announced it will reimburse passengers who incurred additional costs during disruptions to the state’s regional rail services caused by the Telstra outage.
In a statement last night, the premier, Jacinta Allan, said the government would pay back affected passengers and expected “Telstra to match it, dollar for dollar”.
The state government has also committed to funding two days of free travel on V/Line.
Allan said it was “completely unacceptable that so many Victorians were stuck without an essential service for so long”.
“Telstra should compensate Victorians and help make sure it never happens again … Australians have endured too many major outages – and it’s always country people who bear the brunt,” she said.
Trains across the state are now returning to service and triple zero is continuing to conduct welfare checks.
Good morning, and happy Friday – Nick Visser here to take over and round out the week. Let’s get to it.
Hanson says Taylor should go ‘after the real enemy, Labor’
Overnight, Pauline Hanson also posted in Angus Taylor’s direction, suggesting to the Liberal leader that his attack on her yesterday was a mistake and that he should be going after “the real enemy, Labor”.
She said:
Angus Taylor has today come out attacking One Nation instead of going after the real enemy, Labor.
Angus has played right into the hands of Anthony Albanese. While the Liberal leader is telling voters how bad One Nation is, he’s quietly adopting One Nation policies.
Stop running scared and desperate, Angus. My priority remains focused on getting this country back on track.
Qantas tops airline punctuality table
Qantas is the world’s most punctual major airline, according to the latest data.
Each month OAG compiles global on-time performance for airlines, based on actual gate arrival times. Flights that arrive within 15 minutes of the schedule are considered on-time.
By this measure, Qantas topped the league table of “major” airlines in June, with 87.16% of flights arriving on time, just ahead of South America’s Avianca.
Among “large” airlines, Saudi Arabian Airlines topped the table at 92.41%, with Virgin Australia at number 18 on 80.12%.
Pauline Hanson defends UK ‘fact-finding’ trip
Pauline Hanson has posted an update on social media about what she calls a “fact-finding” mission to the UK to find out what has gone “so wrong” with the country.
She sat down for an interview for the podcast of far-right British activist Tommy Robinson, whom she called a “brave man … who has always had the best interest of his nation at heart”.
After a long list of what she claims is wrong with the UK, including “cities where most women wear burkas”, Hanson says:
No thanks. That’s not what I want for Australia. Each day I’ll bring you a sneak peak of my visit before putting out a long format video once I’m home.
Robinson posted on his YouTube channel a clip from a car showing him and Hanson “about to take a walk through my town” of Luton, adding “let’s see what happens”.
Hanson also met Rupert Lowe, the leader of the far-right Restore Britain party, who split from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Lowe tweeted “we certainly share many of the same objectives”.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.
Pauline Hanson has posted an update on social media about what she calls a “fact-finding” mission to the UK to find out what has gone “so wrong” with the country, and defending her meeting with far-right activist Tommy Robinson. More coming up.
The Victorian government has announced it will reimburse passengers who incurred additional costs during disruptions to the state’s regional rail services caused by the Telstra outage.
And new data finds Qantas is the world’s most punctual major airline.
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