Australia news as it happened: Cheng Lei returns to Australia after years in Chinese prison; Ex-PwC CEO apologises for breaches

The Australian sharemarket closed flat on Thursday, with losses in the healthcare sector offsetting strength in the US overnight where traders focused on less hawkish comments from Federal Reserve speakers. Oil prices eased further after an early week surge, and the Australian dollar edged up.

The S&P/ASX 200 was up just 2.6 points, or less than 0.01 per cent, to 7091 at the close, taking the local bourse to a marginal sixth day of gains after topping 7000 points earlier this week.

Full details here.

Former PwC chief executive Luke Sayers has insisted he did not know about the tax confidentiality breaches that occurred while he was in charge, as the new CEO said Sayers and his successor bear ultimate responsibility for the scandal.

Sayers told a senate inquiry into consulting services he was not aware of breaches of confidentiality until well after he had left the firm. He was chief executive of PwC from 2012 to 2020.

“I did not know of breaches of confidentiality agreements in PwC tax business until this year,” he said.

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The National Press Club, representing journalists in the Parliament House press gallery, has issued a statement following the release of Australian journalist Cheng Lei saying they still have concerns about how her case was handled:

While we are delighted at Cheng Lei’s return to Australia, we maintain our concern at the treatment she received in detention and the fact that she did not receive an open trial. We feared for her health, safety, and security while she was in detention.

Reports in 2021 indicated that her online meetings with officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade included arrangements where she was brought into the room blindfolded, masked, and handcuffed by four guards.

The club raised also raised concerns about the status of writer Yang Hengjun, who has been in Chinese detention since 2019:

While Cheng Lei has returned home to Melbourne, others remain in detention in China without fair access to legal representation and diplomatic support. We remain concerned about the treatment of Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who has been detained for four years. Yang was arrested in China in January 2019 and has been charged with espionage. We ask authorities in China to show compassion for our fellow Australian.

Prime Minster Anthony Albanese says the release of Cheng Lei was not a “transaction” made between Australia and China and that he was not told beforehand that Lei had been released by the judicial system.

Speaking at Fremantle this afternoon, Albanese said while the government had advocated for her release over the past three years, Cheng Lei’s return was a result of China’s judicial system.

“We don’t deal with China on a transactional basis,” Albanese said.

“You will note that when I stood up yesterday afternoon, there was no foreshadowing that Cheng Lei arrived back in Australia.”

The Australian journalist was detained on national security charges by China and returned home on Wednesday. Her release ended a three-year ordeal that put her at the centre of a bitter diplomatic dispute between Canberra and Beijing.

“We stand up for our values and make representations and we did so consistently. But we also do so diplomatically and in a way that a serious government should do,” he said. “My government is one that takes national security seriously and doesn’t treat it like a political football.”

The Prime Minister has been spending the day in Fremantle, WA. He’s currently speaking with the Member for Fremantle, Josh Wilson. Watch live below:

The chief of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation says he is concerned about “opportunistic violence” in the community as a result of the Hamas-Israel war, but the organisation has not raised the national terrorism threat level.

“The tragic events in the Middle East are resonating in the Australian community, however the national terrorism threat level remains ‘possible’,” ASIO’s director-general of security said in a statement.

Read our live coverage of the Hamas-Israel war here.

Let’s return to that news from WA of an Aboriginal teenage prisoner being rushed to hospital after he was found unconscious in his cell overnight.

Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia held a press conference on the incident a short time ago, and admitted that housing children in Unit 18, the section of the jail in which the boy was held, is “not an ideal situation”.

Unit 18 at Casuarina Prison was repurposed as a juvenile centre in July 2022 after a series of incidents and riots at the state’s only youth detention centre, Banksia Hill, forced the government to split the cohort into two groups.

“That is the only place we have for them at the moment, we are working up a plan to vastly improve the delivery of services there. I recognise it’s not an ideal situation,” he said.

“Unit 18 houses the most challenging, complex and often dangerous juveniles ... The alternative of bringing Unit 18 detainees back to Banksia Hill is that it all goes backwards.”

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