Blackouts are expected in Victoria after a major transmission line was brought down by a storm, tripping a power station and sending spot electricity prices soaring.

Load shedding is now under way in the state to help protect the system. According to the Australian Energy Market Operator, the maximum load to be disrupted would be 420 megawatts.

Guardian Australia understands there is damage to transmission towers near Anakie to Melbourne’s north-west. The lines failure prompted AGL Energy’s 2,210MW coal-fired power station to drop offline at 2.15pm, the company said.

Aemo issued a market alert declaring a “significant” power system event because of “multiple tripping of generation and transmission lines” in the region.

The failure has resulted in 2,300MW of generation being halted, with more than 1,000MW of load interrupted.

AGL Energy said all four units at its Loy Yang A plant in the La Trobe Valley were presently offline. “We are currently investigating the cause,” a spokesperson said.

Spot power prices were running at their ceiling level of $16,600 per MW-hour in Victoria and Tasmania, with other states in the national electricity market recording negative prices on a relatively sunny and windy day in those regions.

Aemo said it expected to have a clearer indication of the problems soon.

Temperatures in Victoria have soared to as high as 41.7C in Walpeup, while the mercury climbed to 36.7C in Melbourne before dropping back.

Dylan McConnell, an energy expert at the University of New South Wales, said significant incidents in the grid were “very infrequent”.

The company that supplied mulch found to be contaminated with asbestos across Sydney including at a primary school has launched a legal challenge against the environmental watchdog as it fights to keep selling the product.

Greenlife Resource Recovery has filed an appeal in the state’s land and environment court against the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority.

The landscaping product manufacturer will challenge the prevention notice that the EPA issued earlier this month banning it from selling mulch, after bonded asbestos was discovered in recycled garden mulch it supplied for the Rozelle parklands and other state infrastructure projects.

The order prevents Greenlife from moving mulch from its facility in Bringelly in south-western Sydney until the EPA completes its investigation.

So far, asbestos has been found across the city, most recently at three parks within the City of Sydney, but the agency is yet to identify the source of the contamination.

Greenlife’s lawyer, Ross Fox, told Guardian Australia the company felt it had been “unfairly maligned” and wanted to come to a “sensible” agreement with the EPA about how to deal with a stockpile of the mulch in question.

“While this matter is still an ongoing investigation, I think the EPA has acknowledged that it is a complex supply chain,” Fox said.

Asked if Greenlife wanted to “deal with” the mulch by continuing to sell it, Fox said “absolutely”.

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Greenlife on Tuesday said the EPA had taken 12 samples of its mulch and it had received in writing the results showing that the product was free of asbestos contamination. Guardian Australia has contacted the EPA about this claim.

As part of the ongoing EPA investigation, bonded asbestos has been found in mulch supplied by Greenlife at a school, hospital, parks and several transport projects in Sydney as well as along a bridge in the south coast.

Friable asbestos, which poses a greater immediate risk to human health than bonded asbestos, was discovered in mulch at a park in Surry Hills on Monday.

The Guardian understands Greenlife’s challenge against the EPA was lodged with the court last week by VE Resource Recovery, the company which holds the environmental licence for the Greenlife facility.

The premier, Chris Minns, said the EPA would be defending their orders in court and was in discussions with the federal consumer watchdog about a product recall.

“That particular kind of [friable] asbestos – not the bonded asbestos, that kind of asbestos – being found in a park in Sydney is deeply worrying,” he said.

“We [need to] make sure that compliance action is taken against companies that [we claim] are doing the wrong thing and that ultimately, the fines are in place to dissuade people from polluting our parks and our natural spaces.

“We cannot have a situation where major public facilities like … schools and parks have asbestos in them. The government is prepared to take action.”

Asked if mulch products had a future in NSW, the premier said he was “not aware of any other corporation or firm that may have been responsible for the distribution” of products containing asbestos.

“The firm, it’s reasonable to say, is fighting the suggestion that they’re responsible for the contamination within public facilities and public parks,” he said on Tuesday morning.

The government is finalising plans to increase fines for companies caught doing the wrong thing.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says his government will propose legislation to crack down on doxing after the publication of details of a WhatsApp group of Jewish Australians.

Albanese said on Monday that the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, was developing amendments to privacy laws and also looking at how to “strengthen laws against hate speech”.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry called for legislative changes after it condemned the publication of the log of a group chat of more than 600 Jewish writers and artists.

The Nine newspapers, which first reported the story, alleged that the link also contained a spreadsheet of links to social media accounts and another file that contained the photos of over 100 Jewish people.

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Writer and commentator Clementine Ford last week published a link to the log of the group chat to her 239,000 Facebook followers, although she was not involved in the initial leak and was not the only person to post a link.

Ford told her followers that she was posting the transcript of the leaked chat to provide an insight into “how coordinated efforts are to silence Palestinian activists and their allies”.

Albanese signalled his intention to pursue legislative changes in an interview with 2GB on Monday.

“I’ve asked the attorney general to bring forward legislation in response to the Privacy Act review, including laws that deal with so-called doxing, which is basically the malicious publication of private information online,” the prime minister said.

“And let’s be very clear, these are 600 people in the creative industries … who had a WhatsApp group, not heavily political, to provide support for each other because of the antisemitism we’ve seen.”

Albanese said the publication of the details had led to people being “targeted”.

“Now these people have a range of views about the Middle East. What they have in common is they are members of the Jewish community,” he said.

“The idea that in Australia someone should be targeted because of their religion, because of their faith, whether they be Jewish, or Muslim, or Hindu or Catholic – it’s just completely unacceptable.

“And that’s why I’ve asked as well the attorney general to develop proposals to strengthen laws against hate speech. This is not the Australia we want to see.”

When asked for a response to Albanese’s comments, Ford said: “This fixation on rewriting narratives in order to obfuscate the truth is yet another tactic to conceal Israel’s genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza.”

Ford said there was a wider effort aimed at “the demonisation of people who cannot stand to see any more children be killed” in Gaza.

She asked: “How many children need to die before Albanese remembers he once had a backbone?”

The leaked WhatsApp chat log allegedly included several messages about Ford, including a comment from a user: “One of my big goals is taking down Clementine, either by making her have to issue a public apology, or getting her dropped by her publisher, or preferably both.”

On Sunday Ford posted a “collective statement regarding the leaked chat, and the pernicious attempts by individuals, lobby groups and the media to frame it as ‘doxing’”.

The statement said the group chat had been “leaked by a whistleblower” and no addresses, phone numbers or emails had been shared.

“Many of us were shocked and disturbed by the contents of the transcript as we read the tactics discussed to target and harm the livelihood and reputation of good and just people, some for simply being Palestinian, and almost all for calling for an end to the genocide against the people of Gaza,” said the statement posted by Ford on Sunday.

However, the Labor MP Josh Burns said last week that the publication of the details had led to death threats and forced one family into hiding.

“This has resulted in really serious consequences where people have received death threats,” he said.

Dreyfus has long been working on reforms to the Privacy Act, and it is understood the government is planning to create a new criminal offence of “malicious doxing”.

Dreyfus said the government would bring forward legislation “as soon as possible” to protect Australians from “the malicious use of their personal and private information”.

Earlier, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry called for “reform of the Criminal Code to make it unlawful to post private or identifying information about an individual or group with the intent that the information be used to cause harm to the victim”.

The president, Daniel Aghion KC, said many within the Jewish community in Australia were “fearful for their physical security and loss of livelihood”.

“In the last few days this has been caused by the publication of lists containing the names, faces and other personal information of hundreds of individuals, whose only common trait is that they are Jewish,” he said on Monday.

In addition to legal changes, Aghion called on social media platforms “to permanently deactivate the accounts of those found to have used their accounts for the purposes of doxing”.

“Social media is intended to connect individuals and communities and allow the rapid exchange of information,” he said.

“Where accounts are used to threaten the lives and livelihoods of others, the platforms have a duty to act.”

On Tuesday, the clock starts ticking for Steven Miles. The first sitting day of parliament under Queensland’s new leader will be one of just 28 that he has as premier before the state election. In that time, the government plans to cram in an ambitious social reform agenda, legislating everything from a 75% emissions reduction target and coercive control legislation to a ban on rent bidding, the expansion of access to abortion pills and laws to ban specific breeds of dog.

Hanging over everything is the deadline of the October election.

Matilda Alexander from Rainbow Families Queensland is one of many campaigners nervously waiting to see if reforms they have championed will become law in time. She is pushing for changes to the state’s anti-discrimination laws as quickly as possible.

The government promised to implement the most substantial reform of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Act in 30 years after a 2022 review of the law following a scandal at Citipointe Christian College that year.

The review called for changes to create a positive duty for employers to prevent discrimination, bolster the role of the state human rights commission and remove an exemption from the rules for religious institutions such as private schools.

“We are deeply concerned that unless those changes are implemented in this sitting, they become at risk of not being implemented at all,” Alexander said.

Even if the government finds the time to legislate, it may not find time to implement the changes before election day, she said, pointing to changes to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act that were legislated in June last year but do not yet have a date of assent by the governor.

“These two pieces of legislation … both have serious consequences for our community and have brought serious hope to our community that things can be better. And that hope is put at risk by further delays,” Alexander said.

The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president, Michael Cope, said it was “about time” for an update of the ageing anti-discrimination law.

He said if the opposition wins the election, it could choose to never proclaim passed legislation, effectively repealing it.

“Anticipating that the government may not win the next election, if they want to do these things, we look forward to them doing it,” Cope said.

Sex workers’ rights tackled in week one

The Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) protested in December after the government broke a promise to introduce legislation to decriminalise sex work by the end of last year.

Sex work law reform will be introduced this week, along with the emissions reduction target that Miles announced in his first act as premier.

The QCU general secretary, Jacqueline King, said the council was also pushing for amendments to the Work Health and Safety Act, the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act and the anti-discrimination bill.

King is less worried about her priorities falling off the agenda. Queensland’s unicameral parliament can be unusually fast-moving. She said it typically takes six to eight weeks from introduction of a bill to it becoming law.

“I would expect that [all] four pieces of work-related legislation will get through [this year],” she said.

Donor-conceived people’s urgent need for law

Another group nervously waiting are the likely thousands of Queenslanders conceived with the aid of reproductive technologies who do not have access to their parents’ health records.

Queensland has one of the most unregulated assisted reproductive sectors in the country and does not have a register.

Members of the community have been pushing for change for 30 years, said the Donor Conceived Australia national director, Aimee Shackleton, with up to 80% of adult donor-conceived people not knowing how they were conceived.

The state government supported in principle the recommendations of a 2022 parliamentary inquiry to grant them the right to understand the circumstances of their conception but has yet to announce an intention to legislate.

Shackleton said every extra year they are forced to wait is another missed opportunity to meet biological parents and another year for a hereditary medical condition to take root.

“It’s important to pass this legislation, ASAP,” she said.

“The donors are getting older. The longer we wait, the more donor-conceived people risk genetic health complications simply due to a lack of information they have a right to.”

Miles said the government had a “significant legislative agenda to deliver on our commitments to Queenslanders”.

“Where needed, we will sit late or extra days to deliver this agenda,” he said. “My intention is to have those bills passed this term.”

The amendments to the Birth, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act is expected to take effect this term.

Lisa Wilkinson felt “alone” and unsupported by Network Ten as her reputation was being “trashed in the media”, the veteran TV presenter has told the federal court.

The former Project presenter has also revealed Ten executives pulled her off air after her Logies speech was criticised as reckless.

“I was shocked, embarrassed and deeply disappointed by [Ten CEO Beverley] McGarvey’s decision to remove me from The Project,” Wilkinson said in an affidavit.

“At that time, my most recent contract as co-host of The Project had only been signed 11 months before and still had more than two years to run.”

She said she found out from her agent that Ten was doing a “rebrand” and she was off the panel due to “brand damage”.

Wilkinson said she was promised an interview series but nothing has yet eventuated.

The former Project presenter was heavily criticised in the media for an acceptance speech she gave at the Logies in 2022 for a TV report about the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.

The speech led to the criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann in the ACT supreme court for the alleged sexual assault of Higgins being delayed by three months.

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Wilkinson was cross-examined on Tuesday in her cross-claim against Ten over a dispute about payment of more than $700,000 in legal costs in the Lehrmann defamation case.

She said Ten failed to make it clear publicly that her Logies speech was approved by senior executives at Ten and the network’s legal team.

“They approved that speech at the highest levels of the network,” Wilkinson said.

“All of them had approved the speech, but I was the one that was accused in this Daily Mail headline, me alone, of derailing the rape case.”

Wilkinson told the court she asked Ten to make it clear to the public that they had fully supported her in making the speech because was being unfairly portrayed in the media as “legally irresponsible”.

“It signified to me that Ten had no real interest in publicly correcting any of the damage done to me and my reputation, and were now only making it worse,” she said.

“I felt the decision would indicate to the public that I had in fact done something wrong. I knew that the story of me leaving The Project would result in a continuation of significant and humiliating headlines.”

Wilkinson told the court she lost faith in Ten’s ability to represent her legal interests so she hired her own legal team.

Wilkinson said she was not confident Ten’s barrister, Matt Collins KC, would represent her best interests adequately given he had criticised her on television for giving the Logies speech.

She said she repeatedly asked Ten to support her publicly and to say that she had not been warned by former the ACT prosecutor Shane Drumgold not to make the Logies speech.

Ten has rejected Wilkinson’s claim for legal fees and has told the court there is “no objective reason which required Ms Wilkinson to engage separate legal representation in this matter”.

Earlier, Justice Michael Lee said the judgment in the Lehrmann defamation trial was nearing completion and would be delivered in March.

Lehrmann is suing Ten and Wilkinson for defamation over an interview with Higgins on The Project in which she alleged she was raped in Parliament House.

Lehrmann, who is in court for the cross-claim, maintains his innocence and pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.

After the trial was aborted in December 2022 prosecutors dropped charges against Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Higgins, saying a retrial would pose an “unacceptable risk” to her health.

The hearing continues.

Blackpink singer Lisa will make her acting debut in the third season of hit US television series The White Lotus, becoming the second member of the popular South Korean K-pop girl group to appear on HBO, Variety reported on Monday.

Lisa will be credited under her full name, Lalisa Manobal, and joins a previously announced cast including Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan and returning star Natasha Rothwell, who was nominated for an Emmy for her role as hotel masseuse Belinda in season one. Manobal’s role on the show, which focuses on intrigue at exotic resorts, was not disclosed.

Season three of The White Lotus will begin production in Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok, Thailand in February. While exact plot details are still under wraps, the show’s creator, writer and director Mike White has previously teased that the third season could be “a satirical and funny look at death and eastern religion and spirituality”.

All four members of Blackpink have renewed their contracts with South Korea’s YG Entertainment Inc, the label said in December, sending shares of the company up by nearly a third.

Lisa’s bandmate Jennie appeared in the HBO drama The Idol in 2023, credited under the moniker Jennie Ruby Jane.

Blackpink set a Guinness record earlier this year for having the most-viewed music channel on YouTube, which now boasts more than 90 million subscribers.

The White Lotus’s first season was set in Hawaii, earning 20 Emmy nominations and 10 wins. Season two, set in Sicily, was up for 23 Emmy nominations and won five, including one for best casting, and one for fan favourite Jennifer Coolidge.

Blackpink singer Lisa will make her acting debut in the third season of hit US television series The White Lotus, becoming the second member of the popular South Korean K-pop girl group to appear on HBO, Variety reported on Monday.

Lisa will be credited under her full name, Lalisa Manobal, and joins a previously announced cast including Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan and returning star Natasha Rothwell, who was nominated for an Emmy for her role as hotel masseuse Belinda in season one. Manobal’s role on the show, which focuses on intrigue at exotic resorts, was not disclosed.

Season three of The White Lotus will begin production in Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok, Thailand in February. While exact plot details are still under wraps, the show’s creator, writer and director Mike White has previously teased that the third season could be “a satirical and funny look at death and eastern religion and spirituality”.

All four members of Blackpink have renewed their contracts with South Korea’s YG Entertainment Inc, the label said in December, sending shares of the company up by nearly a third.

Lisa’s bandmate Jennie appeared in the HBO drama The Idol in 2023, credited under the moniker Jennie Ruby Jane.

Blackpink set a Guinness record earlier this year for having the most-viewed music channel on YouTube, which now boasts more than 90 million subscribers.

The White Lotus’s first season was set in Hawaii, earning 20 Emmy nominations and 10 wins. Season two, set in Sicily, was up for 23 Emmy nominations and won five, including one for best casting, and one for fan favourite Jennifer Coolidge.

The federal government is still failing to close the gap in Indigenous life outcomes, with only four of 19 key areas on track for improvement and four others actually getting worse in the past year.

The government has announced hundreds of millions of dollars for job programs, communications and justice issues in Indigenous communities, in a major response to the latest damning statistics from the annual Closing The Gap report card.

Labor also says it is committed to the “Makarrata” agenda of treaty and truth-telling, even after the voice referendum failure, but the Indigenous Australians minister, Linda Burney, admitted progress may be slow – saying they will only move as fast as the community allows.

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The Closing The Gap statement, tabled in parliament on Tuesday, shows targets on Indigenous children’s early development, children in out-of-home care, adult imprisonment and suicide prevention are going backwards.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said those statistics “should give us pause”. “Australia has overcome much, but the gaps persist, including the life expectancy gap that gapes between us like a chasm. That is inexcusable,” he told parliament.

“We cannot ask for infinite patience. We all agree that the status quo is unacceptable.”

The report notes that the only areas which are improving and on track to meet targets: are: engaging children in early education, economic participation and youth detention statistics.

Indicators around life expectancy, children’s health, education, youth employment, housing and Indigenous people maintaining cultural and economic relationships with land are improving but still not on track to reach goals.

Albanese said some targets which were not on track “have shown improvement in some regions and jurisdictions”, calling it a “slender” positive, but noted the damning productivity commission report last week that warned the Closing The Gap agreement was on the brink of failure without major reforms.

The report accused the federal government of “weak” action on key areas, not fulfilling its promises and a “disregard” for the suggestions of Indigenous communities.

“The productivity commission has made it clear that the old ways are not working. Decades of insisting that government knows best, has made things worse,” Albanese said.

“We must find a better way – and we must do it together.”

In the government’s first major announcement in Indigenous affairs, Albanese and Burney both said the government would advance Makarrata – a Yolngu word meaning the coming together after a struggle – but did not say what form this would take.

Albanese said the government would “take the time needed to get Makarrata and truth-telling right,” but noted there would be a “diversity of processes” including treaties at state level.

At a press conference in Parliament House, Burney wouldn’t confirm the government’s exact plans, but seemed to indicate there would not be announcements in the short-term, and that the referendum result had slowed progress on truth and treaty – the other parts of the Uluru statement.

Burney said the government would “take things as fast or as slow as the community wants to”.

“I cannot describe to you, the hurt out there about the outcome of the referendum. It would be rude and wrong, and against everything we spoke about today, to go forward without the community sanction – particularly in terms of truth telling and treaty,” she said.

“Issues like regional voices are something I know are being discussed in places like the Kimberley … I’m not going to say anything definitive today, it’s not my job to do that right now, there are discussions to be had with the community and within the structures that we need to within this place.”

The government announced a $707m investment for a replacement to the community development program, with hopes it will create 3,000 jobs in remote Australia. It also included $30.2m for seven remote training hubs in central Australia, $10.7 million in funding for the Justice Policy Partnership on reducing incarceration rates, community wi-fi services for 20 remote communities, and $24m to expand the Junior Rangers to 50 sites.

Despite the productivity commission’s calls for major reform to the agreement, the only large update to the Closing The Gap framework announced on Tuesday was the establishment of a National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People.

The government will consult on who will fill that role, and what powers it would have, with more information expected mid-year.

“Indigenous children are almost eleven times more likely to be in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous children. The National Commissioner will focus on working with First Nations people on evidence based programs and policies to turn those figures around,” Albanese said.

Catherine Liddle, the CEO of SNAICC, the national voice for Indigenous children, called the announcement “groundbreaking” that would “help turn the tide” on out-of-home care.

“The National Commissioner will be the champion, the voice and facilitator for our children, young people and families, and who will hold governments to account,” Liddle said.

Up to 150 Australian Taxation Office staff have been investigated over suspicions they took part in a social media scam worth $2bn.

In an auditor general’s report on fraud management of the GST, the tax office revealed it sacked some employees and launched criminal investigations into others who were linked to the widespread rort.

The ATO workers were investigated as part of Operation Protego, set up to target people who benefited from fake GST refunds.

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The operation was set up after the tax office received a large increase in refund fraud tipoffs, as well as an increase in the number of Australian business number and GST registrations.

Social media videos also offered advice on how people could claim more money through GST refunds.

The auditor general’s report said those suspected of claiming false GST refunds had tried to claim amounts between $38,900 and $2.4m.

Since the operation was set up, more than $2bn had been reclaimed by the tax office, while a further $2.7bn was stopped from being transferred just before payment was made.

As of August 2023, more than 100 arrests had been made, with 16 convictions.

The report said 150 tax office staff were suspected to be among more than 57,000 people who tried to claim the false refund. The ATO staff were investigated by the ATO’s internal fraud team.

“The ATO has identified 57% of individuals involved in the fraud were in receipt of a government benefit,” its report said.

“Approximately 30% of individuals attempted to obtain a fraudulent refund a second time and 10% attempted a third time.”

“A range of treatment strategies have been applied by the ATO, including termination of employment and criminal investigations.”

More than $120m of financial penalties have been issued to people found to have taken part in the fraudulent scheme.

Walter Sofronoff maintained “extensive communication” with a columnist at The Australian – who provided Bruce Lehrmann’s contact details and passed him information – while examining the failed prosecution, a court has been told.

The former Queensland judge’s 273 interactions with Janet Albrechtsen over seven months were raised as part of a legal challenge by the former ACT director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, who seeks to quash the ACT board of inquiry’s findings.

Drumgold’s lawyer, Dan O’Gorman, told the ACT supreme court on Monday that Sofronoff’s communication with Albrechtsen, while he led the inquiry, may give an impression that his ability to impartially review the prosecution was undermined.

O’Gorman told the court that Albrechtsen was an “advocate” for Lehrmann who was writing “nasty” stories about Drumgold while simultaneously maintaining regular contact with Sofronoff.

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“What Mr Drumgold alleges is that Mr Sofronoff’s association with Ms Albrechtsen in particular might be thought by the fair-minded observer to have possibly diverted Mr Sofronoff from deciding the issues in his terms of reference on their merit,” O’Gorman said.

Sofronoff’s report, which was given to journalists before the ACT’s chief minister, made “several serious findings of misconduct” against Drumgold, saying he “at times … lost objectivity and did not act with fairness and detachment” throughout Lehrmann’s prosecution for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.

Lehrmann has denied raping Higgins and pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent. His criminal trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and a second trial did not proceed due to prosecutors’ fears for Higgins’ mental health.

In his opening submission, O’Gorman said the 273 interactions between Sofronoff and Albrechtsen included 51 phone calls, text messages, emails and a private lunch meeting in Brisbane. The former judge also spent seven-and-a-half hours on the phone to The Australian newspaper during the probe, many of which were with Albrechtsen.

O’Gorman said when considered as a whole, these interactions may have led Sofronoff to “deal with matters other than on their legal and factual merits”, “giving rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias”.

Drumgold’s legal team said that, on 20 April, Albrechtsen texted Lehrmann’s contact details to Sofronoff with the words “as discussed”.

“That is, it is clear there had been discussion between Albrechtsen and Sofronoff related to Lehrmann,” O’Gorman said. “We have no idea what the discussion was, of course … but a fair-minded observer is left wondering.”

O’Gorman then cited phone records indicating Albrechtsen and Sofronoff communicated 38 times in the three days before the inquiry began in May. This included a text message from Sofronoff criticising the former prosecutor’s treatment of “two young professionals” under his mentorship.

“It shows that Mr Sofronoff had poisoned his mind to Mr Drumgold, before Mr Drumgold even got into the witness box,” O’Gorman told the court. “It is an example we will say of a failure to provide a fair hearing.”

O’Gorman then cited phone records indicating Albrechtsen and Sofronoff communicated 13 times while Drumgold was in the witness box between 8 and 12 May.

The court heard Albrechtsen texted Sofronoff requesting a draft copy of his inquiry report on a strictly embargoed basis. A copy provided from Sofronoff’s personal email address included annotations and tracked changes. Albrechtsen also successfully sought advanced notice of adverse findings, the court heard.

“In the course of those communications information that was of importance to the inquiry and its deliberations, and not really to a journalist, were passed on,” O’Gorman told the court.

O’Gorman argued these communications breached Sofronoff’s own guidance on how to engage with the media. But in his affidavit, Sofronoff argued that it was his job as inquiry chair to speak with journalists, and his communications were above board.

Drumgold’s lawyer told court his client would no longer claim Sofronoff acted improperly by providing a report to two journalists on an embargoed basis, instead focusing solely on allegations of apprehended bias.

The hearing continues.

Walter Sofronoff maintained “extensive communication” with a columnist at The Australian – who provided Bruce Lehrmann’s contact details and passed him information – while examining the failed prosecution, a court has been told.

The former Queensland judge’s 273 interactions with Janet Albrechtsen over seven months were raised as part of a legal challenge by the former ACT director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, who seeks to quash the ACT board of inquiry’s findings.

Drumgold’s lawyer, Dan O’Gorman, told the ACT supreme court on Monday that Sofronoff’s communication with Albrechtsen, while he led the inquiry, may give an impression that his ability to impartially review the prosecution was undermined.

O’Gorman told the court that Albrechtsen was an “advocate” for Lehrmann who was writing “nasty” stories about Drumgold while simultaneously maintaining regular contact with Sofronoff.

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“What Mr Drumgold alleges is that Mr Sofronoff’s association with Ms Albrechtsen in particular might be thought by the fair-minded observer to have possibly diverted Mr Sofronoff from deciding the issues in his terms of reference on their merit,” O’Gorman said.

Sofronoff’s report, which was given to journalists before the ACT’s chief minister, made “several serious findings of misconduct” against Drumgold, saying he “at times … lost objectivity and did not act with fairness and detachment” throughout Lehrmann’s prosecution for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.

Lehrmann has denied raping Higgins and pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent. His criminal trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and a second trial did not proceed due to prosecutors’ fears for Higgins’ mental health.

In his opening submission, O’Gorman said the 273 interactions between Sofronoff and Albrechtsen included 51 phone calls, text messages, emails and a private lunch meeting in Brisbane. The former judge also spent seven-and-a-half hours on the phone to The Australian newspaper during the probe, many of which were with Albrechtsen.

O’Gorman said when considered as a whole, these interactions may have led Sofronoff to “deal with matters other than on their legal and factual merits”, “giving rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias”.

Drumgold’s legal team said that, on 20 April, Albrechtsen texted Lehrmann’s contact details to Sofronoff with the words “as discussed”.

“That is, it is clear there had been discussion between Albrechtsen and Sofronoff related to Lehrmann,” O’Gorman said. “We have no idea what the discussion was, of course … but a fair-minded observer is left wondering.”

O’Gorman then cited phone records indicating Albrechtsen and Sofronoff communicated 38 times in the three days before the inquiry began in May. This included a text message from Sofronoff criticising the former prosecutor’s treatment of “two young professionals” under his mentorship.

“It shows that Mr Sofronoff had poisoned his mind to Mr Drumgold, before Mr Drumgold even got into the witness box,” O’Gorman told the court. “It is an example we will say of a failure to provide a fair hearing.”

O’Gorman then cited phone records indicating Albrechtsen and Sofronoff communicated 13 times while Drumgold was in the witness box between 8 and 12 May.

The court heard Albrechtsen texted Sofronoff requesting a draft copy of his inquiry report on a strictly embargoed basis. A copy provided from Sofronoff’s personal email address included annotations and tracked changes. Albrechtsen also successfully sought advanced notice of adverse findings, the court heard.

“In the course of those communications information that was of importance to the inquiry and its deliberations, and not really to a journalist, were passed on,” O’Gorman told the court.

O’Gorman argued these communications breached Sofronoff’s own guidance on how to engage with the media. But in his affidavit, Sofronoff argued that it was his job as inquiry chair to speak with journalists, and his communications were above board.

Drumgold’s lawyer told court his client would no longer claim Sofronoff acted improperly by providing a report to two journalists on an embargoed basis, instead focusing solely on allegations of apprehended bias.

The hearing continues.

Emergency warnings have been issued over fires burning in and near the Grampians national park, with some communities told to take shelter, as a cool change brought respite to scorching temperatures in Melbourne.

Two alerts were issued to communities near the Grampians national park in Victoria’s west on Tuesday afternoon due to two separate fires that were yet to be under control.

One, issued at 3.15pm, warned that a bushfire near Bellfield was not yet under control and travelling in an easterly direction towards the Pomonal township.

It said it was too late for Bellfield, Lake Fyans and Pomonal residents to leave and urged they instead take shelter.

“You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive. The safest option is to take shelter indoors immediately. It is too late to leave,” the VicEmergency warning read.

Another warning, issued at 3.47pm, warned those in Dadswells Bridge, Ledcourt and Roses Gapthat another fire in the park, near Mt Stapylton, was also out of control.

“The bushfire is travelling in a south-easterly direction towards Dadswells Bridge,” the warning read.

It said it was too late for residents in the areas to leave.

“You must take shelter now.”

Thunderstorms hit parts of Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon, with residents in the north-west and south-east reporting large hail stones.

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A catastrophic fire rating had been issued for the Wimmera for Tuesday – the state’s worst day for bushfire risk since the black summer of 2019-20. An extreme fire danger was forecast for the Mallee, Northern Country and Central districts, which includes Melbourne. A total fire ban is in place for much of the state.

A “watch and act” alert was also issued for parts of Melbourne, which included Croydon, Scoresby, Poowong, Liliydale, Mt Dandenong and Pakenham. The alert said damaging winds and large hailstones were likely, with a 115km/h wind gust recorded at Fawkner Beacon shortly after 3pm.

There were also several other “advice” warnings across the state, including a watch and act for a grass fire near Newtown, Scarsdale and Staffordshire Reef.

In Melbourne, temperatures reached 27C at 6am and had climbed to 35C by 1pm.

Belinda House, duty forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology, said the city was on track to reach 37C before a cool change was expected across the state from about 5pm.

In Avalon and Geelong, temperatures reached 39C just before 1pm, while the north-western town of Walpeup recorded 40.4C early Tuesday afternoon.

“There’s plenty of warmth out there. We’ve had some fairly fresh and gusty north to northwesterly winds coming down from the central district, so the heat is building,” House said.

“The south-westerly wind change will push across Melbourne around about 5pm and it’s on a diagonal – so Mildura and Wilson’s Prom will probably start to cool down around the same time,” House said.

She said shower and thunderstorm activity was expected ahead of the cool wind change.

About 38 schools and 17 early childhood centres have shut across the state and the Country Fire Authority’s chief officer, Jason Heffernan, said firefighters were prepared for “nasty conditions”.

Heffernan told ABC TV it would be some of the most dangerous grassfire conditions since 2019-20 – one of the most intense and catastrophic fire seasons on record in Australia.

Power providers also have crews on standby to respond to any outages caused by damage to poles and wires, the state’s energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, told reporters.

The emergency management commissioner, Rick Nugent, said Tuesday’s weather forecast, with some areas predicted to reach 40C, would be challenging.

Tasmanians were also being urged to prepare for an increased fire danger over the coming days.

The Tasmania Fire Service deputy chief officer, Matt Lowe, said current weather conditions combined with a dry landscape meant fires could spread easily and become difficult to control.

“TFS are putting a temporary hold on issuing fire permits in the south and north of the state until 2am Thursday,” he said on Monday.

South Australians were also bracing for a hot and dry Tuesday.

Total fire bans had been declared, with extreme fire danger ratings for Mid North, Riverland and Murraylands.

The South Australian Country Fire Service said “very hazardous” fire weather conditions were predicted.

The Bureau of Meteorology had also issued a heatwave warning for parts of Victoria, with conditions expected to ease with a cooler change from late Tuesday night through early Wednesday morning.

A severe heatwave warning was also in place for parts of Western Australia including the Kimberley, Gascoyne, Central West and Great Southern districts.

Jailed former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is to be freed, the kingdom’s justice minister has said, possibly as soon as the weekend – just six months after returning from 15 years of self-imposed exile.

The controversial billionaire, twice elected premier and ousted in a 2006 military coup, was jailed for eight years on graft and abuse of power charges in August, but within days had his sentence cut to one year by King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Justice minister Tawee Sodsong said on Tuesday that the former Manchester City owner, 74, would be among 930 prisoners granted early release.

“He is in the group where they are in a critical condition or aged over 70. He will be released after six months automatically,” Tawee Sodsong told reporters.

Thaksin was jailed on 22 August last year, and Thai media reported that his release could come any day from Saturday.

The exact details of his release are not clear, but he may be subject to monitoring – possibly with an ankle tag – and restrictions on his right to travel.

His homecoming coincided with his Pheu Thai party returning to government in alliance with pro-military parties, leading many to conclude that an agreement had been struck to cut his jail time.

The rumours grew stronger when he was transferred to a police hospital within hours of being sentenced because of his poor health, and it is not clear that he has spent any time in a prison cell.

Local media reported Thaksin had been suffering from chest tightness and high blood pressure when he was admitted to hospital, and in the following months, his family said he had undergone two operations.

The former telecoms tycoon is one of the most influential but divisive figures in modern Thai history.

Loved by millions of rural Thais for his populist policies in the early 2000s, Thaksin is reviled by the country’s royalist and pro-military establishment.

Much of Thai politics over the last two decades has been coloured by the tussle for power between the establishment and Thaksin and his allies.

When he landed home in Bangkok, his supporters gave him a hero’s welcome, and his first public act was to prostrate himself in homage before a portrait of the king at the airport.

Last week, police laid lese-majesty charges against him over comments he made in South Korea almost a decade ago, though it is not clear whether prosecutors will take the case to court.

Thaksin denies the charge and has written to the attorney general asking for fair treatment.

Australia’s most affluent schools are set to rake in more than a billion dollars in commonwealth overfunding, new figures show, with one of them facing controversy over a $108m development proposal.

The “state significant development” lodged with the New South Wales Department of Planning by MLC school in Burwood includes an expansion of its existing aquatic centre and a performing arts and sports centre. The proposal is in its preliminary planning stage.

Experts say the application lays bare the inequity of overfunding the private system, amid figures provided at Senate estimates showing the top 10% of private schools ranked by parent incomes were receiving a quarter of ongoing overfunding.

The 263 private schools, where the median family income is in excess of $209,000, are expected to receive $1.3bn above the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) to 2029 – the level agreed to by governments to provide a baseline education.

Of those, 92 have a median family income of more than $260,000.

The commonwealth has until 2029 to bring funding levels down to their agreed level of 80% for private schools – with many continuing to be funded well in excess of 100%.

In 2024, MLC school received $5.9m in commonwealth funding, the latest data shows, representing 145% of the SRS. In 2022, its funding was at 171% of the SRS.

According to the figures, the private girls’ school was overfunded by the commonwealth government to the tune of $2.7m in 2024, while total overfunding from 2022 to 2028 was estimated at $16.3m.

According to internal Department of Education figures released last year, 1,152 – or 40% – of private schools would continue to be overfunded by billions of dollars to 2029, to an estimated value of $3.2bn.

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Three schools with high median family incomes – Penleigh and Essendon grammar, St Augustine’s college and Haileybury college – were expected to be overfunded by more than $20m each.

According to My Schools data, analysed by Guardian Australia, more than 40 of Australia’s 100 most affluent schools had their funding increased – not decreased – from 2021 to 2022, despite some schools seeing a decline in enrolments.

Among them was the Frensham school in New South Wales, which had its funding increased by $1.4m despite a minor decline in students.

The convener of public education lobby group Save our Schools, Trevor Cobbold, said the MLC development pointed to the “inherent unfairness” of the current school funding model.

“When they’ve got this amount of overfunding from the taxpayer, it frees up their fee income to be used on luxurious facilities,” Cobbold said.

“It’s just ridiculous. It points to the inherent unfairness of the current funding model. It’s heavily biased in favour of private schools.

“No government school is overfunded to this extent … yet taxpayer money goes into this operation for a group of the richest families in the country.”

According to figures provided at Senate estimates, the median family income of students at MLC school was $260,000 in 2022. The school receives tuition fees, in addition to government funding, of up to $40,000 a year from each student.

The school says it prides itself on its “extensive co-curricular program” that includes diving, fencing, multiple types of gymnastics, tennis, skiing and swimming in its physical education offerings.

The architectural plans lodged with the department propose a new two- to four-storey performing arts centre and sports complex, alongside a two- to three-storey extension of its existing aquatic centre.

It comes as state and territory education ministers continue talks with the federal government over the next National School Reform Agreement (NSRA).

The NSW state government has joined Victoria and Queensland in pushing the commonwealth to increase its contribution to the public system, now sitting at 20%.

Last month, Western Australia accepted a deal for the federal government to lift its funding level to 22.5%, less than the 25% pushed for by states and education unions.

A spokesperson for the NSW education minister, Prue Car, said the state government “strongly believes” the commonwealth should put more money on the table so all NSW public schools are fully funded to the SRS by 2025.

“Securing this agreement with the commonwealth will ensure public schools can continue to provide world-class services to the state’s growing cohort of students,” the spokesperson said.

Asked whether it was equitable that MLC received $5,873 a student from the commonwealth in 2024, the federal education minister, Jason Clare, said the government was “focused” on making sure public schools were funded properly, adding the agreement with WA was an “example of that”.

“That’s just the first step,” he said. “We need to fully fund public school across the country.”

The Australian Education Union president, Correna Haythorpe, said overfunding by governments was allowing private schools to divert income into “luxury facilities and vanity projects”.

She pointed to the fact only 1.3% of public schools were fully funded, none of which were in NSW. The state government has pledged to reach 75% of the SRS by 2025.

“It is a never-ending battle to see who can build the most ostentatious facilities whether it is pools or performing arts centres or libraries that look like Scottish castles,” Haythorpe said.

“The Minns and Albanese governments need to strike a deal this year that ends the underfunding of public schools.

“We are not asking for Olympic pools and polo fields – just modern, safe classrooms, libraries and learning spaces where teachers can give every child the support they need to succeed.”

The Greens spokesperson for schools, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, said it was “patently unfair” Australia’s wealthiest schools were able to use public money towards “gleaming monuments to their privilege”.

MLC school was approached for comment.

Allegations Ben Roberts-Smith dragged a prisoner with a prosthetic leg outside an Afghan compound before machine-gunning him were backed up by numerous witnesses, a court has heard.

The decorated war veteran is appealing a federal court judgment that in June dismissed his defamation case over 2018 reports about his alleged involvement in the murder of four unarmed prisoners while deployed in Afghanistan in 2009 and 2012.

On Tuesday, a barrister representing the newspapers behind the reports said allegations about the murder of a prisoner with a prosthetic leg outside a compound called Whiskey 108 had been corroborated by four soldiers.

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Roberts-Smith claims he shot the man because he was a “squirter” – a Taliban insurgent fleeing the compound.

But barrister Nicholas Owens SC said three witnesses gave “strikingly coherent accounts” of the 45-year-old ex-soldier manhandling the man before throwing him to the ground and machine-gunning him in 2009.

“All three of them support that coherent and essential narrative,” he told the full court.

A fourth witness said he had seen the body on the ground and recognised the man as a prisoner who had been brought out of a tunnel discovered in the Whiskey 108 compound.

The media reports were published by the Nine-owned Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, as well as The Canberra Times.

They alleged that, in addition to killing the man with the prosthetic leg, Roberts-Smith also ordered a junior member of the SAS to kill another unarmed prisoner found in the Whiskey 108 tunnel in order to “blood the rookie.”

Again, the Victoria Cross recipient does not dispute the killing occurred, but he claims the man was shot lawfully.

Owens said there was a “powerful inference” the junior soldier, known as Person Four, had stopped to put a suppressor on his M4 rifle before shooting the man in the head.

“It is inconsistent with a legitimate engagement because it implies a level of premeditation for want of a better word,” he said.

“That is only consistent with the illegitimate nature of the killing because there is no reason to conceal a killing which is a lawful engagement.”

Roberts-Smith was also alleged to have kicked a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff before ordering his execution near Darwan in September 2012 and separately ordering the execution of a prisoner after a weapons cache was found in Chinartu in October that same year.

On Tuesday, Owens rejected the ex-SAS corporal’s attack on the original findings by justice Anthony Besanko that the reports were substantially true.

He argued the judge had engaged in “thorough, detailed (and) careful” reasoning in his 2,600-paragraph judgment.

The barrister urged the appeals court to dismiss arguments by Roberts-Smith’s lawyers that Besanko had not adequately explained why he had accepted certain pieces of evidence and rejected others.

“Obviously I can’t make such a facile submission as to say look how long this judgment is already, are you really saying it should be longer?” Owens said.

“One cannot seriously contend that this judgment does not reflect a very careful and thorough analysis of the issues, factual and legal, that were thrown up in a very complicated case.”

If Roberts-Smith succeeds on his appeal, the Full Court will need to consider whether to make new findings on its own or to send the case back for a further supplementary hearing or a complete retrial.

The trial ran for 110 days over about a year and was estimated to have cost the parties at least $25 million before the appeal.

Roberts-Smith denies any wrongdoing and has not been criminally charged.

The hearing continues.