Anthony Albanese has called for a debate on the blocking of misogynistic content online ahead of a snap national cabinet focused on women’s safety.

In addition to information sharing on high-risk perpetrators and serial offenders, the federal government has signalled strengthening violence prevention through a focus on online harms will be a priority at Wednesday’s meeting, the first national cabinet of 2024.

But Albanese will also face a push from the Northern Territory for needs-based domestic and family violence funding, adding to calls from the Greens for more money for the 10-year national plan to reduce violence against women and their children.

A spokesperson said commonwealth efforts on online harms, to be discussed at the meeting, include “countering violent and misogynistic content and access to age-inappropriate material on social media”.

On Tuesday the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said Australians were “very frustrated” about social media algorithms serving up misogynist content to young people.

She conceded the algorithms deciding what content was shown to users were “opaque”, and regulation had proved a challenge for governments worldwide, but said the government was “determined to make positive changes in this area”.

Guardian Australia understands the government is considering whether reforms to the Online Safety Act and the eSafety Commissioner’s powers could compel social media platforms to block young people from seeing such content.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said cracking down on misogynist content online is “a debate we have to have” as influencers like Andrew Tate were “symptomatic of a problem that is a global problem that we’re dealing with”.

“We need to be very conscious about what is online and about the impact that it is having. Now that is something that is a role for government, but it’s also a role for public discourse,” Albanese told reporters in Brisbane.

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“The use of algorithms that can push that sort of material towards people as well, is of great concern. It’s something I know that Michelle [Rowland] is concerned about … certainly it’s the debate that we have to have.”

Albanese said he wouldn’t “preempt the discussion” tomorrow at national cabinet on wider domestic violence issues, but said any reforms would also require “attitudinal change” as well as “practical immediate measures and responses”.

State and territory leaders, through the Council for the Australian Federation currently chaired by South Australia’s Peter Malinauskas, will present a paper on their efforts to combat gendered violence.

Albanese said the meeting would consider “ways in which best practice can be replicated”, including the lessons from Victoria’s royal commission into domestic violence.

Malinauskas has said that he discussed “sharing of intelligence about perpetrators across jurisdiction” with the prime minister as a potential outcome of Wednesday’s meeting.

A group of 11 crossbench MPs has written to the government asking for consideration of “immediate measures … within the justice system where bail laws and intervention orders are failing women”, including a national domestic violence register.

On Tuesday Albanese dead-batted a question about creation of such a register, noting that states and territories have “primary responsibility” for the justice system.

Albanese noted “on average one woman loses their life every four days” and Indigenous women are 7.6 times more likely to lose their life at the hand of a partner or former partner than a non-Indigenous women.

Earlier, Albanese rebuffed a push from the NT government for needs-based family and domestic violence funding.

He told ABC Alice Springs the federal government had already provided $40m of additional funding, and noted that “some of the GST money” given by the federal “isn’t tied to anything”, meaning it could be spent by the NT government for that purpose.

Despite the crossbench push for bail reform, it is considered an unlikely outcome of the meeting, given the experience in Victoria and warnings from experts that tougher rules had unintended consequences for women, children and Aboriginal people.

Emma Buxton-Namisnyk, a UNSW criminologist focusing on domestic violence, supported NSW’s plan to review whether bail decisions on domestic violence cases should be decided by a registrar, but said bail reform can cause unintended consequences and should be done cautiously.

“We should be really wary of punitive responses that are announced in haste because they typically disproportionately impact First Nations people and have unintended effects that aren’t foreseen,” she said.

Emma Russell, a La Trobe University expert in crime and justice, advised against any bail law reforms that would have a “net-wide effect”, pointing to the Victorian government passing bail law reforms in 2018 that were boasted as the toughest in the country in the wake of the Bourke Street massacre in 2017.

Russell said rather than improving community protection, the move in Victoria trapped some of the most disadvantaged people in a cycle of incarceration, including victim-survivors of domestic and family violence – some of whom were misidentified as primary aggressors in domestic and family violence situations.

The laws were recently amended after Veronica Nelson died while on remand in 2020 after she was refused bail for a shoplifting offence.

Additional reporting by Eden Gillespie and Benita Kolovos

Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial entered its third week on Tuesday morning with additional testimony from a private banker, Gary Farro, who last week described financial maneuvering related to the ex-president’s alleged catch-and-kill scheme.

First, however, the ex-president was held in contempt of court and fined $9,000 for violating a gag order. Judge Juan Merchan wrote in an order released moments after he announced the fine that Trump was found “in criminal contempt for willfully disobeying a lawful mandate of this court … on nine separate occasions”.

Merchan warned that there could be more severe consequences if Trump continues to flout the order, which bars him from commenting on witnesses in the trial, including on social media.

“Defendant is hereby warned that the court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” Merchan said.

In the early afternoon, the prosecution called the witness Dr Robert Browning to the stand. Browning is the executive director of C-SPAN archives and has worked there for 37 years.

In a brief testimony, Browning confirmed his role in managing the collection of videos aired on the network. He was largely called in a custodial capacity to discuss the facts surrounding media that prosecutors are admitting.

On Friday, the trial had adjourned for the week following testimony from Farro, who in 2015 became then Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s contact at First Republic Bank. His testimony lifted the veil on Cohen’s financial chicanery to protect his then boss.

Prosecutors allege that Trump, Cohen and tabloid honcho David Pecker plotted in the summer of 2015 to bury stories that could harm Trump’s GOP presidential bid. Cohen, who allegedly shuttled a $130,000 hush-money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, sought to open accounts in October 2016 for two new LLCs.

These inquiries followed the 7 October 2016 publication of a hot mic recording in which Trump bragged about groping women and Cohen learning, a day later, that Daniels had come forward with a claim about an alleged extramarital liaison with Trump, per prosecutors.

Cohen plunked his own money into one of the LLCs, Essential Consultants, which wired money to Daniels’s lawyer, so she would not go public with her account. Cohen allegedly set up LLCs to facilitate hush-money payments without the candidate’s fingerprints, as Trump’s campaign feared that additional accounts of boorish behavior could sink his chances in the general election, prosecutors have said.

Farro’s testimony came after the longtime Trump assistant Rhona Graff took the stand. Graff told jurors she had seen Daniels in the reception area of Trump Tower’s 26th floor some time before the 2016 election.

Before Graff’s brief testimony, Pecker testified. Over the course of three days, Pecker described his arrangement with Trump and Cohen to flag any negative stories to them – before they broke. At the time, Pecker helmed American Media Inc (AMI), which owned the National Enquirer.

“Based on our mutual agreement back in August 2015, any stories concerning Mr Trump that would be very embarrassing, I would want to communicate that with Michael Cohen right away,” Pecker said in the final hours of his testimony. “If he heard it from somebody else, he would go ballistic.”

Pecker testified that AMI paid $150,000 to the Playboy model Karen McDougal in August 2016, to cover up her story about an alleged affair with Trump. When asked by the prosecution if his purpose in paying for McDougal’s story was to “influence the election”, Pecker said yes.

Officials with the Miami Grand Prix recently halted a Donald Trump presidential campaign fundraiser being planned for the upcoming Formula One race, sending a cease-and-desist letter to its organizer.

A Miami Grand Prix representative notified Steven Witkoff, a close friend of Trump, that Witkoff would not be allowed to use a suite at the race to fundraise for the former president, the Washington Post first reported.

Witkoff allegedly plotted to host a political fundraiser at the Paddock Club rooftop suite, charging potential attendees $250,000 a ticket to attend.

The Paddock suite facilities at the F1 race are fairly exclusive, providing guests with better views of the racetrack and other perks, according to the F1 experiences website.

In a letter to Witkoff obtained by the Post, Miami Grand Prix organizers said: “It has come to our attention that you may be using your Paddock Club Rooftop Suite for a political purpose, namely raising money for a federal election at $250,000 a ticket, which clearly violates the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix suite license agreement … If this is true, we regret to inform you that your suite license will be revoked, you will not be allowed to attend the race at any time, and we will refund you in full.”

The Guardian could not immediately reach a representative of the Miami Grand Prix.

The event had previously been advertised in a newsletter for the Shell Bay Club in Florida, an exclusive golf club Witkoff’s real estate company helped develop.

According to the advertisement viewed by the Post, an invitation to the cancelled political fundraiser included a helicopter trip and other amenities. Multiple people called Miami Grand Prix officials and asked about the event.

It’s unclear if Trump was going to make an appearance at the fundraiser. Trump is expected to attend the Miami Grand Prix, which is on 5 May, Newsweek reported. Secret Service agents reportedly contacted race officials to coordinate Trump’s attendance, the Post reported.

Witkoff is a longtime associate of Trump. He recently testified on the former president’s behalf during a New York financial fraud case, in which Trump, his eldest sons and associates were ordered to pay over $350m plus pre-judgment interest.

In a phone call with the Post, Witkoff denied any wrongdoing, claiming: “This is something fake, for sure.” He did not elaborate further.

The fiasco at the Miami Grand Prix is not the first time officials affiliated with a popular racing series have rejected political associations.

Organizers with the Indy 500 race rejected a request from one car to feature pictures of Trump and the independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, WIBC reported.

The future of Bonza is in limbo as the fledgling budget airline enters voluntary administration – a well-trodden path in Australian aviation.

While Tuesday’s developments may come as a blow to competition in an industry dominated by a duopoly, the abrupt cancellation of services and seizure of planes will trigger memories of a long history of fallen Australian carriers.

Bonza transported more than 750,000 passengers across Australia in the 15 months between its launch and sudden grounding this week. In a fiercely competitive industry dominated by Qantas group and Virgin, it had been a turbulent birth for the airline.

In 2021 Bonza announced its plan to run low-cost, low-frequency flights between regional and holiday destinations that are not now serviced by existing carriers, but it was forced to wait until January 2023 to gain regulatory approval and begin operations.

Its executives cultivated a brand that saw it dubbed the “bogan” airline, making headlines by offering budgie smugglers in its inflight shop and for shunning traditional travel outlets to only sell tickets through its smartphone app.

The airline struggled with aircraft shortages and was forced to cancel several routes over the past year, and as a result, had only amassed a 2% market share, according to the competition watchdog’s most recent domestic aviation report this year.

Bonza managed to grow from its Sunshine Coast base to also operate out of larger airports such as Melbourne’s Tullamarine and the Gold Coast, ultimately servicing 35 routes, but it was unable to gain access the lucrative Sydney airport.

Breaking into Australia’s aviation industry has always been tough. Government policy allowed for only two airlines to serve routes between state capital cities, with the laws that effectively maintained the Qantas and Ansett duopoly only unwound in 1990.

Tony Webber, CEO of industry analyst firm Airline Intelligence & Research aviation analyst and former chief economist at Qantas, said that while Bonza’s business model was different and not trying to directly compete with the major airlines, it can be an uphill battle to gain a foothold in the Australian aviation market.

Additionally, without access to Sydney airport, Bonza was unable to access a large chunk of its potential market. Access to Sydney slots in particular continues to be a barrier to entry, with the government in February flagging a crackdown on the existing regime and allegations of slot hoarding to shut out competition.

“The incumbent carriers can be very competitive, particularly Qantas which is hyper competitive,” Webber said. “They realise that to preserve profitability they have to get on the front foot with the competitor.”

Webber noted Qantas had roughly 65% market share; together with Virgin, the two operate about 90% of the market.

“You’ve got to have a strong point of difference to the incumbents if you’re going to succeed. Just because an overseas market with a similar population can successfully run four or five carriers, it doesn’t mean [that] will succeed here,” Webber said.

With Bonza’s future now to play out through the administration process, the carrier appears set to join a long list of airlines that made an attempt to dent Qantas’ dominance and the duopolistic history of Australian aviation.

Tigerair Australia, 2007-2020

The most recent major Australian airline to have vanished from airport departure screens, Tigerair positioned itself as a low-cost carrier. Its 13 years in Australian skies saw domestic air fares between major cities plummet to historically low levels as the airline fiercely competed with the Qantas-owned budget operator Jetstar.

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Initially owned by its Singaporean parent company, Virgin Australia acquired the airline over several years, coming to fully own it by 2014.

All Tigerair flights were grounded due to the Covid pandemic, and the brand was retired during the voluntary administration from which Virgin Australia emerged as Australia’s leaner, significantly scaled-back second airline.

Air Australia, 2011-2012

Growing out of its earlier freight-only operations and rebranding to Air Australia in August 2011, the low-cost carrier launched domestic and international flights with its fleet of four jets – an Airbus A330 and three A320s – from its base in Brisbane to cities including Melbourne, Honolulu and Bali.

However by February 2012, the airline’s owners placed Air Australia into voluntary administration. A fuel supplier refused to refuel its aircraft in Phuket due to outstanding payments and administrations later discovered the airline owed creditors up to $90m.

About 4,000 passengers were stranded internationally and in Australia it entered voluntary administration. A month later, Air Australia went into liquidation.

Ozjet, 2005-2006

The airline with business class-only seating launched in November 2005 with several services a day between Sydney and Melbourne. While it had grand expansion plans, the airline struggled to attract the domestic business market.

By March 2006, the airline announced it would cease all scheduled services. It later pivoted to charter flights and took over regular services between the Australian mainland and Norfolk Island, but ultimately abandoned its business-only scheduled service concept.

BackpackersXpress, 2003-2005

While the story of BackpackersXress eerily resembles Bonza’s tongue-in-cheek “bogan” branding and marketing push, this low-cost airline never actually took to the skies.

Announced in 2003, the idea for BackpackersXpress was an airlines aimed at cheap flights between Europe, Asia and Australia to ferry in backpackers between the continents. The airline had a deal to paint large VB logos on its engines, with the advertising for the airline’s official brewer to fund its low-cost model, and had signed Neighbours actor Ryan Moloney – known for playing series mainstay “Toadie” – as its public face.

The Australian-headquartered carrier had hoped to raise $80m, but lost its funding after its applications to fly services to the United Kingdom were rejected on the basis it hadn’t proven it could actually operate the flights. The company folded by April 2005.

As such, the promised pub-in-the-sky feature of its Boeing 747 fit-out never took off.

Impulse, 2000-2001

While Impulse had existed as a regional operator of smaller planes since 1992, its expansion into a major low-cost airline operating larger jet aircraft in 2000 was a serious development for the aviation industry.

Together with the new-to-market Virgin Blue – the original name of Virgin Australia – it meant competition for the duopoly that had become Qantas and Ansett. It even had a bright blue Boeing 717 with a cartoon cockatoo on its tail.

However, facing a bleak financial outlook after funding was withdrawn, Impulse agreed to wet lease – where an airline provides its planes and crew – all its services to Qantas, who later bought out and absorbed the airline into QantasLink.

Ansett, 1936-2002

A markedly different story to the swathe of failed startups, Ansett was a mainstay of Australian skies in the 20th century, operating regionally, across major domestic legs and internationally.

But competition from Qantas and other budget ventures, alongside costly maintenance and wage bills, left the airline haemorrhaging money and deals to purchase Virgin Australia or be rescued fell through.

The airline entered voluntary administration on 12 September 2001, and while its planes did fly again after efforts to keep it in the air, Ansett ultimately ceased all flights in March 2002, vacating its position in the duopoly for Virgin Australia.

Compass, 1990-1991, 1992-1993

Australia’s first budget airline after deregulation of the country’s aviation industry laws, Compass launched flights between Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, and later Adelaide.

However, the airline collapsed in December 1991, twelve months after launch, due to intense competition and discounting from rivals and its failure to make money by transporting freight in the bellies of its planes.

The airline was revived in August 1992 by different owners choosing to use the brand. However, Compass Mark II was also hit by sustained price wars, and after reporting a half-year loss of $10.95m in its first six months it collapsed in March 1993. Its chairman was later convicted of false accounting linked to the airline’s downfall.

The future of Bonza is in limbo as the fledgling budget airline enters voluntary administration – a well-trodden path in Australian aviation.

While Tuesday’s developments may come as a blow to competition in an industry dominated by a duopoly, the abrupt cancellation of services and seizure of planes will trigger memories of a long history of fallen Australian carriers.

Bonza transported more than 750,000 passengers across Australia in the 15 months between its launch and sudden grounding this week. In a fiercely competitive industry dominated by Qantas group and Virgin, it had been a turbulent birth for the airline.

In 2021 Bonza announced its plan to run low-cost, low-frequency flights between regional and holiday destinations that are not now serviced by existing carriers, but it was forced to wait until January 2023 to gain regulatory approval and begin operations.

Its executives cultivated a brand that saw it dubbed the “bogan” airline, making headlines by offering budgie smugglers in its inflight shop and for shunning traditional travel outlets to only sell tickets through its smartphone app.

The airline struggled with aircraft shortages and was forced to cancel several routes over the past year, and as a result, had only amassed a 2% market share, according to the competition watchdog’s most recent domestic aviation report this year.

Bonza managed to grow from its Sunshine Coast base to also operate out of larger airports such as Melbourne’s Tullamarine and the Gold Coast, ultimately servicing 35 routes, but it was unable to gain access the lucrative Sydney airport.

Breaking into Australia’s aviation industry has always been tough. Government policy allowed for only two airlines to serve routes between state capital cities, with the laws that effectively maintained the Qantas and Ansett duopoly only unwound in 1990.

Tony Webber, CEO of industry analyst firm Airline Intelligence & Research aviation analyst and former chief economist at Qantas, said that while Bonza’s business model was different and not trying to directly compete with the major airlines, it can be an uphill battle to gain a foothold in the Australian aviation market.

Additionally, without access to Sydney airport, Bonza was unable to access a large chunk of its potential market. Access to Sydney slots in particular continues to be a barrier to entry, with the government in February flagging a crackdown on the existing regime and allegations of slot hoarding to shut out competition.

“The incumbent carriers can be very competitive, particularly Qantas which is hyper competitive,” Webber said. “They realise that to preserve profitability they have to get on the front foot with the competitor.”

Webber noted Qantas had roughly 65% market share; together with Virgin, the two operate about 90% of the market.

“You’ve got to have a strong point of difference to the incumbents if you’re going to succeed. Just because an overseas market with a similar population can successfully run four or five carriers, it doesn’t mean [that] will succeed here,” Webber said.

With Bonza’s future now to play out through the administration process, the carrier appears set to join a long list of airlines that made an attempt to dent Qantas’ dominance and the duopolistic history of Australian aviation.

Tigerair Australia, 2007-2020

The most recent major Australian airline to have vanished from airport departure screens, Tigerair positioned itself as a low-cost carrier. Its 13 years in Australian skies saw domestic air fares between major cities plummet to historically low levels as the airline fiercely competed with the Qantas-owned budget operator Jetstar.

• Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Initially owned by its Singaporean parent company, Virgin Australia acquired the airline over several years, coming to fully own it by 2014.

All Tigerair flights were grounded due to the Covid pandemic, and the brand was retired during the voluntary administration from which Virgin Australia emerged as Australia’s leaner, significantly scaled-back second airline.

Air Australia, 2011-2012

Growing out of its earlier freight-only operations and rebranding to Air Australia in August 2011, the low-cost carrier launched domestic and international flights with its fleet of four jets – an Airbus A330 and three A320s – from its base in Brisbane to cities including Melbourne, Honolulu and Bali.

However by February 2012, the airline’s owners placed Air Australia into voluntary administration. A fuel supplier refused to refuel its aircraft in Phuket due to outstanding payments and administrations later discovered the airline owed creditors up to $90m.

About 4,000 passengers were stranded internationally and in Australia it entered voluntary administration. A month later, Air Australia went into liquidation.

Ozjet, 2005-2006

The airline with business class-only seating launched in November 2005 with several services a day between Sydney and Melbourne. While it had grand expansion plans, the airline struggled to attract the domestic business market.

By March 2006, the airline announced it would cease all scheduled services. It later pivoted to charter flights and took over regular services between the Australian mainland and Norfolk Island, but ultimately abandoned its business-only scheduled service concept.

BackpackersXpress, 2003-2005

While the story of BackpackersXress eerily resembles Bonza’s tongue-in-cheek “bogan” branding and marketing push, this low-cost airline never actually took to the skies.

Announced in 2003, the idea for BackpackersXpress was an airlines aimed at cheap flights between Europe, Asia and Australia to ferry in backpackers between the continents. The airline had a deal to paint large VB logos on its engines, with the advertising for the airline’s official brewer to fund its low-cost model, and had signed Neighbours actor Ryan Moloney – known for playing series mainstay “Toadie” – as its public face.

The Australian-headquartered carrier had hoped to raise $80m, but lost its funding after its applications to fly services to the United Kingdom were rejected on the basis it hadn’t proven it could actually operate the flights. The company folded by April 2005.

As such, the promised pub-in-the-sky feature of its Boeing 747 fit-out never took off.

Impulse, 2000-2001

While Impulse had existed as a regional operator of smaller planes since 1992, its expansion into a major low-cost airline operating larger jet aircraft in 2000 was a serious development for the aviation industry.

Together with the new-to-market Virgin Blue – the original name of Virgin Australia – it meant competition for the duopoly that had become Qantas and Ansett. It even had a bright blue Boeing 717 with a cartoon cockatoo on its tail.

However, facing a bleak financial outlook after funding was withdrawn, Impulse agreed to wet lease – where an airline provides its planes and crew – all its services to Qantas, who later bought out and absorbed the airline into QantasLink.

Ansett, 1936-2002

A markedly different story to the swathe of failed startups, Ansett was a mainstay of Australian skies in the 20th century, operating regionally, across major domestic legs and internationally.

But competition from Qantas and other budget ventures, alongside costly maintenance and wage bills, left the airline haemorrhaging money and deals to purchase Virgin Australia or be rescued fell through.

The airline entered voluntary administration on 12 September 2001, and while its planes did fly again after efforts to keep it in the air, Ansett ultimately ceased all flights in March 2002, vacating its position in the duopoly for Virgin Australia.

Compass, 1990-1991, 1992-1993

Australia’s first budget airline after deregulation of the country’s aviation industry laws, Compass launched flights between Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, and later Adelaide.

However, the airline collapsed in December 1991, twelve months after launch, due to intense competition and discounting from rivals and its failure to make money by transporting freight in the bellies of its planes.

The airline was revived in August 1992 by different owners choosing to use the brand. However, Compass Mark II was also hit by sustained price wars, and after reporting a half-year loss of $10.95m in its first six months it collapsed in March 1993. Its chairman was later convicted of false accounting linked to the airline’s downfall.

Thousands of students with a disability, including those as young as five, are receiving repeated suspensions from Australian schools, amid calls from advocates for an overhaul of the education system.

A Guardian Australia analysis of school suspension data shows the number of students being suspended from schools is rising in most states, including among primary school aged students.

Nationally, more than 200,000 suspensions were handed out to students in 2022, with suspensions being given disproportionately to students with a disability, according to data lodged for the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability.

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In NSW, about 30,000 suspensions were given to students with disabilities in 2022, with 10,000 of these given to primary school aged students, and more than 2,500 to students in year 2 or below.

The NSW government is refusing to release data from term 4 in 2022 because of a change to its suspensions policy, however the trend over the first three terms of the school year suggest the state was on track to record close to 70,000 suspensions.

Data from Queensland paints a similar picture, with almost half of all the 75,000 suspensions granted in 2022 going to students with a disability. Indigenous students are also overrepresented, with about a quarter of suspensions given to this cohort.

Primary school students in Queensland received more than 20,000 suspensions in 2022, including 685 in prep level, which can include children as young as four. The Queensland government is proposing changes to its suspension policy to give parents appeal rights and to put in place more support for disabled and Indigenous students before suspensions are used.

Victoria does not release suspension data publicly, but its expulsion data shows that of the 176 students expelled in 2022, about a third were students with a disability categorisation of needing “substantial” or “extensive” adjustments.

South Australia has also recorded a jump in the number of suspensions it is giving students in public schools, with the figures increasing more than 10% between 2018 and 2022. It has refused a request to provide a breakdown according to disability status, but a 2020 report found the risk of suspension for students with disability or additional needs in SA was 3.1 times higher than for other students.

Similarly in Tasmania, students with disabilities are over-represented in suspension data, receiving 30% of all suspensions in 2022. The number of suspensions in the state is on track to record its highest ever number of suspensions in 2023, with almost 9000 incidents in the first three terms of the year.

The use of exclusionary discipline against students with disability was raised in the disability royal commission as one of the key concerns raised by families supporting children with disabilities.

Linda Graham, director of the Centre for Inclusive Education at Queensland University of Technology, said children with disabilities were being disproportionately expelled and suspended, and governments were not doing enough to prioritise the issue.

“Yes, teachers have a right to be safe and children have the right to be safe, but none of that negates the right of these children to an education.

“Government departments cannot just say bad luck when they are sent home for that time and their education goes out the window.”

Graham said she believed politicians had put the issue in the “too hard basket” given it was politically difficult.

For Doreen Salon and Adam Barclay, the data comes as no surprise. Their autistic daughter Sophia*, now seven, received her first suspension from an Adelaide primary school when she was just six years old.

Over a six-month period, Sophia missed 44 days of year 1 through a combination of multiple suspensions and, finally, an exclusion after incidents where she would become dysregulated and disturb the class or become aggressive towards other students.

After the first suspension, in a “reconnection meeting” in which Sophia was in a room with 12 other adults discussing her behaviour, the school broached the possibility of excluding her from school.

“Every time she was suspended or she was behaving badly, kids would say to her, ‘you’ll be in trouble again’, and one day she just said ‘it’s only me, Mama, I’m the only bad person’,” Salon told Guardian Australia.

Barclay, said he was concerned the system incentivised suspensions, with Sophia’s record allowing them access to the support she ultimately needed – a 10-week placement at a special school for students with behavioural problems.

“It was very much a combination of the system incentivising that as a response. It’s a very blunt instrument, but it’s the only one they have got in some ways.

“But the suspensions were anathema to what she needed. She needed routine and the chance to settle and every time she got suspended, it was like starting from scratch again.”

He said the family understood the need to keep other children safe, but did not think their case was well handled.

“There was a duty of care to the other students, absolutely. But how you can’t have a system where you can control or manage a six-year-old girl to get her away from other kids on campus just seems crazy,” he said.

Barclay said they didn’t dispute “the suspensions made sense for keeping the other kids safe”, but they felt there was not a lot of help for Sophia, and the school’s statements made them feel there was no other option than to suspend.

A spokesperson for the SA Department for Education said the family had been assisted by the department in a number of ways, including through the funding of a support worker, the development of a behaviour support plan for Sophia and regular meetings.

“[The department] continues to work closely with their family to support ongoing engagement in a suitable learning program this year,” the spokesperson said.

“In addition to supporting the student and family, the school takes seriously its responsibility to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all staff and all students at the school.”

The school claimed some other students were injured as a result of Sophia’s behaviour.

“She was suspended four times for violent behaviour towards others, totalling 13 days, and had three take homes, with school work provided at home on all occasions.”

The department said her placement at the special learning centre enabled Sophia to learn “many strategies which have enabled her to return to her primary school in 2024 and where she has worked successfully within the classroom”.

“The student’s parents and staff continue to work collaboratively to ensure the best learning outcomes for this student.”

*name changed for privacy reasons

The federal government has not audited AGL’s use of Centrepay in two years despite revelations that the energy giant wrongly received more than $700,000 in welfare money from its former customers through the government-run debit system.

A Guardian Australia investigation of Centrepay, a system allowing businesses access to welfare payments before they hit recipients’ bank accounts, has revealed significant failings.

AGL allegedly received more than $700,000 in Centrepay payments from about 575 vulnerable Australians who had ceased being AGL customers years before.

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Services Australia, the agency that administers Centrepay, says it is also working to retrieve overpayments made to a second energy company, Queensland’s Ergon Energy, prompting concerns that the problem may be widespread.

Guardian Australia has now learned that Services Australia has not audited either company’s use of Centrepay in the past two years, despite the overpayment problems.

A freedom of information request seeking any audit finding or report concerning AGL or Ergon since mid-2022 was unable to return documents.

Asked why no audits had been conducted, given the identified overpayment issues, a Services Australia spokesperson, Hank Jongen, said there were other ways of ensuring business compliance with the Centrepay rules.

“Compliance work is ongoing and not just limited to formal audits or reports,” Jongen said. “We have direct lines of communication with Centrepay approved businesses and prioritise working with them directly to become and remain compliant.

“We work closely with regulators and refer cases to them to investigate to ensure they meet legislative requirements, including consumer protection legislation.”

The government is reviewing the Centrepay system. Jongen said “compliance is one of the focus points of our review”.

“We’ll have more to say on this soon,” he said.

The Australian Energy Regulator has lodged federal court proceedings against AGL over its use of Centrepay. The company says it has no ability to stop deductions. It says deductions are under the control of Services Australia.

The regulator says the government was providing daily updates to AGL about its Centrepay use, which would have allowed it to identify that former customers were still being charged. It had also formally warned it to ensure that former customers weren’t continuing to wrongly pay the company via Centrepay in 2013.

AGL told Services Australia in 2013 it had reviewed its use of the system and fixed the problem. It also said that it had taken steps to tell some customers to cancel their Centrepay deductions when they left AGL.

“From time to time, albeit not on a systematic basis, a customer was informed when they closed their account with the relevant AGL entity that they should notify Services Australia and cancel their Centrepay deductions,” AGL said in documents outlining its defence to the federal court proceedings.

AGL did not profit from the $700,000 in overpayments.

They sat on the accounts of former customers as credits. But the failings did divert money away from the bank accounts of welfare recipients.

In one case, about $4,111 was allegedly diverted from a person’s welfare payment in 100 separate deductions for almost four years after they ceased being an AGL customer.

All the money has since been refunded.

AGL has previously said it acted promptly when the overpayments were discovered.

“AGL promptly reached out to Services Australia, the administrator of this payment service, to ask them to cancel the deductions and facilitate refunds to those impacted,” a spokesperson said.

“Since becoming aware of the issue AGL has engaged with Services Australia on a remediation program aimed at improving its processes.”

Foreign investment approvals will be made quicker but greater scrutiny will be placed on potential risks as Australia tries to balance economic and security interests, treasury Jim Chalmers will say on Wednesday.

Treasury will set a target to process half of foreign investment cases needing approval within 30 days after from next January, Chalmers will tell the Lowy Institute in Sydney. It will also seek more funds from abroad to support so-called build-to-rent housing ventures and the energy transition off fossil fuels.

The budget, though, will also set aside more funds to screen foreign investments in critical infrastructure, minerals and technology. Projects also involving sensitive data sets and those to be located near defence sites will also be examined more closely “to ensure that all risks are identified, understood and can be managed”, he will say, according to a copy of his speech.

In an interview with the ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday, Chalmers denied the foreign investment reforms were at odds with comments by the trade minister, Don Farrell, in November that Australia was not proposing any changes regarding Chinese investment in critical minerals.

Chalmers said even after the changes, Australia’s foreign investment regime would remain “non-discriminatory” with the same rules applying regardless of the source country. He said Australia welcomed investment that met the national interest and proposals must be screened “robustly”.

In his speech today, Chalmers will say that the nation was facing challenges “vastly different” from a decade ago. These are marked by “heightened geostrategic competition, an international system under continuous pressure, demographic change, greater risk of major shocks to supply chains, and a restructuring of global trade from the net zero transformation”.

Australia’s economy has long relied on foreign investment to bolster the economy even as domestic sources, such as the $3.7tn superannuation industry, continue to grow.

Competition for funds and technology is likely to intensify as government such as the US and Europe stump up many billions of dollars to foster decarbonisation industries such as batteries and renewable energy often to catch up with China’s advances.

According to Chalmers, the International Monetary Fund found 18,000 instances of subsidy intervention by China, the US and Europe between 2008 and 2021. It also identified a further 2,500 cases last year alone, with those three economic blocks accounting for about half.

Those trends supported the Albanese government’s so-called Future Made in Australia investments, such as in critical minerals processing and even solar photovoltaic panel production. The 14 May federal budget is likely to contain more funds for such projects.

“We can’t replicate or retrofit the approaches underway elsewhere,” Chalmers will say. “But it would be preposterously self-defeating to leave our policies unchanged in the face of all this industry policy taking shape and taking hold around us.”

Australia had to become “indispensable” to the global decarbonisation efforts. That could only happen, though, “if we align our economic and security interests more tightly, and only if we invest and engage, not just protect or retreat” he said.

The government would also spend more on the treasury’s compliance team to “better monitor and enforce” conditions imposed on deals by the foreign investment review board. “This team will also support the use of my call-in power to review investments that come to pose a national security concern in time,” he said.

The government would also release updated guidance about tax arrangements to ensure foreign companies pay their way.

Foreign investors will be allowed to buy established build-to-rent properties to foster demand and provide incentives to construct new projects.

Direct and portfolio foreign investment reached about $3.5tn in 2023.

As for the pending Future Made in Australia legislation, the government plans to set five key tests for its intervention, ranging from whether the investment is in an industry that the country can be competitive to its contribution “to an orderly path to net zero”, Chalmers said.

Other tests include the boosting of skills and support to regional Australia, and whether it improves “Australia’s national security and economic resilience”.

However, the private sector will have to play a key role in such investments and “deliver genuine value for money for government”, he said.

Direct and portfolio foreign investment reached about $3.5tn in 2023.

David Sharaz has thrown in the towel in his defamation battle against Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, while his fiancé, Brittany Higgins, has failed to convince a court her case should be delayed due to her mental health issues.

Reynolds, the former defence minister, is suing Higgins and Sharaz over a series of social media posts she says damaged her reputation.

The case returned to the Western Australian supreme court on Tuesday to hear Higgins’s application to vacate the trial listed for six weeks in late July.

During the hearing, Sharaz tweeted he would no longer fight the case, which was confirmed by his lawyer Jason MacLaurin SC.

“Despite our best efforts Linda Reynolds has not accepted attempts to resolve this matter through mediation and Brittany may now be exposed to another trial,” Sharaz wrote in a statement posted to X on Tuesday. “It will be her third.

“I cannot afford to pay legal costs to defend myself over a 6 week trial. As a result I have today informed the court that I will not fight Reynolds’ legal action any more.”

“I now appeal for Senator Reynolds to settle her litigation against Brittany, a rape victim, by agreeing to disagree and putting all of this behind them,” Sharaz’s statement continued.

“It’s time to move on. It’s time to let Brittany heal.”

Reynolds’s office referred enquiries to her lawyers who were contacted for comment.

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Outside the court, senator Reynold’s lawyer, Martin Bennett, responded to Sharaz’s tweet, saying it was insulting, aggravating and an “attention-seeking stunt to manipulate the media”.

“That’s what Mr Sharaz does best,” he said.

Bennett said it was perversely ironic that Sharaz would make the announcement in a tweet while his defamation action over tweets was being heard.

“It seemed to be staged … You’ve seen the terms of the post – it’s another attack on senator Reynolds,” he said.

He also raised doubts over Sharaz’s claim he couldn’t afford to continue the case.

“He lives in a chateau. He hasn’t got a job and he’s got a QC … and two solicitors representing him,” he said.

Bennett said the case against Sharaz would proceed even if he is not represented in court and senator Reynolds would prove her damages.

“If he’s impecunious as he asserts in France, he’ll go bankrupt,” he said.

On Tuesday, Higgins’s lawyer, Leon Zwier, asked the court for her trial to be vacated, saying her mental health had suffered due to the Bruce Lehrmann and Channel 10 decision handed down earlier in the month and the publicity that followed.

He said it was difficult for her to instruct her lawyers and there was some evidence raised during the proceedings that would need to be assessed and could impact the case.

Zwier said the ongoing mediation between the parties should be allowed to proceed without the spectre of a trial looming over it.

Justice Paul Tottle said the parties were likely to be best served by the matter being brought to a conclusion sooner than later.

The federal court justice Michael Lee ruled two weeks ago that, on balance of probabilities, the former Liberal staffer Higgins had been raped by her colleague Bruce Lehrmann in the office of the then defence industry minister, Reynolds. Lehrmann has always denied the allegation and pleased not guilty at a criminal trial on the matter, which was aborted due to juror misconduct.

But Lee also ruled that allegations of a cover-up by the former government and Reynolds were “objectively short on facts, but long on speculation and internal inconsistencies”.

Reynolds is suing Sharaz over tweets and a Facebook comment made in 2022. Among the defamatory imputations claimed against Sharaz’s tweets were that Reynolds put pressure on Higgins not to proceed with a genuine complaint to police, that she “is a hypocrite in her advocacy for women’s interests and empowerment”, and she interfered in Bruce Lehrmann’s trial and bullied Higgins.

Higgins is accused of posting defamatory material on two occasions on her Instagram and X accounts. The judge in the WA trial has encouraged the parties to settle the dispute via mediation. Efforts to do so far have proved unfruitful.

After the Lee judgment, Higgins apologised to Reynolds and her former chief of staff Fiona Brown, acknowledging that both had “also been hurt” and saying she hoped they could “resolve our differences”.

“My perceptions and feelings about what happened in the days and weeks after my rape are different from theirs,” Higgins said. “I deeply regret we have not yet found common ground.”

“It is now time to heal.”

Reynolds at the time welcomed Higgins’ statement but said: “If Ms Higgins does not accept Justice Lee’s findings on the claims of cover-up and mistreatment then, regrettably, it will have to be proved again in our trial set for July this year.”

The case will return to court for a strategic conference on May 10.

A toddler told her mom that “monsters” were in her closet. But in fact, there were more than 50,000 bees there.

A mother of three children under four years old was met with a “terrifying” surprise after she and her husband investigated why a handful of bees had flown into the attic of the couple’s North Carolina home.

After a visit by a pest control company and multiple beekeepers, a thermal camera finally revealed where the bees had gone – to a massive hive they had built inside the wall of her daughter’s room, where the girl was convinced she had heard a monster of some kind lurking.

“At first, I thought it was a body,” Ashley Massis Class told People magazine recently. “I was like, ‘What is that?’ And he says he thinks it’s a hive.”

For roughly eight months, a swarm of honeybees had been building a hive inside the wall of her daughter’s room.

The beekeeper “didn’t even have his bee gear on yet, but he took a hammer and knocked into the wall”, Massis Class recalled. “Bees came swarming out like a horror movie.

“There were streams of bees, and the wall where he hit was oozing honey. But it looked like blood because it was really, really dark, running down my daughter’s pink walls. It looked really strange.”

Beekeepers ultimately removed tens of thousands of bees over several extractions, and a honeycomb weighing more than 100lb.

The bees were relocated to a bee sanctuary. Massis Class first documented the experience on TikTok, where her story went viral and caught the attention of news outlets.

After the extractions, Massis Class reassured her daughter that “Mr Monster Hunter”, as the toddler called the beekeeper, was removing all the bees. She also reassured her daughter that, after many months, the family now believed her.

There was, in fact, a kind of monster in her wall.

In addition to the work to remove the bees, there will also be repairs to Massis Class’s home. The bees and their oozing honey caused about $20,000 worth of damage to electrical wires, which the family homeowner’s insurance will not cover.

The timing of their bee encounter was a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, Massis Class and her husband had a baby before discovering the bees.

Yet Massis Class told People that meant the couple was on leave from work.

“I’m really thankful my husband and I are on leave right now and that we can deal with this situation,” she remarked. “But at the same time, hearing the sound of humming bees on the other side of a door is kind of terrifying.”

The former England cricketer Monty Panesar and a former Ukip MEP are among hundreds of candidates who will run under the banner of George Galloway’s Workers party at the general election.

The party, which is seeking to capitalise on discontent over Labour’s handling of the Gaza conflict, also said it would support the former Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Claudia Webbe if they ran again as independents.

“Sir Keir Starmer fears us like a turkey fears Christmas,” said Galloway, in comments released by his party before it formally unveils its candidates.

“We are here – now a national force. For Britain, For Gaza. For the working class.”

Galloway is hoping to replicate his victory in the Rochdale byelection last month when he won almost 40% of the vote after a contest that was dominated by the conflict in Gaza. Labour abandoned its candidate, Azhar Ali, over inflammatory comments he made about Israel.

But while the Workers party is not widely regarded as being in a position to win any other Westminster seats – and Galloway will face a battle to hold on to his own – it could cost Labour some seats as it peels votes away from Starmer’s party.

Another Workers party candidate will be the former Labour MP for Derby North Chris Williamson, who lost a high court fight in 2019 to be reinstated in the Labour party after he was suspended in a row over antisemitism. He is to run in Derby South.

The party announced that other candidates would include Khalil Ahmed, a Labour candidate from 2019, who is to stand in Wycombe; the former Ukip MEP Amjad Bashir, who defected to the Conservatives in 2015 and will stand in Pudsey; two former British ambassadors, Peter Ford and Craig Murray, and a number of Labour councillors who have defected to Galloway’s party; and Amrit Mann, who served as the mayor of Hounslow in 2011-12 and will run for Feltham and Heston.

Another former Ukip candidate who will run for the Workers party is Harry Boota, who was suspended as a Tory candidate in 2016 after suggesting that homosexuality could be the result of being abused as a child.

Galloway’s victory in Rochdale gave the party more prominence and it has said its membership has passed 10,000. While Gaza will be one of the central planks of its campaign, it is also seeking to appeal to disillusioned Corbyn supporters.

Corbyn has yet to announce whether he will stand again in Islington North, but any backing on the ground from organised groups could be critical to him keeping his seat.

Other places where Workers party backing could make a difference include Bethnal Green and Stepney, where Labour faces a challenge from the independent candidate Mohammed Akunjee, a lawyer who has represented Shamima Begum, one of three girls who left the UK to join Islamic State and was later deprived of her UK citizenship.