Australia news live: soldier who ran into enemy fire after ambush in Vietnam in 1968 awarded posthumous Victoria Cross

Adeshola Ore

Vestas ‘working closely with emergency services’ after worker died at its Victorian windfarm

Danish energy company Vestas has released a statement after a man died while working at its regional Victorian windfarm this morning.

Victoria police say the man was crushed by a blade shortly after 8am at Golden Plains windfarm in Rokewood, about 133km west of Melbourne and 69km north-west of Geelong.

In a statement, a Vestas spokesperson says a “workplace accident” occurred:

The site has been closed and we are working closely with emergency services and the authorities.

The spokesperson says Danny Nielsen, senior vice president and country head for Vestas Australia and New Zealand, will provide an update to the media outside the site at 3pm.

Josh Taylor

Myki slowly recovering after readers unable to be used following 3G shutdown

Victoria’s ageing public transport ticketing system, Myki, is slowly recovering after readers were unable to be used when Telstra shuttered its 3G network last week.

The readers use mobile networks to ensure users can touch on.

The issue affected trams and buses across the Victorian public transport network last week, despite – as Guardian Australia revealed – the Victorian government investing $3.3m into upgrading the outdated Myki ticketing system in preparation for the 3G network being shut down.

A software update has been issued, and all trams should now have functioning Myki readers, the department said, as 91% of vehicles with issues have been fixed. The remaining buses affected are expected to be fixed in the coming days.

A department of transport and planning spokesperson said:

Crews are making progress rectifying the issue – with the majority of buses and all trams back online.

The issue comes ahead of a replacement Myki system expected to be rolled out across Victoria next year.

David Littleproud rejects Nats backbench push to dump net zero

Paul Karp

The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has rejected a push from some on his backbench including Keith Pitt and Matt Canavan to dump Australia’s commitment to net zero due to the election of Donald Trump.

Littleproud was asked if Peter Dutton – who also supports keeping the commitment – should revisit it. He told Sky News:

No. And while President Trump’s made some soundings about that, you have got to understand your place in the world. They are 330m people, we’re 27m people, we’re a trading nation. The only people that will hurt out of that will be our farmers and our mining sector. Because what will happen is while we think we can go and lead the world on it, what will happen is we will get a tariff whacked on our commodity.

So, we might want to beat our chest and sound big about it, but you have got to understand where the world is. Now the world has all signed up to this, but we don’t need to experience what the country is at the moment, which is trying to achieve it all by 2030. We will do it in a uniquely Australian way, and we’ll take our time to do it and do it properly, so that there isn’t an impact on the economy.

And that is why, as leader of the Nationals, I am the first leader to be able to get the Coalition to agree to nuclear energy being part of that grid, to have that complement and supplement with gas and coal, with [carbon capture and storage] and having some renewables. We will have a balance, we’ll do it properly, we’ll do it sensibly. But I think we should just take a deep breath on trying to be Trump-esque here in Australia, because there are unintended consequences, and they are farmers and miners.

You’ll note that Littleproud’s comments are largely directed at his internal detractors, arguing that he’s done more than predecessors (or potential successors) on nuclear power.

Victoria Cross for Vietnam war veteran who ran into enemy fire to help comrades

Kate Lyons

The governor general and prime minister have announced the posthumous awarding of the Victoria Cross, Australia’s highest military honour, to Private Richard Norden, a veteran of the Vietnam war.

Norden, then aged 19, ran into enemy fire after his platoon was ambushed during the Battle of Fire Support Base Coral in 1968, one of a series of actions fought between Australia and North Vietnamese forces near Saigon, to recover a wounded comrade and then retrieve the body of another.

Governor general Sam Mostyn said at a Remembrance Day event in Canberra, announcing the honour:

The Victoria Cross for Australia is Australia’s highest military honour, the awarding of it speaks to Private Norden’s courage and selflessness in the heat of battle, his ongoing legacy and the bravery of generations of our service personnel. This is an historic occasion for Australia and the Australian Defence Force, and a very significant day for Private Norden’s loved ones.

There has been a strong campaign to see Norden awarded the Victoria Cross, uniting many within the Australian military community.

Norden, who died in 1972 from injuries sustained in a police motorcycle accident, while serving in the Australian Capital Territory police, was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) before his death, but many felt this was inadequate.

Anthony Albanese acknowledged the campaign for Norden to receive the Victoria Cross in his Remembrance Day address:

In honouring Richard Norton and all he fought for, Australia also honours all those who fought for him: his fellow veterans, those who served alongside him, and those who took up his cause when they learned of his story. Everyone who kept alive the memory of his valour, everyone who has championed and advocated due recognition of Richard Norden, and everyone who has kept faith with Australia’s promise to remember all those who have served and their loved ones.

A man has died while working at a windfarm in Victoria, police have confirmed.

In a statement, police said the man was working at Rokewood windfarm when he was crushed beneath a fan blade shortly after 8am this morning.

First responders attempted to revive him but he was declared dead at the scene.

WorkSafe will investigate the incident, police said.

Josh Taylor

Misinformation makes emergency responses difficult, Senate inquiry hears

The National Emergency Management Agency has warned misinformation and disinformation online makes emergency responses more difficult.

The deputy coordinator general, Joel Buffone, told a Senate inquiry that the example of recent misinformation and disinformation spread about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) in the US in response to floods there “put staff at risk” and forced Fema staff to withdraw.

He also pointed to the recent Crowdstrike outage, which took down millions of Windows computers worldwide and threw many services into chaos:

Straight away there was effectively using platforms to effectively run scams, and there was a whole lot of misinformation.

He said misinformation about the 2019 bushfires – where arsonists with a political motive were falsely blamed for causing fires – almost immediately had an impact on social cohesion.

Ben Doherty

Anti-slavery advocates welcome appointment of national commissioner

Anti-slavery advocates have welcomed the appointment of former senator Chris Evans as Australia’s first anti-slavery commissioner. Evans’s appointment to a five-year term was announced by the attorney general.

Alison Rahill, program manager of the Australian Catholic Anti-slavery Network, said Evans could draw on his “formidable experience in government and the private sector to make a difference to the estimated 41,000 people experiencing modern slavery right here in Australia and 50 million people worldwide”.

This must include examining economic, migration, corporate governance, social and trade policies settings that currently undermine Australia’s anti-slavery ambitions.

As we flagged earlier, the NSW anti-slavery commissioner Dr James Cockayne said Evans’s appointment was “encouraging on several levels”. Cockayne said the inaugural national anti-slavery commissioner had numerous challenges ahead:

With regulators overseas increasingly ratcheting up expectations of Australian businesses’ modern slavery and human rights due diligence, including in thorny cases like cotton and tomatoes coming from Xinjiang, it is crucial that government sets clear expectations for Australian business on what is expected of them to manage these risks. Otherwise, Australian business will find it increasingly hard to access overseas markets and capital, especially from Europe.