NSW police say A-League ‘players betrayed the trust of their supporters’ over alleged betting corruption
“We will allege that [in] these instances … these players betrayed the trust of their supporters,” NSW police continue.
While $10,000 may seem a lot of money to a young sportsperson, we will advise that is incredibly insignificant when you consider the damage [of] being charged with this offence and convicted result – the damage to the young person’s reputation, damage to their club and their reputation, their livelihood and their future livelihood … More importantly, it affects the confidence and trust their supporters have in these young sportspeople that they will always play to the best of their ability.
We will allege that these instances in November and December 2023 that these players betrayed the trust of their supporters.
Key events
Police allege senior members involved in criminal football group paid junior A-League players ‘up to $10,000’
More on the three A-League soccer players arrested over alleged betting corruption, from the NSW police presser:
Police will allege that the senior member … paid the junior players … up to $10,000 for intentionally giving away those yellow cards and receiving penalties during those games.
Police will allege that that senior figure within that [alleged] criminal group was acting under the instruction and direction of an organised crime figure currently offshore in South America.
All sports fans understand even one penalty can change the way the game flows and also the way the momentum of that game can be carried out.
We will allege that the giving out of four yellow cards and the subsequent penalties that arose out of those yellow cards could in fact change the way that result of that game went.
NSW police allege the A-League players ‘intentionally gave out yellow cards’ for ‘purpose of corrupt payment’
NSW police are speaking to press about the three A-League soccer players arrested over alleged betting corruption:
Police … arrested three senior players from an A-League team in the south-west of Sydney. Police have charged those three players with participating in a criminal group, they also charged for engaging in conduct that corrupt the betting outcome from a game that occurred in December 2023.
We will allege that those players intentionally gave out yellow cards in the receipts and for the purpose of a corrupt payment.
Police have also charged … [one man] with a further charge of engaging in conduct that corrupt a betting game in another game in 2023.
There is currently one further player that police wish to interview and is currently out of the state.
Graham Readfearn
Victorian fire management amounting to de facto native logging, conservationists warn
The Victorian government has been accused by conservationists and a leading ecologist of allowing a de facto native logging industry to emerge under the guise of fire management just months after closing down the industry.
Environmental lawyers said the state government agency, Forest Fire Management Victoria, was acting “with impunity”, and conservationists and the Victorian greens called on state and federal ministers to step in.
Logging in Victoria’s native forests ended at the beginning of this year but Prof David Lindenmayer, a forest ecologist at Australian National University, said:
There’s a de facto logging industry now emerging under the guise of fire suppression.
To me, when you cut down big trees and put them on a truck and take them to a sawmill … that is logging.
Read the full story here:
Firefighter union loses case against Victoria’s attorney general
The firefighter’s union has lost its battle against Victoria’s attorney general after a judge found she did not use unlawful coercion.
The United Firefighters Union brought federal court action in February, claiming attorney general Jaclyn Symes had acted in a way that was either unlawful, illegitimate or unconscionable.
The dispute centred on letters Symes sent to Fire Rescue Victoria in August and September 2022, instructing the body not to support a new fire registration board.
The board, set up by the union, would have had complete control over who FRV could employ as an operational member.
Symes, who is also the emergency services minister, told the fire service the new board had insufficient transparency and oversight measures in place.
She said FRV required her consent to sign the service agreement with the registration board and she would not provide it, the federal court was told in February.
The union argued FRV did not need the minister’s consent and her direction was either unlawful, illegitimate or unconscionable.
But Justice John Snaden disagreed, finding the union could not prove that Ms Symes acted in such a way.
He said in a written judgment on Friday:
The minister’s conduct was not conduct that was engaged in … with intent to coerce FRV.
The court dismissed the union’s application for declaratory relief and made no order for costs.
– Australian Associated Press
Adeshola Ore
Victorian opposition leader reaches out-of-court defamation settlements with gender-critical activists
Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, has reached out-of-court settlements with gender-critical activists Kellie-Jay Keen and Angela Jones after they sued him for defamation.
Keen and Jones sued Pesutto after comments he made about them in the wake of the Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis last year.
In a statement online, Pesutto apologised to Keen, a British-based activist, and Melbourne woman Jones.
It has never been my intention to convey that I believed Ms Keen and Ms Jones to be Neo-Nazis, or that they were members of Neo-Nazi groups. As far as my comments may have been misunderstood as conveying that I believed this to be the case, I apologise for any hurt, distress or harm that has occurred.
In a statement, Keen says is “delighted” Pesutto has offered an apology.
Open debate is a sign of a truly vibrant and stable democracy and Pesutto’s apology is a step in the right direction.
The details of the settlement have not been made public. Pesutto is also facing legal action from expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming, which is expected to be heard in the federal court in September.
‘Policy settings under … Coalition are not right’, Albanese says on Dutton’s budget-reply
Prime minister Anthony Albanese is speaking on opposition leader Peter Dutton’s budget-reply, addressing press in North Melbourne:
Policy settings under Peter Dutton and the Coalition are not right, that is the point. They left a system where people could come in, not really attend any courses, not get any skills, reapply through appeals and mechanisms to stay here for a long period of time, and the system did not have integrity in it.
What we are doing is talking to universities through the Universities Accord, and what we have done is to make sure if universities want additional international students to participate on the campuses, and they can bring economic benefits, they need to provide additional student accommodation at the same time.
More on A-League soccer players arrested over alleged betting corruption, per a NSW Police statement:
At about 6am today, strike force detectives executed a search warrant in South Coogee, where they arrested a 33-year-old man.
He was taken to Mascot police station, where he is expected to be charged with two counts of “engage in conduct that corrupts a betting outcome of an event”, and two counts of “facilitate in conduct that corrupts a betting outcome of an event”.
Simultaneously, strike force detectives executed three other search warrants in Parramatta, West Hoxton, and Emu Plains.
At the Parramatta address, detectives arrested a 27-year-old man. He was taken to Parramatta police station, where he is expected to be charged with “engage in conduct that corrupts a betting outcome of an event”.
In West Hoxton, detectives arrested a 32-year-old man. He was taken to Campbelltown police station, where he is expected to be charged with the same.
Inquiries will continue.
Three A-League soccer players arrested over alleged betting corruption
Three A-League players have been arrested this morning, after an investigation by the organised crime squad into alleged betting corruption under Strike Force Beaconview, according to a New South Wales police statement.
The strike force was established in December 2023 assisted by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission to investigate alleged yellow card manipulation by players attached to a south western Sydney football club.
Police allege a senior player was allegedly taking instructions from a man, believed to be offshore in South America, to organise for yellow cards to occur during certain games in exchange for profit.
The number of yellow cards were allegedly manipulated during games played on Friday 24 November 2023 and Saturday 9 December 2023.
Failed attempts were then allegedly made to control the number of yellow cards during games on Saturday 20 April 2024 and Saturday 4 May 2024.
No charges have been laid.
Karen Middleton
Future Made in Australia’s $45m advertising campaign to run before election
The Albanese government has earmarked $45m in this week’s budget for an advertising campaign to promote its plan to fund and underwrite clean-energy technology and innovation under the banner Future Made in Australia.
Jim Chalmers has confirmed and defended spending on the ad campaign, which is funded across the next two financial years but expected to run before the next election.
“We make a sensible provision when it’s a big policy change,” the treasurer told Guardian Australia in an interview for the Australian Politics podcast.
Read the full story here:
Post-mining world set for NSW government microscope
Mining sites and how they can be used after they are shut down are going under a New South Wales parliament microscope, AAP reports.
Advanced manufacturing, clean energy initiatives and commercial and tourism use are some ideas floated for the post-mining world.
A state government inquiry will look at NSW’s more than 50 large active mine sites, of which 37 are coal mines.
It follows March’s announcement that Lake Macquarie’s Rhondda Colliery mine site will be turned into a $95m motorsport complex, which the government says has created 450 construction jobs.
NSW natural resources minister Courtney Houssos said the Black Rock Motor Resort was an example of how mining land can be turned into new opportunities.
She said:
Mining is a temporary use of land … we need to make sure NSW has the right policy mix to keep employment and economic opportunities even after mines close.
This is an important inquiry … we need to make sure these large mine sites can continue to be put to economically productive and efficient use long into the future.
Other coal mines, including in Muswellbrook and Stratford, are being targeted for pumped hydro and other clean energy usage.
The inquiry will look at how land use after mines are shut down is split between communities and operators.
It will also examine how workers will need to reskill and be retrained.
Labor MP Emily Suvaal, who lives in Cessnock, said ensuring “secure, well-paid, local jobs” was a priority. She said in a statement:
Exploring how we can improve the use of post-mining land is crucial for the continued success of our rural and regional communities, who have contributed so much to our state’s success.
Peak bodies release statement opposing yesterday’s ‘river to the sea’ Senate motion
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, the Australian National Imams Council and Jewish Council of Australia, along with a host of Muslim peak bodies, have issued a statement opposing yesterday’s Senate motion which stated the phrase “from river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is “frequently used to intimidate Jewish Australians via acts of antisemitism”.
The joint statement says:
It is entirely misconceived and based on an incorrect understanding of the phrase.
Historically, this phrase has been associated with the Palestinian cause for self-determination and statehood. The phrase is rooted in an aspiration for freedom for all people, irrespective of their background, faith or nationality. It is a vision that encompasses the right of all individuals to live in peace and dignity within the lands stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
It should not be controversial that Palestinians reject their oppression or aspire to their own liberation and life in their homeland, free from Israel’s racist systems and laws of control.
Australia to impose sanctions against bodies associated with North Korean arms exports to Russia
Entities linked to North Korea’s supply of weapons to Russia for its war with Ukraine have been sanctioned by Australia.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, revealed Australia, in coordination with international partners, would be imposing financial sanctions on six bodies associated with North Korea’s arms exports to Russia.
The continued transfer of weapons is a “flagrant violation” of UN security council’s resolutions, and Wong said Australia will continue working with allies to address the security threat posed by North Korea.
She said in a statement:
Australia condemns, in the strongest possible terms, North Korea’s illegal export and Russia’s procurement and use of North Korean ballistic missiles, in support of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine
The use of North Korean ballistic missiles by Russia increases the suffering of the Ukrainian people, supports Russia’s illegal and immoral war of aggression and undermines the global non-proliferation regime.”
The developing relationship between two authoritarian nations has “grave implications” for Europe, the Korean peninsula and the Indo-Pacific region, Wong said.
She urged North Korea and other nations to comply with the UN resolutions and make moves towards permanent peace. She said:
Australia remains steadfast in supporting Ukraine to defend itself.
Today’s announcement underscores that those who provide material support to Russia’s illegal and immoral war will face consequences.
– Australian Associated Press