Hit by a sonic boom, locals say the RAAF went quiet: Guardian 10 News First investigation
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Australia news live: federal court to hear Bruce Lehrmann appeal; Labor to tweak pension and welfare calculations
Update: Date: 2025-08-19T20:37:32.000Z Title: Federal court to hear Bruce Lehrmann appeal Content: Bruce Lehrmann's appeal against the federal court ruling that he was not defamed by Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson is due to be heard today. In April last year, Justice Michael Lee found that on the balance of probabilities Lehrmann raped former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in Canberra in 2019, and that Lehrmann was therefore not defamed when Wilkinson interviewed Higgins about the case on The Project. Lehrmann is appealing on grounds including that the sexual assault described by Lee was 'substantially inconsistent' with the violent rape portrayed on The Project, according to submissions to the appeal filed with the court in March. Lehrmann's legal team say he was denied procedural fairness because the case which was found to be true was not put to him in cross-examination. The appeal against that finding will be heard over three days in Sydney before the full court of justices – Michael Wigney, Craig Colvin, and Wendy Abraham. The hearing starts at 10.15am and we will be blogging updates here. Read more about the appeal here: Update: Date: 2025-08-19T20:34:35.000Z Title: Welcome Content: Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I'm Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories and then Nick Visser will take the wheel. The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has accused Anthony Albanese of 'mismanaging' Australia's relationship with Israel after Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out overnight, calling him a 'weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia's Jews'. More in a moment. Labor will end the Morrison-era freeze on deeming rates in a move that will see people claiming Centrelink payments pay more in tax on their financial assets. Social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, said incremental rises would take place from next month. More shortly. A man was shot dead in western Sydney last night in the latest shooting to hit the city. Witnesses told police the man was targeted while in a car in Winston Hills. It follows an attack in Forest Lodge on Sunday in which one man was killed and another injured. More details coming up. And today sees the start of Bruce Lehrmann's appeal against last year's loss in his defamation case against Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson. We'll bring you lots more on that during the day, once it gets going.
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
WA lawyer referred to regulator after preparing documents with AI-generated citations for nonexistent cases
A lawyer has been referred to Western Australia's legal regulator after using artificial intelligence in preparing court documents for an immigration case. The documents contained AI-generated case citations for cases that did not exist. It is one of more than 20 cases so far in Australia in which AI use has resulted in fake citations or other errors in court submissions, with warnings from judges across the country to be wary of using the technology in the legal profession. In a federal court judgment published this week, the anonymised lawyer was referred to the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia for consideration and ordered to pay the federal government's costs of $8,371.30 after submissions to an immigration case were found by the representative for the immigration minister to include four case citations that did not exist. Justice Arran Gerrard said the incident 'demonstrates the inherent dangers associated with practitioners solely relying on the use of artificial intelligence in the preparation of court documents and the way in which that interacts with a practitioner's duty to the court'. The lawyer told the court in an affidavit that he had relied on Anthropic's Claude AI 'as a research tool to identify potentially relevant authorities and to improve my legal arguments and position', and then used Microsoft Copilot to validate the submissions. The lawyer said he had 'developed an overconfidence in relying on AI tools and failed to adequately verify the generated results'. Sign up: AU Breaking News email 'I had an incorrect assumption that content generated by AI tools would be inherently reliable, which led me to neglect independently verifying all citations through established legal databases,' the lawyer said in the affidavit. The lawyer unreservedly apologised to the court and the minister's solicitors for the errors. Gerrard said the court 'does not adopt a luddite approach' to the use of generative AI, and understood why the complexity of migration law might make using an AI tool attractive. But he warned there was now a 'concerning number' of cases where AI had led to citation of fictitious cases. Gerrard said it risked 'a good case to be undermined by rank incompetence' and the prevalence of such cases 'significantly wastes the time and resources of opposing parties and the court'. He said it also risked damage to the legal profession. Gerrard said the lawyer did 'not fully comprehend what was required of him' and it was not sufficient to merely check that the cases cited were not fake, but to review those cases thoroughly. 'Legal principles are not simply slogans which can be affixed to submissions without context or analysis.' There have been at least 20 cases of AI hallucinations reported in Australian courts since generative AI tools exploded in popularity in 2023. Last week, a Victorian supreme court judge criticised lawyers acting for a boy accused of murder for filing misleading information with the courts after failing to check documents created using AI. The documents included references to nonexistent case citations and inaccurate quotes from a parliamentary speech. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion There have also been similar cases involving lawyers in New South Wales and Victoria in the past year, who were referred to their state's regulatory bodies. However, the spate of cases is not just limited to qualified lawyers. In a NSW supreme court decision this month, a self-represented litigant in a trusts case admitted to the chief justice, Andrew Bell, to have used AI to prepare her speech for the appeal hearing. Bell said in his judgment that he was not criticising the person, who he said was doing her best to represent herself. But he said problems with using AI in preparing submissions were exacerbated when the technology was used by unrepresented litigants 'who are not subject to the professional and ethical responsibilities of legal practitioners'. He said the use of generative AI tools 'may introduce added costs and complexity' to proceedings and 'add to the burden of other parties and the court in responding to it'. 'Notwithstanding the fact that generative AI may contribute to improved access to justice, which is itself an obviously laudable goal, the present case illustrates the need for judicial vigilance in its use, especially but not only, by unrepresented litigants.' The Law Council of Australia's president, Juliana Warner, said sophisticated AI tools offered unique opportunities to support the legal profession in administrative tasks, but reliance on AI tools did not diminish the professional judgment a legal practitioner was expected to bring to a client's matter. 'Where these tools are utilised by lawyers, this must be done with extreme care,' she said. 'Lawyers must always keep front of mind their professional and ethical obligations to the court and to their clients.' Warner said courts were regarding cases where AI had generated fake citations as a 'serious concern', but added that given the widespread use of generative AI, a broadly framed prohibition on its use in legal proceedings would be 'neither practical nor proportionate, and risks hindering innovation and access to justice'.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Aussie accused of trying to smuggle 4kg of meth out of Thailand in household item
An Australian man has been arrested after trying to board a flight to Perth while allegedly carrying meth concealed in soap bars. The 68-year-old was apprehended before he reached the departure gate at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, on Sunday. He was arrested after 4.26kg of meth was allegedly found hidden inside his baggage. Customs Department spokesman Panthong Loykulnan said the Australian national was arrested by narcotics and Airport Interdiction Task Force. Officers were acting on a tip-off, reported the Bangkok Post. Mr Loykulnan said he had been flagged through intelligence as a high-risk traveller. Authorities allege the Australian was attempting the smuggle the drug back to his home country. The illicit drug was allegedly found concealed in several bars of soap packed in boxes in a bag, while more was also hidden in a concealed suitcase compartment. Mr Loykulnan said authorities had made it a priority to crack down on the drug smuggling trade. Customs workers at Suvarnabhumi Airport have made almost 200 drug seizures involving heroin, cocaine and meth, since October. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it is providing consular assistance to an Australian man detained in Thailand.
