Australian news and politics live: Jacinta Allan escorted from news conference after neo-nazi gatecrashes

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has issued a defiant statement after a neo-nazi confronted her at a media event on Tuesday morning.

Ms Allan said she was “unharmed and undeterred” following Thomas Sewell’s actions.

“It comes as no surprise that nazis oppose me and my Government,” her statement said.

“I wear that with a badge of honour.”

The Premier went on to push attention away from her, instead, focusing on “nazis targets”, which she says includes “multicultural people, LGBTIQA+ people, First Peoples and Jews”.

Anthony Albanese has told his colleagues meeting in Canberra that the incident this morning, where a neo-nazi confronted Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, was “quite horrific”.

He said he’d been in talks with the premier about the extremists and the rallies over the weekend.

Mr Albanese told caucus he had been shocked to see neo-nazis at the weekend rallies “openly in uniform”.

But he said in response to a question about neo-nazi groups actively recruiting new members at the rallies, that politicians had to “make sure we give people space to move away and not push them further down that rabbit hole”.

The self-proclaimed neo-Nazi who gatecrashed the Victorian Premier’s press conference has been confronted by a reporter outside a courthouse and questioned about the incident.

Thomas Sewell said he was walking through a park when he overheard a journalist mention his name during a question to Jacinta Allan about the weekend’s anti-immigration protests.

“I was just walking through the park as they mentioned my name and I just said, ‘Jacinta, why don’t you allow Australians to protest?’”

The 31-year-old, who is currently facing criminal charges over allegations of intimidating a police officer, told Sky News that the Government is trying to silence anti-immigration protesters.

“They are happy for everyone else to protest but if you want to stop immigration, you’re going to cost these corrupt politicians and bankers a lot of money, and that’s why they hate us,” he claimed.

A press conference held by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has been abandoned after it was interrupted by a self-proclaimed neo-nazi.

Thomas Sewell approached the media event as Ms Allan was questioned about his involvement in the weekend’s anti-immigration protests.

“Jacinta Allan, why don’t you think Australians should have the right to protest? Why do you want to ban us from protesting?” Mr Sewell can be heard yelling in a video shared on social media.

“Shouldn’t we have the right to speak in our own country?” he questioned.

He then repeatedly called the Premier a “coward” as she was escorted from the event.

Victoria Police confirmed the Premier’s security team intervened to “ensure the safety of everyone present”.

Advocate for sexual assault survivors and former Australian of the Year Grace Tame has appeared at a roundtable in Canberra this morning as leaders push to fast track protections against AI-enabled child sexual exploitation.

It comes after Communications Minister Anika Wells said in a statement that AI apps used to create nude images and undetectable online stalking tools will be restricted under the government’s latest cyber crackdown.

Ms Tame said while a multi-sector approach was needed, she wanted greater focus on prevention.

“We know that child sexual abuse is an awful crime. It’s becoming more and more prolific,” Ms Tame said.

“The nature of it is worsening because of AI tools that are enabling offenders to make their methods of abuse more sophisticated, as well as make their methods of evading justice more sophisticated. I want to put a focus on prevention.”

Health Minister Mark Butler has addressed concerns about the 200,000 Australians currently waiting for home care packages.

The government must pass legislation this week to align existing laws with aged care reforms before the packages can be rolled out this year.

However, the Coalition, Greens, and independent David Pocock are threatening to complicate the Senate process, pushing for an earlier rollout of home support packages.

“Well, we want to get those waiting lists down as much as we possibly can,” Mr Butler told ABC Radio National on Tuesday morning.

“This is a new system. This is not just about the release of new packages,” he added.

Mr Trump has hinted at possible tariffs reaching 200 per cent on pharmaceuticals, which constitute one of Australia’s largest export sectors to the US.

Health Minister Mark Butler says he is yet to receive any clear information on the issue.

“The honest answer to that is no,” Mr Butler told ABC Radio National.

“What we do know is that the Trump administration, perhaps unsurprisingly, is focused on trying to get … their medicine prices down. What the impact for the rest of the world would be, is something we’re still, as every other country is trying to do, trying to understand a little bit better.”

Starting early next year, prices for medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme will be capped at $25, following the passage of government legislation through federal parliament yesterday evening.

Health Minister Mark Butler highlighted concerns about people being forced to choose which prescriptions to fill due to cost.

“We’re hearing far too many stories of people (at) pharmacies asking for advice — if they had a number of different scripts in their hand, which did they have to really fill and which could they go without because they couldn’t afford to fill all of them? That’s why we’re so focused on delivering cheaper medicines,” he told Sunrise.

Mr Butler also addressed medication supply challenges, saying “most of our medicines are imported for from overseas. We’re a bit subject to what is happening in global markets and since COVID some of those markets have been a bit clogged.”

One of Afghanistan’s worst earthquakes has killed more than 800 people and injured at least 2800, authorities say, as rescuers struggle to reach remote areas due to rough mountainous terrain and inclement weather.

The disaster will further stretch the resources of the war-torn nation’s Taliban administration, already grappling with crises ranging from a sharp drop in foreign aid to deportations of hundreds of thousands of Afghans by neighbouring countries.

Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the health ministry in Kabul, called for international aid to tackle the devastation wrought by the quake of magnitude 6 that struck around midnight local time, at a depth of 10 km.

“We need it because here lots of people lost their lives and houses,” he told Reuters later on Monday.

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Russia conducted an electronic warfare attack against EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as she visited states on the frontline of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The EU confirmed the attack took place while the President’s plane was landing at a tiny military-civilian-use airport in Bulgaria on Sunday just hours after Von der Leyen called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “predator” who had started four wars in Europe, including in Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea and Ukraine and would not change.

While various media have reported that the President’s aircraft was jammed, European sources told The Nightly that the plane itself was not interfered with, but that the attackers jammed the entire GPS system of the airport.

This meant that the pilot of the President’s plane had to land using paper maps as they could not access the airport’s signals.

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