Australia crush England by seven wickets at Lord's with Beth Mooney named player of the final for rapid fifty in record chase

Australia are back on top of the world, with Sophie Molineux lifting the T20 World Cup trophy just six months into her tenure as captain after her team stormed to a seven-wicket win over England at Lord's.

The Aussies had scarcely been challenged on their unbeaten run to the final and they saved the best for last, restricting England's star-studded batting line-up to 4-150 and chasing it with 17 balls to spare.

After surrendering both the 20- and 50-over titles over the past two years, Australia reasserted themselves as the world's best team, securing their 14th white-ball title.

Australia win by 7 wickets

England 4-150 (20.0)

Australia 3-153 (17.1)

The Socceroos have been knocked out of the World Cup after a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat against Egypt in their round of 32 clash.

Going behind early following an Emam Ashour header, the Socceroos rallied to draw level thanks to an Egyptian own goal early in the second half.

Egypt pressed hard late in normal time, with goalkeeper Patrick Beach making a stunning save to keep things level.

When opinion polls shift, previous assumptions can too.

Like whether One Nation's rise is unstoppable. Or whether frustrated voters flocking to the party care about Pauline Hanson's policy positions.

Newspoll and Redbridge surveys this week suggest there is a ceiling for One Nation. A limit, perhaps, to the number of Australians who share Hanson's concerns about paid parental leave, "lazy workers" and the need for a "monoculture".

The slight recovery in Labor's polling also changes assumptions about what's in store for the remainder of this parliamentary term

The Liberals, it seems, can't resist returning to damaging infighting even in the one part of the country where things have been going quite encouragingly for them.

Once again the Victorian Liberals are caught up in another chapter of that extraordinary saga, "Doings of Deeming".

The row over the controversial upper house member's 2023 appearance at an anti-trans rally she partly organised, and which neo-Nazis attended, eventually cost then-leader John Pesutto his position.

He lost a defamation action that Victorian Liberal Party MP Moira Deeming brought, and it embroiled the Liberals in an expensive ongoing battle over a loan provided to keep him from bankruptcy, which would have seen him out of parliament.

More recently, Deeming lost her preselection in March, only to be restored after the replacement candidate ran into trouble.

Now the most bizarre episode of Deeming Doings is in full swing, distracting attention from the opposition's attack on a government that is on the ropes on multiple issues ahead of the November state election.

Liberals in a pickle

In short:

Australia thumped the West Indies by eight wickets to make it into its eighth Women's T20 World Cup final.

West Indian star Deandra Dottin collapsed during the national anthems and was carried off the field.

What's next?

Australia will play either South Africa or England in the World Cup final on Monday at 12.30am.

Richard Willingham and Rachel Eddie

The Victorian Liberal Party is expected to dump controversial MP Moira Deeming as its candidate for the November election for refusing to apologise to her partyroom colleague Matthew Guy, despite conceding he did not put her in a headlock.

Members of the party's state executive were expecting Opposition Leader Jess Wilson to make the move and ask to have her preselection revoked.

Mrs Deeming had accepted a request to meet with Ms Wilson, but leader of opposition business James Newbury on Tuesday said that was now off the table given her refusal to apologise to Mr Guy.

"A request was made for her to make an unqualified apology. She has refused to do that. Further action, therefore, needs to occur, and the party is working on that now," Mr Newbury said.

There have been plenty of cricketers who have embodied the concept of "main character energy", but few have done so more than Ben Stokes.

Main character energy, for those who don't know, describes someone who views their life as a movie, treating themselves as the sole protagonist while relegating everyone else to supporting roles.

"You often present to the world as if a camera is on you at all times," Dr Susan Albers of the Cleveland Clinic wrote.

"Having that perspective — that you are the centre of the story — naturally changes the way you present yourself to others and how you act in a public setting."

Nothing sums up Stokes's England career more, nor his stunning retirement.

Geoff Chambers

Anthony Albanese has secured a bounce back in voter support after scrapping contentious measures from Labor’s unpopular budget that broke key election promises, as One Nation and the Coalition copped electoral hits following clashes over monoculture and multiculturalism.

An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian ­between Monday and Thursday last week showed core support for Labor increased from 30 per cent to 33 per cent, ahead of One ­Nation, which fell from 31 to 29 per cent, the Coalition, which ­recorded a new historic low of 17 per cent, the Greens (13 per cent) and others (8 per cent).

After carving out some businesses and dumping key policies revealed weeks before in Jim Chalmers’ May 12 budget, the Prime Minister’s record low net approval rating of minus 24 ­improved to minus 17, with 40 per cent of voters satisfied with his performance compared with 57 per cent who were dissatisfied.

Satisfaction with Angus Taylor crashed to his lowest level since he replaced Sussan Ley in February, with 31 per cent of Australians ­satisfied with the Opposition Leader’s performance, compared with 51 per cent dissatisfied and 18 per cent uncommitted.

Tony Davis

Pauline Hanson is “a pelican” if she thinks Australia could or should be a monoculture, says Paul Hogan, the man the One Nation leader cites as an Australian ideal.

The actor and comedian was responding to Hanson’s National Press Club address in mid-June in which she said, “Australians must live under the one cultural umbrella”, and her doubling down on the speech last week.

Paul Hogan and Pauline Hanson. AP / Alex Ellinghausen

“Bring back Paul Hogan and Norman Gunston,” Hanson told the Senate on Wednesday. “These are the essential features of Australian monoculture, and there’s nothing remotely exclusionary about them.”

“She’s living in the past, obviously,” Hogan told the The Australian Financial Review. He said he was merely one type of Australian, and it was ridiculous to suggest others needed to look or sound like him.

“I’ve always had a very simple rule: What makes a good Australian is wanting to be one.”

“How can it be a monoculture? We’re all migrants, except the Aboriginals, who as far as we know have been [in Australia] for 60,000 years.”

“I’m only here for my son. When he’s settled, I can’t wait to get back. I don’t have a time scale, but I want to die in Australia – in a multicultural Australia!”

Chip Le Grand

The Victorian Liberal Party has begun the process of severing ties with its most controversial MP, with Opposition Leader Jess Wilson on Friday sending a clear message to Moira Deeming that she has lost the support of the party.

Wilson publicly backed Matthew Guy’s demand for a public apology from Deeming after a police investigation found no substance to Deeming’s allegations he had assaulted her. She said she would meet Deeming once she returned home from an overseas conference.

“Matthew is someone who has given his life to service,” Wilson said. “He has given his life to the Liberal Party, and I support his request for an apology.

“I have reached out to Moira, and I have requested when she returns to Melbourne that we speak and have a conversation.”

Wilson’s first substantive comments about the latest imbroglio surrounding Deeming, while carefully framed, reflect a broad consensus across both moderate and conservative groupings within the Liberal Party that Deeming must go.

Several senior Liberal figures, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal party matters, said Deeming’s unsubstantiated accusations against Guy had exhausted the patience of even her most loyal supporters and she was now completely isolated from the party.

Deeming was preselected two months ago to recontest her upper house seat at the November state election.

“I can’t find a single supporter of Moira who is left in the state or federal parliamentary parties, in the organisational wing, in our wider movement,” one senior Liberal said.

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“Even some of her most loyal supporters, people who have consistently and publicly defended her, are now saying they are finished with her.

“Her pathway is self-evidently clear.”

A senior member of Wilson’s team was equally emphatic: “She must resign or the party must act. She cannot possibly be our candidate going into November.”

Wilson’s preference, one shared by key figures in the federal Liberal Party and the administrative committee that governs the state party, is for Deeming to resign from the party and serve out the remainder of this parliamentary term as an independent.

Overtures are likely to be made by Liberals previously sympathetic to Deeming to convince her to quit.

She is in London, where she has spent the past three days attending the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference alongside federal Liberal Party president Tony Abbott, state party president Brian Loughnane, Loughnane’s wife and Sky News host Peta Credlin, and conservative luminaries from Britain and around the world.

An MP who sided with Deeming in her previous dispute with the party that triggered her successful defamation case against former leader John Pesutto said it was important for Deeming to retain control over her own political fate.

If Deeming cannot be persuaded to resign, the party may prepare disciplinary action that could lead to her suspension or expulsion and removal of her endorsement to stand for the party at the November 28 election.

The four vice-presidents of the administrative committee, Cathrine Burnett-Wake, Geoff Gledhill, Ellinor Read and Trent Sullivan, met on Thursday – a few hours before Victoria Police issued a statement announcing its investigation into Deeming’s assault allegations found no case for Guy to answer – to discuss the party’s next steps.

Deeming accused Guy of assaulting her by putting her in a violent headlock in the middle of a public dinner on May 23. CCTV footage taken from inside the Macedonian community event instead showed an innocuous interaction in which Guy briefly puts his arm on Deeming’s shoulder as the pair lean forward to hear one another in the middle of a crowded, noisy room.

Deeming lodged a complaint with police on June 16. Guy was not questioned by police.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said on Friday the CCTV footage told a clear story. “Often it is a matter of perception, but we deal with reality and we deal with evidence, and that is what we have made our decision based on,” he told Radio 3AW.

“It is mainly based on the video that is in the public domain. I think everybody has come to a similar conclusion.”

This masthead put multiple questions to Deeming concerning her allegations against Guy. She responded with insults and did not address questions. Deeming is scheduled to speak on Wednesday at a public function in Werribee.

Guy said on Friday that Deeming owed him a public apology.

“My family name, my reputation is not a political toy,” he said. “No one’s is.

“There was no ambiguity. I did not do what was alleged. The CCTV proves this, it did from the start, and Victoria Police agree.”

He said he was also owed an apology from Premier Jacinta Allan and Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny, who on Thursday sought to exploit the turmoil caused by Deeming’s claims for political gain.

Guy’s hands were trembling as, flanked by his personal lawyer, he read a prepared statement that could serve as a clarion call to those who fear being falsely accused by women.

“Every Australian male, probably over 40, seems to be blamed, scapegoated, not believed, and now thrown under the bus, even by our own government,” he said.

Wilson and other party figures are determined to ensure Deeming’s exit from the party does not descend into a gender war. Aside from levelling unsubstantiated criminal allegations against a fellow Liberal MP, Deeming only sporadically attends party room meetings and has recently been absent from upper house votes relating to important legislation.

“She just rolls in and everyone is too terrified to take her on because of her litigious nature,” an MP said.

Deeming, a trans-sceptical feminist, first came to prominence in March 2023 for attending a Let Women Speak rally on the steps of the Victorian parliament gate-crashed by neo-Nazis.

The day after the rally, the then leadership team of John Pesutto, Georgie Crozier, David Southwick and Matt Bach met in the leader’s office to decide what to do about Deeming. One of their concerns, which has turned out to be prophetic, was that if nothing were done, Deeming would “blow up” the party months before the 2026 election.

Instead, their decision to suspend Deeming from the party room on flimsy evidence of wrongdoing poisoned Pesutto’s leadership.

If disciplinary action is required against Deeming, it will be run through the administrative committee chaired by Loughnane. Any MP found to have brought the party into disrepute can be suspended or expelled from the party.

A complicating factor in any proceedings against Deeming is that some members of the committee are currently suing others over the use of party funds to cover the legal costs Pesutto owed Deeming from their defamation case.

That matter remains before the Supreme Court even though the former lead plaintiff, Colleen Harkin, last week quit the Liberal Party to join One Nation.

Despite speculation that Deeming may also join One Nation, leader Pauline Hanson has expressed no interest in recruiting her.

Park to protect 12,000 koalas to go ahead via contentious carbon credit deal by Albanese government

Minns government waited on federal approval of carbon credit scheme before proceeding with long-awaited great koala national park

A long-promised New South Wales great koala national park is set to go ahead after the Albanese government greenlit the state to receive hundreds of millions of dollars for protecting native forests previously earmarked for logging.

The assistant climate change minister, Josh Wilson, said the government had approved a regulatory change that allowed state governments to earn carbon credits by storing carbon dioxide in native forests on public land.

The Socceroos are through to the World Cup round of 32 thanks to a tense and physical 0-0 draw with Paraguay in San Francisco.

It was a largely uneventful game and the Socceroos were barely tested by an incredibly limited Paraguay side.

ABC Live Blog

New party dubbed Community Strong Australia (CSA) follows secret talks about future of community independents.

Teal independents Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender have launched a new political party called Community Strong Australia, with the aim of providing a centrist alternative for voters amid the rise of One Nation and the turmoil inside the Coalition.

The party will focus on issues including housing affordability, cost of living, climate change, childcare, education, healthcare and social cohesion, according to Steggall, the member for Warringah.

Community Strong Australia – which carries teal-coloured branding – will “support community-backed candidates” for election in both the House of Representatives and Senate, Steggall said in announcing the long-rumoured party.

Angus Taylor has attempted to clarify comments on multiculturalism after his five non-answers on Tuesday which left colleagues dumfounded and questioning the opposition leader’s approach to One Nation.

As senior Liberals lined up endorse to Australia’s cultural diversity on Wednesday, outspoken backbencher, Andrew McLachlan, went further, challenging his leader to “embrace the reality of modern Australia”.

“If you aspire to lead our nation you should embrace the reality of modern Australia,” the Liberal senator told Guardian Australia.

Natassia Chrysanthos

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor was asked more than five times about whether he backed a multicultural vision of Australia on Tuesday.

It was not until the sixth attempt that he gave a semblance of a direct answer – saying Australians could come from any country or religion so long as they shared values.

But he didn’t use the M-word.

The word took on fresh taboo status after Pauline Hanson’s speech at the National Press Club last week, in which the ascendant One Nation leader said Australia “cannot be a multicultural society”.

“We are a multiracial society, but we must be monocultural,” was Hanson’s cry.

The One Nation leader made similar remarks again on Tuesday, citing Japan as an example of a monoculture and questioning why Australia couldn’t be the same.

When Anthony Albanese was asked about her comments later in the morning, he got to the point. “Modern Australia is not a monoculture and it never has been,” the prime minister said.

Hanson laid out a dichotomy that is now shaping the political conversation about cultural diversity in Australia. In doing so, she’s planted another minefield for Taylor to dance around.

Albanese ran through a quick history that started with the First Fleet and ended with the Socceroos, a group noted for their diverse make-up which includes players from refugee and migrant backgrounds.

“We won’t move forward if we get stuck in these cultural debates that are all aimed at dividing people,” he said.

When Taylor was asked two hours later, it was not so straightforward.

Instead, he made reference to the Coalition’s immigration policy on Australian values. As is often the case in press conferences, this only invited more questions.

Asked by a third reporter whether he thought Australia should be a monoculture, Taylor replied: “You explain to me what you mean by this, you see there’s all these vague words running around.

“But I tell you what, the one thing I want all of us to share is those core Australian values.”

Then the fourth: “With respect, sir, you’ve now dodged four questions in a row about whether multiculturalism is a policy aim that you would stand by. Is it or is it not?”

Taylor replied: “I’ve answered that question four times.”

Finally, the fifth reporter: “I’m also interested in whether you do support multiculturalism? It seems like a pretty straightforward question.”

Taylor: “Do you want to define it for me?”

Reporter: “No, I don’t, I just wonder if it’s a problem for you that you can’t.”

At last Taylor gave it a crack.

“We can have people from all over the world, right? That is not a problem,” he said.

“Now, you got me going here. Let me have a go. We can have people from all over the world, of all races and religions in this country, but they must share those core values. I don’t know how much simpler it can be than that.

“One of the reasons why I know this is so clear and so widely felt and shared across Australia is when you go to a citizenship ceremony, that’s what we talk about.”

Perhaps it was a desire to stay on message, or habit of sticking to talking points, that explains why Taylor was most comfortable repeating the same lines he often trots about Australian values – instead of responding with a yes or no.

Or perhaps he was sandwiched in a cultural debate with no favourable way out. Labor was on one side, defending Australia’s multicultural tradition. Hanson was on the other, demanding a monoculture.

Where to go for Taylor? Mounting a defence of multiculturalism is not part of his strategy for wooing back cultural conservatives who are fleeing the Coalition for One Nation. But simply aping Hanson and her slogans is not an option either.

The opposition leader was right to say these words can be used in a way that is vague and loosely defined. They take on different meanings, and evoke different emotions, in different people.

Hanson, who threw this grenade into political debate, emphasises she wants people to speak English. But beyond that, she doesn’t explain precisely what she means when she envisions Australia as a monoculture.

Both Hanson and Taylor talk about uniting Australia under the same civic values and laws – a goal few would argue against. But values and laws are not the same as culture. If it’s not an issue of race for Hanson, then where does she want to draw the line – on language, identity, tradition, food, dress, music or religious practice?

And even if a “monoculture” was simply pointing to a set of values, to what extent does this appreciate that Australia’s diverse social fabric informed those values in the first place?

Even new One Nation MP David Farley conceded the debate involved a “play on words” when interviewed on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program late on Tuesday afternoon.

Without further explanation, these words – monoculture and multiculturalism – are instead becoming tribal signifiers in today’s fractured political environment.

One speaks to a worldview where assimilation with a dominant culture – presumably, but not explicitly, that of white Australia – is prioritised over any difference. The other celebrates diversity on top of a shared set of fundamental values.

Hanson’s simple slogan communicates where she stands. Labor also knows its position – that why senior ministers leapt to mock the opposition leader over his response in question time. Taylor tiptoed.

Headline inflation has eased to an annual rate of 4 per cent in May, down from 4.2 per cent in April, according to the latest ABS data.

The better-than-predicted figure comes after sharp falls in petrol and diesel prices.

The Australian share market has started its day higher despite a major sell-off across US tech, AI and semiconductor stocks, which resulted in steep losses on Wall Street. 

AUD = 0.69 USD

The Australian federal government will ban self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) from using limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBAs) to purchase residential property, after reaching a deal with the Greens to pass its budget tax legislation through the Senate.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers (pictured) confirmed the change in Canberra on 23 June 2026, saying the measure would "strengthen the rules that limit borrowing by superannuation funds".