Victoria’s emergency services minister says he fears for his family’s safety after a bullet, etched with the word “RAT” and his old firefighter number, was left on his car on Saturday.

The Herald Sun first reported on Monday that Paul Edbrooke had returned to his car after speaking to members of the community and found the bullet on the bonnet.

He told ABC Radio Melbourne he was “shocked” and “horrified” by the discovery, particularly after the alleged attack on the federal MP Helen Haines last week. There was no suggestion the two incidents were linked

“We enjoy a great democracy in Australia and Victoria,” Edbrooke said. “I love getting out in my community.

“I was out in my community that day. I speak to people all the time, face to face. And then to come back to my car and find that, I was just shocked.

“My kids drive this car, and you start thinking, ‘Am I being followed? Who knows I’m here? Am I being surveilled?’

“And it’s not subtle – that’s a death threat, a bullet with my firefighter ID number on it and the word ‘rat’.”

Edbrooke said his ID number was “very specific to a firefighter” and would not be known by members of the broader community. He said the only people from whom he was receiving “aggressive threats” and abuse on social media were members of the United Firefighters Union.

The union is taking action against Fire Rescue Victoria – an agency Edbrooke oversees – in the Fair Work Commission over the firefighters’ enterprise bargaining agreement. The parties have been unable to resolve the EBA since 2021.

It has also been campaigning against the state’s Labor government, vowing to run an expensive advertising campaign and staff polling booths with firefighters, while authorising material urging voters to put the party last in next month’s poll.

It is also planning to hold a members’ meeting on the question of disaffiliating from the Victorian Labor party altogether.

Speaking about the bullet on Monday, Edbrooke said: “I’m not going to be intimidated by this.”

“You think of your family, you think of other MPs, and, you know, what happened in Wangaratta last week,” he said.

“There’s a great thing about democracy in Australia, and that is we can go to a polling booth, have a snag, talk to people. We can disagree in our politics, but we can have a chat and I’m afraid that with actions like this, we start losing that.

“We start having a reaction where we have to have more security and MPs are less available to public members.”

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has defended a cartoon showing independent Senator Lidia Thorpe being run over by a bus, just days after independent MP Helen Haines was rammed by a car.

Hanson’s unapologetic stance in a Monday morning interview with radio station 2GB prompted Thorpe to accuse One Nation of leaving death threats against her unmoderated on its platforms for months.

On Sunday, AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett urged politicians to speak carefully as she drew a direct link between inflamed rhetoric and the rise in violent threats. She indicated, when asked about a One Nation clip of cartoon character Bluey driving down Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, that there was a reaction when “examples like that” were produced.

But Hanson is determined not to take down two cartoons showing politicians being run over, posting on X Sunday night that “they will not be going anywhere” and telling 2GB on Monday she would not apologise to Thorpe for the 2023 episode, Under the Bus.

“Look, this woman’s on the floor of parliament … You should see the hatred coming out of her mouth,” Hanson said.

“So don’t tell me about my cartoons because they’re satirical … And besides, that last episode happened years ago in the cartoon,” Hanson said.

The One Nation leader accused Barrett of deflecting responsibility for protecting Australians.

“You’ve got kids out there on streets with ‘kill Pauline Hanson’. ‘I hate Pauline Hanson’, ‘shoot Pauline Hanson’. What does the commissioner do about that? Absolutely nothing,” Hanson said.

“So don’t tell me about the cartoons because this is passing the buck where you haven’t been able to do your job, [to] make it safe for the same people.”

Thorpe said on Monday that Hanson should “think carefully about the example she is setting”.
“Making light of violence, particularly against women in this country, is a problem. It’s not something anyone should be joking about,” the senator told this masthead.

Thorpe added that she had reported a number of death threats posted by users on Hanson’s social media pages that had been left unmoderated by her team for months.

“If her supporters are making death threats against other politicians, that should be a red flag, and she should reflect on what sort of leadership qualities she is showing, and what sorts of things she is making light of. We can disagree fiercely about politics, we can have a laugh at each other, but making jokes about violence is not on.”

Hanson last week apologised for a separate cartoon mocking Tasmanian senator Jacquie Lambie for her battle with vaginal prolapse, and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce did offer an apology last month to Coalition frontbencher Andrew Hastie, who was labelled a traitor in another clip for testifying in the defamation case Ben Roberts-Smith has brought against Nine.

Monday’s clash comes on the same day parliament pays tribute to independent MP Helen Haines, who remains in hospital recovering from an attack last Monday afternoon in the Victorian town of Wangaratta.

Speaker of the House Milton Dick told parliament on Monday that politicians had a responsibility to lead by example.

“There is much discussion on how we, as a parliament, work showing respect to each other. Today, again, saves the moment for all of us to rise to the challenge ... Many of you have told me this. [We] must be able to disagree with respect,” Dick said.

Labor drafted and then abandoned laws to crack down on political lobbying, leaving Victoria with what experts say are some of the weakest rules in the country to manage corruption and influence over state and local government decision-making.

Premier Ben Carroll and Opposition Leader Jess Wilson have both refused ahead of the November 28 election to commit to implementing new lobbying laws, despite a string of integrity scandals centred on inappropriate influence.

A Malaysian policeman who blew a young mother to pieces walks free in Australia while her government in Mongolia pleads for justice – and her killer collects welfare benefits.

A Malaysian police officer who killed a young mother of two and blew her body to bits with military-grade explosives is walking free in Australia despite pleas to extradite him to face justice in his home country.

Sirul Azhar Umar claims he was ordered to kill Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu, 28, after she was caught up in a Malaysian corruption scandal but he fled to Australia and was detained in Sydney’s Villawood immigration detention centre.

[Sirul was released three years ago under the landmark NZYQ High Court ruling](https://archive.is/o/ZM5tv/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/killer-among-released-detainees-after-high-court-ruling/news-story/ac09fb267239cab59058fdb008175e7f) banning indefinite immigration detention, his exact whereabouts unknown.

Like all the illegal immigrants released in 2023, Sirul is able to work and has access to the public healthcare system and other social welfare supports.

Efforts to extradite the convicted killer have been stymied by Australian laws that prevent the extradition of anyone facing the death penalty.

However, the Mongolian government is now demanding Australia work out a diplomatic solution with Malaysia to ensure Sirul would not face the death penalty on his return.

In 2009 Sirul and his fellow officer, Azilah Hadri, were sentenced to death for the young woman’s murder but were freed on appeal four years later.

Sirul Azhar Umar after his release from Villawood detention centre in Sydney. Picture: supplied
Before they were reconvicted in January 2015, Sirul fled to Australia.

Within days of Malaysia issuing an Interpol Red Notice against him, he was detained for overstaying a tourist visa. For the next eight years he was held in Sydney’s Villawood immigration detention centre until his release into the community as a result of the NZYQ ruling.

In an impassioned interview with Al Jazeera’s 101 East program, Murder in Malaysia: Justice for Altantuya, the Mongolian government’s special envoy, former prime minister Gombojavyn Zandanshatar, has demanded Australia find a diplomatic solution with Malaysia.

Poignantly referring to Altantuya as “one of us”, Mr Zandanshatar pledged his government’s absolute commitment to “the pursuit of justice and truth for as long as it takes”.

“We don’t ask Australia to abandon its principles on capital punishment and human rights, nor do we seek anyone’s execution, but the conviction that no country will enforce is not justice for Altantuya’s family or for the rule of law,” he said. “We ask Malaysia and Australia to find a lawful path through diplomacy so that accountability is finally served.”

The Australian government says for privacy reasons it can’t comment on Sirul’s case or what action, if any, it’s taking to have him extradited, but Greens leader David Shoebridge insists the government must be more transparent, balancing privacy issues against the “compelling public interest” of the case.

“It is one of the most serious matters that has come across my desk in terms of extradition and how it impacts on issues of justice,” Senator Shoebridge said. “This was a horrific crime. There’s an obligation on the part of the Australian government to explain why they’re not doing all they can to help justice.”

In Malaysia, former attorney-general Tommy Thomas is pressing for his government to issue a guarantee to Australia that Sirul won’t face the death penalty on his return, thus paving the way for his immediate extradition.

Mr Thomas said such a guarantee was straightforward since Malaysia repealed the mandatory death sentence in 2023 and Sirul’s co-convicted murderer, Azilah, had his commuted to life in prison a year later.

“It’s a letter that the foreign minister, the home minister and attorney general … will sit together and write to their counterpart in Australia. It’s as easy as that,” he said.

But Altantuya’s murder is politically sensitive in Malaysia

Ever since the arrest of the two special force officers, allegations former prime minister Najib Razak had a hand in it and that it was linked to an allegedly corrupt submarine deal with the French have been synonymous with the case.

Najib is serving a 12-year jail sentence for his role in the multibillion-dollar corruption scandal 1MDB but continues to vehemently deny any involvement in the killing of Altantuya.

In a 2019 statutory declaration used to persuade the court to commute his death sentence, Azilah alleges Najib ordered him to kill Altantuya because she was a “foreign spy” and “threat to state security”.

Sirul’s testimony before an Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal a year before Azilah signed his statutory declaration corroborates the account, Sirul telling the tribunal he was “ordered to kill the victim because she was a Russian spy”.

In 2023, just days after he was freed from detention, in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Sirul offered further corroboration, disclosing that “Azilah told me this is a special operation for deputy prime minister at that time, Mr Najib”.

In that same interview, the convicted murderer also said he was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars while he was in Villawood detention centre to make a video exonerating Najib of any role in the murder and to remain silent so as not to implicate Najib in it.

Veterans are pleading with students to abandon Remembrance Day rallies inspired by violent French protests as state governments stop short of ordering them to stop.

As France’s student protests descend into all-out riots and looting, more radical Australian student groups have vowed to stage their own rallies in major cities on Remembrance Day.

Students from Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra have announced they will also join peers from Melbourne and Sydney in staging an anti-capitalism and anti-One Nation rally on November 11.

The decision to stage the rally on Remembrance Day has drawn widespread condemnation from veterans, but no state government is prepared to tell the kids to call off the controversial protests, despite Australia’s heightened political climate.

The French school protests began on September 21 with students rallying against dilapidated school buildings, overcrowded classrooms and shortage of teachers and staff. The protests have since morphed to include anti-government and cost-of-living messages.

By late October, the peaceful crowds of student and adult protesters were overshadowed by violent agitators, culminating in an explosive weekend on October 17, which saw 150 police injured, buildings burned, shops looted, 2700 arrests and curfews implemented across France.

“Today again, in every corner of France, our colleagues are being used as punching bags. Pelted with stones, injured, trapped in real ambushes,” France’s UNSA police union said.

French police have also been condemned for their brutal response which saw a number of teenagers injured at the weekend.

This masthead first reported radical student groups from Sydney and Melbourne, the High School Anti-Capitalists, had said they were “inspired” by these protests and planned to “take on the fight ourselves”.

The group promoted an anti-One Nation and anti-capitalist school walkout and protest in Melbourne and Sydney on Remembrance Day. Since then, students from Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra have vowed to join.

High School Anti-Capitalist national spokeswoman Jules Arpula said “we didn’t pick November 11 to insult veterans” and described the date as “a coincidence”.

“Our protest is about the alarming growth of the far right in Australia, but we recognise that we are part of a global movement of young people standing up to the countless injustices of capitalism,” she said.

Veterans groups said they supported students’ right to protest, but pleaded with them to change the date.

RSL Australia national president Peter Tinley AM had a simple message to the students.

“Choose another day to protest,” he said.

“On 11 November, pause with us at 11am instead, and remember those who served and sacrificed for the freedoms we have today.”

Despite the political temperature across the country reaching boiling point in the fallout of the horrific alleged attack on MP Helen Haines, state governments were not prepared to condemn the students’ choice to rally on Remembrance Day or the highly charged political nature of their protests.

This masthead asked education ministers in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland whether they supported students’ right to protest or if they should change the date, receiving a lukewarm response at best.

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek was the only minister to respond directly, saying: “I strongly encourage school students to remain in class on all school days, especially at a time when our nation pauses to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.”

A spokesman for NSW Education Minister Prue Car said: “As Remembrance Day is commemorated across NSW, we expect all students to be at school and in class. Attendance matters, and students should be at school every day, ready to learn.”

Victorian Education Minister Gabrielle Williams deferred her response to a government spokeswoman who said: “Protesting on a national day of significance like Remembrance Day is deeply disrespectful to our veterans. We encourage students to stay in school, focus on your learning.”

And SA Education Minister Lucy Hood also deferred her response to a government spokesman who said: “We respect people’s right to protest respectfully but planning a protest for Remembrance Day is distasteful.”

One Nation national education spokeswoman and Victorian election upper house candidate Colleen Harkin was forthright in calling on the students to abandon the protest against her party.

“Choosing that day for a political protest is breathtakingly ignorant, deeply disrespectful and shows extraordinarily poor judgement,” she said.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare was clearer in his condemnation than his state counterparts, telling the students, “if you want to protest, do it on the weekend”.

“School days are for school,” he said.

“Remembrance Day is a sacred day. You should be at school for that.” Opposition education spokesman Julian Leeser said the decision to protest on Remembrance Day “shows extraordinary disrespect for our fallen service men and women on a national day of remembrance”.

“Any student who uses Remembrance Day to show solidarity with violent rioters in France should be ashamed,” he said.

Tasmanian Labor wants to bring in spending caps for state elections. Parties could spend up to $50,000 per candidate, and independents up to $60,000.

Tasmania's upper house and local government elections already have spending limits.

Labor will table a bill in parliament this week, and hopes to debate it in the lower house by the end of the year.