Erin Patterson’s trial resumes with video of daughter giving evidence
Adeshola Ore
We’re following Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial today and will bring you live updates.
Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023.
Patterson’s daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has given pre-recorded video evidence. The prosecution began playing the video, where she was interviewed by police, on Thursday.
In the remainder of the video shown this morning, her daughter recalls what happened the day after the lethal lunch. The interviewers ask Patterson’s daughter about her previous evidence that she ate leftovers of the mushroom meal with her mother and brother.
Patterson’s daughter says her mother told her they were eating the leftovers of the lunch.
The police officer asks: “What did she say?”
Patterson’s daughter says:
I remember I was asking her what we were having that night and she said she was making leftovers from yesterday’s lunch.
Key events
‘Fall from grace’: ex-spinner spared jail for coke deal
An ex-Australian Test cricketer Stuart MacGill will serve a community sentence after being convicted over a cocaine deal which led to his violent kidnapping.
He supplied drugs for the deal between his regular dealer and his brother-in-law in April 2021, a jury found in March.
The 54-year-old knew the cocaine was worth $330,000 but he was oblivious to the fact that a one-kilogram brick had changed hands.
Jurors found him not guilty of taking part in a large commercial drug supply but found him guilty of the lesser charge of supplying an indictable quantity of coke.
MacGill appeared at Downing Centre District Court on Friday where a statement from former Test captain Steve Waugh backed his former colleague.
He was sentenced to an intensive corrections order of one year and 10 months. MacGill must complete 495 hours of community service work and undergo drug testing as part of the order, in lieu of a prison term.
Judge Nicole Noman found the ex-leg-spinner played an indispensable role setting up the cocaine deal.
“His role was essential to bring the parties together and for the transaction to occur,” she said.
The lucrative cocaine deal put MacGill on the path to his violent kidnapping after his drug dealer stole two bricks of cocaine in a drug ripoff. The kidnapping then spurred adverse media reports against him.
“The offender’s colossal lapse of judgment has been causative of a very public fall from grace,” the judge said.
– Australian Associated Press
Albanese’s phone rings mid-speech: ‘to the viewers at home, stop ringing!’
It seems Anthony Albanese forgot to mute his phone. The prime minister’s caucus address was interrupted twice by his own phone ringing – “to the viewers at home, stop ringing!” he quipped.
Albanese ended his address with a call to his Labor MPs:
My final ask is that over the next three years we remain with a laser-like focus on them …
On the people who voted for us and the people who did not as well, the people we want to see … lifted up and given an opportunity. The people who need healthcare, the people who need our better and fairer schools funding agreement … The people who need access to free Tafe. The people who need the NDIS to function properly and to fully participate in our society and contribute. The people in multicultural Australia who need to be respected and recognised – and there has been some, you know, a rise in division in our society. We are the inclusive party. The party for all, the party who recognises as well that until we can look at people’s postcode and not say that means something, then our task is not done. Until we close the gap between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians, our work is not done.
It is a practical task that we have. I am so confident that we are able to do so.
In praise of Canberra
Anthony Albanese dunks on the opposition’s “juvenile anti-Canberra rhetoric” while welcoming his Labor caucus to the nation’s capital:
You will enjoy living in this great city, Australia’s largest city. It matters and the … frankly juvenile anti-Canberra rhetoric that we saw from the Coalition really hurt them during this campaign. It really did.
PM praises diversity of Labor MPs
Anthony Albanese celebrates the diversity in the caucus room, and is met by applause when noting the proportion of women present:
I look around this room and say a representative group, a majority [are] women, we are still counting, but at least 57% women.
He continues:
I also see people of … different ethnicities, different backgrounds, different experiences, different faiths. I see a diverse group of people that are truly representative of our nation. That’s what our parliament should be. Because we seek to represent the entire nation.
‘What a room!’ PM addresses Labor caucus
Prime minister Anthony Albanese is addressing caucus, welcoming new Labor MPs to Canberra and urging that “we seek power in order to deliver for the people”:
What a room! For those of you who are new, welcome … This is where decisions are made that make a difference to the country. You need to be in government to make a difference and I have spoken in this room now for three years, but for three years in the other room as well. As the leader of the Labor party, it is an incredible honour for me … As Australia’s 31st prime minister, that is an incredible honour.
We don’t seek power for its own sake. Not to decide who is in what part of the building. We seek power in order to deliver for the people who need Labor to be in government. And to develop a better nation. That is our objective, each and every day.
Adeshola Ore
Patterson a ‘very good cook’, daughter says
Erin Patterson’s daughter has told the trial her mother was a “very good cook”.
The daughter’s pre-recorded video evidence is being played to the jury in Patterson’s triple murder trial.
Asked by the police officer what her mother would cook, she says Patterson had made “lots of stuff before”.
Patterson’s daughter tells the interviewer she does not like mushrooms but sometimes eats them. She says her mother sometimes bought mushrooms at the IGA in Korumburra or Woolworths in Leongatha.
Asked about the last time she bought mushrooms with her mother, she says she cannot remember. She says she had not been to an Asian grocery shop before with her mother.
Erin Patterson’s trial resumes with video of daughter giving evidence
Adeshola Ore
We’re following Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial today and will bring you live updates.
Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023.
Patterson’s daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has given pre-recorded video evidence. The prosecution began playing the video, where she was interviewed by police, on Thursday.
In the remainder of the video shown this morning, her daughter recalls what happened the day after the lethal lunch. The interviewers ask Patterson’s daughter about her previous evidence that she ate leftovers of the mushroom meal with her mother and brother.
Patterson’s daughter says her mother told her they were eating the leftovers of the lunch.
The police officer asks: “What did she say?”
Patterson’s daughter says:
I remember I was asking her what we were having that night and she said she was making leftovers from yesterday’s lunch.
Josh Taylor
When dealing with Trump, put all your cards on the table, Turnbull says
Back to Malcolm Turnbull’s appearance on Slate’s Political Gabfest podcast, where he repeated his earlier calls for leaders to stand up to Donald Trump rather than seeking to appease him in trying to avoid tariffs, and suggested that the Aukus deal should be on the table as part of Australia’s discussion:
You want to do exactly what Trump does. You’ve got to put all of your cards on the table, you can see his and then work out which ones you can play and how much leverage you’ve got.
Chris Minns sends best wishes to new pope
New South Wales premier Chris Minns has congratulated the new pope on his election, sending “best wishes as a leader in our turbulent world”:
We welcome His Holiness’ messages of peace, bridge building, and compassion.
Australia will be inviting Pope Leo to Sydney in 2028 for the International Eucharistic Congress, and New South Wales would be honoured to host Pope Leo XIV.
Jonathan Barrett
Macquarie chief executive takes home $24m as profits lift
The Macquarie Group chief executive, Shemara Wikramanayake, earned a breezy $24m last year, according to documents released today, mostly consisting of lucrative bonuses.
The annual pay packet, which is tightly linked to company profits, comfortably makes Wikramanayake one of Australia’s highest paid executives.
While the pay packet fell modestly from the $25.2m she earned a year ago, it is still an extraordinary sum even by executive standards.
Macquarie reported a $3.72bn full-year net profit, up 5%, for the 12 months to 31 March, backed by its global asset management and banking divisions. It has emerged as a robust competitor to Australia’s big four retail banks in the home loan market.
Wikramanayake was the highest earning Macquarie executive last year. Simon Wright, head of Macquarie’s commodities and global markets unit, earned $22.7m.
Unlike many companies, the chief executive is not always the highest paid employee at Macquarie, due to a bonus system that richly rewards profit making.
The former head of the commodities division once earned more than $57m during a period marked by volatile energy prices.
You can check how much more CEOs earn than average workers, according to this interactive Guardian Australia published last year.
Sydney archbishop Anthony Fisher has said US cardinal Robert Prevost’s “missionary heart” would hold him in good stead as new pope:
Like the late pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV will bring to the church the experience of being part of a religious order with an emphasis on simplicity and community.
It was very moving that the Holy Father opened his first address to a watching world with a greeting of peace, and repeated the central truth of the gospel, that God loves all of us “without any limits or conditions”.
– Australian Associated Press
We must ‘do the hard work to reconnect’, Tehan says
In Dan Tehan’s announcement that he will not be contesting the Liberal leadership, he said the party needs to have “an honest look” at the election outcome, and “deep into the heart of the party itself”:
The Australian people want a Liberal Party that speaks to their lives, their families and their hopes for the future. They want small businesses and farmers to thrive. We must create a political movement that can provide that vision.
That means an honest look at the 2025 election, our history and the future. We must also look deep into the heart of the party itself.
We must do the hard work to reconnect Liberal values and the Australian people.
Dan Tehan rules himself out of Liberal leadership race
Shadow minister for immigration Dan Tehan is not standing for leadership of the Liberal party, he has just confirmed:
I love the Liberal Party, and I want to help reconnect us with the Australian people, but after careful consideration and conversations with my colleagues, I have decided not to stand for a leadership position.
I will work hard and serve in whatever capacity I am asked to rebuild our party.
Australian bishops hail pope’s election
Australian bishops have welcomed the “momentous” election of US cardinal Robert Prevost as new pope.
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said:
The election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV is yet again a sign of the wisdom behind the Italian saying that “those who enter the conclave as a pope inevitably emerge from the conclave as a cardinal”.
Cardinal Prevost brought to his most recent role as Prefect of the Dicastery for bishops an approachability and willingness to listen which were no doubt developed throughout his many years as an Augustinian missionary in Peru.
Recent popes have sought ways to be of service to the wider Christian family and we can expect that Pope Leo XIV will follow this same path. The growing sense of unity and common purpose, already evident among Christians, can be a powerful countersign to the fragmentation we see in so many societies and communities.
Global News Corp mastheads suffer sharp revenue drop
Jonathan Barrett
News Corp’s global mastheads have suffered a sharp fall in revenue after lower advertising income cut into revenue streams.
Revenue at the conglomerate’s news media unit, a division that includes the Sun and the Times in London, the New York Post and the Australian, fell in the quarter to US$514m, down 8% from a year ago, according to results published today.
The company, part of Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling empire, attributed the slide to lower advertising income and lower circulation and subscription revenues.
Members of the Murdoch family have been involved in a court battle over the future control of News Corp as well as Fox News.
While News Corp has increased digital subscriber numbers at its Australian operations, online readers for the Sun and New York Post have plummeted. The declines have previously been linked to changes in referrer platforms.
The conglomerate, which also owns book publishers, real estate advertising assets and the business information unit Dow Jones, reported a slight lift in overall revenue to US$2bn for the three months to 31 March.
The company profited from higher audiobook sales and robust revenue generated from the Dow Jones unit, which includes the Wall Street Journal as well as business resources such as economic risk analysis services.
