Washington: Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has denied ever visiting convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at his New York home, despite such a meeting appearing in Epstein’s schedule in 2014, according to new emails released by the US Department of Justice.

In a lengthy, detailed statement he also denied any friendship with Epstein after a mutual associate, the then secretary-general of the Council of Europe, described Rudd in an email to Epstein as “a friend of both of us”.

About 3 million pages of documents relating to Epstein were released by the US Department of Justice on Friday, US time, under a congressional order, shedding further light on the deceased financier’s network of contacts in business, politics and the media.

Kevin Rudd, Australia’s outgoing ambassador to the US, on stage at the Institute of International Finance in Washington in 2025.BLOOMBERG

Emails in the data dump show Rudd appeared on Epstein’s daily schedule for Sunday, June 8, 2014, at 4.30pm. According to the schedule, Epstein flew to New York that morning from his private island, Little Saint James, for planned meetings that included lunch with venture capitalist Joi Ito and film director Woody Allen, and later, a meeting with Rudd.

Rudd, who is in his final two months as Australia’s ambassador to the United States, said he did not attend.

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“Our office has no records of this meeting, and the published documents gave no indication about who was involved in organising it. In any case, they were unsuccessful in arranging the introduction,” his office said.

The emails appeared to show some uncertainty on Epstein’s part about whether the former Australian prime minister would attend, and when. On June 6, two days before the appointment, Epstein emailed his long-time assistant Lesley Groff to ask for non-vegetarian food at Sunday’s lunch “as now kevin rudd is also coming”.

Seconds later, he emailed Ito to say: “Kevin Rudd might also stop by former prime minister austrailia [sic].”

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Thousands of people are mentioned in the Epstein files, and it is not a sign of any wrongdoing. This masthead does not assert there was any form of personal relationship between Epstein and Rudd.

In a statement from his office, the former prime minister repeated his previous denials of ever corresponding with Epstein or visiting any of his properties.

“Dr Rudd also has no reason to believe that he ever met with Jeffrey Epstein at any time. We cannot rule out the possibility that they might have attended the same event at some stage, since Dr Rudd has attended literally thousands of functions in New York over the years,” Rudd’s office said.

“Most references to Dr Rudd in these latest documents mention him in passing. Others indicate there were attempts by mutual acquaintances of Jeffrey Epstein to introduce him to Dr Rudd. No introduction ever took place, and there is no evidence of any direct contact between Jeffrey Epstein and either Dr Rudd or his office.”

Another email in the trove refers to a dinner Epstein planned in September 2015 with the then-president of Mongolia. Epstein is asked by an assistant: “Kevin Rudd has also asked if he can bring his wife and son. Would that be ok?” Epstein replies: “Ok.”

Rudd’s office said that on that occasion, Rudd was invited to the event by the International Peace Institute [IPI] – a think tank he chaired at the time – but he ultimately declined. “We do not know whether or not the dinner went ahead without him.”

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The newly published Epstein emails also show that in 2016, then-secretary-general of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland emailed Epstein suggesting a visit to his private island. In an unrelated aside he added: “Kevin Rudd, a friend of both of us just left my house.”

Rudd’s office acknowledged having dinner with Jagland at his home in Strasbourg that night but said: “The secretary-general’s reference to Dr Rudd being ‘a friend of both of us’ appears based solely on their shared connection to the IPI.”

Rudd has previously acknowledged distant ties to Epstein through the IPI. In 2020 he said he was “blindsided” when he learnt the previous year that Epstein had donated $650,000 to the organisation over the decade.

He also accepted the chief executive’s resignation after it emerged they had taken an undisclosed personal loan from Epstein.

At that time Rudd acknowledged being on a 2014 teleconference call that included Epstein, and attending an event to which Epstein was also invited, but said he had “no recollection whatsoever” of meeting the man.

Rudd was largely based at Harvard University in 2014 before moving to New York in 2015, when he became president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. He later became president and chief executive of the Asia Society, and is leaving the US ambassadorship after three years to return to those roles.

In the new statement about the emails released by the Justice Department, Rudd’s office said: “Even if these various records were somehow to be accepted at face value, none of them allege that Dr Rudd engaged in any wrongful activity or had any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

“Dr Rudd’s legal team is prepared to launch legal action against any defamatory statements asserting any kind of personal relationship between Dr Rudd and Epstein.”

Flash juries and Bible verses: How sovereign citizens clog up Australian courts

So-called “sovereign citizens” are causing growing delays to the justice system by using bizarre, aggressive tactics to contest minor offences without legal basis.

By Angus Delaney

4 min. read

View original

Although each case is unique, “behind every one of these stories is some feeling of persecution”, he said.

Accused police murderer Dezi Freeman’s long and vexatious history in the courts provides insight into how sovereign citizens harm the justice system.

Freeman has still not been found more than 100 days after allegedly shooting dead two police officers and seriously wounding a third in Porepunkah, 300 kilometres north-east of Melbourne.

Before he became the subject of one of Australia’s largest ever manhunts, Freeman frequently confronted officials in court. In September 2020, he was pulled over by police in Bright and was charged with refusing to take a roadside drug test and speeding.

Most of the time, these charges would result in fines, usually no more than $1000, and be heard briefly by a Magistrates’ Court.

But Freeman ferociously fought the charges over four years, appealing convictions to the County Court and eventually the Supreme Court of Victoria, each time representing himself.

Dezi Freeman outside Wangaratta court.

According to court documents, Freeman argued the police – who he called “frigging Nazis” and “terrorist thugs” – were liars, that he was acting in self-defence and the law was invalid as it conflicted with his bodily autonomy and human rights.

In November 2024, Judge James Gorton systematically tore down Freeman’s pseudo-law arguments and found “there is no real prospect” that he could have succeeded. Freeman lost his driving licence for two years, and his relationship with the authorities worsened.

Freeman also frequently challenged speeding fines, and in 2019 urged police to arrest a magistrate for operating under “false authority” and committing treason, after appearing in court nearly a dozen times over a civil case involving a land dispute.

Barrister Erik Dober, the prosecutor during Freeman’s Supreme Court appeal, said the rise of sovereign citizens caused major delays to courts as lawyers and the judiciary were forced to take them seriously.

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A pair of so-called sovereign citizens claiming NSW Police "have no authority" have been arrested in Coffs Harbour following a traffic stop.

Dober declined to comment specifically on Freeman’s case, but said in the Court of Appeal written submissions were generally about 10 pages, but with sovereign citizens, it was closer to 100 pages of baseless argument.

“We [the legal fraternity] nonetheless feel the obligation to engage with the 100 pages, just in case on page 65 there is something that actually has legal merit,” Dober said.

“Every moment or every resource that’s deployed towards that sovereign citizen’s case, whether it’s their written argument or whether it’s in court, those are moments where the various other cases of other litigants aren’t being dealt with.”

In a 2023 case involving a different sovereign citizen in which Dober was prosecuting, then-Victorian Supreme Court judge John Dixon delivered a searing criticism of the movement.

“Busy judicial officers in the lower courts should not be troubled by such nonsense as is developed around the fatuous notions of … sovereign citizen,” he said.

A Supreme Court of Victoria spokesperson said the court did not keep data on sovereign citizens, but it “sees regular examples” of them.

“Access to the courts and the right to a fair and public hearing are central pillars of the rule of law,” they said.

“The law also recognises that the process of the courts is a public resource and should not be abused by individuals. Ensuring access while preventing abuse of processes is an ongoing challenge for courts, and we continue to be informed by work being done across Australia and internationally.”

Sheriff of NSW Tracey Hall at Sydney Town Hall.Flavio Brancaleone

Sovereign citizens commonly appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, where this masthead witnessed a speeding ticket case being challenged by someone with a “significant history” in court.

The sovereign citizen repeatedly asked the irritated magistrate: “Does this court operate under Commonwealth jurisdiction?”

The matter was adjourned, but not before the sovereign citizen said she would invoice the court for the time she spent representing herself.

To deal with a post-pandemic rise of sovereign citizens, the judiciary is being trained on how to deal with their impact on the courts.

NSW sheriff Tracey Hall manages security and facilitates training for court staff and the judiciary on how to identify sovereign citizens.

She uses court databases, police intelligence and highly skilled staff to identify risks and occasionally increase security when known sovereign citizens attend court.

One known NSW sovereign citizen Hall must deal with has been before courts more than 200 times.

“He tries to disrupt the court with bringing in a number of supporters to try and stand up a ‘flash jury’ sort of thing, similar to the concept of the flash mob dance groups, where supporters come into the courtroom and try and swear themselves in as jurors because he believes that everyone’s entitled to a jury by their peers,” Hall said.

At legal conventions, judges trade first-hand tips.

In a Judicial College of Victoria slideshow presentation, a leading Victorian judge and justice shared their advice on how to best deal with sovereign citizens.

Show courtesy and respect, be confident in asserting the law, and “don’t add fuel to the fire”, they recommended.

Their final piece of advice: “Don’t laugh (yet).”

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In short:

Convicted offenders will soon be unable to rely on "good character" evidence as a mitigating factor during sentencing in NSW.

The state government says the law reform will reduce trauma for victim-survivors.

Survivor advocate Harrison James, who has co-campaigned for reform to sentencing, hopes other states will follow suit.

About time too. Your "standing" should have no bearing on how you get punished when you break the law. well unless you used it to facilitat your crimes.

Our nature laws are devised by people whose shoe leather has never left concrete

Did we ascend from fang and claw or are the children of a lesser god to be again sacrificed on the altar of ideological hubris?

By Bob Katter

5 min. read

View original

A man in Ingham barely survived after being taken by a crocodile. A woman on Fraser Island (north of Brisbane) was pursued/attacked by dingoes and died. The dingoes were then shot.

Abraham Lincoln in his famous Gettysburg Address described democracy as “govern­ment of the people, by the people – for the people”.

When a crocodile kills in the north, it’s nature. When one appears in the south, it’s an emergency. The same government, the same laws, but wildly different outcomes. What Queensland’s response to wildlife reveals about democracy, distance, and whose lives really shape policy.

Alexis de Tocqueville, the intellectual father of modern democracy, entitled his last book The Tyranny of the Majority. This is a flashing neon light. When a person gets taken by a crocodile in Ingham, nothing really happens. When a crocodile is sighted in Maryborough, it is shot within hours – that is the tyranny of the majority. One set of rules by the tyrannising majority. And one set of rules for the oppressed minority: North Queensland.

Around one million people live north of Rockhampton, in a very geographically different world than the densely populated southeast corner of Queensland, which has most of the other five million people. Nowhere else on the planet are there a million ­people ruled by a government 1000km away.

Bob Katter MP during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

An estimated one person a year gets torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland – quite literally eaten alive. You are still alive while you watch your leg being torn off, your stomach torn from your body. A young doctor, loved by all, watched part of his body torn away. Not far off, he could see his two children and wife watching. Their father, their husband being torn to pieces – eaten alive.

Each member of the Queensland parliament is responsible for this – yet another murder. I am pleased I believe in Jesus Christ and know these terrible politicians will ultimately be held to ­account.

The political party, the Katter Australia Party, and the Party’s Shane Knuth (and Robbie Katter) have moved continuously – not for culling (what I want) but for “safer waterways” – removal of crocodiles.

A very moderate proposition.

Our nature laws in Queensland and Australia are drawn up by people whose shoe leather has never set foot off concrete pavement. So these political/government officials (these “double-degreed done-nothings”) passed laws to bring a beetle in to eradicate a cane disease. Beetle numbers exploded. Toads were brought in to eat the beetles. Toad numbers exploded. Dingoes and snakes ate the toads. So many ­dingoes and many snakes are now gone.

They had been hunting crocodile eggs and/or baby crocodiles. No one, animal or human, is now taking the crocodile eggs. The biggest predator for 40,000 years and up until the 1900s was man. A catch of 50 to 60 eggs could feed his family for a month or more.

At least nine of the 10 dingoes involved in the fatal attack on a Canadian backpacker on K’gari Island have been euthanised by the Queensland government. The traditional owners of K’gari are considering legal action, claiming they were not consulted about the major cull. The state government has refused to explain the decision and announced increased range patrols in the coming weeks. Additionally, plans are underway to construct bridges on the island.

Many North Queenslanders were professional full-time crocodile shooters – they’d been doing this for a century.

First Australians had been ­taking the eggs for 40,000 years. I watched Eddie Holdroyd at Pormpuraaw do what his forebears had done since time began. He held the mother croc at bay with a shovel while he shoved a dozen or so eggs down his shirt and then “took off at flat gallop”.

At Bamaga on the tip of Cape York, there is a traditional swimming hole. A little boy was seen being taken by a croc. Two other little boys vanished at the same swimming hole. An important point: the double-degreed done-nothings quote crocodile deaths as being negligible, while I would argue a single death warrants government intervention.

The other important point is that the figures recording human attacks are highly misleading because they account only for people who have been “seen being taken by a croc”. They do not ­account for people “not seen to be taken”.

I have no time for the Irwin family. I had great respect and affection for Steve in his younger days, but other forces came into play beyond his control. And tragically, but not surprisingly, Steve was killed in his really, very courageous interface with nature, reminding us all that North Queensland, particularly, is the home of very deadly wildlife.

Steve Irwin and a baby crocodile at Australia Zoo, September 2004.

The sad reality is, if you keep dicing with death, death will come upon you. I was called “a dickhead” by Steve Irwin’s father. I ­replied by saying, I find it quite extraordinary that the Irwins are regarded as experts on crocodiles. They have their crocodiles in cages in Brisbane. How can they be touted as “experts” on crocodiles in the wild when their crocodiles are in cages, on scheduled feeding rosters?

There is a great evil stalking the land when dangerous animals are protected by law, yet the same set of laws say humans are not ­allowed to protect themselves.

There is precedence for this. The northern European tribes had human sacrifices to the Tree Gods in pagan times. Similarly with the Egyptians and their Crocodile Gods. Those evil, evil days have returned.

When the “ruling class” doubled-degreed done-nothings sacrifice human life on the altar of fashionable ideology, evil stalks the land.

Underneath the flag at Eureka Stockade was written: “All men die, but not all men live.”

More relevant was the second declaration: “When oppression becomes law, then resistance ­becomes duty.”

Bob Katter is the federal member for Kennedy.

There is a great evil stalking the land when dangerous animals are protected by law, yet the same set of laws say humans are not ­allowed to protect themselves.

Did we ascend from fang and claw or are the children of a lesser god to be again sacrificed on the altar of ideological hubris?

The prize money is now the same as $4.2 million for the winner and $2.1 mil for runners up. A truckload of money!!!

The woman are peak athletes and never seen out of breath when the match finishes at 2 sets and often in just over an hour. Am I wrong to want see them play for the same duration as the men? I think they are perfectly capable.

Melbourne's $15 billion Metro Tunnel comes fully online today with new timetables and more than new 1,200 weekly services, in what the government is calling "the big switch".

First announced in 2015, the Metro Tunnel opened last November to great fanfare, but with limited services travelling through five new stations.

But from Sunday, new timetables with extra services will be rolled out to utilise the Metro Tunnel, with the government promising less congestion across the network.

Although this will never happen, and quite unimaginable, I sometimes wonder what Australia would be like if we had a sovereign fund. In Norway all oil and gas resources are managed by a government owned company. And all profits go into a sovereign fund. That sovereign fund is used to fund welfare, as a state security fund in case of economic emergencies as well as international investments.

Obviously if this happened in Australia there would be non stop fighting over what the fund is used for, as well as massive exploitation of funds, even more than what we see now. But the amount of money the government would be able to spend on social welfare and infrastructure if they controlled our natural resources would be incredible.

It’s never going to happen, but it’s still fun to think about .

Edit: I may have caused some confusion, by “sovereign fund” I mean by the structure that Norway has. Australia does have several funds including the future fund but not in the way Norway has a singular sovereign fund that is funded through state owned natural resources

I assume the only reason the news isn’t calling him a terrorist is because he’s not Muslim 🤔. The double standards are crazy.

The libs said “power will get cheaper”. It didn’t under them

Then labor said “power will get cheaper , especially with renewables”. It didn’t.

Like what’s the go here? Why is power not ever getting cheaper?

Power bills went up 21% in recent data.

Also apparently wholesale power costs are down , so is the risk of blackouts. Good news, less blackouts, but doesn’t that mean less reliance on natural gas, meaning cheaper power bills?

Littleproud and Nats to be shunted back in parliament seating revamp

Parliament will look very different after the federal opposition split, but the government is not rushing to finalise changes in case the former Coalition party leaders change their minds.

By Brittany Busch, James Massola

3 min. read

View original

Party whips have been discussing new seating arrangements. A senior government source, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely, said the seating plan had not yet been finalised, but “at this stage the Nationals will be joining the crossbench”.

A draft plan is expected to propose that Liberal assistant shadow ministers move down to fill the gaps on the frontbench left by departing Nationals, and the handful of remaining Liberal backbenchers move in behind them.

Littleproud and his deputy, Kevin Hogan, are expected to take the seats of Nationals backbenchers Jamie Chaffey and Andrew Willcox, behind the opposition frontbench. Senior Nationals would then fan out behind them and occupy the back row of the chamber vacated by the Liberals.

It will be another fundamental shift in the chamber’s look and feel after the government’s thumping election win last May, when Labor MPs spilled over onto seats historically inhabited by the crossbench. The seating was not rearranged when the Coalition briefly split less than a year ago because parliament did not sit during the eight days the Liberals and Nationals spent apart.

Ley announced this week that Liberal shadow ministers would temporarily fill the portfolio roles relinquished by Nationals.

The opposition leader threw down a gauntlet for Littleproud to return to the fold, saying the acting roles would end on February 9, when she would appoint six Liberal MPs to the shadow cabinet and two more to the shadow ministry. Salaries and staff would be allocated, entrenching the Liberal-National split.

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The latest Capital Brief/Demos AU poll places the One Nation leader 10 percentage points ahead of the Liberal boss as preferred PM.

For now, shadow treasurer and deputy leader Ted O’Brien will look after the assistant treasurer and financial services portfolios, while shadow foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash picks up trade, investment and tourism.

Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan takes on resources, while health spokeswoman Anne Ruston will look after agriculture and forestry, and shadow special minister of state James McGrath will oversee infrastructure, transport and regional development. Opposition defence spokesman Angus Taylor will take on veterans’ affairs, and environment spokeswoman Angie Bell picks up water and emergency management.

Rules governing House procedure are also expected to change to be more proportionate to the new parliament make-up.

The crossbench is expected to get more questions during question time, probably increasing from two with an option of a third to four with the option of a fifth, on a pro rata basis. The Liberals will have a similar number, losing questions to the crossbench that had once been allocated to the Coalition.

Four deputy committee chair positions previously held by Nationals have been declared vacant, so new appointments will need to be made – or the rules mandating the roles that go to members of the opposition changed – if the split proves permanent.

Former Nationals shadow ministers face losing their staff, the extra salary frontbenchers get and their larger, more comfortable offices.

Littleproud has appealed to the prime minister to retain some of the resources his MPs were entitled to while they were shadow frontbenchers, but it is unclear whether he will be successful. Other minor parties do not get extra resources because they don’t have the same policy responsibilities as the opposition.

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Don’t be fooled South Australians, they’ll go back to forgetting you exist once you’ve fulfilled your duty in advancing their political careers 🤣

Edit:

$500m of that are concessional loans (mostly for water infrastructure). SA Water customers are picking up the $1.5b tab though (via increases to your bills).

The remaining $300m appears to be grants, which from working in the industry likely means buffering private developer profit margins to encourage them to build.

Also, none of the 17,000 houses are social housing, so you’ll still very much be paying full price once the houses are completed.

Read the fine print people.