Midday News Bulletin 17 November 2023

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Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin faces a Senate inquiry over last week's outage; A South Australian police officer killed while on duty and Hungary advance to the European Championship finals after a 2-2 draw with Bulgaria.


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TRANSCRIPT
  • Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin faces a Senate inquiry over last week's outage
  • A South Australian police officer killed while on duty
  • Hungary advance to the European Championship finals after a four-goal draw with Bulgaria
The Optus chief executive, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, has told a Senate inquiry the carrier has taken steps to ensure last week's outage doesn't happen again.

More than 10 million Australians and 400,000 businesses were left without phone and mobile internet.

The inquiry is examining the telco's handling of the crisis as well as its offer of bonus data as a form of compensation.

In her opening statement, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin issued another apology and assured the inquiry there would be no repeat.

"The reality is that our network should have coped with this change but on this occasion it did not. I can confidently assure the Australian public that we have made immediate changes to our systems to ensure that this specific issue will not cause another outage of this nature we experienced last Wednesday."  
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South Australia's Police Commissioner Grant Stevens says the fatal shooting of a police officer on a rural property overnight is a reminder of the dangers of police work.

53-year old Brevet Sergeant Jason Doig died in a shootout on a property at Senior, near Bordertown after he and two colleagues responded to reports of a disturbance.

A second police officer, Sergeant Michael Hutchinson, was also shot and is being treated in hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

A third police officer, Constable Rebekah Cass, wasn't injured.

The 26-year-old shooter is in a serious condition in hospital after being wounded when police returned fire.

Commissioner Stevens says Brevet Sergeant Doig's death is incredibly tragic.

"There wouldn't be one single police officer today who is not thinking about the sacrifice that Jason has made and the risk that is inherent in the role of policing. That concern and care extends to family and friends of police officers as well. You can only imagine during the early hours of this morning the number of people who were wondering, waiting to hear whether or not it was someone they cared about that was involved in this incident. I can only offer my most sincere condolences to Jason's family and we're all hoping that Michael recovers quickly from his injuries."   
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A volunteer firefighter has been killed after being hit by a falling tree while helping put out a fire at Hudson in northern New South Wales.

According to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, the man was offered first aid until the paramedics arrived at the scene.

He was then transferred to the Lightning Ridge where despite the efforts of local medical staff, his death was confirmed a few hours later.

NSW R-F-S Commissioner Rob Rogers says the volunteer was a very active member of his local community.

"I know, the only thing I can say (is) that he was extremely active in the local community and involved in a lot of different initiatives there. I think they moved up to that area, I understand, from the Hunter region, I think around 2010. So they'd been up there for a while and made a life there."
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Israel has claimed that a tunnel shaft and a vehicle, prepared for the raids on southern Israel on October 7, have been found in the Al-Shifa hospital.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari says troops are working to uncover the rest of the tunnel.

"IDF forces found a tunnel shaft in Shifa hospital, and engineering forces are currently uncovering the infrastructure there. We also found a vehicle that had been prepared for the massacre on October 7 and didn't leave (for the mission) and we found many weapons in it."

Mr Hagari says the Israeli Defence Force is also investigating Rantisi hospital, where he said another tunnel was found close by.

Hamas and hospital staff have denied the allegations.
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Opposition leader Peter Dutton says the victims of the criminals who have been released from immigration detention after a landmark High Court ruling are living in fear.

It comes as the government introduced new amendments to the Migration Act last night which will impose greater restrictions to the released detainees.

Among the restrictions are the monitoring of their location via ankle bracelets.

Mr Dutton has told Channel Nine that the High Court decision could lead to the release of even more criminals to the Australian community.

"Amazingly we're informed that it's not just the 84, that there's another 340 that potentially get released as well and that is... For those victims, and we've seen some of them in the press over the course of the last few days, they're in tears. These are victims of rape, kids as young as ten who've been sexually molested. These are the worst of people and they're not even Australian citizens."
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In football,

Hungary have qualified for their third-straight European Championship after an own-goal in stoppage time in a game marred by violent clashes outside an empty stadium in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian fans clashed with police in Sofia over the local Football Federation's handling of the national team.

The final result was 2-2, with both teams ending the game with ten players each.

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