Brownlow Medal 2023 red carpet live updates: fashion, arrivals and best dressed from AFL’s big night | Australia news

Brownlow baby bumps making a strong showing this evening. Who knows, these little bundles a percolating AFL joy might be making more appearances in the decades to come if they follow in their parent’s footsteps.

Another name tipped to be in competition for the Brownlow Medal is Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli, who has has arrived with Neila Brenning:

After stepping out as a couple for the first time at the opening night of Moulin Rouge last month, the host of Triple J’s the The Hook Up Dee Salmin is making her Brownlow Medal debut on the arm of Collingwood captain Darcy Moore:

Medal favourite Nick Daicos arrives on Brownlow red carpet

Geelong star Patrick Dangerfield with his wife (and high school sweetheart) Mardi Harwood in a very literally dazzling purple number.

Who’s being tipped to win tonight? Collingwood’s Nick Daicos has been considered the frontrunner for the Brownlow for most of the season, until a knee injury ended his home and away campaign early.

Other names touted to challenge Daicos after his four-game absence include Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli, Brisbane Lions skipper and 2020 winner Lachie Neale, Melbourne’s Christian Petracca and Port Adelaide’s Zak Butters.

They are yet to arrive but the incoming AFL CEO Andrew Dillon and wife Amanda Dillon have hit the red carpet in all black.

Sydney Swans player Chad Warner’s date Alice Hughes on the other hand is bringing more colour:

Welcome to our Brownlow Medal coverage

I’m going to hand over the blog here to my colleague Natasha May who will be bringing you all the fashion from the Brownlow red carpet arrivals. Enjoy!

Tariffs on Russia and Belarus extended

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, and trade minister, Don Farrell, have extended the tariffs imposed on Russia and Belarus for a further two years out to October 2025.

The 35% tariff on Russian imports, along with prohibition on gold and energy imports has led to imports from Russia falling by over 95% in the second half of last year, the government said, in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Australian government repeated its call for Russia to withdraw forces from Ukrainian territory and for Belarus to stop supporting the war.

Wong said:

The extension of punitive trade measures shows Australia’s unwavering determination to diminish President Putin and Russia’s ability to fund this illegal and immoral war.

Russia’s actions against Ukraine’s sovereignty, the rule of law and the UN Charter, are reprehensible.

A review into controversial strip searches at music festivals has revealed low standards of record keeping and training for officers, AAP reports.

Less than half of NSW police officers who carried out strip searches at five music festivals in 2021 and 2022 completed specialist training, the NSW Police and the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission found.

The audit, released on Monday, reported that 47% of officers completed a specific music festival training package within the required time and 28% did not complete the training at all.

It also revealed officers had failed to properly complete official music festival field processing forms, intended to ensure searches were conducted lawfully.

It found that 74% of general search records and 68% of strip search records adequately reflected reasonable suspicion, while 27% of strip search records showed police had followed the rules.

While training for police attending music festivals had improved, there were gaps in the training actually being rolled out, the review found.

The report noted the legality of a search might be challenged in court or in a misconduct investigation, and questions regarding an officer’s actions could be raised months or years after the search.

Car crashes onto Sydney beach

A car flipped over onto Balmoral Beach on Sydney’s north shore, while attempting to leave the carpark.

NSW police said the incident occurred at around 1.15pm on Monday, with a 33-year-old woman driver and a 55-year-old male passenger able to free themselves from the car. The driver was treated by NSW paramedics on the scene for minor injuries, while the passenger was not injured.

No one on the beach was injured, but those on the beach told Nine News they were very lucky that the car didn’t hit anyone.

NSW police said the driver was subjected to a roadside breath test, which returned a negative result.

The vehicle was lifted out of the beach on Monday afternoon.

Industrial relations legislation will harm jobs, Chamber of Commerce chief says

Andrew McKellar, the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program to talk about the jobs white paper.

He says the paper broadly is a step in the right direction, but criticises the section on secure jobs and wages for not taking into account the industrial relations legislation currently before the parliament – which he says will harm jobs.

If we’re going to sustain full employment under its definition, then we have to continue to grow the economy. But to do that, you have to be boosting productivity, you have to be investing in more skills, you have to be encouraging more groups, more people who have traditionally not been strong in the labour force to come in, and unfortunately its industrial relations agenda pushes in completely the opposite direction. It does nothing to encourage productivity at all.

In fact, it will make it much harder for many businesses to make the decision to employ people in the future.

He says the legislation needs to be pulled from the parliament if the government wants to succeed with the strategy outlined in the paper issued today.

South Australia records case of Meningococcal disease

South Australian Health has reported a new case of Meningococcal in the state, with a 48-year-old man from Adelaide admitted to hospital.

He is in a stable condition, and two identified close contacts have been directed to receive clearance antibiotics.

SA Health says this is the 20th such reported case in the state this year, compared to 12 last year.

Hazard reduction at Lake Macquarie completed

Fire and Rescue NSW, along with NSW Rural Fire Service completed a major hazard reduction operation at Cameron Park at Lake Macquarie over the weekend.

More than 40 firefighters and six water tankers worked with RFS volunteers to reduce built up fuel on 38 hectares of bushland near homes and transmission lines.

More burns are planned this week, including tomorrow at Lindfield on Sydney’s upper north shore, and on Friday at Allambie Heights.