One child died in a knife attack in the Blue Mountains, the New South Wales police said. Two other children and a woman are in hospital in critical condition.
Emergency services responded to reports of three children and a woman with knife wounds in a vehicle on Waratah Road in Valley Heights. Police from the Blue Mountains Police Area Command were informed that several members of the public had provided first aid to the woman and three children while contacting emergency services. One of the children was found dead in the vehicle.
Staff from NSW Ambulance treated two children, believed to be under five, and a woman, believed to be in her forties, at the scene before they were taken to hospital. All three are listed in a critical condition. A crime scene has been established, and police are currently not looking for other persons.
Police are asking anyone with information or mobile phone or in-car video footage of the incident to contact Crime Stoppers.
In a separate development, Tanya Plibersek spoke out following the deaths of three women in alleged homicides linked to domestic violence in separate incidents over a 12-hour period in New South Wales. Three men are now charged with the murders linked to domestic violence. A 37-year-old man was charged today following the discovery of the body of a woman in her 70s in the Macquarie River late yesterday evening.
Plibersek said: 'These women are owed more than our grief.' She added that every level of government, every community organisation, schools and workplaces, and every family must work together to keep women and children safe.
Meanwhile, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Australian 40-year-olds would 'be facing' in the context of artificial intelligence transforming the global economy. Chalmers will present the seventh intergenerational report tomorrow afternoon. The report will include projections on the impact of new technologies on society and the economy, with additional warnings about the aging population and falling birth rates.
Anthony Albanese is visiting the United States this week to discuss a 'global framework' for the introduction of artificial intelligence. Albanese called on 'two great powers' – the US and China – to act in the interests of humanity. At a press conference today, Chalmers warned that the report would show that Australia 'is facing serious risks to the economy and significant pressures on the budget'. Chalmers believes that government policies are well placed to address this.
In other news, tram drivers from Melbourne finished second from bottom, immediately behind London, at the 12th European Tram Drivers Championship held in Warsaw yesterday. The team from Prague finished first out of 26 teams. The track included smooth stopping and starting, speed control at 25 km/h, target braking, tram bowling, lateral distance, basketball, perfect stopping with the second door, and driving backwards guided by whistle. Melbourne will host the next event in 2027. In 2022, Australia was the first non-European country selected to participate in the competition.
The Prime Minister said that the immigration policy of One Nation would be 'devilish' for the economy. Angus Taylor said that Treasurer Jim Chalmers should 'engage' with the opposition's promises on the introduction of a 'fuel price shield' and a reduction in tobacco tax. The Prime Minister was asked if Australia had plans to join the EU, following Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's welcome of Canada's application to become the first associated member of the EU. Anthony Albanese said 'we are far from Europe, of course'. Albanese said that Australian relations were also in areas where Canada did not, such as in ASEAN, and that the centrality of ASEAN in the region was important. He said that the Pacific Islands Forum, where he had been a few weeks ago, was also very important. Albanese said that the Australian government's approach to the EU was a free trade agreement between Australia and the EU. Albanese said that the e-Security Commissioner had already used the reinforcement of the law to ask social media organisations to provide information, so they had already been forced.
