What we covered todayBy Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news for Tuesday, September 1. Here’s what we covered today:Numbered identification tags placed inside pots mark the graves of flash flood victims in Nepal.AP Photo/Dar YasinA second Australian has been found safe after last week’s devastating flash floods on the border of Nepal and Tibet. Forty-two Australians remain missing. A NSW hiker was the first Australian confirmed dead.The total death toll of the disaster has passed 1000 as search and recovery efforts continue in the devastated region. More than 4400 people are missing.The first gas from controversial Beetaloo Basin fracking projects in the Northern Territory is set to flow to homes and businesses today, in a move condemned by the Greens but which has prompted the territory to tout its vast energy supply potential.US President Donald Trump has vowed to “hit Iran hard”, promising further strikes after Iran launched missiles yesterday at two US airbases in Jordan in response to a US attack on Iran’s Larak Island.And the US Supreme Court has allowed Trump to keep building his White House ballroom for now, brushing aside conclusions by two lower courts that he is probably violating the law.Latest Posts5.48pm on Sep 1, 2026Inside Pauline Hanson’s high-altitude Melbourne fundraiserBy Fiona ByrneWhere does Pauline Hanson, self-styled woman of the people, go to break bread with party donors? Vue de Monde, of course – one of Melbourne’s most expensive restaurants perched 55 storeys above the lives of the city’s hoi polloi.Former state Liberal treasurer Andrew Abercrombie was among the small group who lunched with Pauline Hanson.Eamon GallagherCBD didn’t recognise too many of the grey-haired gents who dug deep to join the One Nation senator for the $2000-a-plate nosh-up on Tuesday, but we were intrigued to see Andrew Abercrombie, a lifetime Liberal and former state treasurer of the party, hopping into the Rialto lift on Collins Street on his way up to the lunch.Read more here.5.21pm on Sep 1, 2026Strike action looms after Qantas ground workers voteBy Christine ChenSome ground crew at Australia’s largest airline, Qantas Airways, have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action over pay and job conditions.The Transport Workers Union said 97 per cent of 350 workers who voted on Monday backed industrial action, including work stoppages ranging from one hour to 24 hours.Qantas and its ground staff are due back in Australia’s Fair Work Commission for talks on September 18.Getty ImagesNo date has been set for a strike. The union is required to give three days’ notice before taking industrial action.“These ground workers don’t want to go on strike, but after being sold a false promise that this airline would finally treat them with respect, they’ve got no other choice,” said Michael Kaine, the union’s national secretary.5.13pm on Sep 1, 2026Fracking protests prompt police presence at conferenceBy Lloyd JonesA strong police presence featuring mounted officers is expected at a major resources conference that anti-fracking protesters plan to target.Police will monitor the two-day event in Darwin from Wednesday after environmental groups voiced opposition over a controversial project.Fracking in the Northern Territory.Justin McManusThe conference will be held after first gas from Beetaloo Basin fracking projects in Australia’s north started to flow to homes and businesses in the territory on Tuesday.Environmental groups have sharply criticised the Beetaloo gas project, saying it signals the start of an “environmental disaster”.4.27pm on Sep 1, 2026‘I’m very, very lucky’: Federal MP returns to parliament four weeks after serious car accidentBy Alexander DarlingSydney-based Labor MP Ed Husic says he is still trying to piece together what happened on the day his car was hit by a truck on a highway.Husic sustained a hairline fracture in a vertebra and concussion after the incident on August 4, footage of which he shared with the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.Labor MP Ed Husic.Dominic LorrimerSpeaking to the program afterwards, Husic said his memory blanked out from midday until he regained consciousness in an emergency department hours later.“I’m very, very lucky, I’m very fortunate I’ve been able to walk away from that, and I put that down to the tremendous public health network we have in [NSW],” he said.3.56pm on Sep 1, 2026Nepal-Tibet flood death toll passes 1000By The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Nepal and China passed 1000 on Tuesday, authorities said, as rescue teams worked to reach communities cut off by the disaster.Nepal’s disaster agency said on Tuesday that 987 deaths had been recorded there, with 3916 people missing, including 583 foreigners.Relatives console Muna Khadka, who lost her son Aayush Khada, in the flash floods, during mass burials on Monday.AP Photo/Dar YasinChinese authorities reported 16 deaths in their most recent update on Sunday.At least 11,814 people have been rescued so far, according to Nepalese authorities.3.39pm on Sep 1, 2026Second Australian found safe after Nepal-Tibet floodsBy Brittany BuschAn Australian missing in the Nepal flooding disaster has been located in Tibet, China by DFAT officials.“We’re incredibly thankful another Australian, who had been unaccounted for, has now been found,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement.“It’s hard to imagine the sense of relief their loved ones must be feeling after what will have been an incredibly harrowing few days.”She said finding a second person alive, who for privacy reasons has not yet been identified, was welcome news, but the government remained realistic about the ongoing search efforts.3.05pm on Sep 1, 2026Howard declares victory over Tampa critics, 25 years onBy Alexander DarlingFormer prime minister John Howard says he feels vindicated by how he handled the Tampa asylum seeker affair, 25 years on from the incident.In late August 2001, Australian troops prevented Norwegian Freighter the MV Tampa from entering Australian waters, the first time such a boat had been met by Australian armed forces. At the time, it was carrying dozens of asylum seekers which it had rescued from the Indian Ocean.The Howard government deployed the SAS to stop Norwegian ship Tampa bringing asylum seekers onshore to Australia in 2001.APOn News24 (formerly Sky News), Howard was asked if he felt he had been right to take a hard line against allowing the seekers to enter, given immigration had become an enormous issue globally in the years since.“The greatest vindication is that now, many of the countries that criticised me in a sanctimonious manner, especially some of the Scandinavian countries, are now saying, ‘We’ve got to protect our borders’,” Howard replied.“The truth is that Australia has always been welcoming to genuine refugees. We’ve always played our role in humanitarian help, but we are not a soft touch, we’re not a country that will roll over who claim to be refugees who are not really.”The Tampa refugees were ultimately sent to New Zealand and Nauru.2.58pm on Sep 1, 2026Americans ‘didn’t need our help’ in Afghanistan: John HowardBy Alexander DarlingFormer prime minister John Howard says he vividly remembers the moment he decided to invoke the ANZUS pact (the tri-nation security deal with the US and New Zealand) that resulted in Australian troops being deployed to Afghanistan.As Howard and then-foreign minister Alexander Downer flew out of American airspace after the 2001 terror attacks on the US, Downer suggested to Howard it was time.John Howard and then-president George W. Bush in the Oval Office in 2003.Getty Images“We thought as an act of support, friendship and solidarity, we should invoke it,” Howard told News24, formerly Sky News, on Tuesday.“The Americans didn’t need our help, but golly, they appreciated the gesture, and they respected the military capacity of the Australian armed forces. The US president [George W. Bush] said to me at an APEC summit later that year, ‘Our military tell me that your SAS are fantastic’.”2.17pm on Sep 1, 2026Metro Tunnel-related services suspended due to industrial actionBy Alexander DarlingParts of Melbourne’s train services have been replaced by buses until further notice, as industrial action becomes the latest issue to affect the network.Buses are replacing trains on the Sunbury line, between Watergardens and Sunbury stations, in the city’s north-west, and on the Dandenong and Cranbourne lines in the south-east.The action is being taken by Electrical Trades Union and Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union-aligned workers who maintain the state’s high-capacity Metro Trains.These trains service the Sunbury and Cranbourne lines via the newly opened Metro Tunnel, which travels underneath the Melbourne CBD.1 of 3