April 16, 2025 • 12 mins
A husband accused of murdering his wife who died in a horrific house fire west of Brisbane has just had his case heard in court for the first time.
Reports of Russian interest in an Indonesian air base are clouded in doubt, but they've sparked a war of words on the election campaign trail.
Police are on high alert on the campaign trail today after anti-immigration protesters breached the Prime Minister's hotel in Melbourne.
7NEWS Headlines with Natarsha Belling for April 15, 2025.
For more news, head to www.7news.com.au
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Good afternoon, A husband accused of murdering his wife who
died in a horrific house fire west of Brisbane has
just had his case hurting court for the first time.
Reporter Garth Burley was at the hearing.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good afternoon. Forty five year old Cameron Hunt spent his
first night in police custody after he was charged with
the domestic violence murder of his wife, Louise Hunt. Her
remains were found and the couples burnt out home north
of to Woomba. Police allege her husband torched the house,
which took three hours to bring under control. When emergency
(00:40):
services arrived, Cameron Hunt was nowhere to be seen. A
man hunt for the forty five year old ended in Redcliffe,
almost two hundred kilometers from the fire, which has left
two children without a mother. Cameron Hunt did not appear
when his matter was heard in the to Woman Magistrates
Court today. Due to the sheer amount of evidence and
(01:02):
the nature of the charges. The case has been adjourned
for three months.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Two pictures just in this afternoon, and police have released
images of a man wanted over the alleged sexual assault
of an elderly woman in Sydney's West officers say he
approached the eighty three year old victim and offered to
carry her shopping trolley home before forcing his way into
her home. The suspect has fair skin, dark hair and
a slight beard, and was wearing a dark blue pantsuit
(01:31):
and also a black shirt. Reports of Russian interest in
an Indonesian air base are clouded in Dart, but they
have certainly sparked a war of words on the election
campaign trail. The Prime Minister today unleashed at the Liberal
leader's initial response. Tim Lester reports from the Melbourne seat
of Aston held by the Liberal Party.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Peter Dutton traveling to eastern Melbourne to visit another housing
construction site, an opportunity for the Liberal leader to underline
his policy to make mortgages for first home buyers tax deductible.
He did a similar visit yesterday, this in the electorate
of Aston, which he badly needs to win on May
third is to win government. That said, the bigger issue
(02:18):
facing mister Dutton this morning around the news Yesterday, appearing
on a defense website, Jans reports that Russia has requested
from Indonesia the right to base military aircraft in Indonesia's
easternmost province, Papua, just north of Darwin. It's set off
enormous discussion in the election campaign.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
We don't know from the government to exactly what happened,
because the government doesn't know.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Our government since receiving an assurance from Jakarta that it
won't allow any basing of Russian aircraft. But mister Alberinizi
this morning deeply critical at the opposition leader.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
What we saw from Peter Dutton yes today was an
extraordinary overreach. He verbaled the President of Indonesia.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Mister Dutton, mister Albernizi has suggested that you were wildly
irresponsible in your comments yesterday with regard to the potential
for Russia to base aircraft in Papua.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
The prospect of having Russia with the greater presence in
our region is very real and there are a lot
of questions that the government still has to answer. The
reference I made was obviously to what is a very
credible military website.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Mister Dutton says the coalition expects a briefing on the
issue from the government. He's now heading north to Sydney
for tonight's debate.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Tim Thank you. Meantime, police are on high alert on
the campaign trail today after anti immigration protesters breached the
Prime Minister's hotel in Melbourne, while tonight in Sydney, a
large pro Palestine demonstration is expected at the second leader's debate.
Political reporter Josh Martin has the details from the marginal
held seat of Deacon.
Speaker 6 (04:04):
We're here at another housing project with the Prime Minister,
this time in Melbourne's East in the electorate of Deacon,
held by Shadow Housing spokesman Michael Suka on a margin
of just zero point two percent. The Prime Minister's breaking
his plan to build one point two million homes in
five years, but under pressure and questioned as to why
the government allowed one million migrants in in just a
(04:27):
two year period.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
What we have doing is digging Australia out of the
hole that the Liberals have dug over a decade of inaction.
Peter Dutton granted Moore versus to people to come to
Australia than any other minister.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
It's also security concerns dominating the campaign today. Last night,
a couple of people concerned with Australia's immigration rate made
their way into the Prime Minister's hotel lobby in Melbourne
and we're told to leave by security and Anthony Alberici's
staff as they yelled questions at the Prime Minister.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I have a question for you, mister Alban Easy, when
are you going to put Australians first?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Easy?
Speaker 6 (05:06):
When are you going to put Australians first?
Speaker 7 (05:08):
That's enough, fans, gay, that's enough.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
The Prime Minister and Liberal leader have had limited interaction
with the general public and we are more than halfway
through the campaign.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
I have faith in the AFP, as I've said before,
I have no intention of going into security discussions.
Speaker 6 (05:25):
And would you like to be able to interact with
the public more? And previous campaigns going back ten twenty years,
we saw people do street walks.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I do nothing stop me.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
Tonight the leaders will go head to head in this
second debate hosted by the ABC in Paramatta in Sydney's West.
Tonight's debate in Sydney, New South Wales. Police are expecting
a large pro Palestine protest and they say police will
be there in large numbers as well.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Josh thank you and joining us now with his analysis
of the election campaign so far, as former Labor Party
leader Bill short and mister Shorton, thanks again for your
time the suffer. Let's start with the situation with Indonesia.
Defense Minister Richard Miles and Foreign Minister. Our foreign minister
have both said there was no prospect Indonesia would host
Russian assets, but importantly, they have both declined to confirm
(06:15):
whether they knew such a request was made by mister
Putin's regime.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
Well, I have to say that in an election, there
are still red lines, and you can't do national security
through soundbites in an election. And I would have thought
that mister Darton, with his background and experience, wouldn't have
just slept on something he read on the internet. So
I think that highlights a degree of desperation. It feels
(06:47):
that the whiff of desperation is emanating from the sort
of chimneys of the coalition campaign that they're looking for
any issue to just, I don't know, grab a headline, mister.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Short, national security is a really important issue. As we
heard earlier in that earlier story from our reporter, Mister
Dutton is fired back this morning over this controversy, saying
the prospect of having Russia with a greater presence in
our region is very real and there are a lot
of questions the government still has to answer. Do you
think there are questions mister Albinezi has to answer on this.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
I think it's a very complicated foreign affairs picture in Australia,
the most challenging since the Second World War. But I
think mister Dutton's, you know, this is not his first rodeo.
He would understand that Foreign Minister Wong and Defense Minister
Males a handleg, as the Liberals probably should have if
they were in government, and trying to I mean this
(07:41):
to me sounds like mister looking for an issue to
try and muddy up the election campaign. Of course, Russian
foreign policy expansionism is a serious issue, but the ministers
have come out and made clear that the report isn't
accurately based. Think mister Dutton needs to sort of get
(08:02):
his briefing, but not fire off until he's got all
the facts. I think it was a bit reckless of him,
and I can't help wondering that if he had his
time again, he would have been behaved in a less pressured,
under pressure sort of fashion than he has by shooting
from the.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Lib Mister short In another key point of Labour's campaign,
the selection is Medicare and medical care doctors groups have
come out today to say that the idea that everyone
will be able to see their GP for free is
a fantasy, and some other critics have also said the
government would have been better off supporting more GPS than
pumping millions of dollars into these critical care clinics. Do
(08:38):
you agree with that centiment.
Speaker 7 (08:42):
I think we're not comparing. I think we're in danger
of comparing apples with oranges here. To be specific, the
Labor governments rolled out they promised fifty urgent care clinics.
They've rolled out eighty seven. They promised another fifty. Well,
that means is about four and every five Australians is
within twenty minutes of an urgent care clinic. The comparison
(09:03):
I would use as a parent who's had to take
a kid to the doctor out of ours or someone
who's had a family member who needs urgent care, is
it's a lot better to be able to go to
an urgent care clinic than go to a hospital emergency ward.
This is about making sure that there is services which
don't break the family budget, but you can still get
to see the doctor. And I think these urgent care
(09:25):
clinics they're not the whole Medicare story, but they are
part of the armory of making sure that when you
or someone you love has got an urgent need to
see a doctor, that you can actually get to see one,
which is I think a cornerstone of the Australian Medicare
promise and differentiates us for example the United States.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
This is shortening many regional areas right across the country.
If the promises that every estrolim is within twenty minutes
of these critical care clinics, what would you say to
people that live in rural and I guess regional parts
of New South Wales, Queensland, all around the country that
will not be within twenty minutes and one of those
care clinics.
Speaker 7 (10:04):
Yeah, no, it's absolutely it's really tough. I mean, the
challenges of regional healthcare in this country are manifest. I
think what I said before Natasha is that under these
urgent care clinics, four and every five Australian, So it's
not every Australian I know. Here at the University of
Canberra we're working on regional and remote health propositions. One
of the big challenges is training the workforce for regional
(10:27):
and remote areas of Australia. So these urgent urgent care clinics,
they're not the answer to the whole medicare system. And
I think there's a big conversation to be had in
the next term of government training more medical staff, allied
health professionals and nurses so that they can serve the
regions of Australia. But the urgent care clinics are answering
(10:50):
part of the need.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
We appreciate your time once again this afternoon, Bill Shorten,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Lovely to chat.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
A gunment is on the run, the Saturnoon asked after
a house in Sydney's West was peppered with bullets. It's
the city's second drive by shooting in just two days.
Lifetwile reporter Inger Nilsen now the scene, Inger, Good afternoon,
how did this attack unfold?
Speaker 8 (11:14):
Tash Residents here on Folds Road at Guildford West woke
to the sound of gunshots being fired into a home
in the early hours of this morning. A woman was
home at the time, but police say she wasn't the
intended target. Thankfully she wasn't injured. Police say that CCTV,
which you can see here, captures an SUV pulling onto
(11:37):
the road just after two am before a series of bullets,
up to seventeen of them can be heard being peppered
into that property. Police say that same suv was then
burnt out a short time later Villable. They're now appealing
for the public's help.
Speaker 9 (11:56):
Information at the moment indicates that this person was not
the target of the premises, but again it does not
negate the fact that people are firing bullets into homes
in the early hours of the morning. The risk that
they are doing to our community members is just not acceptable.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
The suspect they're looking for is a twenty six year
old man. He was last seen running from the property
behind me with a face covering and dark clothing. Detectives
are still on scene talking to neighbors and tash. Anyone
with information should contact police.
Good afternoon, A husband accused of murdering his wife who
died in a horrific house fire west of Brisbane has
just had his case hurting court for the first time.
Reporter Garth Burley was at the hearing.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good afternoon. Forty five year old Cameron Hunt spent his
first night in police custody after he was charged with
the domestic violence murder of his wife, Louise Hunt. Her
remains were found and the couples burnt out home north
of to Woomba. Police allege her husband torched the house,
which took three hours to bring under control. When emergency
(00:40):
services arrived, Cameron Hunt was nowhere to be seen. A
man hunt for the forty five year old ended in Redcliffe,
almost two hundred kilometers from the fire, which has left
two children without a mother. Cameron Hunt did not appear
when his matter was heard in the to Woman Magistrates
Court today. Due to the sheer amount of evidence and
(01:02):
the nature of the charges. The case has been adjourned
for three months.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Two pictures just in this afternoon, and police have released
images of a man wanted over the alleged sexual assault
of an elderly woman in Sydney's West officers say he
approached the eighty three year old victim and offered to
carry her shopping trolley home before forcing his way into
her home. The suspect has fair skin, dark hair and
a slight beard, and was wearing a dark blue pantsuit
(01:31):
and also a black shirt. Reports of Russian interest in
an Indonesian air base are clouded in Dart, but they
have certainly sparked a war of words on the election
campaign trail. The Prime Minister today unleashed at the Liberal
leader's initial response. Tim Lester reports from the Melbourne seat
of Aston held by the Liberal Party.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Peter Dutton traveling to eastern Melbourne to visit another housing
construction site, an opportunity for the Liberal leader to underline
his policy to make mortgages for first home buyers tax deductible.
He did a similar visit yesterday, this in the electorate
of Aston, which he badly needs to win on May
third is to win government. That said, the bigger issue
(02:18):
facing mister Dutton this morning around the news Yesterday, appearing
on a defense website, Jans reports that Russia has requested
from Indonesia the right to base military aircraft in Indonesia's
easternmost province, Papua, just north of Darwin. It's set off
enormous discussion in the election campaign.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
We don't know from the government to exactly what happened,
because the government doesn't know.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Our government since receiving an assurance from Jakarta that it
won't allow any basing of Russian aircraft. But mister Alberinizi
this morning deeply critical at the opposition leader.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
What we saw from Peter Dutton yes today was an
extraordinary overreach. He verbaled the President of Indonesia.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Mister Dutton, mister Albernizi has suggested that you were wildly
irresponsible in your comments yesterday with regard to the potential
for Russia to base aircraft in Papua.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
The prospect of having Russia with the greater presence in
our region is very real and there are a lot
of questions that the government still has to answer. The
reference I made was obviously to what is a very
credible military website.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Mister Dutton says the coalition expects a briefing on the
issue from the government. He's now heading north to Sydney
for tonight's debate.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Tim Thank you. Meantime, police are on high alert on
the campaign trail today after anti immigration protesters breached the
Prime Minister's hotel in Melbourne, while tonight in Sydney, a
large pro Palestine demonstration is expected at the second leader's debate.
Political reporter Josh Martin has the details from the marginal
held seat of Deacon.
Speaker 6 (04:04):
We're here at another housing project with the Prime Minister,
this time in Melbourne's East in the electorate of Deacon,
held by Shadow Housing spokesman Michael Suka on a margin
of just zero point two percent. The Prime Minister's breaking
his plan to build one point two million homes in
five years, but under pressure and questioned as to why
the government allowed one million migrants in in just a
(04:27):
two year period.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
What we have doing is digging Australia out of the
hole that the Liberals have dug over a decade of inaction.
Peter Dutton granted Moore versus to people to come to
Australia than any other minister.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
It's also security concerns dominating the campaign today. Last night,
a couple of people concerned with Australia's immigration rate made
their way into the Prime Minister's hotel lobby in Melbourne
and we're told to leave by security and Anthony Alberici's
staff as they yelled questions at the Prime Minister.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I have a question for you, mister Alban Easy, when
are you going to put Australians first?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Easy?
Speaker 6 (05:06):
When are you going to put Australians first?
Speaker 7 (05:08):
That's enough, fans, gay, that's enough.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
The Prime Minister and Liberal leader have had limited interaction
with the general public and we are more than halfway
through the campaign.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
I have faith in the AFP, as I've said before,
I have no intention of going into security discussions.
Speaker 6 (05:25):
And would you like to be able to interact with
the public more? And previous campaigns going back ten twenty years,
we saw people do street walks.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I do nothing stop me.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
Tonight the leaders will go head to head in this
second debate hosted by the ABC in Paramatta in Sydney's West.
Tonight's debate in Sydney, New South Wales. Police are expecting
a large pro Palestine protest and they say police will
be there in large numbers as well.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Josh thank you and joining us now with his analysis
of the election campaign so far, as former Labor Party
leader Bill short and mister Shorton, thanks again for your
time the suffer. Let's start with the situation with Indonesia.
Defense Minister Richard Miles and Foreign Minister. Our foreign minister
have both said there was no prospect Indonesia would host
Russian assets, but importantly, they have both declined to confirm
(06:15):
whether they knew such a request was made by mister
Putin's regime.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
Well, I have to say that in an election, there
are still red lines, and you can't do national security
through soundbites in an election. And I would have thought
that mister Darton, with his background and experience, wouldn't have
just slept on something he read on the internet. So
I think that highlights a degree of desperation. It feels
(06:47):
that the whiff of desperation is emanating from the sort
of chimneys of the coalition campaign that they're looking for
any issue to just, I don't know, grab a headline, mister.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Short, national security is a really important issue. As we
heard earlier in that earlier story from our reporter, Mister
Dutton is fired back this morning over this controversy, saying
the prospect of having Russia with a greater presence in
our region is very real and there are a lot
of questions the government still has to answer. Do you
think there are questions mister Albinezi has to answer on this.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
I think it's a very complicated foreign affairs picture in Australia,
the most challenging since the Second World War. But I
think mister Dutton's, you know, this is not his first rodeo.
He would understand that Foreign Minister Wong and Defense Minister
Males a handleg, as the Liberals probably should have if
they were in government, and trying to I mean this
(07:41):
to me sounds like mister looking for an issue to
try and muddy up the election campaign. Of course, Russian
foreign policy expansionism is a serious issue, but the ministers
have come out and made clear that the report isn't
accurately based. Think mister Dutton needs to sort of get
(08:02):
his briefing, but not fire off until he's got all
the facts. I think it was a bit reckless of him,
and I can't help wondering that if he had his
time again, he would have been behaved in a less pressured,
under pressure sort of fashion than he has by shooting
from the.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Lib Mister short In another key point of Labour's campaign,
the selection is Medicare and medical care doctors groups have
come out today to say that the idea that everyone
will be able to see their GP for free is
a fantasy, and some other critics have also said the
government would have been better off supporting more GPS than
pumping millions of dollars into these critical care clinics. Do
(08:38):
you agree with that centiment.
Speaker 7 (08:42):
I think we're not comparing. I think we're in danger
of comparing apples with oranges here. To be specific, the
Labor governments rolled out they promised fifty urgent care clinics.
They've rolled out eighty seven. They promised another fifty. Well,
that means is about four and every five Australians is
within twenty minutes of an urgent care clinic. The comparison
(09:03):
I would use as a parent who's had to take
a kid to the doctor out of ours or someone
who's had a family member who needs urgent care, is
it's a lot better to be able to go to
an urgent care clinic than go to a hospital emergency ward.
This is about making sure that there is services which
don't break the family budget, but you can still get
to see the doctor. And I think these urgent care
(09:25):
clinics they're not the whole Medicare story, but they are
part of the armory of making sure that when you
or someone you love has got an urgent need to
see a doctor, that you can actually get to see one,
which is I think a cornerstone of the Australian Medicare
promise and differentiates us for example the United States.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
This is shortening many regional areas right across the country.
If the promises that every estrolim is within twenty minutes
of these critical care clinics, what would you say to
people that live in rural and I guess regional parts
of New South Wales, Queensland, all around the country that
will not be within twenty minutes and one of those
care clinics.
Speaker 7 (10:04):
Yeah, no, it's absolutely it's really tough. I mean, the
challenges of regional healthcare in this country are manifest. I
think what I said before Natasha is that under these
urgent care clinics, four and every five Australian, So it's
not every Australian I know. Here at the University of
Canberra we're working on regional and remote health propositions. One
of the big challenges is training the workforce for regional
(10:27):
and remote areas of Australia. So these urgent urgent care clinics,
they're not the answer to the whole medicare system. And
I think there's a big conversation to be had in
the next term of government training more medical staff, allied
health professionals and nurses so that they can serve the
regions of Australia. But the urgent care clinics are answering
(10:50):
part of the need.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
We appreciate your time once again this afternoon, Bill Shorten,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Lovely to chat.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
A gunment is on the run, the Saturnoon asked after
a house in Sydney's West was peppered with bullets. It's
the city's second drive by shooting in just two days.
Lifetwile reporter Inger Nilsen now the scene, Inger, Good afternoon,
how did this attack unfold?
Speaker 8 (11:14):
Tash Residents here on Folds Road at Guildford West woke
to the sound of gunshots being fired into a home
in the early hours of this morning. A woman was
home at the time, but police say she wasn't the
intended target. Thankfully she wasn't injured. Police say that CCTV,
which you can see here, captures an SUV pulling onto
(11:37):
the road just after two am before a series of bullets,
up to seventeen of them can be heard being peppered
into that property. Police say that same suv was then
burnt out a short time later Villable. They're now appealing
for the public's help.
Speaker 9 (11:56):
Information at the moment indicates that this person was not
the target of the premises, but again it does not
negate the fact that people are firing bullets into homes
in the early hours of the morning. The risk that
they are doing to our community members is just not acceptable.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
The suspect they're looking for is a twenty six year
old man. He was last seen running from the property
behind me with a face covering and dark clothing. Detectives
are still on scene talking to neighbors and tash. Anyone
with information should contact police.
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