Australia news live: Jonathon Duniam to retire from politics; father and daughter found dead in Sydney river

The Tasmanian Liberal senator has announced he will leave parliament before the end of the year. Follow the day’s news live

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The body of a seven-year-old girl has been recovered from Sydney’s Parramatta River after her father was also found dead earlier on Saturday, with an investigation into their deaths to continue.

Emergency services were called to Bayview Park in Concord just before 11:45am on Saturday after a passerby on another vessel spotted a man’s body in the water near a small, drifting boat. Officers from the Burwood Police Area Command boarded another boat to reach the scene, where they pulled the man from the water and commenced CPR. He could not be revived.

Police believe the deceased man is a father in his 40s from the Westmead area who had hired the vessel earlier in the day. Upon investigating the boat, police discovered that his seven-year-old daughter was missing from the vessel. Specialist police divers recovered her body hours later.

Superintendent Christine McDonald, Commander of the Burwood Police Area Command, described the situation as an “absolute tragedy”.

McDonald said a friend of the family had called authorities at 12:30pm to request a welfare check on the father and daughter, unaware that police had already located the man’s body about 45 minutes earlier.

The child’s distraught mother was assisting investigators with their inquiries.


A crime scene has been established and forensic officers were examining the hired vessel. The man and girl have yet to be formally identified but police said the family was from Westmead, in Sydney’s west.

McDonald said police would “leave no stone unturned” as they investigate on behalf of the coroner whether the incident was a tragic accident or intentional:

There are several lines of inquiry currently under way. But can I say from the outset, this is an absolute tragedy for the family and the community on every level. We will leave no stone unturned.

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