Australia news live: gunshot analysis inspires fresh search for fugitive Dezi Freeman; Littleproud faces leadership spill attempt

Over 100 police and volunteers join five-day search in Mount Buffalo national park. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastLatest search related to ‘gunshot’ heard shortly after the shooting at Dezi Freeman’s propertyVictoria police said the renewed search for Dezi Freeman is based on intelligence official obtained in the hunt for the man they said is in “relation to a gunshot heard a short time after the fatal incident at Freeman’s Rayner Track property”.It remains our number one priority to locate Freeman and the extensive and systematic searches conducted over the past five months are testament to this.The same three possibilities remain open to us – Freeman is either dead, being harboured, or has gotten out from the area and surviving alone. At this time there is no intelligence to move us away from these possibilities or to make any one the more likely scenario, so we have to keep an open mind. Continue reading...