Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey with
Speaker 1: the Front's afternoon headlines. In some of Australia's most rugged country,
Speaker 1: so called sovereign citizen Desi Freeman has been on the
Speaker 1: run since August twenty twenty five after allegedly shooting dead
Speaker 1: two police officers. Now Victoria Police are launching a new
Speaker 1: five day search for Freeman, whom they've been hunting for
Speaker 1: six months, but now they're searching for a corpse. The
Speaker 1: Mount Buffalo National Park in the Australian Alps is about
Speaker 1: halfway between Melbourne and Canberra, and it looks like something
Speaker 1: from Middle Earth. Cliffs, impossibly steep gullies and impenetrable bush
Speaker 1: where temperatures range from minus eight in winter to the
Speaker 1: low thirties in summer. Freeman was a survivalist who believed
Speaker 1: normal laws didn't apply to him, and when Detective Leading
Speaker 1: Senior Constable Neil Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim Devat Hottart
Speaker 1: showed up to execute a search warrant Rouli to alleged
Speaker 1: historical sex offenses, Freeman allegedly shot them dead. A third
Speaker 1: officer was seriously wounded that was at Freeman's makeshift home
Speaker 1: a bus on his property near the town of Pora Punker.
Speaker 1: The officers were killed shortly after ten thirty am. Freeman
Speaker 1: went on the run immediately, but around two hours later
Speaker 1: police say a member of the public heard a gunshot
Speaker 1: and that's why they now think Freeman is dead. Victoria
Speaker 1: Police say they've conducted firearms and acoustic testing to determine
Speaker 1: where the gunshot came from. They're also examining possibilities that
Speaker 1: Freeman was able to escape the area and is being
Speaker 1: harbored by someone, or that he fled the Alps and
Speaker 1: is still on the run. So far, the search for
Speaker 1: Freeman has been the biggest tactical operation ever undertaken in Australia,
Speaker 1: including searches of caves, mines, huts and waterways using dogs,
Speaker 1: drones and search and rescue specialists. There's a one million
Speaker 1: dollar reward for information that leads to Freeman's arrest or
Speaker 1: the location of his body. You can check out that
Speaker 1: story live right now at the Australian dot com DOREU
Speaker 1: and come back to the front first thing in the
Speaker 1: morning for our look at interest rates. Are they going
Speaker 1: up and if they do who's to blame,