What we learned – Wednesday 3 December
That’s it for today, thanks for reading.
Here are the main stories of the day:
Bruce Lehrmann knew Brittany Higgins didn’t consent, federal court rules as it dismisses defamation appeal.
A Senate inquiry led by Labor has recommended passing the Albanese government’s controversial freedom of information bill but opposition and crossbench senators have jointly slammed the proposal as “undemocratic” and “ill-informed”.
The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will resume this month, the Malaysian transport ministry has said, more than a decade after the plane disappeared in one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.
A public housing policy which saw tenants in the Northern Territory charged a flat rental rate based on the number of bedrooms in their home has been ruled unlawful by the high court, after a three-year challenge brought by residents from two remote Indigenous communities.
Victoria’s question time suspended after protester tells premier ‘I’ve come to growl at you’ over youth justice bill.
YouTube has agreed to comply with the federal government’s under-16s social media ban, announcing its decision a week out from the 10 December start date;
The Australian Taxation Office has relaunched a campaign to retrieve billions of dollars of on-hold debts from taxpayers after conceding flaws in its initial approach, dubbed “robotax”.
Victoria police will lay an additional 775 charges against a man as part of an ongoing investigation into an illegal recording device at Melbourne hospitals.
We will see you here again for more news tomorrow.
Updated
Dfat supports new MH370 search
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says it backs the new search for the remains of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. In a statement, it said:
Australia supports all practical efforts to locate Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. We welcome Malaysia’s decision to engage Ocean Infinity to resume the search later this month and hope this brings closure to families who have endured so much since the tragedy.
Malaysia announced in March 2025 that Ocean Infinity would conduct a renewed search for MH370, which was temporarily suspended in April due to seasonal weather conditions and is expected to resume at the end of December 2025 and continue into early 2026.
Australia previously offered technical assistance to Malaysia, which has requested that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) join a working group to review seafloor imagery if Ocean Infinity identifies potential debris. Malaysia retains responsibility for the search and investigation as the state where the aircraft was registered.
Updated
One dead and two injured after shooting in northern NSW
A man has died and two men have been injured after a shooting at a property 10km west of Murwillumbah, NSW police said.
Emergency services were called to Tyalgum Road at Eungella about 1.25pm on Wednesday after reports of a shooting.
Officers attached to Tweed/Byron police district have been told two men, aged 41 and 38, were allegedly shot by another man, who ran from the scene with a fourth man.
NSW Ambulance paramedics treated the older man at the property for a gunshot wound; however, he died at the scene. He is yet to be formally identified.
Police were then alerted to a second incident, also on Tyalgum Road, after a 45-year-old man was allegedly hit by a car. He is being treated in hospital and remains under police guard.
The 38-year-old man subsequently sought treatment at hospital for a gunshot wound.
Police are now waiting to speak with those men to establish the circumstance of how both were injured.
Police are working to locate a fourth person, believed to be aged 37, who they believe can assist with their inquiries.
Updated
Melbourne teacher who allegedly stabbed principal denied bail
A Melbourne teacher accused of snapping when told his contract would not be renewed and stabbing his principal has been denied bail, AAP reports.
Kim Ramchen, 37, applied to be released on bail but was refused on Wednesday after a magistrate found he posed an “extreme” risk of re-offending.
Ramchen, a Keysborough Secondary College teacher, is accused of arming himself with a knife from the school kitchen on Tuesday and stabbing principal Aaron Sykes.
He allegedly held the knife to the throat of Sykes, who suffered a cut to his lip and a stab wound to his arm, Dandenong magistrates court was told on Wednesday.
After being pulled away Sykes, Ramchen walked off and the school was placed into lockdown.
However, it’s alleged he returned to Sykes’ office again and armed himself with a larger knife, allegedly holding the blade close to the principal’s face before being tackled to the ground by staff.
Police told the court Ramchen had “mentally snapped” after being told his teaching contract would not be renewed next year.
Magistrate Andrew Waters found Ramchen was a risk of snapping again as he refused his release on bail, finding the magnitude of his risk of reoffending was “extreme”.
Earlier, the court was told Ramchen had been working at the college for two years and was informed that day his contract would not be renewed for 2026.
He asked the principal for a contract extension but when he was dismissed he became enraged. Ramchen told Sykes he “had never been so angry in (his) life”, police said.
Updated
Gallagher says public service is ‘roughly the right size’
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, says the public service is “roughly the right size”, suggesting there will be no big job cuts from the government’s drive to reduce federal departmental budgets by as much as 5%.
Speaking at Senate estimates, Gallagher said the government was always looking for savings, but said the commonwealth public service workforce was “around the right size now”.
Data released last week showed the public service’s headcount increased by almost 50,000 bureaucrats, or 32%, to 198,529 employees between 2020 and 2025.
“We are resourcing it (the public service) at about the right levels – obviously that is under continuous review,” the minister said.
“But I think roughly the big increases that we have provided have rebuilt capability and have the public service at roughly the right size.”
Gallagher’s comments come ahead of the mid-year budget update due in about two weeks’ time, which is expected to show a smaller, but still substantial, forecast deficit for this financial year.
Updated
Victorian Liberals back emissions reduction targets but criticise energy transition
Victoria’s opposition leader, Jess Wilson, has said she supports the government’s emissions reduction targets, after the release of an auditor general report that showed the state may struggle to meet them.
As we brought you earlier, the report, tabled in state parliament today, finds Victoria is on track to meet its renewable energy target in 2025, but meeting future targets “will be more difficult”. The state will also fail to meet its 2032 offshore wind energy target.
Wilson said the report was “damning” on the government’s management of the energy transition. She says:
It shows we do not have the plan in place, and when we get to key parts of this transition, when Yallourn closes in just a few years time, if enough renewable energy is not put into the grid by that time, then we are going to have blackouts. There is going to be shortfalls of gas as early as next year. It just highlights that this government has mismanaged the transition.
However, when asked if she supported the targets themselves – and the government’s commitment to net zero by 2045 – Wilson said:
We supported the legislation that’s gone through the parliament this year.
Updated
Senate inquiry backs FoI bill, despite dissent from opposition and crossbench
A Senate inquiry led by Labor has recommended passing the Albanese government’s controversial freedom of information bill but opposition and crossbench senators have jointly slammed the proposal as “undemocratic” and “ill-informed”.
Labor senators were alone in backing the bill in the committee’s report, released this afternoon, accepting evidence from the Attorney General’s Department that it would “continue to promote accountable and effective government while making changes to ensure the ongoing viability of the FOI system”.
But dissenting reports by the Coalition, the Greens and the independent senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie painted a different picture.
The opposition labelled it “unwarranted and undemocratic” with Liberal senator and deputy chair Leah Blyth saying it “undermines public trust, weakens accountability, and shifts the FoI regime away from its democratic foundations”.
The Greens senator David Shoebridge criticised Labor for ignoring the evidence given to the committee and rejecting amendments, describing it a “case study in how hubris and an addiction to secrecy guides their politics”
Pocock said it was a “bad bill with no friends that will be damaging for transparency and our democracy”.
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, said the government would “carefully consider” the report and work across the parliament to pass the bill.
Updated
Australian families speak on new MH370 search
News of the new MH370 search announced today is filtering through to the families of the seven Australian citizens and residents who were on board.
Danica Weeks is one of them – her husband, Paul, was on the plane.
She said she was “incredibly grateful and relieved that the Malaysian Government has committed to continuing the search”:
We’ve never stopped wishing for answers, and knowing the search will go on brings a sense of comfort. I truly hope this next phase gives us the clarity and peace we’ve been so desperately longing for, for us and our loved ones, since March 8th 2014.
Updated
Question time has resumed in Victoria with the protester extricated from the public gallery.
The speaker, Maree Edwards, made no mention of the protest, simply telling MPs: “take two”.
Victorian premier says protests in parliament ‘will not deter us’ from youth crime bill
Question time is still suspended in Victoria as authorities work to remove a protester who has glued themselves to the public gallery in protest of the government’s “adult time for violent crime” bill.
Police and paramedics arrived about 2.30pm to extricate the woman, who yelled at the premier, Jacinta Allan, that the bill was “disgusting”.
But the premier is undeterred. She issued a statement:
Today in parliament, a member of the public protesting against our adult time for violent crime laws disrupted question time. They allegedly glued themselves to the furniture inside the public gallery. Violent crime is serious. Stunts like these certainly aren’t. They will not deter us one bit.
Allan said while people have “different views” she was listening to victims of crime:
That’s why we’re pushing ahead with adult time for violent crime, so the chance of jail is stronger, and sentences are longer. We want adult time for violent crime in place as soon as possible. MPs won’t be leaving parliament this week until our bill passes. At this point, the one thing stopping adult time becoming law is Jess Wilson and the Liberals – who could still block it or delay it.
However, the Coalition have made it clear they will not oppose the legislation.
Updated
‘Flustered’ childcare worker grabbed and dragged three-year-old boy
A childcare worker told police she assaulted a young boy after becoming “frustrated and flustered” when her senior colleagues ignored her requests to help manage the child’s behaviour, AAP reports.
Hayley Kelleher, 18, on Wednesday admitted assaulting the three-year-old while working at Jenny’s Kindergarten and Early Learning centre in Bathurst, central western New South Wales, on 11 July.
The former assistant educator briefly appeared in Bathurst cocal court to plead guilty to one count of common assault.
Kelleher was trying to settle a group of three-, four- and five-year-olds for their midday nap, when the boy repeatedly refused to lie on his mattress, according to an agreed statement of facts.
The court document said Kelleher asked a senior colleague for help, but was “ignored” and she decided to move the boy’s mattress away from the other children.
“Despite continued requests for assistance (Kelleher) received no support from other educators and became increasingly frustrated and flustered,” the document said.
Kelleher grabbed the boy’s right arm and lifted him off the ground, before dragging him three metres away to a different mattress.
“(Kelleher) released the victim short of the mattress then picked him up again by his right arm and placed him on to the mattress,” the document said.
The statement of facts was amended to say Kelleher placed the boy on the mattress, rather than an initial allegation made public by police that she “threw” him.
The incident was captured on CCTV.
Updated
Man found hiding underwater after fatal park shooting
A suspect was found hiding underwater in a pond after a fatal shooting at a suburban park sparked a man hunt, AAP reports.
The dramatic arrest unfolded after a man was fatally shot in the chest at Beenleigh, south of Brisbane, police said.
Emergency services were called to Hugh Muntz Park about 10.40pm on Tuesday, following reports a man had been shot. The 35-year-old was found with a gunshot wound to his chest. Despite efforts to revive him, he was declared dead at the scene.
Police launched a search for a stolen sedan seen in the area at the time of the shooting. The driver later fled into bushland and dog squad officers swept the area before arresting a man, 22, found “hiding underwater amongst the reeds” near Saltwater Park.
A firearm was found nearby and ammunition was allegedly in the man’s possession, police said.
No charges have been laid so far.
Thanks for sticking with us so far, that’s it for me. Nino Bucci is back to guide you through the arvo’s news. Take care.
Chinese naval task group made up of four vessels, ADF tells Senate
The boss of the Australian defence force has told Senate estimates hearings in Canberra the Chinese naval task group being monitored this week is made up of four vessels.
Vice Adm David Johnston said the four People’s Liberation Army Navy ships were observed this week in the Philippine Sea, about 500 nautical miles north of Palau.
“Australia maintains a high situational awareness across our immediate region and routinely monitors maritime and air traffic in Australia’s near approaches,” he said. Johnston continued:
I have previously stated that we have seen an increased PLA Navy presence in our immediate region in recent years, and we do expect to see future PLAN extended area deployments.
We will continue to monitor this task group as we learn more about its direction, its purpose and intent.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, this week confirmed Australia was tracking the flotilla, but it is not yet known if it will travel in the direction of Australian waters.
Updated
Victoria’s question time suspended after protester tells premier ‘I’ve come to growl at you’ over youth justice bill
Question time in the Victorian parliament has been suspended after a protest by a member of the public in the gallery. Within the first few minutes of questioning, a woman yelled from the gallery:
Jacinta Allan, I’ve come to growl at you. Adult time for adult crime. Disgusting. Shame on you.
The Speaker, Maree Edwards, suspended proceedings as security worked to remove the woman. It is understood she has glued herself to the railing.
The government introduced its “adult time for violent crime” bill to parliament on Tuesday which, if passed, will uplift several serious crimes committed by children as young as 14 from the children’s court to adult courts. As a result, the maximum penalty for teenagers convicted of offences such as aggravated home invasions and carjackings will increase from three years to 25 years.
The bill is expected to pass parliament on Thursday with the support of the opposition.
More than 100 legal, human rights, social services and community groups wrote to Allan yesterday to urge her not to go ahead with the changes. They argue the bill will cause lifelong harm and breach children’s human rights.
Even the attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, was forced to admit in parliament yesterday the bill was incompatible with the state’s charter of human rights.
Updated
New data reveals Australia’s high-achieving Naplan schools for this year
Among them is Carlingford West public school in NSW, where 96% of students speak a language other than English.
On Wednesday, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (Acara) released a swathe of new data on the My School website about Australian schools, including annual funding, attendance and Naplan results.
Carlingford West was identified by the Acara as one of 20 schools in each state that overachieved across all areas of Naplan compared with schools of similar socioeconomic backgrounds and the same starting scores in previous tests.
Read more here:
Updated
Australian War Memorial head defends role in book prize saga
The Australian War Memorial’s director, Matt Anderson, has rejected suggestions he chose to overrule an independent panel’s recommendation to award a literary prize to Chris Masters’ book on Ben Roberts-Smith because it centred on his alleged war crimes.
Guardian Australia first reported in September the memorial’s director had delayed awarding the Les Carlyon literary award for military history after an external judging panel unanimously recommended Chris Masters’ book Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes.
In Senate estimates this afternoon, Greens senator David Shoebridge asked why the criteria was changed to only apply to emerging authors for their first major publication. He suggested Anderson received the recommendation to award Masters the award but rejected it because of the book’s focus on the former special forces commander’s alleged atrocities.
Anderson rejected Shoebridge’s suggestion, adding it “didn’t make sense”:
You’re talking about a book, senator, just for the committee’s reference, that is for sale in the Australian War Memorial bookshop. You’re talking about a book, senator, that was promoted in the Australian War Memorial’s wartime magazine. It just doesn’t make sense that I would reverse engineer. I reject it …
There are other prizes for established authors, and what [the memorial council] wanted to do was to preserve the uniqueness of this prize.
Updated
Victoria may struggle to meet key renewable energy targets
Victoria may fail to meet future targets in the shift to renewable energy unless some projects are fast-tracked, according to an auditor general report.
The report, tabled in state parliament today, finds Victoria is on track to meet its renewable energy target in 2025, but meeting future targets “will be more difficult”.
The state will fail to meet its 2032 offshore wind energy target, and still has no port to support wind turbine assembly and construction.
While the state has enough energy supply to meet its needs out to 2030, the report found there was “little buffer” in Victoria’s electricity generation and storage pipeline in the period after the planned closure of the Yallourn coal-fired power station in mid-2028:
Victoria could face electricity shortfalls to meet peak demand … which could result in load shedding (planned electricity reduction to selected areas) and blackouts.
Greens spokesperson for the energy transition, Tim Read, said no wind generation projects had reached financial close during this term of parliament and several projects had been bogged down in lengthy planning approval processes. He said:
When we miss renewable energy targets, it’s about more than just not hitting our numbers. It’s about failing to address the climate emergency, and we can’t forget that.
Updated
Wells says it is ‘outright weird’ YouTube is warning its own platform won’t be as safe for kids after under-16s ban
Anika Wells, the communications minister, said she finds it “weird” that YouTube is warning the under-16s ban will make kids less safe.
She just told the National Press Club:
I find it outright weird that YouTube is always at pains to remind us all how unsafe their platform is. In a logged-out state. If YouTube, even this morning, is reminding us all that it is not safe and there’s content not appropriate for age restricted users on their website, that’s a problem that YouTube needs to fix.
Read more here:
Updated
Future Fund sends staffer on a $20,000 hotel scoping trip, estimates reveals
The Future Fund CEO has revealed that his former executive assistant went on a scoping trip to the US “to assess hotels as to their suitability for our staff” and negotiate the rates of hotels “to get better deals” – at the cost of $20,000.
At Senate estimates last night, Future Fund CEO, Raphael Arndt, revealed the travel, saying the rates negotiation have saved the fund around $30,000 annually.
Senator David Pocock asked why the Fund couldn’t have negotiated the rates via phone or a Zoom call instead:
Does the Future Fund really need someone to go ahead and check out hotels? What was there a report done from that? Or what was she checking the firmness of beds? I’m serious, like, that seems like something that you know the prime minister would have, and you’d hope he had, but the Future Fund?
Arndt also revealed he’d attended a lunch at the highly exclusive Disney Club 33, founded by Walt Disney, where membership is by invitation only, and reportedly costs tens of thousands of dollars.
Arndt said he went to the exclusive club to learn about its training programs. He took on notice whether that lunch was paid for by taxpayers or by Disney.
Updated
Wells says trip was delayed due to Optus triple-zero outage fallout
Wells said the flights were not first class. She was asked if they were last-minute tickets, hence the high cost, saying it was a matter of public record that she delayed her trip to deal with the fallout from the Optus triple-zero outage.
The minister said she would continue to be “transparent” about the cost of the flights.
Updated
Wells says expensive UN trip ‘incredibly important’
Anika Wells was just asked about the $95,000 in costs for her trip to the United Nations general assembly in September, which included her own travel budget of $35,000.
She called the trip “incredibly important”, saying it fuelled a “global momentum” in the space of the under-16s ban, telling the National Press Club:
The reason you know all those things is we’re transparent about them, we’ll disclose them and we’ll continue to disclose them and we’ll continue to disclose information about that trip through the usually processes. That trip was undertaken as the minister for communications. …
I will continue to be transparent about what that cost, what it looks like, what we did, in the usual way.
Australian War Memorial defends Ben Roberts-Smith photo
The Australian War Memorial director, Matt Anderson, defended displaying an edited image of Ben Roberts-Smith standing in front of a dead person as part of an exhibition celebrating Australian soldiers who’ve received military honours.
In a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday, Greens senator David Shoebridge tabled an image of Roberts-Smith and another soldier purportedly posing with a dead Afghan man. An edited image, cropping out the body, appears within the war memorial’s Hall of Valour exhibition.
Anderson, who said the decision to display the image predated his time in charge, explained it may have been edited as the public gallery often has children passing through it.
Roberts-Smith lost a defamation case in the federal court against allegations by the Nine newspapers he was complicit in the murder of four unarmed civilians in Afghanistan. The judge found the allegations were substantially true, and that, on the balance of probabilities, he committed war crimes while deployed in Afghanistan.
Anderson said:
I stand by the taking of a photo and the displaying of a photo of Ben Roberts-Smith … on the day in which he was awarded the Victoria Cross for valour. And that’s what that photo does in an age-appropriate way.
Updated
Communications minister says upcoming social media ban will protect under-16s from being ‘sucked into purgatory’
Anika Wells, the communications minister, is speaking before the National Press Club in Canberra, a week before the governments ban on under-16s accessing many social media platforms goes into effect.
Wells is touting the boon to kids the shift will have. She said:
With one law, we can protect generation alpha from being sucked into purgatory by the predatory algorithms described by the man who created the feature as behavioural cocaine. Through one reform, more kids will have their time back.
Wells is moving to discount “myths” she said she’s heard about the upcoming change, saying it will not affect most adults due to the vast data social media companies have on users. She added you will not be forced to present government ID to verify your age, despite “dog whistle” campaigns.
Updated
A quarter of teenagers falsely believe a tan protects them from skin cancer, health experts warn
More than one in three (37%) teenagers have intentionally tried to get a tan from the sun at least once during a six-month period, new research has found.
The Royal Children’s hospital has carried out a nationally representative survey of more than 1,400 Australian parents as well as one of their children aged between 12 and 17 about tanning, sunburn and their sun safety behaviours between December 2024 and May 2025.
The results, released today in their latest National Child Health Poll, show half of teenagers (49%) say they’d prefer to look suntanned, with a quarter (23%) falsely believing a suntan will protect them from skin cancer.
Almost three-quarters (72%) reported being sunburnt at least once over a six-month period, with close to half (44%) burnt multiple times.
The majority of teens (60%) did not use adequate sun protection when outdoors during peak UV times, with adequate protection defined as often or always using more than three of the five recommended behaviours: clothing covering arms and legs, wearing a wide-brim hat, sunglasses, sunscreen and shade.
Dr Anthea Rhodes, a paediatrician and director of the poll says:
We know there’s a lot of trends on social media that highlight tan lines and even promote sunburn, and teenagers might not fully understand the risk tanning or sun exposure can pose.
Dermatologist Dr Susan Robertson said “even one severe sunburn in childhood is enough to increase your lifetime risk of skin cancer”.
Updated
Principal recovering after alleged stabbing at Victorian school
The principal of Keysborough Secondary College had been discharged from hospital and is recovering at home after an alleged stabbing at the campus on Tuesday.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, Victoria’s education minister, Ben Carroll, said support officers were onsite at the school, situated in Melbourne’s south-east.
On Wednesday, Victoria police charged a 37-year-old man on four counts, including unlawful assault, following the alleged stabbing. They said the man was known to the principal.
Carroll:
My thoughts are with the school principal, my thoughts are with his family, his friends that will all be suffering from what occurred with this very traumatic incident yesterday. Can I also express my gratitude to the staff at Kingsborough Secondary College who acted so promptly as this incident unfolded.
Updated
Economic growth disappoints in latest quarter
The economy grew by a disappointing 0.4% in the three months to September, which was still enough to lift the annual pace of growth to 2.1%, from an upwardly revised 2% in June.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics described economic growth in the latest quarter as “steady”, and economists had predicted a quarterly growth rate of 0.7%.
“The rise this quarter matches the average quarterly growth since the end of the Covid‑19 pandemic [restrictions],” the ABS said.
After accounting for population growth, there was no rise in real GDP per capita in the quarter, against a 0.4% increase over the year to September.
Updated
RBA governor highlights risks associated with 5% deposit mortgages
The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, says loans taken out using the government’s 5% deposit scheme are “inherently more risky”.
Under this scheme, which was expanded in October and which has proved extremely popular among first home buyers desperate to get on the property ladder, the government guarantees up to 15% of a mortgage and helps them secure a loan with a small deposit.
“The more you borrow, the higher the loan to valuation ratio,” Bullock told Senate estimates.
“Then it doesn’t take property prices far to fall before, all of a sudden, what you’re owing is worth more than the asset that’s backing it.”
The governor was quick to note that the steady upward march of home values meant that “this sort of concept of property prices that are worth less than the loans, there’s practically none of them at the moment”.
“But the higher the loan to valuation ratio is, yes, the more risk there potentially is in the system.”
Updated
Australia has a ‘structural undersupply’ of homes, RBA boss says
The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, says “we have a structural undersupply of housing, and we’ve had it for many years”.
Speaking at Senate estimates, Bullock had earlier rebuffed attempts by Greens senator Nick McKim to opine on the impact of tax breaks for property investors on home prices, saying housing policy is outside the bank’s mandate.
That said, Bullock is happy to point out that not enough homes are being built, and that when it comes to the government’s ambitious target of 1.2 million new dwellings, that “we are not going to get there”.
It’s been a chronic underbuild. There’s obviously regulation and development and so on that’s getting in the way of this. The government’s recognised it, and if you just look at the numbers so far, according to targets, it doesn’t look like we’re going to get there, quite frankly.
But that’s not to say that the governments haven’t focused on it and think it needs to be addressed.
The five-year target requires an average 240,000 homes to be built annually, and we were falling 60,000 homes short of this target in 2024-25, which was the first year of the national housing accord.
Recent research by Cotality showed that housing affordability has collapsed to its worst on record.
Updated
RBA looking ‘very hard’ at hot inflation figures
The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, says the central bank’s monetary policy board is looking “very hard” at the recent strong inflation figures, warning that if price pressures prove to be persistent then that “will have implications for the future path of monetary policy”.
The board meets for its two-day meeting on Monday, and is not expected to move the cash rate from 3.6%.
Financial markets have effectively erased any chance of a rate cut from here, and are now pricing in a reasonable chance of a hike in late 2026.
After inflation jumped to 3.8% in the year to October – well above the 2-3% target range – Bullock at Senate estimates this morning said the board would be trying “to determine the extent to which it [the recent increase in inflation] is temporary, or the extent to which it’s giving us a signal that there’s some more permanent pressures in the economy”.
If it’s below this temporary we can look through it, and we will start to see the trend back down towards the midpoint again.
If it’s not and it’s more persistent, and we’ll get more information on this in the next couple of months, then that’s suggesting to us that demand pressures are persisting, and that will have implications for the future path or monetary policy.
Updated
Coalition says minister must explain almost $95,000 in travel costs
The Coalition is calling on the communications minister, Anika Wells, to explain nearly $95,000 in costs for a trip to the United Nations general assembly in New York, at the height of the Optus triple-zero outage saga.
Wells and her deputy chief of staff flew to New York in September to promote the government’s looming social media ban for children under 16 at an event that included prime minister Anthony Albanese and the European Union president, Ursula von der Leyen.
Wells’ travel cost taxpayers nearly $35,000, while flights for her staff member and a senior public servant cost more than $60,000 combined.
Wells had originally been expected to fly with Albanese earlier in the week, but delayed her travel to deal with the triple-zero outages. She attended a series of meetings while in the US, including meeting tech bosses and talks with the author, Jonathan Haidt.
Opposition senator Sarah Henderson called on Wells to explain why she made the trip, given the high price tag.
“Not only did Anika Wells offensively jet set to New York as the triple-zero crisis unfolded, she did so at enormous cost to Australian taxpayers,” Henderson said.
Updated
Channel 10 responds to Bruce Lehrmann appeal judgment
Network 10 have also spoken about Lehrmann’s failed appeal. A spokesperson said:
Justice Lee’s judgment was resoundingly endorsed by the unanimous decision of the full Federal Court.
The judgment remains a triumph for truth and reiterates that Network 10 prevailed in proving that Brittany Higgins’ allegations of rape were true. It remains a vindication for the courageous Brittany Higgins who gave a voice to women across the nation. Network 10 remains firmly committed to honest, fair and independent journalism; to holding those in power to account; to giving people a voice who wouldn’t otherwise have one; and to always pursuing without fear or favour, journalism that is firmly in the public interest.
Lehrmann maintains innocence after appeal loss, lawyer says
Lehrmann maintains his innocence and will seek advice on appealing his defamation loss to the high court, his lawyer Zali Burrows said.
Burrows told reporters outside court that Lehrmann was “overwhelmed” by the decision and she was worried about his mental health. She said:
He is a young man who is accused of rape in Parliament House and he maintains his innocence.
We respect what the court has said, but everyone should reflect, even the shameless politicians who abuse him for an agenda, and everyone else that Bruce’s life has been destroyed.
I’d just like to say that I hope Bruce is seen as an inspiration to those who say they’ve been wrongly accused, because he will be seeking advice on special leave [to appeal to the high court] in his pursuit for justice.
Updated
Huge win for First Nation remote tenants in the high court case against NT government
A huge battle has been won in the high court by four First Nations remote tenants from two Northern Territory communities, who challenged a controversial rental framework that was introduced by the territory government three years ago.
On Wednesday, the high court ruled for the plaintiffs, who challenged the NT government’s Remote Rent Framework, which charged a flat rate based on the number of bedrooms in a dwelling.
The reform saw rent increases of up to 200 per cent for 68 per cent of remote Aboriginal tenants in the NT, more than 5,300 premises impacted in total.
The case was brought against the NT government by three plaintiffs from the west Arnhem land community of Gunbalanya, and one tenant from the community of Laramba, 230km north-west of Alice Springs.
The reform had been roundly criticised by NT Land Councils and Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, who say the NT government had not conducted meaningful consultation with remote renters before it was introduced.
Controversial Victorian protest laws passed
The Victorian government’s controversial protest laws have passed parliament after another marathon sitting of the upper house.
The justice legislation amendment (police and other matters) bill passed parliament with the support of the Coalition about midnight, with the upper house finishing up a few minutes before the clock struck 3am this morning.
While the bill was watered down from the government’s initial announcement last December, it still includes a ban on using attachment devices to lock on at public protests in a way that endangers the public, as well as fines of more than $1,000 for those who fail to comply with a police direction to remove a mask.
It also increases police powers in designated areas, an issue that came into focus last week when Victoria police declared the entire Melbourne CBD and surrounds one for six months, allowing officers to randomly stop and search anyone, via an electronic wand or a pat-down.
Under the change, children and people with intellectual impairments will be able to be searched by police in these designated areas - without an independent person present - if officers believe “urgent circumstances require it”. We reported on this aspect of the bill yesterday:
Greens MP Katherine Copsey, who is the party’s justice spokesperson, says the bill - which will become law once it receives royal assent - will “inevitably be misused”. She went on:
Labor is not just criminalising peaceful protest, they are handing over more discretionary powers for police to search children which the minister himself has admitted is incompatible with the rights to protect children. We know from recent reports that First Nations and people of colour will be disproportionately targeted by these search powers. It is shameful.
Upper house MPs are bracing for another late night on Thursday, when they are expected to debate the government’s “adult time for violent crime” bill.
NSW police seize $600,000 Lamborghini as part of operation targeting alleged organised crime network
NSW police seized more than $12m in assets and arrested six people as part of a sweeping operation targeting an alleged organised crime network in Sydney on Tuesday.
Officials said the effort, under Taskforce Falcon, included 10 warrants at multiple locations across Sydney. Those arrested included: a man, 35, who was charged with three counts of supplying a prohibited drug, among other charges; A man, 38, charged with two counts of using a prohibited weapon contrary to prohibition orders, among other charges; and a woman, 28, charged with use false document to influence exercise of public duty.
The three others include two men, 27 and 22, who face various drug charges, and a woman, 27, facing weapons charges.
The seized assets include multiple luxury cars, including a 2013 Rolls Royce Ghost valued at $600,000, a Lamborghini 724 Huracan valued at $600,000 and a 2024 BMW XM valued at $300,000. The seized assets also included luxury watches, $21,000 in cash, jewellery and prohibited weapons and drugs.
NSW Forestry Corp posts $32m loss in native forests division
The New South Wales forestry agency has posted another multi-million dollar loss from its native forest logging division, prompting renewed questions about its economic viability.
The hardwoods division of NSW Forestry Corporation lost $32m in the 2024-25 financial year according to its annual report. This follows a $29m loss last year, a $15m loss in 2022–23, a $9 million dollar loss in 2021–22 and a $20m loss in 2020–21.
Clancy Barnard, Senior Forest Campaigner with the Nature Conservation Council, said:
Today’s release exposes the growing cost to taxpayers of a financially and ecologically unsustainable industry.
Forestry Corporation said in its report the agency’s financial position was significantly affected by the 2019-20 Black Summer fires and financial recovery had been complicated by several factors, including multiple flooding events.
But North East Forest Alliance spokesperson Dailan Pugh said the report showed the native forest logging operations were an “economic basket case” and it would be “of far greater economic benefit to the community to complete the transition to plantations and stop degrading public forests”.
Reforms passed by the federal parliament last week will remove the effective exemption from national laws for forestry operations covered by a regional forest agreement within the next 18 months.
Victoria Jack, NSW campaigns manager at the Wilderness Society, said:
With logging now required to meet national threatened-species protections, Forestry Corporation’s business model will face even greater scrutiny.
Victoria scraps minimum carpark requirements in activity zones
Minimum carpark rules will be scrapped for developments around Melbourne’s activity zones, the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has announced.
Speaking in Footscray this morning, Allan and the planning minister, Sonya Kilkenny, also announced a new infrastructure contribution charge on developers has been set at $11,350 a dwelling built in the 60 zones. The charge will help pay for local roads, parks, bike paths, community facilities, early childhood education centres and schools.
Under the new car parking rules, homes or apartments built “very close” to stations – will no longer have any minimum carpark requirements and a maximum of two car parks per dwelling.
For areas that are a “medium distance” from public transport, there will be a minimum of one carpark and no maximum, while developments furthest from trains and trams would have a minimum of 1.2 spaces per swelling.
The changes have been long called for by groups such as YIMBY Melbourne and the Grattan Institute.
Allan says the laws governing car park requirements were made in the 1970s – when “fewer people used trains and Melbourne lacked a City Loop or a Metro Tunnel”. She says:
Old rules from Victoria’s lowest era of train usage are now blocking new homes for people who rely on public transport. We’re changing them, because the status quo doesn’t cut it.
That’s it for the Lehrmann appeal judgement, let’s get back into the rest of the news of the day.
Full court finds Lehrmann was not only ‘reckless’ but knew Higgins did not consent
Justice Wigney said the full court had also accepted a submission from lawyers for Wilkinson and Network 10 that Lehrmann knew Higgins did not consent to sexual intercourse.
Justice Lee found during the defamation trial that Lehrmann was reckless to this consent.
But Wigney said:
The full court has found based on the unchallenged findings made by the primary judge that the only reasonable inference to the drawn from the facts known and observable to Mr Lehrmann at the time that he had sexual intercourse with Ms Higgins is that Mr Lehrmann did turn his mind to whether Ms Higgins was consenting to sex, was aware that she was not consenting, but proceeded nonetheless.
The acceptance provides another basis for upholding the primary judge’s finding that Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins and that the truth defence pleaded by Network 10 and Ms Wilkinson had been made out.
Updated
Some more on the short appeal hearing this morning. Wigney said:
Mr Lehrmann was also well and truly aware that the case against him included a claim that he had been reckless as to Ms Higgins’ consent.
The full court has found that the ordinary, reasonable viewer of the broadcast would understand rape as involving sexual intercourse occurring without the consent of the person the victim, with the other person, the perpetrator, either knowing that the victim is not consenting or being reckless as to whether they are consenting.
Updated
AAP reports that Lehrmann “is expected to apply for special leave to appeal the full court decision in the high court”.
Updated
Wigney ends the hearing by saying his orders are that the appeal is dismissed and that Lehrmann should pay the costs of the appeal. The hearing is finished.
Updated
Wigney is emphasising again that this is the judgment summary, and not to be substituted for the full reasons for judgment, which he is about to publish.
Updated
It was unnecessary to consider Lehrmann’s arguments regarding damages given the failures of Lehrmann’s other grounds of appeal, Wigney says.
Updated
Wigney recaps defamation case findings
Shortly before saying the appeal had been dismissed, Justice Michael Wigney recapped the findings of the defamation case.
He also went through the four grounds of Lehrmann’s appeal:
That the trial was procedurally unfair to him.
That an ordinary person viewing The Project would have thought Lehrmann committed a violent rape with lack of consent.
That the primary judge erred in finding Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson had discharged the burden of proof in relation to the rape.
His claim should have succeeded and damages awarded in his favour should be much more than $20,000.
All of these grounds have been dismissed.
Updated
Lehrmann’s appeal is dismissed with costs
The primary judge was found to have not been procedurally unfair to Lehrmann, Wigney says.
Updated
Here’s a bit of a recap of how the appeal went for Lehrmann:
Judgment begins in Lehrmann defamation appeal
Justice Michael Wigney has started reading the appeal judgment. Justice Wigney will deliver the judgment on behalf of the full court – himself and justices Craig Colvin and Wendy Abraham – and will read a summary of reasons. The full judgment will be published online.
Updated
Nino Bucci is going to take the reins for the Lehrmann judgment.
Updated
RBA governor speaks ahead of national accounts
Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock is at estimates this morning, where Liberal senator James Patterson is asking in a not very roundabout way whether high federal government spending is to blame for stubbornly high inflation.
This was a key Coalition attack line in the final weeks of parliament sitting.
Bullock is not really playing ball, falling back to basic economic principles, saying “all else being equal” that additional public spending can add to investment and demand, and so lead to additional inflationary pressures and higher interest rates than otherwise would be the case.
She’s also pushed back on the idea that government spending is accounting for an unusually – and in the words of Paterson “unsustainably” – large portion of economic growth.
“In times when private demand is not doing very well, often, what happens is public demand comes in to fill the gap, and that’s certainly what we’ve observed over a number of periods in recent years,” Bullock said.
The governor said “we’re starting to see” the private sector take up the mantle for driving economic growth, “and our forecasts are that we will continue to see it”.
We’ll get the latest economic report card at 11:30 when the ABS releases the national accounts for the September quarter.
Judgment in Lehrmann appeal of defamation case coming this morning
The judgment in Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal of his unsuccessful defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson will be handed down in the federal court this morning.
Lehrmann is appealing against Justice Michael Lee’s April 2024 judgment, which found the former Liberal staffer was not defamed when The Project broadcast an interview with Brittany Higgins in 2021 in which she alleged she had been raped in Parliament House.
Justice Michael Wigney will deliver judgment on behalf of the full court, justices Wigney, Craig Colvin and Wendy Abraham, and will read a summary of reasons. The full judgment will be published online.
During the two-day appeal hearing in August, Lehrmann’s lawyer, Zali Burrows, apologised to the court for her client’s failure to appoint an experienced barrister and explained he could not afford one.
Lehrmann argued he was denied procedural fairness because Lee’s findings about the alleged rape differed from the one alleged by Ten and Wilkinson. Burrows said Lehrmann was not given a chance to respond to that version of the rape.
Ten’s barrister, Matt Collins KC, told the court Lehrmann’s grounds of appeal were “misconceived” and “a distraction, in our respectful submission”.
“Because, at the end of the day, this was a defamation case, not a rape case,” Collins said.
Lee awarded $2m in costs against Lehrmann for the failed defamation case, which were put on hold pending the appeal.
Updated
Victoria police to lay 775 new charges against man for alleged illegal recording in Melbourne hospitals
Victoria police will lay an additional 775 charges against a man as part of an ongoing investigation into an illegal recording device at Melbourne hospitals.
Police allege the man, 27, used a mobile phone as a recording device in staff toilets at three hospitals; Austin Hospital in Heidelberg, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
The new charges are linked to alleged stalking, the production of intimate images and installing an optical surveillance device.
The expected new charges are in addition to 133 that were laid in July and August this year, bringing the total to 908.
NDIS plans will be computer-generated, with human involvement dramatically cut under sweeping overhaul
Funding and support plans for national disability insurance scheme participants will be generated by a computer program and staff will have no discretion to amend them, under a major overhaul of the NDIS to be rolled out next year, Guardian Australia can reveal.
Under the changes, human involvement in deciding support for NDIS participants will be dramatically reduced.
Details of the sweeping changes to the way NDIS plans are made were outlined in a recent internal briefing to National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) staff, seen by Guardian Australia.
The changes, which are due to be rolled out from mid-2026 under the NDIS’s New Framework Planning model, will also significantly affect a participant’s right to appeal decisions about their funding. If NDIS participants appeal against their plans to the administrative review tribunal, the ART will no longer have the authority to alter a person’s plan or reinstate funding, according to the staff briefing.
Read more of Guardian Australia’s exclusive here:
What’s the best sorbet in Australian supermarkets? We’ve got you covered
To make a bad sorbet you need to be inept or cheap. But supermarkets distribute the cheapest foods on earth and usually the range in quality is hellish to “huh! pretty good”. Excellence needs time and care that supermarkets can’t afford, except for sorbets for some reason.
We tasted 15 products, all single-flavour fruit sorbets, predominantly lemon and mango. We scored them on texture, taste and how representative they were of the fruit, though the latter criteria wasn’t included in the final score. The final score was heavily weighted towards taste.
The winner? It tastes as though it has been made with raspberries that have gone through a superheroic transformation. Cosmic rays, super serum or magic have turned normal raspberries into velvety, sweeter and more acidic versions of themselves.
Read more here:
Updated
Annual level of anti-Jewish incidents remains three times higher than average, peak body says
There were 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents logged by Jewish groups and state bodies in a 12-month period ending in September, more than three times the yearly average, according to new data released today.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said those figures include an “unprecedented” number of arson and vandalism attacks. The report says:
The total number of reported antisemitic incidents in Australia has continued at unprecedentedly high levels for a second consecutive year. Although this year’s total was somewhat less than the previous year’s, which was an all-time record, there was actually an increase in the number of arson and vandalism attacks.
The average annual number of anti-Jewish incidents between October 2014 and September 2023, before Hamas’ October 7 attacks, was 342.
Updated
Trains suspended on Sydney’s Blue Mountains line after car falls onto tracks
Commuters along one Sydney train line will have difficulties getting to work this morning after a car fell on to the tracks, landing upturned beneath an overpass.
NSW TrainLink West shared photos of the accident earlier this morning, showing the grey sedan on the tracks near the suburb of Blaxland. The route is not running between Springwood and Emu Plains, but a small number of buses are running as a replacement service.
“Please delay travel if possible or allow plenty of extra travel time,” the agency wrote on social media.
NSW police said the driver of the car, a man in his 20s, was able to exit the vehicle and treated at the scene by paramedics for minor injuries. He was not taken to hospital.
Disruptions are expected to continue throughout the day, NSW TrainLink West said, “so please allow extra travel time and plan ahead”.
#BlueMountainsLine Trains are not running between Springwood and Emu Plains due to a vehicle on the tracks at Blaxland.
— NSW TrainLink West (@TrainLinkWest) December 2, 2025
Limited buses are starting to run between Springwood and Penrith. Please delay travel if possible or allow plenty of extra travel time. pic.twitter.com/3k90W8j8O5
Updated
YouTube will comply with under-16s social media ban but says it will 'make kids less safe'
YouTube has agreed to comply with the federal government’s under-16s social media ban, announcing its decision a week out from the 10 December start date.
However Google, the owner of the video site, has again strongly criticised the law, saying it “won’t keep teens safer online” and “fundamentally misunderstands” how children use the internet.
Rachel Lord, Google and YouTube Australia’s public policy senior manager, confirmed the video platform will comply with the legislation in a blog post on Wednesday.
She said the site will automatically sign out all users it detects to be aged under 16. However users under 16 will still be able to watch YouTube videos in a signed-out state.
Lord said not signing in would mean children lose access to “features that only work when you are signed into an account, including subscriptions, playlists and likes, and default wellbeing settings like “Take a Break” and Bedtime Reminders”.
Google also warns that parents “will lose the ability to supervise their teen or tween’s account on YouTube”, such as content settings blocking specific channels.
Lord said “this rushed regulation misunderstands our platform and the way young Australians use it. Most importantly, this law will not fulfill its promise to make kids safer online, and will, in fact, make Australian kids less safe on YouTube”.
She said a lack of parental controls and safety filters “are the unfortunate consequences of a rushed legislative process that failed to allow for adequate consultation and consideration of the real complexities of online safety regulation.”
The law also fundamentally misunderstands why teens come to YouTube in the first place.
We are committed to finding a better path forward to keep kids safe online.
Updated
More on the eSafety commissioner’s letter to a US lawmaker
Julie Inman Grant told senators that Australians expect companies providing services into Australia to abide by Australian laws. She also pointed out that since the Wakeley church stabbing case that X challenged in the court and eSafety ended up dropping, the agency had accepted geo-blocking Australian users from seeing the posts as compliance with Australian law.
So the conclusion is nothing that we do here with the Online Safety Act affects anything that an American platform will serve to Americans. So no, it does not impinge upon Americans’ freedom of speech.
Inman Grant would not make her letter public until Jim Jordan had seen it, she said, noting that Jordan’s letter to her made its way to Sky News at the same time it was sent to her
I am just in the process of sending that to the chairman right now. I think out of respect for him – when he sent me his letter, he sent it concurrently, it appears, to Sky News – I prefer to send it official to official.
David Pocock disappointed Labor ducking key recommendations after ‘jobs for mates’ report
Independent senator David Pocock said he was deeply disappointed the Labor government had largely refused to accept the recommendations made in a scathing “jobs for mates” report released yesterday.
Pocock spoke to RN Breakfast, saying there remained “legitimate circumstances” whether former politicians were the “right person” for some jobs. His comments come after the anticipated report by former public service commissioner Lynette Briggs, who found broad dissatisfaction with the processes used by government departments and ministers in making appointments to many boards.
Pocock said the lack of guardrails to ensure integrity was “corrosive to our democracy”, adding:
It’s so disappointing to have a Labor government that talked such a big game and I think very rightly criticised the Morrison government on jobs for mates.
When given all these recommendations, and I think critically the need to actually legislate this, they’ve said, ‘no, we’re just going to have a framework and a little bit more transparency, we want to be able to continue to essentially appoint who we want’.
Updated
eSafety chief rejects US congressman's claim she is a ‘zealot for global takedowns’
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has rejected claims from a US congressman that she is a “zealot for global takedowns” and has said she has written back to him to explain her role.
Last month, Jim Jordan, the US Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, wrote to Inman Grant asking her to speak before the committee he chairs.
He requested Inman Grant be interviewed by the committee, stating “your expansive interpretation and enforcement of Australia’s [Online Safety Act] … directly threatens American speech”. Jordan referenced eSafety’s failed attempt to have X remove tweets of footage of the 2024 church stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.
Jordan referred to Inman Grant as a “noted zealot for global takedowns”.
Inman Grant was due to indicate yesterday whether she would agree to the interview to Jordan. But she told Senate estimates last night she was sending a letter to Jordan, but did not confirm whether she would appear before the committee.
What I am zealous about is protecting children online but I will be going back to him with a letter, explaining a few things.
Updated
Union asks workplace regulators to investigate ANZ
The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has called for an investigation into ANZ’s handling of major job cuts after accusing the bank of failing to act on serious health and safety concerns raised by workers.
FSU’s decision to write to workplace health and safety regulators across Australia follows a decision by the major bank to slash 3,500 jobs, including some just before Christmas.
The ANZ chief executive, Nuno Matos, told parliament last month the cuts were “not something I am proud of”, but added that they were in the “best interests of our customers” because the bank’s operations had become too complex.
The FSU national president Wendy Street said:
[Matos has] refused to delay redundancies for employees who face an exit in December, refused to provide clarity on the outstanding job cuts and isn’t showing even a basic level of compassion for people under enormous stress ahead of Christmas.
People are distressed as they face uncertainty as they’re being forced out at the most stressful time of the year.
ANZ declined to comment.
Indigenous Australians twice as likely to face barriers accessing internet, study finds
Indigenous Australians are twice as likely as other Australians to face barriers to accessing, affording and using the internet, a university report has found.
The Mapping the Digital Gap report conducted by RMIT and Swinburne University of Technology, found barriers are far greater for those living in remote areas of the country, with three in four Indigenous people living in remote and very remote communities experiencing digital exclusion.
Assoc Prof Daniel Featherstone from RMIT said it meant significant barriers in accessing and using online services needed for daily social, economic and cultural life.
He said:
Connectivity is an essential service nowadays, especially in remote communities.
But there are a range of barriers to having affordable and reliable internet access in these communities – largely due to limited or strained infrastructure, low household connectivity and high reliance on pre-paid mobile services.
While the study found a 10.5-point digital gap on the Australian digital inclusion index (ADII), the research also found an 8.7-point improvement in digital ability for Indigenous people in very remote communities, rising from 45.8 in 2023 to 54.5 in 2025.
The ADII measures how Australians access and use digital technologies, factoring in digital skills and affordability out of 100.
Good morning
And welcome to a new day. Nick Visser here to take things over – let’s get to it.
Updated
Bruce Lehrmann to learn fate of defamation appeal
Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann will today learn whether a second return to the lion’s den has overturned his loss in a defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, AAP reports.
The 30-year-old sued for defamation over an interview with Brittany Higgins on The Project in 2021.
In 2024 Justice Michael Lee found against Lehrmann, and said in his judgment that Higgins’s claims Lehrmann had raped her inside Parliament House two years earlier were established on the balance of probabilities.
He commented in his judgment that: “Having escaped the lion’s den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat.”
Lehrmann appealed against the finding during a two-day hearing in August, arguing the judge erred in finding Ten and Wilkinson had legally justified the imputation of rape.
After months of deliberations, the full court of the federal court is due to hand down its decision today.
Updated
More from the Roblox questions last night:
David Pocock asked if eSafety was conducting its own experiments such as those carried out by our reporter Sarah Martin to see what Roblox features are like.
Inman Grant said eSafety was assessing if it had the legal ability to set up accounts for its own testing.
We look at a range of factors in terms of determining what we consider to be the relative risk, experts, things like that. Where those tests have been done.
[On the weekend] I’m often reading 404 Media or the Guardian or whatever it is, or Wired and sending [my team] some research to look at.
So we’re doing that. We’re doing some of our own testing. And we’re using our transparency powers, but we’re also just taking complaints in from the general public through our complaints schemes every day.
eSafety probed on Roblox following Guardian investigation
Independent senator David Pocock asked the eSafety commissioner in Senate estimates last night about Guardian Australia’s investigation into Roblox and what children may experience on the platform.
With Roblox not subject to the under-16s social media ban, Pocock asked whether Roblox was deemed as a gaming platform or a platform that is “actually enabling social interactions”?
Julie Inman Grant responded by detailing the changes Roblox has announced that would use age assurance to separate age groups from interacting with each other.
eSafety officials said that Roblox has been assessed as having a primary purpose for gaming – which is one of the exemptions from the ban – but as services evolve over time and more features are added that have a social aspect, it is something the platforms must continually assess themselves as to whether they might be covered by the ban.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will take the helm.
It was a busy night at Senate estimates, with the eSafety commissioner grilled on matters relating to the imminent social media ban for under-16s. First, independent senator David Pocock asked Julie Inman Grant about Guardian Australia’s investigation into Roblox and why the platform is not subject to the ban. Inman Grant also told senators that she rejected claims from a US congressman that she was a “zealot for global takedowns”. More coming up.
Indigenous Australians are twice as likely as other Australians to face barriers to accessing, affording and using the internet, a university report has found. Minding the Digital Gap found that poor strained infrastructure, low household connectivity and reliance on prepaid mobile services hampered access. More soon.
And this morning the federal court will hand down its judgment on Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal against his defamation case loss against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson. We’ll be bringing you all the developments.
