What we learned, Thursday 30 July
That’s where we’ll leave our live coverage for today.
Before we go, here’s a recap of the day’s top headlines:
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The special envoy to combat antisemitism made another appearance in the royal commission’s hot seat today.
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One of the 19 Closing the Gap targets has officially been reached after early childhood education enrolment for First Nations children hit 95% across the country.
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The government announced the second stage of its mandatory safety training for childcare workers will begin Friday, focused on preventing child safety concerns and detecting grooming.
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Victoria pushed for a national crackdown on hidden ticketing fees and deceptive dynamic pricing practices when Australian consumer affairs state ministers met with the commonwealth’s assistant minister for productivity, competition, charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh, in Darwin today.
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The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has taken messaging service Telegram to court over its alleged failure to detect and remove pro-terror material from its platform, including videos of terrorist executions and mass shootings.
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Luke Gosling, the federal member for Solomon, was arrested this morning over an alleged assault earlier this month, Northern Territory police said in a statement.
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The Australian Communications and Media Authority has taken Optus to court over the September 2025 triple-zero outage.
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The number of suspected deadly bird flu cases continues to grow in South Australia, with 13 more in greater crested terns, the state government said. Victoria has also confirmed its first case of the disease in a greater crested tern – a common local seabird – found at Portland.
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Neil the seal has racked up a bill of more than $36,000 for his most-recent stay in Tasmania.
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The drugmaker AstraZeneca will continue to provide women with breast cancer and endometriosis free access to the vital medicine Zoladex, which the company said last month would be removed from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
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The court process following the alleged murder of Kumanjayi Little Baby will be delayed for months, due to a “significant volume” of forensic evidence that had yet to be processed.
Thanks for joining us, see you tomorrow!
Updated
Teacher wearing ‘Free Palestine’ badge made student feel ‘very unsafe in the classroom’, royal commission told
Following on from our previous post:
The first witness to front the royal commission on Thursday was a mother sharing her son’s experience with antisemitism at school.
She said the school made efforts to ensure the safety of her son and spoke to the offending students.
But she said education needed to apply to teachers as well, referring to one occasion where her son removed himself from a classroom when a teacher wore a “Free Palestine” badge featuring a fist of resistance.
“Words and symbols can mean different things to different people and, to him, that badge made him feel very unsafe in the classroom,” the mother said.
“Even a badge promoting peace between Israel or Palestine, from my perspective, shouldn’t be worn into a classroom. It’s not the place for it.”
– AAP
James Patterson says the Coalition is open to working with One Nation on proposed terror plans
The shadow minister for defence, James Paterson, says the Coalition is “willing to work” with One Nation on plans to introduce new laws to block the return of Australian citizens with links to terror groups, including Islamic State.
Pauline Hanson has appealed to the Coalition, which rebuffed her, and told media outlets on Thursday she would seek to introduce her own legislation to make it easier to cancel passports and block returns.
Speaking to ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Paterson said:
We are willing to work with anyone who wants to stop these Isis fighters coming to Australia, and Tony Burke’s answer … gives me no comfort and should give the Australian people no comfort that this government is doing everything they can to protect us from someone who left our country to join one of the most reprehensible terrorist organisations the planet has ever seen.
Updated
Antisemitism at schools underreported because students believe ‘nothing would happen’, royal commission hears
Students at Australia’s largest Jewish day school have given up reporting incidents of antisemitism due to their frequency and the lack of consequences for perpetrators, the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion has heard, as reported by AAP.
John Hamey was head of Sydney’s Moriah College from 2011 until 2018 and appeared at the royal commission earlier today.
He shared frequent incidents of Jewish students being targeted by pupils from other schools and members of the public. Hamey told the inquiry:
There were often taunts that invoked the gas chamber and statements along the lines of ‘Hitler should have finished the job’.
Students were being worn down by frequent traumatic incidents, which got brushed off as “just something that they had to deal with and they had to get on with”, the former principal said:
It was not necessarily something they would report because they would say, ‘well, nothing would happen’, or there’d be no serious outcome or consequence for the perpetrators of that antisemitism.
Hamey said most teachers outside Jewish institutions were not well informed about Jewish cultural life or equipped to identify antisemitism. He said:
They really lack the language.
Because it’s too politically contentious, they will minimise those actions and just deal with them as … one-off incidences or just a simple form of bullying.
Updated
Kumanjayi Little Baby murder case delayed over ‘significant volume’ of forensic evidence
The court process following the alleged murder of Kumanjayi Little Baby will be delayed for months, due to a “significant volume” of forensic evidence that had yet to be processed.
The five-year-old Warlpiri girl was found dead in April after a five-day search following her sudden disappearance from an Alice Springs town camp. A 47-year-old man, Jefferson Lewis, was later charged with murder.
On Thursday, the Alice Springs local court heard there was a “significant volume” of evidence that had not yet been fully examined or collected as part of the investigation, including 100 different forensic requests and 20 outstanding police witness statements.
The court heard a “very substantial brief” of evidence had already been served in the matter, including 76 statements from different witnesses, 48 pieces of police body-worn footage, drone footage, CCTV footage, and a preliminary postmortem report. A full autopsy report was expected to be handed over in the near future.
The matter returns to court on 3 December.
– Samantha Jonscher in Alice Springs
Updated
ACTU backs royal commission into Victoria’s construction sector
The outgoing ACTU national secretary, Sally McManus, has cautiously welcomed a royal commission into Victoria’s construction sector, saying the union movement has long believed there needed to be “way more done to completely rid that sector of organised crime”.
Speaking to ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, McManus said:
The union movement is allergic to royal commissions because we have been through three or four and seen them as just focusing on workers and the unions and used in that way.
However, in the case of Victoria it is very clear there is a whole ecosystem of criminality. I think it is both organised crime and probably disorganised crime.
I don’t think there is any one person who could say this is perfectly what this ecosystem looks like and that any royal commission needs to focus on all of it.
Updated
‘Not good enough’: pleas to act on Closing the Gap targets
Authorities are being urged to work more closely with Indigenous groups as Closing the Gap targets fall badly behind expectations, AAP reports.
Out of 19 targets towards the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, five areas are improving but are not on track to be met and four are worsening. Just three areas targeting socioeconomic disparity are likely to be met on time, a Productivity Commission report found.
First Nations preschool enrolments are the sole target being met nationally, more than halfway through the 2031 agreement period.
Achieving that milestone was important, Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy told ABC RN on Thursday. She said.
That is because of the work of the Aboriginal and community-controlled sector and those involved in the preschool sector.
But it was clear “challenges remain” in addressing all other targets, including ones to do with incarceration rates.
The outlook is so bleak national commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children Sue-Anne Hunter warned officials should be stood down for the lack of progress. She told the ABC.
If this was any other national agreement that was going backwards or just staying still, someone would actually lose their job.
We can’t have an agreement that we’re not adhering to ... it’s not good enough.
Coalition of Peaks lead convener, Donnella Mills, added her voice to the growing concern, saying federal, state and territory governments needed to work more collaboratively with Indigenous groups. She said:
Governments need to do more to embed the priority reforms in their work to close the gap and achieve the outcomes our people have fought for over decades, especially those governments where targets are going backwards or have stalled.
Updated
Dominic Perrottet’s brother allegedly said he paid for new Liberal party memberships, Icac hears
Reformers member Robert Assaf is giving evidence again, as NSW Icac hearings resume after a break for lunch.
This morning, the commission heard from Assaf that despite an agreement between the Reformers that they would not pay for the memberships of new members they were signing up in alleged branch-stacking efforts, he had “suspicions from conversations” that some people working with the Reformers were in fact paying for memberships.
Under Liberal party rules, if a person discloses that their membership had been paid for, their local branch could be frozen. Counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, resumes this line of questioning about which prominent Reformers he was concerned were paying for membership, but Assaf says:
They didn’t like didn’t confess it to me, but I got enough of a rumour. I had to tell them be careful in case that is happening.
Dwyer reads to Assaf from an interview he gave to Icac before public hearings in which he claimed that Jean-Claude Perrottet, younger brother of former Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet, had paid for memberships in the Hills Shire.
Dwyer: “You told the commission, didn’t you, that Jean-Claude Perrottet told you that he had to pay or that he would pay for memberships because he was relying on a lot of his friends doing it, and there needed to be some incentive?”
Assaf: “Correct.”
Today, Assaf says he never witnessed Jean-Claude Perrottet paying for memberships, but understands that he would reimburse the cost of signing up or buy a new member dinner to cover the cost. Jean-Claude Perrottet has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Updated
Two Jacinta Allan supporters to quit politics
Victorian government ministers Lily D’Ambrosio and Harriet Shing have announced they will step down from cabinet and quit politics at the election.
The duo are among the closest supporters of Jacinta Allan, who resigned as premier on Tuesday before a leadership spill brought on by Ben Carroll.
In a statement this afternoon, Carroll said both D’Ambrosio and Shing have “brought compassion, determination and a strong sense of purpose to their roles, delivering outcomes that have improved the lives of Victorians and strengthened the communities they represent”.
D’Ambrosio has been the MP for Mill Park for 24 years and is the longest-serving energy minister in Australia. She said:
Back in 2014 not a lot of people thought about energy too much. Of course, the decade that followed changed all that. Under Labor, Victoria has led the nation, paving the way for Australia’s transition to renewable energy. Where Victoria has gone, the rest of country has followed.
Shing was recently promoted to health minister. She has also previously served as minister for equality, housing, the Suburban Rail Loop and water. She told Carroll of her plans to step down on Tuesday afternoon, after his elevation to premier. Shing said:
This chapter has been the honour of my life. I have worked hard, with and for the communities and people I have represented. And it has been a labour of love and determination.
Carroll said the Labor caucus will meet on Monday morning to elevate new ministers and then he will announce his cabinet “shortly following”. Expect a lot of jostling by MPs and their respective factions over the weekend.
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That’s all for me. Achol Arok will take things from here. Enjoy your arvo!
Extra precautions for threatened species at Zoos Victoria
Victoria’s chief biodiversity officer, James Todd, has said the state government has been working with Zoos Victoria over the past two years to improve biosecurity measures in response to H5 bird flu for threatened species held at Victorian facilities, including captive insurance populations of helmeted honeyeater, orange-bellied parrot, plains wanderer and regent honeyeater.
He said:
Zoos Victoria has been doing a range of work around increasing the biosecurity of the facilities that hold those species, so they’re not at risk from visits from either wild birds or the public, but also enhancing biosecurity processes and arrangements to adequately protect those captive populations.
Otherwise, he said, there had been no change to zoo operations in Victoria.
Since the arrival of H5 bird flu in Australia, Perth zoo has installed precautions including additional barriers, hand sanitizer stations and signage, while Adelaide zoo has temporarily closed its walk-through aviaries and suspended its bird show.
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Dwelling approvals rise, but not fast enough to meet target
Dwelling approvals jumped to more than 205,000 in 2025-26, reaching the highest level in five years but still well short of what’s needed to meet the government’s ambitious homebuilding target.
The latest figures from the ABS showed 17,305 more approvals in the last financial year versus the previous, an increase of 9%.
House approvals were at their highest since 2021-22, and approvals to build non-house dwellings (apartments and townhouses and so forth) were at the highest since 2017-18, the ABS said.
Labor has set a target of 1.2m homes being built over five financial years to mid-2029, but few expect it to be achieved.
Master Builders Australia said there needed to be 253,000 approvals in 2025-26 to catch up to the Housing Accord target, and that the industry was being held back by high costs, low productivity and a shortage of workers.
The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council estimates the 1.2m new homes target will be met by September 2030 – so about 15 months late.
Denita Wawn, Master Builders CEO, noted that building a home costs 50% more now than it did before the pandemic. This year’s global oil crisis has also sent the price of some building materials soaring.
A Productivity Commission interim report this week found that regulation has become “a handbrake” on new housing supply. Among the PC’s interim recommendations was sweeping land-use reform to allow higher density dwellings in our cities.
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Public reports to Victorian bird flu hotline go from 10 a week to more than 100 a day
Continuing the update on Victoria’s first H5N1 detection, the state’s chief veterinary officer, Dr Graeme Cooke, said bird flu reports from members of the public had gone from about 10 a week to “well over 100 some days”, with about 10% being tested.
He said there was now “clear evidence of transmission” in South Australia, with the disease moving from one bird to another.
Victoria’s chief biodiversity officer, James Todd, said:
We know from elsewhere in the world that if the virus were to be established in Victoria, then – particularly in wildlife – there’d be little we could do to actually minimise the spread or the impact on wildlife. If it were to establish, our focus would be on surveillance, ensuring public safety, ensuring communications with the public, but also looking to protect at-risk species where that’s possible.
“Establishment” means the disease has taken hold. But Cooke said that threshold required more evidence of the disease spreading between multiple types of birds and native species, and evidence of the disease mixing and changing within native populations.
On Wednesday, a national group of federal, state and territory officials enacted a national agreement for responding to H5 bird flu incursions, based on advice that: “H5 bird flu in wildlife is not technically feasible to eradicate following recent detections and evidence of local transmission of H5 bird flu in a small number of wild seabirds”.
Members of the public are urged to avoid contact with any dead or sick birds or animals showing signs of bird flu. Report sightings to the emergency animal disease hotline 1800 675 888 or birdflu.gov.au.
Updated
Labor unimpressed with Hanson’s terror plan
The federal government has dismissed Pauline Hanson’s plans to introduce new laws to block the return of Australian citizens with links to terror groups including Islamic State.
After the One Nation leader’s appeal to work with the Coalition on the plans to block people found to have worked with or assisted terror groups was rebuffed, Hanson told media outlets on Thursday she would seek to introduce her own legislation that would make it easier to cancel passports and block returns.
But the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, is less than impressed.
He said Labor was using laws introduced by the former Coalition government, describing them as going “right to the limit of what you could do constitutionally”.
“Every Australian, me included, doesn’t want these individuals back,” Burke said in Queensland.
You know, when people have made a decision to join something as horrific as that, you don’t want them back.
The reality is every country in the world has to take back its own citizens. And I would just say people should be very wary of letting go of the principle that countries have to take their citizens back.
Burke said it was in Australia’s national interest that countries took back their own citizens, even if they’re accused of terror offences overseas.
Anyone who wants to depart from that principle needs to explain why they think it would be OK for the 750 people every year who I make leave, for them to have to stay here because I don’t think Australians would cop it.
Updated
Icac witness says ‘we didn’t think the law applied to us’ over political donations
Returning to the NSW Icac’s Operation Rosny, Reformers member Jeremy Assaf has been asked about how the group funded its efforts.
Icac is investigating the first allegation that Liberal figures including Assaf “solicited or accepted” donations, including from prohibited donors, in amounts which were undeclared or exceeded caps, to recruit or renew members to the party, and whether this alleged conduct involved possible offences under NSW’s Electoral Funding Act.
Counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, has asked about Assaf’s awareness of electoral funding laws. He says he “wouldn’t know” that the Liberal party’s constitution sets out rules for political donations and fundraising because he did not read it in full after joining the party.
Asked if he was aware about legislation governing political parties, he says “broadly, I knew, I knew laws like that existed”, including prohibitions in NSW on property developers making donations and donation caps, but says he was “not really aware” of who was a prohibited donor at a federal level. The following exchange takes place:
Dwyer: “You accept that in your work in the Reformers … you were building a movement that would introduce members to the Liberal party of NSW?”
Assaf: “I accept that, yes.”
Dwyer: “And it was incumbent on you, wasn’t it, to understand the laws that governed fundraising … for political parties?”
Assaf: “No, because we didn’t see ourselves as a political party.”
Dwyer: “You accept, don’t you, that ignorance of the law is no excuse?”
Assaf: “We just didn’t think the law applied to us. Because it was an electoral law, we’re not campaigning in elections in that sense. We’re internal Liberal party machinations. My understanding the whole way through was, until very recently, was it’s internal. It doesn’t count as anything to do with electoral laws or any other law.”
Updated
Victoria ramps up surveillance of wildlife areas after state’s first bird flu detection
Providing an update on Victoria’s first H5N1 detection, the state’s chief biodiversity officer, James Todd, said a greater crested tern was found sick in Portland, in the south-west of the state, and later died.
The bird was reported by a member of the public, with samples returning preliminary positive results for H5 bird flu at the state’s laboratory as well as the CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong.
In response, the state was ramping up ground and aerial surveillance in the Portland area, but also further to the west, to the South Australian border. Todd said:
There are a number of important wildlife areas in that vicinity – seal colonies, the Australasian Gannet colony at Point Danger, but further to the west as well around Discovery Bay and the Glenelg estuary are important Ramsar sites which hold a heap of values in terms of migratory birds and the like.
We’re asking the Victorian public to continue to keep their eyes open, particularly around coastal areas looking for shorebirds, seabirds, marine mammals that might be at risk.
H5N1 posed a risk to over 600 native species in Victoria, he said, particularly four species – the helmeted honeyeater, orange-bellied parrot, plains wanderer and regent honeyeater.
Updated
AstraZeneca will continue to supply Zoladex, critical breast cancer and endometriosis drug, for free after removal from PBS
The drugmaker AstraZeneca will continue to provide women with breast cancer and endometriosis free access to the vital medicine Zoladex, which the company said last month would be removed from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
The company said it “understands that maintaining continuity of care is essential” and that it would provide Zoladex monthly implants at “no cost” from 1 November 2026, when it comes off the PBS. Standard pharmacy dispensing fees may still apply.
AstraZeneca added in a statement:
Health care professionals have been notified of the change in process for prescribing the Zoladex monthly (3.6mg) implant for patients without suitable treatment pathways. This includes patients who are currently prescribed and patients who may need to be prescribed the implant as a treatment option after 1 November 2026.
The decision to discontinue the Zoladex monthly (3.6mg) implant from Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme reflects the way the PBS currently works, which means that the price offered is too low, making it unsustainable to supply the medicine on the PBS.
Updated
Neil the seal’s bollard-breaking bill is in
Neil the seal has captured hearts and global attention for his visits to Tasmania, and racked up a bill of more than $36,000 for his most-recent stay, AAP reports.
The five-year-old elephant seal hauls out twice each year to rest and moult in the island state’s south-east, where he was born. His antics, including crushing bollards, fences and lounging on quiet beachside streets, have drawn millions of views on social media.
His 15-day stay at Seven Mile beach cost the local Clarence city council a total of $31,540.53 – the majority relating to staffing and labour but also including a repair bill for one flattened street sign, 10 knocked-over bollards and one crushed fence.
Council mayor Brendan Blomeley said the overall bill was relatively small:
Neil is a wild animal and the over-exposure and constant public attention he received could have led to a more dramatic outcome.
Wherever he decides to come ashore next, I hope he is given the space and time he needs.
Right to information documents obtained by the ABC show Tasmania’s natural resources and environment department spent more than $45,000 managing Neil’s four haul-outs in 2025 and 2026.
Neil’s June haul-out cost the department $4,794, but it was still calculating the full price tag.
Updated
Angus Taylor ‘definitely wasn’t opposed’ to Reformers activities, inquiry hears
Asked about federal members, Assaf told the commission Tony Abbott was supportive of the Reformers’ work and spoke at multiple Reformers events, and names former federal Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, but then pauses:
I’m just trying to remember. There’s one, at least one, I’m pretty sure one more. Angus was around it, but I don’t think he was really that involved.
Asked by counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC, if this means federal opposition leader, Angus Taylor, Assaf says yes. The inquiry hears the following exchange:
Dwyer: “OK, and [Taylor was] somebody who was aware of the work that the Reformers was being, were doing?”
Assaf: “I’m not sure how aware. He would have been told at some point that we were doing things.”
Dwyer: “OK, well, you understood him to be supportive of the work the Reformers were doing?”
Assaf: “He definitely wasn’t opposed.”
Dwyer: “All right. Well, I might take you to some messages later and ask you about some more questions about other people supporting the Reformers that might prompt your memory.”
Assaf says former vice-president of the federal Liberal party Tina McQueen was supportive of the Reformers work.
On Monday, Dwyer told the commission that branch stacking was not of itself corrupt conduct. None of the Liberals members named here are accused of any wrongdoing.
Updated
Dominic Perrottet ‘pretty absent’ but supportive of Reformers, inquiry hears
Returning to Icac’s Operation Rosny, Reformers witness Robert Assaf has been asked which current and former federal and state Liberal MPs were aware of the efforts to shift the party towards the conservative right.
Assaf claimed current NSW Liberal state members Damien Tudehope, Anthony Roberts and Tanya Davies were supportive. He told the commission former Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet, whose brothers Jean-Claude and Charles Perrottet are named in allegations, was “pretty absent in the whole thing, but supportive from what I understood”.
The commission hears Dominic Perrottet spoke at least one Reformers event. On Monday, the commission heard that branch stacking was not of itself corrupt conduct. None of the Liberals members named here is accused of any wrongdoing.
Updated
Things can move quickly, but financial markets see minimal chance of rate hike next month
While Sarah Hunter was cautious not to get carried away, financial markets have now completely erased any chance of a fourth rate hike at the RBA board’s next meeting on 10-11 August, according to ANZ.
Nobody should rule out another move in this cycle, however: market pricing also suggests a 50% chance of a rate rise by the end of the year.
And things can move quickly, particularly during a time of widening conflict in the Middle East, as Hunter pointed out.
The international Brent crude oil benchmark pushed back above US$90 a barrel this morning before most recently trading a little below that mark.
Updated
RBA’s chief economist says inflation ‘a touch softer’ than expected
Sarah Hunter, the Reserve Bank’s chief economist, is not getting carried away with yesterday’s softer than expected consumer price figures, saying weaker fuel prices through the June quarter explained the “small undershoot” in underlying inflationary pressures through the quarter.
Speaking at an investment bank event this morning in Sydney, Hunter said that putting lower than anticipated pump prices aside, there were no big surprises in the data. She said:
It was certainly a touch softer than we thought, though some of those domestic components in there were actually pretty much what we expected to see.
I mean, that’s the right direction given where we are. We want inflation to come down. So that’s good.
Headline inflation dropped to 3.8% in the year to June, from 4% – that’s still miles above the central bank’s 2.5% official target.
Updated
NAB home loan applications fall 15%
Home loan applications at National Australia Bank have dropped sharply amid subdued demand across the property sector, according to a business update published this morning.
NAB data shows that Australian home lending applications fell 15% over the June quarter during a period marked by rising mortgage repayments and less favourable tax settings for investors.
The drop in applications is in keeping with data released from the wider financial sector that suggests investor demand has slumped, while prospective owner-occupiers remain cautious.
The Reserve Bank has lifted rates three times this year. Changes to negative gearing and the treatment of capital gains announced in the May budget have also made properties less attractive to new investors.
Optus, communications minister respond to Acma court case
Optus has acknowledged the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) court case launched today over last year’s triple-zero outage we reported earlier.
The company said it is inappropriate to comment on the legal proceedings but said:
Our focus remains on building a stronger and better Optus. We continue to invest in network resilience, strengthen our systems and processes, build and foster a culture of transparency and accountability, and improve the services our customers and communities rely on every day.
Separately, the communications minister, Anika Wells, said she welcomed the regulator’s decision.
These are serious alleged failures by Optus.
Australians rightly expect to reach triple zero when they need it most, and telcos are legally obligated to ensure that connection occurs.
Icac witness compares Liberal factional fighting to Braveheart
Former Reformers member Robert Assaf has been detailing the origins of the hard right factional group, accused of illegal branch stacking efforts.
He has accepted that he and fellow Reformer Christian Ellis started the group in 2017, after forming a strong friendship while working together on the No campaign for the same-sex marriage plebiscite, but Assaf says he later made a concerted effort to leave the group in 2020.
Assaf says:
We had wild dreams of … kind of this idea, with 20-something-year-old guys dreaming big, and we thought if we can get this going, prove the concept, and hopefully we can build it out to many parties.
Questioned over a draft document sent by Ellis to him that details a plan to recruit 5,000 conservative Christian members to the party to take over control of the NSW division of the Liberal party, which had 4,000 members at the time, Assaf says the aims of the Reformers was “policy change” but says recruitment was “certainly part of the process”.
He says taking the model under which he himself was recruited, the group began to organise talks on conservative issues with the aim of signing up new members afterwards. Assaf says:
My observations at the time were, the right faction was like, I’m not sure if you’ve seen [Mel Gibson’s 1995 film] Braveheart, but like these warring kingdoms, and they would slaughter each other, and then every now and then they’d come together for a big fight, and that was how the right was. The left were a bit more well oiled.
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Victoria premier says he’s ‘very committed’ to public education
Carroll was also pressed about reports that he would order a review into the Suburban Rail Loop, a pet project of Jacinta Allan and Daniel Andrews, from whom he has vowed to chart a different direction.
The federal government’s May budget poured an extra $3.8bn into the first stage of the project – SRL East, which travels from Cheltenham to Box Hill, in Melbourne’s southeast – and the state has signed almost $15bn worth of construction contracts.
Asked whether he had spoken to the federal government about redirecting the funds it has given to the SRL into other projects, Carroll said he had not:
I spoke with Anthony Albanese yesterday. We did not speak about this specific project. What I did talk to him about was education and how I’m fully committed to making sure Victoria remains educational state and that we do everything we can to invest in our future, which is our children.
Questioning then turned to the ongoing pay dispute between the government and public school teachers – who have gone on strike twice in recent months. Asked whether he would consider bringing forward the long-promised Gonski education reforms – which would see the state government provide public schools 75% of the Schooling Resource Standard – in an effort to resolve the matter, Carroll said:
I am very committed to public education. I fought very hard to make sure our Gonski school reforms are delivered, I’ve been working very closely with Jason Clare. I made it clear to the prime minister, when he’s back in Melbourne as soon as possible, I want to sit down with him and talk about education.
Asked whether he had any additional levers as premier he could pull to resolve the dispute, he said he had already “pulled every lever we had”. Last month 49% of Australian Education Union members voted to accept the deal, while 51% rejected it.
Carroll said:
This was a very close vote. This was a significant improvement on the deal that the union had already agreed to in principle. So we are close, and I’ll continue to have an open door policy with … the union movement to get this resolved.
New Victoria premier to make ‘sensible’ changes to work from home laws
The new Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, says he backs his predecessor Jacinta Allan’s plan to legislate a right to work from home two days a week – but that “sensible” changes to the bill would be considered.
Carroll, sworn in as premier on Tuesday, vowed to improve the Victorian government’s relationship with the business community, which Allan infuriated when she announced her plan to give Victorians who can work from home the legal right to do so two days a week, and then expanded it to include small businesses, part time employees and casuals.
The bill is expected to pass the lower house by the end of today and will then go to the upper house, where it is expected to be debated during the next parliamentary sitting week, beginning 11 August.
Speaking from the Essendon tram depot this morning, where the first new G Class tram hit the network, Carroll said he was open to amending the bill:
I want to be crystal clear. Work from home does work for families, and now it will go through that parliamentary process, and we will consider any that is sensible.
Pressed on whether he still backed legilsating the right to work from home two days a week, he said:
That is the plan, and that has been what was introduced before. Sensible changes will always come up in any debate, and like any other debate, they will be considered.
Member of hard-right Liberal factional group describes ‘icky feeling’ about getting involved in politics
Peggy Dwyer, counsel assisting the NSW Icac, has been questioning former hard-right factional group Reformers member Robert Assaf about how he got involved in the NSW Liberal party.
The Reformers allegedly took on illegal donations to recruit or renew members to the party, to advance conservative policies on same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia.
Assaf, who joined the party as a Young Liberal in 2015, has described a “baptism of fire from a factional sense” when he joined, amid a split between those in the right of the party. He says his membership form was taken off him with the branch left blank, because he was perceived to be in the hard right of the party, but he later was allowed to join the Lane Cove branch. He subsequently rose to become president of the Willoughby Young Liberals.
Assaf says:
It took a bit of convincing for me to join the Libs, partly because I cared more about the faith and values and certain policies and … I just always had a bit of an icky feeling about politics and faction, you know, games and political stuff.
He says he was later convinced to join after attending talks on conservative policies, including by NSW Liberal upper house member Damien Tudehope at the University of Sydney Liberal Club.
The way it would work at that point for that club, and the way they ran that the faction at the time, was they have these social events and you know talks and then afterwards, after the talk’s over, they may make you feel special and introduce you to Damien and give you the handshake and make you feel you know, young kid being shown some love by a politician.
Tudehope is not accused of any wrongdoing.
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First witness from Liberal factional group the Reformers appears before NSW Icac
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption’s (Icac) Operation Rosny hearings have resumed this morning, with the first witness from the hard-right Liberal faction group the Reformers, Robert Assaf, appearing before the commission.
Icac is investigating the allegation that Liberal figures including Assaf solicited or accepted illegal donations to recruit or renew members to the party – a practice known as “branch stacking”. The group wanted more conservative policies on same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia.
Assaf, 30, who went to an independent Catholic school with two of the Reformers, Jeremy Greenwood and Jean-Claude Perrottet, spent a year in the Catholic seminary, but later worked in federal parliament for various ministers, senators and MPs, including Tony Abbott. He later worked in communications for Catholic Schools NSW and Greyhound Racing NSW.
Assaf appears after two days of evidence from former Liberal staffer and Catholic Schools NSW employee, Dylan Whitelaw, who was associated with the group but has not been named in allegations against the Reformers.
Whitelaw’s evidence include the allegation that it was a “running joke” between him and Assaf that the latter spent most of his time at Catholic Schools NSW on factional Liberal work. Whitelaw said it was his “guess” Assaf spent 60% of his time on factional work and 40% on Catholic Schools NSW work.
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Bird flu detected in Victoria, with 13 more suspected cases in South Australia
The number of suspected deadly bird flu cases continues to grow in South Australia, with 13 more in greater crested terns, the state government said.
Five of the new suspected H5N1 cases are at Seal Bay at Kangaroo Island, home to a population of endangered Australian sea lions.
Victoria has also confirmed its first case of the disease in a greater crested tern – a common local seabird – found at Portland.
Victoria’s chief veterinary officer, Graeme Cooke, said:
We need Victorians to avoid contact with sick or dead wildlife, record what they see and report it. Early reporting gives us the best chance to reduce the impacts of the disease.
The remaining eight South Australian birds were detected in Robe. The SA government said CSIRO had also confirmed another positive infection in a giant petrel.
It follows Wednesday’s announcement of a suspected 11 cases in greater crested terns, including one at Seal Bay, where on-beach tours have temporarily been paused.
An SA government spokesperson said they expected to have the CSIRO results for all 24 terns in coming days:
South Australians are encouraged to continue being vigilant in reporting sick and dead birds and other wildlife.
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Teenage girl dies in Victorian prison
An 18-year-old woman has died in custody at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, with authorities saying the state coroner is investigating the circumstances of the teenager’s death.
Corrections Victoria issued a statement on Tuesday in response to her death.
We recognise that all deaths in custody have an impact on family members, friends and those working within the corrections system, as well as victims of crime.
All deaths in custody are reported to the coroner’s court of Victoria, which formally determines the cause of death.
The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls’s Tabitha Lean said her death was a “tragedy” and urged greater support and trauma-informed care for vulnerable incarcerated individuals.
An 18-year-old should be planning her future, not dying in prison. She was still a teenager. Her death should shock the conscience of every Australian. Every death in custody should propel this nation to act.
Never has the call for decarceration been louder or more urgent. We cannot continue to accept prisons as the default response to the complex social and health issues faced by women and girls. This tragedy must be a turning point.
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Acma takes Optus to court over triple-zero outage
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) has taken Optus to court over the September 2025 triple-zero outage.
A network firewall upgrade blocked emergency service calls for Optus customers in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and parts of New South Wales, with more than 600 calls not able to connect in the 13 hours it was offline last year.
Two deaths were linked to the outage, with people unable to connect to triple zero.
The regulator announced on Thursday it had launched action in the federal court alleging Optus had breached two separate legal obligations on 1,005 occasions. Acma alleges that Optus failed to give end-users who made emergency calls access to the emergency call service, and to ensure emergency calls were carried to the relevant termination point.
The Acma chair, Nerida O’Loughlin, said:
Australians rightly expect that when they call triple zero, their call will connect. The circumstances of this outage meant that did not reliably occur, leaving people unable to connect to potentially life-saving services.
Giving access to the emergency call service is not optional, it is a fundamental legal obligation and the most important public safety responsibility telecommunications providers have.
Optus could face penalties of up to $250,000 per contravention.
Optus has been approached for comment.
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Federal Labor MP Luke Gosling arrested over alleged assault
Luke Gosling, the federal member for Solomon, has been arrested this morning over an alleged assault earlier this month, Northern Territory police said in a statement.
“The Northern Territory Police Force has arrested the 54-year-old federal member for Solomon in relation to an alleged assault on the Administrator of the Northern Territory,” police said, adding:
It is alleged the incident occurred at a public event on Saturday 18 July 2026 involving the 54-year-old and the Administrator of the Northern Territory.
Investigations began last week and police arrested the 54-year-old earlier this morning and he remains in custody.
A police spokesperson said Gosling had not yet been charged.
Police said it related to an alleged incident regarding the NT’s administrator, David Connolly. Gosling has previously denied having any altercation with Connolly, and NT media reported Gosling as previously calling the claims “ridiculous allegations that I categorically deny”.
The Guardian has reached out to Gosling’s office for further comment.
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Angus Taylor dodges Icac questions
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has dodged questions about the NSW Liberal party and an inquiry under way by the state’s corruption watchdog.
Taylor, who is not accused of wrongdoing, was on Tuesday mentioned in Icac proceedings when Dylan Whitelaw, a former NSW Liberal parliamentary staffer and associate of the internal party group calling themselves the Reformers, gave evidence.
During the hearing, Whitelaw was shown a screenshot of a message from the Catholic Schools NSW chief executive, Dallas McInerney. It suggested he was going to “shake down Angus for 10k”.
The group wanted more conservative policies on same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia.
Asked this morning in Queensland if he had ever given money to Catholic Schools NSW, Taylor avoided answering, repeating his same lines from Wednesday.
“I’ve answered these questions yesterday. I’m not going to give a running commentary on it,” Taylor said.
Taylor told media on Wednesday that no payments were made but did not answer further questions.
Guardian Australia asked Taylor on Wednesday if he had ever given money to Catholic Schools NSW. A spokesman did not directly answer the question, saying instead: “The Leader will not be providing a running commentary on any matters before the commission.”
“You can ask the question 100 times,” Taylor said in Logan this morning. “I’ll give you the same answer.”
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eSafety commissioner says Telegram case comes amid ‘heightened security environment’ in Australia
Julie Inman Grant said the case comes at a time when Australia is “facing a heightened security environment against the fresh backdrop of the Bondi tragedy, the royal commission into antisemitism, and Asio’s assessment that Australia’s terrorism threat level remains ‘Probable’”.
She said:
It is more important than ever that digital platforms meet their obligations to protect the Australian community. Australians have the right to expect that services operating and generating revenue in this country are responsible for preventing platforms from being used to spread material that can radicalise, incite violence, and cause real world harm.
Inman Grant added that some of the alleged offending content remained on Telegram. She said court action was ongoing, but when asked if the app could be banned from Australia she had this to say:
We could apply to the federal court and ask that the service be ceased. We’ve never used those powers. We’ll see how this all plays out and whether that kind of action is warranted.
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eSafety takes Telegram to court over terror content
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has taken messaging service Telegram to court over its alleged failure to detect and remove pro-terror material from its platform, including videos of terrorist executions and mass shootings.
The eSafety commissioner conducted a year-long investigation into the platform and alleges Telegram has failed to comply with Australian codes and standards regarding pro-terror material.
The content allegedly identified includes the livestreamed Christchurch mosque shooting from 2019, and the Buffalo mass shooting in New York from May 2022.
eSafety alleges the material was uploaded to Telegram nearly three months prior to its removal.
The company could face fines of up to A$54.6m.
Telegram was approached for comment.
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Albanese says government providing support to Australian in Syria facing death penalty
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the federal government is providing assistance to an Australian man facing the death penalty in Syria over the alleged murder of a fellow national.
AAP reports Gold Coast man Patrick Stevenson, 20, has been detained for seven months in Syria over the alleged shooting death of another Australian man, Abdullah Glen Charles Burgess, in December.
The penalty for premeditated murder in Syria is punishable by death.
However, Stevenson could be spared execution under Syria’s legal system if Burgess’s widow grants forgiveness in the form of a blood-money payment.
Albanese told ABC News this morning:
Legal processes will take their course overseas, of course, and that is appropriate. I feel for the families of the person who’s lost their life, and we’ve connected with them and providing support for them.
We’re also providing support for the family of the person who’s been charged.
Australia does not have a diplomatic presence in Syria, which has limited the ability for consular support.
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Bird flu is spreading locally. How bad could it get?
Australia has entered a new phase in dealing with the incursion of deadly H5N1 bird flu, with authorities confirming on Wednesday that local transmission of the highly virulent strain had taken place.
“We have had what is suggestive of local transmission for the first time,” Julie Collins, the federal minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry, said on Wednesday afternoon, after 11 new suspected detections were reported in South Australian birds.
Now that authorities believe transmission of H5 strain is occurring locally, what does this mean for Australia’s wildlife, and how bad could things get?
Take a look:
Police and government have been under pressure after multiple deaths
Continuing on from last post …
The announcement said NSW police will still respond in situations “where the police are the most appropriate agency to attend”.
The ministers said its approach was shaped by the UK’s “right person, right care” model, which sees health workers rather than police attend mental health callouts if there is no crime being committed and no risk to life.
Police and the government had been under pressure to enact reforms after the deaths of Clare Nowland, Steve Pampalian, Jesse Deacon and Krista Kach in 2023 while under mental health distress. The pressure grew again after public housing resident Collin Burling died last year after he begged for help while restrained by police.
Last week, the coronial inquest into Deacon’s death, who was fatally shot by police after he was reported to be self-harming, began before the NSW coroner’s court. His mother, 82-year-old Judy Deacon has since become one of the state’s loudest voices for change in how police respond to mental health incidents. One of the changes he has called for is a change to how Triple 0 calls are triaged.
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NSW government to roll out health-led response to mental health crises
The Minns government is rolling out a health-led response to mental health emergencies following long-fought for reform in the wake of multiple deaths at the hands of police.
The police minister, Yasmin Catley, and mental health minister, Rose Jackson, announced on Thursday people experiencing a mental health crises who call triple zero will, under the change, be connected with a new team of mental health experts who would assess their needs, provide support and connect them with the care they need.
The change, funded by $270m over 10 years, will also establish a hub in NSW ambulance that will provide real-time clinical advice to first responders.
Eight new mental health acute assessment teams, which will include a paramedic and specialist mental health nurse, will also be set up and based in areas of high need, operating 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
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Albanese says Victorians will have a choice between Ben Carroll ‘and chaos’
Albanese said he welcomed Ben Carroll’s election in Victoria as the next premier and looks forward to working with him.
The prime minister was also asked about One Nation’s surging support in the state before its November election and had this to say:
Victorians will have a choice between Ben Carroll and a Labor government, and chaos. … That’s the choice that they will have. And a chaotic Victorian government with people involved in One Nation. …
I want to see a Victorian government that looks after the interests of Victorians, that continues to invest in health and education …
I look forward to working with Ben Carroll, and I will continue to advocate for him to remain premier of Victoria beyond November. Because I think that is very much in the interests of Victorians.
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Albanese says government focused on longer-term cost-of-living measures as fuel excise cut set to expire
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the cut to the fuel excise was always meant to be temporary and the government had spent the last few months ensuring fuel supply amid ongoing tension in the Middle East.
Albanese said he would consider revisiting the cuts in the future if the war in the region drags on, but said the decision to step down the cuts had been telegraphed with a “lot of notice”.
What we’ve moved to is permanent cost-of-living support. The tax cuts that came in on July 1, the increase in the minimum wage, the move of paid parental leave to six months – all of these measures are making a difference on cost of living.
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‘The likelihood of the RBA raising interest rates has fallen. Have we finally come to our senses?’
Greg Jericho has a piece this morning on the latest inflation figures. He writes:
The June inflation rate of 3.8% ended any real prospect of a rate rise next month, despite investors assuming the Reserve Bank would rather raise rates than not.
There is a certain ghoulishness when it comes to economics and especially inflation. A “good” number will inevitably be dull news, whereas a bad number – one that is higher than expected or just higher – can lead to all manner of gnashing of teeth and wailing as the topic quickly shifts to interest rates.
Read more here:
Atlassian tightens tracking of staff AI use
Software firm Atlassian has sought to tighten tracking of its staff’s AI spending by introducing “wallets” with monthly caps of up $2,000 for each employee, amid an explosion in costs at other tech companies.
The move by Atlassian, which recently cited AI as part of the reason behind cutting 1,600 staff, bucks the trend of others in the tech sector who encouraged employees to use as much of the technology as possible, dubbed “tokenmaxxing”. Some companies have reportedly introduced leaderboards for employees who used the most AI in their work.
Tokens refer to the measurement of a response AI gives to a prompt. OpenAI has said one token is about four characters, and something like the US Declaration of Independence amounts to 1,695 tokens. OpenAI’s flagship model, GPT-5.6 Sol, has a charge of US$5 for every 1m tokens, while Anthropic’s Claude Fable and Mythos models are US$10 for every 1m tokens.
Under tokenmaxxing, the costs quickly add up.
Read more here:
Minister says meeting Closing the Gap target a major step, but more work needed on others
Malarndirri McCarthy, the minister for Indigenous Australians, said early childhood education enrolment for First Nations children was a milestone in the effort to reach the Closing the Gap targets.
McCarthy spoke to RN this morning, saying:
It is important to see this milestone achieved, and that is because of the work of the Aboriginal and community controlled sector and those involved in the preschool sector. … Clearly, the challenges with all the other targets remain, but I do take heart at the fact that this has been achieved.
The minister was asked about other targets, including those surrounding incarceration, which continue to worsen. She said:
It’s very, very difficult to deal with these situations where you have particular pieces of legislation that see the high incarceration rates of First Nations people. What that means is that we have to go harder, we have to keep pushing the states and territories around the justice factors. Clearly, that is a real concern.
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Finance minister says inflation figures ‘encouraging’, but ‘uncertain times’ will likely have ongoing impact on economy
Katy Gallagher, the federal minister for finance, said yesterday’s inflation numbers were “encouraging”, but the country still had a “job ahead of us”.
Gallagher spoke to RN Breakfast, saying the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East and surging oil prices had led to continued uncertainty, “and that will certainly have an impact” on inflation and the economy.
I think we are living in very uncertain times. There’s a lot of global instability. … We saw it the last time the Middle East war increased. We saw that impact on inflation … We will see some of what’s happened in the last month flow through [into the economy].
Gallagher also maintained the government’s line that the end of the fuel excise discount is imminent, saying the measure was always meant to be temporary. She said a discount for the heavy vehicle road user charge was also meant to be temporary and would come off.
Trust among Australians drops to decade’s lowest point, poll finds
Australians’ trust of each other has hit the lowest point recorded this decade, with a new university poll also showing average life satisfaction has hit rock bottom, AAP reports.
The Australian National University (ANU) June 2026 poll shows average life satisfaction has dropped to the lowest level recorded since they first started asking those questions consistently in 2023.
The report states its findings reveal a “population under considerable strain”.
ANU Prof Nicholas Biddle told AAP he was shocked to see interpersonal trust had fallen to 5.32 out of a scale of 10. This drop is below levels recorded during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
The way Australian’s feel about how the country’s democracy operates also fell significantly, dropping nearly 3% to 62.8%.
However, those surveyed indicated they still support democracy as a governance system.
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Victoria to push for crackdown on hidden ticketing fees
Victoria will push for a national crackdown on hidden ticketing fees and deceptive dynamic pricing practices when Australian consumer affairs state ministers meet with the commonwealth’s assistant minister for productivity, competition, charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh, in Darwin today.
Victoria’s consumer affairs minister, Paul Edbrooke, has written to the federal government seeking national reforms to address unfair practices in the ticketing industry, amid growing concerns over the dominance of a small number of major players in the Australian ticketing market.
Edbrooke said the sale of tickets to major events increasingly involved “limited transparency about terms and conditions, hidden fees and charges, and tactics that exploit consumers into making rushed purchasing decisions or that make consumer purchases unduly difficult, to maximise prices”.
The minister pointed specifically to ticketing companies not publishing prices before consumers were partway through the purchasing process, and to the use of “potential undisclosed dynamic pricing” where prices shift, usually upward, in response to demand.
In his letter to Leigh sent last week, Edbrooke said:
This situation is exacerbated by the increasing dominance of a small number of very large players in the Australian ticketing market. There is an urgent need for targeted nation-wide action to address these consumer harms.
A spokesperson from Edbroke’s office said the minister intended to raise the issue at today’s consumer ministers network, and lobby for further reforms under the Australian Consumer Law that would mandate fairer ticketing pricing practices.
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Good morning, and happy Thursday. Here’s hoping you saw the full moon last night. Nick Visser on the blog once more, let’s get into it.
Childcare safety training launched to detect grooming
The government has announced the second stage of its mandatory safety training for childcare workers will begin Friday, focused on preventing child safety concerns and detecting grooming.
It follows serious safety breaches and a number of high-profile arrests of childcare workers in multiple states for the alleged abuse of children in childcare centres.
The education minister, Jason Clare, says the first stage of training has been completed by 99% of early educators, which focused on staff conduct and reporting obligations.
In a statement he said:
Our early educators are the best asset we’ve got to keep our children safe. They had six months to do the first stage of the mandatory training and 99 per cent of them completed it within 4 months. It tells you a lot about how seriously they’re taking this.
This year the government has also established the childcare worker register, and is working on nationalising the working with children check.
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Three dead in Sydney house fire
Three people have died following a house fire in Sydney’s south-west last night, NSW police said.
Emergency services were called to a home on Cornelia Street, Wiley Park, at about 9.45pm following reports of a fire.
Fire and Rescue NSW crews attended and extinguished the blaze which caused extensive damage to the property.
Following a search of the home, the bodies of three people were located inside.
Officers from Campsie police area command have established a crime scene, and an investigation is underway into the circumstances surrounding the fire.
Closing the Gap target for early preschool enrolments officially reached
One of the 19 Closing the Gap targets has officially been reached after early childhood education enrolment for First Nations children hit 95% across the country.
Released by the Productivity Commission today, the annual data compilation report showed an increase from 61.3% enrolments in 2016 (the baseline year), to hitting the 95% mark across every state and territory today.
The minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, said although it was a “significant milestone”, state and territory governments should “back in” their commitments as other targets continued to worsen.
This result is encouraging, as are improvements in eight other targets including employment and education.
However, it is very concerning that we are still seeing outcomes worsening for early childhood development, children in out-of-home care, incarceration rates and suicide.
Our government remains committed to Closing the Gap; working in partnership with First Nations communities, building on what is working and investing in the areas where we can make the greatest difference to generational change.
State and territory governments must also back in their commitments under the national agreement with investments and policies that improve outcomes for First Nations people.
You can read more about the targets here, in Sarah Collard’s story from earlier this year:
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Jillian Segal to front royal commission hearings
The special envoy to combat antisemitism will make another appearance in the royal commission’s hot seat today, Australian Associated Press reports.
Jillian Segal, who was appointed to the role by the federal government in 2024, will testify to the royal commission today when it examines education and training in handling antisemitism, as well as its effectiveness.
In a report released in 2025, the special envoy called for Holocaust and antisemitism education to be put in place in national and state school curriculums.
The education plans would be coordinated with government, independent and Catholic school systems.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. Jillian Segal, the government’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, will testify to the royal commission today when it examines education and training for fighting antisemitism, as well as its effectiveness. More coming up.
One of the 19 Closing the Gap targets has officially been reached after early childhood education enrolment for First Nations children hit 95% across the country. More coming up.
I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
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