What we learned; Sunday 12 October
That’s a wrap for today. Here’s what’s been keeping us busy:
A pro-Palestine march in Sydney’s CBD heard speeches from activists who took part in the Global Sumud flotilla as well as Palestine Action Group organiser Amal Naser, who submitted the form 1 application for the Opera House route. Palestine supporters also held rallies in Melbourne and Perth.
Melissa McIntosh said it was “extraordinary” that the Albanese government claims global pressure – including that of Australia – on Israel played a role in the ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The shadow communications spokesperson also said that she supports a Senate inquiry into the Optus outage that last month led to the deaths of four people, alongside pulling “every single lever” to prevent a similar outage in the future.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, downplayed the importance of striking a deal with the US to offer Australia’s critical mineral supplies as Anthony Albanese prepares for his meeting this month with Donald Trump.
Two New Zealanders were charged after allegedly trying to smuggle 40kg of cocaine into Australia. Australian Border Force officers allegedly found the drugs on Friday after selecting 21-year-old men for a baggage examination after their arrival at Sydney airport.
A teenage boy was airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries after he was bitten by a shark in the Torres Strait off far north Queensland.
A primary school-aged boy is in a stable condition in hospital after he was bitten by a dingo at K’gari yesterday.
Finally, Sydneysiders won’t be buying their Christmas prawns at the city’s new fish market after it was confirmed the new site would not be opening until January.
Thank you, as ever, for joining us. We’ll be back bright and early with more live news coverage.
Updated
Several thousand turn out for Sydney CBD march
The march organised by Palestine Action Group (PAG) in Sydney has reached its final destination in Belmore Park.
Neither the organisers nor NSW police are yet to provide an estimate for Sunday’s crowd in Sydney, but it appears to have been several thousand, short of the 40,000 on the form 1 application originally submitted to march to the Opera House.
The protest, which marks more than two years since the start of the conflict in Gaza, appears to have passed without incident, although marchers had to contend with rain and strong winds.
It comes as the Jewish community holds its own commemoration in Sydney tonight to mark the second anniversary of the 7 October attacks. It will include a speech by Geoffrey Majzner, the brother of Australian citizen Galit Carbone, who was killed during Hamas’s attack.
Updated
Sydney pro-Palestine march starts to move off in the rain
In Sydney’s Hyde Park, the pro-Palestine march is starting to move off from the northern end of the park.
Organisers say they don’t have an indication of numbers yet, but it is safe to say it is not on the scale of the Harbour Bridge march. However, like that march, it has now started to rain heavily.
A line of police behind a barricade is blocking off Macquarie Street, which leads down to the Opera House. Instead, protesters are being marshalled west down Prince Albert Street towards the city, before they head south down George Street towards Belmore Park.
Before setting off, the crowd heard about an hour of speakers including NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong and four Australians released from Israeli detention after they were intercepted as part of the Global Sumud flotilla.
Abubakir Rafiq, who returned to Sydney on Friday, tells the crowd:
I’ve been freed. But what about those two Palestinians that I saw at the same time that I was brought to prison? I was freed alongside the other activists, but what about the 10,000 Palestinian hostages that are being held in prison?
Updated
Human trafficking and modern slavery at record highs, AFP says
Human trafficking and modern slavery in Australia have reached an all-time high, with reports of exit trafficking – when a person is tricked into leaving a country – more than doubling in a single year.
According to the Australian federal police, there were 420 reports of human trafficking in 2024-2025, an increase of 10% on the year before.
This included 118 reports of forced marriage (up from 91 in the previous financial year) and 84 reports of sexual servitude (up from 59).
There were 75 reports of exit trafficking (up from 35). Forced labour accounted for 42 reports (down from 69), while there were 36 reports of child trafficking (up from 35).
There were no reports of organ trafficking or harbouring, which had last sat at less than five, the AFP said.
In a statement, the AFP commander, Helen Schneider, said more than 90% of exit trafficking victims were female.
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Qantas says data has been released by hackers and investigations are ongoing
Qantas says it is investigating which data has been released by a cybercriminal collective that stole more than 5m customer records in July.
Hackers yesterday leaked the personal records of Qantas customers on the dark web, after a ransom deadline set by the cybercriminals passed.
In a statement today, the airline said it was “one of a number of companies globally that has had data released by cyber criminals following the airline’s cyber incident in early July, where customer data was stolen via a third party platform”.
The airline said it was working with the help of specialist cybersecurity experts to isolate which data was released by the hackers.
In July, Qantas contacted customers to alert them of the types of personal data that were contained in the affected system and this has not changed, the airline said:
Of the 5.7 million Qantas customer records that were stolen in early July, majority was limited to name, email address and Frequent Flyer details.
A smaller portion of the impacted customer data includes business or home address, date of birth, phone number, gender and meal preferences.
No credit card details, personal financial information or passport details were impacted.
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Palestinian Australian hopes ceasefire will help him find and bury his family
Returning to the pro-Palestine march in Sydney’s CBD, among those attending is Shamikh Badra, a Palestinian Australian whose brother, sister-in-law and their four children have been missing in Gaza since 2023.
Badra, whose father also died towards the start of the conflict, says he hopes the ceasefire will allow him to evacuate his elderly mother, who is still in Gaza without medical care, and search for and bury his brother and his family.
“We support the efforts to end the genocide but still, I’m worried … the Trump plan [was] imposed to Palestinians, they didn’t consult Palestinians at the beginning.”
Last month, Badra and his brother Majed told Guardian Australia they were racially abused on a train after attending a rally at town hall, allegedly because Majed was wearing a keffiyeh. Badra says police have told him a man has now been charged.
A spokesperson for NSW police said after inquiries, a 46-year-old man was issued a court attendance notice for common assault on 4 October, and would appear at Downing Centre local court on 12 November.
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Where will Sydneysiders be buying their prawns this Christmas?
The answer, after much speculation, is at Sydney’s old fish market, after it was confirmed the new site will not open until the new year.
Sydney Fish Market CEO Daniel Jarosch told the ABC the new market would open on 19 January.
The $836m project was scheduled to open in late 2024, but the timeline blew out amid construction delays and tense negotiations with grandfathered seafood vendors, who only signed new leases a few months ago.
The news comes after Jarosch and the NSW premier, Chris Minns, said on Thursday they couldn’t give a firm date on when the new fish market will welcome patrons.
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Palestine Action Group says advocacy continues ‘even with a ceasefire’
There are now several thousand people at the northern end of Sydney’s Hyde Park, where people have been joining in with chanting before an opening speech by Palestine Action Group (PAG) organiser Amal Naser, who submitted the form 1 application for the Opera House route.
She tells the crowd:
Even with a ceasefire, the wounds run deep and the struggle continues.
Speaking earlier, Naser and PAG organiser Josh Lees told Guardian Australia they were hoping for a turnout in the tens of thousands. Naser says:
Every single time the police attempt to oppose our rallies or take us to the supreme court, it wakes up a lot of people … to the need to mobilise and stand up against it.
Of the NSW court of appeals decision, Naser says “courts get it wrong sometimes”, maintaining that a march could have safely gone ahead to the Opera House.
Some legal advocates have raised concerns that the ruling, which has criminalised attending a “prohibited” protest, could undermine the right to peaceful protest in NSW.
Naser says by marching today, PAG has lost the right to appeal against the decision but she says she hopes other groups “or even anyone who gets charged with this offence … might consider taking it all the way to the high court”.
Rallies are also taking place in Perth and Melbourne, with the Victorian crowd – marching from the State Library to the US Consulate – reportedly “significant” in size.
Updated
Flotilla activists to speak at Sydney pro-Palestine march
Returning to the pro-Palestine march in Sydney’s CBD, the crowd is about to hear speeches from activists who took part in the Global Sumud Flotilla.
They include Australians who have returned to the country after being detained by Israeli security forces this month when about 40 vessels carrying aid were intercepted in the Mediterranean while attempting to break Israel’s siege of Gaza.
Surya McEwen tells Guardian Australia it is too early to draw conclusions from a ceasefire agreement which has seen international aid organisations including Unrwa and Unicef preparing to enter Gaza:
We don’t know enough about the agreement that’s been reached.
He says flotilla activists will continue to try to deliver aid by sea:
As long as there is a situation where there’s a brutal and illegal blockade on Gaza, we will be trying to break that siege.
McEwen’s arm is in a sling after it was allegedly dislocated and his head slammed into the ground while he was detained in an Israeli prison:
Our treatment was very much the five-star version reserved for people with passports from allies of Israel.
The horror the Palestinians face there is so far beyond what we experienced.
The ABC has reported that Israel’s foreign ministry has rejected allegations that Australians detained as part of the flotilla were mistreated.
Updated
Pro-Palestine rally set to go ahead in Perth
Friends of Palestine WA says a planned rally will go ahead today as part of global mobilisations demanding justice and freedom:
We do not trust Israel and we do not trust Donald Trump.
Previous ceasefires were broken by Israel and the genocide has continued apace.
The humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders warned that the people of Gaza left to survive amid the ruins of what was once their home faced immense medical, psychological and material needs:
This ceasefire must be accompanied by an immediate massive and sustained scale-up of aid into and across the Strip.
– AAP
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‘Silence has been prudent,’ a watchful Andrew Hastie says
Andrew Hastie has told supporters he will quietly watch from the sidelines after quitting the shadow ministry this month over an immigration policy dispute.
In a newsletter to supporters on Friday evening the former shadow defence and home affairs spokesperson said he had watched his “enemies” unmask their guns over the past week:
Many people have had their say about my resignation from the front bench. I’ve watched closely, as our enemies have unmasked their guns. But silence has been prudent.
The reference is to a leak to Nine newspapers that the former opposition leader Peter Dutton reportedly singled out Hastie for criticism in his feedback to the Liberal party’s campaign review.
Hastie ended the brief newsletter quoting the conservative British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli:
Though I sit down now, the time will come when you will hear me.
Updated
Nampijinpa Price says Liberals have ‘got to stop being Labor lite’
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price maintains the Liberal party is “salvageable” but needs to settle on its energy and migration policy platform sooner rather than later to be a viable alternative to Labor.
Speaking to 2SM last week, the Northern Territory senator, who was demoted to the backbench last month for declining to publicly back Sussan Ley, said the opposition shouldn’t spend months deciding on its policies in the wake of electoral defeat:
We have to start lifting the debate to that which unites us, which is family, community and nation. You know, I’ve urged people and members who have decided to leave not to do that, because ultimately, if you want to see the Liberal party that reflects you, then you’ve got to be part of that in order for it to do that.
Commenting on divisions within the party over net zero and immigration levels, Nampijinpa Price said she and Andrew Hastie “will have the opportunity to cross the floor” as backbenchers:
We’ve got to draw a line in the sand. We’ve got to stop being Labor lite, and we’ve got to become a point of difference to the government, because the government is ruining this country, and we have to start calling them out, instead of trying to take each other out.
Updated
Boy airlifted to hospital after dingo bite on K’gari
A primary school-aged boy is in a stable condition in hospital after he was bitten by a dingo at K’gari yesterday.
Reports suggest the boy had been walking with his grandfather near the Coolooloi Creek camping area, at the southern end of the world’s largest sand island, a popular tourist spot inhabited by wild dingoes.
His bite injuries included cuts to his head. The boy was taken to Rainbow Beach where he was treated by paramedics and later airlifted to the Queensland children’s hospital.
He is in a stable condition today and is understood to be awaiting further treatment.
Rangers have begun an investigation.
Updated
Charges laid after cocaine allegedly found in bags at Sydney airport
Two New Zealanders have been charged after allegedly trying to smuggle 40kg of cocaine into Australia.
Australian Border Force officers allegedly found the drugs on Friday after selecting the men, both 21 years old, for a baggage examination after their arrival at Sydney airport.
Officers allegedly found 20kg of a white substance in each man’s suitcases, totalling about 40kg. Initial testing of the substance returned a positive result for cocaine, police said.
The haul has an estimated street value of $13m.
Police said they had formally charged the men with importing and possessing a commercial quantity of drugs.
Updated
Crowds start to gather for Sydney pro-Palestine march
People are starting to gather in Sydney’s Hyde Park for a march organised by the Palestine Action Group (PAG), after the NSW court of appeals prohibited a route to the Opera House proposed for today.
As Guardian Australia has reported, the approved route will now run south from Hyde Park along George Street to Belmore Park, starting at 1pm.
At the moment, between 100 and 200 pro-Palestine demonstrators are gathered in the northern end of Hyde Park alongside stands selling keffiyehs and flags. A sizeable contingent of NSW police threatens to outnumber them, although demonstrators are steadily trickling in.
It’s unknown how many will turn up to today’s march, which marks more than two years since the start of the conflict in Gaza, and comes as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appears to be holding.
PAG’s form 1 application – a notice of intention to the police to hold a public assembly – states up to 40,000 people are expected. The court of appeals heard from organisers last week that coverage of police’s decision to block the Opera House route had led to increased interest on social media, although not as much as August’s Harbour Bridge march. Police estimated 90,000 people attended in August but organisers said the figure was closer to 300,000.
Updated
Boy bitten by shark off Thursday Island
A teenage boy was airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries after he was bitten by a shark in the Torres Strait off far north Queensland.
Emergency services were called to Cook Esplanade on Thursday Island at 6.23pm on Saturday after reports the boy who is in his mid-teens was bitten on the stomach while swimming.
He was rushed to Thursday Island hospital with severe abdominal injuries before being airlifted to Townsville university hospital. He remains in a critical condition.
Updated
Could empty office blocks alleviate housing pressures?
Two years ago, state and local governments pushed to fast-track conversions of near-empty offices into much-needed apartments to alleviate a housing crunch.
The promised panacea never eventuated, writes my colleague Luca Ittimani.
Momentum to create homes out of empty offices has faded even as office vacancies rise and housing shortages intensify.
So, what went wrong?
Read here:
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US critical minerals deal will be reached ‘one of these days’, trade minister says
The trade minister, Don Farrell, has downplayed the importance of striking a deal with the US to offer Australia’s critical mineral supplies as Anthony Albanese prepares for his meeting this month with President Donald Trump.
Critical minerals are essential for renewable energy, computer and battery technologies and Australia is looking to set itself up as a reliable, alternative supplier to China, which maintains market dominance.
The supply of the minerals has been a key focus of Australian diplomats in their attempts to secure tariff exemptions from the US.
On Sky News this morning, Farrell said it was essential Australia guaranteed a broad market for the minerals:
[In a] couple of weeks’ time, we’ve got the Europeans out here. They’re interested in our critical minerals. The Japanese, the South Koreans and the Americans [too]. And so we need to have a broad range of customers, firstly to provide us with the capital to extract the products, but secondly, to ensure that we’ve got guaranteed markets to sell these critical minerals.
The trade minister said Australia had raised its supply of critical minerals with Trump since his first day in office:
These things always take a lot longer to do than you’d like them to do, but I’m sure that one of these days, we will reach an agreement with the United States, as we’ve done with the Europeans.
Updated
The price of gold is sky-high – and prospectors in Victoria hope to cash in
Gold prices climbed 45% in 2025, the steepest rise since 1979. It’s reignited interest in prospecting – but the odds of striking it rich are slim, Stuart Walmsley writes.
Maryborough, located at the centre of Victoria’s Golden Triangle – an area encompassing Ballarat, Bendigo and Wedderburn – produced some of the world’s largest alluvial nuggets during the gold rush of the 1850s.
There, Stuart met a group who signed up for a prospecting tour, all drawn by a special kind of sickness: gold fever.
Keep reading:
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‘I agree with both of them’: McIntosh refuses to take sides in Liberal immigration debate
Sitting firmly on the fence in the Coalition’s immigration debate, Melissa McIntosh says she agrees with both Andrew Hastie and Paul Scarr, whose views on the subject differ.
When asked whether she shares Hastie’s concern that Australians are feeling like “strangers in their home”, or whether, as Scarr said, a more measured debate on immigration is needed, the shadow communications spokesperson told the ABC:
In some ways, I agree with both of them, and I don’t in any way want to shape the migration debate around race.
I’ve got a wonderful multicultural community in western Sydney and I come from a migrant background, as … many of us do.
But in western Sydney, we do feel the strains of population growth. I have a public hospital right in my electorate that is bursting at the seams and every one of your viewers would know how hard it is. Infrastructure pressures on our roads, we have an international airport coming in and housing in affordability. So, that part of the debate is very real, but it is just one part of the debate.
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McIntosh calls for Senate inquiry into Optus triple-zero outage and increased fines for telcos
Melissa McIntosh says a Senate inquiry into the Optus outage that last month led to the deaths of four people is needed alongside pulling “every single lever” to prevent a similar outage in the future.
Speaking with the ABC a short time ago, the shadow communications spokesperson said the government was in part to blame for the outage:
The government’s number one responsibility is to protect its citizens, and people, when they are in their greatest time of need, at the bare minimum, should be able to pick up the phone and make that call.
There was a technical disaster with Optus, but there’s also been a regulatory disaster with the government.
She said she was not one for regulating “for the sake of regulating”, but that she would like to see fines for telco companies doubled and for the triple-zero network to be listed as critical infrastructure.
She also said she would like to see a public register so that people can see when there’s an outage and that she wants a “a public, thorough, independent investigation” into Optus:
If we can get something up in the Senate … we can ask questions around, ‘Why is Optus getting these big government contracts still after what’s been going on?’
Updated
‘Quite extraordinary’ for Labor to claim some credit for Gaza ceasefire deal, Melissa McIntosh says
Melissa McIntosh says it is “extraordinary” that the Albanese government claims global pressure – including that of Australia – on Israel played a role in the ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The shadow communications minister told the ABC’s Insiders just now that the credit needed to go instead to Donald Trump:
I think the credit really has to go to Trump, and I find it quite extraordinary – but pretty typical of Labor to be hoodwinking … Australians – to claim some of this.
I think they’ve been out of step with our greatest ally for some time.
She said the Coalition’s position on a two-state solution had not changed, despite breaking away from the government when Australia recognised Palestinian statehood before Israeli hostages being returned from Gaza.
Updated
Bird of the year: have you voted yet?
Things are heating up in this year’s Australian bird of the year poll, where Guardian Australia’s very own Matilda Boseley has made no secret about her favourite.
Dressed as an Australian pelican, Matilda has navigated the pigeons of Melbourne to find people to tell her what their favourite native birds are – and give us their best birdcall attempts:
If you haven’t already, vote here:
Updated
How can Sussan Ley appeal to Australia’s younger voters?
Three months after the Liberal party’s federal electoral drubbing, Sussan Ley met a group of NSW candidates at an intimate gathering in Sydney’s west to thank them for running, my colleague Krishani Dhanji writes.
At the dinner, attended by about 20 candidates, several told the new leader the party had lost the social media battle during the election campaign. Labor had been quicker, savvier, and used more AI to generate content, they told Ley, recounting the event on condition of anonymity.
This was a symptom of the Liberals failing to reach a critical demographic: gen Z and millennials.
Keep reading:
Updated
Palestine Action Group protest set to go ahead in Sydney
Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters will march today to mark two years since Israel began a military offensive in Gaza, as momentum for a lasting ceasefire slowly builds.
Despite the NSW court of appeal prohibiting a rally at the Sydney Opera House, the Palestine Action Group is urging supporters to keep political pressure on the Australian government to sanction Israel, AAP reports.
Protesters will march from the weekly city centre gathering point of Hyde Park and head down George Street to Belmore Park on Sunday in an alternative route agreed with police.
Friends of Palestine WA says a planned rally will go ahead in Perth on Sunday, as part of global mobilisations demanding justice and freedom.
Read more here:
Updated
Good morning
Good morning and welcome to this Sunday’s live news coverage.
Pro-Palestine protests are set to continue around Australia, with marchers to gather in Sydney despite a court ruling that prevented them gathering at the Opera House. This morning’s politics interviews include the shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, who spent much of the parliamentary sitting week pressuring her Labor counterpart, Anika Wells, on the troubles engulfing Optus.
Let’s get cracking.
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