What we learned, Thursday 16 October
That’s where we’ll wrap the blog up for today, but let’s recap the main events:
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, announced new powers to crack down on crypto ATMs and cryptocurrency that are used for money laundering and terrorism financing.
HSC exams started today across high schools in NSW.
Three ADF personnel were injured during a vehicle accident in Townsville, and one soldier died.
Ariarne Titmus announced her retirement from competitive swimming.
NSW increased sentences for intimate partner homicide.
ATO data showed a large uptick in applications to use super to fund medical treatments.
Burke targeted the opposition over what he called its “fact-free” immigration arguments.
A parliamentary committee into Queensland’s container recycling scheme made corruption referrals.
A NSW man has died after becoming impaled on steel bar in a construction site fall.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, insisted there is a “good story to tell” in the Australia-US defence relationship.
Thanks for reading!
Updated
Supermarket jalapeno brand recalled due to presence of glass
Fans of pickled jalapenos will want to be careful, with a particular brand being recalled due to warnings of glass in the product.
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) has issued a recall notice for Riviana Foods’ 470g jar of Fehlbergs Pickled Sliced Jalapenos Chilli Medley with a best before date of 30/04/2028.
They say consumers should not eat this product due to the presence of glass.
Consumers should return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund. Any consumers concerned about their health should seek medical advice.
The product has been available for sale at Coles, Woolworths and independent retailers including IGA nationally.
Updated
Bank branch closures hit 155 in 2024-25
Australia lost 155 bank branches and 333 ATMS on net over the year to June, new data shows.
One in three branches around the country have closed in the last five years, with 1,564 branches lost on net. Nearly half of all ATMS have been lost over the same period, or 4,478 on net, according to Canstar analysis of public data.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority figures show the branch losses have been most severe in the cities.
Canstar’s data insights director, Sally Tindall, attributed the slower regional losses to the federal government’s February deal with the big four banks to keep their regional branches open until at least mid-2027.
Tindall said:
As banking goes increasingly digital, there’s no doubt more customers are happy to tap, click, transfer and apply online instead of queueing at a branch. The challenge for banks is making sure no one is left behind in this shift.
The country now has just 3,205 bank branches. Australia Post’s Bank@Post services have endured the digital shift, with a total of 3,365 outlets offering this service.
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ASX200 sets new record high
The Australian share market ASX200 index has closed at a new record 9,068 points as persistent strong company profits and resurgent hopes of interest rate cuts boost confidence in the economy.
It’s just the second time the benchmark index has closed above 9,000 points in its history, after the combined value of Australia’s 200 biggest sharemarket-listed companies rose nearly $30bn today.
Markets cracked the 9,000-point record in August amid a strong company profits reporting season but slipped as prices rose faster than expected and predictions of interest rate cuts fell.
Rate cut hopes resurged today, sending the ASX200 flying to an intraday record of 9,109 points.
ANZ briefly reached a record market value of more than $110bn, as investors regain faith in the bank after its new chief executive revealed his plan to rejuvenate its lending business.
NAB and Commonwealth Bank also rose in the day, while steady growth in gold prices sent miners surging, while Westpac slipped.
The broader All Ordinaries index, which captures the 500 biggest publicly listed companies, surpassed 9,000 points in July and is also at a record of 9,375 points.
The Bureau of Meteorology has released its long-range forecast for November to January. It shows:
Above average rainfall is likely across parts of northern Australia, with most of the country showing roughly equal chances of above or below average rainfall.
Daytime temperatures are likely to be above average for most of Australia except in parts of eastern New South Wales and the far north.
Overnight temperatures are very likely to be above average across almost all of Australia.
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Duniam says government should consider ‘changed circumstances’ in Gaza before approving Palestinian resettlement applications
Tony Burke, in his press club address, said there were approximately 600 to 700 people on the government caseload from Gaza, who haven’t been able to get out.
Duniam was asked whether he thinks they should be able to be resettled now if they had a visa but previously could not get out and get to Australia, he said:
Often with these visas, one thing that is taken into account is the circumstances of the country of where they’ve come from, and circumstances have changed. I need to know more about the cohort that we are talking about but I do think the minister and the government need to take into account recent developments in the Middle East and the peace deal that is currently holding there – I think the fact that war, thankfully, seems to be over is a good thing. I know there are still issues with regard to accommodation and essential services like housing, clean water and food provisions. But there is a new consideration and I would hope the government does take that into account before they make any different decisions.
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New shadow home affairs spokesperson says government needs to justify immigration figures
The newly appointed shadow home affairs spokesperson, Jonathon Duniam, has also appeared on ABC Afternoon Briefing, speaking about his priorities in the role:
I think some of the priorities relate to get into the bottom of some of these problems that we do have when it comes to immigration debate in this country.
I heard the minister [Tony Burke] also today about laying down a challenge to the Coalition about landing where we can if we do need to reduce numbers. But my challenge for the minister is, tell us the why. What is the basis behind the number we have and what are we doing in terms of work to underpin the decisions we make when it comes to the immigration intake in this country?
What are we doing to analyse and assess truly – not just speculative numbers – how many houses we have coming online for completion in the next two or so years. How we track with hospital bed vacancy so we can provide essential services to new Australians? What are we doing when it comes to spacing public schools to assist some of these new Australian families who come with children?
These sorts of factors are not being brought into the decision making process and I think it’s time as a country – who deserve an immigration system that works for the people that are here now and the people that are wanting to come and get to come – that can provide all those things we love about this country, that’s where should start.
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Victorian Labor MP Natalie Hutchins to step down at 2026 election
Victorian government minister Natalie Hutchins has announced she will not recontest the 2026 state election.
Hutchins, the MP for Sydenham and minister for government services, treaty and First Peoples, prevention of family violence, and women, was first elected to parliament in 2010 and has served in cabinet for more than a decade. She said in a statement:
After 15 years as the member for Sydenham, and over a decade as a minister, the time has come for me to focus on my health. I have dedicated my life’s work to improving gender equality and workers’ rights and fighting for justice alongside First Peoples.
She said after hearing the calls for treaty as minister in 2014 she was proud the bill was now before the parliament.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, said Hutchins “puts equality at the heart of everything she does”:
Born in public housing and having grown up in the western suburbs of Melbourne, she has always been a passionate advocate to create opportunities for others and has been a fierce voice for the diverse and growing communities she now represents.
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Marles says ‘opportunity and need’ to diversify critical minerals production beyond China
Richard Marles is being asked about whether Australia will follow the lead of the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, who says if China wants to be an unreliable partner to the world, the world will have to decouple from its economy when it comes to things like critical minerals.
Marles responds to whether Australia would be willing to decouple from its biggest trading partner:
We are very much proponents for building industry beyond China. We are proponents for building Australian industry in this sector and that is our focus and there are Australian companies doing that right now. But we do think there’s opportunity to work with the US on this and not just the US but also the UK …
We see there is opportunity and indeed need to diversify the range of production and refinement activities beyond China. That is a project that we want to be a part of given that so many of these raw materials are being extracted from Australia and the first place.
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Marles insists there is ‘a good story to tell’ in Australia-US defence relationship
The defence minister, Richard Marles, says there’s been a “very positive relationship in respect of defence” with the Trump administration.
Asked on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program about whether he’s been able to assuage some of the concerns that the US had been raising about Australia’s defence spending, he said:
In all the conversations I have had with my counterpart, Pete Hegseth, now acting national security adviser, Secretary [Marco] Rubio and vice-president [JD] Vance, there is a good story to tell about building Australian defence capabilities. It is really about looking at what capabilities we need and resourcing them. What’s that resulted in is the biggest peacetime increase in Australia’s defence spending in our history. Relative to what we inherited, that’s an additional $70bn.
I make that point and it is one well understood. It is also well understood that we are like-minded countries and share values and we want to see rules-based order applied in the Indo-Pacific and around the world, and there is much work to do together to ensure that. All of our conversations are very much focused on the shared task we have before us and actually that is going very well.
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Queensland recycling scheme hits back at damning report
Queensland’s Containers for Change recycling scheme has responded after the state government released a damning parliamentary inquiry into the program.
A spokesperson for COEX, the Container Exchange, said it was “one of Australia’s most successful recycling systems”:
Since the scheme launched in November 2018, almost 11 billion containers have been returned through Containers for Change, putting more than $1 billion in 10-cent refunds back into Queensland communities, including more than $17 million in donations to charities.
Our priority remains supporting the more than 1,500 Queenslanders employed through the container refund scheme and the communities across the state who rely on its service.
The scheme has consistently failed to meet its legislated target of 85% of eligible containers being recycled, which it was required to achieve since 2021. Just 67.1% were recycled this year.
The report alleges that the scheme was overly dominated by individuals from the beverage industry whose primary objective was to minimise scheme costs to their companies, with little interest in maximising recycling rates.
Updated
NSW man dies after becoming impaled on steel bar in construction site fall
A man has died after being impaled on a steel bar at a construction site on the New South Wales Central Coast.
The building site worker, 23, fell on to the reinforcing bar this morning at work on a suburban street in East Gosford.
Emergency services were called at 10.40am and the man was treated by paramedics before being taken to Gosford hospital, where he died.
Police established a crime scene to collect evidence but said they were not treating the event as suspicious.
SafeWork NSW was notified and a report for the coroner was being prepared, police said.
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Rising chances of November interest rate cut
Financial markets are cautiously raising their bets on an interest rate cut in November after new data showed a jump in unemployment.
Markets and major banks have lost confidence in more interest rate cuts this year since the Reserve Bank left rates on hold in late September. The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, then suggested a slower job market despite persistent inflation “could mean a couple more reductions, it might not, I don’t know”.
Predictions of a full 25 basis point rate cut slipped, with markets pricing in just 10 basis points of a cut for November ever since. Today’s jobs data saw that jump up to about 18 points – much closer to the full 25.
The chance of a cut jumped from about 40% to about 75% according to swaps market pricing, Westpac reported. The ASX200 jumped about $9bn (0.34%) and the Australian dollar slipped form 65.2 to 64.8 US cents in the wake of the release, both also indicating regained faith in a rate cut.
Westpac is the only big four bank expecting a November cut. Belinda Allen, a Commonwealth Bank economist, said it wasn’t clear whether the jump in joblessness would outlast price rises:
There is debate whether stickier inflation or slower employment is temporary. Until this is resolved we expect the cautious nature of the RBA cutting cycle to date to remain in place.
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Government names new ambassador to Japan
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has announced plans to name Andrew Shearer as Australia’s new ambassador to Japan next year.
Shearer – a known China hawk – will take up the role after finishing his term as the director-general of the Office of National Intelligence.
Before the ONI, Shearer served as cabinet secretary and national security adviser to Liberal prime ministers including Scott Morrison. He has also held senior roles at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Lowy Institute.
Shearer is expected to be succeeded at the ONI by Kathy Klugman, Anthony Albanese’s international adviser.
Klugman will be the first woman appointed to the role.
She has worked for Albanese since Labor’s 2022 election victory and was with him at the UN general assembly in New York earlier this month.
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Parliamentary committee into Queensland container recycling scheme makes corruption referrals
A report by a government-dominated parliamentary inquiry into Queensland’s container recycling scheme has made 10 referrals to the state’s corruption watchdog, alleging it was dominated by two large beverages companies.
It was tabled in parliament on Thursday.
The Labor leader, Steven Miles, then the state’s environment minister, established the scheme in 2018. It pays a rebate to people recycling cans, and has successfully increased the state’s beverage container recovery rate from 18% prior to introduction of the scheme to 67.1% this year.
But the parliamentary committee claimed that the structure he adopted for the scheme gave Coca-Cola and Lion, two of the biggest companies in the industry, too much control. Government members of the committee wrote:
Of particular concern was COEX’s [the not-for-profit organisation appointed to manage and grow the container refund scheme] commercial relationship with Circular Economy Systems, a joint venture between its two founding members, Coca-Cola and Lion. CES has received significant – and increasing – payments over the life of the scheme.
The arrangement “effectively handed monopoly control of the scheme to two of Australia’s largest beverage corporations. Those corporations dominated the board, and awarded a key contract to their own joint venture.”
LNP members of the committee said they had made 10 referrals to the Crime and Corruption Commission as a result of the inquiry.
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Search for Gus Lamont to resume tomorrow
The search for Gus Lamont has been called off for the day after extreme heat and windy conditions hampered efforts.
South Australia police said the third day of the renewed and expanded hunt for the missing four-year-old ended “with no evidence being found”. Police said on Thursday afternoon:
The search resumed in zones outside of the original search area at sunrise, but was concluded at midday because of extreme heat and windy conditions.
Search efforts will resume on Friday, with police anticipating the search will be completed in all remaining “identified zones” that day.
On Wednesday, police said more than 100 search team members, including SA Police, ADF members and SES volunteers, had been walking up to 25 kilometres a day in hot, harsh conditions.
Gus was last seen at about 5pm on Saturday 27 September, when his grandmother saw him playing on a mound of dirt at his homestead near Yunta, about 300km from Adelaide.
Gus was wearing a blue T-shirt with a yellow Minion on the front, a grey sun hat, light-grey long pants and boots.
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Queensland energy minister tables bill aimed at repealing ‘unachievable’ energy targets
Queensland’s energy minister has introduced a long-awaited bill repealing the state’s renewables targets into state parliament.
Aside from eliminating a legislated 80% by 2035 green energy target passed under the previous, Labor, government, it would also remove a ban on private ownership on new generation, which unions have said would be akin to privatisation by stealth.
The bill also eliminates a requirement for the government to report progress towards the targets and allows the state to close three bodies, Energy Industry Council, the Queensland Energy System Advisory Board and the Queensland Renewable Energy Jobs Advocate, which provide advice about renewable energy.
The bill also renames renewables energy zones established in the prior act to “regional energy hubs”.
Queensland’s treasurer and energy minister, David Janetzki, flagged the move at a media club event last week. He said the government doesn’t plan to amend a separate law mandating a 75% by 2035 emissions reduction target. He told parliament on Thursday:
Labor’s renewable energy targets were always unachievable. Repealing the targets means Queensland’s energy system will reflect a more pragmatic approach to our changing energy mix.
By properly embedding this model into the regional energy hub legislative framework, this bill will provide greater industry certainty and facilitate private sector investment into new energy infrastructure.
The bill will go to a parliamentary committee inquiry before returning to parliament for a final vote.
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Melbourne’s Montague Street Bridge strikes again
In a story regular blog readers will be familiar with, another truck has found itself stuck underneath Melbourne’s notorious Montague Street Bridge.
The incident involving a taxi-box truck occurred yesterday. 7News reported the driver was uninjured and was able to quickly move their vehicle to restore traffic flow, but it nevertheless ended a 60-day streak without incidents.
You can read more about the perennial problem here:
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Coalition extends condolences to AFD officer who died after training incident
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has sent her condolences to the family of the solider who died after an incident occurred during a training exercise. In a statement released just now she said:
The Coalition extends its deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the Australian Army soldier who tragically passed away following a training incident near the Townsville field training area.
Our thoughts are also with the two other ADF personnel who were seriously injured, their families, and their fellow service members during this difficult time.
Incidents like this are a stark reminder of the risks our Defence personnel face, even in training, in their commitment to serve and protect our nation with pride.
…The 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), is a tight-knit infantry unit. In times of tragedy, their strength as a community is clear.
We extend our condolences to them as they rally around one another in the face of this heartbreaking loss.
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Burke says about 700 Palestinians with Australian visas are still in Gaza
Tony Burke says there are around 700 Palestinians in Gaza with Australian visas who have yet to arrive in Australia.
At the National Press Club on Thursday, the home affairs minister shared a story about a video call he had with a woman hiding in a church in Gaza. She ended up staying in the church for 18 months before she arrived with her daughter in Sydney recently.
Burke was asked about Pauline Hanson’s suggestion that anyone who arrived in Australia from Gaza after 7 October 2023 should be sent back now that there’s a temporary ceasefire and a peace proposal in the works.
Burke said:
Sometimes we have people on our caseload, where we don’t know if they’re still alive, but we’ve got roughly six-to-seven hundred on our caseload. And for those individuals – and they’ve had all the [security] checks I just described effectively – they would have been here some time ago, but they haven’t been able to get out. Some of them may well start coming.
It’s also true, if the peace is successful, as happens with any conflict, some people might decide they don’t want to leave [Gaza] ...
Some people, the moment they know it’s safe and the place that all their memories and parents and grandparents live, they want to go back, and they do. And that has been the story of Australia. You know, there’s no longer a potato famine [in Ireland], but I got to stay.
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Burke predicts Aukus will drive net overseas migration figures up
Circling back to the National Press Club: Tony Burke says Aukus will be an upwards driver of net overseas migration (Nom) but he won’t offer a “magic number” on what future Nom levels will be.
Asked what he thinks the appropriate Nom level should be going forward for Australia, Burke said it could only be partially predicted because some levers were outside of government control.
Burke said as the Aukus deal ramps up in the coming years, it will be a significant driver of Nom:
There are going to be really significant high paying jobs that a lot of Australians will move to, and we will need to make sure that the jobs they are going [from] are still backfilled.
Some of that might be done by Australians moving up a little bit, but I have no doubt there’s going to be some situation, particularly in South Australia and Western Australia, where Aukus as a driver of employment is going to create new situations. So I won’t give you a magic number. I don’t think there is a magic number.
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Remains of missing Victorian woman Lucinda Miller found on third anniversary of her disappearance
Victoria police have uncovered human remains in the state’s east believed to be missing woman Lucinda Miller – exactly three years after disappeared.
Miller, 24, disappeared after taking a rideshare service from Melbourne to Neerim South in Gippsland in October 2022.
In a statement, police said the remains were discovered in bushland in Victoria’s east.
“The remains were located this morning, on the three-year anniversary of Lucinda’s disappearance,” the statement said.
Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious.
Around 60 people were involved in the search effort over the past three days, police said.
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And the winner is ...
We can now bring you the winner of this year’s bird of the year competition.
Voters have crowned the tawny frogmouth their bird of the year, after relegating it to second place three times in a row.
More than 310,000 votes were cast after polling opened on 6 October and the tawny led the charge from the start, despite being hotly and persistently pursued by two cockatoos: the Baudin’s black cockatoo and the ever-popular gang-gang.
A tawny frogmouth win, however, was far from guaranteed. It was voted runner-up in 2019, 2021 and 2023. It also led the vote in the final stages of the 2023 competition, only to watch the swift parrot soar past on the final day.
Read the full story here:
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Accountants, ombudsman lash tax office service
Accountants are fed up with the Australian Taxation Office, saying they can’t access staff with enough knowledge of the tax system, AAP reports.
A Tax Ombudsman review into services provided by the ATO to tax agents has found increasing frustration.
Poor and inconsistent advice, insufferable wait times – including cut-off points – and poor language skills have all been cited in the relationship breakdown between agency and agents.
The tax ombudsman, Ruth Owen, said she had been “overwhelmed with strong feedback” in her review – which isn’t the first into misgivings about the ATO.
Nola Luyten ,of Queensland firm Eagle Tax and Accounting, was critical of her dealings with the ATO, saying calls landed in the laps of people with “no experience whatsoever”:
That they do a six-week course, a lot of them are contractors that read a script ... they will then move you on somewhere else, and this is how you’re on the phone for two hours.
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Carbon emissions from extreme wildfires reached sixth highest level on record last year, report finds
The second annual state of wildfires report found 3.7m sq km – a land area larger than India – was burned by wildfires globally between March 2024 and February 2025.
The study’s coauthor, Dr Hamish Clarke of the University of Melbourne, said:
Not only is a warming planet creating more dangerous fire-prone weather conditions, but it is also influencing how vegetation grows, dries out and provides fuel for the fires to spread …
While the future looks challenging, the report emphasises that it’s not too late to act … we need to take much stronger and faster climate action, including cutting fossil fuel emissions and reducing deforestation and land clearing.
Co-author Dr Sarah Harris, of Victoria’s Country Fire Authority, said Australia saw more than 1,000 large fires that burnt 470,000ha in Western Australia, over 5m ha in central Australia and also saw two-thirds of the Grampians National Park area burned in Victoria.
Read more here:
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Burke targets opposition over ‘fact-free’ immigration arguments
Tony Burke has moved on to the topic of immigration, and in particular, how to talk about Australia’s immigration policy sensibly – an issue that has divided the opposition in recent months.
Burke told the National Press Club he is very conscious about having a debate in a civil way. However, he noted it is “impossible to have a ... civil and decent argument about immigration in a fact-free way”.
The home affairs minister said he thinks “the days of dog-whistle politics are well and truly over”.
Everybody hears them. It’s no longer a dog whistle. It’s now a set of bagpipes that you can hear from the other side of the hill.
… To have the argument about total [immigration] numbers without saying where you want to cut is spin without any substance at all – the simple question of where is something that my political opponents haven’t wanted to deal with – but there is no pathway of being an alternative party of government, unless you have that conversation.
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Burke proposes new powers for anti-money laundering agency to target crypto ATMs
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has announced proposed new powers for Australia’s anti-money laundering security agency to target crypto ATMs.
The minister said the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) found 85% of the funds from top users of crypto ATMs were involved in scams or potential criminality.
Speaking at the National Press Club this afternoon, Burke said:
I’m not pretending for a minute that everybody who goes in and uses a crypto ATM is a problem, but proportionately, what’s happening is a significant problem in an area which is much harder for us to trace ... I want Austrac to have the power to restrict, or if it decides to prohibit, high-risk products, and be in no doubt crypto ATMs are a high-risk product.
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Tony Burke, the minister for home affairs and cybersecurity, is addressing the National Press Club of Australia this lunchtime. He has described the way in which the threat environment has come to overlap:
Many areas of home affairs, we used to look at and think about back in 1997 as not being overlaying or converging in any way. We would have separate conversations about terrorism, child exploitation, cybercrime, money laundering; there may be occasional overlap, but you could have a sensible conversation on each one in isolation.
That’s no longer the threat environment in Australia. The Dural caravan investigation involved overlaying work between the Australian Federal Police, Asio, the New South Wales police and the New South Wales Crime Commission. The Adass Israel synagogue ultimately involved the intersection of a whole lot of principles that we had in general conversation not seen overlaying with each other before: characteristics we would previously associate with terrorism, with foreign interference, with community violence, with social cohesion and with organised crime. All of those converging and overlaying with each other.
Organisations, international threats like [hacking group] Scattered Spider; [we] see a merging of cyber with artificial intelligence, with child exploitation, with money laundering.
This post originally mislabelled the hacking group Scattered Spider as a ‘scattered spiderweb’ of threats. This language has been corrected.
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Analysts revisit forecasts as latest unemployment figures jump to highest rate since 2021
As we have reported below, the rise in the unemployment rate to 4.5% in September takes it to its highest since November 2021.
The key jobless measure has been trending fairly steadily higher since its near 50-year low of 3.4% in October 2022, and the question now: is how much higher could it go?
Analysts may need to retool their forecasts, if they believe the figures are more than a one-off.
Krishna Bhimavarapu, an economist at State Street Investment Management, believes the data release “is no blip to brush off”.
While employment levels haven’t dropped yet, the labour market has clearly changed, and we can hear the creaks.
So why has the unemployment rate lifted despite the number of employed Australians climbing by 14,900 in the month? It’s because the increase in employment was not enough to offset a surge in jobseekers.
You could see that in the numbers: there were 34,000 more unemployed people in September than in August, the ABS said.
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KPMG calls for cash rate cut after rise in unemployment figures
KPMG’s chief economist, Brendan Rynne, has called out “the likelihood of further job losses by Christmas”, after the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to a nearly four-year high of 4.5% in September.
Rynne said the anecdotal weakness in the labour market was now being reflected in the official statistics.
The Reserve Bank at its meeting next month “should bring the cash rate down to a more accommodating level to help businesses invest and encourage households to spend, which should collectively help underpin the labour market,” he said.
The RBA’s’s economists had expected unemployment to peak at 4.3% in the second half of this year and remain steady through next year.
The lift in the unemployment rate will add to the uncertainty around the path of interest rates.
The latest numbers clash with a recent resurgence in inflationary pressures and a lift in consumption that have suggested the RBA may not deliver another cut until next year, if at all.
Harry Murphy Cruise, the head of economic research at Oxford Economics, said the central bank was “increasingly caught between a rock and a hard place” in meeting its inflation and full employment goals.
But the weakness in the job market was enough to warrant a rate cut next month, he said.
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NGA to host First Nations exhibit after review clears artist collectives of accusations made in The Australian
The National Gallery of Australia will open a major exhibition of art from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in 2026, three years after the original exhibition was postponed after allegations of improper interference by white art assistants.
Ngura Pulka - Epic Country, featuring paintings by senior First Nations artists and collectives from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, Coober Pedy and Tarntanya/Adelaide, will open at NGA in April 2026.
The exhibition, which was originally scheduled to open in June 2023, was postponed after The Australian aired allegations that works attributed to APY artists had been substantially made by white studio assistants, including an edited video purporting to show a young white assistant painting on a large canvas by award-winning Pitjantjatjara artist Yaritji Young as she stood watching.
The artists and art centres at the centre of the allegations denied there had been improper interference.
As a result of the allegations, the NGA postponed the exhibition and commissioned an independent review into the provenance of 28 paintings by APY artists that were to have featured in it. The South Australian and federal governments subsequently launched a joint investigation into practices at the APY Arts Centre Collective (APYACC) more broadly.
Neither investigation found evidence to substantiate the allegations of improper interference by non-Indigenous workers.
In a joint statement responding to the NGA’s report, released in August 2023, artists from the APY Art Centre Collective said the investigation had “put things right”.
“The attack on our integrity and our art has been rejected and thrown into the rubbish bin where it belongs,” the statement said.
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Don’t forget the announcement of bird of the year is imminent! Tune into the livestream ceremony to find out which bird will take out the title here:
Queensland government claims Cross River Rail project will cost $19bn
Queensland’s Cross River Rail project will cost more than $19bn, nearly $2bn per kilometre, according to the state government.
The figure makes the project among the most wasteful in the world, just shy of the infamous Second Avenue Subway in New York.
The state transport minister, Brent Mickelberg, told parliament the 10.2km project would cost “in the order of $19.041bn” and has an “expected” opening date in 2029.
“This includes the core tunnel infrastructure as well as the associated projects that are critical for the operation of the tunnel but had been hidden in other budget line items by the previous Labor government,” Mickelberg said.
Construction on the project started in 2017, meaning it will now take 12 years to complete. Similar projects in Europe have taken as little as one year to complete, costing as little as a $300m per kilometre.
“Cross River Rail is a critical project in our plan to deliver the rail network that we need both for the 2032 games, as well as for our population growth in coming years, and that’s why the Crisafulli government has been so committed to getting the project back on track, as well as giving Queenslanders an accurate understanding of how much it’s going to cost and when they’ll be able to use it”.
New York’s Second Avenue Subway cost about $2.5bn US dollars for 2.7km of underground track. It was finished in 2017 and still holds the record for the world’s most expensive kilometre of rail line ever built.
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ADF soldier dies following training incident
The ADF soldier who suffered life-threatening injuries following a training incident near Townsville last night has died.
The Queensland ambulance service had earlier confirmed three people were injured after a single-vehicle crash, with one patient suffering life-threatening injuries.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, confirmed the person has died in a post on social media sending condolences to their family:
My thoughts are with the family, friends, loved ones and colleagues of the Australian Army soldier who has sadly passed away following a training incident near Townsville last night.
… This is a tragic loss and the sacrifice of our service personnel weighs heavily on us all.
My thoughts are with the family, friends, loved ones and colleagues of the Australian Army soldier who has sadly passed away following a training incident near Townsville last night.
— Richard Marles (@RichardMarlesMP) October 16, 2025
As a small, tight-knit community I know this will be felt right across Townsville and the…
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Shadow communications minister says ‘work needs to be done’ to assure Australians about triple zero network
Melissa McIntosh, the shadow minister for communications, met with the CEO of Optus, Stephen Rue, this morning after a series of triple zero outages.
McIntosh said she still had “a lot more questions than answers”. She said during a news briefing:
I have questions about the relationship between Optus and the government and the failures of both. …
The CEO spoke a lot about waiting until the investigation has been done, but Australians deserve answers and I do not think they are getting enough out of Optus nor enough out of the government. There are too many questions around when the government actually knew about this outage.
McIntosh added a lot of work “needs to be done to reassure Australians as we approach disaster season with bushfires that the whole triple zero ecosystem will stand up”.
Unemployment jumps to four-year high of 4.5%
The unemployment rate has unexpectedly jumped to 4.5% in September, from 4.3% in August, likely reigniting prospects for an RBA rate cut.
The large rise in the key jobless measure to its highest rate in nearly four years was despite the number of employed Australians climbing by 14,900 in the month, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Primary school students to get 90-minute screen limit in Victoria
Primary school students will be limited to 90 minutes of screen time in classrooms in a Victorian government attempt to reduce overexposure and keep children focused, AAP reports.
From 2027, Victorian public primary schools will be required to limit digital device use in the classroom to a maximum of 90 minutes for students in years 3 to 6, and minimal device time for those in prep to year 2.
The directive means parents will no longer be required to buy digital devices for their children, with schools to provide access to tablets and laptops in the classrooms, saving households more than $500 per child.
Any additional devices will be funded through each school’s budgets, with the state education minister, Ben Carroll, noting there is consistently a bank of laptops in schools. He told reporters earlier this morning:
This is a really important circuit breaker by focusing in the classroom on the teacher and less time on screens.
This will actually give young people more focus in the classroom, better concentration levels, better regulation in the classroom. But more than that, it will help provide and give them their childhoods back.
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Large uptick in applications to use super to fund medical treatments, ATO data shows
ATO data published on Thursday shows a significant growth in applications for compassionate release of super to fund medical treatments. For dental services, the number of requests has more than doubled in two years.
It has prompted the ATO and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency to jointly call out “… inappropriate practices that seek to use superannuation to pay for overly expensive or unnecessary medical treatments”.
To be approved, the medical services need to be certified by two practitioners as necessary to alleviate acute or chronic pain, to treat a life-threatening illness or injury or alleviate acute or chronic mental illness.
Guardian Australia previously reported that some businesses are offering patients “simple” access to their superannuation to pay for unnecessary medical treatments, with the ads described by the peak consumer health body as a “worrying trend” amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Ahpra and the Dental and Medical Boards of Australia today released new guidance for doctors and dentists in response to ongoing concerns of inappropriate conduct.
“I’m stunned to hear that some businesses and practitioners are taking advantage of this process to push overly expensive or unnecessary treatments,” Ahpra’s CEO, Justin Untersteiner, said.
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NSW increases sentences for intimate partner homicide
Domestic violence murderers will face longer non-parole sentences after the NSW government announced it would increase the standard non-parole period which applies to murder to 25 years from 20 years.
The new measures follow the sentencing of Tyrone Thompson, 25, in May 2025 to 22 years and six months jail for murdering Mackenzie Anderson in 2022, with a non-parole period of 15 years and six months.
Thompson stabbed Anderson 78 times while he was released on parole for a previous domestic violence assault against her. Her child witnessed the attack.
The court of criminal appeal upheld the sentence, saying it was not “manifestly inadequate.”
The premier, Chris Minns, said the government had decided to act to send a clear message to domestic abusers that domestic violence would be dealt with harshly.
“This is one of the toughest sentences in the country,” he said in a statement.
The state attorney general, Michael Daley, said the standard parole period was not a mandatory sentence, but judges were obliged to explain why they were straying from it if they gave lighter sentences.
McKenzies’ mother, Tabitha Acret, said she welcomed the new laws, but urged the government to take further steps to curb intimate partner violence, including focusing on men’s behaviour and engagement with the community. She singled out the rise of rightwing groups as a particular problem.
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Natasha May is going to pick up the blog from here.
CCC report into Troy Thompson can’t be expedited
The Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) said yesterday that prior to making any decision as to whether or not to publish a report, it must comply with relevant legal requirements. It is taking steps to do so.
Bruce Barbour, chairperson of the commission, said there are no levers available to the government to expedite release of the CCC report into Thompson in order to make it public before the Townsville mayoral byelection on 15 November.
“The very earliest date that we could envisage a report being tabled is early November, [on the] 7th of November,” he said.
Thompson is also entitled to ask for a 60-day extension to respond to the report, he said.
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Corruption commission interviewed 29 witnesses and reviewed millions of documents in Townsville mayor investigation
Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) has revealed it interviewed 29 witnesses and reviewed millions of documents in its investigation of former Townsville mayor Troy Thompson.
Thompson stood down last month after being issued a show cause notice by the minister for local government, Ann Leahy. The CCC started an investigation into allegations he misled the public about his military record at last year’s local council elections, among other claims.
The CCC yesterday said it had finished its investigation into the former mayor. The CCC’s chairperson, Bruce Barbour, told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday he was not aware of any restriction on him standing at the upcoming election.
“The investigation was thorough and included the collection and review of 29 relevant witness statements, 21 digital devices and nine cloud data downloads, over 6,800 electronic documents, over 8,700 WhatsApp messages, over 2,480 pages of medical records, and over 300 media and social media videos,” Barbour said.
Barbour said the CCC had reviewed over 6,800,000 electronic documents.
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What will be Australia’s bird of the year? We’re about to find out
The wait is over. The votes – all 313,000 of them – are in. Will it be the tawny frogmouth? The willie wagtail? The little penguin?
Bird lovers can tune into a live stream to hear the winner of the biennial poll on Thursday afternoon between 12.30pm and 1.30pm AEDT. The ceremony crowning the winner will be available on Guardian Australia’s website, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Guardian Australia’s bird of the year live blog will also kick off coverage at 11.30am. Tune in!
Police facing difficult conditions, including waist-deep snow, in search for missing bushwalker in Tasmania
Tasmania police are still searching for a bushwalker, Daryl Fong, who was reported missing in the Mt Field national park area on Monday.
Officials said search teams are focused on the Tarn Shelf area of the park, but have been confronted with gale-force winds, rain and waist-deep snow in some areas.
Inspector Luke Horne said in a statement:
We are committed to finding Daryl but given it has been several days since his last contact, and the conditions in the area, we hold serious concerns for his welfare.
Police ask anyone who has been in the Mt Field national park area since Saturday to contact police if they have seen any sign of Daryl.
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Spirit of Tasmania IV hit with another snag
The Spirit of Tasmania IV has suffered another setback, with the 212-metre ship unable to safely dock at a berth in Geelong.
The ferry, which has faced numerous costly delays and caused political headaches for the Tasmania government, will soon be moved from Hobart to Geelong to make way for visiting cruise liners over summer.
The ABC has reported the ship was meant to be temporarily stationed at Point Henry at the port of Geelong, but a safety assessment has ruled that option out. It will instead be based at the Spirit’s existing terminal, another berth, and at anchor.
The Tasmanian government had expected a new port in Devonport to be completed in August 2024, shortly before Spirit IV was delivered by Rauma Marine Constuctions in Finland. But the port faced major budget blowouts and is not expected to be finished until late 2026 or early 2027.
Spirit IV was moved from Finland to Scotland at the start of the northern hemisphere’s winter, due to concerns it could be damaged by pack ice in the Baltic Sea. It was based at Edinburgh’s port of Leith for more than six months, initially costing Tasmanian taxpayers about $47,000 a week.
The ship has been based at Hobart’s Macquarie Point in recent months as it prepares to enter service in late 2026.
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NSW anti-protest law ruled unconstitutional after Palestine Action Group court challenge
The NSW supreme court struck down a law that had given police expanded powers to prevent protests near places of worship.
Josh Lees, on behalf of Palestine Action Group, had challenged the law on the basis that it was unconstitutional.
Justice Anna Mitchelmore ruled on Thursday that the police powers impermissibly burdened the freedom of political communication implied in Australia’s constitution.
The challenge came after the NSW government passed in February a suite of reforms aimed at curbing antisemitism. This included a law which gave police the power to move on protesters who are “in or near” a place of worship.
Read more here:
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More from Ariarne Titmus’ decision to step away from the pool
The swimming superstar said she had taken some time away over the last year and realised “some things in my life that have always been important to me are just a little bit more important to me now than swimming”.
She went on:
I always intended to return. I never thought that Paris would be my last Olympic Games, and knowing now what I know, I wish I had of maybe enjoyed that last race a little bit more …
Beyond swimming, I’ve always had goals in my personal life. Swimming has always been most important up until this point, and I’ve just realised that those goals and what I want in my future is now more important to me.
Titmus said her rivalry with US swimmer Katie Ledecky was one of the most satisfying touchstones of her career.
I can say without a doubt, racing Katie, I wouldn’t have been the athlete that I am. She set this incredible standard and I was just so willing to chase it.
And I just feel so grateful that I’ve been a part of such an incredible rivalry. I feel like we both have so much respect for each other, and that will really sit with me for the rest of my life.
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Ariarne Titmus retires from competitive swimming
Ariarne Titmus is retiring from competitive swimming after 18 years in the pool.
The 25-year-old, who currently holds world records in the 200m freestyle and the 4x200m freestyle relay, has four Olympic gold medals, three silver and 1 bronze. She said in a video announcing the decision:
I am here to announce that I’ve made the decision to retire from competitive swimming. A tough one, a really tough one, but one that I’m really happy with.
Judgment on expanded police powers to come today from NSW supreme court
Today the NSW supreme court will hand down its finding on whether police powers that were expanded this year as part of a controversial law designed to curb antisemitism are unconstitutional.
Joshua Lees on behalf of the Palestine Action Group launched a constitutional challenge against the state of NSW over police powers in March.
The challenge came after the NSW government passed – among a suite of reforms in February aimed at curbing antisemitism – the places of worship bill, which gave police the power to move on protesters who are “in or near” a place of worship.
During the hearing in June, lawyers for the Palestine Action Group had argued the “vagueness” of the legislation’s wording created the “chilling effect” of having neither protesters nor police officers able to determine the reach of the police’s move-on powers.
The state of NSW had argued that the powers had an “obvious and legitimate purpose” of protecting religious communities trying to access a place of worship from physical obstruction, physical or verbal harassment, intimidation or incitement to fear.
Justice Anna Mitchelmore is expected to hand down her decision at 9.30am.
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Victorian parliament debates renaming of lake in honour of Sikh faith founder
The Victorian Liberals have voted against a motion by one of their own backbenchers about a petition against the renaming of a lake in the state’s south-east to honour the founder of the Sikh faith.
On Wednesday evening, Victorian parliament’s upper house debated a motion by Ann-Marie Hermans to take note of a petition signed by 1,600 people calling for the renaming of Berwick Springs Lake to Guru Nanak Lake to be revoked. The petition argued the renaming did not involve proper consultation and created division within the multi-faith community.
Hermans said the petition was not about “religion” or “race” but the lack of community consultation.
The multicultural affairs minister, Ingrid Stitt, told parliament the renaming of the lake – a 2018 election commitment under former premier Daniel Andrews – reflected values that “unite us”:
It’s important that our place names reflect the multiculturalism and diversity of our state.
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Bluey-themed Christmas coins on sale today
Bluey-themed Christmas $1 coins from the Royal Australian Mint are on sale from 8.30am this morning.
The ballot for the two “dollar bucks”, featuring the Australian cartoon character Bluey and her little sister, Bingo, opened on Monday. The coins are also available from Royal Australian Mint shops and selected distributors. Both are presented in Christmas ornaments and baubles.
Last year, Australia Post’s website temporarily crashed as collectors scrambled to snatch a Bluey coin.
Royal Australian Mint acting’s chief executive, Emily Martin, says she was delighted to release more Bluey coins:
Bluey is loved by fans across the world. We know that last year’s Bluey coins brought joy to many families.
The Royal Australian Mint has a long and proud history of celebrating iconic children’s television shows like Play School, The Wiggles and Bananas in Pyjamas. Continuing the tradition of honouring learning through entertainment is something we hold very
close to our hearts.
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Three injured during vehicle accident in Townsville incident involving ADF personnel
More information on the incident at a Townsville facility involving ADF personnel: the Queensland ambulance service said three people were injured after a single-vehicle crash.
Paramedics assessed one patient with life-threatening injuries.
A second patient, a man in his 30s, was airlifted to hospital in a stable condition with chest and abdominal injuries. A third person, a man in his 20s, suffered back injuries and was transported to hospital by road.
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Essential workers are priced out of rental market
Anglicare Australia’s Rental Affordability Snapshot: Essential Workers Edition surveyed more than 51,000 rental listings and tested them against the wages of 16 essential occupations. It found that:
1,117 rentals (2.3%) were affordable for an ambulance officer
850 rentals (1.7%) were affordable for an aged care worker
754 rentals (1.5%) were affordable for a nurse
575 rentals (1.1%) were affordable for a construction worker
417 rentals (0.8%) were affordable for an early childhood educator
417 rentals (0.8%) were affordable for a hospitality worker.
Anglicare Australia executive director, Kasy Chambers:
In many parts of the country, affordability has gone backwards. A hospitality worker could not afford a single property in the ACT, only five in the Northern Territory, and just 80 across the whole of Victoria.
The solution is clear. We need tax reform to stop pushing up the cost of housing. We need to build at least 25,000 new public and community homes each year – rentals that essential workers can actually afford. And we need stronger protections for renters, so people are not left at the mercy of an unfair system.
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US has ‘a lot of enthusiasm’ for Aukus deal, defence industry minister says
Pat Conroy, the minister for defence industry, is in the US visiting Washington DC, where he is meeting officials from the Trump administration.
He told RN Breakfast this morning Australia was giving “space to the Trump administration” to do its own review of the Aukus submarine deal, but said he remained hopeful the country was on board with the pact. Conroy said he hadn’t been “asking” for assurances from any US officials during his visit, before adding:
There’s a lot of enthusiasm for Aukus in the United States, particularly at a congressional level. And every congressional leader I’ve met with has been very strong in support for Aukus and as a co-equal branch of the government, I think that’s very encouraging. …
I am confident that Aukus is in the national interest of all three countries.
Conroy went on to say there is “huge enthusiasm” in the US for its alliance with Australia ahead of prime minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to Washington later this month.
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ADF personnel involved in ‘incident’ near Townsville last night
The Department of Defence confirmed an incident involving Australian defence force (ADF) personnel near Townsville last night, but did not have any further details about the event.
An ADF spokesperson said:
The welfare of ADF members and their families is a priority and Defence’s focus is on supporting those involved.
Due to the developing nature of the incident, no further information will be available at this time and we request the privacy of Defence members and families is respected.
Defence will provide further updates when possible.
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HSC exams start today across high schools in NSW
Spare a thought and send good luck to high school students across NSW today as they start their HSC written exams.
Today marks the beginning of four weeks of sit-down papers, with exams in the compulsory English subjects the first up this morning.
This year, more than 74,700 students are on track to complete their HSC, according to the NSW Education Standards Authority (Nesa). An additional 9,179, most of them not in year 12, are also taking subjects.
We’ll be speaking to students at a high school in Sydney after their first exam later today.
Home ownership rates have declined sharply for under-35s
The new research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare also mapped how home ownership rates have declined since 1971.
Between 1971 and 2021, home ownership rates declined the most among those aged under 35:
• 25–29-year-olds (from 50% to 36%)
• 30–34-year-olds (from 64% to 50%).
Among 50–54-year-olds, home ownership also declined from 80% in 1996 to 72% in 2021.
An estimated 1.26 million low-income households were in financial housing stress in 2024–25, spending more than 30% of their disposable income on housing.
• One in five (21%) households in the private rental market were low-income households in financial stress
• One in seven (15%) households with a mortgage were low-income households in financial stress.
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Good morning, and happy Thursday. Nick Visser here to take over the blog. Let’s get started.
More Australians experiencing financial stress
Real household income has grown between 2023 and 2024, after two years of declines, but around one in five people aged 15 and over are now experiencing financial stress – the highest in over a decade, new research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found.
In 2024, real household income (median real equivalised household disposable income) was $1,464 per week; an increase of 3.2% since 2023 ($1,418) and 20% since 2009 ($1,215) – but this has mainly benefited wealthier Australians.
Higher-income households, which have an annual disposable income above $122,000 had the fastest real income growth (3.5%), while the lowest income households (which on average make around $15,000 a year) had the slowest real income growth at 0.3%.
More Australians are also experiencing financial stress. One in 20 (4.9%) people reported missing out on meals in 2023, the highest since data was first collected in 2001.
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New powers to crack down on crypto ATMs used for money laundering
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, will announce new powers to crack down on crypto ATMs and cryptocurrency that are used for money laundering and terrorism financing.
Burke will address the National Press Club later today and will say that the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac), which is in charge of stopping criminal abuse of the financial system, will have more power to restrict certain “high-risk products” including crypto ATMs.
Australia has third-highest number of crypto ATMs in the world and Austrac estimates that 99% of crypto ATM transactions are cash deposits, which are a high risk for money laundering.
The number of crypto ATMs in Australia skyrocketed in the past six years. Austrac says its jumped from 23 in 2019 to more than 1,800 in operation now.
Burke will also announce powers to disrupt the use of “mule accounts” by money launderers – where criminals take over legitimate bank accounts, often bought or rented from international students or visa holders.
There are significant money laundering, terrorism financing and serious crime risks associated with crypto ATMs. Australia has the highest number of CATMs in the region and the third-highest in the world.
If a bank suspects mule activity, they will be able to check visa-holder status and use this to inform decisions about whether the account is being used by criminals. It’s about equipping banks with the right information to help them manage risk and prevent their accounts falling into the hands of criminals.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best overnight stories before Nick Visser takes over.
Real household income has grown between 2023 and 2024, after two years of declines, but around one in five people aged 15 and over are now experiencing financial stress – the highest in more than a decade, new research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found. Details on their way.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, will use a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra today to announce new powers to crack down on crypto ATMs and cryptocurrency that are used for money laundering and terrorism financing. More details to follow.
And in better money news: there are new Bluey dollarbucks on the way.
