What we learned: Wednesday, 14 May
With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening. Here are the major developments from today:
New South Wales women will have easier access to abortion pills after both houses passed a bill allowing nurse practitioners and registered midwives to prescribe the medication.
Wages picked up a little stronger than expected at the start of 2025 to continue clawing back the purchasing power households lost from three years of high inflation.
Anthony Albanese said Australia has “no more important relationship than the one we have with Indonesia” before setting off for Jakarta.
Australia’s ageing coal power stations broke down 128 times during the hotter months of 2024-25, according to a report from Reliability Watch.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has confirmed one container of ballot papers for the NSW seat of Barton was temporarily misplaced during the count, with a transport officer found to have possession of the container.
Macquarie Bank’s stockbroker arm is being sued by the corporate regulator, which alleges it misled the share market operator for 14 years by failing to properly report at least 73m sales, and potentially as many as 1.5bn.
And the co-founder and chief executive of Cheek Media, Hannah Ferguson, announced her intention to run for the Senate at the next federal election as an independent candidate while addressing the National Press Club.
Thanks for reading along – we’ll be back first thing tomorrow.
Updated
Nurses and Midwives’ Association expresses support for abortion bill
The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association have expressed their support for the abortion reform bill, which has allowed nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives to prescribe medical abortions.
Acting general secretary, Michael Whaites, said:
We see this as an important change that will improve access to care. More broadly, nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives have the necessary qualifications, clinical experience, training, and lawful authority to safely prescribe and make referrals and are an under-utilised resource.
This legislative change will bring NSW in line with most other states and territories, ensure the nursing and midwifery workforce is working to full scope of practice and remove barriers disadvantaging women in rural and remote areas.
Updated
