What we learned, Wednesday 6 May
With that, we’ll wrap the blog for the evening. We’ll be back first thing tomorrow. Until then, here were the major developments of the day:
Anthony Albanese has announced the budget will include a more than $10bn package to ensure fuel and fertiliser security, including a permanent, government-owned fuel security reserve of about 1bn litres.
The minister for multicultural affairs, Anne Aly, said she rejects claims from the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, that the government is “helping” Islamic State-linked Australians from returning home and that the laws the Coalition proposed would have prevented them from doing so after news 13 members of the families will travel home to Australia.
A man who was moved on by police from out the front of the building where the royal commission into antisemitism has been taking place has been arrested, NSW police say.
The high court has dismissed an appeal by an Iranian man against being sent to Nauru for 30 years.
Victoria police commissioner, Mike Bush, alleges ‘serious organised crime’ network are behind spate of fires at licensed premises in the state.
Books by Western Australian author Craig Silvey will be permanently removed from the state’s public school curriculum after he pleaded guilty to child exploitation offences.
And Khaled Sabsabi’s Venice Biennale artwork has gone on display at the Australia Pavilion, more than a year after the artist and curator were ditched from the job, sparking a raging controversy.
Updated
South Australia extends fishing bans due to effects of algal bloom
Commercial fishing bans in South Australia have been extended for a further year, due to the ongoing impact of the state’s harmful algal bloom on fish stocks.
The department of primary industries has notified commercial fishers that prohibitions will continue for the following species:
Marine scalefish and northern rock lobster in the Gulf St Vincent and Port Adelaide river
Southern calamari in Spencer gulf
Snapper across the Gulf St Vincent, Spencer gulf and west coast fishing zone.
In the Gulf St Vincent, the notice said there was:
Evidence of declines in King George Whiting … Southern Calamari and Southern Garfish have been severely affected, with near absence reported in many areas. No Southern Calamari egg masses were detected in dive surveys at known spawning areas. Juvenile Southern Garfish numbers also appear impacted.
Fishing was halted in late 2025 due to sharp declines in species such as calamari, garfish, King George whiting, western king prawn and blue swimmer crab.
Updated
Antisemitism royal commission hears from last witness of the day
I should mention that most royal commission witnesses have had relatives affected by the Holocaust, including Jeremy Leibler, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, the last witness for today.
He says since the Hamas attack on Israel he has experienced the rise in antisemitism through the eyes of his four children, and that since then he has been representing a traumatised community.
“Antisemitism didn’t begin on the 7th of October 2023,” he says:
“But what I would say fundamentally shifted on the 7th of October was the normalisation of antisemitism within mainstream society.”
That created an absence of psychological safety, he says. He talks about the “personal and collective trauma” the community was experiencing being compounded by “fellow Australians chanting calls for our demise”.
He also provides the commission with many instances of abuse he has received, including someone “obsessively” posting pictures of his children. His children were aware of the threats, he says, leading one of them to ask why they didn’t just leave.
Leibler says “clear moral leadership” has been lacking.
Commissioner Virginia Bell asks him if he can see that there is a “difficult line” to draw between people delegitimising Israel and those legitimately criticising Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Leibler says it’s “perfectly acceptable” to criticise Israel’s policies and actions but that it is not acceptable to describe Israel’s right to self-determination as something inherently evil.
He also says Israel president Isaac Herzog’s controversial visit to Australia was a comfort to the victims and survivors of Bondi.
Updated
Khaled Sabsabi's Venice Biennale artwork goes on display at Australia Pavilion
Australia’s Venice Biennale entry is on display, more than a year after the artist and curator were ditched from the job, sparking a raging controversy.
Khaled Sabsabi’s artwork, titled conference of one’s self, has finally gone on show at the Australia Pavilion, with a companion piece, khalil, on prominent display in the main exhibition.
Inspired by Sufi mystic poetry, conference of one’s self encourages viewers to pause, listen, and reflect, said the artist.
Eight paintings on canvas measuring three by two metres have been arranged in an octagonal formation with video projectors lighting their surfaces with moving images in a 54-minute loop. It’s accompanied by a soundscape of everyday noises recorded on an old-fashioned analogue tape.
It’s being hailed as a win but, for a long time, it seemed the artist and his curator, Michael Dagostino, would never represent the nation in Venice.
The artistic team was chosen in February 2025 then dumped by Creative Australia days later, after a conservative senator raised questions in parliament about Sabsabi’s early artworks. The decision was made on the grounds Sabsabi and Dagostino’s selection would cause a “prolonged and divisive debate”, the Creative Australia chief, Adrian Collette, said at the time.
The move caused a furore in the art world, with resignations, protests, boycotts and an inquiry – and six months later the duo was reinstated.
– AAP
Updated
Anne Aly rejects opposition claims government ‘helping’ IS-linked families return to Australia
The minister for multicultural affairs, Anne Aly, has told ABC Afternoon Briefing that she rejects claims from the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, that the government is “helping” Islamic State-linked Australians from returning home and that the laws the Coalition proposed would have prevented them from doing so.
She said the federal government had provided “no support for the repatriation of these women and their children” and she was “confident” in Australia’s security agencies and their advice.
Earlier, the Nationals Senate leader, Bridget McKenzie, said she wasn’t confident the 13 Australians, including nine children, could be deradicalised.
Aly said she “wouldn’t take her advice”.
Not all deradicalisation programs are 100% perfect. It really depends on the skills and the level and the kind of program that it is. And it also depends on the stage of life in which somebody is coming to such a program. It’s more effective with young people, more effective with children.
I’m a big believer in that that the circumstances of your birth should not determine the trajectory of your life. You know, that when given opportunity young people and children, to be able to thrive, that they can … I would have to say that yes, I’m a believe in those programs, I’m a believer in the ability of people to have a different trajectory in life.
Updated
Victoria police investigate fires at licensed premises
Victoria’s chief commissioner, Mike Bush, says police are deploying “every possible resource” as they investigate a series of fires at licensed premises in Melbourne, believed to be linked to organised crime.
Authorities, working with federal agencies, say they have arrested 35 people facing more than 140 charges, with young offenders allegedly recruited via technology to carry out attacks targeting the adult entertainment industry.
Watch here:
Updated
Bomb threat sent to aged care facility with Holocaust survivors, royal commission hears
A bomb threat and multiple abusive messages have been sent to an organisation that cares for vulnerable Jewish communities, including in aged care.
Gayle Smith, the chief executive of Jewish Care Victoria, told the antisemitism royal commission there is a large cohort of Holocaust survivors in their aged care facilities.
The organisation had to set up a new incident register for antisemitic incidents after 7 October, 2023 – previously they would have been on a list that also included things like falls. Smith says:
We immediately noted a marked increase in the number and frequency of incidents and the severity of them.
The incidents included antisemitic phone calls, online abuse, comments in real life, a man outside a building saying “if you’re going to kill people, I’m going to kill you”, and a threat to blow up a golf course at an aged care facility. She says:
For our aged care residents, obviously that’s a very frightening experience, to be advised that there’s a bomb threat occurring.
Funding extra security is a cost borne by the Jewish community, she says, and one that can be depressing for residents living with dementia, some of whom have experienced war.
The increased security also isolates aged care and disability residents because of the heightened protocols over who can come and go.
She says a proposed partnership to provide a youth mental health service fell over when the other organisation pulled out citing a “misalignment” of values – saying stakeholders would not approve of them working with a Jewish organisation and that Jewish youth would not need the services “because they were not poor”.
Smith told the commission it was a government-funded organisation, that she complained to the multicultural affairs minister and was told to take the matter to the human rights and equal opportunity commission.
Updated
Man, 68, arrested for allegedly wearing shirt with offensive symbol outside building holding antisemitism royal commission hearing
A man who was moved on by police from out the front of the building where the royal commission into antisemitism has been taking place has been arrested, NSW police say.
In a statement, NSW police said the 68-year-old man was issued with a move-on direction, which he complied with.
He has since been arrested over allegedly wearing a shirt with an offensive symbol in Sydney’s CBD.
About 11am, officers … were patrolling outside a building on Clarence Street, Sydney, where a man was seen to be wearing clothing which allegedly displayed an offensive symbol on the front.
Police issued the 68-year-old man with a move-on direction, which he complied with. About 2.45pm, the man attended Manly police station, where he was arrested by officers attached to Operation Shelter. He remains in custody while inquiries continue.
In a statement, the commission said it was “appalled that such an item of clothing was worn in the vicinity of our hearing venue”.
Updated
More royal commission testimony: Jewish student union body faced historic terror threats
Terror threats were sent to the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (Aujs) in 2019, the antisemitism royal commission has heard.
In the days leading up to the Jewish celebration Purim, the Aujs was sent a message:
Me and my friends have already purchased six automatic rifles as we plan to kill hundreds of Jewish students on the eve of Purim festivals, as their European and American parents are responsible for all the trouble in our beautiful country.
The Aujs chief operating officer, Joshua Kirsh, is running as an independent in the NSW election because he wants Jewish people represented and to feel safe.
He told the inquiry he ran advertisements on social media and they were “deluged with antisemitic comments”, with conspiracy theories and with personal attacks on him.
One “vitriolic” comment was from one of his classmates.
“It frightened me,” he says, then paraphrases author Toni Morrison on racism.
He also says a television program he was interviewed on screened him alongside someone who had previously worn a badge with an antisemitic Houthi slogan.
Updated
Antisemitism and conspiracy theories ‘normalised’ in everyday conversation, royal commission hears
Israel is “a very personal place”, witness ABF tells the antisemitism inquiry.
It acts as a safety net for Jewish people across the world … we know and understand that if things get really bad, we have a safe haven to escape to.
She describes overhearing a conversation that included conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the media and the banks, and that they wished Hamas had killed more people on 7 October.
She says:
It was … the normalisation of antisemitism and conspiracy theories in everyday conversation.
She hid her Magen David [Star of David] necklace, left and had her first panic attack in a toilet.
The incident has made her concerned for her safety and her children’s safety. Like many, she says the sight of guards at Jewish schools is unsettling but also reassuring.
Updated
Save the Children says debate over return of IS-linked Australians should focus on giving the children the chance of a ‘normal life’ at home
The chief executive of Save the Children, Mat Tinkler, has told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing debate over Australian citizens linked to Islamic State being repatriated to our shores should focus on giving the children among them “space to recover, to survive, to thrive”.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, confirmed that the government was aware that four Australian women and nine of their children had begun the journey home, after more than a decade of planning by a joint Asio and Australian federal police counter-terrorism taskforce.
Tinkler said it was expected that some of the women may face criminal charges but this shouldn’t stop them from coming to Australia.
I think we need to move beyond where this debate’s been, which is if this cohort can come back – and whether they should come back – well, the reality is they are coming back. They’re Australian citizens … We need to dial the temperature down.
We need to focus on giving these children the space to recover, to survive, to thrive. Two-thirds of this cohort that we’re talking about in Syria are children. There’s been a lot of focus on the women and the choices they may have made but we need to focus on these children and give them a chance of resuming a normal life in Australia.
He added many of the children’s teeth were falling out, they were dealing with untreated shrapnel wounds and had never been to school.
Children are innocent. They didn’t choose to be in this situation.
Updated
‘Pressure to conform’ to position on Israel and Gaza, royal commission hears
A non-Jewish university student (AAD), who has studied Holocaust denial, has told the antisemitism royal commission there is pressure to conform to a certain position on Israel and Gaza.
She says students in her classes fail to make a distinction between Israel and the Jewish people.
And she tells of a lecturer who was talking about the war in the Middle East and, when a student said he disagreed with her, she yelled and threw a microphone “towards him, at him”.
Students are forced to conform with the opinions of teachers and professors, even if they don’t think Israel is committing a genocide, she says.
She has also been removed from a groupchat because of her sympathy for Israeli hostages, she says.
Updated
Victoria police alleges ‘serious organised crime’ network behind spate of fires
Victoria’s chief commissioner, Mike Bush, has addressed the media from Melbourne after a spate of fires at licensed premises allegedly linked to organised crime syndicates in the state.
Bush says police are putting forwards “every possible resource to bringing this to a resolution”.
We’re also working with our commonwealth partners, Australian federal police, border force … and we’ve been successful to date in apprehending 35 offenders that are currently facing 140 charges.
That’s a good start. What we know so far, this is [allegedly] a serious organised crime group or network that are facilitating these crimes.
Bush says young people have been tasked to commit the alleged crimes with the use of technology and says the “adult entertainment trade” is being targeted.
What we are determined to work out is what’s the real motive behind these crimes? There’s a number of theories … although we have a body of evidence that might lead us in a particular direction … What we must find out is who is … pulling the strings.
Updated
Royal commission hears of 13-year old subjected to Nazi-style slurs and ‘squeezed until he couldn’t breathe’
A father (AAT) whose 13-year-old son was bullied, called a dirty Jew, and a stinky Jew, and subjected to Nazi-style slurs including the Nazi salute, has given evidence to the antisemitism royal commission.
Things escalated, and became physical.
“The physical bullying includes being squeezed until he couldn’t breathe … being dragged across the floor … being thrown into the garbage bin, being dacked,” he says.
Some students were suspended.
He took his son out of school, and AAT felt the school offered them “worse than zero support”, while the bullies did get support, and that in the vice-principal’s response he didn’t refer to the racism and implied that the behaviour was “play fighting”.
The son is now suffering antisemitic slurs at his new school, including a boy putting tape on his lip in imitation of Hitler’s moustache and being given the message that he doesn’t belong because he’s Jewish.
AAT says there is a new form of antisemitism in anti-Zionism, a “hate movement” that says Israel is a coloniser, an enabler of apartheid and genocidal, with an “imaginary Zionist” said to be a “baby killer”.
This “extremely unbalanced” view is repeated in the media, he says. He says:
This, for me, has broken many friendships because I’m worried that my friends think that I’m supporting a genocide and, for me, genocide is the worst thing that any country can do, but I know that Israel’s not doing that.
Updated
Police find body after car sinks in weir in Royal national park near Sydney
NSW police have discovered a body after a car went off the road in the Royal national park near Sydney and into a weir.
Officials said emergency services received reports the vehicle had done into the water about 1.15am on Wednesday. The driver of the car, a man, 20, was able to escape but the passenger, a man in his 20s, was unaccounted for.
Police divers recovered the body of the missing man about 10.20am. He is yet to be formally identified.
The driver and the driver of another vehicle were both taken to the hospital for mandatory testing.
The vehicle has been recovered and will be taken for forensic examination. Police have established a crime scene and will begin an investigation.
Updated
Victorian treasurer denies new lottery deal reason for budget surplus
The Victorian treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, categorically denied that a new deal with the Lottery Corporation announced on the same day as the budget is the reason the state posted a surplus.
The operator of Powerball and Oz Lotto told the ASX yesterday it received an unprecedented $1.14bn 40-year extension to its Victorian licence, allowing them to keep operating until 2068.
Speaking at a Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Melbourne Press Club event this afternoon, Symes says:
There is nothing in the extension of the lottery’s licence that contributes to the surplus this year or next year. It just doesn’t. It’s also not reflected in the surplus going forward as a lump sum. So the money comes in, but because of the way the accounting treatment of this type of transaction is it flows through the forwards over duration of the 40-year extension. So anybody that suggests that this is contributing to the surplus is wrong. It’s not even a factor in this year’s surplus at all.
She also told the crowd she would consider repealing a legislated 10-year Covid-19 levy on landholdings and payroll if the government recovers borrowings it made during the pandemic earlier:
There is a time limited Covid recovery plan that has … been in place for a few years now. It’s got a 10-year expiration date. And people have asked me, this is a future Jaclyn consideration, but if we’re on track to deliver what we wanted to do earlier … then that’s definitely a conversation worth having.
In her speech, Symes said the state borrowed $31bn during Covid, with more than $15bn directed to “business and economic survival”. It’s contributed to the state’s ballooning debt, forecast to reach $199.3bn by 2029-30.
But she focused on the forecast delivered in 2025-26, and the four forecast over the forward estimates:
We’re in surplus. It means that we are now only borrowing to invest in productive infrastructure. We don’t borrow to pay wages or run programs or even for depreciation of our assets.
Updated
The Human Rights Law Centre said today’s high court ruling would remove a legal barrier for the government to send more NZYQ-affected people to Nauru.
Others facing removal to Nauru still face visa appeals.
Josephine Langbien, the centre’s associate legal director, said the Albanese government was “intent on ripping people from their lives here and deporting them to Nauru – even if they may die from lack of medical care”.
Jana Favero, the deputy chief executive of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said “no one should be sent to Nauru”, noting the living conditions, according to people already sent to the tiny Pacific island, were “dire”.
Despite all this, the Albanese government continues to pursue a divisive agenda by deporting people to harm all in the name of politics. It’s disgraceful and shows no regard for human rights, dignity or fairness.
Human rights groups condemn $2.5bn Nauru deal to banish NZYQ cohort
Refugee and human rights groups have criticised the federal government’s “disgraceful” deal with Nauru to banish hundreds of NZYQ-affected people to the tiny Pacific nation after the high court upheld its lawfulness.
As we reported earlier, the high court dismissed an Iranian man’s appeal to prevent his removal to Nauru on the basis he wasn’t afforded procedural fairness because the government did not inform him about the deal with Nauru, or that a visa had been applied for on his behalf.
His lawyers also argued Nauru’s medical facilities were “inadequate” to treat his severe asthma and that there was a “real risk he will die” there.
But the high court found the deal was constitutional, and that the man’s poor health was not a barrier to his removal, owing to laws the Albanese government passed in September last year.
Those laws removed natural justice – access to a fair hearing and to a decision without bias – for noncitizens on a removal pathway. The changes also validated government visa decisions made before the high court’s NZYQ ruling in November 2023 that could have subsequently been deemed unlawful.
So far, eight people have been sent to Nauru since Australia struck the $2.5bn deal.
Updated
That’s all from me. Caitlin Cassidy will take things from here. Take care.
A little more on the review of the controversial NSW koala reintroduction project
The National Parks and Wildlife Service produced the report with input from three universities.
The report was reviewed by three external experts, one of whom believed the weather was “the single most important driver for [the] koala mortalities”. Another said while the planning was mostly detailed and thorough, they were not convinced on available evidence that the South East Forest site “contained high quality koala habitat”.
A retrospective leaf analysis conducted for the NSW government by a university expert found the leaves at the translocation site in the South East Forest national park were high in concentrations of toxins and low in digestible nitrogen. A chemical analysis of the foliage had not been carried out before the project.
Further analysis of the koalas’ diet and microbiome to better understand the quality of the koalas’ diet is under way and will be completed later this year.
The report found the response and veterinary interventions as koalas died or fell ill exceeded standards seen in most translocation projects.
The state environment department has made and accepted 15 recommendations. They include conducting a more thorough assessment of leaf biochemistry before future translocations where koalas are being released into unpopulated habitat and reviewing and strengthening “processes through which expert advice informs licensing decision-making”.
Prof Mathew Crowther is a member of the expert panel that recommended against the project. The panel advised the department that if it proceeded it should conduct a captive feeding trial or “soft” release of the animals first, which would have involved closer management of the koalas initially.
He said it was clear from the report that the department had not done enough in its early planning to understand or assess why koalas were not already at the planned translocation site near Bega – one of the concerns raised by the panel.
“They should have done more to establish why koalas weren’t there in the first place,” he said.
Updated
NSW government review finds koala translocation failed but process was followed
A NSW government-led review of a controversial koala relocation in which more than half the animals died has found the project was a failure but officials did what was required and the veterinary response was above the usual standard.
The report, published by the state’s environment department, is inconclusive about what caused the deaths of eight of the 13 koalas. It found a combination of factors, including a severe infection – possibly linked to a rain event – and poor-quality foliage leading to low food intake may have contributed.
The animals were moved in March 2025 from the upper Nepean state conservation area to part of the South East Forest national park near Bega to try to re-establish a local koala population.
The review also said the department had been cleared of an allegation of animal cruelty made by the Greens environment spokesperson, Sue Higginson, to the RSPCA.
Higginson criticised the report, which she said failed to accept responsibility for the department’s rejection of advice from the majority of an expert panel which urged them not to proceed with the project. Guardian Australia revealed the advice late last year. Higginson said:
There is a responsibility that has to be held in this tragic situation and there is a glaring hole between the advice of the experts and the decisions made by the translocation teams.
Updated
Marine rescue volunteers who died trying to save yachtsman remembered
Two marine rescue volunteers who died while trying to save a yachtsman in peril have been recognised for making the ultimate sacrifice, AAP reports.
Bill Ewen, 78, and Frank Petsch, 62, were officially identified on Wednesday as the Marine Rescue NSW volunteers killed after responding to an in-distress vessel near the South Ballina breakwall in the state’s north on Monday night.
The Ballina locals have been remembered by the close-knit coastal community through floral tributes left at the Marine Rescue tower.
The men paid the “ultimate sacrifice”, Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib said.
We saw two much-love and much-valued members of our Marine Rescue family give their lives to try and do the right thing for other people.
Petsch and Ewen were part of a six-person Marine Rescue NSW team deployed to the breakwall after a good Samaritan spotted the yacht in trouble.
But in the face of the 2.5-metre swell and strong winds, their own vessel quickly capsized, ejecting some members of the crew and trapping others underneath its hull.
People feel safer in Israel than Australia, witness tells inquiry
Witness Dean Cherny told the antisemitism inquiry that he trained in martial arts so that he would be able to protect his family.
“I didn’t want my daughters to have to hide their identities,” he says.
He says since the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s attacks on Gaza, every time he meets someone he calculates whether to introduce himself as Jewish, and that he is always vigilant about any potential threats when he is in public.
His daughters went to Israel just before the war began and built a “really beautiful” connection to the country.
After 7 October, she asked him:
If Israel is not safe and we’re not safe in Australia, where are we going to go?
Hearing that story, a friend of his offered to let them hide on his farm if it came to that.
“I know people that have moved to Israel because they feel, living in an active war zone, they feel safer than being in Australia,” he says.
Updated
Dramatic recovery for rooftop solar thanks to battery rebates
Rooftop solar has received a major boost off the back of battery rebates, with record installations across Australia in April.
An additional 437MW of small-scale solar capacity was added last month – the highest month ever, by a large margin – according to the latest data from Green Energy Markets.
Tristan Edis, Green Energy Markets director of analysis and advisory, described the data as “quite staggering”. Not only was there a surge in battery installations, which was expected as a result of the federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries program, but in solar as well.
It was a “dramatic recovery” for solar installations, he said, which had dipped in late 2024 and early 2025 due to substantial declines in feed-in tariffs.
Across the country, about a quarter of new installations were replacements, as some families swapped smaller, older solar systems for newer, larger ones.
It used to be that a 10kw system was quite big, and 15kw was massive. And we’re now seeing a significant portion of residential systems in that 15 to 20kw range.
When combined with big batteries, households were able to get more value out of much bigger solar systems, by avoiding high retail prices during peak periods. Electric cars were probably another factor driving larger systems, he said.
David McElrea, Smart Energy Council chief executive, said solar and batteries remained popular because they made economic sense for households.
The price continues to come down, the cost of living goes up.
With the global uncertainty around oil and diesel, it’s very clear why you would want to be energy independent as a household – and as a nation.
Royal commission hears of failure to address antisemitism at Victorian school
A witness before the antisemitism royal commission earlier, known as AAU, is the mother of the boy mentioned in the museum incident in the previous post.
She says he missed an important Jewish celebration in the aftermath because he was scared for his safety.
She complained to the Victorian education department about the museum incident, which said it would investigate and that the high school would review the incident.
She heard the students and teachers denied the conduct, and wasn’t satisfied with the department’s response. She was later told she wasn’t allowed to know the identity of the students or the teacher, or the consequences they faced due to confidentiality concerns, but that the school had engaged an external educational institution to teach the students about antisemitism.
But AAU says she contacted that institution and they said they hadn’t been engaged.
She tried other ways to seek justice but was frustrated with the process.
Updated
School excursion marred by intimidating incident, antisemitism inquiry hears
Back to the antisemitism royal commission:
On a school excursion, “physically intimidating” older students were circling a younger one saying “free Palestine”, the antisemitism royal commission has heard.
Blake Shaw, a university student who also works at his old school in Melbourne, says he was out at a museum with grade 5 students, some of whom were wearing kippahs, when one was approached by older students from a different school.
“Some other students have come up to him and are saying ‘free Palestine’ to him, getting in his face,” he says, adding that a staff teacher from the older students’ school was dismissive.
Later the older students said “free Hezbollah”, he says.
Shaw says he told his students not to let it diminish their pride in their Jewishness.
The next year, the same group of students were on a trip to Canberra when someone said ‘heil Hitler’ to two of them while they were in a museum bathroom.
He says he has also dealt with antisemitism on campus including the contested phrase “from the river to the sea”, which he describes as hate speech.
Updated
Craig Silvey’s books permanently removed from WA public school curriculum
Books by Western Australian author Craig Silvey will be permanently removed from the state’s public school curriculum after he pleaded guilty to child exploitation offences.
The WA education minister, Sabine Winton, confirmed a temporary ban on Silvey’s books being used as texts in public school curriculum will now be made permanent. Winton said:
There is absolutely no place in our school system for works authored by someone who has admitted to such serious crimes.
Now that he has pleaded guilty, those texts will not return to the curriculum.
Predatory behaviour against children is abhorrent and has no place in our community, let alone in materials studied by students in our schools.
Winton said students who had already studied the text this year and planned to use it in their literature exams would not be penalised. Schools will also be supported to adjust lesson plans and switch texts.
Updated
Events on Annastacia Palaszczuk’s book tour cancelled
Events on former Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s book tour have been cancelled after her partner was charged with rape.
Palaszczuk launched her book The Politics of Being Me last Monday at the Brisbane Writers festival and held a meet the author event at the Gold Coast three days later.
The following day her partner, prominent Brisbane surgeon Vahid Reza Adib, was charged with three counts of rape, two counts of deprivation of liberty and one count of sexual assault.
A talk Palaszczuk was scheduled to give at the Brolga Theatre in Maryborough on Thursday night is now listed as “cancelled” on the Fraser Coast council website.
The Australian National University confirmed a public conversation between Palaszczuk and one of its political experts had also been cancelled.
A statement released by Adib’s lawyers late Friday said he would “vigorously defend the charges”.
Tasmania appoints third consecutive woman to lead as state’s 30th governor
A former nurse and health advocate has been appointed Tasmania’s 30th governor, the third consecutive woman to hold the role.
Caroline Wells will take over from Barbara Baker AC on 17 June, who has been in the position since 2021.
The governor acts as the King’s representative, and performs constitutional duties, but in recent years has played a more active role than usual amid Tasmania’s political turmoil.
Baker called an early election in 2025 after the Tasmanian premier, Jeremy Rockliff, requested a snap poll when he lost a no-confidence motion in parliament.
Wells started her working career as a registered nurse in 1985 and has held senior positions across the health sector. In 2005, she was appointed chief executive of Diabetes Tasmania and is currently chair of the Royal Flying Doctor Service Tasmania.
Born and raised in Tasmania, Wells is the state’s third female governor, after Baker and her predecessor, Kate Warner AC.
Wells said:
This role is apolitical but very much I keep my finger on the pulse … I’m a great advocate for women in leadership. Supporting women to excel is important. Supporting everyone to excel is important. One of the highlights for me will be connecting with communities. We have so many amazing people in Tasmania doing amazing things.
Wells, a mother of five girls and grandmother of six children, said she wanted to bring compassion and kindness to the role, as well as spruik trade and investment opportunities.
– AAP.
Updated
Royal commission appalled by ‘individual wearing an antisemitic shirt’ outside
As we’re hearing from witnesses at the Bondi royal commission about their experiences with antisemitism, there has been an incident outside.
In a statement, the commission said an “individual wearing an antisemitic shirt” was moved on by police from out the front of the building, where the hearings are taking place.
It added:
The royal commission is appalled that such an item of clothing was worn in the vicinity of our hearing venue.
Safety of witnesses is paramount to the royal commission. We want to reassure witnesses and those wishing to engage with the royal commission that safety protocols are in place.
The royal commission is determined to investigate antisemitism in Australia without fear or intimidation.
Updated
Victoria premier says new lottery deal not the reason for budget surplus
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, denied a new deal with the Lottery Corporation announced the same day as the budget is why the state posted a surplus.
The operator of Powerball and Oz Lotto told the ASX yesterday it received an unprecedented $1.14bn 40-year extension to its Victorian licence, allowing them to keep operating until 2068.
She denied this was the reason the state posted a $700m surplus this year and is forecasting a $1bn surplus next year:
No, we’ve delivered a surplus because we’ve worked hard to take the decisions through this budget process that has prioritised delivery that surplus, prioritised driving down debt as a percentage of the economy.
Asked whether it would’ve been possible to deliver a surplus without the deal, she said:
Yes. Because we’ve made a set of decisions that focused on delivering a surplus, whilst at the same time recognising that families continue to need to see investment in schools and hospitals.
The Victorian community wants to see more police on the streets. We need to also continue to look at ways to provide real help right now when families are doing it tough.
She said there was a “full and open process” surrounding the deal and that while the licence is much longer than the usual 10-year length, it was in line with other states:
New South Wales has a 40 year term. South Australia has a 40 year term Queensland interestingly has a 65 year term. So based on advice through Treasury processes and within the requirements of the existing contract, there was a review process that was required. It went through a tender process, and we’ve got the best value out of this process for Victorians.
Canva fined $792,000 over delay in filing results
Australia’s corporate regulator said on Wednesday that it issued infringement notices worth A$792,000 to four firms within Australian graphic design platform Canva Group for allegedly failing to lodge financial reports for fiscal 2024.
Canva Pty, Canva Operations Pty, Canva Trading Pty and Fusion Books Pty were the four firms that paid an infringement notice of A$198,000 each for not lodging their financial reports by the due date of 30 April 2025.
Canva Pty lodged its FY24 consolidated report covering the four companies on March 27, 2026, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said in its statement. In a statement, a Canva spokesperson said:
We take our reporting obligations seriously and regularly share public updates on our business and growth. We are now fully up to date on all lodgements and have strong processes in place to maintain this going forward.
Canva has been reportedly preparing to go public, with the firm launching an employee stock sale in August 2025 that valued the company at $42bn at the time.
– Reuters.
Updated
Continued from previous post:
The mother, (AAE), also says she is thinking about moving back to Israel because she feels her daughters would be safer there.
AAF says she didn’t “advertise” that she was Jewish when she was at school. She commonly saw swastikas scratched into trees and graffitied in bathrooms, and knew of a student who added another Jewish student into a group chat called “the Hitler support group”.
She felt as though she’d lost the support of friends after 7 October because of their position on the war on Gaza.
She also says she felt “free” on a recent trip to Israel, whereas in Australia she feels she can’t wear Jewish symbols publicly. And she says antisemitism “is a lot more in your face” at university.
‘Being Jewish is … having a target on your back,’ inquiry hears
A mother (AAE) and her elder daughter, a university student (AAF), and younger daughter, a year 10 student (AAG), have given emotional evidence to the antisemitism royal commission.
AAG says she gets taunted all the time for being Jewish, including being sent Snapchats with a specific filter that is offensive to Jewish people, having swastikas put on an assignment, and students doing Hitler salutes behind a teacher’s back.
She says the day she returned to school after the Bondi terrorism attack, a student did a Hitler salute at her and laughed. “Being Jewish is … having a target on your back,” she says.
Students have thrown coins at her and asked if she was going to pick them up, she says. She tells the inquiry:
They normally say ‘I hate juice’ … [they’re saying] they hate Jews. Sometimes they rile me up by pretending to sneeze, and instead of saying ‘ah choo’, they say ‘a Jew’.
Teachers usually tell her to ignore it, she says, while the deputy principal called her parents but “didn’t really do much from it”.
Her upset mother, AAE, says she didn’t realise “how systemic and prolific” the treatment of her daughter was. She says talking to the deputy principal was “like talking to a brick wall”:
I eventually confronted him and I was like ‘I’m very aware that you seem to actually be unwilling to use the word antisemitism’.
She says he used the umbrella term of racism, which made her feel as though he didn’t understand the distinct nature of antisemitism.
“You can’t fix what you won’t even name,” she says. Teachers are motivated by political activism and blind to their “moral duty”, she says.
Updated
High court dismisses appeal by Iranian man against being sent to Nauru
It’s a busy day in politics but earlier this morning the high court dismissed an appeal by an Iranian man against being sent to Nauru for 30 years.
The man, in his early 60s, was one of the first announced to be removed to the tiny Pacific island after a deal struck between the Albanese government and Nauru, estimated to cost more than $2.5bn over its lifetime.
The man, known only as TCXM in the courts, arrived in Australia in 1990 and was granted a protection visa five years later. In 1999, he was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to 22 years in prison. After the high court’s 2023 ruling against indefinite detention, he was released into the community until February 2025 when Nauru granted him a 30-year visa under the deal.
Since then, he has been back in immigration detention awaiting the outcome of his appeals against the decision through the courts. Today’s high court decision means he is soon likely to be sent to Nauru.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said:
I welcome the decision of the court, a cancelled visa must have consequences in our migration system.
Read more here:
Updated
Emergency fuel rationing a ‘small but distinct possibility’, S&P says
Australia could be pressed within a matter of weeks to invoke emergency powers to ration fuel should our key overseas suppliers decide to hold back exports for their own use, according to S&P Global Ratings.
As Anthony Albanese announces a new, multi-billion plan to boost fuel security, S&P analysts Martin Foo and Anthony Walker in a new report said Australia was “unusually exposed” to the global oil shock triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran.
Foo said that he believed that Australia would be able to get the fuel it needs, “albeit at elevated prices”.
“Its [Australia’s] relative wealth means it can outbid most other buyers for spot cargoes,” he said, adding that the government had also shown a “readiness … to remind trading partners of their co-dependence on Australian coal and liquefied natural gas”.
But with only a “thin” 43 days worth of petrol consumption in reserves, and 33 days of diesel and 28 days of jet fuel, “outright shortages [are] a small but distinct possibility”.
In a downside scenario, countries could begin enacting beggar-thy-neighbour export controls. This could force Australia to ration fuel, as occurred during World War II and after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Diesel and jet fuel appear to be at greatest risk – unless China relaxes its export ban, as it hinted at doing in late April.
Angus Taylor accuses federal government of helping with IS-linked families’ repatriation
Circling back to the opposition leader’s press conference and Angus Taylor said he didn’t have faith in the government to handle the return of four Australian women and nine children from Syria who had ties to the former Islamic State fighters to home soil.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, earlier said the federal government was aware of their return and was not assisting with their repatriation, adding “if they have committed crimes, they can expect to face the full force of the law without exception”.
Taylor disputed this claim, alleging they had “clearly assisted with the issue and distribution of passports” as well as with DNA tests.
I think the question now is – what’s going to happen when these people arrive? What’s it going to cost Australian taxpayers? . … I don’t have faith in this government when it comes to these Isis supporters.
Australian citizens cannot legally be prevented from returning to the country unless a formal exclusion order is in place. Burke has issued a single order to prevent one woman in Syria from returning, based on Asio advice about a national security risk.
Read more about the story here:
Updated
Alleged Bondi terror attacker to face 19 extra charges
Naveed Akram faces fresh charges for his alleged role as a gunman in the Bondi terror attack, taking the total number of charges against him to 78.
Akram, 24, and his father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, allegedly murdered 15 people after opening fire at a Hanukah festival at Bondi beach on 14 December.
Akram, who survived a shootout with police, was charged in December with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act that investigators allege may have been “inspired by Isis”. Sajid Akram was shot and killed by police at the scene.
Updated
First witness at antisemitism royal commission shares testimony
The first witness on the stand at today’s antisemitism royal commission is using the pseudonym AAQ.
She’s a public high school teacher in Tasmania who is concerned the curriculum does not focus enough on the Holocaust, antisemitism and Nazi ideology, and about the use of the book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which she says is ”historically inaccurate” and centres on Germans’ suffering rather than Jewish victims.
She also said students graffitied swastikas around the school, showed a “fascination” with Hitler, and bullied a Jewish student and their sibling to the point they left the state. She says:
They’d be performing a Nazi salute to each other in classrooms or hallways or in the schoolyard, you would see fingers under their noses to emulate Hitler’s moustache.
She said students would gaslight her if she called them out and claim not to know what it meant.
“Nothing was done,” she says, when she raised the issue with leaders. The principal spoke to the students once after antisemitic comments. “The implication was that I was being emotional,” she said.
Students also parroted tropes they had seen online about Israel and about Jewish people, she says, and it got worse after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
A Holocaust survivor who had been well received when he previously spoke at the school was met with “boorish” behaviour from students when he returned in 2024.
“They were essentially blaming him for what was happening over there [in Israel],” she said, adding that some parents were “irate” that a Jewish person spoke at the school.
Updated
Angus Taylor says fuel reserve announcement ‘too little, too late’
Angus Taylor, the opposition leader, says the new announcement about a 1bn litre, government-owned fuel reserve is “too little, too late”.
He said:
We need more fuel stocks, I’ve said that very plainly. … The government needs to get on with it.
Taylor said the Coalition wants to see fuel reserves at 60 days of supply, on the way towards “90 days that we want to see”.
Updated
Duniam says government should do ‘everything’ it can to stop Islamic State-linked Australians from coming back
Jonathon Duniam, the shadow home affairs minister, said earlier the government has “one last chance” to revoke the travel documents of the Australians in Syria with links to Islamic State fighters.
Burke has maintained today the government has extreme limits to what it can do aside from temporary exclusion orders, which have a very high threshold. Only one person in the cohort has been subject to such an order.
Still, Duniam said:
I say this government has one last chance before these people board planes back to Australia to revoke their travel documents, to apply temporary exclusion orders. Australians are not feeling safe now, we know that.
If there is a chance to stop them, we should do everything we can to stop it.
Updated
Albanese says Australians linked to Islamic State fighters will receive no help and face full force of the law
Albanese was just asked about the cohort of Australians linked to Islamic State fighters who are planning to return home. The prime minister said:
These are people who’ve made what is a horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and a have placed their children in an extraordinary situation.
As we’ve said many times, any members of this cohort who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law, and that will occur.
Chris Bowen, the energy minister, said the new reserves are a “big change” for Australia. He went on:
This is a big change in our approach as a country and a good one.
He said the 1bn litre stockpile, owned by the government, will build on increased minimum stock obligations in the private sector. The focus will be on jet fuel and diesel to prepare for the “worst circumstances”.
Updated
Budget to include $10bn package to ensure fuel and fertiliser security, including permanent reserve of 1bn litres
Anthony Albanese is speaking now in Sydney, saying the government is continuing its work to tackle the ongoing fuel crisis.
Albanese said the budget will include a more than $10bn package to ensure fuel and fertiliser security, including a permanent, government-owned fuel security reserve of about 1bn litres.
This will support an overall expansion of Australia’s onshore fuel reserves to ensure at least 50 days of fuel supply and storage of diesel and aviation fuel.
Albanese added:
We have worked relentlessly to secure our fuel supply lines. So far we are faring well.
Updated
High court appeal against NZYQ removal to Nauru dismissed
An elderly Iranian man’s appeal in the high court against being sent to Nauru has been dismissed.
This morning, the high court bench unanimously dismissed the challenge to the Albanese government’s arrangement with Nauru to send members of the NZYQ cohort there on 30-year visas.
Lawyers for the man, who was one of the first three announced in February 2025 for resettlement in Nauru, had argued his deportation could result in his “imminent” and “preventable” death due to the tiny Pacific island’s limited health facilities.
You can read more about that here:
They had also argued Australia’s $2.5bn deal with Nauru to send NZYQ-affected people to Nauru was unconstitutional.
We’ll have more once we work through the judgment’s reasons.
At least 350 non-citizens have been released into the community since the high court ruled in November 2023 Australia could not keep non-citizens indefinitely detained.
Many of the cohort’s visas have been cancelled as a result of criminal convictions but they cannot be returned to their country of origin because they are stateless or face persecution.
Survivors in the Bondi terror attack to have a formal application made to suppress their identities
Prosecutors in the case against alleged Bondi terror attack gunmen Naveed Akram will make a formal application next month to suppress the identities of dozens of complainants and some survivors.
In December, the court granted an interim suppression order protecting the identities of a number of survivors of the attack unless they give their consent.
More survivors also applied have their identities protected after Crown prosecutors applied to vary the suppression order in the Downing Centre local court last month.
The commonwealth prosecutor told the Downing Centre local court on Wednesday that, since taking over the case from NSW police, prosecutors had “endeavoured to contact each of the complainants ourselves directly to ascertain their views on the ongoing extension of the orders”.
The prosector requested a half-day long hearing on 10 June – pending confirmation from the registry this date is available – to make a formal application to suppress the identities of dozens of complainants and some survivors. She told the court that some of the survivors are children, who will already be protected from being identified.
Judge Susan McItnyre agreed to extend the non-publication order before a formal hearing is set.
Matthew Lewis, who appeared on behalf of five media publications – including Guardian Australia – could not confirm yet whether the media would oppose the application. He said:
No evidence has been served so can’t speculate whether we will or not.
Akram, 24, and his father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, allegedly killed 15 people after opening fire at a Hanukah festival at Bondi beach on 14 December.
Akram, who survived a shootout with police, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act that investigators allege may have been “inspired by Isis”. Sajid Akram was shot and killed by police at the scene.
Updated
AFP chief says some returning IS-linked family members will be charged
Krissy Barrett, the commissioner of the AFP, said planning surrounding the return of Australians linked to the Islamic State began in 2015, with investigators collecting evidence for more than a decade. She said:
That evidence and information was to determine whether Australians who travelled to Syria may have committed commonwealth offences, including terrorism offences, such as entering or remaining in declared areas, and crimes against humanity offences such as engaging in slave trading.
Barrett would not flag how many people would be arrested or when they will be arrested to protect the investigation. She said, however:
Some individuals will be arrested and charged. Some will face continued investigations when they arrive in Australia.
And children who return in the cohort will be asked to undergo community integration programs, therapeutic support and countering violent extremist programs.
Australians need to know that law enforcement and security agencies are doing everything they can to keep them safe and … that individuals are held to account for their actions.
Updated
Tony Burke says there are ‘very serious limits’ on how citizens can be blocked from returning home
Burke said there are “very serious limits” on what the country can do to block a citizen from returning home.
He said he received one advice where an individual met the requirements for a temporary exclusion order and he acted immediately with regards to that person.
Asio director general ‘extremely concerned’ by young people being radicalised online
Mike Burgess, the director general of Asio, said he remains “extremely concerned” about the number of young people, particularly young men, who are being radicalised online.
He said:
People who self-radicalise online often show few, if any, real world indicators they’re mobilising the violence. Online operations are often the only way we can have identifying and engaging with these individuals, so we can understand their intent, their capability, their identity and their targets.
Burgess said the most likely act of politically motivated violence would occur with “little to no warning” and in ways “that are difficult to attack”. Australia’s national terrorism threat level remains at probable.
Updated
Tony Burke says government ‘is not assisting’ Islamic State-linked families
In regards to the Islamic State-linked families, Burke had this to say:
The government is not repatriating and will not repatriate. The government is not assisting and will not assist these individuals.
They made an appalling, disgraceful decision. If any of these individuals find their way back to Australia, if they have committed crimes, they can expect to face the full force of the law, without exception.
Updated
Tony Burke is speaking now, starting with the $74m announcement for a counter-terrorism online centre, part of the government’s response to the Bondi terror attack.
Burke pointed to new laws created in 2024 to target the distribution or possession of online radicalised material or violent extremist material. He said the Australian federal police had put in 31 charges since the laws were put in place, 19 of which involved minors. He added:
This feature of young people being radicalised fast online is real.
Establishing the centre is the next logical step in being able to make sure that our agencies can work together, to be able to deal with a threat that is already there, that is continuing to emerge.
We now need to have a centre that deals with online radicalisation and that’s what we announced today.
You can read more about those laws in this story by Ariel Bogle and Nico Bucci here:
Updated
Thirteen women and children linked to Islamic State fighters set to return to Australia from Syria
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has confirmed 13 members of the Australian families linked to Islamic State fighters in Syria are set to travel home to Australia.
The four women and nine children are expected in the country very soon.
“These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation,” Burke said.
As we have said many times – any members of this cohort who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law.
Our world-class law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been preparing for their return since 2014 and have longstanding plans in place to manage and monitor them.
Burke says the group have received no assistance from the government.
Updated
Chalmers says intergenerational pressures have ‘intensified’
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said intergenerational pressures have intensified, particularly when it comes to housing and the tax system surrounding it.
Chalmers spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying the government is aware and concerned about how difficult it is for young people to get into the housing market. He said he wouldn’t preempt any aspect of the upcoming budget – including any changes to negative gearing or the capital gains tax discount – but maintained the government had been “upfront about the pressures that we are trying to respond to”.
He went on:
Certainly when it comes to the economics of the current situation we recognise that there are substantial intergenerational pressures that people are feeling. … I think that they have intensified, you know, particularly when you think about the housing market.
We’ve acknowledged, I think, in an upfront way that there are issues, intergenerational issues, in housing in the tax system. And so we have been working through those issues, I think, in the usual, considered and methodical way.
I’m not preempting any elements of the budget next Tuesday night. But we’ve been upfront about the pressures that we are trying to respond to.
You can read more here:
Updated
Victoria premier won’t say how much 10m litre fuel reserve cost
The Victoria premier, Jacinta Allan, has refused to say how much the 10m litre fuel reserve has cost taxpayers, citing commercial arrangements with Exxon Mobil:
When the opportunity presented itself through discussions that … the minister had with Exxon, that there was some supply available, we made the decision to secure that supply … and we’ve done [that] through a commercial arrangement … those arrangements are commercial in confidence.
The fuel was purchased at the market price and we will continue to look at ways that we support more broadly, our ag sector and our farmers.
Allan says the fuel would last for “two weeks’ worth of activity during the harvest season” for the entire Victorian agricultural sector.
She said the decision came after Tuesday budget was completed, so it is not included:
This decision came after the budget books had been audited by the auditor general. So it will be, it will be accounted for the future budget updates. But we can do this because we have a budget in surplus. And when you have a budget in surplus, you can provide support in uncertain times. And we are in uncertain times.
Updated
Antisemitism royal commission enters third day
The royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion will sit for its third day today, from 10am AEST.
Yesterday, Jewish Australians told the inquiry of being targeted, abused, and attacked, and of their ongoing fear for themselves and their families.
Today another 12 witnesses will appear – many of them using pseudonyms.
Jeremy Leibler, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, will be today’s last witness. In his submission he wrote that he will focus on “the antisemitism that operates through the delegitimisation of Israel and the weaponisation of the word ‘Zionist’ as a proxy for ‘Jew’.
He wrote:
It is this form that has driven the explosion of hostility in universities, in professional life, in cultural institutions, and in the public square. And it is this form that our political and institutional leaders have found themselves unable or unwilling to confront.
You can read Ben Doherty’s wrap of yesterday’s hearings here:
Updated
Albanese government abandons beleaguered inland rail project connecting NSW with Queensland
The Albanese government will drastically scale back the beleaguered inland rail project, abandoning plans to connect country NSW and Queensland by rail, as the price tag blows out to more than $45bn.
Originally envisioned to run 1,700km from Melbourne to a port near Brisbane, the mega infrastructure project will now only connect Beveridge, on the outskirts of Melbourne, to Parkes in central-west New South Wales – about half the distance – with the government reallocating $1.75bn of the funding to other national rail upgrades.
The cost has increased more than 50% in just three years, since Dr Kerry Schott was commissioned by Labor in 2023 to independently review the project.
Schott estimated the project would be completed by 2031 and cost upwards of $31.4bn – a doubling of the previous estimate – which she called “astonishing”, adding she was not confident on the figures.
Read more:
Victoria has secured 10m litres of diesel as fuel reserve for agriculture, premier says
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, is holding a press conference in Williamstown this morning to announce the state has secured 10m litres of diesel as a “strategic fuel reserve” for the agricultural sector.
Allan said it will mean farmers can be confident making planting and farm management decisions for the winter growing season.
She said the reserve doesn’t change day-to-day supply of diesel but it is a contingency if the federal government moved to level 4 of the national fuel security plan.
Allan said:
The Commonwealth [position] continues to be that there are sufficient fuel supplies for the period ahead, and the Commonwealth Government have done a tremendous job in securing additional fuel supplies through to the end of June. But of course, our farmers plan and operate for a longer period, and that is why having this 10 million litres of fuel, of diesel set aside in a Victorian reserve is about giving farmers that confidence that they need.
Updated
Victoria police treating fire at car dealership in Port Melbourne as suspicious
Victoria police are investigating a fire at a car dealership in Port Melbourne.
Emergency services were called to the area around 4.50am this morning. Crews extinguished the blaze, but officials are treating the fire as suspicious. The ABC reports the fire took place at a Chery car dealership, which opened last week.
Victor Sargin, the manager of the business, told ABC Radio Melbourne the impacts appeared to be limited mostly to smoke damage.
“Luckily, the floors are hard floors, so those flames have only caught on to some furniture and the reception desk at the front,” he told the ABC.
The exact circumstances surrounding the fire have not yet been determined, and police are appealing to anyone with footage or information to contact them.
Updated
Man thought to be trapped in car submerged in weir near Sydney
A search is under way for a man believed to be trapped inside a car submerged in weir at a national park, AAP reports.
NSW police believe two people were inside the car when it crashed into Audley Weir near Sydney about 1.15am. The car quickly submerged into the water with the two men inside.
The 20-year-old driver managed to extricate himself from the car and was taken to hospital for mandatory testing.
A multi-agency search operation is continuing to locate the passenger, as police establish a crime scene and begin investigations into the incident. Motorists are urged to avoid the area, with parts of the Royal national park closed.
Updated
NSW government to fast-track renewable energy approvals
The New South Wales government will today introduce legislation it says will speed up the delivery of renewable energy projects as coal-fired power stations exit the system.
The prioritising renewable energy bill will allow the state’s energy minister, Penny Sharpe, to select the “highest-priority” proposals for storage, network, and renewable energy generation and recommend them for fast-tracking to speed up approvals. Sharpe says:
This new legislation will mean infrastructure projects that are critical for manufacturing jobs, economic growth and energy affordability don’t get stuck in the queue. No matter where you live in this state, you will benefit from us getting on with the job and delivering quality renewable projects as fast as we can.
The government says the proposed law will not remove any environmental or community assessments. Environmentalists have expressed concern that widespread changes made to planning laws last year could be used fast-track mines and power projects without environmental approvals.
Renewable energy now provides about 36% of NSW’s supply, but the state government has said it will continue to approve coalmine expansions, despite ruling out mines on greenfield sites in its recent industry statement. It drew criticism from environmental groups who said this preserved the status quo. The Minns government has approved at least eight coal expansions and extensions since the 2023 election.
Updated
‘They’re big dollars’: Taylor says Coalition would target renewables and corporate welfare to cut spending
Angus Taylor was asked this morning where the opposition would rein in spending if in power. The opposition leader said the Coalition would target expensive renewable energy projects like green hydrogen, corporate welfare programs and the installation of new power lines.
Taylor told ABC News:
They’re big dollars, these programs. They’re adding to the inflation fire, we’re about to cross the threshold of a trillion dollars of debt. And that adds to the inflation fire.
Taylor was asked how the opposition’s plan to increase defence funding would play into that, and if cuts to social services were needed. He said:
I wrote to the prime minister and said to him, we’ll work with the government on a bipartisan basis to find sensible savings opportunities. … We’re pleased to see they want the NDIS to be sustainable. It’s taken too along for them to come to this.
Updated
Federal shadow treasurer says any handouts in budget could add to inflation
The federal shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, has warned that potential cash handouts in next week’s federal budget could add to inflation.
Speaking to the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Wilson was asked about unconfirmed reports that the Albanese government would deliver a cash splash – with income tax relief of up to $300 for working Australians – as part of cost-of-living relief in next week’s federal budget.
Wilson said:
Unfortunately when the government hasn’t take inflation seriously, we’ve ended up in this situation and the risk is that if you keep handing out money to households, what you’ll actually do is fuel inflation.
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, who has historically refrained from commenting on government spending, said governments could help fight inflation by limiting their spending.
Bullock also acknowledged that low-income Australians were the hardest hit by the country’s inflationary pressures.
Chalmers won’t speculate about any tax relief
The treasurer was asked about the potential of any additional tax relief in light of the latest inflation figures and the interest rate rise. He said he would not comment on anything in the lead up to the budget, saying “some of the speculation turns out to be right, som turns out to be wrong”.
Chalmers added:
This is a government that cuts taxes. We’ve cut taxes already and we will cut taxes again, we made that clear and we made that public.
The issue is, the budget won’t be pumping a lot of extra stimulus in the economy, in fact overall we’ll be winding back spending in the budget.
Chalmers says Australians paying a ‘hefty price’ for Middle East conflict
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says he knows Australians are paying a “hefty price” for the war in the Middle East, adding that the upcoming federal budget will be “really responsible” to take the inflation challenge seriously.
Chalmers spoke to ABC News this morning:
Australians didn’t choose this war in the Middle East, we have no control over when it ends, but we’re paying a hefty price for it, at the bowser and beyond.
So we know that people are under very serious pressure, we know these price pressures have escalated because of the war in the Middle East, but we had inflationary challenges before that as well.
And again, that’s why this budget is a really important budget.
Updated
Good morning, Nick Visser here to pick up the blog. Let’s get to it.
Albanese convenes national cabinet to discuss fuel crisis
State and territory leaders will hold talks with Anthony Albanese this morning as national cabinet continues to grapple with the international fuel crisis.
The prime minister is due to chair the virtual meeting mid-morning.
It comes a day after the US President Donald Trump threatened that Iran would be “blown off the face of the earth” if it attacks US vessels trying to reopen a route through the strait of Hormuz.
More than 800 ships and 20,000 crew members remain stranded in the region.
Federal government data shows Australia has 43 days of petrol supply on hand, along with 33 days of diesel and 28 days of jet fuel.
Updated
Budget to include $74m to fight terrorism and online threats
Next week’s federal budget will fund a dedicated national centre to detect and disrupt the evolving threat of online violent extremism and terrorism.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, will announce the $74m in funding over two years for the project on Wednesday. It is part of the government’s response to the Bondi terror attack in December.
The centre will combine Asio and federal police officers and bring together work by state and territory police forces and overseas law enforcement agencies to better target online terrorists who threaten violence and manipulate vulnerable young people.
Specialist counter terrorism investigators and intelligence analysts will be able to monitor high-risk online spaces, assess credible threats and coordinate disruption of extremist content and activity, including through covert online engagement.
“The capability we’ve always had to monitor extremists in the meeting room, now extends to the chat room,” Burke said.
A bolstered online threat capability will give AFP and Asio the resources they need to target terrorists and violent extremists online.
Updated
State MP for Newtown, Jenny Leong, also spoke at the meeting, telling attendees:
You’re welcome in Newtown electorate anytime.
She raised comments made by Minns government member Ron Hoenig, who is Jewish, and distanced himself from the potential ban during question time yesterday.
After being asked by the opposition what he had done – as the minister of local government – to stop the event from going ahead in a council-owned venue, Hoenig said:
Just because I, and other people, might find it personally offensive does not mean that governments have unlimited power to constitutionally strike down the right of everybody else to freedom of political communication.
Updated
Sydney forum held in 'park in the dark'
A pro-Palestine meeting that had their booking in a council venue cancelled after what the Sydney mayor called a “a persistent media campaign by the Murdoch press” was instead held in a “park in the dark”. Speakers spoke against criminalising saying the phrase “globalise the intifada”.
The meeting, attended by several dozen people and a large contingent of media, was held in a park in Darlington after Clover Moore announced on Monday evening she had requested the chief executive of the council withdraw the booking.
Discussing the decision, Moore said public events must not “contribute to hostility and fear”. The move was met with relief by the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies.
An organiser for the meeting, which was run by Stop the War on Palestine and was titled “why it is right to globalise the Intifada”, said the last minute cancellation meant the group had to have the meeting “in a park in the dark”.
Jewish man Ed Carroll was a speaker at the meeting. He was one of the first people to be arrested in Queensland after the state government placed a maximum two-year prison sentence on saying the phrases “globalise the intifada” or “from the river to the sea”.
He spoke from Queensland via zoom and was beamed onto a projector set up in the park. He said it’s likely he will be one of the lead plaintiffs in a planned constitutional challenge against the ban.
At one point during the meeting, a man wearing a shirt that said “FCK HMS”, stood nearby the meeting yelling at people to “go home”. He held a sign that said: “Globalise the intifada is Bondi Beach 14 December 2025!”.
Last week, the NSW premier, Chris Minns, said he would only ban the slogan “globalise the intifada” if a potential constitutional challenge to a similar ban in Queensland is unsuccessful.
It was the strongest indication yet that the state government may not seek to proscribe the contested phrase at all.
Updated
Big four banks lift interest rates
Australia’s big four banks have all lifted interest rates after the Reserve Bank handed down a third consecutive rate hike yesterday.
The RBA lifted the cash rate from 4.1% to 4.35%, in a widely expected decision on yesterday afternoon.
Macquarie Bank was the first Australian bank to announce it would pass on the 0.25% interest rate rise to its variable home loan customers from 22 May.
The country’s big four banks – Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank (NAB), Westpac and ANZ — followed suit, announcing they would all pass on the 0.25% increase to their customers.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will be your guide.
The “globalise the intifada” forum banned from taking place in a council venue on Monday night went ahead last night in a park in Sydney where participants discussed legal challenges to the ban on using the phrase, as well as the phrase “from the river to the sea”. More details coming up.
And Australia’s big four banks have all lifted interest rates after the Reserve Bank handed down a third consecutive rate hike yesterday. More reaction to the rate hike coming up.
