What we learned, Tuesday 21 July
And that’s where we’ll leave today’s live coverage.
Before I go, let’s recap the day’s top stories.
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One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has tried to defend party leader Pauline Hanson’s decision to meet far-right convicted criminal Tommy Robinson during a recent visit to the UK.
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Separately, Joyce made headlines for an spiky interview on ABC’s 7.30 last night, that involved barking a an off-camera dog.
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Qantas has apologised to about 250 passengers who were stuck on the tarmac in Sydney for four-and-a-half hours on Monday afternoon while the airline dealt with multiple separate problems.
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A Melbourne synagogue was unsuccessful in applications for government grants for security before a December 2024 arson attack that has seen its doors closed ever since.
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Staff numbers at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age will be cut by 30 in another round of redundancies announced by Nine’s publishing arm today.
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KPMG has made a lifelong staff member and top executive its new Australian chief executive, rejecting external candidates, as it grapples with its audit leaks scandal.
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WA police have arrested a 16-year-old boy who allegedly stabbed his mother to death and allegedly turned the knife on his sister, who managed to flee to get help.
Thanks for joining us, see you bright and early tomorrow morning.
Updated
Wong presses for prosecutions over methanol poisonings in meeting with Lao counterpart
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has pressed her Lao counterpart over a decision not to pursue the most serious charges in relation to the methanol poisoning deaths of Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones.
Wong met with her Lao counterpart Thongsavanh Phomvihane on the sidelines of the Asean foreign ministers meeting today in the Philippines.
The government has pushed for a transparent investigation into the death, and put further pressure on Laos to hold those responsible to account.
In a statement from Manila, Wong said the government would continue to pursue the matter with Lao officials.
I made clear that Australia expects the Lao Government to ensure this investigation fully reflects the seriousness of this tragedy and that those responsible are held properly to account.
Our advocacy for Holly and Bianca’s families is not over.
Last week the government sent special envoy Pablo Kang to Laos to convey Australia’s objections to authorities on the ground.
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Housing Australia Future Fund must be more transparent: auditor general
The government’s $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund has provided 1,432 of the 40,000 homes Labor promised would be built by the end of the decade, according to a new Australian National Audit Office report that criticised Treasury for not being transparent about the program’s performance.
The HAFF disburses a minimum of $500m a year to build social and affordable homes, and the ANAO judged that the design of the HAFF was “largely effective”.
But the independent audit office said that Treasury should do better in reporting on how the program was progressing against its own targets, as it noted that the average cost per home built under the HAFF was $770,387 over 25 years.
Experts and the government’s own Housing Australia do not expect the government to meet its ambitious home building target.
One of the ANAO’s five recommendations – all of which were accepted by the Treasury – was that the department “publicly and clearly reports on program performance, including the performance of sub-activities and programs, as well as the overall program”.
Clare O’Neil, the minister for housing and homelessness, in a statement said she welcomed the report. She said:
The auditor general has identified practical opportunities to strengthen governance, risk management and public reporting as the program continues to mature.
We welcome those recommendations and will continue improving the way the program is delivered.
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Monique Ryan condemns Pauline Hanson’s comments on deportations and White Australia policy
Independent MP Monique Ryan has condemned a number of recent comments by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
Speaking to ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Ryan called Hanson’s comments saying she admires Donald Trump’s approach to mass deportation makes her “sick”.
I’ve seen footage of people being killed during the process of deportation in the US. I’ve seen people being removed from hospital settings and medical clinics, the thought of that happening in this country makes me sick. The fact that Pauline Hanson thinks that’s a reasonable way to treat and deal with vulnerable people tells me that she is not fit to have any significant leadership role in the country.
Ryan also rejected Hanson’s accusation she was misinterpreted to appear as if she said that she supported a White Australia policy.
I think it would appear that One Nation doesn’t know what they believe. On one hand it does not talk to the other combine a bit doesn’t know what Pauline is saying, they are incredibly incoherent as a political force. It’s remarkable they are getting as much airtime as they are. The need to be held to account and come up with reasonable, rational policies if they really believe that they have any role to play in the leadership of this country.”
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Qld government considering investment in four pumped hydro projects
Queensland’s government is considering investing in just four pumped hydro projects, parliamentary estimates heard today.
The former Labor government planned to build two huge multi-billion dollar schemes, the $18.4bn Borumba scheme and the world’s largest project at Pioneer Burdekin, costing $36.8bn. In opposition, the LNP promised to cancel the latter and instead build multiple “smaller more manageable” projects, but with no additional details.
Queensland Investment Corporation CEO Kylie Rampa revealed in parliamentary estimates this evening that her agency was leading an assessment of four projects, known as “project gravity”.
It considered three projects to replace the 5,000 megawatt Pioneer Burdekin scheme, Big T, Capricornia and Mt Rawdon. The last project has already been rejected by the state government. The corporation is also considering the Borumba project. Rampa said:
We assess these projects using a consistent evaluation framework aligned with the energy roadmap objectives, projects were assessed against a comprehensive set of principles, including commercial outcomes, strategic fit, broader impacts and risks, deliverability and feasibility.
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Monique Ryan raises concerns over AI datacentre locations, urges government protection
Independent MP Monique Ryan says she has concerns about where existing and future AI datacentres are built and has urged the government to ensure “there are protections in place”.
When asked whether she would want one in her electorate on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, she said:
I think people would be concerned. Sound pollution is an increasing concern for people. We have seen in states 75% of people are now saying they don’t want one in the area and there’s a good reason for that.
When asked where they should be placed, she said they should be near energy sources and “powered by 100% new renewables”. She said:
That should not be taking electricity out of our existing power supply. So companies building them can ensure 100% new renewables to them and water sovereignty as well.
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Dead stranded baby whale returns negative bird flu test
A humpback whale calf that died on Greenhills Beach in Cronulla last week has tested negative for bird flu. It comes after responders were called to the stranding last Friday morning after a public report to ORRCA’s hotline.
The test was carried out under NSW’s H5 bird flu surveillance program, which can include marine mammals such as whales and seals.
Authorities say the newborn animal, confirmed to be just a few days old, most likely died from complications linked to a difficult or traumatic birth.
A spokesperson for the state’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development said:
Examination findings showed the calf was born alive and had taken its first breaths, with no evidence it had been able to feed from its mother.
While it is not possible to determine the exact events leading to the calf’s death, the findings indicate the animal experienced serious complications shortly before or during birth and was unable to survive in the critical first days of life.
The department said a full necropsy test “may take some weeks to come back.”
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First Nations protesters rally at US military base in Northern Territory
Hundreds of protesters have marched towards the gates of the secretive US-run intelligence base Pine Gap, on Arrernte land on the outskirts of Mparntwe-Alice Springs, demanding it be shut down.
On Monday, traditional owners delivered a letter to the facility requesting the base be shuttered and the land it occupies returned to the Arrernte people.
Traditional owner Felicity Hayes said the base was the cause of sadness for her people, and should be the source of shame for Australia and the US.
We want our Apmere (land) back … My country is a sacred place … for me and my families and for everybody in Australia so today I wanted to tell them that we don’t want Pine Gap to ever exist on our land. Shut it down. Close it down and give our land back.
Pine Gap was established in 1966 by the CIA. It is, technically, a “joint facility” between Australia and the US, but it is always run by an American. Its precise role is shrouded in secrecy, but it is known to provide key surveillance and targeting information for US military operations. The information gathered by satellites and sent through Pine Gap has been linked to US and Israeli strikes in Gaza and elsewhere across the Middle East. The US military regards Pine Gap as one of its most valuable offshore intelligence assets.
On Tuesday morning, protester Aahana Nag locked herself to the steering wheel of a vehicle blocking Hatt Road, the main road into the base. She was arrested and taken into custody by NT police. Nag said, in a statement:
The United States has displaced the custodians of these lands and has built an intelligence facility that provides critical intelligence for their illegal military operations.
How can we allow this when the United States is currently conducting illegal attacks and invasions globally?
Nag said Australia should end its military alliance with the US.
This base is material proof of the federal government’s investment in US wars that do not serve us.
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Family rejects coroner’s newborn death finding
A family whose daughter died hours after her birth from an undiagnosed heart defect has rejected a coroner’s finding that the baby’s death was not preventable, AAP reports.
Thea Flaskett died on the morning of 11 September 2023, a little more than four hours after she was born at a Queensland hospital. Thea’s parents Meg and James Flaskett had fought for an inquest into their daughter’s death, which held hearings in Brisbane in 2025.
Meg Flaskett said the family was “devastated but not surprised by the outcome” in a statement that criticised the inquest’s findings. She disputed that Thea’s heart defect was the only major contributor to her death at Redcliffe hospital, north of Brisbane. She said:
Had Thea’s condition been diagnosed before birth, her labour, delivery and immediate management would have been fundamentally different.
Although these findings bring the coronial process to an end, they do not bring us peace, nor do they answer the questions that have driven us for almost three years.
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New KPMG CEO was on executive during ‘botched’ inaction on leaks, Labor inquiry chair says
Labor senator Deb O’Neill has taken aim at KPMG’s new CEO in connection to the firm’s failure to confirm or address leaks in its audit team.
John Sams, today appointed chief executive, is a KPMG lifer who had been the firm’s chief financial officer and a board member since October.
O’Neill, the chair of a parliamentary inquiry, said in a public statement:
Mr Sams’ appointment is the elevation of yet another member of the firm’s leadership which oversaw the series of botched investigations and non-action.
The inquiry has heard KPMG’s board’s subcommittee commissioned legal advice which found no evidence for the leak allegations in December. Only after the allegations were publicly revealed in March did KPMG re-investigate, verify and act on some of the allegations. KPMG declined to comment. Sams did not sit on the subcommittee.
O’Neill previously took aim at KPMG when it replaced its outgoing chair with Michael Ebeid, an internal independent director who had oversight of last year’s investigation. She took another shot at Ebeid in her comments today.
Ebeid is yet to officially become chair but still sat on the selection panel that today appointed Sams. The firm’s 680 partners have to vote on whether to change their partnership agreement so Ebeid can serve as independent chair. O’Neill said:
I note reports of concerns within KPMG about the role Mr Ebeid has played in advancing the path of Mr Sams to CEO, given there has been no formal agreement by partners to allow Mr Ebeid, who is not a partner of KPMG, to assume the role of Chair of the Board.
Contacted on behalf of Ebeid and Sams, KPMG declined to comment. Ebeid today said Sams was also endorsed by the board.
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Tamworth sports journalist killed in rural car accident
A well-known sports journalist has been reportedly killed in a car accident while travelling from a football competition.
Tamworth writer Mark Bode, 57, has been named as the driver killed in a three vehicle crash on the Oxley Highway near Somerton at about 6.30pm on Saturday. The small town is about halfway between Gunnedah and Tamworth.
His paper, the Northern Daily Leader, reports that he was travelling home from a rugby league competition in Gunnedah.
A 69-year-old man in the other vehicle was also treated at the scene before being airlifted to John Hunter hospital in a serious condition.
Both occupants of the third vehicle were uninjured.
Bode spent decades in regional journalism after starting his career in Brisbane. He joined the Leader in 2017 and is being remembered as a passionate and hard-working sports reporter, best known for his profiles of local athletes.
Perth teenager arrested after allegedly stabbing mother to death, injuring sister
A 16-year-old boy has allegedly stabbed his own mother to death and turned the knife on his little sister who managed to flee to get help, AAP reports.
Police attended a home in the suburb of Bentley, in Perth’s south-east, after the incident which authorities say occurred at about 6:15am on Tuesday.
Officers located the body of the 35-year-old mother inside the family’s Mill Street home, Acting Insp Jessica Securo told reporters.
The girl was also stabbed but managed to flee the house, making it to a nearby highway for help. Securo said:
I can confirm there is no ongoing risk to the wider community.
This incident will have a significant impact on the family, friends and loved ones of all those involved as well as the broader community.
Our thoughts are with them all, particularly the 12-year-old girl who remains in hospital receiving treatment. We ask that their privacy be respected during this investigation.
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Jewish schools council says poorer schools using education funding for security
Stephen Rothman, a former NSW supreme court judge who is the co-chair Australian Council of Jewish Schools (ACJS), the representative body for schools throughout the country, has been explaining to the royal commission on antisemitism how Jewish schools are funded, including security costs.
Rothman has said since 2023, “the level of vitriolic antisemitic abuse has been significant, and in my view, normalised to such an extent that members of the community generally feel unwelcome and unprotected”.
ACJS analysis shows the national total for security spending in the four years to 2022 to 2025 is more than $58m. Rothman said be believes every Jewish independent school funds this through levies to parents, but this is “normally significantly lower” than poorer schools needs to spend in relation to security per student, with schools drawing on their own funds or from increased fees to cover costs.
It’s a somewhat tongue-in-cheek line by members of the Jewish community that it’s expensive to be Jewish, and it is, a lot of money is spent on donations and the like, it’s part of the culture, but nevertheless, if you can get the donations, yes, that’s good. If you can’t get the donations … [schools] will use resources that other schools would use for all sorts of other facilities to fund security, including education, unfortunately.
Rothman said the ACJS’s position is “at least the recurrent expenditure on guards and other operational … expenditures” should be funded by the federal government.
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Now the wonderful Achol Arok will take you through the rest of today’s breaking news.
Jewish school has looked at diverting school funding to meet security needs
The royal commission on antisemitism on social cohesion has been hearing about the security burden on Jewish schools in Sydney and Melbourne following a rise in antisemitic incidents sine October 2023.
Before lunch, it heard from Mount Scopus Memorial College and Bialik College in Melbourne, which like many independent Jewish schools, charge parents security levies in addition to fees, which have increased significantly since October 2023. They described antisemitic incidents directed at students.
This afternoon, Linda Emms, the principal of Emanuel School in Sydney, has said while the majority of its security costs came from levies charged to parents, they did not fully cover increasing costs, meaning “over the last 18 months in my time at the school, it has meant that we’ve had to look at diverting funds from other areas of school operations”.
She said the start of the 2026 school year, had brought an “added layer of complexity” for Emanuel, which is near Bondi beach, with many staff, student and parents impacted by the terror attack in December. Emms said the school has a police presence every day.
Our parents have worked incredibly hard, particularly with some of our younger students, to get their children to see the police as their friends and as being there to protect them.
And I watch some of them come in, and they will fist bump the police as they come in of a morning and say hello to them. And it’s lovely, but it’s really sad that we have parents who actually have to do this, because that’s how they’re actually reassuring their child that it’s OK that there’s actually police at the front gate every morning.
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Queensland police ethical standards investigating after man dies in Brisbane city watch house
The Queensland police ethical standards unit is investigating the death of a man at the Brisbane city watch house yesterday.
The 55-year-old Thornlands man had been in the facility since Friday. He was arrested that day, 17 July, at about 10.50am on a return to prison warrant.
He told staff he was feeling unwell on Monday shortly after 3pm and was assessed by nursing staff and other emergency services. He died a short time later. His cause of death is under investigation.
The Queensland police ethical standards command is investigating the death in custody on behalf of the state coroner. The state’s watch houses are operated by Queensland police and are designed for adult detainees to be held for about 48 hours.
There are 72 people currently being held in the Brisbane watch house; eight of them have been there longer than a week, one for 12 days.
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I’m going hand this here blog over to my colleague Ima Caldwell now, who will take you through the rest of the afternoon’s news.
The outcome of the vote by Victorian teachers to reject the government’s most recent pay offer and strike on Thursday has sent an undeniable message to the government that change was needed, Australian Education Union’s Victorian president Justin Mullaly has said.
In a statement this afternoon, he said:
Members have been telling the Victorian Labor government for years that the under-resourcing of public schools in Victoria is making their work untenable.
When just three in 10 public school teachers plan to stay working in public schools in Victoria, it is obvious there is a problem.
Victorian school teachers vote to strike on Thursday
Victorian public school teachers will go on strike on Thursday after a majority of Australian Education Union members voted down the state government’s most recent pay offer.
As we reported earlier, voting closed today on the government’s most recent pay offer of of 28.3% over the next four years. Victorian teachers have been locked in the pay dispute with the government for months, with more than 35,000 teachers, principals and education support workers walking off the job in March.
In a statement published just now to AEU Vic’s social media platforms, the union confirmed the strike action will take place on Thursday:
We will be stopping work for 24 hours on Thursday, 23 July right across the state. We will rally in the city and march to Parliament.
The union said 50,677 AEU members voted in the ballot, with 48.82% voting to accept the pay offer, and 51.18% voting against it.
Updated
Everyone’s talking about one man – and his dog – today. Guardian political reporter Josh Butler explains the whole situation to Guardian political reporter Krishani Dhanji.
Australian athletes urged to pack extra undies for Commonwealth Games
Australians athletes are being urged to fiercely compete like warriors at the Commonwealth Games, rather than go commando.
With Glasgow being run on a smaller scale, there is no athlete village and its daily laundry service, so Australian team members have been advised to pack extra clothing, especially underwear – just in case.
The Australian HQ at the Glasgow Argyle Hotel will run a laundry service, but on a reduced frequency. Team chef de mission Petria Thomas told AAP:
AUS HQ delivers services aplenty for the Australian Team, with laundry being one.
In a Games village this is often a daily service, but here it will be every three days, so we’ve encouraged athletes to bring spare smalls … just in case.
No one wants to be caught going commando!
Rising robbery risk to Australian cash transfers, inquiry hears
Cash transporters have warned their crews are at rising risk of being robbed as unions say some million-dollar shipments are being driven around by lone workers in small, unmarked, un-armoured cars.
A Senate inquiry into reforms to cash distribution has heard from the chiefs of Armaguard, the cash moving company. Matt Caulfield, its chief executive, told the inquiry the company took more than 8,000 jobs each day, moving millions of dollars between them, and some of its jobs were being done by single, unarmed people in un-armoured vehicles. He said:
Just in this last three months, so we’ve had two armed robberies … We have what’s called a tracking system called Myosh that looks at near misses and red flags. So they’re at the highest they’ve been in my time at Armaguard.
Gavin Webb, from the Transport Workers’ Union, told the inquiry two workers had been robbed and assaulted at a south-east Queensland shopping centre in May, and cash-in-transit workers had historically been killed during cash drops in public places. He said:
We have seen single-crew operators carting millions of dollars of cash in vehicles such as Hyundai i30s … in major cities around Australia, in those unmarked vehicles.
Webb said the limited staff protection was due to banks choosing cheaper cash movers with poor safety standards. Proper protection is costly: Bill Kelty, the director of Armaguard, said its secure vehicles typically cost $300,000 each.
Armaguard and the union are both warning that the reforms being considered by the inquiry are not accounting for the cost of operating safely. Cash distribution has become more expensive and major operators are disagreeing with retailers and banks over how the costs should be covered.
Armaguard’s executive chair, Peter Linfox, said the company’s owners, the Linfox family and Spanish former competitor Prosegur, had paid $125m propping up Armaguard’s cash distribution losses. Its owners did not expect to be paid any profits for years, Linfox said.
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Anthropic’s $1.5b copyright lawsuit settlement approved
A US judge has signed off on artificial intelligence company Anthropic’s landmark $US1.5bn settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by a group of authors who accused it of misusing their books to train its AI chatbot Claude.
US district judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted final approval of the settlement, the largest known settlement of a US copyright case, rejecting arguments that it was too small.
The case is one of dozens brought by copyright owners including authors and news outlets against tech companies over the training of their large language models, and the first major US case to settle.
A number of prominent Australian writers were involved. A searchable list of books used to train the AI includes six Michelle de Kretser books, Anna Funder’s All That I Am, Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites, and two Gerald Murnanes – to name a few.
Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement:
We reached this settlement in 2025, after the court’s landmark ruling that training AI on books is fair use under copyright law – which remains the law today.
We are pleased that more than 91 per cent of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we’re looking forward to bringing this matter to a close.
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Son of Holocaust survivors describes shock at Sydney Opera House protest
The royal commission on antisemitism has heard from Dr George Foster OAM, a member of the South Sydney synagogue and president of the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.
Foster, who was born in Budapest to two Hungarian Holocaust survivors shortly after the end of the second world war, arriving in Australia in 1947, has described feeling shocked by a protest on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on 9 October 2023:
We heard expletives and you know vilification of Jews to a point which shocked me, and I know much, if not all, of the Jewish community. I never thought that I would see such a thing in this country.
Foster has described an incident in which the South Sydney synagogue was among several firebombed after the first Iraq war. He said it was easier for the South Sydney synagogue to recover from the event during the 1990s.
At that time, again we received many messages of support and assistance, and there wasn’t the overt vilification of the Jewish people then, and I think because of that it was easier for us to come to terms with and move forward after that incident.
Foster has described several subsequents incidents at the South Sydney synagogue, including a petrol bombing in 1993, swastikas being painted and bricks being thrown through windows in 1995, and an arson attack in 2003. In 2025, after the synagogue was allegedly vandalised with swastikas, the synagogue erected a security fence, which was completed four days after the Bondi attack.
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Interfaith relations after Bondi attack have broken down, royal commission hears
The chief rabbi of Sydney’s Central Synagogue, Levi Wolff, has told the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion that interfaith relations renewed following the Bondi attack have broken down.
He said that previously good relations had “chilled” following October 2023. He said while Jewish community leaders had had a constructive meeting with leaders from the Islamic community following the December attack, relations had returned to their previous state following the visit by the president, Isaac Herzog, in February:
Relationships have broken down since. We’ve always tried to reengage that, and we hope that we can in the future.
The royal commissioner, Virginia Bell, has asked Wolff, who was born in the US but came to Sydney in 2001, if conversations with his family in New York show “that even if there’s been a spike in antisemitism there, there hasn’t been the same degree of distress for members of the community?”
Wolff said:
Yes, there seems to be something which stands out about what’s happening here almost more than anywhere else. It could also be to the fact that it is of such a shock. You know, Australia was just, it’s always looked at as this paradise so far away.
Wolff noted that Australia had become home to the highest number per capita of Holocaust survivors outside Israel.
He ended his submission by calling for “three pillars” to respond to antisemitism: “security, legislation and education”. He said education about antisemitism should go beyond the Holocaust, saying it “should encompass how Jews live, not only how Jews died”.
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Queensland government to spend similar on CFMEU inquiry as CCC
The Queensland government will spend more on the investigation of a single union as the annual budget for the state’s Crime and Corruption Commission.
The attorney general, Deb Frecklington, and the treasurer, David Janetzki, announced that the state would budget $95m for the state’s CFMEU inquiry, an additional $75m than first budgeted.
The Crime and Corruption Commission is responsible for investigating complaints against all state government bodies including the police; administers the state’s witness protection program; recovers the proceeds of crime; and combats major crime. It has an $82.1m budget this year.
The commission investigates fewer than 1% of complaints referred to it, according to its reporting to parliament. It charged a single person with a corruption offence last year.
Asked whether the lack of investigation was related to budgetary constraints, Frecklington said:
I don’t know whether that’s true. I think I’d like to see your evidence for that one.
Frecklington compared the CFMEU inquiry – Queensland’s version of a royal commission – to the Fitzgerald inquiry, which caused the early resignation and unsuccessful prosecution of the state’s longest-serving premier, four ministers and a police commissioner to be jailed for corruption, led to reforms to the state’s voting system, the creation of the an independent anti-corruption commission and is the subject of several books and films.
The inquiry was initially scheduled to run until October but was extended by another 18 months in May. It will now run about six months longer than Fitzgerald’s inquiry.
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Pauline Hanson says Trump had 'a great way' of dealing with migrants
Pauline Hanson says she thinks Donald Trump’s approach to migration was “a great way” of dealing with what she sees as people “using all these ploys to stay in the country”.
Hanson was speaking at a Perth event this morning. Over the course of an hour or so, she reiterated many of her claims about migration and other matters, such as her relationship with Gina Rinehart, which Guardian readers will be familiar with from our previous reporting.
On migration, Hanson said if she came to power she’d “work with the departments” who might be able to identify people overstaying their visas.
Then she said:
I tell you what I do like. Trump did this – Trump said OK, all those in the country illegally, I’ll actually give you a one-way ticket out of the country. And he said, then you can apply to come back in some time later. But if you don’t go, he said, and we find you, you’ll never get back into the country again … I think that’s a great way of doing it.
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KPMG appoints lifer as new Australia CEO amid leaks scandal
KPMG has made a lifelong staff member and top executive its new Australian chief executive, rejecting external candidates, as it grapples with its audit leaks scandal.
John Sams will take over after Andrew Yates resigned as CEO and took accountability for the firm’s failure to address staff breaches of client confidentiality.
Sams started his career as a graduate at KPMG UK in 2003, moving to Australia in 2006. He has been a partner at the firm for over a decade, was elevated to chief financial officer in October 2025 and replaced KPMG’s chief operating officer, Eileen Hoggett, after she resigned in June for her role in the leaks.
KPMG Australia said candidates from KPMG Australia, the firm’s international branches and outside the firm were considered for the position, announcing Sams’ appointment on Tuesday.
The firm earlier this month replaced its other headline resignation, its chair, with an internal candidate: independent director Michael Ebeid. Ebeid sat on the firm’s CEO selection panel and cheered Sams’ appointment on Tuesday. He said:
John has a clear mandate from the Board: to strengthen leadership and culture, improve confidence with our people, clients, regulators, government and the Parliament, and focus KPMG on the areas where it can make the greatest contribution.
Sams said he was ready to take “tough decisions” to put KPMG “on the right path”. He said:
The firm fell short of the standards rightly expected of us, and the accountability for these failures will continue to be implemented … Despite everything we have faced so far, I am optimistic about the future. Otherwise I would never have taken on this role. I will lead the changes that will make us better, whatever that takes.
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Rabbi tells royal commission of ‘almost daily’ threats and abuse after Bondi attack
The chief rabbi of the Central Synagogue in Sydney, Levi Wolff, has told the royal commission he receives “almost daily” threats and abuse after his public profile was raised after the Bondi terror attack.
Wolff, whose synagogue is about a kilometre from Bondi beach, has told the inquiry that Australian Jews “feel that they’re being asked to justify their place in a country to which they have contributed loyally and peacefully and constructively for generations.”
He has described an incident after an attack in which a member of the community had anonymously posted him a mezuzah, a box with a scroll with Hebrew verses, normally affixed to the entrance of Jewish homes, “with a note with it that said: ‘I am afraid to have this’”:
‘I’m afraid to have this on my door. Please pass it on to somebody who is brave enough and who needs it.’ That note has stayed with me … No one should have to have courage to simply place a symbol of their faith on the doorpost of their very own home.
Wolff said that after the Bondi attack, “my public profile has increased significantly and, with that, the hatred that has been directed towards me has also increased significantly”:
Almost daily, I receive messages of abuse and threats of violence, and initially those messages actually shocked me. But what shocks me now is something else. I have become accustomed to it. I have become accustomed to threats of violence. That should disturb every Australian.
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Nine newspapers to cut 30 roles in further redundancies
Staff numbers at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age will be cut by 30 in another round of redundancies announced by Nine’s publishing arm today.
The managing director of publishing, Tory Maguire, called staff to a town hall meeting at 10.30am on Tuesday to unveil what she said was structural change in a digital-first era.
Maguire said in an email seen by Guardian Australia:
The best way to protect our quality journalism is to ensure our organisation adapts to a changing media landscape, that we’re growing commercially and investing in new areas which connect with new audiences.
In particular we need to keep shifting towards the digital-first future.
Earlier this year Nine made a number of roles in its broadcasting division redundant. This new round of redundancies will not affect the Australian Financial Review.
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Marco Rubio expected to join Penny Wong at Asean conference
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was scheduled to land in Manila on Tuesday morning for the Asean conference, joining the Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, and their international counterparts, as the rekindled war with Iran is placing traditional American allies under economic strain.
To give some international context to the talks, the import-dependent Philippines declared a national energy emergency in March and has been forced to cast an ever-wider net for fuel, including purchases of oil from Russia, whose foreign affairs minister, Sergei Lavrov, will arrive on Tuesday as well.
Before departing from Washington on Monday, Rubio said he was open to the possibility of sideline meetings with both Lavrov and China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, who Beijing only officially confirmed would attend on Monday.
A meeting with Wang would come days after the US president, Donald Trump, accused Beijing of meddling in US elections.
The week is also expected to see renewed efforts towards regional energy security, including the ongoing push for ratification of the bloc’s Framework Agreement on Petroleum Security fuel-sharing scheme.
In May, members signed off on a push for an Asean power grid, aimed at connecting national electricity networks to enable cross-border power trading.
Rubio will meet the Philippines president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, as part of a strengthened US partnership with the Philippines, with the disputed South China Sea certain to be on the agenda. Chinese and Philippine ships regularly clash in the crucial waterway, which Beijing claims nearly in its entirety, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
The Philippines has previously said it hoped to conclude a code of conduct between Asean and China before ending its year as the bloc’s rotating chair but analysts have suggested any deal Beijing would be willing to sign would be toothless.
– With AFP
Updated
Synagogue unsuccessful in application for security grant prior to arson attack
A Melbourne synagogue was unsuccessful in applications for government grants for security before a December 2024 arson attack that has seen its doors closed ever since.
The royal commission’s fifth block of hearings, which are being held in Melbourne this week, is examining security arrangements for the Jewish community.
Yesterday, counsel assisting, Richard Lancaster SC, said evidence would show “a substantial and ongoing threat” to the security of the Jewish community, leading to a “shrinking of Jewish communal life”.
Today’s first witness is Benjamin Klein, a board member of the Adass Israel synagogue, the subject of an arson attack in December 2024. Asked about applications for grant funding for security in 2023 and 2024 before the attack, he said:
There were letters sent out to both government, local members, to different parts of the Jewish of the community seeking grants. It was local council, there was state government, there were federal grants, which we saw were available.
We’d sent out letters and were unsuccessful. We also sent out a letter to Mark Dreyfus at the time, who was the attorney general, and we weren’t successful. There were technicalities in terms of incorporated entities, unincorporated entities. There was a lot of red tape to sort of get through and we weren’t successful.
The commission has heard that the synagogue’s board has since had to employ someone to oversee funding applications for security grants. After the attack, the federal government has pledged up to $30m to rebuild the synagogue.
Updated
Asean foreign ministers to meet in Philippines
As we mentioned earlier, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, is in the Philippines today for the Asean foreign affairs ministers’ meeting, the East Asia summit foreign ministers’ meeting and the Asean regional forum.
The 11 Asean nations include Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Timor-Leste.
Crucially, it means Wong could have an opportunity to put pressure on Lao officials after they said they do not have enough evidence to lay charges over the methanol poisoning deaths of Australian citizens Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones – because autopsies were not carried out.
In a statement on Friday, Wong said the government was “deeply frustrated and bitterly disappointed that authorities in Laos are not pursuing the most serious charges” in relation to the deaths.
Updated
Labor announces $25m in support for Gaza
The federal government has announced a $25m package of support for aid in Gaza and “reforms for governance” in Palestine, “to strengthen the institutional foundations of the State of Palestine”.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, and the minister for international development, Anne Aly, announced the funding this morning, saying it forms part of “coordinated international efforts to advance a two-state solution.”
The funding includes $15m to the UN Horizon Fund, whose strategic goal is to “contribute to inclusive early recovery and reconstruction for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” after the 10 October ceasefire last year.
More than $80m has been pledged to the Horizon Fund internationally, with contributions from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, the government’s media release notes.
Australia has also pledged $10m to the World Bank’s Palestinian Fund for Reconstruction and Development (PFRD) “to strengthen the Palestinian Authority’s public financial management”. Japan, the UK, Canada, France, Sweden, Switzerland, and Iceland have also contributed to the PFRD.
Wong said this morning:
This package demonstrates Australia’s practical commitment to Palestinian recovery, reform and institution-building. Hamas can play no role in the State of Palestine.
A lasting peace requires legitimate governance, economic opportunity and security for both Palestinians and Israelis.
Australia will continue to work closely with international partners to help create those conditions.
Aly said:
The humanitarian needs of Palestinians remain immense, and communities will require sustained support to recover and rebuild. This funding package will complement our existing humanitarian assistance.
This investment will help strengthen institutions, advance reform efforts and support communities as they work towards recovery and resilience.
Australia’s development assistance delivers practical outcomes for vulnerable people while supporting the governance and institutional reforms needed for long-term stability and prosperity.
Updated
Qantas apologises to passengers stuck on tarmac for more than four hours
Qantas has apologised to about 250 passengers who were stuck on the tarmac in Sydney for four-and-a-half hours on Monday afternoon while the airline dealt with multiple separate aircraft issues.
Flight QF43 to Denpasar had been scheduled to leave at 4.20pm yesterday.
A passenger on the flight called ABC Radio Sydney last night, after four hours of waiting on the tarmac, saying:
They’ve come back with multiple messages and they’ve constantly been changing throughout, the time frame, to the point where a lot of people are not really sure now what’s going on and what is the truth and are we actually going to get off the ground? But there’s been some engineers in and out for hours trying to work out what’s going on with the plane, and now we’re just being told they’re about to shut the computers down and reboot them.
A Qantas spokesperson told Guardian Australia that the flight was delayed initially due to a refuelling issue but then engineers identified a separate issue that required assessment and resulted in further delays.
The spokesperson said:
We understand this was a frustrating experience for our customers and sincerely apologise for this inconvenience. We’re reviewing this incident and acknowledge that our communication could have been better in this instance.
The flight departed for Denpasar at 8.50pm.
Updated
Penny Wong congratulates Ed Miliband on appointment as UK foreign secretary
As the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, announces his new cabinet, the congratulations from Australian ministers have been rolling through.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, congratulated Ed Miliband on his appointment as UK foreign secretary, saying on X:
Australia and the UK have an enduring partnership, underpinned by shared history, values and interests. I look forward to working with you again to further strengthen and modernise our relationship.
She also congratulated the outgoing UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, on her new appointment as secretary of state for health and social care, saying on X:
Thank you to @YvetteCooperMP for your friendship and for your contribution to our close partnership.
Your leadership and determined diplomacy have helped deepen cooperation between Australia and the UK, and I wish you every success as Health Secretary.
Wong is currently in the Philippines to attend the Asean-Australia foreign ministers’ meeting, the East Asia summit foreign ministers’ meeting and the Asean regional forum.
She described the meetings as an opportunity “to advance Australia’s interests and continue work on shared challenges, including energy security, supply chain resilience and long-term economic prosperity.”
The meetings will also mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, and 80 years of diplomatic ties between Australia and the Philippines.
Updated
Alpine ski resorts in New South Wales and Victoria saw climate records shattered at the weekend with maximum temperatures up to 12C above average.
Ski areas of Mount Hotham and Falls Creek set July records for their hottest daytime and night-time temperatures and Thredbo also set a new hottest July day, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The records come after a challenging start for Australia’s ski season with dry and warm temperatures seeing only sporadic falls of natural snow in many alpine areas, leaving resorts to rely mostly on snow-making technology.
Read the full story here:
Labor to release new statement on space
A new “statement on space” will focus on Australia’s areas of strength, the federal government says.
Ecosystems in spacecraft and microgravity environments, and exploration technologies, will be among the priorities and the government will emphasise its expectation that the Australian Space Agency should focus on monitoring the more than 30,000 human-made space objects. Space junk has been known to fall to Earth.
The science, innovation and industry minister, Tim Ayres, will release the statement at a space forum in Adelaide this afternoon. He said it would “provide direction and focus so that we can further grow Australia’s space capability, support national priorities and connect to global opportunity”:
We want to see more Australian ideas commercialised, more Australian technology deployed globally, and more of the economic value harnessed here at home.
Updated
Voting to close on Victoria’s teacher strike
A Victoria-wide teacher strike hangs in the balance as voting closes today on a revised pay offer, after months of industrial action.
Victorian members of the Australian Education Union had agreed to take further industrial action on Thursday, citing excessive workloads and uncompetitive pay, AAP reports.
The state government has provided an updated pay offer of 28.3% over the next four years, which has gone to a union member ballot. Voting on the proposal opened on Friday and will close on Tuesday afternoon.
A union spokesperson told AAP the planned action hinged on the outcome of the vote:
If members vote to reject the offer, the action will proceed as planned.
More than 35,000 Victorian teachers, principals and education support workers walked off the job in March, the first strike of its kind in 13 years.
Union educators have been locked in a pay dispute with the government for months, with graduate teachers – the worst paid in the country – earning $13,000 less than those in the Northern Territory, who are the best paid.
The union’s state branch represents more than 60,000 public school staff.
Members have been pushing for a 35% pay rise over four years, after rejecting an initial offer of an 18.5% increase over three years.
Updated
Life-saving drugs used to treat common childhood infections are increasingly failing and the resistance of bacteria to these medicines will only worsen over the next decade, a global analysis has found.
Led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in collaboration with the University of Sydney in Australia, researchers analysed 106,581 infection samples from children aged up to 18 years old across 82 countries.
They found antibiotic resistance – when bacteria are no longer killed by antimicrobial medicines – increased in every region between 2004 and 2022.
Babies and children in intensive care, and countries with fewer healthcare resources, are most affected, according to the findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday.
Read the full exclusive story here:
Albanese congratulates new British PM
Anthony Albanese has congratulated the new UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, after the latter took over the job yesterday. The Australian PM posted a note to X, emphasising the strategic allyship:
Congratulations Prime Minister Burnham on your appointment as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Australia and the United Kingdom are longstanding friends, allies and partners, united by shared values and deep ties between our peoples.
I look forward to working with you to strengthen our partnership and promote security, resilience and prosperity in the years ahead.
Updated
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network criticises Labor’s draft policy platform
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network has criticised Labor’s draft policy platform on Palestine, saying it is “currently falling far short and does not acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”.
We reported this morning that Israel had made an intervention into the Labor party’s internal processes, publicly criticising the draft that it claims risks blaming Israel for the Gaza conflict while giving “insufficient attention” to the role of Hamas.
The Israeli embassy in Canberra issued a four-page statement on Monday challenging the proposed positions on Palestine, Hamas and settler violence in the West Bank, due to be debated at this week’s Labor national conference.
The language in the 2026 draft platform relating to Israel and Palestine is substantially different to the 2023 iteration, reflecting shifts in government policy following Hamas’ 7 October attack and Israel’s war in Gaza.
Nasser Mashni, the APAN president, said this morning:
Despite what the Israeli Embassy might say, Labor is currently falling far short and does not acknowledge the Palestinian genocide and must take real, urgent action at this conference. Their platform position is totally insufficient.
Australia must reckon with the obligations that flow from its recognition of Palestine, and the Conference must draw a red line on genocide and Australian complicity in it.
The International Court of Justice ruled in its July 2024 Advisory Opinion that Israel’s presence in Palestine is unlawful and that all Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The Court further found that states are obligated not to recognise or assist the illegal occupation. Australia is bound by these findings.
Recognition of Palestine cannot remain symbolic. Australia must impose wide ranging and wholesale sanctions on the Israeli regime and anyone or any entity associated with the settlement enterprise.
Updated
Thanks so much Martin Farrer for kicking us off this morning. I’m Stephanie Convery and I’ll be with you until mid-afternoon today.
Joyce dogged by interruptions in 7.30 interview
The Joyce interview was spiky from the start, as he responded to Ferguson’s welcome saying:
I don’t know whether you do welcome me, but let’s have a go.
It was also made more awkward by several interruptions by a dog.
The first time, as Joyce was asked if he was “comfortable with where [Hanson] is taking you”, he turned and loudly yelled “sit down!” off camera, then explained “Sorry, it’s a dog”. He then explained that he believed One Nation’s views mirrored a large proportion of Australia.
The second time, he was asked about suggestions One Nation would implement mass deportations by intercepting visa overstayers during medical visits.
A glum Joyce replied:
I have to apologise for this dog, which has decided to bail up my …
Ferguson said:
Don’t worry about the dog. Just answer the question.
Joyce responded:
Don’t be rude. Don’t be rude. Otherwise, this interview will come to a grinding halt, Sarah. So what was the question actually?
The subject of the dog was returned to at the interview’s conclusion, with Ferguson saying:
Thank you very much indeed for joining us Barnaby Joyce. The dog was no problem. Thank you.
Joyce:
It was to me.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce defends Pauline Hanson’s podcast interview with far-right criminal Tommy Robinson
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has tried to defend party leader Pauline Hanson’s decision to meet far-right convicted criminal Tommy Robinson during a recent visit to the UK.
Hanson and her colleagues have spent recent days clarifying, explaining or walking back headline-grabbing parts of the One Nation leader’s trip to Europe, including a podcast interview with Robinson.
On ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Joyce first acknowledged Robinson had done “some things” that were “basically against the law” but went on to blame a “form of Balkanisation, where there’s not an assimilation” for “massive problems, and we saw that in Bondi”.
The host, Sarah Ferguson, put to Joyce that Hanson was effectively endorsing a man with an extensive criminal record, who had been condemned by UK authorities for encouraging race riots and retribution against minorities.
My question to you, Barnaby Joyce, is: is that not a red line?
Joyce responded:
I believe that there is not a condoning of every action of Tommy Robinson.
I don’t think that was ever said.
During the interview, Joyce also said that he did not know who had bankrolled Hanson’s trip.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Steph Convery with the main action.
We start with Barnaby Joyce’s rather unusual interview with the ABC’s 7.30 last night, in which he attempted to defend some of the more controversial aspects of his leader’s trip to Europe, in particular Pauline Hanson’s podcast with Tommy Robinson, while simultaneously trying to fend off an apparently misbehaving dog.
