What we learned, Monday 23 February
That is where we’ll close the blog for the day but first a recap of the day’s big stories:
Victoria warns residents to be on alert for measles.
The Coalition detailed a plan to criminalise assisting people with links to Islamic State, which charity Save the Children criticised.
A major rail corridor connecting WA to South Australia and eastern states will be closed for at least a week.
ABC veteran Michael Rowland announced he will leave the broadcaster.
Sussan Ley was ‘undermined’ by colleagues, Anthony Albanese said.
The government defended its policies on families linked to Islamic State fighters.
Australians are leaning into credit card and mortgage debt, data showed.
The Australian government issued a warning to travellers amid violence in Mexico after cartel boss killed.
A union great said the tax system is hurting young people and driving them to extreme views.
Russia has already started world war three, Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia suggested.
Trump Tower on Gold Coast will be ‘Australia’s tallest building’, its developer said.
The blog will be back bright and early tomorrow.
Updated
Unstaffed petrol stations fuelling higher earnings
Self-serve fuel-only stations are proving a success, the country’s biggest petrol station owner says, in a sign Australians could be seeing more of them, AAP reports.
Ampol converted 27 of its Australian petrol stations to its unmanned U-Go sites in 2025, taking its portfolio to 46, and they have boosted fuel volumes while reducing costs.
U-Go sites operating for at least 12 months were showing a 50% uplift in fuel volumes and an average of $350,000 earnings improvement, the Ampol chief executive, Matt Halliday, told analysts on Monday. He said:
We’re really pleased with it. We are seeing that it’s taking about six months for the local market to settle on that operating model, but we’re really pleased with the success we’re seeing once it takes hold.
Updated
Lesbian group argues tribunal erred in denying them exemption to exclude transgender women
A lesbian group is appealing against a court decision that found it was not able to exclude transgender women from its public events.
The Lesbian Action Group, which numbered seven members as of September 2024, had unsuccessfully sought an exemption under the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) that would allow it to hold events only for cisgender women.
The group is appealing a Victorian administrative review tribunal decision that determined the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) was correct when it found the LAG could not hold the events, despite their claim they would provide a forum for political expression and celebrating culture.
In the federal court today, the group argued that the tribunal erred on four grounds and that the SDA should give priority to women as defined in the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The SDA was amended in 2013 to make it unlawful to discriminate against a person on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status.
In court documents, the AHRC submitted that the appeal should be dismissed with costs and said the tribunal’s decision was not irrational nor unreasonable, and that the SDA does not allow discrimination against a vulnerable class of people.
The hearing continues tomorrow.
Updated
Proposed Gold Coast Trump tower would go through same approvals process as ‘if you’re building a bungalow’, Leigh says
As we mentioned earlier, the Trump Organization has now announced it will build a tower on the Gold Coast beachfront at Surfers Paradise. What does Leigh think?
Donald Trump came to Australia in the late 1980s to investigate real estate opportunities in Sydney and the Gold Coast, so this is a long-term interest of his.
The Gold Coast currently has the tallest building in Australia, the Q1 building, and so it would be unsurprising if it was to continue to have to tallest building.
Of course any of those proposals will have to go through the usual state and local planning approvals. You do it for the tallest tower in Australia just as you do if you’re building a bungalow.
Updated
Australia will ‘continue to advocate for zero tariffs’ on exports to US, Leigh says
Asked about US tariffs which have now increased from 10% to 15%, Andrew Leigh says “we’ll continue to advocate for zero tariffs on our exports to the US just as we have zero tariffs on US exports to Australia.”
Responding to a question of whether he was worried about the impact the new tariffs would have on our economy, Leigh says:
Australia’s a free trading nation and as an economist I’m a passionate believer in free trade. Free trade is simply an expression of the fact that countries can do better when specialise in their comparative advantage and trade with other nations.
Free trade doesn’t just boost incomes, it boosts the interconnectedness and makes the world a safer place which is why Australia successively has reduced our tariffs and why we haven’t responded with retaliatory tariffs when countries like China and the United States have put bans on our products. And we’ll continue to advocate for zero tariffs on our exports to the US just as we have zero tariffs on US exports to Australia.
Updated
Australian law would not permit separating children of IS-linked women from their parents, Leigh says
Patricia Karvelas asks Leigh about Save the Children CEO, Mat Tinkler’s argument that the nation has an obligation to the children of the Australian women in Syria, and that it would make Australia safer to have them repatriated here.
Leigh:
I have all the respect in the world for Mat. He’s somebody who’s devoted his life towards assisting children.
But one important principle for people to bear in mind is Australian immigration law typically does not separate parents from their children. Children have their parents’ immigration status.
I don’t think there’s a world in which we would be envisaging bringing children back without their parents, and that brings you to the issue of culpability that I spoke about before. The decision to go over and fight alongside one of the most brutal terrorist regimes that we have known in our lifetimes.
Updated
Labor has ‘concerns about constitutionality’ of Coalition plan to criminalise assisting IS-linked Australians
What does Andrew Leigh, the assistant minister for productivity, competition and charities, think of the Coalition’s plan to make it a criminal offence to help Australians with links to the Islamic State to return home?
As we mentioned earlier in the blog, Save The Children are very concerned about the proposal, but the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, has not closed the door. Appearing on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Leigh is asked if he thinks it’s a bad idea. He responds:
We certainly have concerns about its constitutionality, but I would say that in the case of this cohort, they made an appalling mistake in choosing travel to Syria. To support [Islamic State] was to support one of the most appallingly barbaric groups in human history, which left behind a litter of enslaved women, murdered children and mass graves. So, the government doesn’t want these people back in Australia. But the law requires that if you’re an Australian citizen you can be granted a passport.
Updated
Regional Qantas base closures a ‘significant issue’, former executive says
A former Qantas executive has expressed disappointment at the airline’s decision to close several bases, saying local staff are crucial for tourism and flight reliability, AAP reports.
QantasLink, the airline’s regional arm, has announced its bases in Canberra, Hobart and Mildura will shut from April, with 71 flight and cabin crew affected.
The company said the closures would improve reliability by making more staff available at major airports to respond to flight disruptions.
But unions, councils and some regional transport groups have raised concerns about the potential flow-on effects, while a Senate inquiry continues to examine the viability of aviation in regional Australia.
Tourism Tasmania’s Steve Farquer, who established the Hobart base when he was a general manager at Qantas, said the airline was entitled to make business decisions but the closure would have ramifications. Farquer told the inquiry sitting in Wynyard, in the state’s north-west:
The impact for a number of Tasmanians who have chosen to live in Hobart, who have brought their families to Hobart and established a life in Hobart – schools, education, health – it’s a significant issue for them.
The Senate committee released an interim report into the QantasLink closures on Wednesday afternoon, finding the move was poorly managed and had devastated both staff and regional communities.
In response, Qantas said all staff at the bases had been offered roles in other locations, “which most have taken up”.
Updated
Man dead, another under guard at Geelong mental health facility
A psychiatric patient is dead and another is under police guard after an incident at a mental health facility, AAP reports.
Homicide detectives are investigating the alleged altercation at Barwon Health’s Swanston Centre, on the corner of Myers and Swanston streets in Geelong, about 2am on Monday.
Police discovered the body of a man, who is yet to be formally identified, inside a room at the facility.
Another man, who was known to the victim and also a patient at the hospital, is under police guard.
Barwon Health’s chief medical officer, Prof Ajai Verma, confirmed the incident on Monday. She said in a statement:
There was an unexpected death of an inpatient in the acute mental health ward (Swanston Centre) overnight. We extend our condolences to the family of the deceased patient. Support has been extended to staff.
The Victorian health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, said the incident was “very distressing”.
Well, obviously what happened is very distressing, but it is an active police investigation and I’m not going to cut across that. A crime scene has been established and it’s important that police are able to get on and do their job.
Updated
Trump Tower on Gold Coast will be 'Australia's tallest building', developer says
The Trump Organization has announced Australia’s first Trump-branded hotel will be coming to the Gold Coast, with a 91-storey tower in Surfers Paradise.
The organisation run by the family of US president Donald Trump, says Trump International Hotel & Tower, Gold Coast is “set to become Australia’s tallest tower”.
The hotel will be built alongside “272 exclusive residences, a private Beach Club, and premier retail and dining,” the announcement said.
In its own announcement, Queensland developer Altus Property Group said it had signed the final agreement with the Trump Organization at Mar-a-Lago on Valentine’s Day (Florida time).
The Altus CEO, David Young, said:
The Trump International Hotel & Tower Gold Coast development I’ve been pursuing for almost 20 years is going to be Australia’s tallest building before the end of the decade. At 340 metres in height, and 91 [storeys], it will out-stretch the ‘Australia 108’ building in Melbourne by 15 metres and leave every other Australian resort property in its wake when it comes to luxury.
… We are now deeply into a process of design, engineering, construction and fit-out that will cost a shade under AUD1.5 billion and bring the world’s preeminent hotel-resort brand to our shores.
Updated
That’s all from me. Natasha May will take things from here. Enjoy the afternoon!
Updated
Who was El Mencho, the former police officer who co-founded an ultraviolent cartel in Mexico?
Following on from our earlier post about the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warning Australian travellers considering a trip to Mexico …
Who was El Mencho?
The drug lord, who was killed on Sunday by Mexican special forces, was the co-founder and leader of a gang that in recent years had become the country’s most powerful criminal organisation: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
While less internationally famous than the Sinaloa cartel of the now imprisoned Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the CJNG is a household name in Mexico, where it is known for its displays of ultraviolence and its big, military-style arsenal.
The cartel, based in the state of Jalisco, has been one of the most aggressive in its attacks on the military – including on helicopters – and is a pioneer in launching explosives from drones and installing mines. An effort to capture El Mencho, real name Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, a 59-year-old former police officer, ended badly in 2015, with cartel gang members shooting down an army helicopter with a rocket launcher.
Dfat recommends Australians in Mexico stay alert, follow the advice of the local authorities and subscribe to Smartraveller for the latest updates.
Australians in need of emergency consular assistance in Mexico should contact Dfat’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre.
Read more here:
Updated
Miska, snow leopard at Melbourne zoo, gives birth to four cubs
A snow leopard named Miska has given birth to four cubs at Melbourne zoo in a moment celebrated as a huge milestone for the vulnerable species.
Laura Weiner, the life sciences manager for carnivores and ungulates, said the zoo was thrilled with the news after Miska delivered the four cubs in January. The zoo said news of the births had been a hard secret to keep.
It’s really exciting.
Miska is doing great and she’s doing all the perfect maternal behaviours that we would expect. She’s being really protective … she’s cleaning them, she’s just checking on them, she’s allowing them to nurse.
It’s just really nice watching her be kind of the perfect mum at this point.
The cubs all have different markings, which helps identify them.
The zoo added in a statement:
We can already see that all four cubs have slightly different personalities. The other day Miska was trying to clean one of them and they were swatting her away like, ‘stop, Mum’!
As they get older, they’ll get even cheekier.
Updated
Russia has already started world war three, Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia suggests
Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia has echoed comments from the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, suggesting that Russia had already started world war three.
Ahead of Tuesday’s fourth anniversary of the war sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy told the BBC overnight that intense military and economic pressure was needed to stop the conflict growing into a truly global fight.
But he said he believed a third world war was being fought already.
Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko said in Canberra that the conflict in Ukraine had already gone on longer than fighting on the eastern front in the second world war, between the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, in which millions died.
He said Russia was receiving support from around the world.
North Korean troops on the ground, North Korean troops in Ukraine, can you imagine that?
How far away is North Korea from [Australia]? It is pretty close … which brings it home.
North Koreans are gaining the best technology, which is currently available in modern warfare. It’s uncrewed systems, maritime, aerial robotic systems. They’re getting trained in how to do this modern combat warfare.
Myroshnychenko has called on Australia to provide regular financial assistance to Ukraine’s fight.
Updated
NRL trumpets itself as ‘Australia’s No 1 sport’ after record year
Peter V’landys has declared the NRL is in its best ever financial position, with head office announcing a record surplus out of the 2025 season, AAP reports.
The ARL Commission trumpeted a surplus of $64.8m at Monday morning’s AGM, taking the sport’s balance sheet to $387.2m.
It came as the league also claimed record-breaking attendances of 4.98 million for last season, and the declaration it remained the No 1-watched sport in the country. V’landys said:
The season delivered extraordinary performance outcomes for rugby league, cementing our now established position as Australia’s – and the Pacific’s – number one sport. …
Financially, the game has never been stronger.
And the future is even brighter, with the Perth Bears to join the NRL Premiership in 2027 and the Papua New Guinea Chiefs to enter from 2028.
Updated
ASX has oscillated amid sharp moves on Wall Street
The ASX has recently been pulled around by sharp moves on Wall Street which has been hit by bouts of risk aversion and periods of exuberance.
Investors initially viewed the US supreme court decision as a positive development, given it signalled an easing in trade pressures, before news of the 15% policy broke.
The modest pullback could be an example of investors believing Trump will ultimately back down on the new tariff plan.
That strategy has been popularised by the word “Taco”, referring to the idea that “Trump always chickens out” when facing a tariff-induced backlash.
Updated
ASX weighs up US ‘policy whiplash’
Australian shares have had a muted response to Donald Trump’s decision to slap a temporary 15% tariff on US imports from all countries after the US supreme court ruled against his original policy.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was down less than half a percentage point in lunchtime trading, hovering at the 9,040 point mark on Monday.
The modest drawdown contrasts with the huge drops sparked by Trump’s original 10% tariff plan, unveiled in April last year, that sparked fears of a full-blown global trade war.
Greg Boland, market strategy consultant at trading platform Moomoo, says the market is balancing a mix of “optimism with renewed uncertainty”.
“The policy whiplash comes as geopolitical tensions with Iran continue to escalate, keeping investors cautious despite last week’s rally and creating a more fragile backdrop for equities heading into the new trading week,” Boland says.
Sydney Water ordered to clean Malabar treatment plant where fatberg is birthing poo balls
The New South Wales environment watchdog has ordered Sydney Water to remove fats from its Malabar wastewater treatment plant, a month after Guardian Australia revealed a huge fatberg was responsible for the poo balls that closed beaches last summer.
Sydney Water isn’t sure exactly how big the fatberg is because it can’t easily access where it has accumulated. It could be the size of four Sydney buses.
Fixing the problem would require shutting down the ocean outfall – which reaches 2.3km offshore – for maintenance and diverting sewage to “cliff face discharge”, which would close Sydney’s beaches “for months”, a secret report obtained by Guardian Australia using freedom of information laws states.
This has “never been done” and is “no longer considered an acceptable approach”, the Sydney Water report from August 2025 acknowledges.
Read more here:
Updated
Major childcare provider reveals turnover rate of 30%
A major for-profit childcare provider has revealed it has a staff turnover rate of 30%, after facing questions at a Senate inquiry on quality and child safety.
The inquiry was triggered by a series of allegations of child sexual abuse and exploitation at multiple childcare centres across the country.
Affinity, which runs 250 centres around Australia, told the inquiry that since January it has seen a staff turnover rate of 30%, while it has also issued staffing waivers to 17% of its centres - which allows services to employ under-qualified or fewer qualified educators than normally required.
The waiver rate is three times the national average of 5.8%.
Greens senator Steph Hodgins-May said the turnover rate was “alarming”.
Families deserve stability. Dropping your child off each morning to a revolving door of educators is not safe.
Almost a fifth of Affinity’s centres are operating with staffing waivers …That means these centres are relying on lower qualifications or reduced staffing standards whilst still charging parents out-of-pocket for care.
NSW man allegedly clocks 218km/h driving on Hume Highway without licence
A New South Wales man has been picked up by police for allegedly driving at 218km/h north of Yass.
Police officers allegedly detected a driver travelling at the high speed in a 100km/hr zone on the Hume Highway and officers pulled the vehicle over.
Police allege the 47-year-old male driver had not held a valid driver’s licence since 2009.
The man also allegedly recorded a positive roadside alcohol and drug test, police said.
The man was taken to Yass police station, and has been charged with drive recklessly/furiously or speed/manner dangerous, never licensed person drive vehicle on road and drive with mid-range PCA and illicit drug.
He has been granted conditional bail and will appear in court on Thursday.
Updated
Union great says tax system is hurting young people and driving them to extreme views
Parliament has to reform the tax system to reduce the growing burden on young people or risk pushing them into the arms of extremist movements, according to Bill Kelty, a union luminary and a key player in the economic reforms of the 1980s and 90s.
Kelty told a parliamentary committee that he backed scaling back the capital gains tax discount for investors, but said it had to be part of a broader reform effort that addressed the intergenerational unfairness in the tax system.
“Ad hoc changes that end up nowhere are not meaningful,” he said.
During an impassioned demand that parliaments show “unequivocally that they’re on the side of young people”, he said a younger worker on a reasonably good wage of $80,000 was left with just $16,000 a year to live on after paying taxes, insurance, Hecs repayments, high rents and basic cost of living.
He said simply scaling back tax breaks for investors to pay for some extra spending was not good enough. He backed reforms like indexing marginal tax rates and cutting the top marginal tax rate, which he said had created an “industry of [tax] avoidance”.
I need the parliament of this country unequivocally to stand up and say they are on the side of young people … because young people do not believe that you’re on their side.
And where do they go? They go to extremity, they go to parties of hate, they go to the parties of division. And it’s not just a bad thing for the Liberal party … it’s a very bad thing for this country.
Updated
CCTV footage shows ute ramming into Brisbane synagogue’s gates – video
A man has been charged with serious vilification or hate crime and other offences after a car was allegedly used to ram the gates of a synagogue in Brisbane. Officers allege the man was driving a Toyota Hilux utility when he knocked down the gates of the property in Margaret Street in Brisbane’s CBD shortly after 7pm on Friday.
The driver allegedly fled the scene before being taken into custody a short time later.
Police searching bushland in NSW for kidnapped 85-year-old
The New South Wales police detective acting superintendent Andrew Marks is holding a press conference into the kidnapping of 85-year-old Chris Baghsarian.
Marks said there is a search under way in Glenorie in the northern fringes of Sydney. He has asked for the public to come forward with any information about a grey Toyota Corolla seen in the area.
When asked about Baghsarian’s health and if police believe he is still alive, Marks said officials had grave concerns for the man:
At this stage he’s been taken over 10 days ago, and every day … the concerns grow. Every day it’s not a great feeling that we have in relation to his health and his survival.
Updated
Australian government issues warning to travellers amid violence in Mexico after cartel boss killed
The Australian government updated its Smarttraveller page for visits to Mexico today where violence has erupted after Mexican forces killed a drug cartel boss known as “El Mencho”.
The man was one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers. The operation that resulted in his death set off a wave of violence across several Mexican states.
The Smarttraveller website warns:
Serious security incidents have been reported across the state of Jalisco, including in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, following a federal law-enforcement operation against organised crime. Authorities in Puerto Vallarta have issued a public advisory to shelter in place. There may be transport disruptions, including by air. Stay alert and follow the advice of the local authorities.
The government continues to warn travelers to exercise a “high degree of caution” overall and in large parts of Mexico, including in and around Mexico City. Other regions of the country are currently at level 3: Reconsider your need to travel.
Serious security incidents have been reported in #Mexico across the state of Jalisco, including in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta. Authorities in Puerto Vallarta have issued a public advisory to shelter in place. (1/2)
— Smartraveller (@Smartraveller) February 23, 2026
Updated
Australia’s athletes on the snow, ice and in the air at the 2026 Winter Olympics – in pictures
Team Australia’s Winter Olympians mixed it with the world’s best athletes across a wide range of events at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games.
See more here:
Updated
Duniam says ‘constitutional risk’ of proposal isn’t enough to stop Coalition from pushing it
Duniam said the risk a policy would result in a high court defeat isn’t enough to keep the Coalition from pushing it forward.
He said:
The constitutional risk or legal risk is not a reason to do nothing.
If that’s the approach the Albanese government want to take when it comes to national security, then they can explain why they choose to do nothing to strength strengthen laws to protect our border
Our view is sitting by and doing nothing while someone is over in the Middle East trying to bring back terrorist sympathisers to our country, you have to act.
Updated
Save the Children says effort to ‘criminalise advocacy for Australian children’ would be extraordinary
Save the Children says the Coalition’s proposal to criminalise any assistance would be “extraordinary”, saying politicians should be focused on trying to find ways to protect kids, not stop help from reaching them.
The group’s CEO, Mat Tinkler, said in a statement:
Save the Children has already made it clear that we are not facilitating the re-entry of Australian citizens from northeastern Syria. We have not, and will not, conduct extraction or repatriation operations.
As a humanitarian organisation we abide by principles of neutrality, impartiality, independence and humanity and operate in compliance with Australian and international law. In the case of innocent children stranded in camps in northeastern Syria our role has been twofold: providing them with lifesaving humanitarian relief and advocating for national governments to repatriate their citizens.
Tinkler went on to say no child should be left “stranded”, saying “both sides of government have previously recognised this by repatriating groups of Australian children and women in the past”.
We call on political parties to dial down the political rhetoric. It is time to show leadership and compassion for Australian children. The race to the bottom at the expense of vulnerable children’s lives must end.
Updated
Jonno Duniam, the shadow minister for home affairs, said the proposal isn’t about targeting an individual group, like Save the Children. It’s about targeting “anyone who breaks the law”.
“This is targeting terrorist sympathisers, that’s who this is targeting,” Angus Taylor adds.
I think it is reasonable to ask the government to be part of a solution here.
Updated
Angus Taylor sys Labor is ‘failing to prevent the return of terrorist sympathisers’
Opposition leader Angus Taylor is speaking in Brisbane about the Coalition’s proposal to criminalise any assistance given to Australians linked to Islamic State fighters stranded in Syria.
He claimed the Albanese government is “is failing to prevent the return of terrorist sympathisers to Australia”, adding:
Labor needs to be upfront with the Australian people about what’s going on here. But most of all, Labor needs to support this legislation.
Taylor said the Liberal party will stand ready to “strengthen our laws to protect our way of life”.
Updated
Australians leaning into credit card and mortgage debt
Australians have leaned into debt ahead of the central bank’s pivot to hike interest rates, with applications for mortgages and credit cards doubling in the recent quarter, AAP reports.
Mortgage credit demand grew 12.3%, while credit card applications jumped more than 15% in the three months to December compared with the equivalent 2024 quarter, according to Equifax’s Market Pulse report.
The significant increase in mortgage applications was at a level not seen in five years. Kevin James, the chief solution officer at Equifax, said:
It’s likely to have been supercharged by the government’s expanded 5% first home buyer deposit scheme that became available in October 2025, and buyers acting on the impression that rates had peaked in late 2025, and therefore rushed to lock in deals before the year’s end.
Lenders appeared to be tightening their belt, however, dropping limits for new credit cards by an average 8.3% year-on-year and cutting personal loan limits by 3.9%.
Updated
Australia will ‘examine all options’ to avoid new 15% tariffs announced by Donald Trump
Australia will “examine all options” after the US president, Donald Trump, announced a temporary 15% tariff would apply to US imports from all countries this weekend.
The US president’s move came less than 24 hours after the US supreme court overturned his original 10% import tariff. Shortly after the ruling, Trump announced he was reinstating the 10% duties using a different law before raising it again to 15%.
In a brief statement on Sunday morning, the trade minister, Don Farrell, said he was working closely with Australia’s embassy in Washington to “assess the implications and examine all options”.
“Australia believes in free and fair trade,” he said.
We have consistently advocated against these unjustified tariffs.
Read more here:
Government defends policies on families linked to Islamic State fighters
Matt Thistlethwaite, the assistant minister for foreign affairs, said claims by the opposition that Labor had failed to protect Australians’ safety were a “stunt” on Sky News this morning.
Thistlethwaite said Kovacic’s comments, as reported earlier in the blog, were incorrect, saying the Albanese government had “toughened up” border security through its refusal to provide any assistance or repatriation support.
He said:
If anyone is advised by the security and intelligence agencies to have been involved in potential terrorist activities, they’ll be excluded. And we’re going to exclude someone.
So, we’re actually taking a tougher stand than the Coalition took.
Read more about a temporary exclusion order issued to one woman last week here:
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Butler criticises Coalition push to criminalise assistance for families linked to Islamic State
Health minister Mark Butler said the opposition’s policy to criminalise any assistance granted to the women and children of Islamic State fighters in Syria wasn’t serious, labelling it a “grab for a headline” that could potentially punish aid workers, AAP reports.
Butler told ABC TV this morning “all we’ve seen is newspaper articles about (the policy)”, adding:
No serious content about what appears to be some plans to try and criminalise the work of aid organisations like Save the Children.
We’re focused instead on applying the strict letter of the law.
The opposition’s proposal would apply in circumstances where the government has given “express permission” for repatriation to occur.
The federal government has ruled out any efforts to repatriate the group.
Sussan Ley ‘undermined’ by colleagues, Albanese says
Anthony Albanese says former opposition leader, Sussan Ley was “undermined” by conservative colleagues, Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie, during her 276-day tenure in the seat.
Speaking to Hit 104.9, which covers Ley’s southern NSW electorate of Farrer, the prime minister criticised the Coalition’s recent internal turmoil while praising his own side of politics. Albanese said:
From day one, she was undermined by Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie and a range of them who weren’t really working to try to get her success in the party. …
It’s, I think, unfortunate that politics can be a pretty rough game, and that [Ley] was elected by the Liberal party caucus, fair and square, she was the leader, but never even got to give a budget reply. I don’t know if that’s happened before. I’m not sure, but certainly she didn’t even get one year in the office, which is pretty rough.
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Liberal senator says government should change laws to restrict some Australian citizens from coming home
Liberal senator Maria Kovacic says the Albanese government should do more to be able to restrict Australian citizens returning to Australia.
The senator’s comments come amid the new Coalition call to criminalise any assistance given to those with links to the Islamic State.
Kovacic told Sky News this morning:
We want to ensure that people who leave our country and go to terrorist hotspots, people who go there to support terrorist organisations or to support Islamic State or organisations or other terror listed organisations, and then who actually commit crimes over there … they can’t come back to Australia.
I’ve got a newsflash for the government. They are the government. They can change the law. If the law is not strong enough to keep Australians safe and to keep people out who actually hate Australian values and hate the Australian way of life, and who have left our country to fight for an alternate way of life, then we should change those laws.
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Pollution from trucks and buses costs Australians $6.2bn in health effects each year, study finds
Air pollution from trucks and buses is costing Australians about $6.2bn each year due to the health effects of exposure to vehicle exhaust, a University of Melbourne study has found.
Like cigarette smoke, heavy vehicle exhaust is a mixture of tiny toxic carbon particles and gases that cause inflammation when inhaled, and is associated with a wide range of respiratory, heart and other health impacts, according to Dr Clare Walter a health and policy researcher and an author of the study.
Most Australians are exposed to traffic pollution on a daily basis. Proximity to roads and truck routes increases the health risks and some groups, like children, elderly people and disadvantaged populations, are more vulnerable, especially if they live, work or attend school or childcare near major truck routes.
Heavy diesel vehicles like trucks and buses account for a disproportionate share of the problem, making up about 4% of the vehicle fleet but one quarter of exhaust-related pollution.
Read more here:
Here’s a tribute to Rowland from the ABC
ABC veteran Michael Rowland to leave broadcaster
Michael Rowland has announced he is leaving the ABC after almost four decades on air, with 15 of those spent hosting ABC News Breakfast.
At the end of 2024 Rowland quit News Breakfast and has spent his final year as 7.30’s national affairs reporter, including as a fill-in host for Sarah Ferguson.
“I’ve marked 39 years in the last couple of weeks or so, and when you know, you know,” Rowland said on News Breakfast.
I’ve had a great ride of the ABC, a charmed career, including back in the early days there at News Breakfast with Virginia [Trioli].
It’s just the right time for my family, my friends, just to step back from full-time work [and] move on to the next stage in life.
Rowland joined the ABC in Sydney in February 1987 as a radio news cadet and covered state and federal politics. He was Washington correspondent and has anchored four presidential elections and multiple major events, including the death of Queen Elizabeth.
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Major rail corridor connecting WA to South Australia and eastern states closed for at least a week
The East West rail line, a major outback transport network that connects South Australia and Western Australia, will be closed for at least seven days after heavy rain and flooding.
The rail corridor, which also provides a rail link between WA and the eastern states, was significantly affected by flooding, with track washaways of up to 100 metres in some areas, the Australian Rail Track Corporation said yesterday.
The body warned that while weather systems were slowly dissipating, heavy rain in the area could further affect part of the network and “may exacerbate existing damage and recovery efforts”.
Updated
Large parts of the country in for stormy, wet start to the week
Communities could be cut off and large parts of Australia disrupted by severe thunderstorms forecast to dump hundreds of millimetres of rain, but the big wet is not all bad news, AAP reports.
A low-pressure system sitting over central Australia is brewing a significant rain event expected to drag into the middle of the week, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned.
Across the four days until Wednesday, Sarah Scully, a BoM meteorologist, said the heaviest rainfall totals of between 150mm and more than 300mm were expected throughout central Australia, South Australia’s border district, Queensland and NSW.
But a “bull’s eye” around central Melbourne, with possible falls of more than 75mm, could potentially put out fires burning in Victoria, she said.
Severe thunderstorms and heavy rain are likely in central parts of Australia and north-west NSW on Monday, with flood warnings in place from northern Australia to northern parts of South Australia, extending into Queensland.
Severe Weather Update: Multi-day heavy rainfall event across large parts of Aus.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) February 22, 2026
Video current as of 2:30pm AEDT 22 February 2026.
Know your weather. Know your risk.
For the latest forecasts and warnings, go to our website https://t.co/4W35o8iFmh or the BOM Weather app. pic.twitter.com/zFRxfYVg5i
Updated
Coalition details plan to criminalise assisting people with links to Islamic State
Ted O’Brien, the shadow minister for foreign affairs, is speaking this morning about a new opposition plan to make it a criminal offence to help Australians with links to the Islamic State to return home.
The proposal comes as lawmakers wrangle over the future of 34 women and children stuck in Syria with links to dead or detained Islamic State fighters.
The Albanese government said the country will not assist in repatriation efforts, but those in the group have been issued passports and travel documents as is required by law.
O’Brien told RN Breakfast the plan would close a loophole in the law, saying it would bar the government from “outsourcing the repatriation of terror sympathisers back to Australia”.
He said the proposal should apply “across the board”. When pressed if a new law would include barring anyone from helping children come home to Australia, O’Brien said there would be no “automatic exemption” for kids.
The shadow minister also said the law could penalise non-governmental organisations like Save the Children if they were “assisting foreign fighters, families or sympathisers of terrorists”.
Updated
Victoria warns residents to be on alert for measles
Victorian health officials are warning of an increased risk of measles in the state, especially metropolitan Melbourne, after local transmission of the virus in the city among people with no recent travel or known public exposure.
Vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself against measles.
Victoria’s acting chief health officer has pointed to a long list of public exposure sites, saying anyone who visited one during the times listed should monitor for symptoms for up to 18 days. Measles usually starts with fever, cough, a runny nose, sore eyes and a general feeling of being unwell. That’s usually followed by a rash that often starts on the face before spreading around the body.
A spate of summer international travel and a decline in childhood vaccination rates has seen cases rise around the country. Read more here:
Updated
Good morning
Good morning, and happy Monday. Nick Visser here to get things started this week. Here’s what’s on deck:
Victoria is warning residents of an increased risk of measles in the state after local transmission of the virus in Melbourne among people with no recent travel or public exposure. Health officials have published a long list of exposure sites, warning people to monitor for symptoms.
Communities could be cut off and large parts of Australia disrupted by severe thunderstorms forecast to dump large amounts of rain. A weather system sitting over central Australia is expected to drag into the middle of the week, the Bureau of Meteorology warns.
The East West rail line, a major outback transport network, is currently closed after 24 hours of heavy rain and flooding caused track washaways of up to 100 metres in some places. The rail corridor connects South Australia with Western Australia and provides a rail link between WA with the eastern states.
Stick with us.
