What we learned today, Wednesday 15 October
That’s it for today, but let’s recap the big events:
James Paterson said Liberals must end their post-election ‘apology tour’.
Education ministers considered new national standards to combat bullying.
IMF warned of slow Australian economy and AI bubble risk.
Planning reforms were set to pass NSW parliament.
A record number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died in custody in NSW in 2025, the state coroner announced.
The head of Aboriginal Legal Service said the NSW government should be ‘ashamed’ by deaths in custody figures.
Victoria experienced a triple-zero computer outage overnight.
The AEC revealed harassment and intimidation at the 2025 election.
Victoria’s premier said Sussan Ley only focused on “politics and division” with comments about crime.
Rightwing US commentator Candace Owens lost her appeal over her 2024 visa rejection.
Australian parents are having kids later, ABS data showed.
Thirteen-year-old boy was among five teenagers charged with murder over alleged stabbing near Wollongong.
Achieving Labor’s 1.2m homes target requires “nearly a miracle”, experts said.
Trump administration and Congress have shown “strong enthusiasm” for Aukus, Pat Conroy said.
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Updated
Queensland government blames police for overstated figures on drop in crime
Queensland’s LNP state government has admitted overstating a reduction in crime, blaming the state police force for the error.
The police minister, Dan Purdie, told parliament on Wednesday that claims by the premier and minister for youth justice that the number of victims of crime had declined by 10.8% in recent stats were wrong. Purdie said:
The actual reduction in victim numbers per capita is 6.5%.
Purdie said the error had only been brought to his attention by the police commissioner, Steve Gollschewski, “in the last few hours”. He blamed “human error” in the “manual compilation and analysis of the rate of the victims between the period of January and September 2025”. He said:
Ahead of the media event on October 7, my office raised concerns with the verification of data when it was provided, but was reassured by police on multiple occasions that it was accurate.
The methods and processes applied to the analysis of this data will be examined and improved ahead of next month’s reporting. We have asked for the updated figures to be added to the forward facing public website as soon as possible, transparency and accuracy are fundamental to maintaining public trust.
The premier, David Crisafulli, promised during last year’s election campaign to resign if the number of victims of crime didn’t decline over his term, and each year.
Updated
