What we learned, Wednesday 19 November
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
Optus paid a fine of $826,320 after its subsidiary, Coles Mobile, fell victim to scammers who were able to exploit a vulnerability in third-party ID checks used by Optus to bypass the required verification and gain control of at least four mobile accounts.
The Minns Labor government introduced new laws to put guardrails around the use of digital programs designed to optimise workers’ workloads.
The NSW government also introduced a fresh bill to restrict protests outside places of worship, with the state’s attorney general telling parliament last night that the new legislation clarifies the scope of police powers after an earlier version was found constitutionally invalid.
New legislation will also be introduced by the NSW government on Wednesday after 60 black-clad neo-Nazis yelled Hitler youth chants at state parliament on 8 November.
The eSafety commissioner said she was concerned gaming platform Roblox was “becoming a playground for pedophiles” before the company announced new age assurance measures to prevent kids and teens from chatting to random adults on the service.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said Hollie Hughes is “clearly bitter” after the former senator quit the party. Hollie Hughes, who lost her Senate seat at the last federal election, resigned from the Liberals on Tuesday, accusing some of her former colleagues of undermining the opposition leader, Sussan Ley.
ANZ’s CEO, Nuno Matos, said the bank’s move to slash 3,500 jobs is “not something I am proud” of, but says it is in the “best interests of our customers”.
Hugh Marks, the managing director of the ABC, was speaking before the National Press Club in Canberra this afternoon. He spoke about the importance of the national broadcaster to “own mistakes” and move on in a fast-paced world.
Workers’ wages barely outpaced inflation in the year to September, with growth in real pay rates dropping to their lowest level in two years. New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed wages lifted by 3.4% annually, unchanged from the previous quarter.
Cyclone Fina could intensify to category three, authorities warn. The chief officer for the Northern Territory emergency services, Wayne Snell, said if your house was up to cyclone code it was safest for people to stay there.
Labor MP Ed Husic said investing in the CSIRO and science and research is an investment in the future.
Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We will be back tomorrow to do it all again.
Updated
Greens MP Michael Berkman has asked the Queensland health minister whether he will ensure the state’s Catholic hospitals will offer reproductive health services, after reports women requiring an abortion or miscarriage treatment are refused care at publicly funded Mater hospitals.
The state’s Mater hospitals are publicly funded but run by a Catholic organisation as a charity. It operates maternity and other health services in Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton and at a large hospital in South Brisbane.
The Guardian has previously reported their policy of refusing to provide reproductive care, such as abortions has left some patients struggling to get access to services.
“We expect all facilities to honour the agreements that they have with the department,” Queensland health minister Tim Nicholls said, in parliamentary question time.
“And the Mater hospital continues to honour its agreement, the agreement that it has with the department. There is no reason to doubt that they are not honouring that agreement … the short answer to it is, the contracts are being honoured. We continue to monitor those contracts to ensure compliance.”
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Independent senator Lidia Thorpe, the committee’s chair, made additional recommendations, including a ban on all Pfas chemicals by default under the Industrial Chemicals Environmental Management Standard (IChEMS), “with only strictly justified ‘essential uses’ allowed through an independent, scientifically rigorous assessment”.
Thorpe also called for the establishment of enforceable water quality standards and regular testing requirements.
In additional comments in the report, the Greens said Australia “lags behind other countries in banning these harmful substances, risking our nation becoming a dumping ground for dangerous chemicals” and called for “urgent national action” to protect people, food systems, and the environment from Pfas.
While agreeing with some of the committee’s recommendations, government senators wrote a dissenting report that noted the complexities of the Pfas problem. They made seven recommendations, including an increase in investment in Pfas research.
The dissenting report states:
“Labor Senators are cautious about recommending prescriptive policy interventions that may not be supported by evidence when properly considered or may have unintended and undesirable consequences.”
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Report into Pfas recommends full ban in fire-fighting foam and subsidised health screenings
A federal senate committee examining the regulation and management of so-called “forever chemicals” has handed down its recommendations, including a full ban on the Pfas in fire-fighting foam and development of a mandatory product labelling regime.
Pfas (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), a group of several thousand synthetic compounds, are found in a wide variety of products including waterproof fabrics, food packaging, hygiene products and firefighting foam. They are sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals” because they are slow to break down and persist in the environment for extended periods.
The final 400-page report delivers 47 recommendations, with committee chair Lidia Thorpe saying “for too long, PFAS chemicals have poisoned our land, water, and communities, while governments looked the other way”.
The report includes recommendations for the government to consider subsidised blood tests and health screenings for communities that have been most exposed to Pfas, including Wreck Bay on the NSW south coast, fast-tracking of regulatory reforms to remove Pfas from all food contact packaging imported into or used in Australia, and for the commonwealth to work with states, territories and local councils on a plan to deal with legacy contamination.
The report recommends the federal environment and health departments and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission develop a mandatory product labelling regime “aimed at retailers, wholesalers, distributors, importers and manufacturers who import consumer products containing PFAS chemicals”.
It also recommends the government works to enforce a Pfas ban in cosmetics and personal care products.
Updated
eSafety commissioner asked to appear before US house committee over free speech concerns
Australia’s online safety regulator has been asked by US Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, Jim Jordan, to speak before the committee as part of an inquiry into foreign laws and the impact on freedom of speech on Americans and US companies.
The committee produced a report in June arguing that the now shut down Global Alliance for Responsible Media (Garm) had colluded with advertisers and foreign regulators to comply with demands that what was then known as Twitter should moderate on its platform.
The committee had turned its attention to the Australian eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, after emails from Inman Grant to the organisation showed the commissioner saying Garm was “helping to hold the platforms to account”.
In a letter from Jordan to Inman Grant published on Tuesday he requested Inman Grant be interviewed by the committee stating “your expansive interpretation and enforcement of Australia’s [online safety act]... directly threatens American speech”. Jordan referenced eSafety’s failed attempt to have X remove tweets of footage of the 2024 church stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.
Jordan referred to Inman Grant as a “noted zealot for global takedowns”.
A spokesperson for the eSafety commissioner said Inman Grant was considering whether to agree to the requests “in the context of eSafety’s current priorities”.
It is a voluntary request. The spokesperson said tech companies that supply services to Australians must comply with Australian laws, and eSafety has accepted that geoblocking content to stop Australians seeing it – rather than a global removal – is a reasonable step.
The spokesperson also said it was most recently demonstrated through geoblocking in the Charlie Kirk, Zarutska, and Nagamallaiah murders where content is illegal to display to Australians, but not to others.
Updated
NAB CEO: 'Australia should be an energy superpower'
NAB’s chief executive, Andrew Irvine, is the latest big bank boss to back more investment in renewables, telling a parliamentary committee that Australia didn’t need nuclear in the mix given our abundance of solar, wind and gas.
Irvine opened his appearance by saying that “high energy costs are holding back manufacturing growth and hurting households”, before going on to say it was “sad” that a country so blessed with natural resources was struggling to deliver enough energy.
“Australia should be an energy superpower. We are blessed with incredible amounts of sunshine, with an incredible amount of wind resources, with some hydro capacity, and one of the world’s largest reservoirs of natural gas.”
“So the fact that we are in a situation where we have a possible issue with supply and demand imbalance on energy is sad and shouldn’t have happened.”
Irvine said he was surprised with the vilification of gas in some quarters, saying there was no clean energy transition without the fossil fuel.
“We are not getting enough renewable projects approved, we are not getting enough gas projects approved for domestic uses”.
“I do think it’s important for us, wherever possible and as fast as possible, to try and decarbonise the grid and get thermal coal out of the energy mix.”
Irvine, who has lived most of his life in the UK and Canada, which both rely on nuclear energy, said he could understand why Australia had not gone down this path.
“I don’t think we need nuclear in our mix of energy (in order) to be one of the lowest cost providers of energy. We have sufficient resources with all the other sources of energy to do that.”
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NSW government releases 2025-2028 Closing the Gap plan
The NSW government has released its next three-year plan for implementing Closing the Gap targets, which includes three new initiatives.
The plan, which was created in partnership with NSW Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations (Capo) and sets out the road map Closing the Gap until 2028, will now include, among existing initiatives:
Aboriginal languages program of Works to strengthen Aboriginal languages across NSW;
An end-to-end land activation pilot to support Aboriginal communities with more housing and economic development opportunities from land returned to their ownership; and
An Aboriginal employment program to create long-term roles for Aboriginal people in cultural land and biodiversity management, delivered in partnership with local Aboriginal land councils.
The Minns government committed $206m in the 2025-2026 budget towards delivering the plan, which has also streamlined 144 initiatives into 14 new and 31 ongoing initiatives.
The minister for Aboriginal affairs and treaty, David Harris, said:
The focus of this plan is to scale up the most effective approaches and implement strategic reforms across government to best achieve positive outcomes for people.
NSW Capo co-chair, Councillor Charles Lynch, said the strategy was both a “product of strong partnership and a plan to deepen it, driving structural reform, embedding shared decision-making and creating the conditions for lasting improvements in the lives of Aboriginal people and communities”.
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Husic says cuts made while he was science minister were not in research
Asked about the job cuts at the CSIRO made when he was the minister in charge, Husic said:
There were job cuts at the CSIRO while I was minister for science but they were not in the research space. They were changes that were made in terms of back office and HR, administrative and HR functions.
… If there are those job cuts in research, you have to question what it does in terms of the capability of the CSIRO and I think a lot of Australians would want to see an investment in the national science agency.
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Ed Husic on CSIRO cuts: 'we need to start valuing and having faith in Australian ideas'
Labor MP Ed Husic is on Afternoon Briefing talking about the loss of hundreds of CSIRO jobs. He said investing in the CSIRO and science and research is an investment in the future.
We need to start valuing and having faith in Australian ideas. I’m personally sick of seeing an idea that began in an Australian mind [ending up as] a product made in another country. We need to address that.
Some of the driest, driest minds in the sphere of government, notably treasury and finance, do view these things as a cost. You know, in some cases their view is, if another country wants to spend money and they turn an idea into a product that we just buy off the shelf, that’s great.
I actually think that’s the worst example of short-term thinking you can have when [we] need a long-term commitment to back in science and research.
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Chalmers suggests ‘major governing parties’ should do nature laws deal to ensure reforms are enduring
Chlamers was also asked about landing a deal on the proposed reforms to update the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. He said he would prefer to do a deal with a party of government – ie the Liberals over the Greens.
There have been growing calls for the Liberals to help pass the reforms, to bolster their environmental credentials after ditching net zero.
Chalmers said:
I think it would be good if the major governing parties were able to get to an outcome here, but to be frank with you, Patricia, we will do what is necessary to see these changes bedded down.
It’s time for the Coalition to be responsible about it. It’s time for the Greens to get behind it as well. We’ve put a of work into this.
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Treasurer says ‘we are big believers and supporters of the CSIRO’ amid job cut crisis
Asked about the job cuts at the CSIRO, Chalmers said:
What’s happened in the CSIRO budget is we have continued to provide substantial funding, stable source of funding for the CSIRO, but their operating costs have been outstripping their revenue for some time now, and so, they’ve indicated - as I understand it, they will have another look at their priorities and another look at their facilities.
We are big believers and supporters of the CSIRO.
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Chalmers says ASX drop reflects global volaility
Asked about the drop in the market, Chalmers said:
We’ve seen an extraordinary amount of volatility and unpredictability in global markets, including global share markets.
We have seen pretty substantial fluctuations over the course of this year and we are seeing them again. I think it reflects the jumpiness we are seeing in the global economy.
The economic plan [is] to make our economy more productive and help people with the cost of living, to repair the budget over time, all of these things are even more important when you see the global economic uncertainty playing out not just on share markets.
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Chalmers says public sector wages outpacing private sector is ‘encouraging news’
On Afternoon Briefing, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has been asked if he’s worried that public sector wages are outpacing rises in the private sector:
I would say it’s incredibly encouraging news and we have now had two consecutive years of annual real wages growth. Eight quarters in a row of real wages growth, remembering that real wages were falling substantially when we came to office, that is overwhelmingly a good thing.
It comes to the public versus private breakup, since we’ve been elected, the private sector wages growth has outstripped public sector wages growth.
Updated
Australian cricket legend Glenn McGrath has been dropped from ABC commentary duties due to his partnership with a major betting agency.
The former fast bowler had been listed as an ABC commentator for the Ashes series as recently as last week in promotional material.
The national broadcaster has a strict rule that prevents staff from having commercial partnerships with betting agencies.
McGrath’s management team informed the ABC of an upcoming partnership with the gambling company Bet365 before the decision was made.
In a statement, an ABC spokesperson confirmed McGrath and the broadcaster had “mutually parted ways”.
The ABC and Glenn McGrath have mutually parted ways for this Ashes. We look forward to seeing Glenn around the grounds throughout the series and would welcome working with him in the future. Our great commentary team, led by Jim Maxwell and Corbin Middlemas, is excited for the first test in Perth this Friday.
Bet365 and McGrath were also contacted for comment.
Mitchell Johnson, another former Australian fast bowler, left the ABC due to his involvement with betting agencies in 2022.
Sunshine Coast teenager charged over fatal e-bike crash
Queensland police have charged a 15-year-old boy over an e-bike crash that killed an eight-year-old boy last month.
The teenager, who lives on the Sunshine Coast, has been charged with four offences, including driving an unregistered, uninsured vehicle without a licence and causing death from driving dangerously.
The charges follow investigations of a crash between two boys riding e-bikes on a Mountain Creek bike path on 30 October, where one rider, an 8-year-old boy, died from his injuries later that evening.
The teenager is due to appear in court next week.
In 2024, eight people, including two children, died from crashes involving e-bikes and e-scooters, according to the Queensland Family and Child Commission.
In May, the Queensland government launched a parliamentary inquiry into the safety of e-scooter and e-bikes. The findings are due to be reported next March.
Updated
Cyclone Fina could intensify to category three, authorities warn
Authorities said there is a chance the cyclone would turn into a category three:
With these systems, they move erratically and there is always the possibility that it may intensify further into a category three system as it makes its way towards the coast. It is forecast to intensify to a category two system overnight tonight.
And it’s so far the expectation that it will remain at [category] two for the coastal crossing. But we can’t rule out the possibility of a category three.
Updated
Authorities: if your house is up to code, it is the safest place to stay during a cyclone
The chief officer for the Northern Territory emergency services, Wayne Snell, said if your house was up to cyclone code it was safest for people to stay there:
Make sure that you have a plan for your family that includes what you are going to do should the cyclone make landfall here.
You should consider that there are shelters across Darwin, but the general advice in Darwin is that most of our buildings are built to code now, and that the safest place for you to [stay] is to actually stay in your residential home.
He said to prepare an emergency kit, a plan for pets if you are going to a shelter and a way to communicate with family members.
Because one of the things … we all know from the Top End is that communication systems, as well as electricity systems and other essential services, can be disrupted at this time.
Updated
Cyclone Fina early for the season, acting commissioner says
The acting assistant commissioner, James O’Brien, said the cyclone was early for the season:
Tropical Cyclone Fina has made its way to the Northern Territory, the first of the season. It’s come a bit early for us.
The northern region emergency committee has been stood up and we’ve opened up the territory emergency operations centre. Now the territory emergency operations centre will be staffed by an incident management team.
Extra police staff have been sent to the Tiwi Islands, he said, to make sure the communities were ready and had local shelters in place.
Updated
NT authorities issue further details on Cyclone Fina
In Darwin, authorities are talking about preparations for Cyclone Fina:
Earlier today, the bureau [of meteorology] issued a tropical cyclone watch for parts of the northern coast of the Top End.
At this stage, the system is forecast to reach category two strength from later tonight and to remain at category two strength as it moves towards the coast in the coming days. Tomorrow we will see the watch area extend further south and west, and it may include Darwin.
Updated
Real wage growth at lowest level in two years
Workers’ wages barely outpaced inflation in the year to September, with growth in real pay rates dropping to their lowest level in two years.
New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed wages lifted by 3.4% annually, unchanged from the previous quarter.
Pay rates are still growing briskly, and certainly well above the pre-pandemic rate of not much more than 2%. But the recent lift in inflation left the real growth in wages at just 0.2%, a sharp drop from 1.3% in the year to June and ending a run of accelerating real wage growth.
Australians may now have to prepare for a lengthy spell of wage growth below inflation, with the Reserve Bank predicting stagnant or falling real pay rates through to the end of 2026.
Jessie Cameron, a NAB economist, said, “how this translates to spending and saving decisions by households will be important given the fading tail winds of prior tax and interest rate cuts”.
Jim Chalmers has said that the mid-year budget next month will not include any major new policies. But with cost of living pressures still the No 1 issue for Aussie households – and hopes for further rate cuts dwindling – the Albanese government may come under increasing pressure to extend energy bill rebates beyond the end of this year.
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Skills minister identifies ‘creeping sense of alienation’ as ‘real opposition’ in Australia
The skills minister, Andrew Giles, is giving a speech to the McKell Institute in Perth this afternoon, sharing reflections on the contribution education and training makes to the Australian economy including through full participation and engagement.
He says skills are part of the government’s efforts to tie national interests to individual aspirations and part of holding the community together, even in the face of forces trying to divide.
“I believe that the real opposition our government faces at the moment isn’t the Liberal or National parties, nor One Nation or even the Greens party,” Giles said, adding:
It’s a creeping sense of alienation in large parts of the community, where people feel increasingly disconnected from opportunity and increasingly pessimistic about their future.
Cynical politicians and commentators seek to exploit this, to weaponise grievance and to divide Australians.
To undermine trust and to allocate blame, not take responsibility for addressing the real concerns around cost of living pressures in the here and now, and insecurity and lack of control going forward.
Giles said these forces need to be confronted “head-on”, including by governments delivering on their promises.
Giles said more than 725,000 people have taken advantage of free Tafe courses, and more than 210,000 have reached completion so far. There are currently 50,000 more apprentices in training than before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Updated
That’s all from me! Cait Kelly will guide you through the arvo and into the evening. Take care.
Peak medical body says NSW must not accept ‘watered-down’ hospital funding agreement from commonwealth
The peak medical body says the NSW government must “stay firm” and should not accept a weak deal in negotiations with the commonwealth over their share of public hospital funding.
Dr Kathryn Austin, the president of the NSW branch of the Australian Medical Association, said “the NSW health minister must fight for the funding our system needs. NSW cannot accept a watered-down agreement that shifts even more responsibility on to the state.
“The commonwealth gave its word on the funding pathway, and it must honour that commitment.”
She also said the prime minister’s suggestion that states should reduce hospital activity highlighted a profound misunderstanding of how public hospitals operated.
You cannot tell an emergency department to slow down. You cannot delay trauma care. You cannot ask a sick child to come back when the budget improves.
Hospitals respond to need. Need is rising and the commonwealth must respond with responsible funding.
Earlier this morning, the NSW premier, Chris Minns, said he understands taxpayers wish for governments to stop fighting and reach an agreement but he says they can’t accept the “massive decline”:
Where we’re at in terms of the funding 2023 federal government said we’ll get to 42.5% … The latest offer we got from the commonwealth was 37%. It’s a massive, massive decline.
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ANZ boss says lack of clarity around climate policy the ‘enemy’
The ANZ’s CEO, Nuno Matos, says a “lack of clarity” around climate change and energy policy is the “enemy” when it comes to project investment.
As the Coalition rekindles the climate wars, Mates said “globally, one could say we don’t anymore have the same level of alignment that we have (had) for, I would say, at least a decade”.
“Lack of clarity is the enemy of a project or initiative,” he told a parliamentary committee hearing in Canberra.
Matos, like many in the business community, are keen to see a predictable set of rules in which to operate, especially when it came to energy policy.
“It needs agreements on how we are going to transition the economy into the future,” he said.
The ANZ boss, who has been in the top job for only about six months, said it was important that the transition is balanced against the impact on the economy.
“Certainly, it’s in the best interest of the Australian economy – as it is in all economies – to reduce and contain energy costs.”
Still, the bank was committed to its Paris agreement goals.
We certainly believe as an institution that the world should walk with confidence to a more sustainable world, a world that is able to produce goods and services in a more sustainable way without impacting so much our climate.
We will continue to read public policy in Australia and continue to read our own risk appetite and form our internal policy. But tougher days are in front of us in this topic to be clear.
Tropical Cyclone Fina forms, with eye on NT coast later this week
Tropical Cyclone Fina has formed north of Darwin and is moving slowly to the east-north-east, away from the coast.
It is expected to intensify through the day today, becoming a Category 2 system. Later on Thursday it should turn to the south then south-west, taking it towards the Northern Territory coast for a potential impact during Friday and Saturday.
Communities over the Northern Territory are not expected to be impacted within the next 48 hours.
Tropical Cyclone Fina is expected to turn south towards the north-west Top End coast later Thursday.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) November 19, 2025
Current: 10:37 am ACST Wednesday 19 November 2025
Latest track map: https://t.co/tEt0sJOHXK pic.twitter.com/masCLDRUvN
Updated
Marks says criticisms of ABC’s Trump coverage not comparable to BBC’s woes
ABC’s managing director, Hugh Marks, was asked earlier about recent criticism from News Corp outlets, who have accused the national broadcaster of distorting a speech by the US president, Donald Trump, on the day of the 6 January Capitol attack.
The outlets, including Sky News and The Australian, have compared the ABC to the BBC which is reeling after claims of bias in its coverage of Trump.
An ABC analysis of parts of Trump’s speech, which were aired on Four Corners in 2021, did not mislead audiences to the US president’s meaning at the time.
Marks spoke to the National Press Club this afternoon, saying he rejected any comparison between the ABC and the BBC:
I think the comparison of the ABC, Four Corners to the BBC Panorama show was opportunistic. The same faults were not consistent on both programs.
I didn’t accept that was legitimate criticism. Any reasonable amount of work would have come to that conclusion. That one I thought was opportunistic and false.
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Domain to limit price increases as it takes on realestate.com.au
Real estate listings website Domain plans to limit its price increases to inflation and offer more features as it struggles to claw back customers from realestate.com.au.
The new strategy follows years of top listings sites hiking prices to boost company revenue rather than improve customer experience, Domain’s president, Jason Pellegrino, told Guardian Australia.
Australians pay more than anyone in the world to sell their homes online, footing bills of up to $4,000, which agents have blamed on the dominance of realestate.com.au and, to a lesser extent, Domain.
The two websites had raised prices without significantly innovating, said Pellegrino, a former Domain CEO who returned after its sale to international property giant CoStar in August.
Australia’s second-biggest listings site will limit price increases to stay in line with inflation, matching its new owner’s global policy, which Pellegrino said would put pressure on realestate.com.au to slow its hikes.
A Guardian Australia investigation in 2024 revealed warnings REA has used its effective monopoly on listings to prevent new competitors and price gouge by hiking fees an average of 10% annually, matched by Domain.
Monique Ryan says fossil fuel lobbyists should be excluded from future COP climate summits
Australia and Turkey are competing to host the event in December next year.
Independent MP Monique Ryan’s comments were prompted by reports this week showing as many as 1,600 lobbyists from fossil fuel businesses are attending this week’s COP30 in Belem, Brazil.
Their numbers are greater than almost every country delegation attending the event, with only the host country sending more people.
“Stop the gaslighting,” Ryan said, adding:
Fossil fuel lobbyists are contaminating COP. Their presence is a drag on countries making the commitments the world needs to avoid climate catastrophe.
We’ve seen this movie before, when the tobacco industry spent decades disputing the fatal health effects of its products by relentlessly lobbying governments around the world to stop them from restricting marketing and distribution.
Now we need to do everything in our power to avoid the sequel. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well.
Labor wants to host the next COP in Adelaide in conjunction with Pacific Island countries.
Anthony Albanese said yesterday Australia will not stand in the way of Turkey hosting, insisting the interests of Pacific Island countries should be prioritised.
John Laws’ state funeral is about to begin
Former prime minister John Howard, former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, and actor Russell Crowe have taken their seats in St Andrews Cathedral for the state funeral of John Laws.
Laws’ good friend, musician John Williamson, will perform his hit song True Blue during the service.
Trucking billionaire Lindsay Fox, the Liberal MP for Vaucluse, Kellie Sloane, broadcasters Ben Fordham and Richard Wilkins and Olympian Dawn Fraser are among the mourners.
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Parliament launches ‘healthy masculinities’ group
A cross-party group of MPs are urging men and boys to speak up and seek help with their problems, launching a new Parliamentary Friends of Healthy Masculinities group inside federal parliament today.
To mark International Men’s Day, the group’s co-chairs – Labor’s Dan Repacholi, independent David Pocock and Liberal MP Aaron Violi – said they wanted to support men and boys feel more comfortable about being open with their feelings, seek help if they needed it, and learn healthy habits about relationships.
“David, Aaron and I may not always agree on everything in this place and in this building, but the one thing that we are rock-solid on is the fact that we need to do better for the young men of this country, because they will grow up to be older men in this country,” Repacholi said in launching the group today, adding:
To all the young blokes out there right now that are listening to this today, I want you to all know that you are not alone, that you can have these conversations, that it is not weak to speak. It is actually strong to speak.
The group will be supported by mental health organisation The Man Cave in doing its work.
Asked to share times they’d been open with their feelings, Repacholi spoke about seeking help with weight loss from his doctor; Pocock, a former Wallabies rugby captain, talked about having recurring nightmares during his playing days and starting to see a therapist; while Violi spoke of his parents separating when he was young, and finding support and role models through playing sport.
Pocock said:
We hear a lot in society about toxic masculinity, and there’s rightly been a focus on men doing better, and men need to be stepping up into the conversation when it comes to things like family violence and when it comes to mental health.
Men have a long way to go, and so this group is really about ensuring that we’re talking about healthy masculinity, what does it mean to be a young man.
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ABC managing director says broadcaster should ‘own mistakes’ and move on
Hugh Marks, the managing director of the ABC, is speaking before the National Press Club in Canberra this afternoon. He’s speaking about the importance of the national broadcaster to “own mistakes” and move on in a fast-paced world.
He said:
We have to not cower, but we can’t be defensive when we make a mistake, own it. It’s not hard. People accept this is a fast-moving world. People expect journalism operates on a very fast cycle. People are under pressure to file and get stories up. And that’s what the public needs because they need to be informed. Sometimes mistakes happen. When mistakes happen, we acknowledge them. We own them. We make the correction. We move on. We don’t defend at all costs. …
When I arrived at the ABC there was a … defensive mindset that existed in the organisation which had been established, and these things happen over decades. They eke up and eke up. The organisation had a fearfulness of external force. And I think that fearfulness drives a counterproductive behaviour. …
We really have our heads around the importance of owning mistakes quickly. Will we get it right all the time? I’m sure we won’t.
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NSW attorney general says hate speech investigations may take longer
The NSW attorney general, Michael Daley, says police procedure means they may choose not to bring hate speech charges immediately after an alleged offence, as questions remain over whether proposed laws would have empowered police to break up this month’s neo-Nazi rally.
In question time today, the attorney general was asked if he had consulted with the Director of Public Prosecutions on any potential charges following this month’s rally, at which Nazi slogans and chants were allegedly used. NSW police confirmed today no charges have yet been laid.
Daley said it would be “inappropriate” for him to intervene or comment on the investigation, but said that police procedure meant that charges did not always come straight after an alleged offence.
The police, as we know, in relation to matters such as this, don’t always lay charges on the day. There are occasions where they garner the necessary evidence that they need to investigate, get legal advice and then work out whether they wish to prosecute at a later time.
Earlier, the premier, Chris Minns, also said he was “not particularly worried” about a potential legal challenge to a fresh attempt to restrict protests outside places of worship, as we reported this morning. Minns said:
This has obviously been heavily vetted by the lawyers inside the government. [We feel] that it doesn’t breach the implied freedom of political communication in the constitution. We also believe it’s a much needed and important piece of legislation for the state.
Questions remain over how new NSW laws would have affected neo-Nazi rally
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says new laws targeting neo-Nazis would have made a “big difference” as questions remain over what impact they would have had on this month’s rally on the steps of parliament.
The government is seeking to expand a ban Nazi symbols so that those who chant Nazi slogans could be fined or imprisoned, following this month’s rally by members of White Australia, also known as the National Socialist Network.
The changes are being introduced to parliament today but will not have a chance to pass this year as the government will seek to refer them to a lower house committee for oversight.
Asked what effect the changes would have had on this month’s rally, Minns says they will give police the ability to make arrests whether a protest is authorised or not. He said the new bill “as it is written” would give NSW police the discretion to decide what constitutes a Nazi slogan or chant.
The organisers of this month’s rally put in a form 1 application for a protest, which was approved by police. Asked if the laws would capture the banner used at the rally and included in the application, which called for the abolition of the “Jewish Lobby”, Minns says:
Yeah it would, but the police are also looking at the circumstances related to that rally and I can’t go into detail on that.
How to watch John Laws’ state funeral today from 1pm
As well as the official livestream from St Andrew’s Cathedral, Channel Seven and Nine Radio will provide live coverage.
Hosted by Michael McLaren and John Stanley, beginning at 1pm AEDT, the coverage will be carried by 25 of Nine’s stations across the country, which syndicated the John Laws Morning Show for decades.
Nine Radio’s managing director, Tom Malone, said:
John Laws was a giant of Australian radio and we’re proud to be honouring John, and providing his millions of listeners right across the country with the opportunity to be part of the farewell.
Seven News will also broadcast the event from 1pm to 3pm on Seven in Sydney and Melbourne and 7plus nationally.
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ANZ CEO says job cuts ‘not something I am proud of’
ANZ’s CEO, Nuno Matos, says the bank’s move to slash 3,500 jobs is “not something I am proud” of, but says it is in the “best interests of our customers”.
Matos, earlier this morning, offered an “unreserved apology” on behalf of the bank for the mistreatment of thousands of vulnerable customers and lying to the government over a massive bond deal.
The chair of the House of Representatives economics committee, Ed Husic, asked whether it was fair that thousands of people faced losing their jobs in the wake of the record $240m fine while executives had only lost their bonuses.
Matos pointed out that four of the nine top executives had left the bank since he had arrived six months ago, but conceded the point.
I need to say the obvious: letting go of approximately 3,500 people and impacting them and their families is not something I am proud [of], is not something I would like to do, not something a human being likes to do.
It is very, very tough.”
Matos said the mass redundancies were “absolutely unrelated to the other topic (the scandals) except in one element that is crucial to us”.
The company needs to work in a simpler manner. The company was and still is too complex. It’s in the best interests of our customers to have a bank that focuses on one simple thing: doing banking.
When Matos revealed the redundancies in September, he insisted the decision was “not about profits”.
Updated
‘A lot of work to do’ to improve culture and leadership in higher education, Jason Clare says
The education minister will introduce legislation next week to formally create the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC), an independent steward for the future of higher education.
Addressing the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA)‘s annual conference on Wednesday morning, Jason Clare said the commission was the “most important” recommendation in the Universities Accord, handed down last year.
It has been operating in an interim capacity since June, tasked with improving equity and fairness in the higher education sector. Clare confirmed in the coming weeks, he would also receive a report from the racism commissioner on racism in universities, compiling a series of recommendations after surveying more than 76,000 students and staff.
The National Student Ombudsman, tasked with resolving student complaints on a broad range of issues including student safety and wellbeing, has already been accessed 2,400 times since its establishment in February, Clare said.
Clare noted there was “a lot of work” to do to improve culture and leadership in higher education.
This is not about attacking universities, this is not about belting universities … this is about making the organisations that you run and work in better. Building trust inside your organisations and building public support for the work that you do.
Peak university body issues warning over CSIRO research cuts
The head of the peak university body has warned that hundreds of research job cuts announced at CSIRO yesterday will leave Australia behind the rest of the world in research development.
University Australia’s chief executive, Luke Sheehy, said CSIRO’s announcement to shed jobs and narrow its research focus demonstrated “Australia’s research engine is running short of fuel”.
Sheehy continued:
This isn’t just a CSIRO issue – it’s a warning light for the entire research ecosystem.
Australia is being outspent and outpaced by the world, Australia currently invests 1.69% of GDP in R&D – well below the OECD average of 2.7% and far behind innovation leaders like South Korea and Germany who invest over 3%.
If we continue to underinvest, we will lose the talent, infrastructure and breakthroughs that drive jobs, national security and technological strength.
Read more here:
Updated
More from former Liberal senator Hollie Hughes
Former senator and ex-Liberal Hollie Hughes spoke to 2GB yesterday, where she was asked if the Liberal party was “broken beyond repair”. She said she was particularly disgusted by the recent meeting to dump the party’s net zero by 2050 targets, where, she says, female politicians were being “used” to do the party’s dirty work and undermine Sussan Ley:
I mean, to be honest, I threw up in my mouth a little bit when I saw that big rightwing conservative group walking into the net zero meeting together, and they shove three women, one who no one’s ever heard of, and two who, you know, are being used, quite frankly, by the boys who want a challenge but don’t have the gumption to go out and say anything themselves.
So [they] are pushing Sarah and Jacinta out there to make these undermining comments to Susan. And I just I think it’s disgusting.
Updated
Government’s nature laws don’t consider fossil fuel projects’ risk to human health, experts warn
Medical experts warn the government’s proposed nature laws will allow coal and gas projects to be approved without assessing their risk to human health.
Doctors for the Environment Australia say that the draft reforms, the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025 and six other related bills, do not include human health effects when defining what is an “unacceptable impact”.
The group says fossil fuel-induced climate change is the biggest health hazard humanity faces, with doctors already seeing the effects including mortality during extreme heat events and increasing climate-sensitive vector-borne diseases like dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis.
The laws are expected to be debated in the Senate next week and the group are calling on the senators to amend the legislation to include human health.
DEA’s executive director Dr Kate Wylie says “ we need to use the available science that can measure the toll on our communities from individual fossil fuel projects.
We call for health impact assessments for all energy projects and for death and disease data to be included in the definition of unacceptable impacts.
Surely if a project causes death it cannot be deemed acceptable? What price a life? What price our health?
State funeral for John Laws begins later today in Sydney
A state funeral for broadcaster John Laws will take place in Sydney in a few hours.
Guests will begin arriving at 12.30pm, with the funeral set to begin at 1.30pm at St Andrew’s Cathedral. It’s expected to end around 2.45pm.
An announcement for the event called Laws a “a towering figure in Australian radio whose voice resonated across the nation for more than seven decades”, adding:
John’s career was extraordinary. Few broadcasters have left such a deep and lasting mark on Australian media … His legacy lies not only in the thousands of hours on air, but in the connection he forged with millions of Australians.
You can watch a livestream of the event here.
Updated
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says Hollie Hughes ‘clearly bitter’ after ex-senator quits party
A war of words has erupted between current and former Liberal members after an ex-senator quit the party in disgust at the behaviour of some MPs, AAP reports.
Hollie Hughes, who lost her Senate seat at the last federal election, resigned from the Liberals on Tuesday, accusing some of her former colleagues of undermining opposition leader Sussan Ley.
“There are some people who are completely inept, who are lazy, who are not across the details,” she told 2GB radio. “It is an absolute rabble.”
Hughes also accused the conservative faction of using women to do the undermining, singling out Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Sarah Henderson.
(They) are being used, quite frankly, by the boys who want to challenge but don’t have the gumption to go out and say anything themselves.
Price fired back at the remarks, also on 2GB:
It’s pretty disappointing to hear that sort of commentary from a woman … it’s just a ridiculous notion.
She’s clearly bitter, and that’s her issue to deal with herself.
The former shadow minister was dumped from her senate spot in the lead-up to the 2025 election in a factional deal which she says was orchestrated by potential leadership contender Angus Taylor. Hughes rejected suggestions her comments were a reaction to losing her senate spot.
Updated
ANZ boss issues ‘unreserved apology’ for failing vulnerable customers
The chief executive of ANZ, Nuno Matos, has offered an “unreserved apology” for what he called “serious and unacceptable” failures by the bank, which included ignoring hundreds of hardship applications and not refunding fees charged to thousands of dead customers.
Speaking at a parliamentary committee hearing this morning, Matos, who was appointed to the top job six months ago, said the bank “must put those we serve at the centre of everything we do”, as he admitted that ANZ “has not always lived up to these expectations”.
The failings of non-financial risk management that led to regulatory actions were serious and unacceptable. Some of them occurred when our customers were at their most vulnerable, facing hardship, bereavement, or relying on us to act with integrity.
The bank fell short of what is expected of us and for that, I offer an unreserved apology.
In September, ANZ was fined $240m by Asic after the bank admitted to lying about bond trading data in its dealings with the federal government, alongside widespread misconduct in its retail division that affected tens of thousands of customers.
Earlier this month, ANZ revealed it had stripped $32m in bonuses from current and former executives, including the former CEO, Shayne Elliott.
Updated
Roblox had seen ‘writing on the wall’, Inman Grant adds
Inman Grant said Roblox had seen “the writing on the wall” of having children commingled in the one app with adults.
This negotiation was specific to Roblox and based on the common grooming scenarios that our investigators had seen where offenders tend to use Roblox to connect with children and young people before they potentially move them to another platform where they will continue to groom them.
They might also instruct a child or their avatar to perform sexual acts in games on the platform. And then we’re also seeing children are being coerced into sending explicit images in exchange for gifts like sneakers or Robux, which is the digital currency on the platform.
Read more about reporter Sarah Martin’s week on Roblox here:
eSafety worried Roblox was ‘playground for pedophiles’ before age-check change
The eSafety commissioner said she was concerned gaming platform Roblox was “becoming a playground for pedophiles” before the company announced new age assurance measures to prevent kids and teens from chatting to random adults on the service.
As Guardian Australia reported, from next month in Australia, users who want to use the chat function in Roblox will need to go through facial age estimation that will group them into age groups that they will be able to speak to.
Julie Inman Grant told ABC Radio Melbourne that the change came about after she had negotiated with the company over concerns raised in recent months, rather than the possibility of Roblox being included in the under-16s social media ban.
She said:
We’d been watching Roblox for a long time and had been concerned about some of their safety features and it becoming a playground for pedophiles. So we reached out to them around a formal warning and then it turned into a negotiation which they have to comply with by the end of December.
Updated
Shark warning for small Australian town after lobster diver ‘bumped’ by large animal
The Western Australia government issued a shark warning to the small town of Gnarabup after a diver reported being bumped by a large white shark while diving for rock lobster on Tuesday.
The WA government’s SharkSmark program issued the warning for the area around Gnarabup and Prevelly after the diver said they encountered the shark just after 4.30pm. The animal, thought to be a 2.5m white shark, “bumped” the diver, who did not sustain any injuries.
SharkSmart said yesterday:
Take additional caution in the Gnarabup Boat Ramp area.
Adhere to beach closures advised by Local Government Rangers, Parks and Wildlife Service officers or Surf Life Saving WA.
DPIRD (Fisheries) advise that a shark warning has been issued for Gnarabup Boat Ramp near Prevelly following a reported shark interaction. See more: https://t.co/zarpbmZYC4
— Surf Life Saving WA (@SLSWA) November 18, 2025
Updated
NSW to get 159 new EV chargers in regional hotspots
NSW’s third round of grants boosting EV charging infrastructure will result in 159 new chargers being deployed in 48 regional hotspots, with drivers encouraged to check out towns and inject money into local economies before they hit the road, AAP reports.
The chargers will be high-powered at between 22kW and 100kW, which can fully charge a standard EV SUV in about an hour.
Exact locations are yet to be finalised but government officials said they would be installed at “iconic road trip routes” and at “key tourism destinations”, including at rest stops, visitor centres and holiday hotspots.
Of NSW’s local government areas, Shoalhaven will receive the most charging ports at 19, Kempsey will get 11 and Lismore will get nine.
Gardener charged with manslaughter after Sydney woman dies
A man was charged with manslaughter after the death of an 86-year-old woman in the inner-Sydney suburb of Glebe, following an alleged assault at her property last month.
NSW police said the man, 53, was employed as the woman’s gardener. Officers allege the man entered her home in Glebe on 31 October before assaulting her and then leaving the premises.
The woman was taken the hospital in a serious condition later that day and the man was subsequently arrested and charged with reckless grievous bodily harm and staking or intimidating to intending fear or physical harm.
Police said they were later informed the woman died on 6 November in hospital. The man was formally charged with an additional count of manslaughter on Tuesday.
He will reappear in court in January.
Victoria only state on track to meet national housing targets, report finds
A new joint report from the Summer Foundation and YIMBY Melbourne reveals that Victoria is the only state on track to meet its national housing targets while also adopting the Livable Housing Design Standard (LHDS) – a national accessibility benchmark that NSW and WA have refused to commit to.
The national housing accord aims to have Australia build 1.2m new homes from mid-2025 to mid-2029. Victoria is forecast to deliver 98% of its target of 306,000 dwellings by 2029 – the only state on track to come close to its target.
NSW, for comparison, is forecast to achieve only 65% of its target of 376,000 homes.
Joel Dignam, lead campaigner at the Summer Foundation, said:
Victoria’s success shows that when you get the settings right, accessibility and affordability can go hand-in-hand.
Delaying liveable housing standards in the name of supply is a Trojan horse for perpetuating housing discrimination. Every new home should be one that everyone can live in.
NSW is reforming its planning system — that’s promising. But it must stop using accessibility as a scapegoat and commit to the LHDS.
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SA’s education minister urges federal government to launch national inquiry into asbestos bungle
South Australia’s education minister will write to the federal government on Wednesday calling for an urgent national inquiry into how coloured sand products which have been contaminated with asbestos were allowed into the country.
It follows the closure of a string of schools in the ACT and Tasmania that were confirmed to have used the products, and recalls from major retailers including Target, Kmart, Woolworths and Officeworks.
A ban and import prohibition for asbestos in Australia has been in place since 2003. On Tuesday, border officials confirmed the coloured sand products were not required to undergo any testing for the hazardous material before they were imported.
The minister for education, Blair Boyer, said the recall had led to costly specialist removal and cleaning in thousands of buildings nationwide. No public schools have closed in South Australia over the asbestos concerns however two Catholic special schools were shut for cleaning.
How on earth does this happen in this day and age? It is completely unacceptable. There needs to be an urgent inquiry so we can understand how these products were allowed to be imported into Australia.
This has affected thousands of schools right across the country, let alone the countless families who may have the product in their homes. While the risk to children this time has been low, we need to make sure there are stringent regulations in place to ensure this never happens again.
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‘This is a government that believes in science’: says industry minister on CSIRO job cuts
The government says the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) will go through a “process” in the coming weeks and months to ensure “all of its effort is directed towards the research priorities of the CSIRO”, in response to questions on the organisation’s announcement it will cut more than 300 jobs.
The industry minister, along with the PM, addressed the media in WA on Tuesday evening. The CSIRO announced that 300 to 350 roles are expected to be cut, in addition to job losses earlier this year and in 2024.
Minister Tim Ayres said he would support the CSIRO during this “difficult time” for the organisation.
This is a government that believes in science. We believe in investing in science. We will continue to invest in science …
I’ve watched the management and leadership of the CSIRO working through these issues with their staff. There’s still more work to do, but they have come forward with that announcement. It is obviously a difficult time for the organisation, but with prioritisation from a government that believes in our national science institution and its capacity to serve the national interest, that is a necessary process, and I support them working their way through those questions.
Updated
Australia’s ‘right to disconnect’ laws helping to reduce unpaid overtime
Workers are quietly exercising their right to disconnect, according to workplace experts, despite rarely lodging claims against overbearing managers.
Last financial year, the Fair Work Commission received just seven applications under the right to disconnect provisions, designed to protect workers who refuse to respond to their employer after hours.
While the small number of applications has raised questions over the reform’s effectiveness, Trent Hancock, principal at Jewell Hancock employment lawyers, says the laws are being used by employees “more as a shield than a sword”.
You’ll have employees not responding to that out of hours communication. The employer recognises that if they then issue a direction to do so, they’ll find themselves on the receiving end of an application to the commission.
The disconnect laws came into effect for all “national system employees” in August last year. Small businesses were brought under the reforms in August this year.
Fiona Macdonald, from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work, says the protections have helped reduce unpaid overtime in workplaces.
Its biggest effect was always going to be about shifting the culture.
The institute’s annual “go home on time day” report found that while full-time employees have been exercising their right to disconnect, part-timers and casuals are doing more unpaid overtime.
NSW to ban Nazi chants and expand police powers after Sydney rally
People in NSW who chant Nazi slogans could be imprisoned as part of a bid to punish and unmask far-right extremists, AAP reports.
New legislation will be introduced by the NSW government on Wednesday after 60 black-clad neo-Nazis yelled Hitler youth chants at state parliament on 8 November.
Though Nazi symbols are already banned in many jurisdictions, the bill will expand the ban to behaviour that shows support for Nazi ideology through imagery or characteristics associated with the ideology.
Anyone who repeats Nazi chants will face up to a year in prison or a maximum fine of $11,000 – a punishment that could be doubled for those who do so near a synagogue, Jewish school or the Sydney Jewish Museum. Attorney general Michael Daley said:
Nobody should be subject to this vile hatred because of their background or faith. We are giving police and the courts additional powers to hold Nazi extremists to account for their abhorrent views.
Police will be able to order perpetrators to take down suspected Nazi symbols and those who refuse could be hit with a $2,200 fine or three months’ prison.
Sussan Ley dodges questions about how much net zero by 2050 would cost
Sussan Ley, the opposition leader, refused to say how much it would cost to transition the economy to net zero emissions by 2050.
Ley just had a heated back and forth on RN Breakfast, where she repeatedly declined to say if the Coalition knew how much the transition would cost:
Labor doesn’t have a figure, we have a plan. And the point is that if you look at our plan, it injects more supply into the system, which pushes costs [down] if we’re arguing about cost …
I just know that the cost is blowing out under Labor, which is why the cost of your power bill is going up. Sally, have you asked the PM what the cost is? Have you got a straight answer from him? The government is in charge of all of these levers for energy policy right now. What we’re saying is: if we are fortunate enough to be elected, this is what we would do.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, and other Coalition MPs have regularly bandied about a $9tn figure for that transition. That claim is false, with the group behind that number saying it had been misrepresented. Academics actually found the additional cost of building an energy system to reach net zero by 2050 was closer to $300bn.
My colleague Adam Morton has more on those figures here:
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Home affairs minister adds conversations ongoing to make sure laws are ‘fit for purpose’ after neo-Nazi rally
Burke added that officials had “significant” powers under current law, but there were ongoing discussions following the neo-Nazi rally.
As you’d expect, there are conversations that I’m having with my department to make sure that all the laws that we have are fit for purpose, not only with my department, but obviously the different intelligence and law enforcement and security agencies that are within my portfolio as well.
The home affairs minister said he was always “pressure testing” different laws with Asio, the AFP and the criminal intelligence commission, adding you never get to a point where you say, “okay, laws, they’re all fixed”.
You’re always reviewing because the nature of the attack and the nature of what people want to do to our social cohesion is always changing.
‘He’s not heading back into the Australia community’, Burke says of man detained after neo-Nazi rally
Tony Burke, the minister for home affairs, said the South African man who had his visa cancelled after attending a neo-Nazi rally in Sydney is not welcome in Australia and would soon be on his way to his home country.
Burke spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying the decision to cancel Matthew Gruter’s visa also sent a message “to the rest of Australia about what we find acceptable”.
He went on:
He’s not heading back into the Australian community.
I think there’s a really simple concept here: that when someone’s on a visa, they’re a guest in Australia, and almost every visa holder is a very welcome guest, and they treat Australia with incredible respect. But if someone turns up as a guest in your home and they just want to create arguments, abuse people, and wreck the place, then you ask them to leave.
And this bloke, for whatever reason, has decided that he can arrive in Australia and then tell a whole lot of Australian citizens that they’re not welcome here. Well, the person who’s not welcome is him and he can leave.
Burke added that his decision was linked to the need to send a “strong national message out” that “modern Australia and multicultural Australia are the same thing”.
Updated
Following on from last post
Daley said in his reading of the bill that the court had acknowledged in its findings that there would be a lesser burden on this freedom if the power was narrowed so that it only affected those who are seeking to access or leave a place or worship.
He said that this was “always the New South Wales government’s intention”:
This bill proposes to clarify the move-on power to give effect to the original intention of this measure …
In doing so, the bill clearly expresses the government’s intention to protect people who are entering or exiting the place of worship.
He said the maximum penalty for refusing to comply with a police move in this instance would be $220.
The catalyst for the first version of the place of worship bill was a protest outside the Great Synagogue where a member of the Israel Defense Forces was speaking. Some Labor MPs had warned their premier, Chris Minns, in an internal meeting before the laws passed that the expanded police powers could be found constitutionally invalid.
Updated
NSW government introduces fresh laws restricting protests outside places of worship
The NSW government has introduced a fresh bill to restrict protests outside places of worship, with the state’s attorney general telling parliament last night that the new legislation clarifies the scope of police powers after an earlier version was found constitutionally invalid.
Michael Daley told parliament in the first reading of the bill last night that the new legislation would give police powers to issue a move-on direction to people participating in a protest taking place in or near a place of worship, but only if the conduct is harassing, intimidating or threatening a person accessing or leaving or attempting to access or leave the place of worship.
He said a person can also be moved on if police find they are intentionally blocking, impeding or hindering a person from accessing or leaving a place of worship.
Daley acknowledged the supreme court’s findings that struck down an earlier version of this law in October after it found the police powers were constitutionally invalid because it impermissibly burdened the freedom of political communication implied in Australia’s constitution.
Those laws, which were successfully challenged by the Palestine Action Group, had given police broad powers to move on someone protesting in or near a place or worship, regardless of what the protest was about.
Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday. Nick Visser here to mind the blog today. Let’s jump in.
Job market locking out those who need work the most, says Anglicare
Australia’s job market is locking out people who most need a chance to work, Anglicare Australia’s annual Jobs Availability Snapshot has revealed.
The Snapshot measures how many jobs are available for people who don’t have qualifications or recent experience.
It finds that:
For every entry-level vacancy, there are 39 people on the JobSeeker payment.
Of those, 25 have barriers to work. This is the highest ratio ever recorded by the Snapshot.
Entry-level jobs now make up just 11% of all vacancies. This is their lowest share in a decade.
Anglicare Australia executive director, Kasy Chambers, said:
All of this shows that people are being failed by a system that treats unemployment as a personal fault instead of a policy failure.
Taxpayers are spending billions of dollars on private employment providers whose business model depends on compliance and punishment. They profit whether or not people find work. Meanwhile, people are stuck in endless appointments and meaningless activities – all while competing for jobs that simply aren’t there.
It’s time to end this failed experiment. The for-profit model has been running for over 20 years, and long-term unemployment has only grown.
Follows on from previous post
The proposed reforms to work health and safety laws clarifies the responsibility around the use of these systems and will allow union representatives to gain access to the algorithms behind the systems so they can fully understand how they are impacting workers – and take action to enforce labour standards, if required.
The amendments will place an obligation on the person legally responsible for the business to ensure these digital tools do not lead to unsafe workloads, unreasonable performance tracking, excessive surveillance or discriminatory work allocation.
The NSW minister for industrial relations, Sophie Cotsis, said.
As digital systems become more common in workplaces, the Minns Labor government is making sure that these systems help businesses without undermining the health and safety of workers. This is about protecting workers’ mental health, preventing harm before it occurs, and giving everyone confidence that workplace technology is used responsibly.
The Minns Labor government has also committed to continuing to work with other jurisdictions through the SafeWork Australia process on how digital systems can be kept safe at work.
The bill responds to relevant recommendations of a 2022 select committee on the impact of technological on the future of work in NSW (reported in 2022) regarding the rise of digital systems and their real impacts on worker psychosocial health.
NSW targets ‘dehumanising’ work systems such as Amazon’s
The Minns Labor government will today introduce new laws to put guardrails around the use of digital programs designed to optimise workers’ workloads.
Digital work systems, often powered by artificial intelligence, are deployed by companies such as Amazon and Uber in retail and in logistics to devise the most efficient way to determine staffing and to pick and pack items and deliver them.
But there are growing concerns that these types of systems can become dehumanising, measuring everything from the speed at which workers work, to the time they spend going to the toilet.
Bernie Smith, the NSW secretary of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), the union that covers retail and warehousing workers, said that often these systems were purchased off the shelf from the US, where labour standards were different from those in Australia.
These systems take out every gap in a worker’s work day, but it is often the gaps that make us human and make our work bearable.
Amazon does it to the nth degree but many other workplaces are using them too. It’s not working smarter, it’s just working harder.
Optus fined over $826,000 for customers losing $39,000 after scammers compromised ID checks
Optus has paid a fine of $826,320 after its subsidiary, Coles Mobile, fell victim to scammers who were able to exploit a vulnerability in third-party ID checks used by Optus to bypass the required verification and gain control of at least four mobile accounts.
Telcos are supposed to have strong ID verification settings in place to prevent scammers from porting a number to a different telco. Scammers who successfully port numbers can then intercept the multi-factor authentication verification for banking if SMS is the method the bank uses. In this case, the scammers then used those mobile services to access the bank accounts of those customers, resulting in reported losses of $39,000.
Coles Mobile breached anti-scam rules on 44 occasions between September and October 2024, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) said.
Acma member Samantha Yorke said it was a one-off issue that was quickly fixed, but it was inexcusable for any telco to not have robust customer ID systems in place, let alone the second-largest telco in Australia.
She said:
Scammers are always looking for any weaknesses in systems, and on this occasion Optus left a vulnerability which directly exposed people to harm. This is the maximum financial penalty the Acma was able to give in this matter. It reflects the serious nature of the breaches.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories before passing the news baton to Nick Visser.
Optus has been fined $826,320 after a subsidiary, Coles Mobile, was targeted by scammers who exploited a weakness in third-party ID checks and gained control of at least four mobile accounts, stealing $39,000 from bank accounts. More details shortly.
The NSW government has introduced a fresh bill to restrict protests outside places of worship, with the state’s attorney general telling parliament last night that the new legislation clarifies the scope of police powers.
It’ll be another busy day in Macquarie Street as the government introduces new laws to protect workers from digital work systems which unions says can be dehumanising, with controls on toilet breaks and the like. More coming up.
