What we learned: Thursday 19 December
That’s where we’ll leave the blog for today.
Here were today’s major developments:
The federal court has fined AGL $25m for wrongly taking money from the pockets of welfare recipients who were no longer its customers using the government-run Centrepay system.
The federal government announced it would slow visa processing in place of its failed blanket caps on international students with a new ministerial direction.
The New South Wales Icac has announced it will not investigate the premier, Chris Minns, over his involvement in the proposal to turn Rosehill racecourse into 25,000 homes.
Sydneysiders have been warned to expect imminent disruptions across the city’s rail network – including in the lead-up to the busy New Year’s period – after a court quashed the state government’s bid to halt industrial action, paving the way for unions to resume work stoppages.
Jaclyn Symes has been sworn in as Victoria’s first female treasurer in a reshuffle by the premier, Jacinta Allan, after Tim Pallas quit politics on Monday.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed for the first time that an estimated 4.5% of Australians 16 years and over are lesbian, gay, bi, trans or gender diverse, or intersex (LGBTI+).
The Australian federal police says it has charged a second Colombian national with debt bondage and servitude offences in relation to alleged human exploitation at their home in Adelaide.
And a hiker has been found safe and well, six days after she went missing in bushland in the Blue Mountains.
Have a good evening, wherever you are.
Updated
Melbourne expected to hit 40C on Boxing Day
Residents of Melbourne are in for a scorcher on Boxing Day, the weather bureau has predicted.
The Bureau of Meteorology has released some of its forecasts for 26 December, showing the Victorian capital is in for a top of 40C.
It’ll be hot in Canberra too, where the temperature is expected to reach 37C.
Adelaide can expect a top of 34C.
Sydney and Hobart are both set for a maximum temperature of 31C.
We have more details on the Christmas Day forecasts here:
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Hiker missing in Blue Mountains for six days located safe and well, NSW police say
A hiker has been found safe and well, six days after she went missing in bushland in the Blue Mountains.
The 33-year-old woman was last seen at Katoomba last Friday.
Police said they started looking for her after the alarm was raised when she could not be located or contacted.
Her car was found on Galwey Lane in Mt Wilson about midday on Saturday, police said.
Police said they had conducted a “widescale land and air search” of the bushland at Mt Wilson this week.
The search included local police with the assistance of Police Rescue, PolAir, NSW ambulance service, the State Emergency Service and the Rural Fire Service (RFS).
About 2.30pm today, the woman was spotted by a Rural Fire Service helicopter, police said.
Police rescue officers and paramedics treated the woman at the scene for minor injuries and dehydration.
She was flown to Nepean hospital for further treatment.
Police have thanked the public and media for their assistance.
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Albanese government approves four coalmine extensions
The Albanese government has approved the extension of four coalmines that climate campaigners estimate will release more than 850m tonnes of CO2 over their lifetime, an equivalent to almost double Australia’s annual emissions.
All four extensions were approved on Thursday afternoon.
The four projects target mostly steel-making coal, with a small amount of coal for burning in power stations. Campaigners said the approvals would put Australians at increased risk from extreme weather events that are being amplified by fossil fuel emissions.
The four projects approved are the Boggabri coalmine in New South Wales, the Caval Ridge Horse Pit in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, and also in Queensland, the Lake Vermont Meadowbrook coalmine and the Vulcan South coalmine.
We’ll have more to come on this.
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Australian Energy Regulator says $25m AGL fine a warning to other retailers
The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has welcomed the issuing of a record $25m fine to AGL for using Centrepay to receive money from the welfare payments of former customers.
The federal court issued the fine earlier today for AGL’s misuse of the system to wrongly receive and keep money from 483 Centrepay users between 9 January 2017 and 28 October 2021.
The AER, which brought the case, said the penalty is the largest ever handed out for breaches of the national energy retail rules.
The regulator said it served as a warning to energy retailers that they must refund money who have been overcharged.
The AER chair, Clare Savage, said:
The record $25 million penalty reflects the seriousness of the breaches and serves as a warning that the AER expects all retailers to refund customers if they have been overcharged and to provide consumers the full protections afforded under the Rules.
The actions by AGL negatively impacted hundreds of people over an extended period, many of these may have been experiencing vulnerability.
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Continued from previous post:
AFP Det Supt Melinda Adam said the federal police were committed to ensuring the safety and welfare of alleged victims of human trafficking.
In a statement, Adam said:
Servitude practices, including debt bondage, occur when people are subjected to conditions to which they had not agreed.
Victims of human trafficking can be significantly deprived of personal freedom in all aspects of their life, and threats, coercion or deception are often used against them.
In some instances, those being exploited may not come forward about their situation out of fear of retribution by perpetrators, social isolation or financial dependence of others.
The AFP urges people to be aware of the indicators of slavery-like practices and report anything that may seem suspicious.
Adam encouraged anyone that suspected they or another person was being exploited or at risk of being exploited to seek help by calling the AFP on 131 237 or making a report on its website.
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AFP charges second person over alleged human exploitation at Adelaide home
The Australian federal police says it has charged a second Colombian national with debt bondage and servitude offences in relation to alleged human exploitation at their home in Adelaide.
The AFP has alleged the woman was involved in the “ongoing and degrading treatment of other residents” who lived at her property in Kilburn, in Adelaide’s inner north.
She allegedly maintained daily control of the victims by tracking their movements, restricting daily activities, scheduling compulsory daily chores, controlling earnings and forcing victims to pay off debts that were unreasonably enforced, the AFP said.
The AFP said the allegations relate to a number of individuals who migrated to Adelaide from Venezuela in 2015 and 2016, and alleged the offences took place over a prolonged period at the Kilburn home and elsewhere in Australia.
The AFP said it arrested the woman, 35, at her Kilburn home yesterday and charged her with the criminal offences of one count of remaining in servitude and one count of intending to cause a victim to enter into debt bondage.
The woman appeared in the Adelaide magistrates court today, where she was granted bail with strict conditions, the AFP said.
On 14 November, the AFP arrested a Colombian man who lived at the same Kilburn property and charged him with debt bondage and servitude offences.
The man appeared in the Adelaide magistrates court on 15 November and was remanded to reappear at the same court today.
The man and the woman are expected to reappear in court at a later date.
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‘This is not a toy train set’: NSW government will seek to ban rail strikes over Christmas and New Year period
The New South Wales government has accused rail unions of putting “a gun to our head” during negotiations over a new pay deal, after a court decision paved the way for unions to take rolling industrial actions that could disrupt Sydney’s train network on New Year’s Eve.
The NSW transport minister, Jo Haylen, admitted to not knowing what industrial actions would be the first the unions have vowed to take immediately – conceding she couldn’t guarantee trains would definitely run on Friday – after the federal court earlier on Thursday dismissed the Minns government’s attempt to stop actions that rail unions had voted to take.
Haylen warned the union now had the ability to now take any of the more than 200 industrial actions the court had cleared the way for – noting “many of them are contradictory” and had the ability to “strangle our network”, such as demands for 24-hour services or none at all, as well as bans on the state transit authorities changing rosters.
She said:
This is not a toy train set. You can’t just move it around with a click of your fingers and expect that that’s going to service the millions of people across Sydney that rely on it each and every day.
Haylen vowed the government will seek to have industrial action banned in the lead-up to New Year’s Eve – going to the Fair Work Commission on grounds the actions could risk public safety and economic harm – but warned beyond that, the prospect of reaching a breakthrough in pay negotiations with unions was bleak.
She said:
The fact is, they’re happy to talk … as long as we agree with them. Now, we will not negotiate with a gun to our head.
Matt Longland, the CEO of Sydney Trains, warned that authorities expect the period between Thursday and New Years to be “a challenging period on the rail network”.
Longland said:
So this will be a very significant impact for the travelling public … we do expect that we will see impacts from this industrial action in the coming days.
You can read more here:
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Hello, I hope you’ve had a great day so far. I’ll be with you on the blog until this evening.
Updated
Thanks for joining me on the blog today. Handing over now to Catie McLeod who will keep you posted on the afternoon’s news.
Coalition takes aim at Labor over ‘open-slather approach’ to international student caps
The opposition has hit out at Labor’s “open-slather approach” on limiting the number of international students that can study in Australia, with shadow education minister, Sarah Henderson, vowing to impose a “much tougher” but unspecified cap.
As my colleague Caitlin Cassidy reported earlier today, the Albanese government introduced a new ministerial direction to throttle student visa applications once a tertiary education institution has reached 80% of its proposed international student cap.
Labor’s approach replaces a former ministerial direction that gave visa processing priority to “low risk” sandstone universities and students from “low risk” nations.
The Coalition has pledged a tough crackdown on the increasing number of international students entering the country after record lows in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic.
Figures from the education department, released Wednesday, show there were more than 200,000 higher education commencements across the country in 2024.
Labor has planned to pass legislation in the final sitting weeks to remove the former ministerial direction and replace it with new powers to set a cap on universities and suspend and cancel courses.
The Greens and the Coalition teamed up against the changes and the bill did not pass.
Henderson clarified on Thursday the opposition still supported a policy of limiting foreign student numbers, promising to bring in a “much tougher cap”.
She added:
By tying the new Ministerial Direction 111 to Labor’s flawed student caps scheme, the government will continue to drive excessive numbers of foreign students to Australia’s elite, metropolitan universities.
This open-slather approach places no limit on the number of foreign students who can come to Australia.
The Coalition will impose a much tougher cap on foreign students at metropolitan universities which puts the needs of Australians first.”
But how would the opposition do that differently? We’re still none the wiser.
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Fears Vanuatu health system could be overwhelmed after earthquake
Vanuatu’s public health system risks being overwhelmed amid mounting waterborne disease, aid agencies have said, as a lack of clean water and patchy telecommunications service complicated rescue operations after Tuesday’s powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake.
The government’s disaster management office said early on Wednesday that 14 deaths had been confirmed, but hours later said nine had been verified by the main hospital. The number was expected to increase because people remained trapped in fallen buildings, a spokesperson said. About 200 people have been treated for injuries.
Much of Vanuatu remains without water after two large reservoirs serving the capital, Port Vila, were totally decimated by the earthquake, the National Disaster Management Office said. Landslides and aftershocks exacerbated the damage to water infrastructure and increased the risk of disease, aid agencies said.
Read more:
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Australians’ wealth rose almost 10% in the past year, ABS says
You might not feel particularly flush just now but Australians’ collective wealth has continued to swell, rising 9.9% in the year to 30 September, the ABS has reported today.
The $16.9tn estimated household wealth translates into about $625,000 per Australian, and the September quarter marked eight in a row that wealth has increased. Compared with June 2022, wealth has risen 17.4%, according to ABS data.
Of course, a lot of the increase in health has been linked to rising house prices, which might ease the pain of repaying the mortgage just a bit. (The December quarter will probably mark a ninth quarter in a row of bulging wealth unless we get a string of days like today on the stock market, where shares have shed about 2%.)
Superannuation assets rose 3.5% (or $137.4bn) in the September quarter, aided by the increase in the super guarantee from 11% to 11.5%, the ABS said.
The Reserve Bank will be wary that an increase in the value of our assets will be accompanied by a “wealth effect” of households spending a bit more. However, there’s little sign of that spending splurge.
The government’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (Myefo) out yesterday forecast the growth of household consumption in this fiscal year will be only 1%, or half what they were expecting in the May budget.
(The Kiwis copy us for many things, such as Reserve Bank of New Zealand. They also have a half-year economic and fiscal update. Myefo wears it better, I think.)
The RBA in its most recent statement on monetary policy also had pencilled in a 2% growth pace for consumption in 2024-25. If they rein in their consumption predictions ahead of their next board meeting, set for 17-18 February – they might be more inclined to cut their key interest rate at that gathering. (Trouble is, we probably won’t know about that revision until the rates verdict lands.)
Odds continue to shift gently towards a February RBA rate cut, but a lot can change between then and now.
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Icac won’t investigate Chris Minns over Rosehill racecourse proposal
The New South Wales corruption watchdog will not investigate the premier, Chris Minns, over his involvement in the proposal to turn Rosehill racecourse into 25,000 homes.
In a statement released a short time ago, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) said it had determined the information received did “not indicate a reasonable likelihood of involving corrupt conduct”.
That decision was made unanimously by an assessment panel of three commissioners and senior staff, the watchdog said.
The referral was made by a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the Rosehill plan, which found the Minns government failed to maintain impartiality in its championing of the controversial deal.
In its report, released on 6 December, the upper house inquiry found the government had not followed proper process in the early stages of its dealings with the Australian Turf Club.
It also found that Minns labelled a meeting with the head of the Australian Turf Club, Steve McMahon, as a “meet and greet” in one of his diary disclosures.
The inquiry found this was “misleading” and inappropriate given Minns and McMahon’s longstanding friendship, and that the premier should have declared a conflict of interest.
The inquiry referred its report to Icac. At the time, Minns emphatically denied any suggestion of wrongdoing.
Icac has now confirmed that it will not pursue the report’s referral or an earlier referral that canvassed “analogous allegations”.
The watchdog’s chair has written to the parliamentary committee which chaired the inquiry to advise it of the decision not to investigate the matter.
You can read more of our coverage here:
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Racism ‘deeply entrenched’ at universities, human rights commission finds in Respect at Uni report
“Both interpersonal and structural racism are pervasive and deeply entrenched at universities”, the Australian Human Rights Commission has found.
The commission has published an interim report on its study, Respect At Uni.
Race discrimination commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman said the “alarming increase in antisemitism” on university campuses was one of the catalysts of the project.
He said:
Racism impacts different communities in different ways, including Jewish, Muslim, Palestinian and Arab students and staff.
It has a profoundly negative impact on First Nations students and staff.
International students also felt excluded and unwelcome, and African and Asian students and staff described “frequent and severe incidents of racism”.
A “significant amount of work” is needed to address the issue, Sivaraman said, and the commission will make recommendations in their final report next year.
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Group of Eight universities opposed to Labor’s new international student policy
University bodies have come out broadly supportive of Labor’s new international student policy, but not the Group of Eight (Go8).
Ministerial Direction 111, introduced from today, replaces the current policy of visa processing priority for “low risk” sandstone universities with giving all education providers high priority processing until they reach 80% of their proposed international student cap.
The caps failed to be legislated last month when they were were defeated by the Liberals and the Greens.
Ceo of the Go8, which represents Australia’s research intensive universities,Vicki Thomson, said replacing “one flawed process with another” wouldn’t improve integrity and quality of the international student visa system.
She said:
We run the risk of confusing the international student market with these constant changes to policy settings.
For too many potential students, it makes Australia look too hard and too unwelcoming as a higher education destination.
Having set targets for each Australian university’s international enrolments for 2025, it makes no sense that prompt government support processing visas will only apply to 80% of that target.
Even more bewildering is the fact that the direction allows for processing to be slowed down once this threshold reaches 80% – not the full threshold.
You can see the full cap breakdown here:
NSW government vows to prevent Christmas and New Year’s travel chaos
The New South Wales government has vowed to “take every possible measure” to ensure Sydney’s train network runs smoothly over Christmas and New Year’s Eve after the federal court cleared the way for rail unions to resume industrial action immediately.
After Thursday’s federal court ruling and a vow from union chiefs to resume action – including possible work stoppages – immediately, a NSW government spokesperson said:
We will continue to take every possible measure to ensure industrial action does not affect Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Our next step is to lodge a section 424 into the Fair Work Commission to protect New Year’s Eve and stop rail disruption.”
Jo Haylen, the NSW transport minister, is expected to speak shortly.
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Greens accuse Labor of ‘dog whistle’ on migrants under new international student policy
The Greens’ reaction to Labor’s new international student policy is lukewarm at best, with the deputy leader and spokesperson for higher education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, accusing the government of continuing to “dog whistle” on migrants.
Faruqi said the replacement of Ministerial Direction 107 with Ministerial Direction 111 was welcome but the “heart of the issue remains unchanged”.
Instead of targeting regional universities and “high risk” countries, the new policy will slow visa processing after institutions reach 80% of their proposed international student cap.
Faruqi said Labor was using the “same flawed international student caps that were thoroughly rejected by … the sector” with their new direction.
This might be a small reprieve for a sector that has been crushed for too long, but implementing international student caps by stealth through a ministerial direction is sneaky and does not tackle the issues universities face.
Labor continues to dog-whistle and blame international students and migrants for the housing crisis they did not cause. The Albanese government should be ashamed of competing with Dutton’s Coalition in the terrible race to see who wins on punching down on migrants the hardest.
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Rail union to bring forward industrial action
Sydneysiders have been warned to expect imminent disruptions across the city’s rail network – including in the lead-up to the busy New Year’s period – after a court quashed the state government’s bid to halt industrial action paving the way for unions to resume work stoppages.
On Thursday, the federal court dismissed the Minns government’s attempt to ban industrial action that rail unions had voted to take, undoing an interim injunction the government secured two Sundays ago which effectively paused rolling industrial action – which had been launched after an intense negotiating period for a new pay deal broke down.
After the federal court’s decision, Toby Warnes, the New South Wales secretary of the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU), said the union would now tell its members they could bring forward industrial action. Before Thursday’s ruling, the union had applied for a fresh protected industrial action ballot – which members voted in favour of – that would be exempt from the interim injunction.
“As a result, industrial action will recommence immediately. We’re going back to our office to inform our members to enforce the bans that were on immediately before the injunction two Sundays ago,” Warnes said.
Work stoppages, as well as distance limits for drivers and orders to deactivate Opal readers, are among the industrial actions that can now take place.
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Weather conditions are forecast to ease in the south-east on Thursday, as a south-easterly surge from New South Wales pushes north.
“That means showers will start clearing from the south-eastern areas while continuing in parts further to the north,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Miriam Bradbury said.
As residents in the south-east wait for flood waters to subside, Queensland’s north is preparing for the next deluge of wet weather.
The bureau has warned a trough offshore the coast of Townsville will drift northward from Thursday and linger for days.
A weak embedded low may form in the trough later in the week but the bureau believes it is unlikely to become a tropical cyclone.
Daily rainfall totals up to 60mm are forecast on Thursday and up to 80mm on Friday but there could be heavier localised falls of up to 200mm.
“There is significant uncertainty in the timing and location of the heaviest rainfall, though small coastal catchments may receive the highest rainfall totals,” the bureau said.
“Localised river level rises and flash flooding are likely within the areas of heaviest rainfall, with isolated minor riverine flooding possible.”
– Australian Associated Press
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Emergency alerts as deluge raises rivers
Anxious residents in two regional areas are waiting for flood waters to subside after emergency alerts were issued for rising river levels after days of heavy rain.
People in the Western Downs and South Burnett in Queensland have been told to be prepared to evacuate homes ahead of possible inundation.
“Residents in low-lying areas should PREPARE NOW,” Queensland police said in an alert early on Thursday.
Warn neighbours, secure belongings and enact your emergency plan.
It follows days of heavy rain across south-east Queensland which caused flooding and power outages.
Conditions are forecast to ease but the state’s north could next be in the firing line of torrential downpours with a possible storm system forming off the coast.
The Western Downs mayor, Andrew Smith, said the council was monitoring the situation in Jandowae after the local dam started spilling overnight.
“We still have water coming into the dam. It is very much a watch and see,” he told ABC Radio.
We’ll wait and see what unfolds during the day but I think the forecasts are very favourable.
A major flood warning has also been issued for downstream of the Logan River at Beaudesert, expected to reach 8.3 metres on Thursday.
– Australian Associated Press
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The National Tertiary Education Union (Nteu) has urged the federal government to ensure no jobs will be lost as a result of its new policy on international student visa applications.
Ministerial Direction 111, which comes into effect today, will slow down visa processing once an institution reaches 80% of its proposed international student allocation in place of smaller universities and “high risk” countries, as was in practice.
Nteu national president, Dr Alison Barnes, said the federal government must guarantee there would be no job losses stemming from a reduction in international students.
We are calling for a transition fund to be put in place to ensure universities have no excuse but to protect their most precious asset – staff.
Vice-chancellors have already shown a willingness to use changes to international student arrangements as fig leaf to cover their own failures, and unfairly threaten job cuts.The scaremongering must now end once and for all.
We need an iron-clad commitment from universities and the federal government that this ministerial direction will not lead to a single job being cut.
Australian shares plunge, Australian dollar hits 26-month low
The Australian share market has plunged to a six-week low after the US Federal Reserve indicated it expected to cut interest rates just twice next year, while the Australian dollar hit its lowest level in 26 months.
At 10.40am AEDT on Thursday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 166.4 points, or 2.0%, to 8,143.0, while the broader All Ordinaries had fallen 172.8 points, or 2.02%, to 8,384.9.
Overnight the Federal Reserve cut interest rates as expected, although it was a split vote, with one official favouring leaving rates on hold.
The consensus of its rate-setting committee was for just two rate cuts in 2025, half the number previously predicted.
“As we think about further cuts, we’re going to be looking for progress on inflation,” the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, told a news conference.
“We have been moving sideways on 12-month inflation.”
– Australian Associated Press
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The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is working with Commbank (CBA) to subsidise electric vehicles for customers earning less than $100,000 a year, as well as essential workers including police, teachers, fire fighters and healthcare workers.
CEFC has committed $150 million to CBA’s EV Access Program, supporting a discounted rate that will apply to new and used EVs valued up to $55,000, as well as home charging infrastructure.
The program could save customers between 1% and 5% for EV specific loans compared to secured internal combustion engine vehicle loan, according to a CEFC statement.
“For example, on a loan of $40,000, a five% interest rate discount over seven years could save customers more than $8,000 in interest,” as put in the statement.
The loan aims to support CBA customers earning less than $100,000 a year, as well as police, teachers, fire fighters, health care, and other essential workers.
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ABS reveals 4.5% of Australians are LGBTI+
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed for the first time that an estimated 4.5% of Australians 16 years and over are lesbian, gay, bi, trans or gender diverse, or Intersex (LGBTI+).
According to ABS head of health statistics, Robert Long, this is the “first nationally representative data of their kind in Australia”.
The ABS estimated that:
About 0.3% of Australians 16 years and over report they know they were born with variations of sex characteristics
LGB+ Australians 16 years and over make up about 3.6% of the population
About 0.9% of Australians 16 years and over are trans and gender diverse, including trans men, trans women and non-binary people
Young Australians were more likely to be LGBTI+, with 9.5% of people aged 16 to 24, and 7.5% in the 25-34 category identifying as LGBTI+.
The jurisdictions with the most LGBTI+ people were in the ACT (5.9%) and Victoria (5.3%), statistically significantly more than other states and territories – although LGBTI+ people are found everywhere in Australia.
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Jaclyn Symes is speaking about her appointment as Victoria’s first female treasurer.
She says she’s very excited about the new challenge, though sad to leave her role as attorney general and emergency services minister:
When you are a minister and you have the opportunity to work in a portfolio, it’s somewhat a part of your family, it becomes part of your identity. Leaving attorney and emergency services is hard, but I am excited about a new challenge.
Asked how she will she be different to Tim Pallas, Symes says:
I have an enormous amount of respect for Tim, but I’m a very different person. I will bring a different approach, and I’ll let you guys, perhaps do comparisons at some time in the future.
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Allan says Symes will be first female treasurer in state history
Allan says Jaclyn Symes will bring “new energy” and focus to the role of treasurer. She says:
I am particularly proud to note that Jaclyn is the first woman in Victoria’s history to serve in the role of treasurer, and alongside myself, we are the first two women to hold these roles in the state’s history, and that is something that reflects enormously on Jacqueline’s great work ethic, great dedication and commitment, and also has the Victorian parliament and the Victorian government reflect the community that we represent.
Allan says:
This team backs in my priorities in housing, jobs and supporting busy families.
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Jacinta Allan unveils new cabinet
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has unveiled her new cabinet.
As we reported earlier the state attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, will become treasurer as well as minister for industrial relations and regional development, with the planning minister, Sonya Kilkenny, to take over her role as attorney general. Vicki Ward will take Symes’ emergency services portfolio, equality and a new minsitry for “natural disasters and recovery”
In a demotion for Danny Pearson, he has lost his transport infrastructure ministry to Gabrielle Williams and responsibility for the suburban rail loop to Harriet Shing, who will also take the newly created “housing and building” portfolio. His portfolios of Worksafe and TAC will be handed to deputy premier, Ben Carroll.
Instead, Pearson will become minister for economic growth, jobs and a new portfolio for “finance”.
Labor’s newest minister, Nick Staikos, will take on the ministries of consumer affairs and local government.
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Minns says pill-testing is not permanent and they will be ‘led by the information’
Minns reiterated that the introduction of trial pill testing at music festivals is not a permanent decision.
He said to press:
We [are] not making the decision to make it permanent today, we want to be led by the information that is presented over [the] summer period. Ultimately our responsibility is to keep people alive and to save lives and we believe this decision is a step in the right direction.
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Minns acknowledges ‘essential contradiction’ in NSW pill testing turnabout but says it’s better than risking deaths
Speaking to press about the introduction of trial pill testing at music festivals, the NSW premier, Chris Minns, says his government has decided to “live with a contradiction” in law “rather than risk someone dying as a result of not having it in place”.
He said:
I want to make it clear from the beginning, we acknowledge there is an essential contradiction to this change in policy. Drugs are illegal in the state yet we have made a decision to allow for pill testing at major music festivals. There is no perfect law here, there is no law that we can craft that can do both things at the same time.
The government has made a decision to live with a contradiction rather than risk someone dying as a result of not having it in place.
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AGL fined $25m for wrongly taking welfare money via Centrepay
AGL has been fined $25m for wrongly taking money from the pockets of welfare recipients who were no longer its customers using the government-run Centrepay system.
The federal court issued the substantial fine on Thursday morning. It had previously ruled that AGL had breached the energy rules 14,000 times in its use of Centrepay, a debit system designed to help welfare recipients pay for essentials.
The Centrepay system was used to allow AGL to take deductions from hundreds of welfare recipients who had long ago left as customers.
The court ordered that AGL implement a compliance and training program to ensure that it was automatically alerted when money came to it via Centrepay from former customers. It must also set up a compliance and training program to ensure staff do not breach energy retail rules when dealing with inactive customers, with the program to be regularly and independently reviewed.
AGL was also ordered to appoint a compliance officer to ensure the company meets the court’s orders.
The company is not alone in its alleged misuse of Centrepay. The government services minister, Bill Shorten, has referred three other energy retailers to the regulator over similar allegations. The regulator is still considering whether to take enforcement action against them.
The federal government recently announced a suite of reforms to Centrepay, including measures to stop energy retailers using the system to continue receiving money from former customers.
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Shareholders rebuke ANZ over executive pay
ANZ’s outgoing chief executive, Shayne Elliott, will forfeit $3.2m in bonuses in a bid to quell backlash by shareholders against the bank’s executive remuneration plans at the annual general meeting today.
The forfeited 2025 bonus is called “long term variable remuneration”, which refers to various incentives linked to performance. Last financial year, he secured a $3.4m long-term bonus, and a total statutory pay packet of $5.7m.
The long-serving CEO is due to step down next year, and will still earn his base pay plus any other available bonuses. Elliott’s base pay last financial year was $2.5m.
Earlier, the ANZ chairman, Paul O’Sullivan, told shareholders in Melbourne today that a “sizeable group” of shareholders will voting against the remuneration report.
“We will ensure we take the lessons into account in our future deliberations,” O’Sullivan said.
Early voting results from appointed proxy groups showed that the protest vote would exceed 25% when votes are finalised today, which would represent a first strike against the remuneration report.
A second strike next year would open the bank up to a potential board spill.
The corporate regulator has previously announced it is investigating ANZ over its handling of a bond sale.
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Australia sends disaster assistance to Vanuatu
Australia has sent a 64-person disaster assistance team and two canines to Vanuatu to help with search and rescue efforts after a powerful magnitude-7.3 earthquake hit the island on Tuesday.
The federal government confirmed the teams, which include doctors, paramedics and federal police, landed in the island’s capital, Port Vila, on Wednesday.
Communications and the commercial airport on the island have been heavily affected by the earthquake and teams on the ground are still assessing the damage and searching for survivors.
Overnight, 148 Australians were returned home on two Royal Australian air force aircraft. The foreign affairs department has confirmed about 500 Australians have registered on its online crisis registration portal for assistance.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, was asked whether further flights would be organised to help stranded Australians.
She told ABC News breakfast this morning:
We stand ready to support the people of Vanuatu at the government of Vanuatu’s request. Really what was sent in the last 24 hours was the first instalment and of course we are ready to provide further assistance as this disaster unfolds. We are neighbours and friends in this region.
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Qantas engineers to strike on Friday
Qantas is seeking to reassure its holidaymakers that industrial action planned by some of its engineers for Friday won’t wreak havoc on their travel plans.
Members of an alliance of engineering unions will take stop work action tomorrow, a week after they also walked off the job last Friday, as they seek better pay and conditions.
On Thursday, Qantas said last week’s strike led to no customer impact.
In a statement, Qantas said:
The airline has worked hard to put a number of contingencies in place and passengers should continue to head to the airport as planned. As always, unplanned maintenance issues, adverse weather, or other events may impact operations on the day.
Approximately 160 line maintenance AMEs are rostered on during Friday’s period of action with only Alliance union members eligible to take part. The additional workgroups taking action form part of long-term aircraft maintenance teams and don’t perform day of operation engineering support.
A Qantas spokesperson said:
It’s disappointing to see the unions targeting people travelling to see loved ones at this time of year. We’re offering our engineers a competitive package including pay rises, upskilling and career progression that will enable them to earn significantly more over the next few years.
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NSW agrees to pill testing trial at music festivals
New South Wales will trial pill testing at music festivals after a decades-long push by advocates calling for the government to heed harm reduction evidence.
The Minns government announced on Thursday the 12-month long trial will enable festival-goers to take a small sample of narcotics to a health professional to test for purity, potency and adulterants.
“No parent wants to be given the news that something has happened to their child at a music festival, and that they are now in an emergency department or worse,” said the state premier, Chris Minns.
The trial has a clear purpose – to reduce harm and save lives.
In March, Queensland became the first state to establish two permanent pill-testing clinics after Canberra established one in 2022.
Last October, the Minns government had rejected renewed calls to introduce pill testing after two young men died at a music festival.
Jen Ross-King, whose daughter Alex Ross-King died in 2019 at a Sydney music festival after taking MDMA and drinking, was among those calling for the change, imploring the government “listen to the experts”.
The introduction of pill testing was overwhelmingly backed by drug reform advocates at the state’s second drug summit, last month.
Read more:
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Schools honour founder and author John Marsden
Schools founded by beloved Australian author John Marsden have honoured their former principal’s contribution to education as groundbreaking and to young adult literature as revolutionary.
Marsden founded Candlebark in 2006, then Alice Miller School in 2016, “embodying his progressive educational philosophy that emphasised student agency, creativity, and adventure,” their statement reads.
John Marsden transformed countless young lives through both his writing and his groundbreaking approach to education.
Despite stepping down as principal earlier this year, John remained deeply involved with both schools … Just last week, he attended both the Year 7 and Grade 6 graduations, where students spoke movingly about the impact of his educational vision on their lives.
As an author, John’s contribution to young adult literature was revolutionary. His unflinching honesty in addressing complex themes resonated with readers globally, earning him numerous awards including the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year award. However, true to his humble nature, John often downplayed his literary success, preferring to focus on his educational work where he could directly impact young lives.
The Australian author, beloved for young adult novels including the Tomorrow series and The Rabbits, died yesterday, aged 74:
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Threats to parliamentarians surge
Threats to Australian federal parliamentarians reported to the Australian Federal Police have increased by more than 40% in the past financial year.
The AFP received 1,009 reports of incidents involving harassment, nuisance, offensive and threatening communications in 2023-2024. This is a 42% increase from the 709 matters reported during the same period in 2022-23.
AFP Cmdr Stephen Fry said a threat of harm or violence against a federal parliamentarian is a criminal offence.
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Universities Australia welcomes scrapping of Ministerial Direction 107
Universities Australia has breathed a sigh of relief over Labor’s decision to scrap Ministerial Direction 107 (MD107), which “wreaked havoc” on regional and outer metropolitan institutions.
The regulation, enacted in December last year, gave visa processing priority to “low risk” sandstone universities and students from “low risk” nations.
The chief executive of Universities Australia, Luke Sheehy, said it was a “commonsense decision” that was “desperately needed” to deliver certainty and stability to the embattled sector.
MD107 has wreaked havoc, stripping billions of dollars from the economy and inflicting incredibly serious financial harm on universities, particularly those in regional and outer suburban areas. We have called for it to be revoked since June and we strongly support the Albanese government’s decision to create a more even playing field for universities.
Sheehy said declining government investment in higher education had meant institutions had become “necessarily reliant” on international student venue, while also being used as “cannon fodder in a political battle over migration and housing”.
“As we head toward the next federal election, our ask is simple – we need to take the politics out of higher education and focus on the national interest that flows from it.”
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Labor to slow international student visa processing
The federal government will slow visa processing in place of its failed international student cap with a new ministerial direction.
The cap, which would drive down enrolments to a maximum of 270,000, was voted down by the Liberals and the Greens.
Ministerial Direction 107, which has been operating as an arbitrary cap by targeting regional universities and “high risk” countries, will be replaced from today with a new direction that priorities international education providers acting “sustainably”.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said the policy was a counterbalance to Peter Dutton’s “recklessness” in blocking the legislation.
The best option would have been the cap that was voted down by Peter Dutton, but this option will still allow us to use one of the biggest levers in our migration system.
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Jaclyn Symes to become Victorian treasurer
Victoria’s attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, is set to become the state’s first female treasurer.
Guardian Australia understands Symes – the leader of the government in the upper house – will be sworn in on Thursday to replace Tim Pallas, who quit politics on Monday.
She was tapped by the premier, Jacinta Allan, for the role, despite not being from the socialist left faction Pallas was a part of. While she does not have an economic or financial background, Symes currently sits on the cabinet’s expenditure committee and is widely considered a good operator.
Symes will be one of few treasurers to sit in the upper house, including former Labor treasurer John Lenders. Her swearing-in at Government House will be accompanied by a more significant cabinet reshuffle than previously flagged by Allan earlier this week.
It will kick off at about 11am.
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Man charged after allegedly threatening violence against an aged care facility based on religion
A man has been charged with threatening violence based on religion after he allegedly posted an offensive comment online directed towards a Randwick aged-care facility, NSW police said in a media release. Guardian Australia understand the comment is believed to be antisemitic.
Officers commenced investigations on Wednesday after receiving a report of an alleged threat of violence.
A 48-year-old man was arrested at a home in Cambridge Street, Harris Park, at 3pm.
He was charged with publicly threatening violence on the grounds of religion and using a carriage service to “menace/harass/offend,” police said.
The man was released on conditional bail to appear at Parramatta local court on 15 February 2025.
Police will allege he posted a threatening and offensive comment on a social media platform directed towards an aged care facility in Randwick.
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Bali bomb plotters moved from Guantánamo to Malaysia after guilty plea
The US has transferred two Malaysian detainees from the Guantánamo Bay military prison to their home country, after they pleaded guilty to charges related to deadly 2002 Bali bombings and agreed to testify against the alleged ringleader of that and other attacks.
Prosecutors say Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep worked for years with Encep Nurjaman, known as Hambali, an Indonesian leader of al-Qaida affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah. The two men helped Nurjaman escape capture after the 12 October 2002 bombings that killed 202 people at two nightspots in Bali, US officials said.
The two men entered guilty pleas to conspiracy and other charges in January. Their transfer comes after they provided testimony that prosecutors plan to use in the future against Nurjaman, the alleged mastermind, the Pentagon said in a statement on Wednesday.
Nurjaman is in custody in Guantánamo awaiting resumption of pre-trial hearings in January involving the Bali bombings and other attacks.
Read the full story here:
148 Australians returned home after Vanuatu earthquake
Almost 150 Australians were flown out of Vanuatu overnight after a powerful earthquake hit the Pacific island earlier this week.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said the 148 Australian citizens returned home on two Royal Australian Air Force aircraft in a post on X on Thursday morning.
“We are helping Vanuatu to restore operations at the commercial airport. Additional assistance will be provided where possible, ahead of the airport reopening.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed its online crisis registration portal had around 500 registrations from Australians as of Wednesday.
Fears violence against women and children will peak over Christmas
Violent attacks against women and children spike on key public holidays, as a new study reveals New Year’s Day as the worst date for a rise in assaults recorded.
Data released by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows the extent of the increase in violence on significant dates of the calendar. The report shows both domestic violence and non-DV assaults peak on New Year’s Day, with more assaults occurring on this day than on any other day of the year.
“The early hours of New Year’s Day are particularly concerning, with assaults peaking between midnight and 3am, reflecting the extended revelry of New Year’s Eve,” the bureau’s executive director, Jackie Fitzgerald, said.
While domestic violence assaults soared on Christmas Day, non-DV attacks were among the lowest of the year.
Fitzgerald said it showed the unique pressure families faced at this time of the year as people were forced to navigate heightened emotions and family dynamics. The research also found “notable spikes” on Australia Day and Anzac Day.
Domestic violence in particular soared by more than 60% on Australia Day, with greater alcohol consumption, crowds and social gatherings attributed as higher risk factors.
- Australian Associated Press
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Australian aid to Ukraine to surpass $1.5bn as embassy reopens
Australia’s support for Ukraine will surpass $1.5bn as it offers more aid and reveals an embassy will reopen in the war-torn country for the first time since 2022, Australian Associated Press reports
The ambassador to Ukraine, Paul Lehmann, and the deputy head of mission will return to Kyiv in January, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, said from the nation’s capital on Thursday.
Wong visited Australia’s embassy in Kyiv, which was closed by the former Morrison government in 2022 at the outbreak of war against Russia.
“The Albanese government has always said we would reopen our embassy in Kyiv when it is safe to do so,” she said.
A cross-party parliamentary inquiry in November said there was a “strong case” for a return of a physical diplomatic presence, pointing to 70 other nations that have reopened their embassies.
Wong met Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, her counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, and the energy minister, Herman Halushchenko.
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From the ground in Vanuatu
More from AAP:
Tim Cutler, the Sydney-raised boss of Vanuatu Cricket, was having lunch in the downtown Coffee Tree cafe when the mighty tremor shook the buildings around him.
“The first shake was not an alien feeling to anyone that has spent much time in Vanuatu. You get frequent tremors,” he told AAP.
“But it just got stronger and stronger so I went from a moment of ‘oh’ to ‘oh no’.
“Things were just flying around and I was lucky not to be hit by anything. A couple of people I was with had a few bruises, some people were screaming, some were quiet, a few people were running around.
“A water tank fell over and rolled on to a lady hiding under a table ... it was just surreal, slow-motion (that felt) somewhere between a dream or a movie or at a theme park.”
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Gallagher says Labor has done a lot to address ‘structural pressures’ on budget
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, has defended the government’s approach to aged care, health, the NDIS, defence and paying interest on debt after accusations from the opposition of high spending ahead of next year’s federal election.
Asked why the government has failed to bring in enough reform to pay for spending on ABC Radio National, Gallagher said:
I think we have … We’ve got some big pressures coming on to the budget. We’ve been talking about that those for a while, aged care, health care, NDIS, defense and paying interest on the government’s debt, and I think we’ve made progress in all of those areas. They are the big five structural pressures on the budget.
We’ve put in reforms the NDIS, we’ve put in reforms to aged care, and both of those are showing improvements in MYEFO [the mid year economic financial outlook]. In Defence, Richard Marles has done an extraordinary amount of work to make sure that defence can live within their funding envelope, and we’ve lowered the debt burden and reduced the interest on that debt in the order of $70bn.
Each budget update and budgets are a set of decisions and balances, but on the structural side of the budget, I don’t think you would have found a government that’s done more to try and address those big structural spends than we’ve done in the last two years.
The MYFEO handed down yesterday indicated Australia’s federal budget is on track for a deficit of $26.9bn this financial year and is not projected to return to balance until 2034-35. Read more:
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Gallagher defends budget after criticism from EY economist
Katy Gallagher, the minister for finance, has responded to a statement from Cherelle Murphy, EY’s chief economist, on ABC Radio National.
Murphy said the government – and other governments before it – have not been willing to match up revenue and expenditure, passing debts across generations. Gallagher:
I think it’s easy to commentate on a budget. It’s harder to put one together.
And we when you look at what we’ve done with this budget since coming to government, the budget is $200bn better off since we inherited it. We’ve also paid down debt. We’ve paid lowered the interest bill on that debt. We’ve delivered two surpluses, and we’ve managed to find investments to go into all of those key areas that people care about, whether it be cost of living or essential services. And we’ve done all of that.
It’s a balancing act. There’s more work to do. A budget is an ongoing project, in a sense, because the demands of government never stop.
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Australian rescuers arrive in Vanuatu
Australian rescue and medical teams have arrived in Port Vila as Vanuatu races to respond to Tuesday’s 7.3-magnitude earthquake. The death toll stood at 14 late on Wednesday with at least 200 injured, according to the Red Cross, Australian Associated Press reports.
Anthony Albanese said the crews would be on the ground from last night and the people of Vanuatu had a long road to recovery ahead.
“Australia stands ready to provide further assistance to our Pacific family in their time of need,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
No Australians have been confirmed dead in the quake, but one case in particular shows the ties between the two Pacific neighbours.
Rodney Prestia, chief executive of labour hire business iComply, told AAP that a 26-year-old woman who he identified only as Valerie was crushed in a collapsed building.
“It’s an absolute tragedy and our team’s been really rattled by it,” he said.
With the airport reopening on Wednesday afternoon, relief and support from Australia was able to touch down, including a C17 Globemaster and C130 Hercules with personnel from Queensland and NSW Fire and Rescue.
Australian federal police, a foreign affairs department crisis response team and a medical assistance team were also deployed.
The taskforce leader and chief superintendent, Douglas May, said their first priority was to help people trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
“Ultimately we know there are lives to be saved there right now,” he said.
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Labor gives go ahead to electricity transmission link in southern NSW
The Albanese government has given the greenlight to a major electricity transmission link in southern New South Wales that could allow three gigawatts of large-scale renewable energy projects to connect the Australian east coast power grid.
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said she had approved the $4.8bn HumeLink – a long-promised 365km, 500-kilovolt high-voltage connection that would link Wagga Wagga, Bannaby and Maragle and is needed to connect the troubled Snowy 2.0 development.
Plibersek said the approval came with conditions to protect nature, including limits on land clearing and that most of the new transmission lines would be within existing transmission corridors.
In a statement, Plibersek said Labor was “getting on with the job of transforming Australia into a renewable energy superpower” while the Coalition was proposing a “risky nuclear plan”:
The renewable energy transition is real, it’s happening right now, and it’s the only plan supported by experts and business to deliver clean, affordable and reliable power for homes.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, last week announced further details of the Coalition’s nuclear policy. It would involve significantly slowing the rollout of renewable energy and attempting to extend the life of old coal-fired plants until after 2040. You can read more about it here, here and here.
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Thank you Martin Farrer for kicking off the blog this morning. I’ll be rolling your news updates through the day – let’s get into it
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Rafqa Touma who takes over.
Penny Wong has pledged another $1.5bn in aid to Ukraine and announced that the Australian embassy in Kyiv will be reopened. On a visit to the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday, the foreign minister said the ambassador to Ukraine, Paul Lehmann, and the deputy head of mission will return to Kyiv in January. More coming up.
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has announced this morning that tech companies will have two extra months to finalise plans to restrict children from accessing adult websites. She said the industry needed time to consider the rushed under-16s social media ban legislation and how it might intersect with restrictions on adult content.
Vanuatu’s capital was still without water last night, a day after reservoirs were destroyed by the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that wrought havoc on the South Pacific island nation. The death toll of 14 is expected to climb as rescue workers dig through collapsed buildings and includes a woman who recently finished a nine-month work stint in Queensland. More coming up.
