What we learned, 22 June 2025
With that we’re wrapping up the blog. The US strike on Iran, the likely consequences for the Middle East and the global order have, of course, dominated the discussion today. Here’s a quick recap.
President Donald Trump announced about 10am AEST that the US had bombed nuclear sites in Iran, including the Fordow nuclear site. The strike was carried out by US stealth B2 bombers, in coordination with the Israeli leadership.
The Australian government has called for “de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy” in the Middle East and warned Australians the security situation in the region remains volatile.
The Coalition says it “stands with the United States of America today” in a statement supporting the attacks.
The Greens say the bombing of Iran is a “flagrant breach” of international law and called upon the government not to be dragged into another brutal conflict in the region.
Crowds gathered in Sydney and Melbourne for pro-Palestinian protests.
We’ll pick things up again tomorrow.
Updated
NSW building regulator to get $145.1m injection
Returning again to domestic Australian politics, New South Wales’ building regulator will receive a $145.1m cash injection over the next four years in the 2025-2026 state budget to better fund compliance initiatives.
The funding will go to allowing for the digitisation of penalty infringement notices, to better allow the regulator to perform more targeted inspections, and more prosecutions.
It will also be used to fund taskforces in coordination with the with Fair Trading, Asic, ASQA (Australian Skills Quality Authority) and the NSW State Coroner, to ensure all necessary prosecutions across different jurisdictions can be carried out.
The minister for building, Anoulack Chanthivong said the funding bump showed that the Minns government was working to ensure build quality.
Ensuring homes, whether they be apartments or free-standing houses, are built to the highest standards is critical to helping address the housing crisis we inherited in NSW.
To do this, the NSW government established Building Commission NSW as a dedicated regulator with the aim of restoring confidence in the construction sector and ensuring building quality is improved across the state.
Commissioner, James Sherrard said the regulatory had already carried out “thousands” of inspections across the state and the funding boost “will provide the Commission the funding security it needs to keep inspections going and ensure building quality is maintained across the state.”
It will also allow us to continue to progress key building legislative reforms, and deliver education to the industry, so the sector is supported and can continue to improve into the future.
Updated
