Tensions boiled over this week after state and federal authorities blamed each other for the slow issuing of Interpol red notices, which enable international law enforcement to go after gang leaders hiding in countries such as Lebanon and Vietnam.

The NSW Premier on Thursday insisted his state had filed the relevant paperwork with the commonwealth needed for red notices to be enacted.

Federal Labor figures had earlier fired back over accusations that red notice applications had been left to languish on Attorney-General Michelle Rowland’s desk, with claims information required from NSW police hadn't been submitted to the commonwealth.

The fight is the latest in a series of rows between the Albanese and Minns governments.

According to Nine newspapers, close allies of Mr Albanese have threatened that federal funding on joint agreements with NSW could dry up ahead of the March state election due to the rocky relationship, with that revelation shocking NSW Labor figures.

It would be a historic act of political treachery if that were the case, a NSW Labor source said.

At the end of the day, the government is there to serve the people … any kind of personality issues and internal grievances need to be left aside.

Another state Labor source singled out ongoing anger over GST, saying: Albo thinks he has such an identity in NSW that he can treat us like shit and he has continually.

They added it was the commonwealth’s fault red notices hadn't been approved, saying they're just not getting on with it and want to blame us.

A senior federal Labor source fired back, saying there was a belief it was actually the Minns government treating us like shit.

There’s the feeling that Minns continually throws us under the bus on stuff, they said.

When it comes to the crunch, we'd always back Minns but if he’s going to keep bashing Canberra and use that as a model for re-election, at some point we have to stand up for ourselves.

Mr Minns, asked on Thursday about the prospect of federal funding drying up due to Labor infighting, said: “I hope not. We try and build strong relationships with everybody, particularly our federal colleagues, when a big part of our revenue comes from the commonwealth.

But I will say that my job is to stick up for NSW … we've got to fight for our fair share and I don't mean to be antagonistic. I'm not trying to pick fights with anyone, particularly the federal government. But my job is to fight for NSW, and I'll never resile from that.

Any suggestion that the commonwealth is not fulfilling, or has not fulfilled, its obligations in a timely manner is wrong, a spokesperson for Ms Rowland on Thursday said.

“False commentary on the status of law enforcement matters does not assist the efforts of our agencies.

Australians expect governments at all levels to work together to get things done. The Albanese government has always done this and will continue to do so. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Lachlan Leeming

The Australian can reveal the Coalition has asked the Australian National Audit Office to probe Labor's $6m grant commitment to the Marrickville Golf Club, arguing the Prime Minister should have declared he became an honorary member of the club in 2012.

The ministerial code of conduct requires members of the government's executive to publicly register their personal interests including but not limited to pecuniary interests, although Labor is claiming he was not the direct decision maker in awarding the grant.

The funding to upgrade the golf clubhouse was part of the invitation-only $560m Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program, which has been condemned by the Coalition, the Greens and crossbench MPs for overwhelmingly favouring Labor electorates.

While Mr Albanese said he did not know about his honorary membership and did not even play golf, social media posts show the Marrickville Gold Club urged its members to pop in for an Albo beer after voting on election night in 2022.

The club later shared a post with a picture of Mr Albanese making his acceptance speech upon winning the election.

Inner West Council mayor Darcy Byrne in August boasted the club was proceeding with a $6m renovation of the clubhouse and that it was funded by the club's most famous patron Anthony Albanese.

This reno will secure the space as a hub for events, live music and sport for decades to come, Mr Byrne said.

At the clubhouse in 2015, Mr Albanese and his then wife Carmel Tebbutt were the leading figures at the launch of NSW Labor candidate Jo Haylen's campaign for the state seat of Summer Hill.

He also boasted of hosting a Labor event at the golf club in 2012.

And while Mr Albanese declared in parliament he did not know an executive at the club, he boasted in 2013 of providing funding for an upgrade with pres(ident) Eddie Lakiss.

As the local member for Grayndler, Mr Albanese in 2019 helped campaign against a push for the 18-hole course to be cut to nine holes.

I declare an interest … I have been coming here for decades and using this club, he said.

In a letter to Auditor-General Caraelee McLeish, opposition assistant infrastructure spokesman Ben Small said Mr Albanese failed his own test since calling for then infrastructure minister Bridget McKenzie to be sacked in 2019.

As part of the so-called sports rorts scandal, Mr Albanese said Senator McKenzie should resign for providing a $36,000 taxpayer grant for a shooting club in Victoria without declaring she was an honorary member of the club.

Mr Albanese attacked the ABC for revealing he had not publicly disclosed he was an honorary member of the club when the financial commitment was made, arguing the benefit was bestowed upon him by the club about 15 years ago without his knowledge.

But Senator McKenzie on Wednesday said she also did not know she was bestowed an honorary membership of the Wangaratta Clay Target Club when she awarded it funding.

Labor sources strenuously deny similarities between Mr Albanese's and Senator McKenzie's cases, arguing she was the official ministerial decision-maker while the Marrickville grant was an election commitment. Mr Albanese said the honorary social membership was only worth $5 every two years, denying he was given full membership worth $1100 a year.

I don't have a membership. Fifteen years ago they gave an honorary membership, Mr Albanese told the ABC on Thursday.

“Apparently it cost five bucks to join. I don't play golf. I'm a tennis player rather than a golf player. And like a lot of organisations in my seat, a lot of clubs, local community based things, they say, 'oh, we'll give the local member honorary membership'.

“Apparently that happened 15 years ago or something. I haven't been into the clubhouse for many, many years.

“I don't have a card. I don't go in there. I haven't been in there for years. I used to walk my dog along the path, as lots of people do because it's a community club.

The ABC should do better.

In his letter to Ms McLeish, Mr Small also raised issue with reports the Marrickville Golf Club made its funding proposal directly to the Prime Minister's office in 2024. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Greg Brown

The Treasurer introduced a minimum 30% tax on trusts in May that pushes people to restructure into companies, which pay lower rates but also triggering a stamp duty cost.

Almost four months after the budget and in an attempt to prevent people from restructuring, Mr Chalmers promised last week, in draft legislation, an exemption from the 30% tax if trusts fixed their distributions to beneficiaries, instead of leaving them discretionary.

Yesterday, tax experts discovered that adding a newborn child into the trust after the cut-off date of July 2029, would revoke the exemption and leave the entire first year's trust income taxed at 47% with a subsequent 30% minimum each year after that.

While the draft legislation includes provisions that take into consideration death or marriage dissolution among trusts beneficiaries, removing the death tax and the divorce tax, the exemption does not allow for a newborn.

As businesses are forced yet again to argue with the Albanese government over a new tax found in the tax overhaul, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the perverse oversight needed to be addressed.

Including flexibility provisions for circumstances of divorce and death but not birth is a perverse outcome that would never be designed, Mr Willox said.

“As one unintended consequence of the discretionary trusts reforms is corrected, new ones are being discovered. This unintended consequence illustrates the critical importance of thorough consultation on tax reform, which was sadly underdone for the tax reforms announced in the May budget.

Had a thorough reform consultation been undertaken earlier, we could have avoided this game of whac-a-mole.

Mr Chalmers' attempts to tweak the trusts tax came after he and Anthony Albanese made changes to the capital gains tax overhaul, in which they promised a carve-out for start-ups and other applicable businesses.

State governments last week left open the possibility of charging stamp duty on trusts that chose to fix annual distributions to dodge a new 30% minimum tax rate, casting serious doubt over Mr Chalmers' promise that the shift would remain duty-free.

The government's new $45bln trust legislation released last week, which the opposition says it would instantly repeal if it won power, also raised concerns among tax experts over trustees' duties and compliance, even before the discovery of a birth tax.

Piper Alderman partner Megan Bishop first raised the issue in a note to clients this week.

The limited instances available for variation raises a serious issue for private groups and for trusts that are created with the intention of providing benefits for lineal descendants far into the future, Ms Bishop said.

While unborn descendants may not be permitted to be directly added, if they become entitled to benefit under the trust deed and they are beneficiaries of a former nominee's deceased estate, the question remains whether they can then be added albeit they would not otherwise be capable of being added in their own right.

The exemption from the 30% minimum tax requires trusts to lock in fixed distributions to a fixed number of beneficiaries in what is known as an excluded election trust.

Jenny Wong, the head of tax policy at the nation's largest professional accounting body CPA Australia, said families should not have to choose between opting for the EET and leaving out future generations.

“These trusts are set up to hold a family business across generations, Ms Wong said. Under this drafting, the family is frozen as it stood on July 1, 2028. A grandchild born in 2030 can never be brought into the arrangement while the parents and grandparents are alive.

The trustee can still distribute to that child but the moment they do, the election is automatically revoked and the whole of that year's trust income is taxed at 47%. So in practice the choice is: leave the child out, or lose the election.

The oversight was not just a tax-planning impediment but a succession problem, Hamilton Locke tax partner Matthew Cridland said.

As families grow and circumstances change, many trustees may eventually wish to accommodate future children and grandchildren, Mr Cridland said. Under the current drafting, doing so may require the trustee to revoke the election or make a distribution that causes the election to cease.

That is not merely a tax-planning issue. Family trusts are commonly used for succession planning and intergenerational wealth transfers. The inability to bring future generations into the nominated beneficiary class may therefore be a significant practical limitation of the regime.

Mr Cridland also highlighted that the option to elect into the fixed regime but then change back to accommodate a newborn, may trigger double stamp duty.

If beneficiaries are being given interests in trust property, that raises a legitimate question as to whether there has been a change in beneficial ownership for state duty purposes if the trust property includes land, he said.

“If the election is later revoked, there is a serious question whether the same duty consequences could arise again. If there is duty on the way in, there may also be duty on the way out.

The practical significance is that the stamp duty issue may not be confined to entering the fixed-distribution regime. It may also arise when a trustee exits the regime in order to bring future generations into the trust structure.

Treasury will continue to engage on the draft legislation which is out for consultation until September 21. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Matthew Cranston

Mr Bowen, who will become the nation’s longest-serving energy minister next year, said the nation had benefited from someone working in such a complicated portfolio for five years.

With Australia in charge of COP31 negotiations under a compromise deal with host nation Turkey, Mr Bowen also said Mr Albanese’s attendance at the UN Climate Change Conference in November would show the world how serious Australia was about leading global environmental action.

The revelation came after Mr Bowen said last week that Mr Albanese would fly to Fiji and Tuvalu in early October for pre-COP talks, which the government has been forced to defend over claims taxpayers are paying too much for a summit that world leaders have snubbed.

Asked in an interview for The Australian’s Energy Nation Forum if Mr Albanese would go to COP, Mr Bowen responded: Yes. It shows we're taking it seriously.

The Prime Minister’s office wouldn't confirm the trip on Monday, saying: All travel will be announced in the usual way.

Mr Albanese was forced to cancel a trip to Gallipoli for Anzac Day this year as the war in the Middle East intensified.

If the Prime Minister were to attend all the international summits and travel scheduled for the second half of the year, he'd be out of the country for 41 days, or nearly six weeks.

Mr Bowen said he intended to keep his role if he and the government were re-elected to oversee major planks of Labor’s renewable energy transition progress. Amid speculation Mr Albanese could hold a midterm ministerial reshuffle towards the end of the year, senior advisers to the Prime Minister have been cognisant of the need for generational change ahead of the next election, particularly if long-term Labor MPs decide to retire.

Mr Bowen said he had not turned his mind to election policies, but he declared that a third Albanese government term would be very much for us a continuum of delivery, which he wanted to lead as Climate Change and Energy Minister.

“I'd intend to (be in that role after the next election), Mr Bowen said, acknowledging his experience in the portfolio offered the government consistency on complex energy matters. Just a few weeks ago I announced, for example, significant expansion of commercial and industrial (solar), which will start this year, but will play out till 2030, which of course is something which will happen in the third term if we get one.

I've learned a lot along my five years in the portfolio and I think that … because it is such a complicated portfolio, it is beneficial to have someone who’s been doing it a long time and not learning as you go. Everyone learns as they go, but not learning from scratch as you go.

Following a meeting of the region’s leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau last week, where nearly a third of leaders were absent due to domestic matters and illness, Mr Bowen said Australia as a middle power was stepping up by leading COP31 negotiations.

Scott Morrison was the last Australian prime minister to attend a Conference of the Parties in 2021 with then energy minister Angus Taylor, when the Coalition government adopted a now abandoned net-zero target by 2050.

The only other prime ministers to have attended the UN climate summit were Kevin Rudd in 2007 and 2009 and Malcolm Turnbull in 2015. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Rosie Lewis

This includes releasing an exposure draft on its proposed digital duty-of-care bill, attempting to pass laws increasing fines on social media giants flouting the ban on child users and hosting meetings with AI executives to consult on its proposed legal framework for regulating the technology.

Mr Albanese is expected to use a trip to Silicon Valley in the US this month to encourage AI investment into Australia while also boasting of his tech regulation agenda to world leaders at a UN conference in New York.

US-based Techworks chief executive Mike Sutcliff said he did not believe the government's plan to legislate rules for data centres would deter international investment into Australia. But the former CEO of Accenture Digital and founder of tech start-up Mobeus said there were valid concerns about the Albanese government's new capital gains tax regime.

People will struggle to make that investment decision if the capital gains rate gets too close to the tax rates on normal income because it really just doesn't recognise the risk profile people are taking on in order to make those investments, Mr Sutcliff said.

“What we can see, for example in the United States where we have 50 states with 50 different tax regimes … (is) that the states with the lower capital gains rates do attract more risk capital. I think you can see the same thing happening in Europe versus the Asia-Pacific.

So I think capital does flow to where they think they get the balance of risk and return correct.

Mr Sutcliff is among tech leaders in Australia this week discussing the AI regulations with government figures, including Assistant Technology Minister Andrew Charlton, as the government steps up its formal consultation of the proposed laws.

The Australian understands the digital duty-of-care draft expected to be released on Tuesday does not include a proposed model to regulate algorithms, which curate users' content by tracking their online behaviour. However, it is expected to refer to a new government role in providing users choice over algorithms.

Government sources are not ruling out adopting the model proposed by sexual consent advocate Chanel Contos (above), who is arguing the default mode of social media platforms should be algorithm-free. This is not the preferred approach of Labor but senior government sources said it would be considered if it was the only way to pass the bill through parliament.

There is a growing expectation within Labor that the Coalition and One Nation will oppose laws to opt out of algorithms, despite opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson supporting regulating algorithms.

The Opposition Leader said on Sunday he was concerned Labor would try to censor the internet through its digital safety bill, while Nationals leader Matt Canavan is questioning the motive behind the push and frontbencher Andrew Bragg is urging caution on more regulation.

The government is hopeful it can appease the Greens by demonstrating that a similar outcome would be achieved as Ms Contos' opt-in model through alternative methods such as regular reminders for users they can change and disable their algorithm settings. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Michael Shellenberger

But experts had specifically warned of this disaster for years, the same river had flooded a year earlier and a cheap technical fix that wasn't in place would have saved most lives. Sensors and sirens should have alerted people to evacuate and walk uphill, yet last week's flood came with no alert at all — just like a disaster in 2025.

Proof of the efficacy of flood prevention comes from Bangladesh, which evacuated nearly one million people ahead of a 2022 cyclone with mobile alerts, loudspeakers and concrete shelters and lost fewer than 40 people, where a cyclone of similar size in 1970 had killed 300,000 to 500,000. Nepal could have done the same but didn't.

The border sensor went silent at 8.40am, which should have caused warning sirens to sound. Nepal's flood forecasting chief, Binod Parajuli, of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, said the DHM received a phone call at 8.58am, his team confirmed with local officials and it pushed an SMS alert at 9.13am, 12 minutes before the wave reached the town of Betrabati at 9.25am.

The owner of the firm that installed the flood sensors said the fix would have been a sensor that transmitted when instant water crossed a threshold, plus a backup unit 20m to 30m higher, which DHM's own timestamps would have given the Trishuli River towns 45 minutes instead of just 12 minutes.

Climate change is contributing to Himalayan glaciers melting, nothing could have been done to prevent the avalanche on August 26 and a warning system would not have saved everyone. No adaptation project can stop a falling glacier. And border-zone deaths were mostly not preventable by warning because the debris flow covered 36km in about 40 minutes. A siren at the border might have saved some people who could run uphill but not many.

But the vast majority of the deaths in the downstream districts such as Nuwakot were preventable. Nuwakot was most affected, with 1558 missing. A sensor wired to a siren gives Nuwakot 45 minutes, and that's enough time for people to walk up the hillside.

Betrabati is where the district begins and the flood got there around 9.25am. The border sensor went dark at 8.40am, which should have tripped a flood warning.

And had Nepal and its donors spent climate aid on sensors and sirens instead of nature-based solutions, the deaths below the gorge need not have happened. The US Agency for International Development spent $US29.9m on the WWF-led Hariyo Ban forestry program from 2011, another $US18m on its sequel and $US9.9m on hydropower and under its Paani water program WWF studied how Nepal could transition to renewable, low-carbon energy options while protecting rivers from dams.

USAID funded a Kamala River Basin End-to-End Early Warning System, so it did pay for flood warning somewhere in Nepal, just not on the Trishuli.

In other words, USAID climate money flowed to trees, gabion walls, workshops and lake-draining projects on a decade-long timeline, while threshold sensors, sirens, sensor mounts off the bridges and a ban on rebuilding in the same gorge went unfunded and unforced. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Michael Shellenberger

In his first sit-down interview since the massacre, conducted for the book Bondi Terror, the ASIO director-general revealed moments of deep regret but insisted others in society should have heeded his public warnings about the urgency of the antisemitism threat confronting the nation.

Instead, he said, antisemitic behaviour became normalised and that this increased the permission for politically motivated violence.

Mr Burgess also admitted that in his quiet moments he looked back at the Bondi terror attack and the explosion in antisemitism after October 7 and wondered what more he could have done.

I was concerned about the trajectory of our threat environment and I made that known publicly, he said. Of course, it is a matter of deep regret. Could I have done more? Perhaps yes, I could have shouted stronger but in the end I would suggest security is a shared responsibility in society, and others actually had to take up that call, either challenge me for more details or take action.

As much as I'm critical of this, there is the benefit of hindsight and then there's the handicap of hindsight. You've got to be careful of both in this process.

Mr Burgess's strong view is that the antisemitism that first erupted at the Opera House rally on October 9, 2023, went largely unchallenged and became normalised, because it was not properly addressed by either law enforcement or political and community leaders.

I was concerned about this and concerned about behaviours being normalised, he said. Those behaviours being normalised raised the temperature, which increased the permission for politically motivated violence and, sadly, we saw that: from threatening, intimidating behaviour through to direct targeting of people, businesses and places of worship, through to killings of Jewish Australians.

As Australians watched the escalating trajectory of antisemitism ∼ from hate-filled protests to vandalism, fire-bombings and the targeting of Jewish individuals ∼ Mr Burgess was the clearest and strongest voice articulating the changing threat environment that Jewish Australians faced.

At the time that antisemitism arose in the immediate aftermath of October 7, Mr Burgess said he was confident that ASIO had the ability to detect threats and handle them.

But 10 months on, his view of the national terrorism threat level changed and he recommended the Albanese government officially raise it to probable, meaning there was a more than 50% chance of an onshore terror attack in the next 12 months.

A classified threat assessment issued by ASIO less than a fortnight before the Bondi attack warned that lone actors posed the greatest risk of sudden attacks on crowded public places over the holidays.

Mr Burgess's comments will lead to further scrutiny of whether the government acted decisively to counter antisemitism after the Opera House rally and the subsequent increase of the threat terror level. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Sharri Markson

And despite rolling in dollars, the company has managed to gain a further $100 million in taxpayer cash from the NSW Government to help pay for profitmaking spin-off company PLUS Grid Storage to roll out batteries across the Ausgrid network.

Ausgrid chief executive Marc England and his top team spent Wednesday night toasting their success with champagne at networking drinks with Energy Minister Chris Bowen in Canberra. Meanwhile their workers were looking at an average pay rise of just 3.5%.

Greens MP Abigail Boyd said the Ausgrid fat cats should be driving down customer bills and providing a safe, reliable energy network rather than spinning off little side projects with assets paid for by customers that used to be owned by the people of NSW.

With bumper profits ringfenced from benefiting energy customers and instead flowing to shareholders and a hefty pay rise to boot, it’s no wonder Ausgrid leadership are having a glass of champagne, she said.

Financial results filed in Singapore show Ausgrid’s unregulated spin-off property company Aurora made almost $100 million profit in two years by buying and selling prime land that was previously owned by NSW taxpayers.

That comes on top of the sale of another unregulated spin-off company, smart meter installer PLUS ES, to New York-listed digital infrastructure investor DigitalBridge for an eye-watering $3 billion.

Opposition Work Health and Safety spokesman Tim James said Ausgrid should be focused on putting downward pressure on electricity prices.

Customers deserve transparency about where the proceeds of this sale will go, he said.

Ausgrid said the bumper payday does not impact the network tariffs customers pay through their electricity bills". Earlier this year it increased its share of those bills to consumers caught in the cost of living crisis by almost 10%.

But financial analysts said the cash bonanza will flow to shareholders and has already given the executive team a one third pay bump. Executive pay in the latest financial report has jumped from $15m to almost $20m. The report did not say how much of that flowed into the coffers of Mr England.

Electrical Trades Union organiser Tara Koot said workers were not being given the training, support or resources they need and had raised concerns about safety on the network.

There’s something fundamentally wrong when a monopoly can make billions from its corporate interests and then fail to properly address the serious safety concerns being raised by its frontline electrical workers, she said.

Ausgrid declined to answer questions about how many executives joined the CEO at the Energy Networks Australia drinks in Canberra and said there is no need to comment further".

The NSW Government’s Energy Security Corporation said the $100m investment into PLUS Grid Storages' battery platform was a loan which was commercial in confidence.

STORY: Matthew Benns

Plantation owner Paul Shoker also told The Daily Telegraph public support for battling farmers around their long-standing supply zone from Grafton to Port Macquarie is overwhelming and should send a message to Coles.

This is not a good decision and not one the customers want, Mr Shoker said. In less than two weeks we have garnered 15,000 signatures on a petition and had more than 1 million views on social media.

We estimate the impact on the local economy could be anywhere between $18 million to $20 million. If Coles are genuine about supporting Australian farmers and a robust sector, they need to support this region and give people a place to sell their produce.

For the past 35 years, Mr Shoker's family farm, and others on the north coast, have supplied their bananas to a Coffs Harbour wholesale distributor who has held an agreement with Coles, Woolworths and smaller supermarkets across the region.

In October last year Coles announced it was consolidating its supply chain and phasing out direct-to-store options over a 12-month period. The existing agreement ends next month.

Potentially it means around 30% of our product will have no home, Mr Shoker said. Around 40 farms will be impacted.

Mr Singh, whose family farmed bananas until the 1990s before moving to blueberries and macadamias, has held the seat of Coffs Harbour since 2019.

He met with Coles delegates last Friday and is disappointed they have refused to backtrack.

If the product out of North Queensland was better, or if there was some other big advantage, you might say 'okay, that's fine', he told this masthead.

But people in Coffs Harbour overwhelmingly want local bananas. They're really proud of their banana industry. I told Coles this is going to be a big issue for them.

Mr Singh said Sydney consumers should also remember when the price of bananas went through the roof in 2011 after a cyclone that ripped through North Queensland destroyed 75% of the banana crop.

Bananas attracted a significant premium in the supermarkets because the NSW industry had been allowed to decline, he said. Decisions like this will lead to further decline.

If we want Australian-grown produce, we have to support farmers, and also give people what they want — local produce in local stores.

STORY: Peter Jenkins

NSW students are now more than two years behind their parents' generation in maths and reading by the age of 15, research shows, with standards dropping to their lowest levels on record.

The latest Programme for International Student Assessment found the share of 15-year-old students in NSW meeting national standards for maths has fallen consistently since 2009, with just half reaching the required level last year compared to 63% in 2009.

Since 2003, students' mean maths scores across the state have slumped by 46 points, equal to more than two years of lost learning, according to PISA.

Students' reading results painted a similar picture, with 56% meeting national standards in 2025, down from 66% in 2009.

Over the last 25 years, NSW students' mean reading scores have dropped 47 points, equivalent to more than two years of learning lost.

However NSW students performed relatively well compared to other states and territories, sitting in third place nationally behind the ACT and Victoria for maths, science and reading.

The PISA assessment is held every three years and assesses 15-year-old students' reading, science and maths ability, in addition to classroom context such as bullying and disruption.

The latest research shows recent declines in Australian students' reading and maths results and stable science scores nationally, though internationally Australian students' academic results were strong.

Globally, Australian students rank 11th in science and reading, and 17th in maths out of 91 countries taking part in the latest PISA.

While Australia has a consistently high performance academically, ACER research director Jonas Bertling noted a concerning trend in its student behaviour record.

Classroom discipline should definitely be a concern (and) should be something that warrants a deeper look, he told The Daily Telegraph.

Because we know that what happens in the classroom has an important influence on what students learn and how much time can be devoted to productive instruction versus disciplinary action.

Australian students' behaviour record was among the worst of all countries, with students reporting high rates of bullying and classroom disruption.

Just nine of the 91 countries reported less bullying than Australian students while Australian science classroom conduct was rated worse than 67 countries and students were more disruptive than the OECD average on all measures.

STORY: Will Paige

A veteran school principal says she was driven out of education after refusing to promote a gay and trans rights awareness day to primary school students while pushing a traditional anti-bullying campaign instead.

Janelle Rowe (left) walked away from her 34-year teaching career after becoming embroiled in a bitter disciplinary battle with Canberra education officials.

It centred on a push for the Wear It Purple LGBTQIA+ awareness day in public schools, which she says is just the wrong fit for young children in infants and primary classes.

The experienced principal sought to drop the day at her ACT public primary school and replace it with Bullying No Way Week, arguing it was a more appropriate and inclusive way of dealing with real issues for young children.

But the decision sparked activists' complaints and ultimately a disciplinary process which Ms Rowe and her lawyers claim descended into trumped-up and unproven claims about her performance.

I believe Wear It Purple Day is not a harmless dress-up day, it requires teachers to explain what these lifestyles are about to children and I don't feel it’s the place of schools to be talking about sexualised issues with infants and primary students, Ms Rowe told The Daily Telegraph.

“At age four through to 12, these are still issues for parents and for families.

“How it’s dealt with and at what age … that’s not for the school or teachers … that’s for home.

This is not a religious thing or about my thoughts for or against … it about the right time and place and at that age — that’s not at school.

Wear It Purple Day was marked in schools across the country over the last week, with organisers saying the LGBTQIA+ awareness initiative aims to create supportive, safe, empowering and inclusive environments.

The NSW Teachers Federation actively promotes the event to schools across NSW, telling members: Wellbeing profoundly affects student outcomes, that’s why Federation and members in schools mark Wear It Purple Day each year.

But Ms Rowe insists her stand was about child protection and age-appropriate education and had nothing to do with her own beliefs on the subject.

“It’s about what’s age-appropriate material in primary schools.

My primary concern was about child protection and our duty of care as educators, and the will of the parents … schools don't have a right to decide when’s the right time for these things to be talked about, especially when the children are so young.

After being hauled into head office over her resistance to the event, Ms Rowe claims she was suddenly confronted with vague workplace allegations.

I'd had a great and successful career for years, good relations with staff and parents but suddenly I was no good in the eyes of the system.

STORY: Jason Morrison

Pauline Hanson's party wants renters and mortgage holders to be allowed to divert a quarter of their future compulsory super contributions into take-home pay.

The proposed exemption would run for three years.

For a couple earning a combined $168,000, the scheme would deliver about $4300 a year after tax, or $82 a week. An individual worker earning $90,500 would pocket about $2300 extra, or $44 a week.

The policy sets up a new battlefront on superannuation, with early access super schemes attacked in the past for their potential to fuel inflation and diminish retirement savings.

The controversial pitch is aimed directly at households being squeezed by higher housing costs, power bills and other living expenses.

Ms Hanson said Australians needed relief now.

People are working their guts out and they're still struggling. They need help today, she said. “We face interest rates going up, warnings everywhere that rents are going to keep rising, insurance up … everything is getting more expensive and everyone knows it but who is doing anything about it?

“Well, we want to. It shouldn't just be about handouts — just stop taking money off people when they need it to survive. Inflation is hurting and Labor's incompetence is making life harder.

One Nation wants to give people some breathing room.

Existing super balances would be quarantined from the scheme.

Employers would keep paying the full 12% compulsory contribution but workers who took up the option would have the equivalent of up to three percentage points redirected by their super fund into their bank account. That would leave at least 9% invested for retirement.

The proposal has a major tax break, which One Nation said would have no impact on the budget. Instead of the redirected money being taxed as normal wages, it would retain the concessional super tax treatment, typically 15%.

One Nation treasury spokesman Barnaby Joyce said the retirement system had lost sight of the financial emergency confronting families.

There's no point telling a family they'll be better off in retirement if they can't afford the mortgage or their rent payment today, he said. A good retirement starts with keeping a roof over your head.

Mr Joyce said the measure would be limited to Australians paying rent or a mortgage on the home in which they lived, with investment properties excluded.

Partners who contributed to household housing costs would qualify, even if their name was not formally listed on the lease or mortgage.

Workers would deal directly with their super fund, which would verify their housing costs, calculate the payment and deposit the money into their bank account.

STORY: Jason Morrison

Sydney is on edge amid a surge in youth violence that began at 4.40pm on Wednesday when police were called to a brawl in Penrith.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested nearby and found with a machete in his pants. He is facing four charges.

Another four boys were charged following that incident, including a 13-year-old, a 16-year-old and two 15-year-olds.

Less than two hours after the Penrith brawl, a 17-year-old's hand was severed during an alleged assault in Redfern.

A 15-year-old boy was arrested nearby and charged.

Later that night a 17-year-old boy was allegedly threatened at knifepoint in Blacktown by two teenage boys who then stole his silver Audi.

A 14-year-old boy and a 16-year old boy have been charged over that incident.

On Thursday a teenage boy was charged over a string of alleged aggravated break and enters in the inner city and North Sydney in August.

The 17-year-old is facing six charges.

And on Friday, a 17-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl were charged over an alleged stabbing of a 17-year-old girl outside a school in Blacktown.

Opposition police spokesman Anthony Roberts described the spate of violence as unacceptable.

Teenagers carrying machetes, committing armed carjackings or being involved in stabbings is completely unacceptable and cannot become something our community simply learns to live with, Mr Roberts said.

People have every right to question what their government is doing to stop it, he said.

We have a Police Minister who refuses to admit crime in NSW is out of control, even after a week of shocking gangland violence. Here in NSW, Labor is soft on crime.

Pre-Covid there had been a decline in crimes committed by teenager but since then some things have gone awry, youth crime expert associate professor Garner Clancey, from the University of Sydney, said.

The spate of crimes put together are concerning, of course but the explanations are difficult, he said.

Are they individual explanations or are they part of some wide commentary on youth culture at the moment? That's a bit tricky to say.

Prof Clancey said social media was playing an extraordinary role in not only the way youths viewed crime but also how it affected their motivation for participating in it.

The idea you can gain attention outside of your patch is concerning, there's a little bit of glamorisation of crime at the moment, he said.

Crimfluencers, people who have lived a life of crime and are happy to boast about aspects of their activities online, are contributing to that and that broader cultural dimension is relevant to these discussions.

A NSW government spokesperson praised police for their swift action to arrest those allegedly involved in the violence.

These are deeply concerning acts of violence, and the community has every right to expect a strong response, the spokesperson said in a statement.

“The fact police have moved quickly to make arrests and lay charges across these incidents shows NSW Police are doing exactly what the community expects of them and we back them every step of the way.

Social media companies have a responsibility to stop their platforms being used to glorify violence and criminal behaviour, particularly when that content is reaching young people.

STORY: Nathanael Cooper

Country communities are in open revolt over new planning rules they say have rigged the system in favour of renewable energy giants and stripped farmers of their power to fight massive wind and solar projects.

Less than two weeks after Planning Minister Paul Scully quietly doubled the number of objections needed to automatically send a renewable energy project to the Independent Planning Commission, rural communities are demanding the changes be reversed.

And the row is escalating politically, with The Saturday Telegraph revealing the NSW Coalition has promised to review the rules if they return to government, while federal Nationals leader Matt Canavan has warned renewable energy investors risk losing projects altogether if they continue to alienate the communities expected to host them.

The threshold for an automatic IPC referral will rise from needing 50 objections to 100, a change welcomed by renewable energy companies and industry lobby groups but condemned by farmers who argue tiny country communities could never realistically reach the new target.

At Bookham in the Yass Valley, where Squadron Energy is proposing 58 wind turbines, flower farmer Derek Bush said the requirement was effectively impossible for a community with a wider population of only about 70 people, including 12 families set to host turbines.

This is a stitch up by the renewable companies who are rewriting the rules to ensure they get what they want, he said.

Mr Canavan warned developers could not expect to force projects through communities indefinitely.

Unless you get local support ultimately wind and solar projects will not go ahead, he said.

“Intimidation and bullying will not work. If investors want these renewable projects to go ahead, they need to get the local community on board.

You can see the renewable rollout is failing because that is not happening.

The changes follow a recommendation from the Clean Energy Investor Group, which represents almost 40 renewable energy companies, that only objections from within NSW should count towards the threshold.

Objections to a project are now restricted to people from NSW. But once a project is referred to the IPC all submissions, both for and against, can be filed from anywhere and any lobby group.

The overhaul also removes the ability of local councils to automatically trigger an IPC hearing.

Yass Valley councillor Alvaro Charry said he was alarmed a formal council submission would carry no greater weight than a single objection.

I believe renewables should be part of our energy network, but to railroad the regulations and stack the system against any objection is unconscionable, he said.

This has a huge detrimental impact on the mental welfare of people in the community because they are not being listened to.

STORY: Matthew Benns

The nearly two-hour video, released this week to the channel’s 2.67 million subscribers and viewed more than 3.5 million times, alleges that LG’s advertising infrastructure allows the company to harvest an extraordinary amount of personal data, not just from the TV itself but from every device on a household’s network.

LG has strongly denied the allegations, telling US outlets its televisions do not collect, record or transmit ambient conversations unless voice functionality has been explicitly activated, comparing its Hi LG wake-word feature to Apple’s Hey Siri.

Gamers Nexus editor-in-chief Steve Burke and his team of researchers said their roughly 500-hour, $70,000 investigation found LG TVs are able to be used as eavesdropping listening devices, in part because of the advertising functionality that’s built into them.

We were able to retrieve plain text transcriptions of voice conversations and inputs from the TV, [and] use the TV to record from a webcam and from a microphone while the TV appeared to be off. And it was a clean capture, too, he said.

Mr Burke said the bigger issue was LG’s alleged business practices.

The TV crawled our entire network and found dozens of unrelated devices, including smartwatches and phones of our staff who didn't even know we were working on this, which might explain how LG ads can claim it knows about 363 million addressable secondary devices in the US, despite claiming a smaller 216 million smart TVs sold worldwide.

The video referenced earlier comments by an LG Ad Solutions senior executive on industry outlet BeetTV claiming We know who is in the LG household, we know which devices are there, we know how to extend that reach into mobile …

Researchers part of the investigation said they demonstrated remote access to a TV’s stored conversations and that even with the microphone muted, some audio components remained active.

The team said sensitive personal information, including a social security number, was captured in plain text by the TV. And that even after disabling the TV’s main microphone, they found a separate, functioning microphone in the LG remote.

By analysing the TV’s firmware, researchers found that LG TVs continuously scanned for other devices on a home network — including phones, printers, computers and smartwatches, regardless of whether those devices had ever connected to the television.

The scans allegedly collected geolocation data, IP addresses and nearby Wi-Fi network details.

Mr Burke said some material they uncovered was too sensitive to broadcast and that further vulnerabilities were under responsible disclosure.

The researchers have recommended disconnecting any LG smart TVs from any network, he said, adding that unplugging Ethernet might not be enough to stop data collection.

Mr Burke added that some of these TV companies are now making more margin dollars from targeted ads than they are from selling the actual TV hardware.

The company said its TVs only process voice data when the voice button on the remote control is pressed and held, or when a recognised wake word such as 'Hi LG' is detected after a customer has activated Far-Field voice recognition.

Outside these instances, LG TVs do not collect or record ambient conversations, the statement said. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Georgia Palgan

When Melbourne woman Jess Williams bought new European number plates for her Mercedes-Benz, she never imagined the purchase would end in a brazen petrol station heist.

Struggling to fit the plates herself, a friend offered to drive the car to a local dealership.

On the way, he made a quick stop for milk - and inadvertently crossed paths with thieves who were busy stealing fuel.

My friend drives a car that automatically shuts off the ignition once the driver walks away … provided they take the key, Ms Williams told news.com.au.

Out of habit, he left my car running when he ran into the service station … When he turned around, he saw my car being driven off. He was utterly shocked, and I woke up to about 60 missed calls from him.

The June 1 theft took just 30 seconds and was captured entirely on the petrol station's CCTV. The cashier handed the footage over, and Ms Williams immediately posted it to Facebook while her friend reported the theft to the police.

Within hours, we had been contacted by numerous people on Facebook who provided us with the ringleader's identity, she said.

The alleged offender was a 14-year-old girl who had been accused of numerous other offences.

The detective who was managing my file disclosed to me that she had 106 prior convictions, Ms Williams said.

Every 43 minutes, a vehicle in Victoria is targeted by thieves, cementing Melbourne's reputation as the car theft capital of Australia and costing insurance companies more than $244m.

Explosive new Insurance Statistics Australia (ISA) data has revealed the state now accounts for more break-ins and stolen cars each year than all other state capitals combined, with 12,300 insurance claims lodged by Victorian victims last financial year alone.

This compares to just 6200 in Queensland and 5500 in New South Wales during the same period.

Ms Williams told news.com.au Victoria's crime crisis was sadly, something that we have all now become accustomed to".

We have a police force that is under-resourced and is prevented from functioning due to the utter contempt the Labor government has for our state, she said.

Innocent Victorians become victims of crime at a rate higher than any other state in the country, while the perpetrators kick sand in our faces and Dan Andrews, Jacinta Allen and Ben Carroll obsess over statues.

Minimum mandatory sentencing is the only way hardworking, innocent Victorians will be able to return to a life without the constant fear that follows us into our homes, cars, shopping centres and on our streets. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Rebecca Borg

On Monday the King sent a letter, via the Lord Chamberlain ∼ the most senior staff member of the Royal household ∼ to the Duke of Sussex's office.

In it, the King made clear the His and Her Royal Highness titles remain out of bounds to the couple.

In addition, the letter reasserts the couple are private citizens with commercial and charitable interests.

As such, they would not be expected to carry out any official duties on behalf of the family.

In that way, their geography may have changed ∼ from the US to the UK ∼ but their official circumstances have not.

We were a little surprised not to have been told about this in advance, A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess said.

However palace sources told the Daily Mail that it was not correct that the couple had not been informed about the letter, only that they were not made aware of its contents.

The letter was also sent by Charles to the UK government, the military and other UK institutions.

It is well known that in January 2020 the Duke and Duchess stepped down from undertaking representative duties on behalf of The Sovereign, and are no longer working Members of The Royal Family, the letter states.

“This position, distinct from the State and Royal duties undertaken by the working Royal Family and with the personal latitude it brings the couple in respect of financial independence and protection of their privacy as they would wish, will continue to be fully respected.

“It follows that there is no change to the status of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Their styles as His and Her Royal Highness remain in abeyance and are not used.

It's been reported that the Meghan will, at least for a time, keep a low profile in the UK as she settles into her new home. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Benedict Brook and staff writers

The UK’s biggest car manufacturer is the latest industry giant to announce job cuts as tradtional carmakers continue to fight against mounting global pressures.

Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed the company will cut as many as 4000 jobs as the British carmaker battles falling sales, the fallout from a devastating cyberattack and mounting pressure from China’s automotive dominance.

The cuts are expected to take place over the next two years and will mostly affect those working at head office in the UK.

It is the latest in a string of traditional carmakers considering major cuts as the global automotive industry continues to struggle.

The company told staff on Friday it would open a voluntary redundancy program as it looks to slash $3.19bln in costs over the next two years.

According to The Times up to 4000 positions could ultimately be affected, representing almost 12% of JLR’s roughly 34,000-strong workforce in the UK.

The cuts come as the carmaker grapples with weak global sales and the impact of the Middle East conflict, while continuing to recover from a major cyberattack that crippled operations last year.

Today, we informed our colleagues and trade union partners that JLR is opening a voluntary redundancy program offering salaried and management team members the opportunity to leave the business, a JLR spokesperson said.

We will share further information with our colleagues first.

JLR plans to launch at least five new products over the next 12 months and has flagged major investment in electrification, digital technologies, advanced manufacturing and customer experience.

But the company is facing a tougher global market, with signs of that pressure also emerging in Australia.

JLR’s Land Rover brand remains the group’s volume driver in Australia but sales have softened this year. Land Rover has recorded 4872 sales so far in 2026, down 15.6% from the 5770 vehicles sold during the same period last year. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: James Chung

DEFT, an online secure payment system that is a subsidiary of Macquarie Bank serves over 1200 real estate agencies for rent alone, alongside widespread use across strata management firms including Jamesons Strata Management, PICA Group, Ace Body Corporate and Netstrata.

Macquarie Bank have announced that DEFT will no longer accept payments via debit card and credit card payments, meaning huge changes for many homeowners and renters.

The change comes in line with the Reserve Bank's decision to remove payment surcharges for all designated card networks ∼ eftpos, MasterCard and Visa ∼ from October 1.

The move means customers will now pay the price they are advertised, without added surcharges when they pay by card.

Businesses will now absorb the costs associated with their payment systems, making it illegal to put these fees back onto a customer.

However with the change, millions of tenants and homeowners are now left in the lurch unable to make their rental and strata payments with a debit or credit card.

For many Australians, using a credit card allows them to manage cashflow, to make timely payments regardless of when their payday is.

DEFT processes 1.2 million rental payments a month, on top of an unknown amount of quarterly strata payments for unit owners.

The decision to manage payments through DEFT rests with real estate agencies and strata managements — leaving homeowners and tenants without the choice of payment provider.

Macquarie Bank have said they are evolving the payments to ensure they are fee-free methods, meaning that from October 1, they will not have to absorb the surcharge fees.

After consultations with the RBA, those paying through DEFT using credit cards are currently having to pay $20 to process a rental or strata payment, which was found to be in excess of actual costs of processing fees, CEO of NSW Tenants Union Leo Patterson Ross said.

It's not a coincidence that Macquarie Bank's profits are growing, reaching nearly $5m this year after paying wages such as the CEO's $26.5m. Mr Patterson Ross said. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Adrian Zorzut

Economies across the world are cashing in on the artificial intelligence boom but Australia risks being left behind unless it changes its energy policy.

If AI requires a massive amount of new data centres and Australia simply doesn't have enough baseload power to sustain them, according to experts.

The problem is so concerning that military experts are now sounding the alarm and are urging the government to radically change its power supply.

The government should consider building nuclear reactors to power new data facilities, Malcolm Davis from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank said.

If we can't do that then our economy becomes a third-rate economy because we're not able to use AI effectively, the space and defence expert told news.com.au.

If we want to maintain an effective economy and society, we have to have AI as a key foundation and that's going to demand a lot of power generation.

Mr Davis said another option was to launch server farms into space.

He said Australia could work with America, Japan and Europe to collaborate in that area.

Experts like Mr Davis point out that space offers an endless supply of solar energy and doesn't come with the same constraints around land, water and electricity that we experience on Earth.

Right now, it's an arena that China is dominating.

Beijing treats space-based computing as a national strategic priority and has galvanised state-owned industries and government policy towards reaching its goal.

It recently established the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. In May 2025, Beijing launched the Three-Body Constellation — the first fully-operational space-based computing network, according to Euro News.

In July, China announced Xingshu, or Star Hub, another space-based computing network consisting of 1000 satellites, according to the South China Morning Post. This offers China on-demand, time-based computing services in orbit and allows governments, researchers and companies in sectors such as energy, shipping and finance to rent computing power by the hour. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Adrian Zorzut

A parliamentary briefing note provided by the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation revised the expected statewide revenue in NSW from carbon offsets up by about $100m to an estimated $1.6bln over the next 15 years.

However, that revenue is dependent on the introduction of the Improved Native Forest Management method, which allows state governments to earn Australian Carbon Credits Units ∼ economic offsets for emission production ∼ by voluntarily ceasing forest harvesting in key public forests.

The method is stalled in the Senate ahead a September 15 vote on a disallowance motion introduced by The Nationals.

One Nation have not formally backed the motion but has advocated in favour of plantation farming and for scrapping emission targets.

Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation executive director Lyndon Schneiders urged The Nationals to dump the motion.

The money at stake goes to the Riverina, to New England, to the North West, to the South Coast, the very communities they purport to represent, he said.

It funds fire management, pest control and forest jobs in the electorates they hold and the electorates they want. There is no case for blocking it.

Data released by the ACBF found New England, which is held by former Nationals, turned One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce, could generate $118m under the method.

The Riverina, which is held by Nationals MP Michael McCormack, also stood to garner a further $148m.

In an August statement, Nationals leader Matt Canavan said the method needed to be torn up because it did not contribute to emissions reduction targets.

Labor's INFM method is just another way for Labor to force their net zero agenda on our forestry community, destroying lives and jobs in the process, Senator Canavan said.

“Labor is setting up a scheme to use taxpayer money to pay states to shut down productive native forestry for carbon credits that don't represent the emissions savings being claimed.

The Coalition does not support the INFM method. That's why The Coalition will vote to disallow the INFM method and we call on the crossbench to do the same.

Speaking in August, One Nation senator Sean Bell said One Nation would would not allow carbon credit schemes to distort the value of productive agricultural land.

Canada scrapped its consumer carbon price. The European governments are reworking their climate policies because of competitiveness, industrial pressure and household costs, he said.

Barnaby Joyce has been contacted for comment. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Nathan Schmidt

Just 10 days of art, culture, music and ideas officially kicks off in Newcastle on Friday, September 25 with the First Night Art Party at Newcastle Art Gallery, which will spill onto Laman Street.

Aleksiah, Djanaba and Ngaiire will perform live, there will be hands-on immersive experiences, roving performers, drop-in workshops, food trucks, a pop-up bar and family-friendly fun and artist Angela Tiatia’s MUSE exhibition will open.

All are welcome to attend.

The flagship festival’s program this year includes more than 40 events, 400 artists and seven new commissions.

For those in the know, though, two New Annual events are launching before September 25.

On Thursday, September 24, artist Izabela Pluta will be in conversation with Stanisaw Ruksza, curator and director of TRAFO Trafostacja Sztuki in Szczecin, Poland, at The Lock-Up where Pluta’s exhibition Cavitation and Cavitation: Breathing Ocean will be featured.

And this weekend, large immersive exhibition BLOOM launches at Charlestown Square.

Created by 3D artist Melissa Mathieson aka MelissaLovesSushi, BLOOM will transform Charlestown Square into an oversized garden filled with whimsical characters, foliage and larger-than-life details.

The colourful installation is an experience for all ages, inviting visitors to explore, take photos and rediscover a sense of childlike wonder.

BLOOM has previously been exhibited only once, in Melbourne. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Lisa Rockman

Homelessness NSW has called for better rental protections as Cotality data for the 12 months to August showed unit rental prices outpaced inflation in every Hunter council area.

A significant number of Hunter residents were just one missed pay cheque or steep bill away from losing the roof over their heads, Homelessness NSW chief executive Dom Rowe said.

It's really that tough at the moment, Ms Rowe said.

If you aren't on a high income, the only type of housing you can afford is either social housing, of which there's 70,000 people on that waitlist, or alternatively low private rental and that's when those rent rises really start to bite for low income earners.

Data shows weekly unit rents in the Upper Hunter rose from $407 to $454, an extra $47 a week, or more than $2400 a year.

Dungog rents increased from $413 to $450, Lake Macquarie unit rents grew from $585 to $626, while Port Stephens residents saw a rise from $536 to $577.

In Newcastle, the region's largest rental market, unit rents grew from $642 to $673 a week, an increase of almost 5%.

Rentals are the only type of housing some people can afford.

Those holding out for social housing can wait anywhere up to a decade on average.

Ms Rowe said Hunter residents, particularly people on single-parent, disability or age pensions, were being forced to cut essential costs or be pushed into homelessness.

It's really hard, you find this spiral takes place when people are without a home where they lose their sense of identity and sense of place, Ms Rowe said.

Income support has gone up by about 23% in the past five years, while rents have skyrocketed by about 48%.

One of the fastest-growing groups of people experiencing homelessness is women aged 55 and over.

Ms Rowe said increasing prices raised the risk of homelessness in the Hunter and she urged the state government to follow the ACT's lead and cap rent increases to inflation plus 10%.

NSW renters deserve the same protection as renters in the ACT, Ms Rowe said.

Right now, tenants facing a rent hike well above inflation have nowhere to turn.

Linking rent increases to inflation gives people a genuine safeguard, not just a right to ask a tribunal to confirm what the market will bear.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, Anoulack Chanthivong, said the government recognised that renters were often on the front line of cost-of-living pressures and the tight housing market. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Madeline Link

There were 138 people in public hospital beds across the district at the end of June 2025 who should have been either at home with support, or in an aged care bed.

As at June 30 2026, that number had climbed to 174.

The latest count includes 26 patients at John Hunter Hospital, which nurses say is short by 40 to 65 beds every day; 20 patients at Maitland Hospital and 19 at the Calvary Mater, which continues to be plagued by a deadly mould problem.

Health ministers have raised the growing issue of bed block across the country with the federal government at a health ministers' roundtable in Canberra, citing an increase from 2700 patients in mid 2025 to more than 3600 a year later.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the number of people waiting for Commonwealth aged care and NDIS placements stranded in NSW hospitals was growing at an unprecedented and unsustainable level.

In the Hunter, this means more than 170 beds in public hospitals cannot be used as a result, Mr Park said.

Waiting indefinitely in a hospital is not good for patient mobility, recovery or quality of life. These people are more than statistics and they deserve so much better.

At the same time, there are almost 100,000 people waiting for access to the new and struggling Support at Home program, which replaced an earlier program in November, delivering government-funded aged care services to support older people at home.

The federal government has stepped back from its original position by agreeing to extend the Commonwealth Home Support Program to mid-2029.

Meanwhile, those working on the front line in residential aged care are calling on the federal government to introduce mandated staffing ratios to the sector.

Members of the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association say they are fed up with the ongoing aged care crisis. They joined with counterparts from across the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation in Canberra on Tuesday September 8 to launch a national campaign.

Australia needs care you can count on campaign will spotlight systemic issues that continue to impact the care nurses and carers can provide to older Australians, Midwives' Association general secretary Michael Whaites said.

Reforms already in place were not lifting standards in the way they were designed to, Mr Whaites said, citing the fact that 'Care Minutes' — a mandatory minimum amount of time that qualified nursing staff must spend with each nursing home resident — was not being complied with.

We need ratios to deliver better staffing and skill mix in aged care, safer workplaces to prevent workplace violence and greater transparency of taxpayer funding, Mr Whaites said. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Gabriel Fowler

The shareholders recently overwhelmingly voted in favour of five resolutions that will result in the company acquiring Mr Tinkler’s Queensland coal company Oceltip Coal 2.

The resulting purchase will also raise $15 million from new investors.

Since the equity raising was announced, White Energy shares surged to six times their market price before the Tinkler (left) was made public.

The raising was supported by a mix of wealthy individuals and institutional investors.

Australian Financial Review reported that Tribeca Investment Partners was among those that subscribed for shares in White Energy.

We are back on the Tink train — he is a great dealmaker and has an eye for mis-priced assets, Tribeca portfolio manager Ben Cleary said.

White Energy owns a demonstration and pilot plant in Cessnock for processing low-grade and waste coal but is otherwise not active in the Hunter.

Its purchase of Mr Tinkler’s Oceltip Coal 2 will give it control of undeveloped coal assets near the Queensland town of Wandoan.

Mr Tinkler will be joined on the board by resources industry investor John Canavan, the brother of National senator Matt Canavan.

It is not the first time that Mr Tinkler’s presence has helped lift a relatively small resources company’s profile.

Australian Pacific Coal found itself in the spotlight when Mr Tinkler joined the company in 2015. He helped drive a strategy to buy coal assets at what were then very low coal prices.

Among the projects that were resurrected was the Dartbrook coal mine near Muswellbrook. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Matthew Kelly

The data shows Newcastle placed second within the top 10 in NSW for unintentional drug-induced deaths from 2015 to 2024.

Newcastle recorded 196 of these deaths over this period, behind inner Sydney with 355 deaths.

Most drug-induced deaths are caused by a combination of drugs. Opioids, amphetamine-type stimulants, benzodiazepines and alcohol were the top four drugs involved.

Newcastle should have a supervised injecting centre, Kiah Glasson, a peer worker in the drug and alcohol sector, said.

It's a no-brainer, Miss Glasson said.

Many of the services set up to support or prevent overdose deaths are in Sydney Penington Institute senior policy officer Rhys Cohen said.

There's one supervised injecting centre in the state and it's in Sydney. If you're in Newcastle, you're not commuting to Sydney to inject heroin, Mr Cohen said.

Uniting NSW, which runs the Sydney injecting centre at Kings Cross, has proposed expanding such centres across the state within existing health infrastructure.

Research shows more of these injecting centres would reduce overdose injury and death, along with pressure on hospitals and ambulances.

we must expand harm reduction services, Alice Salomon, head of advocacy at Uniting NSW, said.

Ms Salomon said drug overdoses were an escalating and preventable health crisis across the state, including the Hunter.

She said more permanent sites were needed for people to test the safety of their drugs, along with more supervised injecting spaces.

Australia has cracked down on prescriptions for opioids and benzodiazepines, leading people to buy online drugs from overseas that can be stronger and riskier.

For 25 years, Uniting's Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Kings Cross has supervised 1.3 million injections, Ms Salomon said.

The centre has safely managed more than 12,000 overdoses without a single death.

This is a proven life-saving service, yet the Minns government denies communities like Newcastle access by refusing to change a sentence in legislation, which restricts this service to the one Sydney location, Ms Salomon said. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Damon Cronshaw

The news comes not long after it was crowned Australia's Airport of the Year.

More than 1.3 million passengers have walked through the airport's doors this financial year, a 10 per cent increase on the previous financial year.

The result showed the region had a strong appetite for greater connectivity, with newly introduced services to Bali, Perth and Hobart performing exceptionally well", Newcastle Airport chair Samantha Martin-Williams said.

The new Denpasar [Bali], Perth and Hobart routes contributed more than 94,000 additional passenger movements during the year, she said.

More than 112,600 passengers travelled through Newcastle Airport in July making it the busiest July on record, Ms Martin-Williams said.

This is a regional growth story of national significance, Ms Martin-Williams said.

Better air connectivity brings more visitors and investment into the region, creating and connecting jobs with new customers, talent and suppliers locally and overseas.

It also helps regional businesses and growing markets. It backs the status of the Hunter as a global tourism, trade, defence industry and advanced manufacturing centre. It strengthens regional NSW as a place to invest, grow and do business.

Flights to Hobart took off in December last year, and this week, Newcastle Airport and airline Jetstar announced direct flights to Tasmania will launch a month earlier.

Travellers will be able to book from October 27, giving the route an extra 6000 seats.

Over the past year, the airport has started flying from its international terminal and launched four new routes.

The Airport of the Year award belongs to the community, businesses, governments and partners who backed the airport's growth, Newcastle Airport chief executive Linc Horton said

This recognition also gives us an opportunity to pause, say thank you to our region and celebrate how far we've come together while remaining focused on what comes next, Mr Horton said.

There is so much more potential to connect the Hunter with Australia and the world, making it easier for visitors to experience our region and giving our community greater choice when they travel.

Mr Horton said the Hunter's appetite for travel has never been stronger, and as additional airline capacity comes online, he expects to unlock greater opportunities for tourism, trade, investment and jobs. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Madeline Link

In a pointed response to the Independent Planning Commission this week the company insisted that its proposed mining extension, the largest in the state's history, needed to be approved until 2045.

For a brownfield extension project such as HVO, the duration of approval is the critical mechanism determining economic viability. Restricting operations to a materially shorter timeframe would significantly undermine project viability and risk premature asset retirement, it said.

The commission requested information from the operator about the minimum additional period of operations beyond the expiry of the existing approvals needed to enable an orderly transition for the mine's workforce, suppliers and the local community.

In its response, Glencore said it appeared the IPC was considering granting an approval for a shorter period of time than what had been sought.

It also noted that the Future Jobs and Investment Bill, which would be integral to such a scenario, was not law.

There is no certainty that the bill will ever be passed by Parliament and become law. It would therefore be premature for the commission to give the bill significant weight, it said.

If the bill is passed following any approval of the project, HVO will comply with the legislation on its terms.

The commission has invited submissions on the HVO response until September 9.

The FJIB contains critical measures to support thousands of workers in coal-producing regions through the establishment of economic pathways away from coal.

This includes attracting investment to create alternative jobs and sustainable economies and coordinating retraining, skills mapping, and transition plans for affected workers.

It was introduced to Parliament in November 2025, and passed the lower house with support from the Coalition and the crossbench.

However, it has been blocked in the upper house along with several other key pieces of legislation.

There is no justification for further delay, what we need now is for the NSW Government to make it a priority, Hunter Jobs Alliance co-ordinator Justin Page said.

HVO demonstrates exactly why legislation is needed. More than 20 years ago, it was required to develop a mine exit strategy to protect workers and minimise the socioeconomic impacts on the Singleton and Muswellbrook communities. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Matthew Kelly

When grazier Peter Lake moved to the Clarence Valley in the New South Wales northern rivers region in 2007, he knew was buying in flood country with … eyes open".

His cattle farm, about halfway between Yamba and Grafton, borders the Coldstream River and has flooded five times since 2009.

Out of 130 acres … in a major flood we would have maybe 15 acres that were flood-free, he said. Lake has systems in place to prepare for such events, including moving cattle to the dry paddocks, where they would also store fodder to feed the animals.

But the amount of safe ground is shrinking: in the historically big flood in 2022, we only had just a few acres of flood-free land". Because of both drought and frequent floods, we just haven't been able to successfully grow a fodder crop for some years".

If we're going to have more frequent and more severe major events … we need to change the way we think about how we manage, Lake said. If rising sea levels impact on us, it'll just this make property less and less viable.

Agricultural damages are among $855.1bn in economic losses projected Australia-wide by the end of the century due to coastal flooding, according to a Climate Council report released on Thursday.

The report forecasts that more than 267,000 coastal properties and 2m hectares (4.9m acres) of Australian land will be damaged by flooding by 2100 as sea levels rise.

Queensland (93,157 properties), NSW (71,210) and Western Australia (51,366) are the three states with the greatest number of homes at risk.

The Gold Coast, Brisbane and Melbourne are the metropolitan areas expected to be worst affected. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Donna Lu

The RBA board is due to meet at the end of the month, as fears grow that it will hit mortgage holders with a fourth rate hike this year after inflation eased in July but less than expected.

Speaking to the ABC's 7.30 on Tuesday evening, Andrew Hauser, the RBA's deputy governor, said while the economy was doing quite well on low unemployment and real household incomes, inflation remained too high.

People want inflation down. People are furious about inflation and I understand why. It's unfair … it hits people on low incomes. It damages price signals. It makes the job of companies difficult, the deputy said..

“What they want us to do is our job and bring inflation down”.

Hauser pointed to the ongoing Middle East conflict, the unexpected global boom driven by AI and the weakness of supply potential in Australia's economy as risk factors for driving inflation.

While Hauser said a rate hike was not inevitable, he said the RBA was focused on bringing inflation down. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Adeshola Ore

A New South Wales Greens MP has made an impassioned plea to her federal colleagues, urging them not to vote with the Coalition and One Nation to block a plan for the NSW government to get millions of dollars' worth in carbon credits for creating a koala national park.

Sue Higginson, (right) a former lawyer and forest campaigner turned NSW upper house MP, is the first member of the minor party to speak in detail about a dispute that has split the Greens and environmentalists.

The disagreement is over a federal regulation, known as a carbon credit method, that allows state governments that protect native forests on public land to earn credits from logging.

The Nationals want to kill the regulation on behalf of the forestry industry through a disallowance motion and a Senate vote is scheduled next week.

The federal Greens will discuss today whether to back the pro-logging Nationals' motion on the grounds the koala park should be created but not this way.

Among their considerations will be the political fallout for the environmental party if it is accused of standing in the way of a nature protection. None have spoken publicly on the issue.

The meeting follows weeks of lobbying by conservationists, including in full-page newspaper advertisements and email drives. The Australia Institute, which wants the method killed, has declared the issue the first big climate test of Larissa Waters’s leadership of the party.

Each Australian carbon credit is said to represent one tonne of greenhouse gas emissions that has been prevented from being released or drawn down from the atmosphere. Their use is contentious, partly because polluting companies can buy an unlimited number of credits ∼ also known as offsets ∼ to count as their own cuts while continuing to pollute.

Peer-reviewed studies have found some existing carbon credit methods have not effectively reduced emissions and scientists say limiting the climate crisis requires rapid direct emissions cuts and offsets should be used sparingly.

Those who want the regulation killed, including the Bob Brown Foundation and the Wilderness Society, say NSW Labor proposed a koala park near Coffs Harbour a decade before announcing it was dependent on carbon credit revenue and the offsets created would not represent real emissions reductions. They say the method sets a precedent for other state governments to withhold environment protection unless they get carbon credits.

On the other side are NSW conservation and Indigenous groups, national groups including WWF, Greenpeace and the Ken Henry-led Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation and some senior ecologists. They say there is no guarantee the park would go ahead as promised if the method was disallowed, and that critics are too dismissive of what protecting 176,000 hectares of additional forests home to more than 100 threatened species would mean for forests that have been devastated by decades of logging and how hard local campaigners have fought over decades for this win.

Higginson told the Guardian she found the idea of carbon credits from protecting public forests offensive and initially opposed what is known as the improved native forestry method. Her thinking after the design was strengthened during development to force a substantial reduction in logging across NSW forests that was not part of NSW premier Chris Minns' initial commitment. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Adam Morton

Peter Roney KC, a member of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, handed down a judgment in the case this week.

I have been called upon to decide many outcomes in some strange and unusual circumstances whilst a member of this tribunal, but this case has its own special place, Roney wrote.

The case was a challenge brought by the building firm Abel Gaspi Apolonia against what the tribunal said was an almost incomprehensible direction by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission relating to work done on a pool in Capalaba in 2021.

Part of the pool's coping ∼ a finish installed around the edges to stop leaking and prevent swimmers slipping ∼ had had not been installed correctly and had sustained damage after heavy rain, the tribunal heard.

The coping work cost $300.

According to the judgment, the commission in 2024 directed the company that because the installation of the copping has not been installed in an expected competent tradesman like manner that the non-structural defect falls Within 12 months of practical completion.

But the tribunal said it was difficult to understand what work the commission wanted done and what the defect was.

The tribunal also said there was an even more fundamental problem: the pool had been removed in the meantime.

After several hours of a hearing being conducted, using the resources of this state to determine what seemed to be an issue designed to protect a homeowner who had contracted for work on her pool, it was discovered but only when the Commission checked, that the pool had ceased to exist for some years and that the directive could not be given effect to in any way, the judgment reads.

A lawyer acting for the QBCCQBCC submitted that the tribunal should still make a judgment, on the basis that it would be recorded on the builder's licence history.

The tribunal handed down that judgment this week.

To expect the resources of this state to be committed to making findings about the appropriateness of decision-making years earlier, in which has little or no practical significance, might be seen by many as a waste of public resources, it reads.

To decide the case anyway becomes an almost academic exercise. I will do so anyway. Sisyphus would be proud.

The company argued that the pool was already old and defective before it was commissioned to work on it, that it made repairs that it had not been paid for and that the damage was caused by excessive rainfall, soil movement, and the natural aging of the pool structure rather than poor workmanship.

The tribunal ruled that the company had not repaired the coping as it said and ordered that it rectify its work but stayed its own order on the basis that it was impossible to carry out. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Andrew Messenger

The pair, who were previously uncontactable, have been found safe and do not require consular assistance.

It brings the total number of Australians missing in the floods down to 36.

Fifteen people in the Australian disaster assistance response team are expected to arrive in Kathmandu later today, while seven AFP disaster victim identification specialists are to arrive on Saturday morning.

More than 1200 people have been confirmed dead in the disaster, with more than 5500 people missing. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Tom McIlroy

Labor's national primary vote has dropped five percentage points in a month, falling to 26% in the latest Guardian Essential poll as Anthony Albanese records his lowest approval rating as prime minister.

And despite One Nation's win in Saturday's Secret Harbour byelection in Western Australia, the poll showed the national primary vote for Pauline Hanson's party dropping five percentage points since May. The party recorded a primary vote of 23% in the latest poll, down from a peak of 28%.

Labor and the Coalition both recorded primary votes of 26% in the new results. That position represented a rise for the Coalition, from 22% in July, while Labor was down from 31%.

The poll has a margin of error of about 3%.

Just 35% of the more than 1,000 Australians polled approve of the prime minister's performance, according to the results, with 56% disapproving.

Essential Media's executive director, Peter Lewis, said the results showed the debate around cutting net overseas migration (Nom) into Australia had hurt Labor's standing with voters.

Albanese overruled moves to cut Australia's annual refugee intake on Friday, and broader policy changes expected from the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, have been delayed for weeks.

Hanson and her One Nation colleagues have struggled to explain their policy to cut overseas arrivals into Australia, including naming different baselines for Nom.

This month's poll shows some churn away from the government towards both One Nation and to the Coalition as a messy immigration debate swirls, Lewis said. "The national mood is also at its lowest ebb since we started tracking in 2022 with 59% of voters saying they think the nation is on the wrong track. "The drivers for this appear to be cost of living, global uncertainty and extremely high levels of concern about the impact of AI on work.

As Labor considers tougher policy settings for technology - including in AI and social media - more than 70% of Australians agreed or strongly agreed that they wanted more control over what they see in their social media feed.

Just 4% disagreed with the statement. Labor is openly discussing banning explicit content including sexual strangulation and other violent content. The poll showed 55% believe violence against women has increased in Australia in the past few years.

More than two-thirds of respondents agreed online content is contributing to violence against women, while 65% agreed it is almost impossible for teenage boys in Australia to avoid seeing damaging content when using the internet.

Founder of the Teach Us Consent advocacy group, Chanel Contos, will use an address to the National Press Club in Canberra today to call on Labor to legislate tough new opt-in algorithm rules for social media platforms. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Tom McIlroy

It follows a successful legal challenge brought by a group of irrigators in the state's north-west which found 11 floodplain harvesting licences issued by the former Coalition government were invalid.

The NSW land and environment court found the government had failed to follow correct procedures related to fair consultation with landholders. The case, known as Emu Rider, has raised questions about the validity of the process used to issue hundreds of floodplain harvesting licences.

Floodplain harvesting refers to the collection and storage by farmers of water that flows across floodplains. Collectively, hundreds of licences issued in the state's north govern the take of billions of litres of flood water, which would otherwise flow through the river system.

Floodplain harvesting licences set limits on how much water can be extracted.

The Emu Rider case and a separate legal matter in the state's supreme court had created uncertainties for the enforcement agency, which is responsible for ensuring floodplain harvesting licence holders comply with their extraction limits, Grant Barnes, the chief regulatory officer of the Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR), told a parliamentary estimates committee.

Uncertainty, for a law enforcement agency, creates challenges, Barnes said.

When we are taking enforcement we need to substantiate to a high burden of proof … there are uncertainties that have emerged as a consequence of these two cases that mean that on each circumstance we've got to evaluate the merits of the situation and whether or not we can substantiate a breach of law.

In another separate legal challenge brought by major irrigator Budvalt, the supreme court of NSW found the volume of water extraction permitted by the licence had been inaccurately determined and ordered the government to recalculate.

Two further proceedings challenging the validity of floodplain harvesting licences issued in the Border Rivers and Gwydir Valley regions were filed in NSW courts this month.

Emma Carmody is the South Australian commissioner for the Murray River and a water lawyer with extensive experience advising on water laws in NSW.

If the same defective process were applied to other floodplain harvesting licences, those licences would also be susceptible to a finding of invalidity", she said.

On that basis, it is not difficult to see why the chief regulatory officer would intimate in parliament that he lacks the regulatory clarity required to enforce the law in all circumstances.

Carmody said it was an extraordinary situation given the number of licences potentially involved, and the volumes of water. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Lisa Cox

Giving evidence to the ICAC yesterday, David Chandler described an interaction he had with Toplace developments' Jean Nassif.

He just basically said: Don't you harm my project and if you harm my project, I'll harm you, Chandler said, recalling a phone call with Nassif in 2021.

The pair had already clashed in person in 2020 at a meeting where Chandler said Nassif had become loud and overbearing. Chandler had ordered a destructive inspection of a Toplace building in Botany, meaning bathrooms would need to be ripped up to check the waterproofing.

Chandler said after the 2021 phone call, he banned Nassif from being present on sites when he was conducting inspections and resolved not to deal with him directly.

A few days before the phone call in April 2021, Chandler put a prohibition order on Skyview, a Toplace apartment complex in Castle Hill, preventing it from being occupied.

ICAC is investigating whether payments to a group of young conservatives known as the Reformers amounted to illegal political donations to the NSW Liberal party. It is investigating whether $2m allegedly paid by Nassif to Jeremy Greenwood, Christian Ellis and Charles Perrottet, the brother of the former premier Dominic Perrottet, were made to achieve certain outcomes, including the removal of the building commissioner.

Chandler is not under investigation by ICAC. Nassif, who fled Australia for rural Lebanon in 2022, is expected to appear before the commission by video link from Lebanon next week. He has previously denied any wrongdoing.

In April 2021, the Greens senator David Shoebridge and others sent Chandler photos of substantial cracking in the Skyview building's basement prompting urgent action, Chandler said.

Chandler said over the five years he was commissioner he undertook hundreds of inspections but he was aware Nassif believed he was being singled out.

Soon after the phone call, Chandler became aware of an accumulation of pressure, the former commissioner told ICAC. He became aware politicians had been told by figures in the industry he was on the take and journalists were being offered material that sought to undermine his integrity.

It seemed to be an intentional campaign to white ant me, Chandler told ICAC.

The first example of the alleged pressure campaign was an anonymous email to Toplace suggesting that if $5m was paid to a lawyer, William Roberts, the building commissioner would lift orders that were holding up occupancy certificates for Toplace's developments. The email was raised with Chandler by executives at Toplace, including Sharangan Maheswaran, who is a person of interest at the ICAC inquiry.

The Toplace executives described it as an attempt at a shakedown, Chandler said.

Chandler suggested he and the Toplace executives immediately go to the police but Maheswaran said they were not sure about its origins and were still investigating.

Chandler took contemporaneous notes and reported it to his departmental head, Emma Hogan, who ordered an internal audit.

ICAC heard Toplace executives did not engage with the departmental inquiry and Chandler was cleared.

So they could see that this ∼ that is the extortion attempt allegation ∼ was going to be of no assistance in getting the occupation certificate? the counsel assisting, Juliet Curtin, asked.

None, Chandler replied.

The second example of an alleged pressure campaign was a video which showed Chandler telling workers on a building site that he had an informal list of dodgy certifiers which he had provided to the banks. In the video Chandler says the industry needs to become more professional. [click the intro to return to front page]

STORY: Anne Davies