1m agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 3:22am
Albanese’s meeting with Trump matters for AUKUS
Anthony Albanese finally has an answer to the question he’s thoroughly sick of being asked. He will meet Donald Trump at the White House on October 20.
Unless he cancels again, of course. This time, however, the Australian side wisely waited for the White House to announce the meeting.
When the prime minister spoke to the president on the phone three weeks ago, both sides apparently agreed a face-to-face was “necessary”.
Sources familiar with the conversation say the White House made it clear they wanted it to be a proper sit-down in the Oval Office, rather than a catch up on the sidelines of a summit, where it could be squeezed or cut altogether, should something come up.
The date wasn’t fixed, but for three weeks the Australian side was confident the meeting would finally happen. It explains why Albanese was so relaxed and even dismissive whenever pressed about it.
25m agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 2:57am
Warning over dangers of melatonin for children after surge in calls to poisons hotline
Australian poisons hotlines received a record number of calls about children ingesting melatonin last year, in a dramatic spike that has prompted experts to warn about the potential dangers of the supplement.
There were almost 1,500 calls last year to poisons hotlines relating to melatonin exposure for children, more than double the number of calls made in 2019.
A prescription is technically required to use melatonin in Australia and it is only approved for specific circumstances, but many parents circumvent the process by opting to buy it from online overseas retailers, as it’s often significantly cheaper and doesn’t require a script.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners spokesperson, Tim Jones, warned melatonin bought online might not meet the strict safety standards imposed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the national medicines regulator.
“Prescription melatonin is more expensive, but safety is absolutely guaranteed. If you’re sourcing melatonin online for your child, we have no way of knowing what your child is actually taking,” Dr Jones said.
In a statement, the TGA urged consumers to “exercise extreme caution” when considering purchasing medicines — including — over the internet.
“Products that are not regulated by the TGA may not meet Australian manufacturing quality standards and could also contain undisclosed harmful ingredients,” the spokesperson said.
41m agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 2:42am
Chalmers says govt will get to the bottom of Optus triple-0 outage
Jim Chalmers says the failure of Optus’ triple-0 service was a “disgrace” and has vowed that the government will get to the bottom of the issue.
“This can never happen again. and so there are a number of processes underway to get to the bottom of it,” Chalmers says.
43m agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 2:39am
Jim Chalmers asked about Westpac’s decision to cut 200 jobs
Jim Chalmers has been asked about Westpac’s move to sack 200 workers.
Just a few weeks ago, NAB announced it was sacking 400 workers while ANZ cut 3,500 employees.
The treasurer says it’s difficult days for people in the banking and financial sector.
“The point that I would make to Westpac is the same point that I made to the ANZ, which is when you are making and taking these difficult decisions, the onus is on the banks to explain them, to the people involved, the people at risk,” he says.
46m agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 2:36am
Will Australia follow the US’ lead on Tik Tok algorithms?
Will Australia follow the United States’ lead and ensure Tik Tok algorithms are controlled by Australian companies?
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government closely monitors developments around the world in relation to the regulation of social media.
“We obviously, take these developments very seriously, but I don’t have much to add beyond what we’ve said publicly about this before,” Chalmers says.
53m agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 2:30am
Jim Chalmers responds to Trump’s ‘con job’ comments about climate change
The treasurer has been asked about US President Donald Trump’s speech to the United Nations last night, where he called climate change a “con job”.
Jim Chalmers says Australia doesn’t see it that way, and that the government is working through the transition to renewables in a “concerted and methodical way”.
If you can cast your mind back, the federal government released its 2035 climate target of 62 to 70 per cent.
“This is a huge opportunity for Australia. We intend to grasp it and we will do that by working through these issues in a considered and methodical way, informed by experts and by economic modelling, of the sort that we released last week,” Chalmers says.
56m agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 2:26amTreasurer says he’ll release terms of reference for GST distribution inquiry later today
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced he’ll be releasing the terms of reference for a Productivity Inquiry into the Goods and Services Tax (GST) distribution later today.
“These terms of reference are broad enough to look into some of the issues and concerns which have been raised by the states. The GST distribution will always be a contentious issue. We’re working through that issue in a methodical way,” Chalmers says.
The treasurer has also announced that he’ll be tasking the Board of Tax to look at “responsible ways” to cut red tape in the tax system.
“This is all about finding material and measurable ways to get compliance costs down to cut red tape in the tax system. It’s an important part of the work that we are doing already with the Australian Tax Office,” he says.
1h agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 2:21am
Treasurer Jim Chalmers responds to inflation figures released today
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has stepped up to speak in Brisbane where he’s talking about the inflation figures that show core inflation is close to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s target.
The Monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicator rose 3.0 per cent in the 12 months to August 2025, according to the bureau of statistics.
However the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) preferred measure of inflation, the annual trimmed mean, came in at 2.6 per cent to August 2025.
Chalmers says the quarterly number is more reliable than the monthly figures.
He says today’s results come at a time when inflation has ticked up in some parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and New Zealand.
“We’re making really good progress on underlying inflation. Those numbers today make it clear, but we’ve been able to focus on getting inflation down at the same time as we maintain a focus as well on some of the bigger, longer term structural issues in our economy, like productivity,” Chalmers says.
1h agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 2:05amCore inflation close to RBA inflation target
The Monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicator rose 3.0 per cent in the 12 months to August 2025, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) says.
“The 3.0 per cent annual CPI inflation to August was up from 2.8 per cent to July, making this the highest annual inflation rate since July 2024,” the ABS says.
The largest contributors to the annual movement were Housing, up 4.5 per cent, Food and non-alcoholic beverages, up 3.0 per cent, and Alcohol and tobacco, up 6.0 per cent.
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) preferred measure of inflation, the annual trimmed mean, however, came in at 2.6 per cent to August 2025.
This is down from 2.7 per cent to July 2025, and close to the mid-point of the RBA’s inflation target range of between 2 and 3 per cent.
To read more, make sure you follow the business blog in the link below.
1h agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 1:54amDemoted Liberal declines to back Sussan Ley’s leadership
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has again refused to back Sussan Ley’s leadership in an interview where she declared fellow Liberal Andrew Hastie would be a “remarkable” leader one day.
The NT senator was demoted from shadow frontbench after declining to offer support for Ley’s leadership following a week-long spat over remarks Nampijinpa Price made about Indian Australians.
Speaking with 2GB, Nampijinpa Price wouldn’t “speculate on how I think or feel” when asked if she had faith in Ley’s leadership.
“I think we need to find some … policy positions, and I would certainly love to have those debates, as I said, within our party room, and that’s what I’ll be focusing on,” she said.
Asked again if she had confidence in Ley, the senator responded that she’d “love for the leader to have confidence in me also”.
“I think the fact that I’ve been demoted probably demonstrates that, but you know what, we need to move forward,” she replied.
On Hastie, Nampijinpa Price said he had what it took to be opposition leader: “I think he’s passionate. He’s got conviction”.
She added that “he’d be a remarkable leader one day”.
It comes amid rumblings Hastie, a former SAS soldier, could put make a tilt at the Liberal leadership. A post on the weekend from the Liberal frontbencher bemoaning the loss of Australia’s car making industry has become the target of criticism from unnamed colleagues.
Nampijinpa Price dismissed the comments.
“I think they probably see him as some kind of threat, because he is so good at what he does, is so good at the job that he does and representing Australians,” she said.
2h agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 1:23am
Clare O’Neil spruiks expansion of 5 per cent deposit scheme to regional Australians
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has stepped up in Melbourne, where she’s spruiking the extension of the government’s 5 per cent home deposit scheme to regional home buyers.
From next Wednesday, there will be no cap on the number of regional Australians who can access the federal government’s Home Guarantee Scheme.
The expansion will allow an unlimited number of regional first home buyers to access the 5 per cent deposit and extend higher price caps, normally reserved for city buyers, to regional buyers.
“This is one of the most important things that has happened to home ownership opportunities in our country for more than a generation, and it will blow open the doors and open up the opportunity for home ownership to tens of thousands of young people every year,” O’Neil says.
2h agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 12:51amAlbanese and Trump meet briefly for the first time
Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump have had a brief meeting at a welcome reception hosted by the US president for world leaders in New York.
It’s the first time the pair have met.
The prime minister confirmed earlier today that he’d be heading back to the US next month for a formal meeting with Trump in Washington, DC.
But there was always a possibility of Albanese catching Trump during the reception, which is being attended by over 100 other world leaders.
We’re told the pair had a conversation about their meeting next month.
If I hear anything else, I’ll let you know.
2h agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 12:43am
Gambling harms on the rise, new report says
A new study shows gambling and its harms are on the rise in Australia.
A survey of more than 3,800 people, by the Australian Gambling Research Centre, shows nearly two-thirds of adults gambled at least once last year – up 8 per cent on 2019 levels.
About 15 per cent of adults also reported experiencing gambling-related harms – a 4 per cent rise from 2019.
The research also shows high-risk gamblers face an increased likelihood of behavioural and mental health issues, as well as financial hardship.
Liz Neville, director at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, said a “more robust” approach to helping families and communities was needed.
“The current harm reduction initiatives need to be carefully examined and tested in view of this evidence, with ongoing measurement making for more impactful responses over time,” she said.
2h agoWed 24 Sep 2025 at 12:24amWong meets with Iran’s foreign minister on sidelines of UNGA
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong has met with her Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly for the first high-level talks since Australia cut diplomatic ties.
Last month, Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expelled Iran’s ambassador from Canberra and shut Australia’s embassy in Tehran after credible intelligence emerged linking the Iranian Revolutionary Guard with antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
Wong told triple j’s Hack that today’s meeting was an opportunity for her to square up to her counterpart and explain why Australia took such drastic action.
“We hadn’t had any discussions directly at my level until now, and I thought we needed to do that,” she said.
“I explained to the foreign minister of Iran that a line was crossed, that what happened was unacceptable, and that the government acted to protect its sovereign interests.”
But Wong denied that the meeting was a thawing of relations and that diplomatic relations weren’t restarting anytime soon.
“There would be a lot of trust-building to be required before we would consider any change in position.”
You can listen to the full interview with Penny Wong at 5:30pm on triple j or anytime via the ABC Listen and triple j apps.
3h agoTue 23 Sep 2025 at 11:42pm
A quick look at Trump’s UN speech
This isn’t the first time Donald Trump has voiced misinformation about climate change and renewable energy, but it was nevertheless an extraordinary rant that will no doubt invigorate a few climate deniers.
In a nutshell, Trump called climate change a hoax, said that renewable energy doesn’t really work and is a scam, and that coal is beautiful.
“I have a little standing order in the White House. Never use the word coal, only use the words clean, beautiful coal. Sounds much better, doesn’t it?”
I won’t bore you with a fact check of the laundry list of falsehoods spouted by the US president; we are well past the era of debating whether climate change is real. The impacts of a warming world are already being felt, and last week’s national climate risk assessment paints a grim picture of how it will continue to worsen.
But Trump’s attacks on clean energy seem to be playing straight into the hands of the fossil fuel industry and those wanting to slow the transition to net zero.
It comes at a critical time for global climate diplomacy as the UN General Assembly gears up for its climate day tomorrow, when leaders will present their latest targets for emissions reductions.
4h agoTue 23 Sep 2025 at 10:59pmAUKUS supporters in Congress point to early ‘impressive results’
Joe Courtney says AUKUS is already achieving wins. (ABC News: Bradley McLennan)
Some of the US Congress’s most pro-AUKUS members are hailing some new figures that they say highlight the pact’s early success.
While AUKUS’s standout feature is a plan to arm Australia with nuclear submarines, it also involves the sharing of sensitive military technologies between the US, the UK and Australia.
To facilitate that, a “licence-free” system was introduced a year ago to cut red tape around transferring those technologies between the three countries.
Since then, 900 export permits from Australia to the US and UK have been generated, according to the US Congressional Friends of Australia Caucus.
That’s facilitated more than $US85 million ($129 million) in exports from Australia to the US.
In a joint statement, Democrat Joe Courtney and Republican Michael McCaul — the co-chairs of the Friends of Australia Caucus — said:
“The historic decision by Congress in December 2023 to reform our nation’s defence export control laws to accelerate a transfer of technology among the three AUKUS nations is showing impressive results.
“…Moving forward, this momentum is going to continue to snowball to the benefit of all three nations.”
Their decision to release a celebratory statement shows the bipartisan push to protect AUKUS remains active, as the Pentagon reviews the pact and Anthony Albanese prepares to meet Donald Trump next month.
Members of both parties here, particularly those on national security and foreign affairs committees, have been issuing statements talking up the benefits of AUKUS since the review was revealed in June.
4h agoTue 23 Sep 2025 at 10:40pm
Albanese, Trump meeting the ‘longest courtship in history’
Nationals senator Matt Canavan says lining up a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been the “longest courtship in history”.
“It’s certainly been the most painful one,” he told Channel Nine.
“I mean, I don’t understand why it’s taken this long.”
As we’ve been posting about this morning, the leaders will meet for the first time on October 20 in Washington.
While other politicians have sought to put some blame on Ambassador Kevin Rudd for the lengthy lead-up time, Canavan says the former PM is not at fault.
“I don’t blame Kevin, though; clearly the prime minister has been avoiding this first date,” he said.
5h agoTue 23 Sep 2025 at 10:22pmPanadol safe for pregnant women, Butler reassures
Health Minister Mark Butler is seeking to reassure the more than 200,000 pregnant Australians that paracetamol is safe for use after claims by US President Donald Trump.
The Trump administration linked the drug to autism in children — a claim that has been broadly condemned as “baseless” and causing unnecessary fear.
Butler ordered Australia’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, to urgently assess the claims and if there was “any reason to review our advice”.
There wasn’t.
“The advice of our regulator is that Panadol, which is our equivalent of Tylenol or paracetamol, is safe for pregnant women to use, not to overuse, but to use,” he told Nine.
“Particularly in the case of fever, because we know untreated fever can be particularly dangerous for pregnant woman and for her fetus as well.
“The TGA reaffirmed the advice that’s been long-standing that Panadol is a safe drug to take for pregnant women, particularly in the case of fever.”
Butler says he doesn’t want pregnant women, or anyone who has been pregnant, to feel unsure about what to do or feel guilty for taking a safe treatment.
5h agoTue 23 Sep 2025 at 10:10pm
Butler dismisses ‘fuss’ over PM’s Trump meeting
(ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Health Minister Mark Butler says he’s not sure “what the fuss was” about whether Anthony Albanese would secure a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump.
The White House confirmed the prime minister will meet with the US president next month in Washington, DC.
Speaking with Nine, Butler said he was glad the meeting would take place away from the “hustle and bustle” of the United Nations General Assembly.
“I think it’s pretty clear what Australia’s interests are in terms of our relationship with our most significant ally. Obviously, there’s a lot on the agenda in the defence and security space, particularly the AUKUS review.
“But there’s a lot in relation to trade as well. We’ve secured the best tariff arrangements going with the US right now, which is, you know, if anything, going to be of some benefit to some of our industries, competing with other countries that are facing much higher tariffs than Australia.”
5h agoTue 23 Sep 2025 at 9:48pm
Australia made ‘very serious mistake’ on Palestine: US ambassador to Israel
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, says Australia made a “very serious mistake” in joining with France and others in recognising a Palestinian state this week.
“There are a number of countries that have decided to jump on this wagon. I just don’t know what they expect they’re going to get from this other than more turmoil,” he told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast.
“We feel that the government of Australia has made a very serious mistake.
“We think they’ve gone along with some of the European nations without understanding the implications.”
Huckabee says it has led to US-Australia relations reaching a “point of stress,” but he was sure the two nations would “continue to work together on the things with which we agree”.
“I think it’s possible for nations to disagree on some things and agree on others and still maintain a relationship,” he says.
“That’s not to say that there is not very, very strong disappointment, and perhaps the word disgust would be a more appropriate term for how the US feels toward what we thought are our friends.”
The diplomat added he hoped the US could do a “better job” of convincing Australia in the future “their actions toward a Palestinian state have been very counterproductive”.