1m agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 5:24am
M113 armoured personnel carriers grounded after ADF death
M113 armoured personnel carriers — the vehicle involved in a training incident in Townsville last night — have been grounded by the Australian Defence Force following the death of an Australian soldier.
Defence Minister Richard Marles says the vehicle has been taken out of service while an investigation into the incident can be carried out.
“The fleet of M113s have been grounded in this moment until we properly understand what has happened in this case,” he said.
“That investigation will now happen immediately. the M113s have played a really important part of our army’s capability and will be replaced by the Redback.”
1m agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 5:24am
Marles pressed on whether Australia should ‘decouple’ from China
Richard Marles has been asked about comments from the US administration saying it wants to see countries decouple from China when it comes to critical minerals.
Asked if Australia would be willing to decouple from Australia’s biggest trading partner in China, Marles has skirted around the question.
He says the government is focused on building the Australian critical minerals industry, and believes in the need to diversify production and refinement activities beyond China.
“That is a project that we want to be a part of given that so many of these raw materials are being extracted from Australia and the first place,” Marles says.
16m agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 5:09am
Has Australia assuaged US concerns about defence spending? Marles thinks so
Richard Marles has been asked whether he thinks the Australian government has done enough to assuage concerns from the US about Australia’s defence spending.
It’s all ahead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to Washington next week to meet US President Donald Trump.
Marles says the government has had a good story to tell the US administration about its investments in defence.
He says the government has overseen the biggest peacetime defence spending increase in history.
“All of our conversations are very much focused on the shared task we have before us and actually that is going very well,” Marles says.
20m agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 5:05am
Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles joins Afternoon Briefing
Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles has joined Afternoon Briefing, where he’s been asked about the death of an army soldier conducting an exercise in Townsville.
Marles says the incident occured yesterday evening at about 6:30pm local time and involved an M113 armoured personnel carrier.
He says the loss of the ADF soldier was a huge loss for the unit and the nation. Marles says the soldier provided a life of service to the army.
“[This] is a reminder that the work that the men and women of our defence force do each and every day … comes with danger and this is very much a reminder of that,” Marles says.
25m agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 5:00am
Afternoon Briefing has started! 📺
Afternoon Briefing with Melissa Clarke has started on ABC News.
Join along as we bring you the program here live.
44m agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 4:41am
Australians took $1.4bn from their super for medical treatments last financial year
Australians raided almost $1.4 billion from their nest eggs for medical treatment last financial year, according to new figures from the Australian Tax Office.
Super fund members are allowed to apply to the ATO for early access to some of their retirement savings on compassionate grounds, such as medical treatment or transport.
The latest figures from the tax office show more than $1.37 billion was approved for release on medical grounds.
Withdrawals for dental treatment have more than doubled in the past two years, with more than $817 million withdrawn last financial year, compared to over $313 million in the 2022-23 financial year.
The ATO has cautioned that withdrawing super early should only be seen as a last resort.
Read more from the Specialist Reporting Team’s Celina Edmonds and Evan Young, with national health reporter Stephanie Dalzell, in the link below.
1h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 4:23am
Intelligence chief to become Australia’s next ambassador to Japan
Director-General of the Office of National Intelligence (ONI)Â Andrew Shearer has been nominated as Australia’s next ambassador to Japan.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed his nomination in a statement on Thursday afternoon.
Shearer served as Cabinet Secretary, and National Security Adviser to two prime ministers before taking up his current role.
The ONI chief has held roles at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Shearer is expected to begin the role in early 2026.
1h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 4:00amOpposition leader brushes aside reports Liberal MPs could defect to Nationals
The opposition leader has been asked if she’s concerned some of her Liberal Party colleagues will defect to the National Party.
Sussan Ley says “not at all” and has used the opportunity to promote the Liberal Party’s values.Â
The Australian has reported that some Liberal MPs are considering moving to the National Party over climate and energy policy.
Asked about that report, Ley says that’s “commentary” and “third-party remarks” made to the media.
“I respect the Nationals and the proud history of their party and I know that as Liberals we work well when we work together,” Ley says.
1h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 3:56am
Sussan Ley won’t be drawn on her preferred migration rate
Sussan Ley has been asked what she thinks should be the rate of net overseas migration to Australia.
The opposition leader says the current migration rate at the moment is too high, and placing pressure on infrastructure.
But she hasn’t detailed what migration rate she’d like to see.
“This government allowed a million migrants in a two-year period, much, much higher than at any two-year period in our history,” Ley says.
“It’s time they got it right, and it’s time they reassured Australians who genuinely want both migration, but balanced infrastructure that at this point in time, is not keeping up,” she says.
Pressed on what migration figure she believes is acceptable, Ley says the Coalition is developing an immigration policy.
1h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 3:50am
Coalition will closely consider Labor’s plans to target crypto ATMs
Sussan Ley says the Coalition will closely look at government proposals to crackdown on crypto ATMs.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke used a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra to explain that the ATMs were being used by organised crime to launder money.
“Anything that is an intervention with criminals, whether they be around currency manoeuvres or something to do with children and online safety. These are things we’ll look at closely and carefully. They’re in the national interest,” Ley says.
1h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 3:47am
AUKUS, Quad, tariffs should be on the top of PM’s list when meeting with Donald Trump
The opposition leader has been asked what her expectations are of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump.
Sussan Ley says it’s an important meeting, the Coalition wishes him well and want a positive outcome.
“We have a shopping list of issues. I think the prime minister knows what’s on that list. Top of the list is AUKUS, guaranteeing this important strategic partnership is on the right track for the future,” Ley says.
The opposition leader says she also thinks the PM should raise the Quad, tariffs and trade with the US president.
1h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 3:43am
Ley takes aim at today’s unemployment figures
Sussan Ley says the unemployment figures released today show 34,000 Australians have lost their jobs last month.
Australia’s unemployment rate jumped to 4.5 per cent in September, up from 4.3 per cent in August, in seasonally adjusted terms.
The opposition leader says government needs to take the welfare and incomes of all Australians seriously.
“I, as leader of the Liberal Party, will always back aspiration that golden thread that connects every sector of society,” Ley says.
“The Liberal Party is about freedom, choice, opportunity and help for those who are vulnerable and need it. But unless you have a strong economy, you can’t do that properly,” she says.
1h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 3:40am
Penalties for producing, transmitting child sexual abuse material is inadequate: Ley
Changing tack now, and Sussan Ley says the current penalties for the production and transmission of child sexual abuse material are inadequate.
The opposition leader says the parliament must pass mandatory minimum sentence laws for those crimes and has urged the prime minister to work with the Coalition.
“Mandatory minimum sentences for these dreadful, dreadful crimes are part of the response that all levels of government must be prepared to lift,” Ley says.
“We cannot accept the types of crimes that we saw in childcare centres that we see, unfortunately, too often in the newspapers,” she says.
1h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 3:34am
Sussan Ley pays tribute to ADF soldier killed in training incident in Townsville
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has passed her condolences to the family of the Australian soldier who died during a training exercise in Townsville.
One soldier died, and another two were injured, when a vehicle rolled over during a training exercise yesterday.
“I know that in Townsville, a garrison town, the whole community will be feeling this intently,” Ley says.
1h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 3:31am
Ley and Wallace call for mandatory minimum sentences for child exploitation
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has stepped up in Queensland to discuss mandatory sentences of child exploitation offenders.
She’s speaking from the Daniel Morcombe Foundation at Palmwoods on the Queensland Sunshine Coast with Shadow Attorney-General Andrew Wallace.
Wallace says the government must support the opposition’s bill because the current laws are “manifestly inadequate”.
“It doesn’t meet community expectations. And that’s why the former shadow attorney general moved a private member’s bill to put forward in place, a minimum mandatory minimum five year sentence for first offence and a six year offence for subsequent offences, six year imprisonment for subsequent offences,” Wallace says.
2h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 2:56am
Burke questioned on Gazans who’ve come to Australia
Cameron Reddin from Sky News has been asked how he responds to Pauline Hanson’s calls to send all Gazan refugees currently in Australia back.
He’s also been asked how many Gazan refugees are currently in Australia, and how many applications are awaiting processing.
Tony Burke says those who come to Australia have gone through checks and have been assessed by ASIO.
The minister says he can’t say how many people are currently in Australia from Gaza, but says there are about 600 to 700 in the government’s case load.
“Usually, what happens in Australia is people come for the right reasons, and we are enriched by them. And we should have the courage to celebrate that,” Burke says.
2h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 2:55am
Burke hits back at opposition ‘spin’ on returned Australians from Syria
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke rejected suggestion that officials offering passport assistance to a group of women returned from Syria amounted to government assistance.
The small group of women and their children travelled, or were taken to Syria as partners of Islamic State members, and managed to smuggle themselves out of the country after years being stranded overseas.
Burke said the assistance provided was just simply what they were required to do by law.
“I don’t accept that public servants doing what they’re legally obliged to do is assistance in any form,” he says.
“When you go out of your way to help someone beyond the absolute bare minimum of legal entitlements, you’re helping, you’re supporting.
“For public servants, where they have a legal obligation to process an
application, it’s absolute spin from the opposition to try to characterise that as somehow being assistance.”
He says while the legal powers are there to delay an Australian who “for some reason we think is a direct threat” return, but “we’ve not yet had a circumstance where we meet the legal thresholds to take legal action to delay”.
2h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 2:50am
Tony Burke asked about reputation of home affairs in public service
The next question is asked about whether the government’s move to place the AFP and ASIO back into the home affairs portfolio after the last election was an admission the government was wrong to dismantle the department.
Tony Burke has also been asked why home affairs has been ranked as having the worst reputation in the public service.
The home affairs minister has brushed that off and says he’s happy with the structure the government has now.
“I couldn’t be happier with the leadership we have,” Burke says.
On the department’s reputation in the public service, Burke says he believes the survey results have improved the last time he checked.
“I know we’re running systems where we have bad actors constantly wanting to break our systems. But they should be proud of the fact that those public servants are the absolute front-line of Australians being safe,” Burke says.
2h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 2:45am
Burke says anti-Semitism envoy’s recommendations are ‘ongoing work’
Noah Yim from The Australian has asked the home affairs minister why the government has been sitting on the anti-Semitism envoy’s recommendations.
Tony Burke says the government responded to the report on the day it was released, and that the envoy’s report represented things the government was already acting on.
The home affairs minister has thanked envoy Jillian Segal for her work on the report, and has done “excellent work” promoting the fact anti-Semitism is a “deep evil”.
“This report is a report about ongoing work. It is not a Senate inquiry, it is not something you deal with in the normal way,” Burke says.
2h agoThu 16 Oct 2025 at 2:39am
Burke asked why it’s difficult for migrants to have their skills recognised in Australia
Sara Tomevska from SBS News has asked skills recognition for migrants. She says about 50 per cent of skilled migrants in Australia are working below their qualification level.
Tomevska has asked how many migrants to Australia are actually working in their skill levels.
Tony Burke says not all people come to Australia on sponsored visas, where people migrate to work in a particular field.
He says his department is working with Jobs and Skills Australia and are working through a number of specific proposals.
“There’s some good ideas we’re working through as to whether they can go forward or not,” Burke says.
“It’s something that if we can unlock this, then everybody wins. The economy wins, and the immigrant who is being given of a promise of what it will be like to work in Australia wins as well.”