Krishani Dhanji
Wilson launches ‘stand with small’ campaign for small businesses
Following Angus Taylor’s proposal to index income tax brackets and remove non-citizens from receiving social welfare, Tim Wilson will announce a campaign to support small businesses called … “stand with small”.
The shadow treasurer is promising a dedicated federal small business act with a single national definition for the sector and to set up legal maximum payment terms to small businesses from government and big business.
The Coalition will also consult on new minimum requirements for government procurement that must come from small business.
Wilson will tell the National Press Club that the Albanese government has “declared war on the self-starters and small businesses of the nation”, but the Coalition will fight for them.
double quotation markOver the past year I have been speaking with small businesses across the country, and particularly about how the rules of the economy increasingly feel rigged against them.
And I have reached a conclusion: we have an economy designed for the 20th century, and I am no longer convinced tinkering at the margins will fix it. We need new economic structures for the 21st century.”
The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 17.22 EDT
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Israeli foreign ministry has detained 430 people traveling onboard humanitarian flotilla
The Israeli foreign ministry said it had detained 430 people traveling onboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was attempting to transport humanitarian aid to Gaza before it was intercepted off the coast of Cyprus yesterday.
Israeli officials wrote on social media that all of those detained had been transferred to Israeli vessels and were making their way to the country, where they will be met by consular representatives. Israel called the flotilla “another PR” stunt “at the service of Hamas”:
double quotation markAnother PR flotilla has come to an end. … Israel will continue to act in full accordance with international law and will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza.
The flotilla had a slightly different figure, saying 428 detained activists from over 40 nations remain “unaccounted for”, the Associated Press reports.
A spokesperson for Australian foreign minister Penny Wong said yesterday the government was engaging with the Israelis on the welfare of the Australians involved in the flotilla and would visit them at the earliest opportunity. The spokesperson said:
double quotation markWe want to see all detained Australians released as soon as possible.
Australian officials continue to make clear to Israel our expectation that any detainees receive humane treatment in line with international norms.
Wong’s office said it continues “to encourage those wishing to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza to do so through established channels”.
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Cait Kelly
Victorian Greens rebuke decision to bring weapons expo back to Melbourne in 2028
The Victorian Greens have criticised Jacinta Allan’s government for bringing the weapons expo, Land Forces, back to Melbourne in 2028, saying they are “completely out of touch”.
It comes after the government announced it would be bringing the expo back in 2028 on Tuesday afternoon. The expo was cancelled in Melbourne and announced in Perth for 2026.
In 2024, there was a public outcry and protests at the conference and allegations of excessive police tactics and force used against protesters.
Greens spokesperson for peace and disarmament, Gabrielle de Vietri, said:
double quotation markThe public have made it very clear that they do not want this weapons trading expo in our peaceful city. Jacinta Allan’s Labor Government would prefer to prop up an industry designed to kill than listen to the people they are supposed to represent.
Jacinta Allan’s Labor Government couldn’t be more transparent – they moved Land Forces to Perth in an election year to avoid scrutiny and mass protests just before an election but are happy to keep dealing in war and weapons in plain sight once the election is done and dusted.
Victoria police attempt to extinguish a fire during a rally against the Land Forces international land defence exposition in Melbourne in 2024. Photograph: Joel Carrett/ReutersShare
Updated at 21.15 EDT
Lisa Cox
NSW upper house establishes inquiry into dingo management
The New South Wales upper house has agreed to establish a parliamentary inquiry to examine the treatment of dingo populations in the state’s national parks.
The probe will consider the genetic status of dingoes and legislation and policies that inform their management.
Animal Justice Party MLC Emma Hurst said it was “a chance to hear from voices that want to change the way dingoes are managed within national parks” with the species currently exempt from protection under the state’s biodiversity conservation laws.
Humane World for Animals Australia said it was “a milestone in the effort to end persecution of the species” and the organisation was “particularly glad that this inquiry will examine the genetic status of dingoes in New South Wales and the distinction between dingoes and wild dogs”.
Alix Livingstone from Defend the Wild said the state’s management of dingoes did not reflect the important role they played in ecosystems and the inquiry was a chance to “bring together a growing body of evidence, on-ground experience, and Traditional Owner knowledge to better understand the role dingoes play on Country”.
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Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Kylie Minogue announces she had second cancer diagnosis in 2021
Kylie Minogue has revealed that in early 2021 she was diagnosed with cancer for a second time, after diagnosis and successful treatment for breast cancer in 2005.
The pop star discussed the previously unannounced diagnosis in a new Netflix documentary entitled Kylie, available from today. “My second cancer diagnosis was in early 2021. I was able to keep that to myself … Not like the first time,” she said, referring to her highly publicised first treatment.
double quotation markThankfully, I got through it. Again. And all is well. Hey, who knows what’s around the corner, but pop music nurtures me … my passion for music is greater than ever.
Minogue said that after her treatment, she struggled “to find the right time” to announce it publicly, including after the huge success of her Grammy-winning 2023 single Padam Padam.
Read more here:
Kylie Minogue at the launch event for a Netflix documentary. Photograph: John Phillips/Getty Images for NetflixShare
Updated at 20.23 EDT
Josh Taylor
Hanson says office staff cuts are ‘serious issue’ for staffer health
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called on the Albanese government to allocate more staff to her party, stating she had begged and pleaded for more employees to deal with the “heavy workload”.
Hanson said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that her office has been “inundated with thousands of calls, emails and messages every week and it’s not possible to respond to all of them”.
She said the federal government cut staff allocation to One Nation after the last election, and despite requests to restore staffing levels, the government “hasn’t even responded and couldn’t care less”.
She said:
double quotation markMy staff have continued out of loyalty, and they want to help the Australian people but their health has now become a serious issue.
As the leader of One Nation, I have 5 electorate officers and just 2 Parliamentary Advisers.
The leader of the Greens, Larissa Waters, has 5 electorate officers and 15 advisers.
The prime minister has 59 personal advisers. Adding his other ministers, the Government employs a total of 504 personal advisers.
This is the prime minister using his powers to disadvantage his political opponents who don’t agree with his agenda.
Hanson said she didn’t want to air the issue publicly, but the government had given her no choice.
double quotation markI am the leader of a political party that is polling more than major political parties. The government has failed to staff One Nation anywhere close to a functional level. This is pure, bloody-minded politics by the Labor party.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
Updated at 20.21 EDT
Tom McIlroy
No indication new group with links to Islamic State have plans to leave Syrian camp, sources say
Government sources say there is no indication a group of women and children linked to IS fighters have made plans to leave a camp in northern Syria.
Media reports today suggest six Australian women, their children and grandchildren, look likely to leave the al-Roj camp in Syria very soon.
But so far the federal government has not had any information to suggest any of the group have made plans to come to Australia.
If and when they come home, the group is certain to face scrutiny from law enforcement agencies.
Updated at 19.55 EDT
Vanuatu says it is ready to sign economic and security deal with Australia
Vanuatu will sign a major cooperation agreement with Australia after renegotiating the deal, prime minister Jotham Napat told the Pacific island nation’s parliament on Tuesday, according to AFP.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese travelled to Vanuatu in September in the expectation the leaders would sign the $500m Nakamal Agreement to strengthen security and economic ties, but a ceremony was cancelled at short notice after concerns from some Vanuatu lawmakers.
Vanuatu has maintained a non-aligned foreign policy since independence from France and Britain, and fiercely protects its position of “friends to all and enemies to none” amid jostling for influence by China, Australia and the United States in the strategically located Pacific.
Napat said the agreement with Australia was not a security pact, but contained a security clause where Vanuatu agreed not to allow any outside force in its territory.
Australia is wary of China’s police presence in the nearby Solomon Islands, and has struck a series of treaties with Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea and Nauru seeking to curb Beijing’s security inroads to the region.
Vanuatu prime minister Jotham Napat and Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese. Photograph: The Office of The Prime Minister of AustraliaShare
Updated at 19.39 EDT
More IS-linked families preparing to return from SyriaTom McIlroy
Authorities are preparing for another six Australian women, along with their children and grandchildren, to return home from Syria, with the group expected to leave in the coming days.
The group – linked to IS fighters and stuck in the al-Roj camp in the country’s north – will be closely watched by government and law enforcement agencies if they do return home.
Their arrival is expected as soon as next week.
Earlier this month, four women and nine children took commercial flights to Sydney and Melbourne. The Australian federal police arrested and charged three of the women.
The assistant minister for multicultural affairs, Julian Hill, told Sky News this morning he had no information about the group, though added intelligence agencies and police were monitoring their movements.
“I’m not going to prejudge the operations of law enforcement agencies or security agencies but I’ll say this very clearly and very deliberately to anyone who’s listening,” Hill said.
double quotation markLaw enforcement agencies are well aware of this cohort … including those who’ve come back over many, many cycles, including under the Morrison government.
Hill would not be drawn on whether members of the group would face arrest on return to Australia.
double quotation markAgencies are prepared … and we don’t want these people back in.
The assistant minister for multicultural affairs, Julian Hill. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 19.55 EDT
Josh Taylor
AI nudify service ordered by eSafety to prevent children’s access
The eSafety commissioner has issued a direction to comply to restrict Australian children’s access to an unnamed nudify service that uses AI to generate sexually-explicit deepfakes of people based on uploaded images.
The regulator – which declined to name the platform so as to not add to its growing popularity – issued the direction to comply with age verification requirements after seeing the traffic from Australian users growing in the past few months, with 40,000 Australian visitors per month as of March this year.
Using recently introduced codes requiring age verification for adult content, eSafety initially had sought to engage with the Argentina-based company about compliance, but it failed to respond, leading to the formal warning.
The company now has 14 days to meet the requirements, after which eSafety has flagged it could seek fines of up to $49.5m against the company, and issue delisting notices to search engines.
In September last year, the Albanese government pledged to pass legislation banning nudify services being used to generate non-consensual content, but without that in place, the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant indicated she was using her existing powers to take the action she could for now.
Inman Grant said:
double quotation markI like many others struggle to see a positive use case for such services as it is, and services like these demonstrate where AI is causing irreparable harms today.
Thankfully, eSafety was able to ensure our world-leading codes required the purveyors and profiteers of such services to put measures in place to, at the very least, prevent children from accessing their platform.
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 19.24 EDT
$1m reward for information surrounding unsolved opal miner’s death
A $1m reward has been announced for information relating to the suspicious death of an opal miner more than 30 years ago, AAP reports.
Paul Murray was last seen alive on the outskirts of Lightning Ridge, an outback town in north-western NSW, on 19 March 1995.
Murray, then aged 40, owned an opal mining field about 8km north-west of the town and lived in a camp at the site. A local resident had picked him up and dropped him off at the edge of town, becoming the last known person to see him alive.
Murray was reported missing one week later. After an extensive search, two graziers found his body in scrubland, about 2km from his campsite. A postmortem examination found no obvious cause of death and no signs of trauma.
Authorities will again lift the reward on Wednesday, more than three decades on from Murray’s death, to $1m.
Updated at 19.17 EDT
Josh Taylor
Consultation with tech sector on CGT changes about ‘unique arrangements’, finance minister says
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, says tech companies and startups have “unique arrangements” that required the government to consult with them on proposed changes to capital gains tax in last week’s federal budget, but the government had not taken a position on whether the sector will get a carve out from the changes.
Amid fury and memes from the sector over the change – which replaces the 50% tax discount on profits with cost-base indexation – Gallagher told ABC’s 7.30 there had been a “level of misinformation around how some of these changes will impact” businesses. When asked why the tech sector was being consulted after the budget, she said a final conclusion could not be reached until the budget was released.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
Asked whether a carve-out for startups and tech companies was being considered, and if it would create a two-tier system for businesses in Australia, Gallagher said the government wants “to talk further with that sector about some unique features of their industry”, adding:
double quotation markAnd I think that is a responsible thing to do.
She said the government “hasn’t taken a position on carve-outs” for particular sectors:
double quotation markWhat we’ve said is we want to work with that sector to understand a little bit more about the concerns they are raising, and it is particularly about some of the costs … the way that their business is structured, particularly when they start, when they are early, young businesses – that we want to work through that with them further and the treasurer has undertaken to do that, and it is clear in the budget papers.
Gallagher said the government will be proceeding with its decisions in legislation to be introduced into parliament in the coming weeks, “and we would want to pass those bills as soon as [we’re] reasonably able to.”
Updated at 18.49 EDT