Petrol back above $2 a litre and diesel at $2.40 in some cities
Luca Ittimani
Petrol is back above $2 a litre and diesel prices have hit $2.40 in some cities as fuel costs race upwards.
Oil prices have steadily risen since the US resumed strikes on Iran, with Brent crude up from about US$70 on 2 July to US$87 today, while the Australian government reduced its fuel excise discount by 16 cents a litre.
Service stations have passed the higher wholesale fuel prices on to customers.
Melbourne is facing diesel prices of $2.40 a litre today, up 66 cents from their June low of 173.9c/L, according to Motormouth. Canberra is at 238c/L, Brisbane is at 234.4, Adelaide at 233.7, Sydney 232.8, and 226.4 in Perth.
Unleaded petrol prices have risen to 204.1 cents a litre in Canberra. They’re at 195.6c/L in Melbourne, 195.2 in Brisbane, 192.6 in Adelaide and 191.1, in Sydney – the latter up from its June low of 152.2. Perth has seen the biggest jump, with unleaded at 196.6c/L today, up nearly 50 cents from the June low of 148.3.
Updated at 02.40 EDT
Key events
What we learned, Wednesday 29 July
And that’s a wrap on our live coverage for the day.
Before we head off, let’s look at the day’s top headlines:
The former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has issued a rare public statement paying tribute to his successor, Jacinta Allan, and declaring that Labor’s new leader, Ben Carroll, can win the state election in four months’ time.
Carroll also introduced a bill late on Wednesday to scrap group voting tickets to elect the state’s upper house.
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, says no payments were made in relation to a growing corruption case involving members of the NSW Liberal party, insisting he is not a party to the proceedings. The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) also resumed its examination of former Liberal staffer Dylan Whitelaw.
Inflation has dropped to 3.8% in the year to June, from 4% in the previous month, with lower than anticipated underlying price pressures weighing against the chance of another Reserve Bank interest rate hike.
South Australia police are investigating the deaths of a mother and toddler as a murder-suicide after their bodies were found in the ocean off the coast west of Port Macdonnell.
The Greens have renewed called for rent freezes as they say today’s inflation figures still reflect a cost of living reality that is too expensive for Australian households.
The federal agriculture minister, Julie Collins, has said the government is preparing for further H5 bird flu detections in Australian wildlife after “local transmission between birds may indicate that we will continue to see spread”. Conservationists have expressed fears for Kangaroo Island’s iconic Australian sea lion population, after H5N1 bird flu was detected in a greater crested tern at Seal Bay.
Thanks for sticking around, see you tomorrow morning!
Updated at 03.36 EDT
Victoria to finally scrap group voting tickets to elect its upper house
Benita Kolovos
Rightwing provocateur Avi Yemini and anti-lockdown activist Monica Smit will no longer be able to use their “Free Palestine” and the “Save the Environment” parties to funnel preferences to One Nation and other conservative parties, with the new Victorian premier introducing legislation to parliament to scrap group voting tickets.
Ben Carroll on Wednesday afternoon announced that legislation had been introduced to parliament to abolish the system.
Under GVTs, voters can only choose one party above the line on the ballot paper, with their preferences then allocated by the party if it’s knocked out during counting. The system has allowed backroom deals between parties to flourish, enabling some candidates to get elected with only a minuscule number of primary votes.
Carroll said under the Electoral amendment (miscellaneous matters) bill 2026, a new above-the-line voting system will require voters to number at least five groups in order of preference. Those preferences will then flow to candidates in the order they appear below the line for each party or group.
In a YouTube video in April, Yemini said he had registered his party to “flow our preferences on to parties that want to free Palestine from Hamas” in the November poll.
Carroll said:
double quotation markFair elections are the bedrock of democracy, and we are delivering these reforms to ensure Victorians can be confident in their electoral processes. Victorians shouldn’t wake up after an election wondering how someone with only a handful of votes ended up in Parliament.
Victorian premier Ben Carroll. Photograph: Jay Kogler/AAPShare
Updated at 03.31 EDT
SA police officer allegedly stabbed in the neck and armed suspect shot in the leg
A South Australian police officer is in hospital with stab wounds to the neck after a confrontation with an armed man who was shot in the leg by police.
Police said they responded to multiple reports from the public of a knife-wielding man running on to Main North Road at Elizabeth East at about 11am.
The officer was transported to hospital and is receiving treatment for serious injuries. Police said they are providing appropriate support to her colleagues and family.
The suspect was also taken to hospital and is being treated for a gunshot wound. Police said his injuries are “not deemed to be life-threatening” and he will remain in police custody.
Acting Cmdr David O’Donovan praised the officers involved for their “courage, discipline and professionalism” during what he described as “an evolving and rapidly dangerous situation”.
Police have ruled out any further threat to the public or wider community.
Updated at 03.03 EDT
Sarah Martin
One Nation faces being struck off in Queensland after failing to file audited financial statements
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party faces being struck off in Queensland after failing its legal obligation to lodge audited financial statements with the state’s regulator.
The breach exposes Hanson and the New South Wales One Nation senator Sean Bell to financial penalties, with Hanson registered as president and Bell as secretary for the party in Queensland, where it is headquartered.
One Nation, which has been facing growing scrutiny of its finances as it has surged in popularity over the past year, has failed to lodge three years of audited financial reports.
Read more:
Updated at 02.41 EDT
Penry Buckley
Rising Tide protesters interrupt address by NSW premier amid coalmine expansion proposal
Climate activists have interrupted an address by the NSW premier, Chris Minns, to protest a controversial coal expansion proposal currently being considered in the state.
The premier was giving the main address at the Committee for Economic Development’s (Ceda) State of the State series in Sydney this afternoon.
In a post on Instagram, climate protest group Rising Tide took responsibility for interrupting the event, with a video showing a protester attempting to hand the premier the NSW Net Zero Commission report, which has warned that extended or expanded coal mines are inconsistent with the state’s legislated climate targets. Rising Tide said:
double quotation markWe just tried to hand NSW Premier Chris Minns his government’s own Net Zero Commission report.
Yet the largest coal project proposed in NSW history, the HVO expansion project, is currently before the Independent Planning Commission. And just yesterday Chris Minns said he supported its approval.”
During his speech, Minns said the government was “taking heat from both sides of the political spectrum when it comes to energy policy”.
He defended his government’s support for coal and gas, saying “the easiest way of seeing diminishing support for renewable energy transition in New South Wales is if the lights start going out on a regular basis and bills rise even farther and faster than they currently are”.
In a statement, NSW police said officers were called to the event at a hotel in Martin Place, following reports two people had attempted to approach the stage.
double quotation markOfficers attached to Sydney City Police Area Command spoke to a man and a woman before they were directed to leave the venue, to which they complied. There will be no further police action.
Updated at 02.34 EDT
‘We will continue to see spread’: authorities warn of further bird flu cases after local transmission confirmed
The federal agriculture minister, Julie Collins, has said the government is preparing for further H5 bird flu detections in Australian wildlife after “local transmission between birds may indicate that we will continue to see spread.”
There are currently 27 confirmed cases of H5 bird flu in Australia: 10 in Western Australia, 14 in South Australia, two in New South Wales and one in Queensland.
Speaking at a press conference in Sydney, Collins said that “while there remains no evidence of any mass mortality at this point in time, we do expect with this local transmission that there will be further detection”. She said:
double quotation markStates and territories will continue to undertake activities on the ground, particularly through shared costs, to manage the impact of the H5 bird flu.
Once it becomes established, what we do know from overseas, is that it is not able to be eradicated. So, what we will do is continue to monitor and evaluate and see where this disease is in Australia.
The Australian chief veterinary officer, Dr Beth Cookson, said it was “a concerning development” but “not unexpected”.
double quotation markThis news of some local transmission may mean we start to see wider spread among wild birds and other susceptible wildlife. This small shift in the situation will be very disappointing to many, but is certainly not an unexpected development as the last continent to detect H5 bird flu.
The government has confirmed there have been no detections in poultry or the wider agricultural sector. It said advice from the Australian Centre for Disease Control remains that risk to human health is low.
Federal minister for agriculture, Julie Collins. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 02.35 EDT
Petrol back above $2 a litre and diesel at $2.40 in some citiesLuca Ittimani
Petrol is back above $2 a litre and diesel prices have hit $2.40 in some cities as fuel costs race upwards.
Oil prices have steadily risen since the US resumed strikes on Iran, with Brent crude up from about US$70 on 2 July to US$87 today, while the Australian government reduced its fuel excise discount by 16 cents a litre.
Service stations have passed the higher wholesale fuel prices on to customers.
Melbourne is facing diesel prices of $2.40 a litre today, up 66 cents from their June low of 173.9c/L, according to Motormouth. Canberra is at 238c/L, Brisbane is at 234.4, Adelaide at 233.7, Sydney 232.8, and 226.4 in Perth.
Unleaded petrol prices have risen to 204.1 cents a litre in Canberra. They’re at 195.6c/L in Melbourne, 195.2 in Brisbane, 192.6 in Adelaide and 191.1, in Sydney – the latter up from its June low of 152.2. Perth has seen the biggest jump, with unleaded at 196.6c/L today, up nearly 50 cents from the June low of 148.3.
Updated at 02.40 EDT
Jewish medical group details ‘increased politicisation’ in the health sector
Healthcare workers need to take caution in what they post to personal social media accounts, a peak body for Jewish medical practitioners warns.
AAP reports senior members of the Australasian Jewish Medical Federation have provided the royal commission into antisemitism with examples of multiple incidents in which people felt unsafe or doctors were rejected by patients because of their cultural identity.
The federation’s president, Jack Green, said the organisation “hardly ever” received reports of antisemitism before Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel and the subsequent conflict in Gaza.
“There was increased politicisation in the health sector, there were a lot of social media postings,” Green said of the shift.
double quotation markThere were a lot of increasingly distressed Jewish medical practitioners and they started contacting us.
Doctors became afraid to display symbols indicating their Jewish identity and, in one instance, an Israeli-Australian patient experienced significant distress seeing “overt political symbols” in a Northern Territory hospital, Green said.
Updated at 01.34 EDT
Icac witness accepts former NSW Liberal minister did not have extramarital affair despite ‘shit sheet’ claimPenry Buckley
Returning to the NSW Icac’s Operation Rosny hearing earlier, witness Dylan Whitelaw was cross-examined over a claim he repeated about a purported extramarital affair by the former NSW Liberal minister David Elliott.
The claims were in a document titled “David Elliott shit sheet” allegedly shared between members of the hard right factional group the Reformers.
Elliott’s lawyer, Bruce Levet, questioned the document which claimed that during the pandemic lockdowns, Elliott was photographed leaving the residence of another woman while his wife was undergoing treatment for cancer. Whitelaw accepted Levet’s submission that Elliott’s wife had treatment for cancer in 2012, not during the pandemic.
He agreed with Levet that he had not seen any photograph, saying he was not aware if “any specific photo” existed. “No one ever showed me,” said Whitelaw. Finally, they had this exchange:
double quotation markLevet: “I suggest to you that no such affair occurred.”
Whitelaw: “I would accept that.”
Following today’s evidence, Elliott put out a statement reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, in which he strongly rejected any claims of an affair.
double quotation markI reject all the accusations made by the young boy, Dylan, and his colleagues on the religious right of the Liberal Party.
As most of Sydney knows I’m a devoted husband of 30 years to a beautiful woman who doesn’t deserve to be treated like this by the party she has sacrificed so much for.
Needless to say I’m looking forward to the possibility of providing my own observations should the Commission see fit to invite me to give evidence.
Updated at 01.37 EDT
Nick Visser
That’s all for me. Achol Arok will take things from here. Enjoy the arvo.
ShareNSW says it won’t sell koala national park carbon credits to coal and gas companies
Lisa Cox
The NSW government says it will not sell any carbon credits generated by its planned Great Koala national park to coal and gas companies.
The government said today it had submitted the Great Koala national park to the Clean Energy Regulator for approval under a new carbon method that will allow state governments to earn credits by storing carbon dioxide in native forests on public land.
If approved, the government would cease logging within the park’s boundaries and move legislation to formally establish its long-promised Great Koala national park.
The Minns government wants the park accredited under the new method so that it can use revenue from the carbon credits to fund the park’s management.
But it has faced criticism from some environment groups who object to offsetting on public forests or hold concerns credits could be purchased to offset coal and gas projects.
The NSW environment minister, Penny Sharpe, said on Wednesday if the Clean Energy Regulator approves the project the state government will prioritise selling the ACCUs (Australian Carbon Credit Units) to “targeted manufacturing industries in NSW”. Sharpe said:
double quotation markACCUs from the Great Koala national park will not be able to be sold to coal and gas projects.
The Bob Brown Foundation said:
double quotation markToday’s announcement ruling out trading Great Koala National forests for coal and gas does not rule out making those credits available to facilitate NSW’s biggest industrial emitters such as Port Kembla Steel and Tomago Aluminium.
The NSW environment minister, Penny Sharpe, said carbon credits from the Great Koala national park will not be able to be sold to coal and gas projects. Photograph: Bec Lorrimer/The GuardianShare
Updated at 01.06 EDT
Greens renew calls for rent freeze amid inflation data
The Greens say today’s inflation figures, which show inflation unexpectedly easing to 3.8%, still reflect a cost of living reality that is too expensive for Australian households.
The party said housing costs are driving inflation, and there should be a freeze on rents for 12 months and a moratorium on no-cause evictions during the ongoing fuel crisis.
Barbara Pocock, the Greens’ spokesperson for housing, said in a statement:
double quotation markHigh inflation means that too many households are just one rent increase away from eviction or homelessness. A rent freeze and ban on evictions will give people more security in a cost of living and fuel crisis.
Households across the country are already doing it tough. They’re struggling to pay their rent and mortgages, as well as the cost of essentials, while they watch their wages go backwards. …
The Government must freeze rents and stop no cause evictions. They need to invest directly and at scale in good quality public housing and stop fiddling at the edges with things like the 5% deposit scheme, which actually pushes prices up to make the housing crisis worse.
Read more here:
Greens senator Barbara Pocock. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 00.59 EDT
Patrick Commins
Full scale of mortgage offset failures ‘completely unknown’, says Asic chair
Sarah Court, the Asic chair, at a press conference earlier this morning discussed the regulator’s latest report, which revealed banks’ “significant failures” when it came to managing mortgage offset accounts.
“We have found that banks are failing to deliver interest savings to many of their customers, costing millions of dollars a year in extra interest,” Court said.
The corporate regulator’s report revealed lenders paid $55m in compensation to 264,000 customers over two years to August 2025, and Court said the ultimate number will be higher.
double quotation markIt’s clear that the banks we surveyed may themselves not know the full extent of these issues. The amount of the potential losses to customers at this stage is completely unknown.
The Asic chair detailed some examples of the substantial and often hidden cost of these failures:
double quotation markIn one case, a customer paid more than $3,500 in extra interest in just over one month when their offset account was incorrectly de-linked by their bank.
In another example, two customers paid more than $17,000 in additional interest after the bank failed to inform their broker that the offset account needed to be relinked following refinancing.
Now, many of these failures went undetected until Asic started our work.
Asic chair, Sarah Court. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPShare
Updated at 00.42 EDT
David Pocock is writing an illustrated children’s book about birds
Josh Butler
Federal senator David Pocock is writing a new book, a field guide for native birds geared toward children.
Pocock, the independent senator from the ACT, has declared an “advance from Penguin Random House Australia for book contract” on his parliamentary register interests.
Reached for comment, Pocock said he’d have more to say soon, but that it was an illustrated field guide for birds, in conjunction with a local ecologist.
Pocock is a noted wildlife fan, backing the gang gang cockatoo for Guardian Australia’s Bird of the Year poll in 2025.
Updated at 00.47 EDT
Melissa Davey
Peak medical body says no need for high concentration medicinal cannabis
The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Michael Wright, says there is “no clinical need” for THC concentrations to be so high in the medicinal cannabis products available in Australia.
Guardian Australia reported that doctors are commonly prescribing high-dose medicinal cannabis containing up to four times the concentration of THC tested in clinical trials. There are adverse events being reported associated with these products, such as psychosis.
THC, or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis.
There is no upper limit for THC concentration allowed in medicinal cannabis products in Australia.
“Concentrations of up to 98% THC have been available to patients,” Wright said.
double quotation markWith the possible exception of palliative care, there’s no situation where such high doses of THC are warranted. High-THC products can heighten anxiety, create cannabis dependency, and in some cases lead to psychosis. The increase we’ve seen in hospital presentations for psychosis is deeply concerning.
According to TGA data, chronic pain and anxiety drive the majority of prescriptions.
This is despite research that has found medicinal cannabis is no more effective than placebo at reducing anxiety symptoms, and a 2018 review concluding there is low quality evidence that cannabis may be associated with small reductions in pain.
Wright said online providers are driving poor prescribing practices.
double quotation markOnline cannabis clinics operating as businesses create conflicts of interest, fragment care, and put patients at risk.
The problem is the vertically integrated, single-issue telehealth model, where patients often self-assess their eligibility for a predetermined treatment.
Updated at 23.55 EDT
Penry Buckley
Further mention of purported Angus Taylor payments at NSW Icac
The NSW Icac’s Operation Rosny hearing has now concluded for the day. Before it finished, finished former Liberal staffer, Dylan Whitelaw, was asked again about purported payments by the federal opposition leader, Angus Taylor, to the Reformers, who are being investigated by Icac.
This morning, Taylor has said he made no payments to the hard-right factional group after messages read out at the inquiry yesterday purported to show Taylor had agreed with Catholic Schools NSW CEO, Dallas McInerney, to make a one-off payment of $15,000 and a $3,000 monthly donation.
Counsel assisting, Juliet Curtin, had the following exchange with Whitelaw today:
double quotation markCurtin: “That monthly retainer of $3,000, though, are you able to say whether that had anything to do with the increase that [Reformer-controlled lobbyist] Beckington received in its monthly retainer [from Catholic Schools NSW] from March 2021?”
Whitelaw: “Sorry, I don’t.”
Curtin: “Are you able to say whether there’s a connection between the monthly amount that Angus Taylor had indicated to Mr McInerney that he’s prepared to make and the corresponding increase, well, it appears to be an increase that happened at the same time in the amount that Catholic Schools New South Wales was paying to Beckington?
Whitelaw: “No, I wouldn’t be able to talk to that.”
Taylor is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Updated at 23.45 EDT
Penry Buckley
Continued from previous post …
On Monday, the inquiry heard a phone call featuring Jean Nassif in which he allegedly claimed he had paid for David Chandler’s removal. He also allegedly claimed that “the fair trading minister is gonna to be one of my girls”.
The inquiry heard that two months after the call, the then Liberal premier, Dominic Perrottet, appointed Eleni Petinos as fair trading minister in a reshuffle. In July 2022, Chandler handed in his resignation following an investigation into his conduct that had been requested by Petinos, which later cleared him of any wrongdoing. The watchdog heard that evidence would determine if Nassif’s call was “an incidence of wishful thinking that serendipitously came to pass” or the result of work by the Reformers.
Spence, Perrottet and Petinos are not named in any allegations, and have not been accused of any wrongdoing.
On Tuesday the NSW Liberal leader, Kellie Sloane, said she had checked in on Petinos, who is on maternity leave. She has not asked Petinos to stand aside from shadow cabinet during the inquiry.
Eleni Petinos with Dominic Perrottet in 2016. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPShare
Updated at 23.36 EDT
Penry Buckley
Inquiry hears about video allegedly circulated to damage building commissioner
Questioning by the NSW Icac of former Liberal staffer Dylan Whitelaw moved earlier to his time working in 2022 in the office of the then Liberal planning minister, Anthony Roberts.
One of the allegations Icac is investigating is whether members of the Reformers solicited or accepted donations from fugitive property developer Jean Nassif in exchange for the pursuit of outcomes including the removal of the then building commissioner, David Chandler.
Whitelaw has described an incident in which Roberts’ chief of staff, Christopher Spence, claimed to have a potentially damaging video of Chandler, with Spence saying he planned to give it to the then fair trading minister and current Liberal shadow minister, Eleni Petinos, to use in budget estimates.
Whitelaw says he is not aware if Spence spoke to Petinos about the video, saying they “were very close”. Asked if Spence had sought to circulate the video to bring about Chandler’s removal, Whitelaw told the inquiry Spence said words to the effect of: “We’ve just got to get rid of this guy”.
Whitelaw says he never saw the video, which he alleges included the imputation Chandler was racist, and included reference to a list of “dodgy” developers or certifiers that the building commissioner had passed on to banks. He says Spence never told him where he had received the video from.
Asked if he knew of Spence’s alleged plan to discredit Chandler at budget estimates “came to fruition”, Whitelaw says he does not, and he did not know why Petinos would want to have Chandler removed.
double quotation markNo, I don’t believe it did because I recall a subsequent conversation occurring … [Spence] walked into the office and said, ‘I can’t believe it, Eleni fucked it up’, excuse my language, or words to that effect.
Petinos is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Updated at 23.29 EDT
Dfat investigating if any Australians affected by Japan quakes
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) is investigating if any Australians were affected by yesterday’s earthquakes in Japan.
A spokesperson for the agency said in a statement:
double quotation markWe are deeply saddened by the loss of life and damage in Japan resulting from the earthquake in Kyushu. Australians in the affected area should follow the advice of local authorities.
Australian officials are liaising with local authorities to determine whether any Australians have been affected. We stand ready to provide consular assistance.
At least 13 people were killed in the temblors and hundreds injured.
Dashcam captures moment 6.8-magnitude earthquake hits Japan – videoShare
Updated at 00.48 EDT