Andrew Leigh backs cancellation of Israeli MP’s visa
The assistant minister for competition, Andrew Leigh, has defended the government’s decision to deny entry to a far-right Israeli politician who described Gazan children as “enemies” and called for Israel’s total control of the West Bank.
As Sarah Basford Canales reports, Simcha Rothman, a member of the Knesset for the far-right party Religious Zionism, was scheduled to appear at two public events in Sydney and Melbourne in August and two private events billed as a “solidarity tour”.
Leigh did not comment on the specifics of the decision to deny him a visa but said the government would not allow people to “sow discord in Australia”.
Here’s what he told the ABC a few moments ago:
Social cohesion is important and the home affairs minister [Tony Burke] has said he makes no apology for taking a hard line on intolerance and sowing division.
We want to make sure those coming to Australia are doing so to contribute to the public conversation in a positive way and we don’t want to see that conversation become nasty and more divisive than it is already.
Updated at 02.48 EDT
Key events
Show key events only
Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
What we learned, 18 August 2025
With that, we’re wrapping up the blog. Before we go, here are the major stories from today:
Qantas must pay a $90m penalty for illegally firing more than 1,800 ground workers during the early period of the pandemic, taking the full cost of its controversial outsourcing decision to more than $200m.
Australia’s largest steelmaker, BlueScope, repeated calls for an east coast gas reserve after reporting that its profits tumbled to $84m in 2024-25, just over a 10th of the previous year.
Simcha Rothman, a member of the Knesset for the far-right party Religious Zionism, lashed out against the Australian government after he was barred from his upcoming “solidarity tour” in Sydney and Melbourne.
Queensland police announced it will go to court in an effort to halt a planned pro-Palestine march over Brisbane’s Story Bridge.
Twenty of Australia’s leading environment groups have written to treasurer Jim Chalmers asking for better representation for the environment at this week’s economic roundtable.
Rosalie Woodruff, the leader of the Tasmanian Greens, said the party would not back a motion of no-confidence in the state’s Liberal premier, Jeremy Rockliff.
NSW Surf Life Saving has closed Cabarita beach at Norries Headland after a shark bit a large chunk out of a surfer’s board this morning.
Thanks for your company today. We’ll be back early tomorrow.
Updated at 04.13 EDT
Homophobia must be stamped out of the game, Collingwood vice-captain says
Homophobic incidents have happened too often in the AFL and need to be stamped out of the game, says Collingwood vice-captain Brayden Maynard.
Adelaide ace Izak Rankine is under investigation for an alleged homophobic slur towards a Collingwood opponent and faces being banned for the AFL finals. No findings have yet been made.
It is the fourth such alleged incident at AFL level in the past two seasons, and sixth involving AFL-listed players. Maynard said the issue must be taken seriously:
We clearly need to stamp it out and I think we’re doing a great job of that, I think we’re doing as best as we can to stamp all that stuff out of the game.
So yeah, it’s not good to see. And I think we’re doing everything we can, both from a women’s program and a men’s program to stamp it out.
Adelaide has confirmed that one of their players is under investigation:
We are aware of an alleged matter involving one of our players in Saturday night’s game and we are in discussions with the AFL.
The AFL has handed out suspensions ranging from three to five matches in the past two seasons to players found guilty of conduct unbecoming.
– with AAP
Read more here:
Updated at 03.58 EDT
Far-right Israeli MP lashes out at Australian government after visa denied
Sarah Basford Canales
Simcha Rothman, a member of the Knesset for the far-right party Religious Zionism, has lashed out against the Australian government after he was barred from his upcoming “solidarity tour” in Sydney and Melbourne.
In a social media post on X and written in Hebrew, the Israeli politician described the Albanese government’s decision as “clear and blatant antisemitism”.
Rothman said the Australian government considered positions that most of the Israeli Knesset had adopted as “defiance and agitation”.
Those positions include a recent symbolic motion, spearheaded by Rothman, in July to “apply” Israel’s sovereignty to the occupied West Bank territory. The motion passed 71-13.
According to Google Translate, Rothman finished the post saying:
This antisemitic decision is not directed at me. It is directed at the Jewish community in Australia, at the state of Israel and at the people of Israel. The state of Israel learned the hard price of surrendering to terrorism on 7 October – the Australian government has not yet learned that lesson and the prices to be paid for it will be heavy.
The state of Israel must teach the entire world how not to surrender to terrorism.
I will not be deterred, and I will continue to raise the proud voice of the Jewish people wherever I am.
Updated at 03.23 EDT
The local bourse has achieved a new record finish in a choppy start to the trading week, as investors continue to weigh company earnings against their valuations.
The S&P/ASX200 increased by 24.4 points, or 0.27%, to a fresh record close of 8,963. The broader All Ordinaries gained 24 points, or 0.26%, to 9,236.1.
Eight of 11 local sectors finished higher, led by a 1.1%rally in communications stocks as REA Group surged roughly four per cent after appointing Cameron McIntyre to replace exiting veteran chief executive Owen Wilson.
– AAP
Updated at 03.09 EDT
Liberal senator criticises behaviour of protesters during Sydney Harbour Bridge march
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has criticised the conduct of some people who marched over the Sydney Harbour Bridge calling for an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
On the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program, Bragg was asked for a response to the federal government’s decision to deny entry to a far-right Israeli politician who has described Palestinian children in Gaza as “enemies”.
Bragg did not comment on the case as he had not been briefed on it, but raised concerns about the conduct of some protesters who held images of the Ayatollah and chanted “from the river to the sea” while marching over the bridge.
I think the idea that you can propose the erasure of Israel, and that be seen as something that no one even takes as a serious affront shows that we are in a very bad spot with some of these debates.
New South Wales police said initial estimates put the crowd at 90,000. A spokesperson for rally organisers, the Palestine Action Group, said police had informed them 100,000 people were in attendance – but the group estimated the figure was closer to 300,000.
There were no arrests or reports of antisocial behaviour on the day.
Updated at 03.03 EDT
Joe Aston, a former columnist with the Australian Financial Review who wrote a book on Qantas, says the union that brought a legal case against the airline should be congratulated.
As we told you earlier, Qantas has been fined a record $90m for illegally firing 1,820 baggage handlers and other ground staff in 2020, taking the cost of its controversial outsourcing decision to more than $200m.
Aston said no one believed the Transport Workers Union, which launched legal action, had a chance of victory at the time.
Here’s what he told the ABC:
I think that the Transport Workers Union should be lauded, frankly. They took on this risk entirely on their own shoulders. I can tell you, when they launched this case, it looked like a hopeless case. Nobody thought that they would win. Nobody thought that it would be so spectacular, that’s for sure.
Updated at 02.44 EDT
Andrew Leigh backs cancellation of Israeli MP’s visa
The assistant minister for competition, Andrew Leigh, has defended the government’s decision to deny entry to a far-right Israeli politician who described Gazan children as “enemies” and called for Israel’s total control of the West Bank.
As Sarah Basford Canales reports, Simcha Rothman, a member of the Knesset for the far-right party Religious Zionism, was scheduled to appear at two public events in Sydney and Melbourne in August and two private events billed as a “solidarity tour”.
Leigh did not comment on the specifics of the decision to deny him a visa but said the government would not allow people to “sow discord in Australia”.
Here’s what he told the ABC a few moments ago:
Social cohesion is important and the home affairs minister [Tony Burke] has said he makes no apology for taking a hard line on intolerance and sowing division.
We want to make sure those coming to Australia are doing so to contribute to the public conversation in a positive way and we don’t want to see that conversation become nasty and more divisive than it is already.
Updated at 02.48 EDT
Shadow treasurer attending productivity roundtable ‘in good faith’
The shadow minister for productivity, Andrew Bragg, says the Coalition will attend this week’s economic roundtable in good faith.
The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien, will attend the three-day summit at Parliament House.
Bragg says the Coalition is open to suggestions about cutting regulation and that the summit would help inform the Liberal policy platform.
Ted is going to the roundtable in good faith.
We are the alternative government and we need to develop our own policies over the course of this term.
This is an opportunity for us to have some inputs into our own process, but also look to find common ground where we can help the Australian people have a better economy.
Updated at 02.21 EDT
Productivity roundtable chance to ‘set us up for the future’, AI Group chief says
Business lobby groups are framing this week’s productivity roundtable as a “legacy moment for Australia”.
The summit will run from Tuesday to Thursday in Parliament House, with a focus on productivity, resilience and budget sustainability. But with the government already having ruled out large changes to tax, spending or contentious settings like negative gearing, some critics in the Coalition and media have said the summit risks devolving into a talkfest without the chance of meaningful outcomes.
But Innes Willox, the AI Group’s chief executive, believes it could be a transformational moment for the economy and workers:
We have a real chance here to get things right, to set us up for the future, a future which is better for all of us at a time of massive change across the economy.
We’re seeing huge changes occur around technology, around our move towards a net zero economy and our complete decarbonisation of the economy that we need at the moment, all of these things are making change imperative.
What got us to this point and what brought success to our economy in the past is no guarantee of doing so in the future.
Innes Willox. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 02.08 EDT
Luca Ittimani
More from Ampol’s annual report, released today
Australia’s big-brand petrol retailer is doubling down on service stations and hedging its bets on direct petrol production, even as tobacco sales crumble.
The company overall saw profits slide to $180m after tax excluding one-offs, with declining oil prices and sales dragging underlying earnings at its fuel refining and trading business down from $225m to $118m.
Oil markets have been up and down in 2025 thanks to conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine. That “unpredictable geopolitical backdrop” ate into fuel market earnings and left convenience stores accounting for nearly half of all underlying earnings, at $182m.
Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP
The company last week bid $1.1bn for the EG Australia service station network, with plans to roll out even more Foodary snack shops. Matt Halliday, the chief executive, said that would strengthen the business by shifting it towards “more predictable, retail driven sources and reducing exposure to … refining and trading”.
Service stations have their own trouble, though, with Ampol’s convenience sales slipping in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, from $527m to $491m.
Tobacco sales fell almost a third over the year to June, and now make up less than a fifth of Ampol’s convenience store sales. Smokers are swapping to cheaper black market products, hitting businesses across the country (and the federal budget).
But Ampol’s stores are now earning a 40% pre-tax profit margin, up from 37% in 2024 and less than 30% in 2020 – in part because consumers traded up to higher-margin tobacco products, even as they cut total spend. Matt Halliday, the chief executive, said:
We’ve continued to successfully outrun the industry’s decline in tobacco.
Updated at 01.57 EDT
Sarah Basford Canales
Far-right Israeli politician denied entry into Australia
A far-right Israeli politician, who has described Gazan children as “enemies” and called for Israel’s total control of the West Bank, has been denied entry into Australia ahead of an upcoming “solidarity tour”.
Simcha Rothman, a member of the Knesset for the far-right party Religious Zionism, was scheduled to appear at two public events in Sydney and Melbourne in August and two private events billed as a “solidarity tour”.
Simcha Rothman, centre. Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, confirmed on Monday Rothman’s visa application had been rejected and he would not be able to apply for one for three years. Guardian Australia first put questions to his office on Friday morning.
Burke’s statement said:
Our government takes a hard line on people who seek to come to our country and spread division. If you are coming to Australia to spread a message of hate and division, we don’t want you here. Under our government, Australia will be a country where everyone can be safe, and feel safe.
Read more: