To keep up to date on today’s top stories, read the national news blog.
To keep up to date on today’s top stories, read the national news blog.
It’s the oldest adage in journalism: don’t become the story.
A news crew with Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph found themselves firmly on the wrong side of the camera this week, with the police called in following a stunt gone wrong involving a man wearing a Star of David cap at a popular inner-city eatery.
Staff at popular Enmore restaurant Cairo Takeaway accused the Tele of trying to goad staff into a confrontation over conflict in the Middle East. The cafe has been a public supporter of the Palestinian cause.
The artistic team dumped as Australia’s representative at the Venice Biennale say they are hurt and disappointed by the decision to “censor” them.
In a shock announcement on Thursday night, the board of Creative Australia withdrew its invitation to western Sydney multimedia artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino.
Creative Australia said it revoked the invitation over concerns about “a prolonged and divisive debate about the 2026 selection outcome”.
Sabsabi was the first Lebanese artist from western Sydney selected for the biennale. He migrated to Australia with his family from Lebanon during the civil war, and has taken strong political positions on the Gaza conflict.
His works have also depicted assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
This is Adam Carey, taking over the running of the blog from Josefine Ganko.
Here’s what’s making headlines this afternoon:
- Victorian Labor has squeaked home in the byelection for Werribee, a normally safe, outer suburban seat where the Allan government suffered a near 17 per cent swing.
- Max Veifer, the Israeli influencer who posted footage of two Sydney nurses making alleged threats against Israeli patients, says he is still waiting for instructions from NSW Police on where to send the unedited version of the footage.
- In a scene ripped straight from the parchment pages of the Old Testament, a Chilean kayaker was filmed being scooped into the mouth of a humpback whale, and promptly spat out again.
Independent MP Helen Haines says she hopes even more independents will be elected to parliament at the upcoming poll, in the hopes a bigger crossbench will be able to negotiate amendments to the just-passed electoral reforms.
The crossbench has railed against many parts of the bill, introduced by the government and supported through the parliament by the Coalition, specifically the donation caps that limit single electorate spending while giving only major parties access to a separate pot of donations with a much higher cap.
With the passage of the bill, the question has been asked if the crossbench, especially the so-called teal MPs who work collaboratively and have a common donor in Climate 200, backed by Simon Holmes-a-Court, should form a party.
Haines, the member for the regional Victorian seat of Indi, who was elected in 2019 (not as part of the teal movement), was asked about such suggestions at the National Press Club.
“Well, that’s kind of the nub of it, isn’t it? Unless you are in a major party, you will not get the full advantage of this so-called electoral reform,” she said.
“So if you’re an outsider, if you’re an independent, then you’re playing to a different set of rules. And I think the Australian public ought to wake up to this.”
Haines said it wasn’t all bad news.
“This new act of parliament, which will become law soon once the governor-general sees it, doesn’t come into effect until after the next election,” Haines said.
“If I’m privileged enough to be re-elected and my colleagues on the crossbench are re-elected – and I really hope there are many, many more regional independents elected – what a marvellous first meeting with the special minister of state to talk about how we might amend that particular bill,” Haines said.
While we are on the topic of the AWU’s campaign against the Great Koala National Park, it’s worth examining the jobs claim.
The union says, “Over 9000 jobs will go in the hardwood industry if the ‘Great Koala National Park’ is imposed on North Coast communities.”
Is this true? A 2023 Ernst & Young report, commissioned by the hardwood industry, found the hardwood industry supported 8900 jobs across NSW. That includes 5290 direct jobs and 2980 jobs created indirectly through broader economic activity such as transport and postal services or administrative and support services.
Of the 8900 jobs, the report finds 5700 of them are in north-eastern NSW. For the Forestry Corporation of NSW, the North-West region stretches from the Hawkesbury River to the Queensland border and west to Armidale, though Coffs Harbour and its surrounds are a big part of the operation.
This masthead has previously reported on the impact on jobs in the Coffs Harbour region. The 2021 census data presents a different picture.
Forestry and related industries, including wood and paper processing, accounted for 958 jobs in the Coffs-Grafton regionin the last census. That is about 2 per cent of jobs in the region.
NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe has consistently described the forthcoming Great Koala National Park as a boon for tourism in the region. In the last census, the Coffs-Grafton region had 1860 jobs in tourism-related industries – not including food services – making up nearly 4 per cent of employment.
The Australian Workers Union has been forced to retract its claim that there are 748,000 koalas in NSW and “populations are stable and thriving”. In fact, scientists say there are only about 238,000 koalas across NSW, the ACT and Queensland.
The union made the claim as part of its campaign against the NSW government’s election promise to create the Great Koala National Park. The union is fighting to protect jobs in the forestry and timber industries.
In a press release issued yesterday and reported elsewhere, the AWU said: “The latest CSIRO research from 2024 shows koala populations are stable and thriving with 748,000 of the animals in NSW. That’s double the number from an outdated 2016 study by Adams-Hosking which estimated populations at 331,000 and led to calls for the establishment of the park.”
In fact, the 2024 CSIRO study found the koala population for the whole of Australia was between 224,000 and 524,000.
The union appears to have added those two numbers together and attributed a national figure to NSW. In 2023, the CSIRO estimated there were between 287,830 and 628,010 koalas nationally, so the estimated koala numbers have declined.
Following questions from this masthead, the AWU released an amended press release last night, using the 524,000 figure, removing the reference to that being for NSW, and changing the wording to refer to “healthy koala numbers”.
However, the press release still incorrectly claims that estimated koala numbers have increased since the 2016 Adams-Hosking study.
In fact, that study estimated the national koala population was between 144,000 and 605,000.
An AWU spokesperson said: “An error was made regarding the figures which has now been corrected. However, we stand by our position a solution must be found which balances the need to protect native species with the livelihoods of North Coast timber workers and the viability of the regional towns and villages in which they live. Timber workers have spent this week at state parliament talking directly to their elected representatives to ensure they are considered in upcoming decision-making processes.”
The Labor Party has declared victory in the state seat of Werribee after a voter backlash that has sent a shudder through the Allan and Albanese governments.
The ALP claimed the seat at 12.15pm today after further counting of a small number of postal votes failed to bridge the gap between school teacher John Lister and the Liberal Party’s candidate Steve Murphy.
Lister, until recently the year-10 co-ordinator at Wyndham Central College, previously worked as a political adviser for the Victorian government.
Labor suffered a primary swing of more than 16 per cent in a byelection campaign dominated by concerns about local road congestion, cost-of-living pressures on families and crime.
It narrowly retained the seat by a margin of a few hundred votes.
The seat was vacated by long-serving treasurer Tim Pallas, who quit parliament at the end of last year.
The sitting week just passed in Canberra, possibly the last before the 2025 election, was dominated by US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will introduce 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium “without exceptions or exemptions”.
The announcement laid out a test for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. In a 40-minute phone call, Trump agreed to consider an exemption for Australia, an intermediary win for Albanese in what will be an extended trade saga.
Senior writer Jacqueline Maley welcomed chief political correspondent David Crowe and senior economics correspondent Shane Wright to unpack the week on today’s Inside Politics edition of The Morning Edition.
Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has again commented on the status of Australia’s negotiations to be exempted from the United States’ planned tariffs on steel and aluminium, as he visits the Illawarra region, one of the most important steel production centres in the country.
Albanese reiterated that the key to negotiating an exemption would be the US’ trade surplus with Australia.
“We have zero tariffs of any US goods into Australia,” he said.
“Australian steel is making a positive difference to the US economy by putting roofs on houses.”
The comments came after Albanese toured BlueScope steelworks at Port Kembla.
“It is in both Australia and the United States’ interest to have economic co-operation, and that’s what I am endeavouring to achieve. And we had a great discussion this week with President [Donald] Trump.”
US President Donald Trump has met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and vowed to bring “fairness and reciprocity” to their countries’ economic relationship, which he said would involve reducing US trade deficits and likely raising tariffs.
As he has in recent meetings with other foreign leaders, Trump said he wanted to ensure that the US erases global trade deficits. He said both the US and India would begin negotiations to increase trade in coming weeks, but also said more US tariffs on Indian goods might be coming from his administration.
“Whatever India charges, we charge them,” Trump said at a joint news conference. “So frankly, it no longer matters to us that much what they charge.”
He added, “Really, we want a certain level playing field.”
As he has in the past, Modi lavished praise on Trump, saying that he’s determined to “Make India Great Again,” or “MIGA”. That’s a play on the president’s “MAGA” or “Make America Great Again” catchphrase and movement.
Trump also said he’d back extraditing one of the plotters of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, appearing to refer to Tahawwur Hussain Rana who was convicted in 2011 in the US for plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper.
“He’s going to be going back to India to face justice,” Trump said, later adding that “we’re giving him back to India immediately”.
AP