Albanese visits Apple to talk AI

Sofia Jayne

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Apple’s US company headquarters to discuss the future of AI, while on his way to the UN General Assembly in New York.

What we know:

• Albanese said Apple’s executive chair Tim Cook had given him a lot of time and had endorsed the Australian Government’s steps to improve online safety. “He regards the work that we’ve done on social media to ​be world-leading,” Albanese said (Reuters).
• Albanese was given a tour of the famed circle gardens and a demonstration of new development, including products and controls for journalists. Due to Apple’s strict media restrictions, journalists were unable to record the interaction (SBS).
• Apple was asked for comment regarding Albanese’s claim. A spokesperson referred to Cook’s X post, which said he was grateful to share “some of our newest innovations, including strong and intuitive controls to help keep kids safe online” (Reuters).
• Albanese urged the US and China, as the leading nations in AI, to respond to concerns about the technology and strike a deal “in the interests of humanity”. His comments come as tech leaders call for an AI slowdown and US President Donald Trump rejects potential cooperation with China (ABC).
• This week, Albanese will bid for a two-year position on the United Nations Security Council from 2029, which Australia last held in 2014. He is expected to push Australia’s leadership on digital safety (ABC).

Read more: Exclusive: PM’s AI office has fewer than 10 staff (The Saturday Paper)

Chalmers to release intergenerational report

Sofia Jayne

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will publish the government’s latest intergenerational report in full on Monday, revealing a 40-year economic forecast for the nation’s future and potential tax cuts.

What we know:

• An extract released by Chalmers’ office said this year’s budget had lowered the tax burden on working-age Australians, which had “improved the budget position” and “created more room for tax cuts into the future” (SMH). 
• Chalmers said, “We are dealing with serious risks to our economy and serious pressures on the budget, but … we’ve got substantial advantages as well” (SMH). 
• According to the report, life expectancy could reach up to 90 for women and 86 for men by 2065/66, up from 86 and 82. Australia’s universal healthcare system and medical research were leading causes, though an ageing population also brings concerns for the economy (The Guardian).
• Population growth will decline as the nation’s fertility rate is expected to drop from 1.34 children born to the average woman by 2066, compared to 1.48 currently. The rate has been 2.1 children per woman for the last 50 years (SMH).
• AI is expected to be the leading driver behind a half-a-trillion dollar slash in government debt, with forecasts of increased productivity if Australia keeps up with global use of the technology (The Guardian).

Read more: Is this an ambitious budget? (The Saturday Paper)

Three NSW women killed in 24 hours

Sofia Jayne

Three women were killed and three men have been charged in separate alleged domestic violence cases in NSW on Saturday. 

A 90-year-old woman was stabbed 19 times at a Bondi Beach unit and died at the scene. Her grandson, who claimed the weight loss medication Ozempic had altered his mental state, faced Local Court and was charged with murder (ABC).

Hours earlier, a 23-year-old woman was stabbed and died inside a home in Wagga Wagga. A man has been arrested and charged for her murder, who investigators said was in a relationship with her (The Guardian).

The body of a 70-year-old woman was found later that night at Mole River, after reports of a domestic violence incident in the area. A 37-year-old man known to the woman has been arrested and charged (The Guardian).

NSW Premier Chris Minns released a statement on the deaths. “My thoughts are with the families, loved ones and the communities of the women who have died,” he said (9News).

Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane referenced data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare that revealed a woman was killed every 11 days in 2024-25. She said Australia was “failing women across our country and every level of government, and every one of us, has a responsibility to act” (The Guardian).

Read more: Exclusive: Wait times for abuse support reach three years (The Saturday Paper)

Carroll pledges tougher sexual violence laws

Sofia Jayne

Victorian Premier Ben Carroll has promised to introduce new laws that crackdown on sexual and domestic violence perpetrators if re-elected in the November election. 

Carroll said Labor would introduce a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for rape and increase other serious sexual offences by five years. Murder of a partner would be brought up from 25 to 30 years’ imprisonment (ABC).

In an Australian first, Labor has pledged to legislate a new form of manslaughter in which a domestic violence victim is driven to take their own life, known as the phenomenon of “slow femicide”. Another new offence includes perpetrators who abandon victims in need of medical aid (The Age).

Courts would be allowed to consider patterns of sexual abuse as evidence in trial under the changes to stop “humiliating and invasive questioning techniques” in court. “I’m sick of Victoria's courts and defence barristers putting victims on trial,” Carroll said (The Canberra Times).

Carroll said, “We must act on the violence that is killing a Victorian woman every two weeks” (The Age). 

The move has come as a surprise even to the women’s sector for its broad-reaching policy, as One Nation discusses reducing women’s reproductive rights and Opposition Leader Jess Wilson promises not to make changes to abortion laws (The Age).

Read more: Exclusive: Labor’s action plan ignores sexual violence (The Saturday Paper)

Hawks fans face long bans

Sofia Jayne

Hawthorn supporters face a five-year ban from the AFL if identified, after they threw bottles at umpires after the heated Brisbane-Hawthorn final on Saturday at the MCG. 

The AFL league said they would work with Victorian police to identify attendees who threw bottles. “The passion for footy is unmatched in Australian sport, however, what transpired last night by a number of individuals was dangerous and crossed the line,” a statement said (The Guardian). 

In the last minute of the match, a holding-the-ball free paid against Jarman Impey allowed Brisbane’s Hugh McCluggage to kick the winning goal, which put Brisbane ahead by three points (ABC).

Footage showed field umpire Jacob Mollison shielding his colleague from a projectile. While the man in the video has not been identified, police have fined another 40-year-old man $418 for throwing a bottle (The Age).

The AFL has also fined Hawks co-captain James Sicily $10,000 and defender Tom Barrass $5,000 for abusing umpire Hayden Meyer just before the final siren, though the players can contest the sanctions at the AFL Tribunal (The Age).

Burke unveils new migration rules

Kye Halford

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke revealed the federal government’s migration program on Thursday, which includes a crackdown on visa overstayers and a tightening of visa rules for international students and backpackers.

What we know:

• To prevent “visa-hopping”, Burke said the government would introduce a qualification scale, meaning only foreign students transferring to higher-level courses (bachelor’s to master’s for example) would be able to extend their visas (SBS).
• The capacity to detain and remove people who remain in Australia after their visas expired would also be increased. Burke expressed the wish to restore a pre-2015 deterrent where detention had been used to encourage visa overstayers to leave (ABC).
• The National Farmers Federation’s chief executive, Mike Guerin, said the restrictions on working holidaymakers and other temporary migrants would exacerbate shortages in labour and equate to “emptier supermarkets” and a “lift in the price of food” (The Guardian).
• Burke disagreed with Guerin, saying the agriculture sector could utilise workers from the Pacific Australia labour mobility scheme (The Guardian).
• The announcement comes as new data from the Australia Bureau of Statistics reveals that the country’s population has grown by more than 392,000 people in 12 months, with almost 75% of the increase coming from overseas migration (ABC).

Read more: ‘A bit of biffo’: Inside the Chalmers–Burke stand-off (The Saturday Paper)

EU hints at associate membership for Australia

Kye Halford

Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney has welcomed the European Union’s proposal for the country to become the first “associate member”, as the president of the European Parliament suggested Australia could follow.

What we know:

• Carney told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday that the alliance would create a “beacon for other democracies” in the face of “geopolitical rupture”. He stressed the two sides were not seeking to form a new power bloc (BBC).
• US President Donald Trump earlier threatened “very serious tariffs” on Europe if he considered the membership a “hostile act” (BBC).
• European Parliament President Roberta Metsola hinted Australia and New Zealand could explore a similar path to Canada. “There are countries with which we want to deepen our relationship,” she said, using both nations as examples of deep relationships (ABC).
• It remains unclear exactly what associate membership of the union would look like, but European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted it to include closer cooperation in areas such as manufacturing, technology, defence, energy-critical minerals and economic security (BBC).

Read more: The strategy of the middle powers (The Saturday Paper)

Labor scraps allied health cap for veterans

Kye Halford

The federal government has walked back its plan to cap veterans’ allied health payments to $5,000 a year following backlash and campaigning from veterans’ advocates.

Labor had introduced the cap, set to come into effect from July 2027, in a bid to improve the federal budget’s bottom line. It would have resulted in cutting more than $779m over the next four years from the portfolio (SBS).

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh said in a statement on Thursday that the threshold measure had been dropped after hearing veterans’ concerns and “consulting on this measure” (ABC).

Veteran and Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, together with Greens senator David Shoebridge, successfully passed a bill in the upper house to stop any future cap being imposed on health payments (SBS).

Media watchdog and ABC clash over finding

Kye Halford

A media watchdog finding that a Four Corners program on the Australian War Memorial breached impartiality obligations has met with rejection from ABC managing director Hugh Marks.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said on Thursday that the 2025 episode “favoured one perspective through its presentation of aspects of the Memorial’s redevelopment project” (ACMA).

“We found that the cumulative effect of the program’s framing, its use of strong and emotive language and its selection and differing treatment of interviewees unduly favoured critics of the redevelopment,” ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said in a statement (ACMA).

Marks has rejected those findings. “If this interpretation of the Code is applied … it could have a chilling effect on the body of investigative journalism that delivers the important stories that serve the public interest,” he said in a statement (ABC).

The ABC declared that the program would remain online in its entirety (SMH).

Read more: The news division (The Monthly)

Crocodile-inhabited river approved for Brisbane Olympics

Kye Halford

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli announced that Rockhampton’s Fitzroy River has passed a site assessment “with flying colours” ahead of the 2032 Olympics, despite concerns of saltwater crocodiles and strong currents.

World Rowing and Paddle Worldwide expressed their support following the findings of the WaterProof Marine Consultancy assessment. The river will host the rowing, para rowing, canoe sprint and para canoe events (The Guardian).

The Queensland government had faced pressure to reconsider the site since first pitching the river for events in March 2025, amid concerns it would not pass World Rowing regatta standards  (The Guardian).

An open letter signed by 542 rowers had also been sent to the government asking for the rowing venue to be built in southeast Queensland (The Guardian).

Crisafulli said the report, which was not tabled in parliament or released for independent verification, had found the course had passed the assessment “with flying colours” (SMH). 

The state government still refuses to release the report, despite pressure from the opposition and requests from media outlets to see a copy (SMH).

Labor to target international student family visas

Anna Stewart

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke is set to reveal Labor’s long-awaited migration policy in a National Press club address today. 

What we know: 

• Burke will deliver a speech titled, “The work of managing the migration program: Who arrives, who stays, who leaves”, outlining the government's plan to reduce net overseas migration (NOM) from 300,000 to 225,000 by 2028 (ABC). 
• While international student numbers are expected to be left untouched by the new plan, students will no longer be able to bring their families to Australia (ABC). 
• Labor’s plan will also seek to reduce the volume of bridging visas the government offers, which have significantly increased under Labor’s leadership (The Age). 
• The Greens senator David Shoebridge says the government did not engage with his party’s offer to help find alternative ways to limit bridging visas: “It would be a stretch to say [we’re having] conversations” (The Guardian).
• Burke had planned to deliver the policy a month ago, but his speech was cancelled after being rejected by cabinet for at least the fifth time (The Saturday Paper).

Read more: The powder-keg politics of immigration (The Saturday Paper).

Aged care minister blindsided by algorithm

Anna Stewart

New documents show that Aged Care Minister Sam Rae discovered human assessors would lose the power to override funding decisions made by a new algorithm just days before the tool’s launch.

What we know:

• Documents published under freedom of information laws by the department of health, disability and ageing prompted an emergency briefing of Sam Rae and health minister Mark Butler just three days before the rollout of the algorithm (The Guardian).  
• The ministers were told via email that the Aged Care Rules 2025 legislation provided “no legal discretion for assessors or assessment delegates to override the recommendation of the algorithm” (The Guardian). 
• The department had until then been telling assessors that they would be able to overrule the algorithm’s funding decisions (Herald Sun). 
• In the first five months since the algorithm came into effect, more than 1,000 people have requested that their outcome be reviewed, with 207 people successfully receiving a reassessment (ABC).
• Shadow Aged Care Minister Anne Ruston says restoring human decision-making to the assessment process would be a “a practical, overdue fix that has passed the Senate but remains blocked by Labor from even being debated in the House”  (The Guardian). 

Read more: Unprecedented automation in NDIS decisions (The Saturday Paper). 

Anthropic to build $32bn QLD datacentre

Anna Stewart

Tech giant Anthropic has reached a $32bn deal with the Queensland state government to build its first datacentre on Australian soil in the state’s Western Downs region.

The datacentre will be Australia’s largest yet, drawing as much power as about 1.5m average Australian households (ABC). 

State Premier David Crisafulli called the agreement “a major win” when unveiling the news in parliament on Wednesday: “To have secured Anthropic’s first major investment in Australia is a massive show of confidence in Queensland” (The Guardian). 

It comes as Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young urges the government to protect Australia’s creatives from tech giants who would “leave artists, creators and small businesses with nothing” (The Guardian).

Responding to reports that Labor is considering a model that would require artists to “opt-out” of their work being scraped by AI, Hanson-Young said that “undermining the principles of copyright will only serve the interests of big tech companies” (The Guardian).

Read more: How data centres jeopardise net zero (The Saturday Paper).

One Nation’s NSW leader reins in pro-life stance

Anna Stewart

One Nation’s New South Wales leader Mike Newman says he “made a mistake” when he told a rally that he wanted to abortions to “stop”.

The Tuesday rally was organised by prominent anti-abortion campaigner Joanna Howe in support of a bill forwarded by libertarian MP John Ruddick seeking to ban abortions for sex selection. The bill is expected to fail (SMH).

Addressing the crowd outside, Newman said: “We want to support people who want to make sure that abortion rights — we want to stop them … We want to make sure that same-sex … oh sorry, abortion is stopped” (ABC). 

On Wednesday, Newman clarified that his party does not support a total ban on abortion, but does oppose late-term and sex-selective abortions (The Guardian). 

In a radio interview, Newman admitted he “made a mistake”, adding “I own that 100% we do not want to stop abortion outright” (The Guardian). 

Read more: Political opposition to abortion is having unintended effects on involuntary end-of-pregnancy care
(The Monthly). 

VIC Labor backflip grants PSOs stop and search powers

Anna Stewart

Victorian Premier Ben Carroll has announced a re-elected Labor government would give police and protective services officers expanded powers to crack down on knife crime. 

On Wednesday, Caroll announced he would match the Coalition's proposal to adopt “Jack’s Law”, named after Jack Beasley, who was fatally stabbed aged 17 in 2019 (The Guardian). 

The law will give police and protective services officers the power to stop and search people for knives using handheld metal detectors (ABC). 

“Victorians are sick of knife crime, and so am I,” Carroll told reporters (The Guardian). 

Under Caroll’s predecessor Jacinta Allan, Labor had dismissed the possibility of expanding these powers (The Guardian). 

A 2022 Griffith University review into a 12-month trial of Jack’s Law in Queensland, before it passed into law, found there was “no evidence” that it led to any reduction in knife carrying (ABC). 

Read more: The problem with the Victorian Labor Party (The Saturday Paper). 

AI debate escalates in US

Kye Halford

US senator Bernie Sanders has called for the United States to work with China on AI regulation, as top tech leaders debate slowing the technology at the “Dreamforce” conference in San Francisco.

What we know:

• “AI has the potential to eliminate tens of millions of jobs, wiping out entire professions and making it harder for our young people to enter the workforce,” Sanders said at a Washington DC summit (Reuters).
• Sanders also called on US President Donald Trump to negotiate a treaty with Chinese President Xi Jinping that pauses AI development when ⁠they meet at a summit next week (Reuters).
• In an unlikely display of unity, MAGA firebrand Steve Bannon said that he and Sanders are “trying to raise above partisanship” in order to further regulation on the technology. “This is a hinge in history,” he said (BBC).
• In San Francisco, Anthropic boss Dario Amodei said it is tempting to “attack” AI competitors and called instead for industry-wide standards. “Let’s make our practices better, let’s recommit to transparency, let’s invest more in safety,” he said (BBC).
• “We don’t need new laws or regulations,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at the Dreamforce conference. “Run as fast as you can, but if at any time you feel it’s not in control, take a pause” (BBC).
• In Australia, an uncovered copyright reform plan proposed by the attorney-general’s department suggested that AI companies would be allowed to train their models on online content without paying the creators if deals were struck with enough rights holders (ABC).
• It comes as Sydney’s two most prestigious universities have signed “strategic partnership” agreements with Open AI to roll out ChatGPT Edu (SMH).

Hanson walks back comments on Indigenous Australians

Kye Halford

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said on Tuesday that she regrets describing Indigenous Australians as “the most primitive race on Earth”.

What we know: 

• “Sorry, they’re the most primitive race on Earth and we’re supposed to be holding them up and saying what they’ve achieved,” Hanson said while featuring on the JJ podcast in September 2025. “They’ve achieved nothing” (ABC).
• Responding to widespread criticism, Hanson said on News24 on Tuesday that “a lot of Aboriginal people support me because they feel they have been used as pawns in this … I will not back down from raising the issues that need to be talked about and debated in this nation” (NIT).
• Asked whether her comments had upset a large number of people, Senator Hanson eventually replied: “Well, then I regret saying that because I don’t want to upset people. That’s not my intentions” (NIT).
• Shortly after, Hanson offered a qualified apology for her “primitive race” comments to the press: “If I’ve offended people by using that [word], yes, I will apologise for that” (NIT).
• Hanson’s apology to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after criticising his mother for spending decades in public housing was also limited: “I don’t think my comments were derogatory towards his mother at all,” she said (SBS). 
• “I was referring to house commission at that time. So if he’s taken offence to it, well, I’m sorry for that” (SBS).

Read more: Can Pauline Hanson be stopped? (The Saturday Paper)

Nassif continues explosive ICAC appearance

Kye Halford

Fugitive property developer Jean Nassif insisted he is “not corrupt” and “not hiding” during a chaotic appearance at the ICAC inquiry via video link from his bedroom in Beirut.

The former Toplace owner denied any wrongdoing and attacked David Elliott, David Chandler and the ICAC itself, ranting about the “deep state” and calling the corruption inquiry a “waste of time” (SMH).

“I am not involved with paying politics to get my projects approved. I employed consultants to support me,” he said. “If they did any corrupt work, I am not involved with it. I was not aware of it” (ABC).

Nassif agreed during the appearance that he had hired a private investigator to tail former police minister David Elliott, who he believed was potentially behind media coverage critical of Toplace developments (ABC).

Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asked why Nassif had left Australia in December 2022, and whether he was attempting to avoid giving evidence at a parliamentary inquiry (The Guardian).

Nassif dismissed the suggestion, saying that he instead travelled to receive an award for “number one businessman from Arabic background around the world” (ABC).

Nassif also claimed that his 32-year-old daughter Ashlyn Nassif – who was sentenced to a six month community corrections order for falsifying documents to secure a $150 million loan for Toplace – was forced by police to plead guilty (The Guardian).

Prominent athlete gives evidence in Jones trial

Kye Halford

The third of the six complainants returned to the Alan Jones trial for cross-examination on Tuesday, where he told the court that he continued to text Jones after the alleged assaults because Jones was powerful and had been generous to him.

The witness, known as complainant M, agreed with Jones’s barrister, Gabrielle Bashir, that he messaged the broadcaster a happy Christmas and new year after two occasions of Jones kissing him without consent (The Guardian).

“I was being polite,” M said. “Someone also who’s been generous to me at times in my life. That’s why I believe I am wishing them the best for Christmas even though an incident has occurred prior to this at their house” (The Guardian).

M rejected suggestions by Bashir that Jones did not kiss him at a Sydney function about a decade ago. The complainant has said the then 2GB host kissed him on the side of his mouth for a second or two at the event, and he believed he froze during the alleged incident (SMH).

The complainant agreed that he did not tell police in his statements that Jones kissed him on the lips: “I don’t think I did, but in having a discussion, I believe I pointed to where it was” (SMH).