Saturday, 25 July 2026

Labor's true believers gathered in Adelaide this week, and the floor fights were real. Delegates at the party's three-yearly national conference voted unanimously to toughen gambling regulation, while advocates pushed hard for a 25 percent tax on gas exports and a handful of branches tried to reopen AUKUS, the nuclear-powered submarine deal with the United States and Britain. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used his opening address to promise more cost-of-living help for households under pressure. (via SBS News)

Australia's top diplomat used a regional summit to needle Beijing. Foreign Minister Penny Wong told a gathering of ASEAN, the 10-nation Southeast Asian bloc, in Manila that China's recent test of a nuclear-capable missile in the South China Sea "came with too little information and notification," and she offered the Philippines more maritime support after a coast guard confrontation. Beijing publicly told Canberra to back off. (via SBS News)

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, whose right-wing minor party sits on the Senate crossbench, is under fire for calling domestic violence a "two-way street." The remark drew sharp criticism from experts and family violence advocates. Hanson says her comments were taken "out of context." (via SBS News)

The Reserve Bank's cash rate, the benchmark that sets the cost of borrowing, is parked at 4.35 percent, a cycle high, after three increases this year, and there is little relief in sight for mortgage holders. Inflation is still running above the bank's 2 to 3 percent target band. A new RBA survey found most Australians misunderstand how rate rises work: only about a quarter correctly said that higher interest rates eventually push inflation down, while more than half thought the opposite. (via the Reserve Bank of Australia)

Donald Trump has hit Australia with a 12.5 percent tariff, and the government is not hiding its anger. Australia's trade minister called the levy "unjustified" and demanded it be repealed, with one senior figure branding it "nonsense." The move landed as part of a broader round of United States tariffs on dozens of trading partners, souring sentiment on the ASX, which slipped for a third straight week. (via SBS News)

A spike in oil is the last thing a rate-squeezed economy needs. Crude pushed above US$100 a barrel after Houthi attacks on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea stoked supply fears, a threat of dearer petrol and fresh inflation just as the RBA is trying to force prices back down. The Houthis are the Yemeni armed group that has repeatedly targeted shipping in the region. (via SBS News)

Telstra took down chunks of its own network with a fix nobody wrote down. The problems at Australia's biggest telecommunications company were traced to an undocumented time change that triggered "cascading faults," according to ITnews. (via ITnews)

Fujitsu is getting out of the Australian data centre business. The Japanese IT giant has sold five local data centres to a private equity buyer, ITnews reports, another sign of how fast ownership of the sheds that power the AI boom keeps shifting. (via ITnews)

The company that runs Australia's broadband backbone wants to put AI to work. NBN Co, the government-owned wholesaler behind the National Broadband Network, says its AI strategy is moving to an "agentic" phase that could open its network data to retail providers, giving them sharper visibility into faults and performance. (via ITnews)

Bird flu has reached Queensland for the first time. A dead petrel found on Moreton Island returned a suspected positive for H5 avian influenza, though the state's chief veterinary officer stressed there have been no detections in poultry and no evidence of large-scale wildlife deaths, and that chicken and eggs remain safe to eat. (via SBS News)

Australia's Indigenous children's commissioner has condemned a Northern Territory overhaul of child protection laws, warning that other states and territories could follow the NT's lead. First Nations children remain heavily overrepresented in out-of-home care, and advocates fear the changes will make that worse. (via NITV)

A Socceroos player is in serious trouble off the pitch. Police allege Cristian Volpato, a member of Australia's men's national football team, tested positive for cocaine after being pulled over for driving at nearly 50km/h over the limit, on two occasions. The allegations are yet to be tested in court. (via SBS News)

Fremantle did not just win the Western Derby, the twice-a-year clash between Perth's two AFL clubs, they buried their crosstown rivals. The Dockers thrashed West Coast by 70 points, 16.16 (112) to 6.6 (42), kicking 11 goals to one after half-time. Jye Amiss booted five, Murphy Reid won the Glendinning-Allan Medal as best afield, and a record home crowd of 56,616 packed the ground. (via AAP)

Tim Tszyu steps back into the ring tonight in Sydney with plenty to prove. The former world champion faces returning American star Errol Spence Jr, boxing for the first time in three years, in a pay-per-view main event at Sydney's Afterpay Arena. (via Yahoo Sports)