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Key events
RBA leaves cash rate target on hold at 3.6%
Luca Ittimani
The Reserve Bank has left its key interest rate on hold, as widely expected by economists. The official cash rate remains 3.6%.
Markets had predicted there would be no change, with traders betting the RBA would next hand down a rate hike by August 2026.
We’ll bring you more from the interest rate-setting board’s statement in just a moment.
95% of participating staff vote for no confidence motion against UTS vice-chancellor
95% of staff at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) who participated in a recent motion voted to declare no confidence in vice-chancellor Andrew Parfitt.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said today more than 1,500 UTS staff participated in the vote, which came after controversial plans to slash hundreds of jobs and suspend enrolments in more than 120 courses.
Dr Sarah Attfield, the UTS branch president for the NTEU, said in a statement the “powerful response from staff confirms what we have already known and felt deeply for many months now – the vice-chancellor’s plans are not aligned with a public institution, and staff have little faith in his leadership”. She went on:
Staff are exhausted, demoralised, and fearful. We have seen our colleagues pushed to the brink, courses slashed, and the student experience threatened – all while the VC and his executive ignore the people who keep this university running.
Today’s results send a clear message to the public and UTS Council: the vice-chancellor has lost the mandate to lead.
Tasmania Fire Service issues watch and act warning for St Helens
Tasmania Fire Service just issued a watch and act warning for a bushfire in Diana’s Basin near the town of St Helens on the state’s north-east coast.
Officials said the fire is heading towards Diana’s Basin and is expected to impact the area beginning at 2pm.
The fire is expected to be difficult to control, and embers, smoke and ash may fall on the region and surrounding areas, which could threaten individuals or property before the main fire.
Officials said:
Smoke and ash may make it difficult to see and breathe.
Take action now to protect yourself, your family, and your home. If you have made a bushfire plan, check it now.
Decide early if you are going to leave, and make sure you have a clear path to a safer place.
Cait Kelly
Peak welfare groups say report highlights failures across employment system
Australia’s peak welfare groups have responded to the ombudsman’s report on jobseekers, highlighting the failures across Australia’s employment system.
The Acoss CEO, Dr Cassandra Goldie, said:
This report demonstrates widespread harmful action against low-income people and complete lack of oversight of private providers, alongside the thousands of illegal payment cancellations already identified.
In a system that hands employment service providers $1.2bn a year, the lack of robust independent oversight is unacceptable.
Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and jobseeker recipient Jay Coonan called for the immediate pause of suspensions:
Payment suspensions cause immeasurable damage to our lives, destabilising people when we are already struggling to survive. This scandal must end, not when the government decides what tweaks it would like to make to this system, but now.
And the executive director, Kasy Chambers, said the report shows that for-profit employment service providers and the compliance system are hurting the people who rely on them:
The Ombudsman has found that providers are making incorrect decisions, keeping poor records, and giving people unclear or misleading information about their payments.
These failures are leading to unfair suspensions and penalties for people on the lowest incomes. Even when suspensions are overturned, the stress and hardship that a person faces after having their income taken away is irreversible.
Daisy Dumas
Tasmania’s Dolphin Sands reopened to residents after fire
Tasmanian residents who fled from bushfires last week will be able to return to their properties this afternoon.
Nineteen homes were lost to a blaze in Dolphin Sands on the state’s east coast on Thursday. Dolphin Sands Road reopened to local traffic from 1.30pm today, emergency services said.
Southern Regional emergency management controller, commander Jason Elmer, said:
Thanks to crews working tirelessly to clear debris and restore damaged infrastructure, and with wind conditions easing, the situation has improved enough to allow safe access for local traffic.
There are still significant safety factors to consider, so police roadblocks will remain in place on Dolphin Sands Road to ensure access is only provided to local residents.
Residents were warned to wear protective clothing and try not to disturb dust and ash given the possible presence of hazardous materials, including asbestos.
Ex-nurse denies threatening to hurt Israeli patients
A former nurse will be tried for allegedly threatening violence towards Israeli patients after a video of an inflammatory rant from a hospital went viral, AAP reports.
Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 27, and Ahmad Rashad Nadir, 28, made the alleged threats on an online video chat platform in February, while they were working a night shift at south-west Sydney’s Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital.
Abu Lebdeh faced a local court on Tuesday to plead not guilty to two charges including threatening violence, setting the scene for a trial, likely in late 2026 or early 2027. The former nurse will face the NSW district court in February to be arraigned before a trial date is set.
Her former colleague Nadir also faced the Downing Centre local court on Tuesday on a single charge of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend. He is yet to enter a plea.
Police have said there is no evidence any patient was harmed and that the alleged offending would rest on the nurses’ intention. Both Nadir and Abu Lebdeh have been prohibited from working as nurses nationwide by Australia’s health practitioner watchdog and their registrations have been suspended in NSW.
Apology motion passes Victoria’s lower house
Benita Kolovos
The apology motion has passed Victoria’s lower house 56 votes to 27.
The Coalition called for a division on the motion, meaning each vote had to be counted, to cries of “shame” from the Labor benches.
Once the motion was carried, Labor and Greens MP stood to applaud the public gallery, which included Rueben Berg and Ngarra Murray, the co-chairs of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, Jill Gallagher and Travis Lovett.
Several members of the public gallery wiped away tears.
Cait Kelly
Back to the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s second report into the system designed to penalise jobseekers…
Launching the report, the ombudsman, Iain Anderson said:
People needing income support are economically vulnerable and may also have other vulnerabilities that require special consideration. The high rate of provider decisions being overturned by DEWR and Services Australia raises concerns that providers are not adequately considering job seekers’ circumstances and calls into question the fairness and reasonableness of decision-making that results in the loss of vital financial support.
The remediation strategy for the 964 job seekers affected by the unlawful cancellations is not fair and reasonable. It requires job seekers to undertake extensive efforts to retrieve historical information to support additional claims for compensation in circumstances where the agency was responsible for the error.
Stigmatisation of unsuccessful job seekers as people who are reluctant to accept employment may contribute to the limited oversight of providers and possible narrow administration of the program.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Telstra didn’t discuss triple-zero death at minister meeting
More on Telstra with chief executive, Vicki Brady, revealing the telecom giant knew of a triple-zero death on 24 September: Telstra spoke with Anika Wells’ office on 20 October – almost a month after the death – to discuss the investigation into problems with the Samsung devices.
Asked if the death was raised at the meeting, Brady said: “Not that I can recall.”
The death also wasn’t raised at a separate 7 October meeting between Wells and telco bosses in the aftermath of the 18 September Optus outage, which was linked to three deaths.
Telstra’s general counsel, Lyndall Stoyles, said Telstra referred to a “particular incident” at the 20 October meeting “but not the details of the incident”.
The Liberal senator, Sarah Henderson, asked:
Wasn’t it material that you also raised that someone had passed away on 24 September? I know you advised the department, but it just seems such a missing and critical piece of information that this matter wasn’t raised with the minister directly?
In response, Brady said:
We had briefed the department, and they, ACMA and New South Wales Ambulance were all investigating. So that was what we were relying on.
Stoyles said based on its conversations with the department on 24 September, it believed the minister’s office would be notified.
Guardian Australian has contacted Wells for comment.
Telstra boss says company did not tell minister about death after triple-zero connection failure
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Telstra was aware a person had died after failing to connect to triple zero on the day it occurred – but did not directly raise it with the communications minister, Anika Wells, in two subsequent meetings.
The chief executive of Telstra, Vicki Brady, gave the explosive evidence while fronting a parliamentary inquiry into the triple zero network in Canberra on Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, TPG Telecom boss Iñaki Berroeta revealed a person in Wentworth Falls, New South Wales, had died on 24 September after their incompatible Samsung device was unable to connect to the triple zero network.
Berroeta said TPG only learned of the death on Monday after it was notified by Telstra, which operates the emergency call system.
The death occurred while Wells was in New York promoting the government’s social media ban, the $94,000 travel bill for which has ignited a controversy about her expenses.
Fronting the committee, Brady revealed NSW Ambulance emailed Telstra on the morning of 24 September to advise them that a person who had failed to connect to the network had died.
The committee heard that Telstra contacted the federal communications department on the day of the incident and provided the ambulance service with details for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (AMCA).
Cait Kelly
Jobseekers losing payments due to service provider errors
The Commonwealth Ombudsman’s second report into the system designed to penalise jobseekers has found employment services providers are making large-scale errors that penalise jobseekers, with little oversight for the department.
In August, the ombudsman found 964 jobseekers had their payments unlawfully cancelled between April 2022 and July 2024 by the automated IT system that underpins the “mutual obligations” framework.
Now, the final report has found that job providers are setting unrealistic targets, with a three-month study from this year showing 51% of jobseekers are not capable of meeting them.
The Ombudsman also found that providers are not meeting requirements to record proper information about a person’s full circumstances, leading to wrongful cancellation and suspension decisions. On top of this, it also found that DEWR and Services Australia’s strategy to remediate job seekers affected by unlawful income support payment cancellations is not fair or reasonable.
Josh Taylor
Bluesky brings in age assurance in Australia
X alternative platform Bluesky has said it has brought age assurance measures to Australia, despite the platform not currently being named as needing to comply with the under-16s social media ban.
In a post on Tuesday, the company said:
We’ve upgraded our age assurance system to comply with upcoming laws in Australia and other regions, and to restore access to people over 18 in Mississippi.
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, told Senate estimates last week Bluesky had been assessed as being “low risk” due to there being approximately just 50,000 Australians on the platform, and very few young people.
But the regulator is mindful that teens may migrate to platforms not currently included in the ban after tomorrow, and more may be added as time goes on.
Bluesky said that from 10 December it will require new users to complete age assurance using Kids Web Services. Users 18 or over will have full access to the platform, and users who are between 16 and 18 will not be able to access adult content such as pornography on the platform.
Andrew Messenger
Brisbane City Council to vote on AirBnB tax proposal today
The local law would only apply to less than 500 dwellings let on the short stay market, in low density areas of the city. There were about 4000 properties in the market at last count, the BCC said, which is about 1% of the city’s available housing stock.
Under the local law owners would be required to get a development approval before listing their properties on the short-term market and pay a fee.
The council said the law would respond to reported concerns by neighbours of short stay residences about security, overcrowding, noise levels, disruptive and anti-social behaviour, damage to shared or common areas, parking availability, increased insurance costs; and cleanliness of common areas.
The police “ensures the amenity of residents in the vicinity of short stay accommodation is safeguarded,” a council document attached the new proposed local law reads.
It also “requires that a contact person be nominated to manage all complaints related to short term accommodation bookings and activities, which must be available for contacting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week”.
The local law will go to public consultation before going to a final vote and taking effect next year.
Marles reflects on Richardson’s mentorship and love for Labor party
Defence minister Richard Marles reflected on Richardson’s mentorship during prepared remarks earlier during the state funeral. He said they connected in the aftermath of the Rudd and Gillard governments, saying:
Before long we were speaking together often. … As I faced the kind of difficult situations, which are really the bread and butter of politics, Graham was always there with advice.
He was so encouraging about taking the difficult steps necessary to get the job done. … I was just one of many people who was the beneficiary of his mentorship. And so it is absolutely right to say that Graham’s mark lives on in the current generation of Labor politicians.
Marles said Richardson didn’t need to help as he was already a “giant” of politics, but did so out of his love for the country.
[His actions were a] demonstration for how much he loved the Labor party, how much he cared about Australia. And for those of us who were the beneficiaries of his advice … he cared about us. Graham Richardson was a man with a big heart. …
Graham, you were magnificent, and mate, I will miss you very much.
Benita Kolovos
Victoria Greens say it is important to ‘talk about what we are saying sorry for’
Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, has told parliament her party is supporting the apology motion but stressed it was important to “talk about what we are saying sorry for”.
She says since colonisation there have been “swift, brutal and systematic” attempts to “wipe out Aboriginal people, to wipe out their culture, their language, their children and their future” and lists several of the 50 massacres that are recorded across Victoria:
And that is why today we say sorry.
Sandell says it would be “negligent to ignore” the fact the apology comes just a week after the Victorian government passed laws to uplift serious crimes committed by children as young as 14 from the children’s court to adult courts.
She says this will have a “disproportionate impact on First Nations children”, as the bail law changes have led to a rise in First Nations women being remanded in custody.
Sandell says:
Looking back now on Victoria’s true history – back to the actions of people in the 1800s, the 1900s, I believe most of us in this place would be horrified and say ‘people should have known better. Right now, we cannot deny it, we do know better. I fear that in 10 or 20 years time a new parliament, filled with new people, will have to stand in this exact place and apologise again, for policies enacted this year, that governments knew would destroy more First Nations peoples lives.
