Australia news live: Wong speaks to Palestinian foreign minister about Gaza; Queensland premier says plans to reduce visas are ‘nuts’

Key events

Back to the treasurer …

Jim Chalmers outlined the five major challenges identified in the intergenerational report:

The impact of the “AI revolution” on the economy

A “fragmenting world” shaped by growing geopolitical tensions

The transition to clean energy

A growing and ageing population, accelerated by falling fertility rates

Changes to the industrial sector, driven by AI and the energy transition

Chalmers said the challenges needed to be addressed through a holistic approach.

There’s no separating these five accelerating shifts from each other or from their consequences for our budget or our economy,” he said.

A smaller workforce means a proportionately smaller income tax base at a time when pressures on social services and tools of statecraft, including defence, will be growing, not easing, along with the fiscal risks of climate change and more frequent disasters.

Chalmers said it was “remarkable” that the budget was strengthening despite those pressures, with government spending over the next 40 years expected to increase by significantly less than previously forecast.

Tasmanian jumping castle tragedy wind gust ‘unprecedented’, inquest hears

A jumping castle that became airborne due to a freak “dust devil”, killing six primary schoolchildren, was tethered at only four of eight anchorage points, an inquest has been told.

The children died during end-of-year celebrations at Hillcrest primary school in Devonport on 16 December 2021.

A long-awaited inquest began in Tasmania on Monday after years of delays due to criminal proceedings against the castle’s operator, Rosemary Gamble. Gamble operated Taz-Zorb, which set up inflatable equipment at the school. She was found not guilty of criminal workplace health and safety breaches in 2025.

The events of the day and the tethering of the castle and other devices would be placed under “extensive examination”, counsel assisting the coroner Maree Norton said on Monday.

Gamble was supervising on the day and had a policy of not operating the castle if winds were tipped to exceed 25km/h. The Bureau of Meteorology forecast for 16 December was light winds, reaching 15 to 20km/h by the evening, Norton said.

Several witnesses, including teachers and nearby residents, said the morning was largely windless before a “mini-tornado” hit around 10am.

In 2025, the magistrates court found Gamble could have taken further steps in relation to the castle’s anchorage, but even if she had, it would have made no difference to the outcome. The coroner can make different findings but cannot make rulings of criminal guilt.

– AAP

Chalmers says intergenerational report warns of ‘very serious risks and pressures’

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has delivered the Treasury’s latest intergenerational report, examining the potential impact of government policies over the next 40 years.

Speaking in Canberra, Chalmers said the report highlighted the challenges facing Australians in a “more fragmented and uncertain world”.

The world is becoming more dangerous, more unpredictable, more unequal, and more divided. And these aren’t just individual threads, they’re part of a bigger fraying of that intergenerational promise of better times.

Accelerating change is putting more pressure on people. It’s eroding trust in the institutions of democracy. It exacerbates the strain felt by younger Australians and younger generations in particular.

Chalmers said the report identified that Australia faces serious challenges but said the country is well prepared to manage them.

This intergenerational report shows that we face very serious risks and pressures, but that we are better placed and better prepared for them … this report also shows that we have a better plan to maximise our opportunities and minimise our risks, to grow our economy and lift living standards, embrace new technologies and share the benefits.

‘That’s nuts’: Queensland premier slams plans to slash visa numbers

Queensland’s premier says bipartisan plans to reduce the number of foreign visa holders allowed into the country is “nuts” and could risk spiralling food prices and damage to regional communities.

Labor, the Liberals and One Nation have all recently released plans to cap or slash migration. Last week the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, released a plan to slash net overseas migration from 292,000 this year to just 225,000 in 2027-28.

“I think that’s nuts,” David Crisafulli said on Monday, referring to the idea of reducing visa numbers year on year. He said:

Without it [migration], you go into a country town during a fruit picking season, for example, and without those short-term visas, you won’t get a beer at a pub, and a farmer won’t be able to pick his or her produce, and those towns grind to a halt.

But if you don’t love those little towns as much as I do, see it through a self-interest point of view. The things you put in your trolley are going to be a hell of a lot more expensive if there’s not a sensible discussion around making sure that people can go into regional areas and do the kind of work that they have done for a long period of time.

Crisafulli said the country needed a discussion as much about welcoming new Australians who wanted to build the country of the future as about how best to accommodate them.

Four Australian sea lions test positive for H5 bird flu in South Australia

Four more endangered Australian sea lions have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu at an important breeding site in South Australia.

The animals, including one pup, were among several found dead on the Pages islands near Kangaroo Island, state authorities said on Monday.

SA recorded the first H5 death of a sea lion eight days ago, with fears about how deadly virus will impact populations of the endangered pinniped.

Experts estimate that about 12,000 Australian sea lions remain, most of which are found in SA. The Pages islands are one of three sites in the state with large breeding colonies, according to Parks SA.

Authorities identified three positive sea lions on North Page Island and one on South Page Island via aerial wildlife surveillance operations. Several dead pups were also found, but tested negative for H5 bird flu.

Invasive Species Council chief executive Jack Gough said:

We haven’t seen the mass deaths in pinnipeds that the experience in South America and Antarctica suggests may be coming but multiple deaths in a single location could indicate that devastation is just around the corner.

We’re now about to see millions of migratory birds arriving in Australia as part of spring migration as well as breeding events around the country which could be a new phase in terms of the level of devastation.

WA government calls off shark catch-and-kill directive

The WA government has called off the search for a shark that killed a Perth man on Friday, after a minister had ordered a catch-and-kill directive.

WA police said a 63-year-old man was bitten by a shark while swimming at Sorrento beach. The swimmer’s body has not been found.

In a statement, the Department of Primary Industries said it had concluded water and land based patrols around Sorrento beach.

There was no evidence of white shark activity in the area yesterday and a significantly diminished chance of catching the individual shark involved in the fatal incident on Friday.

Beaches in the City of Joondalup from Marmion to Iluka were set to reopen at 10am local time.

On Saturday the WA fisheries minister, Jackie Jarvis, revealed she had greenlit the order. She said in a social media post:

Given the shark had been positively identified, remained in the vicinity following a fatal attack and was considered to pose an ongoing threat, I authorised fisheries officers to destroy the shark if captured.

More Australians forecast to live into their 90s

Australian households are expected to shrink but more people can expect to live well into their 90s, according to the latest update to forecasts of the country’s long-term future.

Treasury’s latest intergenerational report, to be published in full on Monday, will project the impact of government policies 40 years into the future.

An extract released on Sunday showed life expectancy at birth was forecast to reach almost 90 for women by 2065-66, up from about 86 years at present.

The report will also reveal that artificial intelligence (AI) will become the “defining influence” on the economy over the next four decades, as the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, warned it would come with “very substantial risks”.

Read more:

More than 800,000 bees stolen across far north Queensland

An estimated 800,000 bees, worth tens of thousands of dollars, have been stolen from properties in far north Queensland.

The industry is already reeling from the this month’s arrival of the varroa mite parasite.

Tom Bidner, an apiarist from the Atherton Tablelands, west of Cairns, said 44 colonies had been stolen from three different beekeepers.

Read more:

Australian diplomats to meet Palestinian counterparts in coming months

Foreign minister Penny Wong has spoken with her Palestinian counterpart, Varsen Aghabekian. The pair agreed that senior officials from both governments should meet in coming months to strengthen bilateral relations and discuss key priorities.

The pair spoke on Friday night, with Aghabekian briefing Wong on progress on the Palestinian Authority’s reform commitments.

“Australia is committed to a two-state solution,” Wong wrote on social media on Monday.

I spoke with Palestinian Foreign Minister, Dr Varsen Aghabekian, about the PA’s reform agenda and our joint efforts to strengthen Palestine’s institutional foundations.

We also discussed the devastating situation in Gaza. “I reiterated that Hamas must play no role in the State of Palestine.

‘Things are getting worse,’ Kellie Sloane says after alleged DV incidents

Kellie Sloane, the NSW opposition leader, also spoke about a series of alleged domestic violence incidents in the state in recent days.

Sloane told ABC News Breakfast this morning:

Something is broken and we’re failing women in our state and our country. It’s a national crisis … Every time this happens, we treat it as a wake-up call. People say we need action.

We need to talk to men about respect. We need to talk to women about being respectful. We need more funding.

We’re in a hopeless situation where things are getting worse. So, you know, this is not just the responsibility of government, although government has a responsibility to properly fund and manage this, but it needs to be a whole of community response.

Our sporting clubs, dads in the homes respecting their wives, talking to their kids about what respect means, and then neighbours checking in on people as well.

Tehan defends Coalition plan to reduce First Nations content in schools

The Coalition’s education plan to reduce First Nations content from the curriculum would give Australian children a “broader perspective of history” according to Dan Tehan.

Speaking to Radio , the Liberal MP said:

We won’t be becoming apologists for who we are. We’ll becoming proud of who we are, what we’ve created as a nation and what we can contribute to the rest of the world. It’s all about getting the balance right and that’s what we’ll be seeking to do in how we have the curriculum taught in schools.

Those western civilisation values, in particular, are what is at the heart of who we are as a nation. We want to make sure that that is equally part of the curriculum as it’s taught to young Australians.

The shadow education minister, Julian Leeser, revealed on Saturday that a Coalition government would remove cross-curriculum content about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture, Australia’s engagement with Asia, and sustainability.

He said they should instead be delivered as discrete, planned topics within history, geography or science classes – rather than taught thematically across the curriculum.

Read more:

Minns says NSW can’t become ‘numb’ to domestic violence

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, spoke earlier this morning after a spate of alleged domestic violence crimes this weekend.

He said:

We have numerous examples and allegations of individuals who [are] alleged to have committed horrifying acts against what are often defenceless family members. This is confronting and incredibly violent, but we can’t become numb to the pain or the violence that we see.

We still need to take action and commit ourselves across government agencies, law reform, our prisons, New South Wales police, and education and other aspects of government agencies, as well as across civic society, to confront domestic violence when we see it.

NSW police detail ‘horrific’ scenes after Blue Mountains stabbings

Peter McKenna, deputy commissioner for NSW police, just spoke after an alleged stabbing attack by a mother against her three young children, which left one child dead and two others in critical condition.

McKenna said the mother, aged in her 40s, is also in critical condition after the incident, which took place in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, on Sunday afternoon. He said police responded to “horrific” scenes and officer were confronted with a “barbaric” attack.

“I can’t remember a weekend like this in my career,” the deputy commissioner told reporters.

McKenna said the woman, if she recovers from what’s believed to be self-inflicted injuries, would probably be charged with murder and attempted murder.

He said the family was not known to police. The woman’s husband is supporting his two children in hospital and has assisted police with their investigation.

Read more here:

Plibersek says polls ‘not great’ but Labor focused on cost of living

Tanya Plibersek says the Labor party isn’t focused on polling, despite the results. She told Sunrise this morning:

The polls are obviously not great, but we are not focused on the polling. What we’re focused on is making a real difference in people’s lives. We know that they’re doing it tough. We hear that. …

In every part of our government, we are wholly focused on taking pressure off Australians. We know they’re feeling it because they tell us.

Plibersek said the government needs to remain focused on cost of living and taking pressure off Australians while making sure wages grow.

We want Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn through lower taxes. … It’s those sorts of practical things that make a difference to people’s lives. That’s what we need to focus on as a government and that’s what we’ll keep doing.

Albanese and Labor hit record low popularity in latest Newspoll

Anthony Albanese is the most unpopular he has ever been since becoming prime minister in 2022, a new poll shows.

AAP reports The Australian’s closely watched Newspoll tally has slugged the prime minister with a minus 27% net satisfaction rating, with only about a quarter of Australians now saying they would cast their vote for Labor – the lowest in nearly 15 years.

The week before receiving a record-breaking belting in the 2025 election, former Liberal leader Peter Dutton scored minus 24% on the same metric.

The major parties combined performed abysmally in the latest poll, with 54% of those surveyed now supporting someone other than Labor or the Coalition.

One Nation is continuing to dine out on the mass exodus with a leading 30% of the primary vote share, but Australians still prefer Albanese to Pauline Hanson as prime minister.

Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen

The rise of Way Dynamic, Australian folk-pop musician

It’s been a huge couple of years for Way Dynamic, the Melbourne multi-instrumentalist whose real name is Dylan Young. His 2025 album Massive Shoe is about to be re-released internationally after Young signed with the indie giant Jagjaguwar. The likes of Elton John, Djo, Zane Lowe and Elijah Wood have sung his praises.

Have a read about the musicians’s rise above, and take a listen to his music below on this fine Monday morning:

Australians won’t be hit with card surcharges from 1 October

Debit and credit card surcharges will be eliminated from 1 October, as part of Reserve Bank reforms that will do away with extra checkout fees on Visa, Mastercard, and Eftpos payments.

The RBA estimates the changes will save consumers about $1.6bn a year in surcharges, but the big banks and credit companies are likely to recoup the costs of processing transactions in other ways, including through fewer perks for cardholders.

What will happen now?

Coalition plans to use cut in tobacco excise to fund fuel tax policy

I think the health experts need to explain why they’re OK with … organised crime in this country, criminal gangs in this country, controlling the tobacco trade. 80% of the trade is illegal. You can already buy a packet of cigarettes for 15 bucks a pack or less. So I mean, seriously, we can’t take those comments seriously.

NSW domestic violence rental reforms in effect from today

Rental reforms which make it easier for victim-survivors of domestic violence to leave a rental property in NSW are in effect from today, the state government says.

Under the changes, victim-survivors no longer need to notify people they share a lease with they are leaving a rental property, cannot be held responsible for damage caused by domestic and family violence, and must be asked for permission to publish images of the property that show their belongings. The government says victim-survivors have now have broader rights to change locks without landlord consent.

The NSW fair trading minister, Anoulack Chanthivong, said the reforms “deliver on the Minns Labor government’s promise to make renting fairer by replacing unsafe, outdated laws with practical, compassionate protections which put victim-survivors first”.

During debate on the laws, which passed last year, the cross bench and domestic violence advocates raised concerns that last-minute changes to laws on pets in rentals, making it easier for landlords to prevent pets, would make it harder for DV victim-survivors who want to find a safe place to go with their animals.

Domestic Violence NSW Deputy CEO, Pia Birac, has said today’s changes “remove some of the practical barriers that can make it harder for women to leave violence and rebuild their lives”.

Now we need to build awareness and understanding of these new protections so women can confidently exercise their rights and the professionals around them can support them every step of the way.