Category: Australian News

The Albanese Government is investing more than $300 million to transform air mission training, ensuring our Defence personnel are ready for the challenges of tomorrow.

The Future Air Mission Training System (F-AMTS) will increase Defence’s aircrew training capacity by up to 70 per cent, using cutting-edge simulation, modern courseware, and real-world training to prepare crews for advanced platforms such as the MC-55A Peregrine and MQ-4C Triton. 

This investment will upgrade training systems that support initial training for personnel operating the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) advanced air and ground-based capabilities and includes a new facility for the Air Mission Training School.

It will create up to 140 local jobs in acquisition and 50 ongoing jobs in sustainment, delivered in partnership with CAE Australia.

Featuring an integrated learning environment, the system will combine classroom instruction, advanced simulation technologies, and airborne training to deliver an immersive, world-class training experience.

Capability delivery will commence at RAAF Base East Sale in Gippsland, Victoria from 2026, strengthening Australia’s sovereign training capability while driving innovation and building critical skills for the future.  

Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy:

“The Albanese Government is revolutionising air mission training so that more Defence personnel are trained and ready for the challenges of tomorrow.

“This investment underscores our commitment to building sovereign capability, backing Australia’s defence industry and delivering jobs for Australian workers.

“By partnering with CAE, we are delivering cutting-edge training systems for our Defence force personnel and creating up to 190 jobs for Australian workers.”

The Greens have slammed the Albanese government for handing out new ocean acreage to their donor mates in the fossil fuel industry to exploit in a time of climate emergency. 

Labor’s disgraceful decision has nothing to do with everyday Australians and everything to do with the state capture of our government by fossil fuel corporations.

Australia is the second biggest exporter of fossil fuels in the world, after Russia. Yet Labor has no plan to deal with our exports, and is content with 56% of all Australia’s gas being exported without paying any royalties or resource rent tax. That’s $170 billion dollars worth of free gas over the next five years for big gas companies. 

There’s no plausible excuse for Labor to risk destroying marine ecosystems with seismic blasting only to lock Australia into more fossil fuel pollution and accelerate climate-driven disasters for the sake of a few profit-driven interests – but that’s exactly what this shameful government continues to do, over and over again. 

Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson: 

“Labor’s two-faced climate act is wearing thin. How on earth is ripping open new gas fields for fossil fuel companies to plunder, pollute and profit from in a time of climate emergency consistent with transitioning to a clean energy future?

“Australia has decades of gas left in our proven reserves system. There is no need to put marine wildlife and livelihoods that depend on healthy oceans at risk by using destructive methods to search for new gas fields. 

“Australia is the second biggest exporter of fossil fuels in the world. Clearly, we don’t have a gas supply problem, we have a political problem. 

“Oil and gas corporations come to our shores and take billions in government handouts, pay less tax than a nurse or a teacher, and then leave us to foot the bill of cleaning up their polluting rigs when they’re done. It’s a complete rort. 

“Labor is taking Australians for fools, but coastal communities aren’t so easily conned. Last year one of the largest seismic blasting proposals in Australian history was withdrawn by its proponent following immense community pressure. It was a siren call to all the fossil fuel companies eyeing off our oceans that their time is up. But clearly Labor is either too arrogant or too greedy to care.”

Greens Resources Spokesperson, Senator Steph Hodgins-May:

“Labor’s new ocean acreage handout is an environmental betrayal and an early Christmas gift to the fossil fuel companies driving the climate crisis.

“We have an export crisis, not a supply crisis. Labor is pre-empting the Gas Market Review by opening up new supply instead of fixing the existing broken system that allows big gas companies to export $170 billion dollars of free gas over the next five years.

“By incentivising decades worth of new gas, this government is ignoring science, setting us up to miss critical climate targets, and accelerating environmental disasters here and across the globe.

“The way to fix this crisis is to implement a 25% Gas Export Tax, which will deliver real cost-of-living relief instead of more of the same climate-wrecking gas projects.”

The Minns Labor Government is delivering 341 new police recruits to help make NSW safer with the largest class in 13 years attesting at the Goulburn Police Academy today. 

Class 367 is the third record-breaking class to attest in 2025, proof that the Minns Labor Government’s reforms to police pay and recruitment are making inroads to rebuild the NSWPF after 12 years of neglect by the former Liberal-National Government. 

Class 367 will be deployed to 57 Police Area Commands and Police Districts, serving as General Duties officers and strengthening the NSWPF’s capability to fight crime and keep the community safe. 

On Monday, the Probationary Constables will begin 12 months of on-the-job training across NSW including:

• Central Metropolitan Region – 77
• Northern Region – 65
• North West Metropolitan Region – 74
• South West Metropolitan Region – 65
• Southern Region – 30
• Western Region – 30 

Class 367 is made up of 248 men and 93 women, aged between 19 and 54. The cohort also includes 14 First Nations officers and officers who were born in 19 different countries.

Class 367 not only includes recruits that applied directly after finishing their HSC, but also from a wide range of vocations including hospitality, plumbing and mechanics. 

Policing works best when it reflects the community it serves, and today’s class shows exactly that.  Diverse in age, culture and life experience.

Today’s class also includes 50 officers from regional communities who have elected to serve in or near their hometown after attesting, taking advantage of the Minns Labor Government’s Be A Cop In Your Hometown program and bolstering regional policing resources. 

The former Liberal-National Government had no plan for police recruitment, no plan for police retention and sent wages backwards for more than a decade with its unfair wages cap. Thousands of experienced officers left the force as a result.  

Since the Minns Labor Government delivered a once-in-a-generation pay rise for police in November 2024, we have seen an additional 1,255 new recruits join the force. That is more than double the recruits from the previous 12-month period. 

We are continuing to work hard to rebuild the NSWPF and create safer communities through:  

• Establishing an historic scheme to pay recruits to train, resulting in a 70% increase in applications to join the NSWPF.
• Establishing the Be a Cop In Your Hometown program to give regional recruits the opportunity to serve in or near their hometown after attesting.
• Establishing the Professional Mobility Program to incentivise experienced officers from interstate and New Zealand to join.
• Launching the new Cadet Traineeship Program to give young, aspiring officers a pathway into the NSWPF.
• Establishing the Health Safety and Wellbeing Command to support existing officers to have long, healthy and rewarding careers with the NSWPF.  

While we’ve made progress, there is more to do and we’ll continue working hard to rebuild the NSW Police Force and deliver a safer NSW for all. 

Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism Yasmin Catley said: 

“Congratulations Class 367 – today marks the end of your training at the Goulburn Police Academy but the beginning of your responsibility to NSW.

“Policing is an incredibly rewarding yet challenging career and each one of today’s 341 recruits is stepping up with integrity, professionalism and dedication. 

“Class 367 is proof that the Minns Labor Government’s reforms to rebuild the NSWPF are working. 

“We are paying recruits to train, offering pathways to serve in or near their regional hometown after attesting and backing them every step of the way – there’s never been a better time to join the NSW Police Force.”

NSW Police Force Commissioner Mal Lanyon said: 

“Reaching the milestone of 1000 students attesting this year is an achievement that reflects our ongoing commitment to building a strong and capable police force for the future.” 

“The newest class of probationary officers represents the next generation of policing in NSW, and I have every confidence in their ability to serve our communities with professionalism and integrity.

“Recruitment at this scale means we can meet the needs of a growing state, boost our frontline services, and uphold the trust and safety of communities across NSW.”

Raptor Squad North are appealing for information after a barber shop was set alight in the state’s Hunter region earlier this year.
About 1am on Saturday 14 September 2025, emergency services were called to a shopping precinct on Garnett Road, East Maitland, following reports of a suspicious fire.

Officers established a crime scene and commenced inquiries before the matter was referred to the State Crime Command’s Raptor Squad North under Strike Force Samton.

Following extensive enquiries, detectives believe that about 10.20pm on Friday 13 September 2025, two unknown men – one wearing a dark hooded jumper with a yellow logo – were seen walking from Alfred Close into the shopping precinct.
Detectives have released CCTV as they believe these men could assist with their inquiries.
About 11pm, the hooded man returned to the barber shop with another unknown male who was wearing grey tracksuit pants, a dark jumper and a moon boot.

The men left the precinct then returned in a silver Commodore and white van.

As inquiries continue, detectives are appealing for anyone with information about the identity of the men and movement of the vehicles at the time of the incident.

I am pleased to announce the outcomes of the 2026 round of the New Colombo Plan (NCP), which is supporting record numbers of Australian students to deepen their Asia capability and expertise.

The 2026 round will see a record 328 NCP scholarships offered to Australian undergraduates, an increase of almost 50 per cent from 2025.

The 2026 round will also see 1,247 student grants offered under the new Semester Program, and 1,635 student grants offered under the Mobility Program.

The reforms to the New Colombo Plan that I announced in July this year are now in action. More NCP participants are now developing the skills and capabilities Australia needs to deepen our national understanding of the region, strengthen the ties between our people, and increase engagement with Australian businesses operating in the region.

Importantly, a record number of students will undertake long-term study programs in Asian languages, including Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin, Japanese and Vietnamese.

Launched in 2014, the NCP has supported over 56,000 Australian undergraduate students through study, internships and language training in the Indo-Pacific. I look forward to the continued impact of the program as more young Australians develop their Indo-Pacific capability and Asia literacy.

I extend my congratulations to all the successful students.

The NSW Government has dismissed key recommendations of the long-awaited and damning report of the NSW greyhound racing industry.

Greens NSW MP and Animal Welfare spokesperson Abigail Boyd has condemned the government’s failure to respond adequately to the report and the ongoing support for the greyhound racing industry as an ongoing political cover up of the greyhound racing and gambling lobby.

Abigail Boyd, Greens NSW MP and spokesperson for animal welfare:

“Across 722 pages, Commissioner Drake paints a damning picture of the greyhound racing industry, detailing persistent and systemic governance and animal welfare failures. Constrained by the inquiry’s terms of reference, the Commissioner walked right up to the line and all but called for the shutting down of the entire greyhound racing industry in NSW.

“After sitting on the report for months, the feeble response from the Minister in the face of incontrovertible evidence, shows what we have known and said all along, this inquiry and report process was nothing more than a political fix from a government in the thralls of the gambling and racing industry.

“Commissioner Drake’s recommendations include a breeding cap, genuine whole-of-life tracking for greyhounds, independent oversight of both the racing industry’s corporate arm as well as the regulator, overhaul of the industry’s rehoming regime, implementation of minimum track standards, and an end to the export program sending greyhounds overseas.

“We have known all along that the greyhound racing industry is incapable of reform. It seems now the Minister agrees, and so has no intention of requiring it to.

“Today’s Wentworth Park announcement stinks of cheap politics and a shoddy attempt to obscure the government’s far deeper failure to protect greyhounds across NSW.

“How many more inquiries, corruption scandals, and well-documented evidence of live baiting, doping and discarded greyhounds do we have to have before the NSW government finally listens and shuts this morally bankrupt industry down?”

The Victorian Greens have slammed Jacinta Allan’s Labor Government for approving new gas drilling in the Otway and Gippsland basins, warning it locks Victoria into decades more fossil fuel pollution, accelerates climate-driven disasters, and hands special treatment to gas corporations at the expense of ordinary Victorians.

Expanding gas slows down the renewable transition by diverting investment and delaying electrification. AEMO’s modelling does not suggest Victoria needs new gas projects – the real bottleneck is the slow rollout of renewable energy, storage and transmission.

Experts and economists have made it clear that opening new fossil fuel projects delays the transition and locks pollution into the grid for decades. Instead of fixing those failures, Labor is giving fossil fuel corporations exactly what they want.

The Greens say Labor is speaking out of both sides of its mouth on climate – and that they’re misleading Victorians by claiming to accelerate the transition while approving fossil fuel projects that make the climate crisis worse and energy more expensive.

Leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell: 

“Jacinta Allan’s Labor is giving special treatment to fossil fuel corporations while Victorians face higher bills and worsening climate disasters.”

“Approving new fossil fuels in the middle of a worsening fire season is reckless. Real leadership listens to climate science and puts communities first, not gas corporations.”

Victorian Greens clean energy transition spokesperson, Dr Tim Read: 

“Victoria doesn’t have a gas supply problem, we have a political problem. Labor is choosing special treatment for gas corporations instead of accelerating electrification and renewables, which would mean cheaper bills and improved energy security” 

“Every new gas approval diverts investment away from clean energy and slows down the transition Victorians are already making. If Labor was serious about affordability or climate action, they’d speed up renewables, not hand out favours to fossil fuel corporations.”

Today’s Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) funding announcement is welcome but will be of little comfort to the Hobart-based Antarctic and Southern Ocean researchers that are still suffering a substantial reduction in government funding for their critical science programs.

Greens spokesperson for science, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson: 

“Today’s Antarctic funding announcement is welcome but can’t be used to hide the fact that yet again scientists are facing funding cuts and imminent job losses at other critical Antarctic research programs like the Australia Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) and at the CSIRO. 

“Current funding for the ACEAS is $6.7m per annum which expires imminently. Despite lobbying for a long-term government commitment this critical cooperative research centre has only received $5m for two years – which will result in significant job losses. 

“We still don’t understand how many job losses will occur at the CSIRO in Tasmania, but we know the Environmental Research Unit (ERU) is facing the brunt of job cuts, which includes many oceans, climate, and nature-based researchers based in Hobart.   

“Why is the Minister giving with one hand and taking with the other? Either you are committed to funding Antarctic and Southern Ocean science and research, or you are not. 

“Disappointingly there still appears to be no long term, holistic plan for Antarctic science funding, with no sign of any details on Labor’s long-promised decadal plan for Antarctic science funding and priorities.  

“A well thought-through decadal plan for Antarctic science was a key recommendation of a recent Senate Inquiry into funding at the AAD. This decadal plan is again proving more elusive than the Scarlet Pimpernel.

“More short-term funding top-ups without a plan just won’t cut it anymore for our Antarctic efforts, which require critical long-term government commitment. 

“Antarctica is the heartbeat of our planet, and is facing significant challenges from a warming climate, primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels. As Antarctica changes it presents significant risks to our planet, and our research efforts to better understand this are critical.”

Shocking new independent health data shows patients in Western Sydney are suffering the longest waits for treatment since the height of the Covid pandemic.
 
At Westmead Hospital, the number of T2 Emergency Patients (very urgent category) starting their treatment on time has fallen to 25%, the worst result since the height of the COVID pandemic in July 2021.
 
The median wait time from arrival to leaving for all patients at Westmead was 7 hours and 11 minutes- the highest on record.
 
The Bureau of Health Information’s latest report also revealed that across the State the number of patients waiting longer than clinically recommended for surgery rose 64% compared to the quarter prior.
 
The data also shows that the median waiting time from arrival to leaving an Emergency Department for all patients was 3 hours and 54 minutes, the highest on record.
 
Opposition Leader, Kellie Sloane said our hospitals and health staff continue to face unprecedented pressures, but Labor has no plan to fix it.
 
“Under Chris Minns, Western Sydney hospitals are going backwards and recording their worst results on record. The Premier needs to stop with the excuses and support the Opposition’s call for an inquiry into Western Sydney health services.”
 
“These escalating wait times, combined with rising surgery backlogs, reflect systematic pressures that require serious, long-term solutions.”
 
“What is most galling about today’s data is it shows that NSW has had record presentations to our hospitals and yet we have a Labor Prime Minister in Canberra who has called on NSW to cut hospital funding and a Premier who has failed to get NSW it’s fair share of hospital funding.”
 
Nationals Leader, Gurmesh Singh, said today’s data reinforced what people in regional NSW already know: under Labor, they are being left behind.
 
“Whether it is Labor’s decision to close Wee Waa Hospital’s emergency department or the fact we’ve seen a 15 per cent increase in the number of overdue surgeries in rural hospitals this quarter, Labor is failing regional communities on health care delivery.”
 
“The data also showed that Coffs Harbour Hospital was experiencing an increase in ambulance ramping with the percentage of patients being transferred from paramedics to ED staff within 30 minutes falling from 89% under the Liberals and Nationals to 75% under Labor.”

The Albanese Government will invest approximately $1.4 billion to advance collaborative air capabilities, transitioning the MQ-28A Ghost Bat into a fully operational war fighting asset for the Australian Defence Force.

The Government today confirmed a major milestone: the Australian-designed and manufactured MQ-28A Ghost Bat – known as a Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) – has successfully engaged an aerial target with a live weapon. In a landmark test, the Ghost Bat deployed an AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile against an Australian-made Phoenix Jet Uncrewed Aerial Target.

Operating as a loyal wingman to a Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail and an F/A-18F Super Hornet, the MQ-28A Ghost Bat destroyed the airborne target during trials at the Woomera Test Range in South Australia.

This announcement of additional funding, coupled with the successful live-fire test, reinforces Australia’s position at the forefront of CCA technology globally. The latest investment includes new contracts with Boeing Defence Australia (BDA) for six operational Block 2 MQ-28A aircraft and the development of an enhanced Block 3 prototype.

The delivery of these additional Ghost Bats will lay the foundation for an operational Air Combat Platform capability within the Royal Australian Air Force. The Albanese Government is investing more than $10 billion on drones over the next decade, including at least $4.3 billion on uncrewed aerial systems.

Investment in uncrewed and autonomous systems is a key priority of the 2024 National Defence Strategy. Collaborative combat aircraft like the MQ-28A Ghost Bat deliver asymmetric surveillance and air combat capabilities, increasing the lethality and survivability of existing crewed platforms. 

The Ghost Bat program supports more than 440 high-skilled jobs nationwide, including roles at Boeing Defence Australia and across more than 200 Australian suppliers – 70 per cent of program expenditure is directed to Australian industry.

Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon Richard Marles MP:

“Australia is at the forefront of efforts to develop and field autonomous collaborative combat aircraft to provide asymmetric advantage and enhanced fighting depth for existing crewed platforms.

“This landmark demonstration proves the MQ-28A Ghost Bat is a world-leading collaborative combat aircraft made and designed in Australia

“The successful weapons demonstration underlines its growing potential to deliver an operational capability for the Royal Australian Air Force.”

Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Pat Conroy MP:

“With Ghost Bat, the future of collaborative air combat is right here, right now. Today’s announcement highlights that Australia is leading the world in the development of collaborative combat aircraft.

“The Ghost Bat transforms a single fighter jet into a formidable team—capable not only of surveillance but also of engaging adversaries. This delivers a vital layer of protection for our aviators who remain our most valuable asset.

“The MQ-28A program is also building a stronger sovereign defence industry and increasing Australia’s resilience with over 70 per cent of this investment remaining on our shores, providing high-tech, high-paying jobs for Australians.”