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Work begins on a new overtaking lane on the New England Highway

Motorists travelling along the New England Highway, between Tamworth and Willow Tree, will soon benefit from safer and smoother journeys with work now underway on a new overtaking lane.

Under the Road Safety Program, the Albanese and Minns Labor governments have invested a total of $5 million to build a new overtaking lane on the New England Highway, around 30 kilometres south of Tamworth.

The new 1.2km overtaking lane will improve safety and traffic flow for southbound motorists and provide an important safety initiative on the New England Highway between Tamworth and Willow Tree.

The project also includes:

widening the sealed shoulders
extending the concrete drainage
realigning and resurfacing the existing road surfaces
installing a one-metre-wide centre line treatment
installing new guard rails and improving road safety signage

Transport for NSW is undertaking the improvements, with works expected to be complete in late March 2027, weather permitting.

Road works hours are between 6.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday and between 6.30am to 6pm when required on Saturday.

Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories, Kristy McBain MP:

“The Albanese and Minns governments are investing in essential road infrastructure that will serve people living in, working in, and visiting regional NSW for many years to come.

“Safety on our roads is a top priority, and with works beginning on New England Highway, this is another example of our commitment to protecting all road users.

“Once complete, these upgrades will ensure safer, smoother and more efficient journeys for the thousands of commuters who travel along this busy corridor each day.”

NSW Minister for Roads and Regional Transport, Jenny Aitchison:

“Getting on with upgrades like this is about making sure regional communities have the safe and reliable road networks they deserve.

“The New England Highway serves as a critical connection for thousands of residents and freight operators every day, which is why safety improvements are so important.

“This new overtaking lane will provide safer and more efficient connections across the region, helping road users travel to work, return home as well as transport essential goods and services.”

Senator for NSW, Tim Ayres:

“The New England Highway is an important piece of infrastructure for residents, agriculture and local industry.

“This joint investment from the Australian and New South Wales governments delivers practical improvements that will help improve road safety between Willow Tree and Tamworth.”

NSW Labor Spokesperson for Tamworth, Anthony D’Adam:

“We know how important the New England Highway is to freight operators and people travelling through the region, and these upgrades will help make journeys safer and more reliable for everyone.

“With work now underway, we’re getting on with the job of delivering safer roads for the motorists right across the state.”

NSW Liberals and Nationals to fund free health checks for new dads

New dads would receive free mental health checks under a pilot to be funded under a Liberals and Nationals Government to address the number of men not getting the support they need during a critical period for families.

The pilot program, which is estimated to cost $2.5 million, would run for four years across multiple Local Health Districts, delivering important mental health support for dads at key perinatal and postnatal milestones. The pilot would help determine how these mental health checks could most effectively be delivered statewide.

Leader of the Opposition Kellie Sloane said becoming a new dad was a life changing experience for men, but many fathers report they are not getting the healthcare they need.

“Recent research from Movember found that three in five dads were never asked by a health professional about their mental health in the lead up to, or in the 12 months following the birth of their child. I want to change that,” Ms Sloane said.

“Happy and healthy parents set up our kids for success, but right now too many new dads are not getting the healthcare they need. Looking after mum, bub and dad means the whole family gets the best possible start.”

Shadow Minister for Health Sarah Mitchell said this pilot would help identify new dads who need help early and would align with the touchpoints already embedded in NSW maternal health pathways.

“Mums are checked on regularly throughout pregnancy and after birth, and there is an opportunity for us to align those checks with health interventions for new dads as well,” Mrs Mitchell said.

“The pilot will be delivered in both metropolitan and regional health settings and ensure where a dad might be struggling with his mental health, we can support him earlier, reducing the risk of something more serious developing.”

Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Matt Cross said celebrating his second Father’s Day with his son was a reminder of the joys being a new dad brings.

“Being a dad is one of my greatest joys, bringing immense love and purpose to my life. We need to ensure every dad feels supported and connected, because supporting dads helps build stronger families,” Mr Cross said.

Ms Sloane acknowledged the vital advocacy and research work of Dr Zac Seidler and Movember, which had shone a light on the health of new dads in their More than a Provider report, which called for routine mental health screening of new dads.

This announcement builds on the NSW Liberals and Nationals plans to deliver a dedicated 10-year Men and Boys’ Health Strategy by the end of 2027 and host a two-day Men’s Health summit next year.

Appeal to locate teenage boy missing from Rutherford

Police are appealing for public assistance to locate a teenage boy missing from the Hunter Region.

Jordan Christian, aged 16, was last seen on Kerr Street, Rutherford, about 6pm on Wednesday 18 August 2026.

Unable to be located or contacted since, officers attached to Port Stephens-Hunter Police District were notified and commenced inquiries into his whereabouts.

Police and family hold concerns for Jordan’s welfare.

Jordan is described as being of Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander appearance, 160-165cm tall, slim build and short black hair.

Following inquiries, police believe Jordan may have been at South Kempsey McDonalds on Thursday 27 August 2026.

He is known to utilise public transport and frequents the surrounding Rutherford and Kempsey areas.

Anyone with information into his whereabouts is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Appeal to locate woman missing from Hunter region

Police are appealing for public assistance to locate a woman missing from the Hunter region.

Kylie Jordan, aged 43, was last seen in Adamstown on Tuesday 1 September 2026.

Unable to be located or contacted since, officers attached to Newcastle City Police District were notified yesterday (Saturday 5 September 2026) and commenced inquiries into her whereabouts.

Police and family hold concerns for Kylie’s welfare.

She is described as being Caucasian appearance, between 165cm to 175cm tall, of large build with blonde hair and brown eyes.

Initial inquiries indicate Kylie may have travelled to the Liverpool area.

Anyone with information into her whereabouts is urged to contact Newcastle City Police Station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

You can’t teach boys to respect women if you can’t define what a woman is

Family First National Director and NSW Legislative Council candidate Lyle Shelton says the sexual assault of young women cannot be addressed by a government program shaped by an ideology that cannot clearly define what a woman is, warning that another review of school-based consent education ignores the deeper cultural crisis confronting young people.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that federal Education Minister Jason Clare will fund a review of consent and respectful relationships education in schools following a spate of alleged sexual assaults involving Sydney students.

Mr Shelton said governments were looking in the wrong place for the solution.

How can a program teach young men to respect women when our political and educational establishment struggles to even define what a woman is?” Mr Shelton said.

Respect for women is not primarily formed by a government program. Ideally, it is learned first in the home, where a boy sees his father love, honour and respect his mother and understands from childhood that women are not objects for his gratification.”

Mr Shelton said the decline of marriage and the normalisation of pornography and prostitution had helped create a culture in which women were increasingly objectified.

For decades our culture has progressively dismantled the institutions and moral guardrails that taught men responsibility towards women,” Mr Shelton said.

Marriage is almost never promoted by governments as a public good. Pornography is ubiquitous and accessible to teenagers. Prostitution has been normalised and, in some jurisdictions, effectively treated as ordinary work. Then we express shock when young men absorb the message that women’s bodies exist for male gratification.”

Mr Shelton said the problem stretched from high-school students to elite sporting culture.

Whether we are talking about disturbing allegations involving school students or controversies involving professional footballers, we should be willing to ask what sort of culture we have created,” he said.

One respectful-relationships lesson cannot compete with hours of pornography teaching boys a completely different lesson about women, sex and intimacy.”

Consent education has been compulsory in Australian primary and secondary schools since 2023, with the federal government committing $77.6 million over five years.

Mr Shelton said reviewing and expanding the existing program would not address the underlying causes.

The program is already compulsory. The taxpayers have already spent tens of millions of dollars. If the message is not getting through, simply reviewing the program and giving children more of the same is not an answer.”

He said the best long-term protection for women required rebuilding a culture in which marriage, family, fatherhood and sexual responsibility were again valued.

We need fathers modelling respect for mothers. We need public policy that recognises marriage and stable families as a social good. And we desperately need to confront a pornography culture that is shaping young men’s understanding of sex before parents and teachers even know what has happened.

Until we rebuild a culture of marriage and family, and until we challenge the pornography and prostitution culture that reduces women to commodities, women will remain vulnerable.”

Mr Shelton warned parents to be wary of another ideological program being introduced through the review process.

We have seen this before with Safe Schools. A program carrying an unobjectionable title became a vehicle for contested ideas about sex and gender,” he said.

Another review of a flawed, woke school program will achieve nothing if governments refuse to confront the cultural forces teaching boys to objectify women.”

Protecting women requires more than another curriculum document. It requires a culture that knows what a woman is, honours marriage, supports mothers and fathers, and teaches boys that becoming a man means responsibility, self-control and respect.”

KEY FACTS:
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the federal government will fund a review of the consent and respectful relationships education program in schools after a series of alleged sexual assaults involving Sydney school students. Mr Clare said the past few weeks had been “devastating” and “we need to make sure the message is getting through”. It is understood the review will examine how the program is working and whether it needs further strengthening (The Sunday Telegraph, 30 August 2026).
Consent education was strengthened and mandated in primary and secondary schools across Australia from 2023 after education ministers agreed to an age-appropriate consent curriculum. The federal government committed $77.6 million over five years to support respectful relationships education.
The controversial Safe Schools program received $8 million in federal funding and was rolled out nationally from 2014 as an anti-bullying initiative. Following controversy and a 2016 review, the federal government imposed restrictions on the program. Federal funding subsequently ceased and New South Wales withdrew from the program in 2017.
Family First’s education policy supports parents as the primary educators of their children and opposes gender ideology in schools and early childhood programs.

Minns bows to Labor’s radical left and the Greens on pill testing

Family First National Director and NSW Legislative Council candidate Lyle Shelton says Chris Minns has bowed to the radical left of the Labor Party and the Greens by making pill testing permanent, trashing his previous opposition and raising a disturbing question for NSW voters: if Labor’s left can flex its muscles like this now, what will it demand in a second Minns term?

The Daily Telegraph reported today that free and anonymous drug checking will become a permanent fixture at up to 15 NSW music festivals a year from October, backed by $4.3 million in taxpayer funding.

Mr Shelton said the decision was a worrying sign that Premier Chris Minns was losing his grip on the sensible centre of his party.

Chris Minns came to office presenting himself as the leader of ‘club sensible’ in Labor, and for much of his first term he has managed to keep some of his party’s worst ideological instincts in check,” Mr Shelton said.

But on pill testing he has folded. He opposed it, he warned against it, and now he is spending $4.3 million of taxpayers’ money making it permanent.

This has the fingerprints of Labor’s radical left all over it.

There’s no such thing as a healthy ecstasy pill.”

Mr Shelton said the bigger issue for voters was what the reversal revealed about the likely direction of a second-term Minns Government.

If this is how Labor’s radical left flexes its muscles while Chris Minns is still fighting for a second term, imagine the influence it will wield if Labor is returned for another four years.

This could be the first portent of what a second-term Minns Government looks like: club sensible pushed aside and the crazy left increasingly calling the shots on policy.”

Mr Shelton said pill testing itself sent a dangerous and contradictory message to young people.

The Government says these drugs are illegal, yet it has just committed $4.3 million to checking them for people who intend to take them. You cannot credibly run both messages at once.”

Family First opposed pill testing when Queensland introduced it and when Victoria legalised it.

There is no such thing as a safe illegal drug, even if tested,” Mr Shelton said. “These pills are cooked up by criminal gangs in dirty labs. A government test at a music festival does not magically make them safe.

Just because the gangs sometimes get the dosage wrong does not mean the pills that pass the government testers are as harmless as lollies.”

Health Minister Ryan Park concedes drug checking is no “silver bullet” in making drug use safe, while the service’s own harm-reduction message acknowledges that no illicit drug use is safe.

Nobody queues at a festival because they want someone to tell them not to take the pill they have already bought and carried in,” Mr Shelton said.

They are looking for reassurance, and the Government knows it.

No family should ever have to bury a nineteen-year-old because of drugs, and parents campaigning after such unimaginable loss deserve to be heard with compassion.

But checking illegal drugs is not stopping drug use. It risks normalising it and creating the impression that illicit drugs can somehow be made manageable if government experts are standing nearby.”

Mr Shelton said the $4.3 million should instead be directed towards rehabilitation, prevention and policing criminal drug networks.

Spend the money helping young people get off drugs, providing rehabilitation places they can actually access, targeting the criminal gangs supplying this poison and giving young people an unambiguous message that illegal drugs can destroy their lives.”

Family First is committed to enforcing laws on drug supply and possession, diverting people into successful programs that help them become free of addiction, and never giving up on the goal of keeping Australia free of illicit drugs.

Appeal to locate man missing from New Lambton

Police are appealing for public assistance to locate a man missing from the Newcastle area.

Justin Edwards, aged 36, was last seen on Fairfield Avenue, New Lambton, about 10.30am on Thursday 3 September 2026.

When he was unable to be located or contacted, officers attached to Lake Macquarie Police District were notified yesterday (Friday 4 September 2026) before officers from Newcastle City Police District took carriage and commenced inquiries into his whereabouts.

Police and family hold concerns for Justin’s welfare as he lives with Autism.

He is described as being of Caucasian appearance, 180cm to 185cm tall, of slim build, with sandy blonde/ginger long hair, short ginger beard and tattoos on his arms and hands.

Justin was last seen wearing grey tracksuit pants over blue shorts, black t-shirt with white writing, black zip up hooded jumper, black joggers and a grey cap.

He is known to frequent the Hamilton South and Mereweather areas.

Anyone with information on Justin’s whereabouts is urged to contact Waratah Police Station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Rideshare driver charged over multiple alleged sexual acts – Sydney City PAC

A rideshare driver will face court today following an investigation into multiple alleged sexual acts, including one committed in Sydney’s CBD over the weekend.

Officers attached to Sydney City Police Area Command commenced an investigation on Saturday 29 August 2026, following reports a rideshare driver had allegedly performed a sexual act on himself during a trip.

Detectives were told the incident occurred about 12.30pm the same day, during a booked rideshare trip through Sydney’s CBD, with a passenger – a 23-year-old woman – onboard.

Following inquiries, about 3.30pm yesterday (Tuesday 1 September 2026), police arrested a 28-year-old man in Millers Point.

A short time later, officers – with the assistance of the Public Order and Riot Squad – executed a search warrant at a home on Rangihou Crescent, Parramatta.

The 28-year man was taken to Day Street Police Station, where he was charged with three counts of carry out sexual act with another without consent and two counts of sexually touch another person without consent.

Police will allege in court the 28-year-old man was involved in three additional, unrelated incidents of a similar nature between January 2026 and April 2026 at locations in Sydney CBD, Earlwood, and Otford. These alleged incidents occurred outside of his occupation as a rideshare driver.

The man was refused bail to appear before Bail Division Local Court 7 today (Wednesday 2 September 2026).

Uniting welcomes festival drug checking, but says access must go beyond the festival gates

Uniting NSW.ACT welcomes today’s announcement by the NSW government that drug checking will be allowed at 15 music festivals across the state each year. We believe this is an important step towards a broader evidence-based approach to reducing harm.

If NSW is serious about making this life-saving intervention available to everyone who needs it, then drug checking through permanent community-based services must be made available.

Alice Salomon, Director Advocacy and External Relations at Uniting NSW.ACT said:
“Today’s announcement is a welcome start, and the NSW Government should be congratulated for taking this positive first step. Drug checking gives people potentially life-saving information and creates an important opportunity to connect them with trusted health advice and support.

“But people who use drugs, don’t only do so at music festivals. Access to proven harm reduction service shouldn’t depend on whether or not you can afford a festival ticket, where you live, or the circumstances in which you use drugs. Everyone person who uses drugs deserves access to the harm reduction services that will help keep them safe.

“Fixed-site, community-based drug checking would make this service available to many more people, including regional communities where we know there is both need and demand.

“At a time when drug overdose deaths are double the road death toll, proven harm reduction services need to be available as widely as possible.

Uniting is calling on the NSW Government to build on today’s announcement and commit to setting up fixed-site drug checking services in the community.

Landmark six-nation partnership delivers East Micronesia Cable

A landmark six-nation partnership backed by the Albanese Government has delivered the East Micronesia Cable system, bringing reliable, high-capacity telecommunications connectivity to communities across Micronesia for the first time.

The 2,250 km East Micronesia Cable will bring faster, more reliable and more affordable internet to over 100,000 people across Naoero, Tarawa in Kiribati and Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia. This will provide the regional connectivity that underpins essential services, economic activity and community relationships.

The cable also greatly reduces the risk of telecommunications outages, helping people and businesses stay connected to the everyday services they rely on.

The Australian Government contributed approximately $AUD65 million to the $AUD135 million project through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific.

Bringing together the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati and Naoero, with support from Australia, Japan and the United States, the project demonstrates what can be achieved when Pacific countries and partners work together to deliver shared regional priorities.

With the East Micronesia Cable complete, all Pacific Islands Forum members are now connected to undersea telecommunications infrastructure for the first time, a milestone supporting a more connected and digitally resilient Blue Pacific.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong:

“Improved connectivity enhances the Pacific region’s resilience and capacity to respond to economic and security challenges.

“The East Micronesia Cable will drive growth and opportunity, strengthen essential services and contribute to long-term regional stability, which benefits us all.”

Pacific Island Affairs Minister Pat Conroy:

“The East Micronesia Cable demonstrates what can be achieved when Pacific nations work together for the benefit of the region.

“Together with the Pacific and partners Japan and the United States, we are delivering lasting infrastructure that builds a safe, peaceful and prosperous region and will benefit Pacific communities for decades to come.

“The East Micronesia Cable will help families stay connected, support businesses to grow, expand access to education and healthcare and create new opportunities in an increasingly digital world.”