Category: Australian News

Labour Force data released today shows unemployment hit 4.7% in September, with youth unemployment jumping up to 11.1%, more than double the national rate. 

Both are at the highest rate seen in 5 years – when the unemployment rate was driven to historic lows under the Coalition’s Government’s pandemic recovery.

Earlier this week the IMF predicted Australia would have the largest increase in the unemployment rate in the advanced world in 2027 to 4.7%. It has already reached that prediction.

There are 102,700 more Australians unemployed in the past year alone.

Since Labor came to power, almost 177,400 additional Australians are out of work, with 85,200 more young Australians unemployed now than when the Coalition left office. 

Hours worked grew again, meaning Australians are working longer than they were a year ago. 

This follows the latest Labour Account data which showed more than one million Australians hold multiple jobs, including a record number of women and young Australians. 

Labor boasts about record jobs growth but the truth is that jobs growth is being driven by population growth.

the Deputy Leader: 

“Earlier this week, the IMF predicted Australia would have the largest increase in unemployment in the advanced world in 2027, reaching 4.7 per cent. Australia has already reached that rate. 

“Both the national unemployment rate and the youth unemployment rate are at five-year highs. That is a damning indictment of Labor’s economic management. 

“The Coalition drove unemployment to historic lows as Australia recovered from the pandemic. Under Labor, almost 180,000 more Australians are unemployed than when we left office. 

“Labor should be focused on creating the conditions for businesses to invest, grow and employ more Australians, not presiding over rising inflation, higher taxes and a deteriorating jobs market.”

the Shadow Treasurer: 

“Policy should be driving unemployment, spending, inflation and interest rates down, instead unemployment is up, spending is up, inflation is up and interest rates are up”. 

“Unemployment has gone up 0.6 percentage points since January, and the International Monetary Fund’s report card this week is projecting 800,000 Australians out of work next year because of the Albanese economic model”.

“Australia is set to have the biggest rise in unemployment in the developed world. That isn’t bad luck, it’s bad policy. The Albanese government stoked inflation, taxed inflation and spent inflation, and now Australians are going to pay for it with their jobs and livelihoods.”

“The Albanese government is on track for another gold medal after receiving one for the biggest drop in living standards in the developed world, with rising inflation and higher interest rates, and this time it is for the biggest rise in unemployment in the developed world”.

To mark 100 years since our national parliament first met in Canberra, the 48th Australian Parliament will sit for a day at Old Parliament House in April next year.

The special sitting day will see Question Time, legislation and other statements return to the Chambers of Old Parliament House for the first time in decades.

In 1927, the “Provisional Parliament” was opened in Canberra and our national parliamentarians continued to meet in that building until 1988.

Learning from our democratic history and institutions is more important than ever. 

In its role as the Museum of Australian Democracy, Old Parliament House has continued to play a vital role in the civic education of Australians.

Arrangements are being advised and supported by the Joint Parliamentary Select Committee on the Centenary of Parliament in Canberra, chaired by the Member for Newcastle and Deputy Speaker, Sharon Claydon MP, with Member for Riverina and former Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack MP, as Deputy Chair.

I thank the Committee for their continued work to celebrate the Centenary and our democratic institutions. 

Our unbroken democracy goes to the heart of who we are as a nation and why we continue to be a beacon to the rest of the world.

Australia must use every lever at its disposal to end femicide in this country, which is why the Greens are moving amendments that will stop government support from tying women to their current and former partners.

The Greens will move amendments that seek to abolish partner income testing from social security means-testing provisions and to prevent Family Tax Benefit debts from being raised against women who are owed unpaid child support. 

Current tax laws presume that single parents have received all child support payments they are owed when managed privately, despite this being incorrect two thirds of the time. This can result in women being incorrectly assessed as owing tens of thousands of dollars in tax.  Labor’s proposed changes tinker around the edges but won’t get to the heart of this injustice.

When a woman is killed in Australia every 11 days on average in acts of family and gender-based violence, the Government should be doing everything in its power to support victim-survivors. However, the current social security and child support legislation ties people to their partners and ex-partners, creating financial dependency and facilitating financial abuse even after separation.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman found that the government was recovering Family Tax Benefit debts from parents receiving child support, regardless of whether the parents have actually been paid the Child Support they are owed, creating a significant financial burden. 

Government support must not tie people to their partners, and especially ex-partners who are abusing the system. 

Greens spokesperson on Social Services, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:

“The little that social security payments provide is already incompatible with living a decent life, and for women hit with a Family Tax Benefit debt, the extra financial pressure is catastrophic.

“So-called social security reform announced by the Government continually pursues a debt recovery agenda. Social security is supposed to be exactly that: security.

“These debts push parents, especially single mother families, into distress and hardship. Poverty and homelessness already disproportionately impact women and children, and this can follow them through their lives. 

“For single mothers and women experiencing domestic and family violence, the last thing they need is the Government placing conditions on receiving support that tie them to their current or former partners.

“The Greens want to ensure that single mothers are not subject to ongoing abuse or huge tax bills. That money should be going to their kids’ future and meeting the rising cost of living.  

“The Greens’ amendments ensure that help will be there for all of us when we need it.” 

The reports out of Labor’s AI Joint Committee today prove what the Greens have said: that this Labor controlled committee is a stitch up to appear to be doing something to address community concerns on AI while doing little to take on this US billionaire controlled industry. 

Lines attributable to Greens Leader and AI Spokesperson Senator David Shoebridge: 

“Labor created, controlled and is running this committee so it’s no surprise at all that the result reads like Labor’s own talking points.

“In setting up this committee it was made clear from the start that the Government would not allow me as the Greens AI spokesperson to have a seat. Hard questions and serious challenges to US big tech was never part of their plan. 

“Captive committees doing pretend inquiries serve no one but a Government ducking for cover. 

“The letter to the PM from this committee being edited by the PM’s office is a farce worthy of Utopia. 

“I know copyright holders are deeply concerned about the foreshadowing in this report on the possible erosion of copyright. They are right to be concerned, it looks like there is nothing this Government isn’t willing to sell out to pander to billionaire big tech owners.  

“We support moves towards public investment and ownership in data centres but the rules have to be fixed first so the taxpayer is funding ethical AI not just trashing the environment and our culture for someone else’s profits. 

“We are now in the more than ridiculous situation that OpenAI breached a site holding Medicare data and while the investigation is on foot they have secured a recommendation for more funding.

“Sometimes you look back and have to be grateful, not being part of this Labor farce was a blessing after all.”

The Greens NSW have welcomed the long overdue announcement that childcare pedophile Ashley Griffith will be extradited from Queensland, where he has been serving a life sentence, to NSW for prosecution.  

Despite video evidence of his alleged abuse, his admission of guilt to abusing Queensland children, and police identifying nearly two dozen alleged NSW victims, Griffith has yet to face charges for 180 offences committed while employed at a Sydney daycare centre.  

The Greens have been fighting, alongside family members of his victims, for Griffith’s extradition for many months. The Greens changed the law to enable legal action to be brought against childcare directors within two years of an abuser’s legal proceedings, rather than within two years of the offence, to enable further prosecutions to be able to result from Griffith’s offending, which would have otherwise passed their statute of limitations due to these delays in the justice system.  

Quotes attributable to Abigail Boyd, Greens NSW MP and Chair of the NSW Parliamentary Education Committee: 
“I am relieved to learn that Mr Griffith will finally face the courts and a reckoning for his heinous crimes here in NSW.  

“The delay that has so far been experienced has only prolonged the heartache and suffering of his victims and their families, and has provided cover to those whose actions or failures to act helped these crimes to occur.  

“We have been lobbying the Attorney General, Michael Daley, for his extradition to be expedited. I am glad that now, 7 months after I publicly raised it with the Attorney General, and longer still since the advocacy of myself and the Greens Member for Balmain, Kobi Shetty, began that he is finally going to face some small modicum of justice.  

“No amount of time in a cell, no amount of books thrown, will undo the terrible impact of his offending. His prosecution is not a true resolution of anything, it’s simply a reminder of the grave responsibility we have to protect vulnerable children from those who mean them harm.  

“We need to be doing everything in our power to prevent the conditions for such abuse from being able to reoccur. That happens by removing the commercial incentives from early childhood education and care, by increasing staffing ratios and by investing in skills and quality with a well paid and well trained workforce. Unfortunately, the reforms I have seen to date from state and federal governments fail to keep children safe, being more interested in punishment after the offence than creating the conditions where such offending is not possible.”  

The Greens will move for a Senate inquiry into the proposed reforms to the taxation of discretionary trusts, warning that Labor risks squandering an opportunity to make Australia’s tax system fairer.

“In classic Labor fashion, the government has managed to water down its own position before the legislation has even reached Parliament,” Australian Greens Economic Justice spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

“These reforms appeared to be mildly positive when they were first announced, but there is a real risk that Labor’s political cowardice is transforming them into yet another missed opportunity.

“Australia’s tax system is riddled with loopholes that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest 1%. Discretionary trusts are one of the ways wealthy people minimise their tax while workers pay more than their share.”

Labor’s original proposal to reform the tax treatment of discretionary trusts has been weakened by a series of subsequent concessions, raising questions about how effective the legislation will be in closing tax loopholes exploited by wealthy Australians.

A Senate inquiry will be able to examine the impact of Labor’s concessions, and whether the legislation goes far enough to address the rampant inequality in Australia’s tax system.

“We want to know exactly what the impacts are of Labor once again collapsing under pressure from vested interests,” Senator McKim said.

“The Greens want genuine tax reform that makes wealthy Australians pay their fair share. We won’t give Labor a free pass on legislation that falls short of that objective.”

Today marks 25 years since the commencement of Operation Slipper, Australia’s first military contribution to the war in Afghanistan and the beginning of a significant chapter in our nation’s military history.  

In the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, Australia joined an international coalition to combat terrorism and support security and stability in Afghanistan.

Over the next two decades, more than 35,000 Australian Defence Force (ADF) members deployed on operations in support of Afghanistan, shaping a generation of Defence personnel, veterans and families. 

Australian missions initially focused on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency before evolving to include reconstruction, training, mentoring and humanitarian efforts. 

For many, service in Afghanistan often meant long periods away from loved ones, operating in dangerous and demanding environments, and working alongside coalition partners, Afghan forces and Australian government and non-government organisations.

Today we honour all Australians – Navy, Army, Air Force and civilian – who served in Afghanistan and in the Middle East Area of Operations. We also recognise their families, friends and communities who carried the weight of that service alongside them.

We remember all who died during or as a result of their service in Afghanistan, including the 47 ADF members currently listed on the Australian War Memorial’s Roll of Honour. We also recognise those who returned carrying visible and invisible wounds. 

A quarter of a century on, Australian service in Afghanistan forms part of our national story, marked by sacrifice, mateship, resilience and an enduring commitment to service. 

The Australian Government will reclassify service at Butterworth in Malaysia between 1970 and 1989 as ‘non-warlike service’, replacing the previous ‘peacetime service’ classification.

This decision acknowledges the unique environment in which Australian Defence Force personnel served while protecting RAAF Base Butterworth and supporting Australia’s longstanding security commitment in the region.

The decision follows a Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal Inquiry into Medallic Recognition for Service with Rifle Company Butterworth, which recommended this change. The Government has accepted the Tribunal’s recommendations. 

The Australian Government acknowledges that recognition has been sought by Butterworth veterans, families and ex-service organisations for some time. Their advocacy has helped ensure the experiences of those who served at Rifle Company Butterworth have been properly considered and understood.

We acknowledge those who served with Rifle Company Butterworth and of the role they played in advancing Australia’s interests abroad. 

To all those who served, the Australian Government recognises your contribution and thanks you for your service. These veterans will continue to be recognised with the Australian Service Medal.

Importantly, following registration of the legislative instruments, recognition as non-warlike service may provide access to additional veterans’ entitlements and support as well as more beneficial claims assessment for conditions relating to this service. 

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel, the Hon Matt Keogh MP:

“Veterans who deployed with Rifle Company Butterworth between 1970 and 1989 made a valuable contribution to the security and stability of Malaysia during a time of uncertainty. 

“The Government values their service, and that’s why we’ve carefully considered their submissions, as well as the recommendations of the independent Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal.”

With end-of-year celebrations fast approaching, the Albanese Government is helping school leavers prepare for safe, confident travel abroad.

This week, Smartraveller has launched TravelSmarts, a new interactive learning tool guiding young Australians through real-world travel scenarios. It equips them to make informed choices, look after their mates and return home with positive memories.

Through our Schoolies partnership with DrinkWise and Red Frogs, we are delivering targeted digital content, educational resources, and practical advice to reduce alcohol-related harm and promote safer travel behaviours.

Support includes:

• updated resources on Smartraveller’s Partying Safely Hub, including destination-specific advice and travel safety tools
• partnerships with Unleashed and Schoolies.com to engage travellers at their destination via social media, welcome packs, information sessions and on-the-ground activities
• targeted on-departure safety messaging
• partnerships with airlines, youth media outlets and content creators, supported by digital advertising, to reach young Australians through the channels they use most.

These activities will help young Australians better understand risks they may encounter overseas, including drink spiking, methanol poisoning, and unfamiliar local laws, as well as how to stay contactable and seek help if something goes wrong.

Young Australians heading overseas are encouraged to visit Smartraveller.gov.au, test their TravelSmarts, explore the Partying Safely Hub and subscribe for travel advice updates before they leave Australia.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong:

“Every Australian parent who waves their child off at the airport, expects them to come home safely.

“Our responsibility is to ensure young Australians have the information and tools to travel safely, to understand the risks, and make informed choices so their first independent travel experience overseas is a positive one.”

Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Matt Thistlethwaite:

“Travel safety doesn’t start at the airport. It starts well before departure, when young people are planning their trip, booking travel insurance and talking to friends and family about their plans.

“TravelSmarts, the Partying Safely Hub and our partnerships with schools, youth organisations and the travel industry are all designed to give school leavers practical advice before they leave Australia, so they can focus on enjoying their overseas trip.”

The Australian Army has further expanded its fleet of High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers, as the Albanese Government continues to strengthen Australia’s long‑range strike capability.

Just one year after taking delivery of its first tranche of HIMARS the Australian has received a second tranche of HIMARS units from the United States, significantly enhancing the capability of Army’s 10th Fires Brigade long-range fires regiment, based in Adelaide. This delivery was achieved two years ahead of schedule. 

The milestone follows the Albanese Government’s announcement in April of an additional investment in HIMARS and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) through the establishment of a second long-range fires regiment. This will significantly enhance the ADF’s ability to engage targets at ranges of up to 500kms, transforming to more than 1,000kms with future increments of PrSM.

Today’s announcement adds to the Australian Defence Force’s growing long-range strike capability, which at its peak will see up to 90 HIMARS units in service over the coming years across Army’s first and second long-range fires regiments within the 10th Fires Brigade. 

This capability was demonstrated on Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, where Australia successfully fired a PrSM two years ahead of schedule.

Earlier this year, the first Australian-manufactured Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) missile was also successfully test-fired from an Australian HIMARS, and last year Australia and the United States established a cooperative PrSM program, paving the way for future domestic production.

Through the 2026 National Defence Strategy and Integrated Investment Program, the Government is investing up to $37 billion to develop and enhance Defence’s long-range strike capabilities, and up to $36 billion over the decade to accelerate the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise.

As part of these investments, the Albanese Government is committed to developing a sovereign guided weapon manufacturing industry in Australia, strengthening our sovereign supply chain resilience and creating greater opportunities for Australian industry.

Missile production is already underway for the first time since the early 1970s at a new facility in South Australia, with a second factory set to open next year near Newcastle in New South Wales.

Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles:

“These highly mobile systems are an incredibly important platform and the delivery of these additional units represents a significant leap in capability for the Australian Army.

“Our investments in Australia’s long-range strike capabilities are about equipping the ADF with the equipment it needs to keep Australians safe.”

Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy:

“These new deliveries demonstrate our continued commitment to accelerate the acquisition of HIMARS, which are now on track to be fully operational four years ahead of schedule.

“The Albanese Government is investing up to $37 billion over the next decade on targeting and long-range strike capabilities for the Australian Defence Force.

“In addition, the Government is establishing a sovereign guided weapon manufacturing industry, manufacturing Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) missiles here in Australia, with plans to expand this to include the co-production of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM). 

“This will provide Australian Army HIMARS regiments access to Australian-manufactured munitions, strengthening our sovereign industrial capability and enhancing supply chain resilience.”