Category: Australian News

The Greens have urged Labor to commit to winding back tax handouts for rich property investors at the upcoming minibudget, saying fixing the CGT handout would help bring soaring housing prices under control, and be a massive Christmas gift for renters and first homebuyers. 

Experts say the capital gains tax discount pushes up house prices, as it encourages speculation by wealthy property investors, enabling them to bid further against would-be first homebuyers.

The government has previously modelled changes to the CGT discount, and momentum for change is growing. 

The Greens have established two Senate Inquiries which will put the unfair tax handout in the firing line – one on intergenerational housing inequality in Australia; and one focused solely on the CGT discount itself, which reports in March.  

With the Treasurer flagging that this MYEFO may be one forcing hard choices, the Greens say there is no excuse for winding back supports for everyday people while leaving wealthy investors untouched. 

Sen. Larissa Waters, Australian Greens Leader & Climate spokesperson said:

“The best gift for any renter this Christmas is a fix to the utterly cooked housing market. Millions of people have given up on the prospect of ever owning their own home.

“Wealthy property investors get a leg-up from the government at auction, which supercharges house prices and locks first renters and homebuyers out.

“Labor must use next week’s mini budget to announce that the free ride for wealthy property investors is over.”

Sen. Nick McKim, Greens Treasury spokesperson said:

“The CGT discount is turbo-charging wealth inequality and intergenerational inequity. 50% of the benefit goes to the top 1% of income earners, and 71% of the benefit goes to people over 50.”

“It means that people who work to earn a living are paying twice the tax than someone making the same money flipping investment properties.”

“Labor can’t continue to hand over billions in tax breaks for wealthy property investors that are locking first home buyers out of the market, then claim at MYEFO that there’s no money to help renters.

“There’s no better time to commit to change. Ending the era of property hoarding would help renters, first homebuyers and the national budget, and be the talk of every Christmas lunch.

“It shouldn’t take the Ghost of Christmas Future for Labor to see that this unfair measure has got to end.”

Sen. Barbara Pocock, Greens housing spokesperson said:

“Every year, wealthy property investors wake up to billions of dollars worth of gifts under the Christmas tree, while renters and first homebuyers get lumps of coal. That needs to end next week.

“Labor’s unfair tax breaks for wealthy property investors are fuelling the housing crisis by turbocharging speculative investment while locking renters and young people out of home ownership.

“With house prices forecast to increase by 9 percent next year after soaring 6 percent% this year, there’s no time to waste.”

The Greens have condemned Beetaloo Energy Australia’s Final Investment Decision (FID), arguing the decision is a direct consequence of the Northern Territory and Federal government’s financial and regulatory greenlight for another climate bomb.

Empire Energy’s (now Beetaloo Energy) own ASX statement from May this year reports the company received $43 million in government funding across tax incentives and drilling grants. This is on top of millions of dollars provided by the Commonwealth and NT governments to support gas companies’ operations in the Beetaloo basin. 

The project expects to start selling gas as soon as next year.

Senator Steph Hodgins-May, Greens Spokesperson for Resources:

“The Labor government hasn’t just approved Beetaloo, it’s spent millions of taxpayer dollars to push it over the line. This project is an environmental disaster that should never have been allowed to go ahead.

“We have a gas export problem, not a supply problem. The Labor government must respond to the gas market review by taxing exporters and prioritising existing LNG for the domestic market to bring down bills.

“Labor needs to stop letting gas corporations write the rules and claim millions in tax offsets that belong in our schools and hospitals, and actually deliver for families. 

Kat McNamara, NT Greens MLA for Nightcliff:

“This is an environmental crime against the Territory. The Beetaloo FID ignores the overwhelming opposition from Traditional Owners and poisons the water source that our communities depend on.

“The Federal Government has betrayed Territorians. Our land is being sacrificed for profits, not for our energy security or our future.

“The CLP Government continually makes decisions for the benefit of their mates in the gas industry rather than for the Territorians they are supposed to serve. The Federal Labor Government’s continued support and investment in the Beetaloo demonstrates that they are no better.”

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.”