Pocock says skilled migrants should be ‘No 1 priority’ as AI boom and housing sector face staff shortages

Senator David Pocock says skilled migrants should be the “No 1 priority” as new data shows Australia is falling short of the workers needed to power both the nation’s AI boom and housing targets.

This week, the Powering Skills Organisation, a government-established jobs and skills body, warned that Australia needs 72,000 more electricians and related tradespeople by 2030 to meet project demand.

Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Pocock said:

I don’t understand why Jobs and Skills Australia doesn’t have them as the No 1 priority. When we look at the migration figures, how can we have a shortage of something so critical as tradies to build the houses we desperately need?

This is one of my huge frustrations about this immigration debate and the population debate. We have both sides of politics arguing over the number, how big it should be, what it shouldn’t be … we have no plan. Surely, that’s the starting point.

Pocock warns Australia risks US-style AI datacentre backlash without long-term return

Independent senator David Pocock has warned Australia risks facing similar social licence issues over AI datacentres as the United States unless it puts in place “some sort of mechanism to get a long-term return”.

The comments come after the federal defence minister, Richard Marles, and industry and innovation minister, Andrew Charlton, met with major US AI companies during a trip to meet their American counterparts.

Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Pocock said:

In the US they are facing massive issues when it comes to social licence.

I’m still concerned the government isn’t answering the bigger question: what’s the long-term benefit of hosting these datacentres here? It seems to me these big multinational tech companies are expert at minimising their taxable income here in Australia, paying very little tax, and yet we’ll be hosting this supposedly gamechanging infrastructure.

So, I don’t understand why we aren’t putting in place some sort of mechanism to get a long-term return.

Time running out to keep housing developer afloat

A deadline to secure funding to keep embattled housing developer Bathla Group afloat has been pushed out to Monday as creditors absorb a breakdown of the group’s $3.4bn debt, AAP reports.

Insolvency advisory Teneo has been scrambling to secure short-term funding for Bathla since it entered voluntary administration in late August.

A creditors’ meeting on Friday was presented details of the company’s debt picture.

Teneo will continue negotiations with lenders over the weekend to try to secure funding before a staff meeting on Monday to inform Bathla employees if a short-term package has been agreed.

Money to cover payroll had been secured through refunds of bonds held by entities such as Sydney Water, a source close to the negotiations told AAP on Friday.

“It’s a very volatile situation because there’s no money and time is running out,” said the source, who asked not to be named for commercial privacy reasons.

The worst-case scenario if no funding came through was for building operations to shut down, they said.

Figures presented to creditors showed Bathla’s total debt at $3.4bn, including $3.08bn to secured lenders, $130m to unsecured lenders, $145m to the tax office and $4m to employees.

Read more:

Cyclist Rohan Dennis seeks new judge for driving breach

Former Olympic cyclist Rohan Dennis has faced court after pleading guilty to driving while suspended, appearing before the same judge who warned him he would be jailed if he breached the ban, AAP reports.

Lawyers for Dennis, 36, told the Adelaide district court on Friday that they intended to lodge an application seeking the recusal of Judge Ian Press from hearing the case.

Dennis was given a suspended 17-month jail term and banned from driving for five years in 2025 after pleading guilty to a charge over the events leading up to the death of his Olympian wife, Melissa Hoskins.

Hoskins, 32, was struck by her husband’s vehicle near their home at Medindie, in Adelaide’s inner north, on 30 December 2023.

He intended to apply for a recusal of Press, Dennis’s lawyer Craig Caldicott said.

Outside court, Caldicott declined to say whether the recusal application was connected to Press’s assertion that Dennis would be jailed for driving while disqualified.

“It’s appropriate in the circumstances to seek a recusal in this matter,” he said.

Asked what was wrong with this judge, he said:

There’s nothing wrong with this judge, he’s a very good judge.

He accepted Dennis could go to jail. He said:

There’s always a possibility on any matter, you should be well aware that driving while disqualified, he could go to jail.

That’s all for me. Achol Arok will guide you into the weekend. Take care.

Victoria’s premier says public official found to have engaged in ‘serious and concerning conduct’ no longer serving in his role

The Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, has confirmed that a public servant who was found last month to have engaged in “serious and concerning conduct” after a corruption investigation has left his role.

Carroll told reporters earlier today that Tony Bates was no longer secretary of the Department of Education and would be leaving the public service. A search for his replacement is under way.

Bates took a leave of absence after an investigation by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac), released last month, found he was part of a group of government officials who engaged in “serious and concerning” conduct while negotiating firefighter pay deals with Peter Marshall – the secretary of the United Firefighters Union (UFU).

The inquiry found Bates was involved in the negotiations, which occurred without the knowledge of the emergency services minister.

On Friday, Carroll said:

I read the Ibac Operation Richmond back to front, and I made it very clear that integrity is non-negotiable and a deal essentially was done behind a minister’s back.

Bates is the third public servant head to depart since Carroll took over from Jacinta Allan in late July. The head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Jeremi Moule was replaced by Treasury secretary, Chris Barrett, days after Carroll became premier and last week transport head Jeroen Weimar announced he would also leave his position.

More on the Ibac report here:

Second cyclist dies following Canberra crash

A second person has died after a crash in Canberra’s north last week, ACT police confirmed.

The 39-year-old man died in hospital yesterday evening, one week after a car ploughed into a group of five cyclists on Gungahlin Drive in Palmerston, between Wells Station Drive and Kosciusko Ave.

A 32-year-old female rider died at the scene, while a 39-year-old man was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Police confirmed his death this morning, increasing the number of deaths on ACT roads this year to 11.

Queensland ambulance bug in triple-zero system resolved

A computer bug which forced the Queensland ambulance service to use a backup dispatch system to answer triple-zero calls has been resolved.

The service switched on a new computer aided dispatch system on Wednesday. The Guardian understands users had latency issues – computer lag – on Thursday, forcing the ambulance service to use a planned manual backup.

That meant some calls were completed over the radio with information entered manually, rather than using a computer aided dispatch system.

The problem has been resolved and the new computer aided system turned back on.

A spokesperson for the Queensland ambulance service said “all triple-zero calls are being answered and resources are being dispatched in a timely manner, with the most urgent cases prioritised”.

The Guardian understands that the service believes no high-priority patient was delayed treatment, though some less urgent cases may have had delays. The ambulance service has a service staffed by paramedics, doctors, nurses and allied health professionals which keeps in touch with low-triage patients waiting for an ambulance.

“As is best practice, business continuity processes were enacted during the transition to the new CAD system to maintain operational oversight and call-taking and dispatch services,” the spokesperson said.

There was no impact to triple-zero calls to the QAS while business continuity processes were in place. Any reporting to the contrary is false.

Former Queensland police commissioner Steve Gollschewski dies

The former Queensland police commissioner Steve Gollschewski has died from cancer.

The 46-year veteran retired from the QPS in February. He was the state’s longest-serving cop.

He was appointed commissioner in 2024, before being diagnosed with cancer in 2025 and stepping down. He briefly returned to the force six months later.

Acting commissioner Brett Pointing said Gollschewski “will be remembered as an exceptional leader who used insight and innovation to strengthen the organisation and help keep the community safe”.

“Throughout his distinguished career, Steve was a remarkable strategist and contemporary leader, disciplined in his thinking, measured in his decisions and guided by deeply held personal values,” Pointing said.

The police minister, Dan Purdie, said Gollschewski wass the third-longest serving officer in the history of the service.

“My thoughts are with the loved ones of former Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski AO APM following the news of his tragic passing,” he said.

The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, said Gollschewski had “devoted his life to the Queensland Police Service, upholding our laws and making our state a safer place”.

Victoria records state’s first H5 bird flu cases in mammals

Victoria has recorded its first cases of deadly H5 bird flu in mammals, including a confirmed case in red fox at Torquay, and a suspected positive case in a dolphin at Lorne, the state’s acting chief veterinary officer, Dr Cameron Bell, said.

Since 20 June, the state has confirmed 212 positive cases from 892 investigations.

The chief biodiversity officer, James Todd, said heading into the spring breeding season surveillance efforts would be focused on high-risk areas, including the Mornington Peninsula, Port Phillip Bay, Western Port Bay and the Gippsland lakes, places that were important breeding grounds for waterbirds and marine mammals and near poultry facilities. He said further mortality events and spread into other species was expected. He said:

We’re at the beginning of a virus, which will continue to impact on Victoria’s wildlife.

We know that people care deeply about wildlife, and the impacts that the community may be observing, in terms of dying and dead wildlife, is really confronting and distressing.

A renowned forensic scientist on Nepal’s ‘extreme challenges’

The bodies of some of those killed in the Nepal-Tibet flood disaster may never be found, and some of those that are may never be identified, a world-renowned forensic scientist says.

Prof Richard Bassed, the head of forensic medicine at Melbourne’s Monash University, spent three months in Thailand after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and also helped to identify victims of Victoria’s catastrophic Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.

Now he has watched as authorities in Nepal and Tibet struggle to find and identify the dead amid the agonies of the living after last week’s devastating flash flood. More than 1,250 people have been confirmed dead, with more than 5,000 missing.

Read more here:

Man jailed for enslaving, assaulting vulnerable woman

A man who kept a vulnerable woman as a slave for nine months has been jailed for the “callous and cruel” offending, AAP reports.

Chee Kit “Max” Chong, 47, was sentenced on Friday to six years behind bars after being found guilty in May of intentionally possessing the 61-year-old Malaysian woman as a slave and one count of assault.

The jury was told the woman escaped from Chong’s Melbourne home in October 2022 after he kept her as a slave since January of that year and controlled her access to the outside world as she was made to clean and care for his children unpaid.

Chong also threatened and coerced the woman to provide domestic services, including massaging his feet, under threat of assault or hunger.

Victorian county court judge Peter Cahill on Friday determined Chong’s moral culpability was high. The judge said on Friday:

Your treatment of her was callous and cruel.

You exploited her vulnerabilities to use her as your property.

Chong received a non-parole period of four years but he will likely be deported to his home country of Malaysia at the end of his sentence.

Chong’s wife, Angie Liaw, 32, was also accused of assisting her husband and she too faced trial. But Cahill found her not guilty of the offence on 7 May, telling the jury she should be acquitted as a matter of law.

Genetically modified pig kidney keeps man alive for record nine months

A genetically modified kidney from a pig called Wilma has kept a 66-year-old man with kidney failure alive for a record nine months and successfully acted as a “bridge” to a human transplant in a world first.

Tim Andrews was seriously ill with end-stage kidney disease caused by type 2 diabetes and had only a 9% chance of receiving a human kidney within five years, against a more than 40% risk of dying or being removed from the waiting list.

Kidney transplantation provides the best survival and quality of life for patients with end-stage kidney disease, but global demand for human organs far exceeds supply.

Surgeons in the US successfully transplanted a kidney from Wilma, a Yucatan miniature pig, into Andrews, after genetically engineering it to be compatible with his immune system.

Read more here:

Canavan stands by remarks about ‘feminisation’ of school curriculums

The Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, is standing by his comments that a “feminisation” of school curriculums has led to the rise of the “manosphere”.

The Australian Education Union called those remarks a “fundamentally incorrect portrayal” of Australia’s education system. In response to that criticism, Canavan said recently:

Many, it’s not all, it’s not all, but many young boys are being attracted to these toxic voices. I don’t think it’s because there’s some conspiracy that Facebook is pushing this stuff.

They are being attracted to it because we’re not treating boys with respect in the classroom.

BoM forecasts strongest El Niño on record

The growing El Niño weather phenomenon to Australia’s east is already breaking heat records, with forecasts showing it will likely easily surpass previous events, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.

Separate research suggests climate change has greatly shortened the odds of the event hitting record extremes.

In an update this week, the Bureau of Meteorology said the El Niño was now forecast to peak in late spring or summer and “reach levels above the warmest observed since reliable records began in 1950”.

Read more:

Should Australia be worried about the bond market?

Bonds are supposed to be safe and boring.

Which means when bond markets are getting exciting, you can bet that something big is going down in the global economy and the world of finance.

Australia’s 10-year interest rate on government debt has jumped past 5.2% – the highest in more than 15 years.

And it’s happening around the world.

So what’s going on? And why should you care?

Kyrgios accepts one-month ban for cocaine use

Nick Kyrgios has entered a treatment program after accepting a one-month ban for testing positive to cocaine.

After admitting his “huge mistake” when initially suspended for failing a drugs test on 22 June at an ATP 250 tournament in Spain, Kyrgios is allowed to compete again from Friday.

Kyrgios, who had been provisionally suspended since 4 August, had faced a ban ranging from a baseline three-month period to up to four years.

The 2022 Wimbledon finalist also forfeited the 6,570 euros he won in Mallorca for losing in the first round to countryman Adam Walton.

But his suspension was reduced for agreeing to enter a treatment program.

“I recently failed a drug test in Mallorca after testing positive for cocaine,” Kyrgios posted on Instagram last month.

I made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it.

Remembering Gloria Steinem: ‘She’s a hero to all women’

In case you missed the news overnight, we have an obituary for the late, great Gloria Steinem.

Steinem was a groundbreaking campaigner for women everywhere who brought the feminist perspective to the mainstream. She was 92.

Public trust in politicians drops amid voter cynicism

Four in five Australians believe governments should deliver social services directly but a majority no longer think politicians serve their interests, AAP reports.

A new report from the Centre for Policy Development comes amid a surge in support for One Nation as voters vent anger at the two major parties.

The research found more than 80% of people surveyed want governments to maintain the capability to deliver social services directly and believe health, education and childcare must be universally affordable.

But almost six in 10 people believe their elected representatives do not serve their interests, a figure that has steadily increased.

Almost 70% of people surveyed viewed modern politics as far more concerned with short-term political gains than addressing long-term challenges.

The research also found 65% of people want ordinary citizens to have a much greater say in setting core policy priorities.

‘Gut-wrenching’: Bowen to meet with Nepali community today

Chris Bowen said he would meet members of the Nepali Australian community later today.

The minister said news two other Australians were safe was a welcome development but for other families of the 36 still missing or unaccounted for, the reality is just “gut-wrenching”:

Every person who’s been rescued or found is a relief to their family and to the broader Australian community. But of course, we still have 36 Australians who are missing and unaccounted for, which is just gut-wrenching for all Australians and for the Nepalese Australian community in particular, whom I’m spending time with later today.

But all I can say is that we’re continuing to send any support that the Nepalese government asked for.

‘Serious concerns’ for missing Australians, Jim Chalmers says

The Albanese government still has “serious concerns” for the Australians missing in the Nepal-Tibet floods, Jim Chalmers says.

Speaking to ABC’s News Breakfast, the treasurer said it was “good news that two Australians have been located overnight:

That would be a huge relief to the loved ones of these two Australians who’ve been located, but we still have very serious concerns for the 36 Australians that we haven’t been able to be located yet.

Chalmers said about 40 of Australia’s “best” personnel were either on the ground or en route to assist in recovery and humanitarian efforts. Unicef warned overnight that at least 22,000 children urgently need safe drinking water and better sanitation.

Coalition says main focus of tobacco excise cut is tackling organised crime

Anne Ruston, the shadow minister for health and aged care, spoke this morning to tout the Coalition’s plans to slash the tobacco excise by 80%, saying the effort was designed to “break the business model” of organised crime.

Ruston spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying that after the government wrested control back of the cigarette market with a lower excise, it could step in to “put in place the things to try and make sure that, first of all, we encourage Australians not to smoke, not to use nicotine products”.

Ruston was asked if cheaper tobacco products would lead to an uptick in smoking rates. She had this to say:

This is very much designed to try and get the government back in control of the nicotine market, not organised crime gangs.

We are hoping that the combined package of what we’re proposing here, not just the dropping of the excise, but the regulation of the market and making it certainly more difficult for children to access these products. In the enforcement surge and the anti-smoking and anti-vaping campaigns, we are hoping to put downward pressure on smoking rates.

She went on to say the purpose of the policy was to shut down the black market and, while the Coalition wanted to see smoking rates decline, “the absolute focus of this is to get this market out of the hands of organised crime”.

Good morning, Nick Visser here to take over the blog and see us through Friday. Let’s get to it.

Pauline Hanson to make cost of living ‘worse’, union boss warns

Asked if she saw her role as one of countering One Nation on the cost of living, Melissa Donnelly said Pauline Hanson’s party “says one thing and does another”:

The reality is that Pauline Hanson’s track record is voting against penalty rates, voting against rights for casual and gig workers.

She’s opposed the minimum wage. She’s most recently suggested it should be easier to sack workers.

Our job, as the union movement, is to make sure our members and workers understand that is what she stands for. And if you’re worried about cost of living, Pauline Hanson is going to make it worse.

Labor scraps course ‘misused by shonks’

Labor says it will shut down a management course amid fears it is being “misused by shonks” and providing a back door into Australia.

As the government faces increased pressure to curb overseas migration, Labor says the graduate diploma of management (learning) which is registered at 452 institutions, showed students either were enrolled but weren’t even starting the course, weren’t completing the course or were transferring out of it.

It’s the first time the government will use powers to shut down courses due to concerns over their integrity – though students now completing the course will be able to finish it.

The assistant minister in charge, Julian Hill, pinned the blame on the Coalition:

The Coalition left behind a shocking mess in 2022, with unsustainably high growth in student numbers in the least reputable parts of the sector, and our high-quality student visa being degraded into a low-rent illegal work visa and misused by shonks.

Australia continues to welcome genuine international students seeking a premium education and must maintain a ruthless focus on quality, integrity and a great student experience.