Australia news live: Hobart stadium plan passes first parliamentary vote; $37m boost for childcare checks

8.21pm GMT Study finds beach safety terms can be difficult to understand for overseas visitors Australia’s beaches continue to pose fatal risks to overseas-born people, with a study suggesting many struggle to understand warnings presented on signs, Australian Associated Press reports. A Monash University study found beach-related terminology and even the colour of warning signs were regularly misinterpreted by international visitors. About a third of Australia’s 357 drowning deaths in 2024/25 were people born overseas. Monash University drowning prevention researcher Masaki Shibata, who is also a surf lifesaver, said instructions such as “swim between the flags” were open to misinterpretation. Other terms such as “shore dump”, “rip current” and “submerged object” also do not always translate well. “To make the terms more universal, first we have to revise English ... shore is location, dump is action, and a lot of people don’t know what is dumping you or what’s being dumped,” he told AAP. “Can we just simply say ‘crushing waves’ instead, for example, and instead of ‘swim between the flags’, can we just say ‘stay between the flags’.” Updated at 8.38pm GMT 8.14pm GMT Good morning, and happy Friday. Nick Visser here to get things moving. Let’s dive in. 7.53pm GMT Federal government commits $37m to strengthen criminal history monitoring in early childhood and care The federal government will spend $37m over five years to improve working with children checks (WWWC) in early childhood and care, including monitoring changes to criminal history. The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, said the funding boost would go towards establishing the national continuous checking capability (NCCC), first announced earlier this year to provide “continuous, near real-time monitoring of changes to criminal history information for WWCC holders, significantly strengthening safeguards for children and young people”. The NCCC pilot would be ready from the end of 2025, Rowland said, while work continued to close a “loophole” that allowed potential child abusers to work across jurisdictions. Five jurisdictions have so far recognised interstate negative decisions, which means a person rejected for a WWCC in one jurisdiction will be rejected in others, since reforms were agreed to in August, while the remaining three are on track to introduce legislation this year. Rowland said child safety was a “top priority” for the Labor government. That’s why we are progressing a coordinated and ambitious reform agenda to achieve meaningful consistency across jurisdictions for when a person is suitable to hold a WWCC and when they should be excluded. This addresses existing gaps and inconsistencies and will improve protections for children and young people. Read more on the topic here: Related: Can Australia’s new childcare safety policies keep our children safe? The devil is in the details Updated at 8.07pm GMT 7.44pm GMT Tasmanian Greens say government caved to the AFL The Tasmanian Greens leader, Rosalie Woodruff, whose party voted against the stadium, said the government had caved to the AFL for a shiny, vanity project. “We have already more than earned the right to join the league, without the strings of a $1bn stadium attached,” she said. Anti-stadium independent Kristie Johnston said many Tasmanians could not afford the basics, and the state budget was in the same position. “When you are putting the groceries on the credit card … you shouldn’t be buying a boat,” she said. Eric Abetz, the minister for Macquarie Point urban renewal, said that, if the stadium wasn’t built, doors would be shut in the face of aspirational young people. “Confidence will be shattered and our self-esteem as a state will be trashed,” he said. “The message will be: don’t try and do business in Tasmania.” Updated at 8.10pm GMT 7.36pm GMT Tasmania's stadium plan passes first parliamentary hurdle Tasmania’s contentious waterfront stadium – and attendant AFL dream – passed its first parliamentary hurdle last night but a do-or-die debate still awaits, Australian Associated Press reports. Construction of a roofed stadium at Macquarie Point in Hobart is a condition of the Tasmania Devils entering the AFL and AFLW in 2028. The $1.13bn project requires the approval of both houses of state parliament to proceed. An order to build the stadium passed the lower house last night by 25 votes to nine as expected with the support of the governing Liberals and Labor opposition. However, it faces a trickier passage in the upper house early next month when a handful of independent MPs will decide its fate. Jeremy Rockliff, the state premier who signed the deal with the AFL, said the stadium represented an opportunity Tasmania could not afford to lose. “[The team] has been a long-held dream of many, many Tasmanians,” he told parliament. “People will be aghast if we say no to what we’ve fought for ... for decades.” The Labor leader, Josh Willie, said his party would vote for the stadium, even though the Liberals’ management of the project had been “abysmal” and the journey unnecessarily divisive. “We do not trust the government to deliver, but that doesn’t mean Tasmania should miss out on opportunities,” Willie said. Willie, whose party at one point said it would try to renegotiate the stadium deal if elected, said the AFL commission stood ready to pull the pin on the Devils if the venue was not built. The stadium has split the community and drawn political battlelines amid budget debt set to double to $10bn in 2028/29 and criticism the venue is not the right priority. Updated at 8.08pm GMT 7.30pm GMT Welcome Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories before Nick Visser takes you further towards the end of the working week. The contentious plan to build a new stadium at Macquarie Point in Hobart passed its first hurdle in the Tasmanian parliament last night as governing Liberal MPs were joined by Labor members to approve the $1.3bn project by 25 votes to nine. A tougher test awaits in the upper house next month. More coming up. The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, has announced $37m of federal funding over the next five years to improve the system of working with children checks in early childhood and care after recent childcare scandals. More details on the way.