Australia news live: NSW government should be ‘ashamed’ by record deaths in custody, Aboriginal Legal Service head says

11.22pm BST Australia Post announces deadlines for sending holiday mail Australia Post has announced its deadlines to see deliveries make it in time for Christmas. Within Australia, parcels sent via Parcel Post need to be mailed by 22 December for same-state arrivals and 19 December for interstate. Sending to and from Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania or regional and remote locations should allow for a few extra days. Christmas letters and cards need to be posted by 18 December for same state and 16 December for interstate. Internationally, AusPost needs your parcels by 21 November to 5 December for Economy Air, depending on location. International Express parcels have a bit more wriggle room and need to be received by 5 to 18 December. All sending dates are available here. Updated at 11.24pm BST 11.02pm BST SA premier says ‘perception’ of algal bloom now doing as much damage as ‘the bloom itself’ The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, spoke to RN Breakfast this morning about the state’s new, $102m effort to protect coastlines and support coastal communities amid the ongoing algal bloom. He said the state had established a communication system to track beach safety during the bloom, but stressed for many regions swimming was safe: First and foremost, we’re seeking to provide the community, both South Australian but also visitors from abroad, that by and large it is safe to swim in our beaches unless there’s reason not to … you know, the overall majority of our coastlines are unaffected. I think we’re at a point now in South Australia where the perception of the algal bloom is probably doing as much damage as the bloom itself. That’s not to downplay the bloom. It’s real and having an impact and continues to in the marine environment. But it’s also true that the perception of it in some quarters is exaggerated. Malinauskas was asked when residents and travellers should expect the bloom to end. He said: We just don’t know what’s going to happen. The trend is heading in the right direction, it’s impossible to account for what happens. Updated at 11.05pm BST 10.47pm BST Head of Aboriginal Legal Service says NSW government should be ‘ashamed’ by deaths in custody figures Karly Warner, the chief executive of the Aboriginal Legal Service, just spoke to ABC News about the record deaths in custody. She said: The New South Wales Government should be absolutely ashamed of this record, but they also can’t say that they didn’t know. We warned them and have continued to warn them that as a result of the New South Wales government driving increases in incarceration of Aboriginal women and children and men through punitive laws and policing practices, that it would lead to tragic consequences and we are seeing those tragic consequences. Updated at 11.12pm BST 10.38pm BST Aboriginal Legal Service says figure a ‘crisis and a preventable tragedy’ The Aboriginal Legal Service has responded to the news that a record number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody in New South Wales this year. The service’s chief executive, Karly Warner, said: We call on the Government to stop passing laws which contradict its obligations to reduce Aboriginal over-representation in police cells, courts and prisons, and instead work in partnership with Aboriginal communities to implement evidence-based, community-led solutions to reduce imprisonment. This is a crisis and a preventable tragedy that should deeply alarm everyone in NSW. A prison sentence should not be a death sentence. Despite committing to reduce the mass incarceration of Aboriginal people under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, the NSW Government continues to double down on laws and policing which guarantee increased imprisonment – instead of preventing people from entering prison in the first place by meeting their needs and investing in vital community-based supports. Updated at 11.07pm BST 10.27pm BST Highest number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people die in custody in NSW A record number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody in New South Wales so far in 2025, with more than two months still left in the year. The NSW state coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, took the rare step of releasing a statement about the “profoundly distressing milestone” of reaching a record 12 deaths in custody this year: These are not mere statistics. Each of these deaths represents a person whose life mattered and whose loss is felt deeply by families, loved ones and communities across the state. They are individuals whose deaths demand independent and careful scrutiny, respect and accountability. She said the surging prison population showed “underscores the scale of the issue”: Over the past five years, the number of Aboriginal people in custody has increased by 18.9 per cent, while the non-Aboriginal prison population has declined by 12.5 per cent. Nearly half of Aboriginal adults in custody (45.6 per cent) were on remand or refused bail awaiting further court outcomes. The number of Aboriginal people on remand has surged by 63 per cent over the same five-year period. These figures reflect the entrenched over-representation of First Nations peoples in the criminal justice system – a systemic issue that compounds the risks and vulnerabilities contributing to the rising number of deaths in custody. Updated at 10.45pm BST 10.10pm BST Employers prefer candidates from ‘elite’ universities, survey reveals More than half of human resources and diversity practitioners say their employers prefer candidates from “elite” universities, a survey reveals. Diversity Council Australia’s latest study of class inclusion at work, released today, found 58% of HR and diversity practitioners surveyed said their organisation favours candidates from elite universities, with some saying they use this to filter out applications during recruitment. The council’s research also found “class marginalised workers” – those in the lowest 20% of household incomes – were less likely to experience inclusion at work. DCA’s chief executive, Catherine Hunter, said these findings challenge the notion that Australia is a class-free society: Your social class shouldn’t determine your career opportunities, yet our research shows class bias still impacts who gets ahead and who is left behind. The findings are drawn from survey responses of about 1,400 Australian workers and diversity practitioners and a nationally representative sample of 3,000 Australian workers. 9.54pm BST More on the opposition’s proposed amendments to NSW housing reforms Under the opposition’s proposed amendments, the Housing Delivery Authority – a body that decides what major projects should be deemed state significant and decided by the planning department – will be subject to a full statutory review. District and regional planning panels would also remain despite the government having proposed to abolish them. This was a particular concern of the Nationals. The new targeted assessment pathway would not apply to major non-residential developments such as mines, waste incinerators, transmission lines, windfarms and solar farms. Environmental groups have warned that as the bill is now worded, the targeted assessment pathway would effectively lead to a lack of environmental scrutiny of other major projects including mines and power stations. The minister for planning and public spaces, Paul Scully, rejected this view. He said that targeted assessment would apply to a class of development where assessment and community consultation has already occurred upfront, not major proposals that have significant potential impacts. However the bill may require amendments to achieve this aim. Green groups have also raised concerns about the corruption risks in this and other changes, because they concentrate decision-making with the minister and the department, instead of independent panels. The minister rejected these assertions. Updated at 10.01pm BST 9.45pm BST Planning reforms set to pass NSW parliament Measures to further stimulate housing development in NSW by streamlining the planning system look set to pass the NSW parliament after the opposition said it would support the bill – with amendments. The Minns Labor government has proposed substantial changes to speed up housing approvals, both for major projects such as high rise apartment blocks and for residential renovations and individual housing projects. The opposition said last night it would support the bill provided changes were made to ensure development in the regions is sustainable, more accountability is introduced and the proposed fast-track changes did not impact scrutiny of other types of projects, such as mines and solar and windfarms. “Planning law reform can’t be about politics or spin in the middle of a crisis,” the opposition leader, Mark Speakman said. “Our amendments are practical, responsible and aimed at cutting red tape while keeping government accountable.” The NSW Greens had hoped to send these major changes to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny. But this appears doomed to fail. But the opposition said it believed a bipartisan approach could work. Updated at 9.51pm BST 9.30pm BST NSW to use $70m in dormant Opal card funds to invest in active transport The NSW government plans to use about $70m in unused balances on long-dormant, unregistered Opal cards to invest in active transport options such as bike lockers and a better system for shared e-bikes. The government said it will introduce a new bill that will allow it to, for the first time, make use of such funds that have been dormant for five years or more. There are about 17m Opal cards with positive balances that have’t been used in that time, many thought to be linked to interstate or international visitors who bought one-off cards and never registered them. The average balance on those cards is $4. The bill will also propose amending rules to allow Transport for NSW to recover unused balances under a new scheme. Updated at 10.30pm BST 9.17pm BST IMF warns of slow Australian economy and AI bubble risk The International Monetary Fund has confirmed its predictions of slower Australian economic growth as the global economy battles trade tensions and faces risks of an AI bubble. The Australian economy will grow at a pace of about 1.8% on average through 2025 and then 2.1% through 2026, according to the IMF’s latest projections, released today. The IMF in August predicted growth of 2.2% in 2026, so today’s call is a downgrade. However, the IMF is now expecting stable unemployment and slightly lower inflation in 2026 than it had predicted back in April amid Donald Trump’s tariff announcements, now making similar forecasts to those made by Australia’s Reserve Bank in August. The world economy is now expected to grow at 3.1% in 2025 in 2026, still a little slower than the IMF’s predictions a year ago. Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, chief economist of the IMF, said the global economy was still unstable, writing in a note: The outlook remains fragile, and risks remain tilted to the downside. The main risk is that tariffs may increase further from renewed and unresolved trade tensions. Gourinchas also warned surging AI investment could pop like the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and political pressure on central banks could destabilise financial markets – a reference to sustained demands the US Fed cut interest rates from Trump. The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will meet his overseas counterparts later this week and said he planned to discuss the global economy’s volatility and “fragile state” highlighted by the IMF. 9.12pm BST Good morning, Nick Visser here to take things over. Let’s dive in. 8.56pm BST Education ministers to consider new national standards to combat bullying Federal, state and territory education ministers will consider a proposal for a new national standard on anti-bullying when they meet on Friday. The communications minister and eSafety commissioner are also set to brief the ministers ahead of the social media ban taking effect on 10 December. The government announced the anti-bullying rapid review in February, with co-chairs Dr Charlotte Keating and Professor Jo Robinson to present their findings and recommendations to the meeting. The education minister, Jason Clare, says the review shows the prominence of bullying in and out of school hours. Complaints about online bullying to the eSafety commissioner have increased by 450% in the last five years ... The review reminds us bullying doesn’t stop when the school bell rings any more. Today it can follow you all the way home after school. The internet means that you can be bullied now at any time, day or night, and anyone can see it. 8.48pm BST Murray Watt to spruik proposed rewrite of nature laws to WA miners Faster environmental approvals could save proponents hundreds of millions of dollars, according to analysis the federal environment minister will use to sell his planned rewrite of nature laws to Western Australian miners. Murray Watt wants to speed up assessment times for projects as part of changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), which he plans to introduce to federal parliament in November. A combination of measures to “streamline” approvals – including the introduction of special “go” zones to accelerate green energy projects – are designed to reduce the timeframe for decisions by at least 20 days. New departmental analysis released by Watt’s office found that would save applicants about $440m. Watt will promote the analysis in a speech to Western Australian business leaders, hoping to secure their support after their fierce resistance to the Albanese government’s first attempt to overhaul the EPBC Act. The minister will tell the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Western Australia: Having modern, fit-for-purpose environmental laws in place will protect Australia’s precious natural environment, while also supporting speeding up assessments and approvals for national priorities like more homes, jobs, renewable energy, critical minerals and the economic prosperity Australia needs in the future. We know that time is money – our new streamlined assessment process, as well as other reforms and initiatives, will deliver substantial cost savings for businesses and bring forward important economic development. While in Perth, the environment minister plans to meet with the Western Australian premier, Roger Cook, who personally lobbied Anthony Albanese to shelve Labor’s nature laws in the last term of parliament. 8.43pm BST ‘Our solemn task is to get ourselves in a state where we are capable of governing again’: Paterson The Liberals have been locked in an extended period of public blood-letting and infighting after suffering the worst election defeat in its 80-year history at the May poll, with sackings and resignations from shadow cabinet, damaging leaks and frequent outbreaks of disunity all testing Sussan Ley’s authority. In the speech, the shadow finance minister said a period of “reflection and self-examination” was necessary after the election loss, particularly given MPs’ regret with how robust internal debate was sacrificed for unity under Peter Dutton’s leadership. But Paterson said it cannot “drag on for ever”. An ongoing mass public therapy session doesn’t exactly scream ‘ready for government’. Paterson acknowledged the Liberal party – unlike Labor – granted backbench MPs freedom to speak their mind on policies, reflecting on how he had threatened to cross the floor to oppose the Turnbull government’s proposed extradition treaty with China in 2017. But, without naming any rogue MPs on his side, he said that “freedom must be exercised judiciously”. The Liberal party is not a thinktank. Or an activist group. Or a debating society. We are a political party designed to win and hold government. Those of us who remain in parliament have a special obligation to our party and our country. And our solemn task is to get ourselves in a state where we are capable of governing again. The consequences if we fail are dire. 8.35pm BST James Paterson says Liberals must end post-election ‘apology tour’ A senior Liberal frontbencher has called for an end to the naval-gazing that has plagued his party since its disastrous federal election defeat, warning a prolonged “mass public therapy session” makes the opposition appear unfit for government. The Victorian senator James Paterson said the party must stop the post-election “apology tour” and urgently shift its focus to holding Labor accountable and devising a policy agenda that applies traditional Liberal-conservative values to modern Australia. In a speech laying out his vision for the party’s future, the Victorian senator said the Liberals must reject the “false choice” that it must turn into either a “free market version of the teals” – in doing so rejecting culture wars – or adopt Nigel Farage-style populism. Delivering the Tom Hughes Oration last night, a speech in honour of the former Liberal attorney general, Paterson said: The alternative to these false choices is to maintain the classical liberal-conservative fusion that Menzies built and make it relevant for the modern world. 8.28pm BST Welcome Good morning and welcome to our news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories before our day’s blogger steers the news ship through the oceans of live updates. James Paterson, the shadow finance minister, has called for an end to the naval-gazing that has plagued his party since its disastrous federal election defeat, warning a prolonged “mass public therapy session” makes the opposition appear unfit for government. We have more details in a minute. The International Monetary Fund expects Australia’s economic growth to slow in the coming months as the global economy battles trade tensions and faces risks of an AI bubble. More coming up.