Note 1: Fuel tax credits can’t be claimed for duty paid LPG supplied for domestic electricity generation if the fuel tax credits have already been claimed by the supplier or packager.
Note 2: Fuel tax credits can rarely be claimed for LNG and CNG supplied for domestic electricity generation as they are rarely duty paid.
Note 3: Fuel tax credit rates change for liquid fuel used in a heavy vehicle for travelling on a public road due to changes in the road user charge, which increases by 6% each year over 3 years, from:
28.8 cents per litre in 2023–24, to
30.5 cents per litre in 2024–25, and to
32.4 cents per litre in 2025–26.
Fuel tax credits are reduced to nil where the road user charge exceeds the fuel tax credit rate.
Note 4: Fuel tax credit rates change for gaseous fuels due to changes in the road user charge, which increases by 6% each year over 3 years, from:
38.5 cents per kilogram in 2023–24, to
40.8 cents per kilogram in 2024–25, and to
43.2 cents per kilogram in 2025–26.
Currently, the road user charge reduces fuel tax credits for gaseous fuels to nil.
An illustration of the bioplastic metafilm developed by UniSA and Zhengzhou University researchers, proposed as a next-generation material for sustainable cooling
An international team of scientists has developed a biodegradable material that could slash global energy consumption without using any electricity, according to a new study published today.
The bioplastic metafilm – that can be applied to buildings, equipment and other surfaces – passively cools temperatures by as much as 9.2°C during peak sunlight and reflects almost 99% of the sun’s rays.
Developed by researchers from Zhengzhou University in China and the University of South Australia (UniSA), the new film is a sustainable and long-lasting material that could reduce building energy consumption by up to 20% a year in some of the world’s hottest cities.
The material is described in the latest issue of Cell Reports Physical Science.
UniSA PhD candidate Yangzhe Hou says the cooling metafilm represents a breakthrough in sustainable materials engineering that could help combat rising global temperatures and hotter cities.
“Our metafilm offers an environmentally friendly alternative to air-conditioning, which contributes significantly to carbon emissions,” says Hou, who is also from Zhengzhou University.
“The material reflects nearly all solar radiation and theoretically allows internal building heat to emit directly into outer space. This enables the building to stay cool, even under direct sunlight.”
Notably, the film continues to perform even after prolonged exposure to acidic conditions and ultraviolet light – two major barriers that have historically hindered similar biodegradable materials.
Constructed from polylactic acid (PLA) – a common plant-derived bioplastic – the metafilm is fabricated using a low-temperature separation technique that reflects 98.7% of sunlight and minimises heat gain.
“Unlike conventional cooling technologies, this metafilm requires no electricity or mechanical systems,” says co-author Dr Xianhu Liu from Zhengzhou University.
“Most existing passive radiative cooling systems rely on petrochemical-based polymers or ceramics that raise environmental concerns. By using biodegradable PLA, we are presenting a green alternative that offers high solar reflectance, strong thermal emission, sustainability, and durability.”
In real-world applications, the metafilm showed an average temperature drop of 4.9°C during the day and 5.1°C at night. Field tests conducted in both China and Australia confirmed its stability and efficiency under harsh environmental conditions. Even after 120 hours in strong acid and the equivalent of eight months’ outdoor UV exposure, the metafilm retained cooling power of up to 6.5°C.
Perhaps most significantly, the simulations revealed that the metafilm could cut annual energy consumption by up to 13.1% in cities such as Sydney by reducing dependence on air conditioning.
“This isn’t just a lab-scale success” says co-author Professor Jun Ma from the University of South Australia.
“Our film is scalable and completely degradable,” he says.
“This research aims to contribute to sustainable development by reducing reliance on fossil fuels and exploring feasible pathways to improve human comfort while minimising environmental impact.”
The discovery addresses a major challenge in the field: how to reconcile high-performance cooling with eco-friendly degradation.
The researchers are now exploring potential applications in buildings, transport, agriculture, electronics, and the biomedical field including cooling wound dressings.
‘A structural bioplastic metafilm for durable passive radiative cooling’ is published in Cell Reports Physical Science and is authored by Yangzhe Hou, Yamin Pan, Xianhu Liu, Jun Ma, Chuntai Liu and Changyu Shen. DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2025.102664
Source: Australian Ministers for Regional Development
Dendy Cinema Pty Ltd has paid a $19,800 penalty after the ACCC issued it with an infringement notice for allegedly failing to prominently show the total price, as a single figure, of movie tickets it sold online, in a practice commonly known as ‘drip-pricing’.
The ACCC alleges that Dendy breached the Australian Consumer Law by failing to prominently display the total single price for tickets, including the unavoidable per ticket booking fee, at the earliest opportunity in the booking process.
Instead, Dendy displayed prices that did not include the unavoidable per ticket booking fee, and did not display a total price for tickets until consumers reached the final stages of the online transaction.
“Businesses must be upfront about the total minimum quantifiable price of a product or service,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.
“Consumers are sometimes lured into purchases they would not otherwise have made when businesses display only part of the price upfront and reveal the total price only towards the end of the purchasing process.
“By initially only displaying part of the total price for a movie ticket, Dendy has reduced the ability of consumers to make an informed purchasing decision,” Ms Lowe said.
The ACCC is also looking at pricing practices in the cinema industry more broadly to ensure that per ticket booking fees are being presented in a way that complies with the pricing obligations under the Australian Consumer Law.
“We encourage all businesses to review their online pricing practices to ensure they are complying with their obligations under the law, including providing the total minimum quantifiable price of products and services in their advertising and at the earliest opportunity in the booking process,” Ms Lowe said.
Further information about pricing is available on the ACCC website at Price Displays.
Background
Dendy operates 52 screens across six cinemas in NSW, QLD, and the ACT.
The total minimum quantifiable price is the lowest amount that a consumer could pay, including any mandatory fees or pre-selected optional fees, that can be determined at the time of stating the price.
In November 2024, the ACCC took legal action against online travel booking site Webjet Marketing Pty Ltd for allegedly making false and misleading representations to consumers about flight prices and bookings. The ACCC alleged Webjet breached the Australian Consumer Law when it made statements about the minimum price of airfares which omitted compulsory fees.
Note to editors
The ACCC can issue an infringement notice when it has reasonable grounds to believe a person or business has contravened certain consumer protection provisions in the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
The payment of a penalty specified in an infringement notice is not an admission of a contravention of the ACL. The ACL sets the penalty amount.
After years of decline, the number of Australians getting a crack at university are bouncing back.
When you take out the two COVID years, this year looks set to be the biggest year for Australians commencing an undergraduate or postgraduate university degree on record.
Preliminary data for 2024 shows around 390,000 domestic students began a degree – a 3.7 per cent increase on 2023.
This includes more than 20,000 new starters in nursing degrees (a 3 per cent increase) and more than 25,000 new starters in teaching degrees (a 9 per cent increase).
Early, year to date figures for 2025 suggest that growth is continuing with commencements up another 3 per cent compared to the same time in 2024.
This reverses the trend seen since 2017, excluding the COVID years, where the number of domestic students commencing an undergraduate or postgraduate degree have been steadily falling.
Source: Higher Education Statistics – Student Data
Notes: 2024 data are preliminary. Final, official statistics may vary. 2025 data are a preliminary forecast based on year-to-date (YTD) May 2025 data. Final, full year 2025 data may differ if YTD May growth is not sustained at previous levels throughout the academic year.
In addition, over 14,000 students have taken up Fee-Free Uni Ready courses this year.
Fee-Free Uni Ready courses are short courses that help prepare people for university, acting as a bridge between school or work and higher education.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Education Jason Clare:
‘We need more people with more skills. That means more people finishing schools and more people going to TAFE or uni, or both.
“The Universities Accord sets a target that by 2050, 80 per cent of workers will have a TAFE or university qualification.
“To hit that target, we need to break down that invisible barrier that stops a lot of Australians from disadvantaged backgrounds, from the regions and the outer suburbs from getting a crack at uni and succeeding when they get there.
“That requires reform across the entire education system. That’s what the fully funding of our public schools is about. It’s also what the new funding system for our universities, that will roll out next year, is about.
“That will deliver demand-driven funding for equity students and needs based funding ensuring students get the academic and wrap-around supports they need to succeed at university.”
Two years in, more than 1 million Australian families have benefited from the Albanese Government’s Cheaper Child Care, delivering real cost of living relief to household budgets.
For a family earning $168,000, with one child in care 30 hours a week, Cheaper Child Care has cut out of pocket costs by around $7,440 than they otherwise would be.
This is good for children, good for families, and good for Australia.
Since the 2022 election there are 1,200 more early education services, around 95,000 more children in early education and around 48,000 more early childhood workers, but there is more work to do.
The Albanese Labor Government is rolling out a 15 per cent pay rise to early educators and capping fee increases for families.
The Government will also implement the 3 Day Guarantee which will replace the current Activity Test from January 2026 with guaranteed 3 days a week of access to the Child Care Subsidy.
Eligible families earning between $50,000 and $100,000 are expected to save on average $1,460 per year under the 3 Day Guarantee.
Under the 3 Day Guarantee, more than 100,000 families will be entitled to more hours of subsidised education and care.
The Government will also roll out the $1 billion Building Early Education Fund, which will boost access to early education and care in areas of need, including in the outer suburbs and regional Australia.
This builds on the new, mandatory child safety measures to strengthen child safety in early childhood education and care services.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Education Jason Clare:
“We have made child care cheaper for more than 1 million families.
“We are delivering a 15 per cent pay rise to build the early education workforce.
“And next year we will roll out the 3 Day Guarantee to give more families access to the Child Care Subsidy.
“This is a key part of our plans to build a universal early education system.”
Quotes attributable to Minister for Early Childhood Education Dr Jess Walsh:
“We are delivering more affordable early education and care so that children and families can benefit.
“Easing the family budget is one of the key parts of our reforms to create affordable, accessible and quality early learning.
“The 3 Day Guarantee will provide at least three days of subsidies for early education for families eligible for the Child Care Subsidy, that would otherwise be locked out.”
Residents are encouraged to complete the online Active Living Census (ALC) before it closes as responses to the census will help influence decision making about future infrastructure, health and wellbeing projects in the Loddon Campaspe region.
Healthy Loddon Campaspe Coordinator Alicia O’Brien said the closing date to complete the ALC has been extended by a further two weeks until Sunday July 6, 2025 to ensure as many people as possible complete the online census.
“For the two-week extension, we’re excited to be giving away some amazing prizes for anyone who completes the ALC online,” Ms O’Brien said.
“Prizes include one $500 gift card, ten $100 gift cards and 100 home gardening packs. All valid responses to the ALC will have the chance to win these great prizes.
“The data gathered through the ALC is important as it will help inform future infrastructure, health and wellbeing projects in the Loddon Campaspe region.
“The future projects and programs will contribute to healthier lifestyles across the region, and support opportunities for residents to be more physically active and eat well.
“It doesn’t matter your health or activity level, every response we receive will contribute to improving the health and wellbeing of residents living in the Loddon Campaspe region.
“We are really grateful to everyone who has already completed the ALC so far. However, we’d love to see even more responses from right across the community as this will provide richer, more detailed information about residents’ health and wellbeing needs.
“The more data we receive, the better it will guide investments, and influence funding for future projects and programs in our region,
“Completing the census is easy, anonymous, and takes around 15-20 minutes.”
The ALC is open until Sunday July 6.
To participate in the Active Living Census, visit:
An illustration of the bioplastic metafilm developed by UniSA and Zhengzhou University researchers, proposed as a next-generation material for sustainable cooling
An international team of scientists has developed a biodegradable material that could slash global energy consumption without using any electricity, according to a new study published today.
The bioplastic metafilm – that can be applied to buildings, equipment and other surfaces – passively cools temperatures by as much as 9.2°C during peak sunlight and reflects almost 99% of the sun’s rays.
Developed by researchers from Zhengzhou University in China and the University of South Australia (UniSA), the new film is a sustainable and long-lasting material that could reduce building energy consumption by up to 20% a year in some of the world’s hottest cities.
The material is described in the latest issue of Cell Reports Physical Science.
UniSA PhD candidate Yangzhe Hou says the cooling metafilm represents a breakthrough in sustainable materials engineering that could help combat rising global temperatures and hotter cities.
“Our metafilm offers an environmentally friendly alternative to air-conditioning, which contributes significantly to carbon emissions,” says Hou, who is also from Zhengzhou University.
“The material reflects nearly all solar radiation but also allows internal building heat to escape directly into outer space. This enables the building to stay cooler than the surrounding air, even under direct sunlight.”
Notably, the film continues to perform even after prolonged exposure to acidic conditions and ultraviolet light – two major barriers that have historically hindered similar biodegradable materials.
Constructed from polylactic acid (PLA) – a common plant-derived bioplastic – the metafilm is fabricated using a low-temperature separation technique that reflects 98.7% of sunlight and minimises heat gain.
“Unlike conventional cooling technologies, this metafilm requires no electricity or mechanical systems,” says co-author Dr Xianhu Liu from Zhengzhou University.
“Most existing passive radiative cooling systems rely on petrochemical-based polymers or ceramics that raise environmental concerns. By using biodegradable PLA, we are presenting a green alternative that offers high solar reflectance, strong thermal emission, sustainability, and durability.”
In real-world applications, the metafilm showed an average temperature drop of 4.9°C during the day and 5.1°C at night. Field tests conducted in both China and Australia confirmed its stability and efficiency under harsh environmental conditions. Even after 120 hours in strong acid and the equivalent of eight months’ outdoor UV exposure, the metafilm retained cooling power of up to 6.5°C.
Perhaps most significantly, the simulations revealed that the metafilm could cut annual energy consumption by up to 20.3% in cities such as Lhasa, China, by reducing dependence on air conditioning.
“This isn’t just a lab-scale success” says co-author Professor Jun Ma from the University of South Australia.
“Our film is scalable, durable and completely degradable,” he says.
“This research aims to contribute to sustainable development by reducing reliance on fossil fuels and exploring feasible pathways to improve human comfort while minimising environmental impact.”
The discovery addresses a major challenge in the field: how to reconcile high-performance cooling with eco-friendly degradation.
The researchers are now exploring large-scale manufacturing opportunities and potential applications in buildings, transport, agriculture, electronics, and the biomedical field including cooling wound dressings.
‘A structural bioplastic metafilm for durable passive radiative cooling’ is published in Cell Reports Physical Science and is authored by Yangzhe Hou, Yamin Pan, Xianhu Liu, Jun Ma, Chuntai Liu and Changyu Shen. DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2025.102664
Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services
The 2025-26 ACT Budget is investing in a variety of initiatives that will improve access to high-quality public health care.
They will also address the growing demand for, and rising cost of public hospital services.
This investment includes support to:
address the growing demand in outpatient services, emergency department presentations and admitted patient care
enable the delivery of the ACT Government’s commitment of 70,000 elective surgeries over four years
deliver ongoing chronic disease services and expanded endoscopy services
meet the needs of long-stay patients and optimise patient flow through public hospitals.
Investing in health infrastructure and services
The 2025–26 Budget also funds:
early and enabling works for the design and construction of the new northside hospital
continued work on the Canberra Hospital Master Plan. This includes progressing planning and design for the new Pathology and Clinical Services Building and a feasibility plan for a mental health precinct at the Canberra Hospital campus
construction of the Inner South Health Centre
new imaging and x-ray services at the Belconnen Community Health Centre
improved palliative and end-of-life care services in the community to support people’s end-of-life choices
continuation of community-led youth mental health programs to provide mental health care that is accessible, timely and effective
more support for perinatal mental health services for birth parents and families through the Perinatal Wellbeing Centre and Perinatal Mental Health Alliance
continued operations at the Eating Disorders Residential Treatment Centre.
Improving affordability and access for patients
The Budget supports more affordable local access to primary health care.
It will support GPs and the community through bulk billing incentives.
From 1 July 2025, payroll tax changes for medical practices will exempt income from bulk billed GP services. This will reduce:
out-of-pocket costs for patients
administrative burden on practices.
A grants program will also be piloted over two years. It will support general practices that commit to bulk billing all children under 16.
This will make a trip to the doctor more affordable for families.
The investment complements the Federal Government’s commitment to strengthening Medicare.
Professional development and wellbeing support for staff
Budget investment will boost professional development and wellbeing support for general practice staff.
This includes investment in the Drs4Drs mental health support program.
The ACT Government will also expand Junior Medical Officer (JMO) placements into general practice settings.
This will promote early consideration of a GP career pathway.
More support for the ACT’s First Nations health workforce
The Budget will include support to:
grow the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce in the ACT
address systemic barriers to participation.
This includes investment in:
new workforce governance structures
culturally safe supervision
support for local implementation of the National First Nations Workforce Plan.
There will be new dedicated roles, better training and supervision, and action on systemic racism in the health system.
This will help build a stronger First Nations workforce to deliver culturally safe care in the ACT.
A stronger primary care system
Primary care is the foundation of a strong health system.
This support for the GP workforce will help them continue providing high-quality, accessible care.
Expanding community-based, person-centred health care will:
help Canberrans get the care they need
reduce pressure on the hospital system.
The investments are part of a coordinated approach to grow and support the health workforce. They are key actions in the ACT Health Workforce Strategy: Action Plan 2024–2026.
As an employer, the SGC may apply if you don’t meet your super guarantee obligations for your eligible employees and contractors.
You must pay your eligible employees and contractors their super guarantee (SG) in full, on time, and to the right fund.
SG contributions must be paid at least quarterly but can be paid more often to help manage your cashflow. Find out more at ato.gov.au/cashflowcoachingkit
To avoid SGC, you must ensure that your employees’ and contractors’ funds receive payments on or before the quarterly super due dates each year:
28 July
28 October
28 January
28 April.
Our video explains what late or unpaid super means for employers.
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Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services
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