Month: August 2025

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

The Northern Territory Police Force hold concerns for the welfare of a 50-year-old Charmaine Tambling, who last spoke with family in Driver on Tuesday 12 August 2025.

Charmaine was last seen wearing grey leopard print tights, a black shirt and to be carrying a red bag. 

A missing person’s report was filed with police today and investigations have commenced.

Anyone with information is urged to contact police on 131 444 and quote reference number NTP2500084761.

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

The Northern Territory Police Force are seeking information in relation to an alleged assault that occurred in Alice Springs overnight.

Around 10pm, Police believe an altercation occurred in the Anzac Oval carpark between two men, aged 34 and 57, who are known to each other.

Both men suffered injuries and were conveyed to Alice Springs Hospital.

The 57-year-old male suffered serious injuries and remains in hospital receiving treatment while the 34-year-old has since been arrested and is assisting with enquiries.

Police urge anyone who was in the vicinity of Anzac Oval around 10:00pm on Friday, 22 August 2025, or who may have information relevant to the incident, to contact 131 444 and quote reference NTP2500084425. Information can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

Northern Territory Police can report that the 51-year-old absconded prisoner returned to corrections custody this morning.

The man self-presented to the Alice Springs Correctional Facility and is now back in custody.

The NT Police would like to thank the public for their assistance.

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

Northern Territory Department of Corrections prisoner 51-year-old man David Namatjira has failed to return from his leave permit in Alice Springs.

David failed to return to his designated pickup location at 4pm today and his whereabouts are currently unknown.

NT Police are now investigating.

Anyone with information on David’s whereabouts is urged to contact police on 131 444 or anonymously through Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Source: Murray Darling Basin Authority

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: I spoke to the Early Childhood Education Minister, Jess Walsh, a short time ago. Minister, welcome to the program. When will the national register be up and running?

SENATOR DR JESS WALSH, MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND MINISTER FOR YOUTH: Well, thanks for having me, PK. Yes, these are really big reforms. This is a really strong and significant package of reforms to keep children safe in early childhood education. And parents wanted us to come together and make some big decisions today, and that’s exactly what the Commonwealth and State and Territory Ministers have done. One of the pieces of reform, as you’ve said, is the first ever nationwide register for early childhood educators. Work on that will start immediately now that we have approved that register. And it will start in December and become mandatory in February.

KARVELAS: And how will workers keep that registration? How will that register be different, for instance, to a Working with Children’s Check? 

WALSH: So this is the first nationwide register that will allow regulators to know who’s working in early childhood education and where they’re working. At the moment, state regulators can’t see that information, even for their own state. And we’re going to allow regulators to see that information and share it. And what we want is for regulators to be able to track patterns of behaviour of early childhood educators and raise red flags. It’s also going to be really useful in the event that terrible circumstances like this ever happen again in early childhood education. We’ve had a situation in Victoria where police have had to use search and seize powers to go in and find pieces of paper to tell us where the alleged Victorian offender worked. That’s not good enough. That information should be available at the touch of a button, and it will be with this register. 

KARVELAS: So what sort of issues can lead to people losing their registration? 

WALSH: This is really a register, PK, the first nationwide register of early childhood educators. It’s about who they are, where they work, and it will allow regulators to track their behaviours and also share information about concerns about those regulators. Down the track, as we build up this system, professional registration of the kind that you’re talking about can be added on. Right now, our priority is to stand up this register so that we know where our early childhood educators are working and regulators can direct their action based on that information. 

KARVELAS: Teachers can lose their registration. So when can child care workers lose their registration in the same way? 

WALSH: So, we’re talking about a couple of different things, I think, here, PK. This is the first nationwide register that allows us to know where early educators are, where they’re working. And it will allow regulators to have information and to be able to share it and to raise red flags. Some of the issues that you’re talking about there, I think, go to when someone is prohibited from working in early childhood education. And those prohibitions do occur, and those prohibitions will also be included in this first ever nationwide register. 

KARVELAS: Right. So, the prohibitions will lead to someone being deregistered officially? 

WALSH: That’s right. If someone is prohibited – and that can happen today – they won’t be able to work in early childhood education. And I think it’s worth noting, PK, a lot of the discussion around the table today with Ministers from across the country was focused on really reinforcing just how dedicated and committed and professional the vast majority of our early childhood educators are. And this package of reforms is about supporting them to do a good job while we’re making sure that we close the door on that small minority of people who might seek to do harm. And one of the really big investments that we want to make together is in training for that workforce. We will make mandatory child safety training. Of course, there is already training for educators about how to keep children safe. But this training is targeted to deal with some of the really horrific issues that we’ve been seeing in early childhood education. It’s about seeing signs of abuse in children, also seeing signs of grooming of children amongst colleagues. It’s really important. It’s going to help educators identify those signs, support them to speak up. And, again, we know that the vast majority of educators are there to do the right thing every day. 

KARVELAS: CCTV is a trial. Why is it just a trial? What are you looking for in terms of success? 

WALSH: So we want to make an assessment of the role of CCTV in early childhood education. And that assessment will start later this year with up to 300 services participating. We know that CCTV can be a really important tool in helping to keep children safe, in preventing behaviour and also in prosecuting behaviour as well. But there are also questions about the role of CCTV in early education as well and what the guardrails might be that we need to have it in place to use it safely as part of the tool kit for keeping children safe. So we will appoint an independent expert to oversee that assessment and they’ll come back to this Education Ministers Meeting with advice about the best way to use CCTV with guardrails to help keep children safe. 

KARVELAS: The provision of more information for parents so they know the conditions of the centres that their children are attending, what sort of information are they going to be able to obtain? 

WALSH: Yeah, that’s right. We think parents have a right to know clearly whether their service is meeting standards, whether any conditions might have been imposed on the centre that their children go to by regulators, whether there are any compliance breaches and what the nature of these breaches are. We think that that information should just be freely available to parents. In many cases it will just give them confidence about the service that their children are in. In other cases, it might generate a conversation with the centre director, with the centre manager about what’s going on. In other cases where there really are concerns it helps to hold providers accountable that they will know that parents get this information. Initially we will host that information on the national quality authority’s website – it’s called Starting Blocks – and people will be able to see that information within the next few weeks. Over time we want to move to a system where that information is actually posted in a way that parents can see when they’re doing pickups and drop-offs. Again, we think that, you know, sunlight is important here. Parents have a right to know, and we know that it will drive providers to do better when that information is public to parents. 

KARVELAS: The Victorian rapid review that was released yesterday says for-profit centres are an issue that need to be investigated. Is the Federal Government prepared to look at this issue? 

WALSH: So, the Victorian review did make those comments, PK. And it also called for the rights of children and the interests of children to be paramount in earlier childhood education and paramount in the decision-making of everyone who has responsibility in the sector. And today we adopted that change and we committed to amend the national law. We think that’s a really important reform to make it abundantly clear that providers have to put children ahead of profits. And the measures that we’re talking about today, of course, follow on from our legislation to give us the ability to cut funding from those providers who do the wrong thing and who do put profit ahead of child safety. And, of course, we’ve just issued, our department has issued, the first set of around 30 compliance notices to providers who are doing the wrong thing. So this package of reforms is really about keeping children safe wherever they are, putting children’s interests paramount, including ahead of profits, in the sector and putting those for profits on notice that if they don’t put child safety first. We have the capacity to cut their Commonwealth funding, and we’ll use it. 

KARVELAS: Minister, thank you so much for joining us. 

WALSH: Thanks, PK.

Source: New places to play in Gungahlin

Source: New places to play in Gungahlin

We’re concerned about the error rate we’ve detected in partnership tax returns being completed by some partnerships that are registered with the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) for the Venture Capital Limited Partnership (VCLP) and Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership (ESVCLP) programs. The errors include failing to complete the statement of distribution (SOD) labels correctly, or at all.

It’s a key requirement of all partnerships that they lodge SODs. We use them to data match and assess if partners have returned their partnership income correctly. If you’re registered for VCLP or ESVCLP, you need to meet all reporting requirements so you can retain your registration with DISR. This includes lodging a partnership tax return with us and correctly completing the SOD labels.

We’re focusing on working with these partnerships to improve lodgments and correct these errors.

Lodge SODs correctly

When you lodge your SODs, it’s critical to ensure all the information is complete, correct and timely. Incomplete or incorrect statements may result in partners being unnecessarily subjected to queries or compliance activities. Our queries may add to the administrative costs of you managing the partnership and may also lead to penalties if any compliance action occurs. Therefore, ensure you complete all the required information for each partner in the SOD labels, including:

• the name of each individual or entity
• TFNs (if applicable)
• residential or business addresses
• date of birth for individuals
• ABNs for other entities (if they have one).

Remember that the SOD labels are part of the partnership tax return in which you make accountable statements to us. To avoid any unintended or adverse consequences, always provide accurate data.

Lodge digitally

As a result of recent updates we’ve made to our lodgment software, from 1 July 2025, partnerships of all sizes can lodge their SODs digitally using either:

More information

For more information on how these programs are designed to increase investment by giving tax concessions to eligible investors, or on reporting requirements, refer to:

Keep up to date

We have tailored communication channels for medium, large and multinational businesses, to keep you up to date with updates and changes you need to know.

Read more articles in our online Business bulletins newsroom.

Subscribe to our free:

• fortnightly Business bulletins email newsletterExternal Link
• email notifications about new and updated information on our website – you can choose to receive updates relevant to your situation. Choose the ‘Business and organisations’ category to ensure your subscription includes notifications for more Business bulletins newsroom articles like this one.

Source: New places to play in Gungahlin

A depreciating asset is an asset that has a limited effective life and can reasonably be expected to decline in value (depreciate) over the time it is used. Some assets, such as land and trading stock, are not depreciating assets.

The general depreciation principles apply to most depreciating assets used in primary production. However, the deduction for the following primary production depreciating assets is worked out using special rules for:

For more information, see Guide to depreciating assets.

Water facilities

As a primary producer or irrigation water provider, you can claim an immediate deduction for certain expenses you incur primarily and principally for conserving or conveying water for use in a primary production business on land in Australia. You can claim the deduction even if you are only a lessee of the land.

A water facility includes plant or a structural improvement, or an alteration, addition or extension to plant or a structural improvement, that is primarily and principally for the purpose of conserving or conveying water.

Water facilities include:

• dams
• tanks
• bores
• irrigation channels
• pumps
• water towers
• windmills.

No deduction is available for expenses incurred on acquiring a second-hand commercial water facility unless you can show that no-one else has deducted or could deduct an amount of the earlier expense on the construction or previous acquisition of the water facility.

See Water facilities for definitions and how to claim deductions.

Fencing

As a primary producer you can claim an immediate deduction for the cost of fencing you incur primarily and principally for use in a primary production business on land in Australia. You can claim the deduction even if you are only a lessee of the land.

See Fencing and fodder storage assets for definitions and how to claim deductions.

Fodder storage assets

You can claim a deduction for the full cost of a fodder storage asset, if you:

• incurred the expense
• mainly use it to store fodder
• use it in a primary production business on land in Australia – even if you are only a lessee of the land.

Claim the deduction through your tax return in the year you incurred the expense.

Fodder storage assets include:

• silos
• liquid feed supplement storage tanks
• bins for storing dried grain
• hay sheds
• grain storage sheds
• above-ground bunkers.

See Fencing and fodder storage assets for definitions and how to claim deductions.

Horticultural plants

A horticultural plant is a live plant or fungus that is cultivated or propagated for any of its products or parts.

You can claim a deduction for the depreciation of horticultural plants, provided:

• you own the plants (lessees and licensees of land are treated as if they own the horticultural plants on that land)
• you use the plants in a business of horticulture to produce assessable income

Your deduction for the depreciation of horticultural plants is based on the expense incurred in establishing the plants. This does not include the cost of purchasing or leasing land, or expenses on draining swamp or low-lying land or on clearing the land. It would include, for example:

• the costs of acquiring and planting the seeds
• part of the cost of ploughing, contouring, fertilising, stone removal and topsoil enhancement relating to the planting.

You can’t claim this deduction for trees used in carbon sink forests.

For more information, see Calculating the decline in value of horticultural plants.

Grapevines

If you planted and first used grapevines in your primary production business, the depreciation of the grapevines is worked out under the general rules relating to horticultural plants.

For more information, see Calculating the decline in value of grapevines.

Source: New places to play in Gungahlin

You can choose to value livestock at cost, market-selling value or replacement value. An additional option is available for certain horse breeding stock.

You may change the basis of valuation year by year. You may also use different valuation methods for different stock in the same year. However, the value of your opening livestock (at 1 July) each year must be the same as the value of your closing stock (at 30 June) for the previous year. That is, you must use the same valuation method at the beginning of the new income year as you used at the end of the previous income year.

Small businesses – simplified trading stock rules

You do not have to value each item of trading stock (including livestock) on hand at the end of the income year or account for changes in the value of your trading stock if:

• you are a small business entity
• the difference between the value of all your trading stock at the start of the income year and the value you reasonably estimate of all your trading stock at the end of the income year is $5,000 or less.

However, if you prefer, you can still conduct a stocktake and account for changes in the value of trading stock for the income year if the difference is $5,000 or less.

For more information see Simplified trading stock rules.

Goods taken from stock for private use

If you take goods from stock for your own use, or for the use of your family members, you need to account for the goods as if the stock had been disposed of at its cost. This means that the market value of the stock on the day of disposal will be included in your assessable income.

This includes where a grazier slaughters livestock for personal consumption or for rations for employees.

For more information see TD 2024/8 Income tax: value of goods taken from stock for private use for the 2024֪–25 income year.

.

Natural increase

The cost of an animal you hold as livestock that you acquired by natural increase is whichever of these you choose:

• actual cost of the animal
• cost prescribed by the regulations          
  • cattle, horses and deer – $20
  • pigs – $12
  • emus – $8
  • goats and sheep – $4
  • poultry – 35 cents.

A horse’s livestock cost will be the greater of the above or the insemination service fee.

Oyster farmers

Oyster farmers need to account for oysters on hand as trading stock. This includes oysters held on sticks or in trays, or harvested and held ready for sale.

For more information, see Oyster farmers: calculating the value of trading stock.

Beekeepers

If you are operating a beekeeping business for the purpose of honey production, you need to account for bees on hand as trading stock. You may be eligible to use a simplified practice of valuing a live hive rather than accounting for the individual bees.

For more information, see Beekeepers: calculating the value of trading stock.

Source: Murray Darling Basin Authority

EMMA REBELLATO, HOST: Well, more on our top story on childcare reforms now with the Federal and State education Ministers and Territory Education Ministers meeting today. 

We’re now joined though, by Federal Education Minister Jason Clare, who’s in Sydney. Minister, thanks for joining us this morning.

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: G’day, Emma.

REBELLATO: Let’s start with this report about a trial of CCTV in childcare centres. Will that definitely happen?

CLARE: Yeah, this is one of a number of measures that I’ll put on the table for Ministers to agree to today. This is, as you said, a meeting of Education Ministers across the country. 

I think all Australians have been sickened by the revelations out of Victoria and elsewhere over the last few months and they expect us to act. We’ve already passed laws through the Parliament that give us the power to cut off funding to childcare centres that aren’t up to scratch when it comes to safety standards. And we’ve started using those powers already against 37 centres. And there’s more to come. 

But what we’ll discuss today is the next steps. And one of those is a trial of CCTV in up to 300 centres across the country. Some of those will be centres where they’ll be mandatorily required to install those cameras, and in other cases, centres will volunteer to be part of that trial.

REBELLATO: Are you worried about privacy concerns at all, or even perhaps complacency? The Early Childhood CEO says they support a trial, but they’re worried that this could make people become complacent now.

CLARE: Yeah, both of those points are really important. Privacy is important. We need to make sure that if we’re going to roll out CCTV, where is the data stored to make sure it’s protected; that it doesn’t become a honey pot for bad people to hack into that information. Where should the cameras be placed in centres and where shouldn’t they? And so that’s why the Australian Centre for Child Protection will oversee the trial. 

And as you rightly point out, we cannot be complacent here. Cameras can’t do everything. They can help to deter people from doing bad things, they can help police with their investigations afterwards. 

But ultimately, the greatest asset we’ve got here to keep our children safe are the incredible workers in our centres, the 99.9 per cent of people who love our kids, who care for our kids, who educate our kids. They’re just as bloody angry as everybody else in the country at the revelations out of Victoria. And we’ve got to train them up, give them the skills that they need to be able to identify somebody who might be hiding in plain sight. And that’s why, as part of the $189 million package that I’ll put on the table today, it will include about $20 million for mandatory national child safety training for our entire workforce right across the country.

REBELLATO: Speaking of workers, when will a national register of child care workers be up and running?

CLARE: We’ll work on that. If we get agreement this morning, we’ll start immediately. We’re going to need to build that system, that register, from scratch. We’ll also need to pass laws to make it mandatory for centres to put information onto the register. What we want to do is be in a position to test and trial that new register by December of this year and have it roll out across the country from February of next year.

REBELLATO: The Victorian government released its rapid review this week with 22 recommendations. All are being adopted. But among them were recommendations that really is out of the state sphere. It really goes into the Federal Government area. Do you agree that you have to do the heavy lifting here to make sure there is this national reform of the system?

CLARE: Well, I think the truth is we’ve all got to step up. You know, the Australian government has to step up. The state and territory governments have to step up. Our regulators have to step up. The private childcare providers have to step up as well here. There is nothing more important than keeping our kids safe. I think it’s pretty obvious that not enough has been done and not enough has been done fast enough to keep our kids safe. 

What I’m putting on the table today, this $189 million package, is just the next step, but there will always be more to do. The awful truth here is that this work will never end because there will always be bad people trying to do bad things to our kids. We’ve just got to do every single thing that we can to keep our kids safe.

REBELLATO: This week, the ABC learned that more than two dozen childcare centres have been named publicly for failing to meet national quality and safety standards. Compliance actions were issued. What’s next?

CLARE: Well, what we’ve said to these centres is they’re now on notice. They’ve got six months to meet those safety and quality standards, otherwise they run the risk of having their funding cut off. Now, this is the biggest weapon that the Commonwealth government has to wield here. We invest about $16 billion a year of taxpayers money into childcare centres. They can’t operate without them. It represents about 70 per cent of the funding for an average childcare centre. And if centres aren’t meeting the sort of standards that we set as a nation and that parents expect then I think most people watching would say that they don’t deserve the funding. So, they’ve now got six months to step up or run the risk that the funding will get cut off and they’ll be shut down.

REBELLATO: How many more are likely to be named and shamed?

CLARE: Well, these first centres are centres where they have not met the standard for more than seven years. Despite regulators going in and out, they still aren’t meeting the standards. And there are 37 of those centres —

REBELLATO: That’s pretty extraordinary. Sorry, Minister. That’s pretty extraordinary, though, for a seven-year period.

CLARE: That’s exactly right. Seven years. Let me underline that again. These centres have had seven years to meet those standards and haven’t. That’s why this legislation’s so important. That’s why we’ve put them on notice. There’s 37 of them in this first tranche, but there’s more to come.

REBELLATO: What would be your message to parents who are, quite frankly, sick of hearing about how many problems there are in these childcare centres? They are sickened by all these issues. What would you say to them about what they can expect out of this meeting today?

CLARE: What I’d say to them is, I get it. I’m one of you. I’m one of those million parents across the country who has my children in early education and care. And I understand when you walk in the door with your child or carry your child into a centre, just how important it is that you can have confidence that your children are going to be safe. And that’s what this is all about. 

The truth is not enough has been done. I’ve been pretty blunt about this and more needs to be done. The laws are part of it, but so is the register, so is the national training, so is banning phones across the country in childcare centres, and so is more inspections in our centres to make sure they’re meeting the standards to keep our kids safe. All of that is on the table today.

REBELLATO: And are you expecting consensus from your colleagues on this one?

CLARE: I’m very confident that my colleagues get it. They’ve been working hard over the last few weeks to put this package together and I’m very confident that we’ll get agreement today.

REBELLATO: Education Minister Jason Clare, thanks for joining us this morning.

CLARE: Thanks, Emma.