Month: August 2025

Source: Mental Health Australia

Road users are advised of changed traffic conditions on the Hume Highway Bridge over Cabramatta Creek, Cabramatta.

The changes are necessary to improve safety for road users and extend the life of the bridge.

We will work for up to 12-day shifts and possibly one night shift between Monday 1 September and Tuesday 30 September 2025, weather permitting. 

Our day shift work hours are between 7am and 5pm,Monday to Friday. If required, our night shift work hours will be between 8pm and 5am, Sunday to Thursday. We will not work on Friday or Saturday nights.

There will be temporary traffic changes while we complete this work. This includes a single lane closure when equipment is being delivered and removed from site. Stop and go traffic controls may be needed for one night shift on the Hume Highway.

A reduced speed limit of 40km/h will be in place. Please keep to the speed limit and follow the direction of traffic controllers and signs.

Thank you for your patience while we finish this important work.

For the latest traffic updates across the network, download the Live Traffic NSW App, visit livetraffic.com or call 132 701.

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

The Northern Territory Police Force has now charged a 40-year-old woman in relation to a fatal crash that occurred in Palmerston in May this year.

On Wednesday, 20 August 2025, police charged the woman, who was the driver of the Nissan X-Trail, with:

• 3 x Drive Motor Vehicle Causing Death or Serious Harm
• 1 x Drive with Prohibited Drug in Body

 She has been remanded to appear in Darwin Local Court 22 August 2025.

Source: Murray Darling Basin Authority

MATT SHIRVINGTON, HOST: Well, turning now to an important summit that’s just two hours away, Education Ministers from around the country will sit down together for a special meeting on child safety in early education and care. The government is today proposing a $189 million package to keep kids safe, including funding a new National Educator Register, mandatory child safety training for all staff and mandatory phone ban from September, just 10 days away.

Joining me now is the Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, live in Sydney. Good morning to you. Well, how confident, first off, you’ll sit down with the States today. Are they all on board?

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Yeah, I think so. I think they get it. I think every Australian gets it. Australians have been sickened by the revelations out of Victoria and other parts of the country over the last few months and they expect us to act. 

We’ve already, as you know, mate, passed laws through the Federal Parliament to cut off funding to child care centres that aren’t up to scratch, that aren’t meeting the safety standards that parents expect and that our kids deserve. We’re already using those powers. We’ve sent notices to 37 childcare centres already telling them that they’ve got to get up a scratch or we’ll cut off their funding. And there’s more to come on that front. 

But today’s meeting, as you rightly point out, is about the next step, about a National Educator Register so we can track people working from centre to centre and from state to state. National mandatory child safety training. So, the people in our centres, the awesome people who work in our centres, who look after our kids, who educate our kids, have got the skills they need to be able to identify somebody who might be up to no good in their centres and keep our kids safe. 

But not just that, also a national trial of CCTV to make sure that we get that right. That’s one of the tools that we can use to deter these bad actors from perpetrating the sort of crimes that we’ve seen against our kids, but also help police with investigations. A national ban on mobile phones, the personal phones that are used by paedophiles in centres. We’ve seen evidence of that as well, as well as more national inspections of centres. They’re important to be able to make sure that centres are up to scratch.

SHIRVINGTON: Jason, the big one was the National Register, because you can fail a Working with Children Check in one state and then go to another and get a job. When is that going to be implemented? That’s critical, isn’t it?

CLARE: Yeah, it’s one part of the puzzle. I don’t think anything’s a silver bullet here, but work on that, if we get approval today, will start immediately. 

We’ve got to build that from scratch and we’ll have to pass laws to make it mandatory for centres to put the information in it. But we want to test and trial that by December of this year and have it rolling out from February of next year. It’s just one of the things that we need to do, Shirvo. The mobile phone ban is important as well. So is the training for all of the educators. The CCTV is part of it as well. There’s not one single thing that we need to do here. We need to do all of it.

SHIRVINGTON: Just on the 37 centres that you identified that are absolutely failing standards at the moment, you’ve given them six months to improve. However, they’re still operating, aren’t they? Are you comfortable with that?

CLARE: These 37 centres have been failing to meet the sort of safety and quality standards that we expect for more than seven years. So, time after time, regulators have told them that you’re not meeting the standard and they’ve continued to not meet that standard. Now, what I’ve said is, if you don’t meet the standard you should —

SHIRVINGTON: But they are still open, for the next six months.

CLARE: Yeah, that’s right. And I’ve said, meet the standard or we’ll shut you down. So, they’ve got six months. They’ve told the parents at that centre that they’re subject to these new laws. They’ve got six months to meet that standard or the funding gets cut off.

SHIRVINGTON: It’s a long time. A lot can happen in six months. Minister, I’ll let you go. I know you’ve got a busy day. Thanks for joining us.

Source: Murray Darling Basin Authority

RAFAEL EPSTEIN, HOST:  Let’s turn our attention to what our Federal and State Ministers will do, how they will try to keep our kids safe. I want to know what you make of what you hear. CCTV, national register –

these are all the ideas that are running around. 1300 222 774 is the phone number. Jess Walsh is the Minister for Early Childhood Education in the Federal Government. Minister, good morning.

SENATOR DR JESS WALSH, MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND MINISTER FOR YOUTH: Thanks for having me, Raf.

EPSTEIN: If I can start with CCTV – who wants all of this CCTV? It sounds a bit more like a problem than a solution.

WALSH: Well, CCTV, Raf, is one part of what is the biggest ever child safety package in early childhood education in our nation’s history that we’re bringing to this meeting. And I do want your listeners to know that CCTV is part of it. The first ever nationwide register of early educators is part of it too. Mandatory child safe training is really important and will be on the table today, along with more transparency to help parents hold providers to account. So, we want parents to know more information about what’s going on in their services to help them make choices and hold providers to account.

EPSTEIN: Just on the CCTV, though, a lot of parents get nervous about can it be just as much misused as used. Is it just an announceable? I’m just keen to drill down on who thinks it’s a big part of the solution.

WALSH: Sure. So, CCTV is already out there in services, Raf, and we think it’s time to assess the effectiveness of CCTV in keeping children safe. It has been a recommendation from both Victorian and NSW reviews that have been undertaken while these horrendous allegations and stories have been aired in early childhood education. So, what we want to do is put a framework around it. We will get an independent expert to look at CCTV, how it can help keep children safe, but also what the guardrails are that need to be put around CCTV to help keep children safe.

EPSTEIN: Does it mean you’re committed to some mandatory form of it?

WALSH: No, it’s an assessment, Raf. So, we’re going to draw 300 services into this assessment program. We’re going to appoint an independent expert to have oversight of this program. Sometimes State regulators, require services to install CCTV where they have some initial concerns, and we’ll draw those services into this assessment. And we’ll also encourage services who want to look at CCTV to participate on a voluntary basis as well. And we’ll take a good look at it and get some advice back about how to use it effectively and what the guardrails are that are needed.

EPSTEIN: Jess Walsh is who you’re listening to, the Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education. All of these Ministers getting together today to try and find some of the answers. A national register. Everyone’s a bit slow to this one, aren’t you? Like, it seems obvious that that should have been there for some time.

WALSH: Oh, look, I think it is pretty clear that this should have been in place and we are putting it into place. So, we are confident we’ll come out of this meeting with a decision to have the first ever nationwide register of early childhood educators. I think as Victorians, we’re all really aware of why it’s needed. We have this horrific alleged offending in Victoria. We’ve been in a situation where police are having to use search and seize powers to find pieces of paper, you know, that show police where this alleged offender worked. That is just not good enough. We need to know where our early childhood educators are working. We need our regulators to know that. We need them to be able to track patterns of behaviour, raise flags and take appropriate action.

EPSTEIN: It’s the same system that we’ve been talking about all week in child care. Minister, just on the register. For example, I heard your colleague Jason Clare saying on TV this morning, you’re going to have a national register up and running and working in February next year. How confident are you of that? Like, again, I think people love the idea and it seems to be a big part of the solution. Can you actually get that working, functioning fully, by February next year?

WALSH: We can. That’s the advice that we have. As soon as the meeting makes the decision today to go ahead with the register, the work to build it will begin. Providers will start uploading information from December and it will be mandatory from February for providers to participate in that register. And for the first time, we’ll know, not just at a state level, but at a national level, where early childhood educators are working. And regulators will be able to see that information as they should be able to, to help guide their interventions.

EPSTEIN: And just back to the CCTV idea, Goodstart have been pretty vocal about this. They’re a big provider. They call the CCTV just one tool, and a minor one. A lot of people, I think, assume that if you’ve got a data bank of video of young kids, it is going to be hacked. How confident are you about it as a big part of the solution?

WALSH: Well, I agree with those comments that you’ve cited there from Goodstart, that it’s a part of the solution, but not the only solution. In terms of confidence, you know, we do need to have this assessment, and we do need to understand what the guardrails are that need to be in place.

EPSTEIN: Is it just an announceable that you can say, you know, say something today?

WALSH: Absolutely not, Raf. And you’re focused on CCTV, but I also want to draw your attention to some of the other measures as well, particularly mandatory child safe training. So, CCTV is definitely part of the solution and it’s the regulators and the police who are really interested in having it. And a lot of parents do feel confident at the idea that CCTV will be there. Other parents, as you’ve said, have concerns about images being stored. It’s part of the solution. It’s not a silver bullet and we want to look at the guardrails around it. But you can’t replace long term, dedicated early childhood educators who know what they’re looking for when they go into work every day. And that is what is most critical to me in all of this. So, mandatory child safe training is a really important part of this package.

EPSTEIN: Labor’s been talking since opposition, since the deep days of the COVID lockdowns, about early childhood education. Labor has not been talking about mandatory child safe training. At the same time, it’s a bit wild, isn’t it, that we’re only now talking about that?

WALSH: Well, there’s training for early childhood educators in how to keep people safe. That’s part of the training. This is dedicated training that is really about detecting signs of child abuse.

EPSTEIN. So, I guess I’m saying that we’re a bit late to the mandatory part, aren’t we?

WALSH: Look, again, Raf, I think the best time to have put some of these measures into place would have been ahead of all of these absolutely horrific allegations and experiences that parents are having that no parent should have. I mean, there is no doubt about that. No one shies away from that. The second best time to do this is now. We are in a meeting today, an urgent meeting that’s been called to deal with this. What I’m really focused on is taking action now, Raf. I want to come out of this meeting with a strong, united plan. I want the states and territories to be working in lockstep with the Commonwealth. I want parents to know that we are focused on keeping children safe. I want parents to know that we will work together with the states and territories to restore their confidence in early learning, because the vast majority of early childhood educators are there to do the right thing and we want to support them to do that with these reforms.

EPSTEIN: Jess Walsh is the Minister for Early Childhood Education in the Federal Government. Thanks so much for your time today. Good luck with it.

WALSH: Thank you. Raf.

Source: Australian Capital Territory Policing

Consumer Affairs Victoria is urging all families to keep their home safe for young children by checking they have curtain and blind cords secured.

Looped curtain and blind cords can quickly become deadly if a child places one over their head and becomes entangled. Tragically, unsecured cords are responsible for the strangulation deaths of 1 to 2 Australian children each year.

How to make your home safe

Install a curtain and blind cord safety kit to keep cords tensioned and out of reach.

Order a free kit from Consumer Affairs Victoria or buy one at a hardware store.

Check every room for looped cords, especially if blinds or curtains were installed before 2015. Older products may not meet current mandatory safety standards.

Renters can install safety kits without needing approval from their rental provider.

New reforms to keep children safe in rental properties

From 1 December 2025, all residential rental properties must have secured cords on internal window coverings to prevent them forming loops.

Renters will have the right to request an urgent repair if cords are not secured. It will also become an offence for a rental provider (landlord) to allow a new renter to move into a rental property that does not meet this mandatory minimum rental standard.

The new rules will close the gap left by the existing Commonwealth Safety Standard, which only applies to blinds and curtains installed from 2015 onwards.

Consumer Affairs Victoria Director Nicole Rich says loose and looped curtain and blind cords pose an unacceptable risk to children.

‘The new standards will ensure that all rental properties meet this essential safety standard with no exemptions.’

For more information, visit Product Safety Australia.

Source:

Credit: Hastings Fire Brigade

Four brigades in Victoria’s south east are part of 26 CFA brigades now trained and ready to respond to select medical Triple Zero (000) calls as part of a new program that officially commenced in 2023.

The Fire Medical Response (FMR) program is a joint initiative of CFA and Ambulance Victoria that sees CFA brigades and Ambulance Victoria dispatched simultaneously to cardiac arrests.

Hastings, Phillip Island, Cockatoo, and Emerald fire brigades went live on 21 of August, with Sorrento and Wonthaggi joining the program earlier in the month. Ultimately, 50 CFA brigades around Victoria will undertake the FMR role in their communities.

Hastings Fire Brigade Captain Mike Willmott said the decision to join the program was an easy one given the benefits it will provide his community.

“When we asked our volunteers about joining the program, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Our members didn’t hesitate to step up,” Mike said.

“I’m just so proud of our volunteers, who are taking on this important role in addition to firefighting. When a person suffers a cardiac arrest, their chance of survival reduces by 10 per cent every minute that CPR and defibrillation is delayed.

“What this program means is that community members who call for an ambulance may receive both a fire truck and an ambulance. There is no specific order in which the services arrive to the incident. Our ultimate aim is to get to the patient as quickly as possible.”

The four brigades have been training extensively with Ambulance Victoria and CFA in preparation for the program, which will complement Ambulance Victoria’s response in those local areas.

CFA Assistant Chief Fire Officer Sean Kerr said the program was a natural fit for CFA because of the 52,000 volunteers across the state.

“CFA has more than 1,100 volunteer fire stations with more than 52,000 members,” Sean said.

“This puts CFA in a unique position to complement the Ambulance Victoria response in 50 locations across Victoria to help deliver early intervention to cardiac arrests.”

Ambulance Victoria Executive Director of Regional Operations, Danielle North, said Victoria has Australia’s best cardiac survival rate and the third best anywhere in the world, thanks to high rates of early intervention.

“The Fire Medical Response program will improve survival rates for people in rural and regional Victoria,” Danielle said.

“Quick intervention with CPR and a defibrillator has the greatest impact on improving a patient’s chances of surviving a cardiac arrest.” 

Submitted by	CFA media

Source: Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission

There are plans to install eight ‘tophat reflectors’ on remote Heard Island this season to improve the accuracy of satellite imagery used to monitor wildlife and landscapes, and to generate maps.
The reflectors will provide a GPS-located reference point for satellites, so that imagery from different satellites, or the same satellite at different times, can be precisely positioned and aligned.
Australian Antarctic Data Centre remote sensing scientist, Dr Melissa Fedrigo, has been working with Dr Matt Garthwaite of CSIRO’s Centre for Earth Observation, to design a reflector suitable for the wild and rarely visited sub-Antarctic island.

“We wanted a design that was unpowered, required minimal installation, that would be visible to the most number of satellites, and that could accommodate any orbit of these satellites,” Dr Fedrigo said.
The tophat reflectors are shaped like their namesake, with a wide ‘apron’ or brim, and 1.5 metre-high crown.
At the top of the crown is a painted checkerboard design, which produces a pattern in images taken by optical satellites.
The reflectors’ construction in corrosion-resistant stainless steel also provides a target for ‘synthetic aperture radar’ (SAR) satellites. These send out microwave pulses that bounce off objects, creating radar images of the earth’s surface, even when it is dark or cloudy.
“The microwave energy from the SAR satellite bounces off the large centre column of the reflector, towards the apron, and then back to the satellite,” Dr Fedrigo said.
“This creates a bright signal response in the image which we can use to mark the exact coordinates of the satellite, to a position on the ground.
“The checkerboard works in the same way except that we look for the pattern in the image and assign the GPS coordinates to the centre of it.”
Dr Fedrigo said that SAR imagery is used by the Australian Antarctic Division to assess glacier volume, detect crevasses, and observe wildlife during the winter months when optical imagery isn’t available. It can also be used to look at changes in landscape elevation, possibly due to erosion, landslides, and volcanic or tectonic activity.
“The installation of these tophat reflectors on Heard Island will allow us to accurately align radar imagery each time it is captured, despite the regular cloud cover,” Dr Fedrigo said.
Dr Garthwaite said it is common to use ground reflectors to accurately align radar imagery.
“But what is quite innovative here is having a target that can be seen in both radar and optical images and from satellites that fly in lots of different orbital directions,” he said.
The reflectors will provide an important feature in remote sensing imagery, for the Antarctic Division and for anyone wanting to monitor the island.
The 750 kg reflectors will be filled with concrete and positioned near existing survey markers on the island, away from wildlife that may like to “cozy up” to them.
All activities will be implemented in accordance with existing and pending environmental permits.
Dr Fedrigo and Dr Garthwaite worked closely with four space companies from the United States, Finland and Canada, and also the German space agency, DLR, to test prototype reflectors and confirm a final design.
“The companies worked with us to ensure our prototype was visible in a broad range of satellite imagery, and that the final design was fit for purpose before we deploy them,” Dr Fedrigo said
This content was last updated 18 minutes ago on 22 August 2025.

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

Police are investigating following a large disturbance that occurred in Tennant Creek yesterday afternoon.

Around 2:30pm, the Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre received reports of a large group of people engaged in a violent disturbance at a residence in the community.

It is alleged that a group of over 60 people attended the residence armed with both edged and blunt weapons and began fighting.

Police attended and the group immediately dispersed. One 25-year-old male was located suffering a minor head wound and was conveyed to Tennant Creek Hospital for treatment.

No further injuries have been reported at this stage.

Investigations are ongoing, and police urge anyone with information about the incident to make contact on 131 444. Please quote reference number P25222813. Anonymous reports can be made through Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via https://crimestoppersnt.com.au/.

Source: New South Wales Community and Justice

Man charged with traffic offences in southern Tasmania

Thursday, 21 August 2025 – 4:48 pm.

Huonville Police have charged a 34-year-old man with multiple traffic offences earlier today (August 21).
About 11.20am, the man was detected travelling at 88km/h in a 50km/h zone on the main road through Franklin.
As police moved to intercept the vehicle, they observed the driver throw a full can from the driver’s side window across the road.
The vehicle was intercepted a short time later, and the man returned a breath alcohol reading of 0.058.
Further checks revealed the vehicle was not fitted with an alcohol interlock device, which was a condition of the driver’s licence due to previous offences.
The man was taken to Huonville Police Station and was subsequently charged with:

Exceeding the speed limit
Driving under the influence of alcohol
Discharging a missile (throwing an object from a vehicle)
Driving a vehicle not fitted with a required alcohol interlock device.

He has been bailed to appear in court at a later date.
Sergeant Simon Ward reminds drivers that speeding and drink driving are a deadly combination.
“When drivers ignore road rules and licence-imposed conditions, they put everyone at risk.
“Road safety is everyone’s responsibility, so please slow down and don’t drive if you’ve been drinking alcohol or consuming illicit drugs.”

Source: New places to play in Gungahlin

We are authorised by the Taxation Administration Act 1953 to ask for information on the following forms:

We need this information to help us administer the taxation laws. If the information is not collected, there could be a delay processing your application.

Where authorised by law, we may give this information to other government departments and agencies, including:

• Services Australia
• Department of Social Services
• State and Federal Police
• Australian Bureau of Statistics
• Reserve Bank of Australia.

We also provide taxpayer information to treaty partners overseas under international tax agreements.

If you have an Australian Business Number (ABN), some information on these forms may be collected under the A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Act 1999 and will be used to update your details on the Australian Business RegisterExternal Link (ABR). Where authorised by law, selected information may be made publicly available and some may be passed to a wide range of government agencies, including Commonwealth, state and local government agencies.

Our privacy policy contains important information about your privacy, including information about how you can access and seek correction of information we hold about you, how to make a complaint if you think we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with any privacy complaints.

To find out about agencies receiving information from the ABR, phone us on 13 28 66 between 8 am and 6 pm Monday to Friday.

For more information about privacy or if you believe your privacy has been compromised:

• phone us on 1300  661 542
• write to us at the following address

AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE

GPO BOX 9990

[insert the name and postcode of your capital city]

For example:

AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE

GPO BOX 9990

SYDNEY NSW 2001