Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Australian Department of Communications

AUSTRAC has released its regulatory priorities for this financial year, outlining new plans to reduce the harms from money laundering, terrorism financing and other serious crime. 
AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said financial crime damages Australia’s financial system and this year’s focus is on preparing to regulate ‘tranche 2’ industries and targeting gaps in high-risk sectors such as cash and digital currencies.

Source:

Victoria’s fire services are issuing a strong warning about the serious risks of smoking indoors, as it remains the leading cause of fatal house fires across the state.

Half of the 18 fatal fires in Victoria in 2024 were attributed to discarded cigarettes and smoking materials, such as lighters, matches, or open flames, while smokers remain over-represented in residential fire fatalities.

Smoking in bed is the leading cause of smoking-related fire deaths, as falling asleep with a lit cigarette in hand can easily set fire to soft materials such as bed linen.

In addition to the fire fatality figures, more than 10 per cent of residential structure fires that Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) responded to between May 2024 and March 2025 were caused by smoking materials.

In May this year FRV also responded to two significant house fires in Melbourne within days of each other caused by cigarettes. On May 6, a brick unit in Moorabbin was destroyed by a fire originating from an incorrectly extinguished cigarette, with an elderly resident in a neighbouring property assisted to safety after their house was affected by smoke.

Just days later, another unattended cigarette was the cause of a significant fire in a Box Hill North weatherboard home.

FRV Commander Julian Bisbal, who led the response to the Moorabbin fire, said the incidents should serve as a wake-up call to the devastation unattended cigarettes can cause.

“It’s imperative you make sure your cigarette is disposed of in an area that cannot catch or spread fire. It was a ferocious, fast-moving fire because of the wind on that day.” Julian said.

“People think a cigarette is tame and safe, because it’s in your hand, but in reality, it can cause devastation. You’re holding an ignition source.”

FRV Deputy Commissioner, Community Safety, Joshua Fischer said the statistics reflected the gravity of the danger of cigarettes.

“The numbers don’t lie – cigarettes are dangerous when misused or used while drowsy, and must be handled with extreme caution,” Deputy Commissioner Fischer said.

“If you notice burn marks on a friend or family member’s carpet, furniture, clothing, or nightwear, speak up. Let them know the dangers and encourage them to take action.

“Quitting smoking is the safest option from both a health and fire safety perspective, but if that isn’t possible, firefighters recommend smoking outdoors.”

Country Fire Authority (CFA) Chief Fire Officer Jason Heffernan said smoking while affected by alcohol, drugs or medication can also increase the risk of fire.

“All it takes is a small ember from a cigarette to ignite a fire and you could be facing a life-changing event that puts yourself and others in harm’s way,” Chief Officer Heffernan said.

“We urge all smokers to properly extinguish and dispose of your cigarette in a heavy glass or metal ashtray to prevent any more major fires from occurring.

“As Victorians know, to help safeguard your family, you must have a working smoke alarm in your home. However, if smoking occurs inside your home, please have one in every room.”

Victorian fire services recommend:

• If you can, smoke outside the home in a single location.
• If smoking occurs in the home, there should be a smoke alarm in every room.
• Never smoke in bed.
• Don’t smoke when affected by alcohol, drugs or medications that may cause drowsiness.
• Use heavy, high-sided, non-combustible ashtrays to dispose of cigarette butts. Pour some water on the ash and butts to make sure they’re out.
• “Stick it don’t flick it” – never flick cigarette butts, either inside or outside.
• Never leave a lit cigarette unattended and butt out your cigarette before you walk away.
• Keep matches and cigarette lighters out of reach of children.

Submitted by	CFA media

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

On 15 July 2025, Detectives from the Sex Crimes Unit extradited a 70-year-old man from Sydney to Darwin.

The man failed to attend court in July 1984 in relation to sexualised offending against a young woman, resulting in a warrant being issued for his arrest. The Northern Territory Police Force have been monitoring the alleged offender for some years whilst imprisoned for unrelated offending in NSW.

He was originally charged with:

• Sexual assault
• Aggravated assault
• Cause bodily harm

The man appeared in Darwin Local Court yesterday and was further remanded until 30 July 2025.

Detective Senior Constable Naomi Cox says, “This arrest demonstrates that no matter how much time passes, police remain committed to pursuing justice. We never forget.”

“We continue to urge victims to reach out on triple zero in emergencies and on 131 444. You can also visit your local police station.”

Source: Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission

A lucky handful of Mawson expeditioners visited the Taylor Glacier emperor penguin colony in July, to collect photos for the annual population census.
No more than 12 people get to visit the colony each year, due to its ‘Antarctic Specially Protected Area’ (ASPA) status.
Population counts have been ongoing since 1957, and averaged about 2500 birds between 2002 and 2023.
This season, Mawson station’s Senior Field Training Officer, Lee Warner, and five other expeditioners, made the 90 km journey across the sea ice, to Colbeck Hut.

Mr Warner said the party had to stop regularly to measure sea-ice thickness, which must be at least 60 cm thick for safe passage by Hägglunds.
“Every change in appearance of the ice is generally a reason to test and assess the sea ice,” Mr Warner said.
“Sea-ice conditions and ice thickness are influenced by glaciers, islands, snow depth, rafted ice and hidden anomalies like kelp beds, tide cracks and open water leads.  
“We measure ice quality and thickness every hundred metres, or every few kilometres, depending on whether there are anomalies or not.”
Once at the hut a team of four made the three kilometre trip to a vantage point above the colony where a number of automated cameras have been installed.
The cameras take photos of the colony every day throughout the year to show when the penguins arrive and leave.
“Pathfinding through waist deep powder snow to find the cameras to download the imagery captured over the last six to eight months is very satisfying. It’s a great team effort,” Mr Warner said.
The team also took the all-important census photos – a series of 30 photos looking down and across the colony, which are stitched together into a panorama (see banner above). Scientists can then count the number of penguins.
Senior Comms Tech Officer, Danny Novkovski, said the census photos and automated camera images were processed back at Mawson station and uploaded to the Head Office server for seabird expert, Dr Barbara Wienecke, to access them and conduct the census work.
Dr Wienecke said Taylor Glacier is one of only two known sites where emperor penguins breed entirely on land, rather than land-fast sea ice (sea ice attached to land).
The long-term monitoring project aims to assess the response of the penguins to environmental change and human activities, and ensure ASPA management plans continue to safeguard the animals.
This content was last updated 3 minutes ago on 17 July 2025.

Source: Murray Darling Basin Authority

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Let’s get some immediate political reaction, not just to this story, but of course the broader child care crisis too and go straight to the Education Minister Jason Clare. 

Jason Clare, lovely to have you on the show. 

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks, PK, great to be here. 

KARVELAS: Two child care workers have been charged with assault of a toddler in Western Sydney. New South Wales Police have said the child sustained significant bruising and injuries. Of course, this is one case being handled now by the legal system, as it should be —

CLARE: Yes. 

KARVELAS: — but does this latest case show that we have a broader crisis? 

CLARE: What it underlines is if you don’t care about our kids, you shouldn’t be there working in early education and care. 

In that report you mentioned that those workers are no longer there, that’s a good thing. But we do need to put in place the sort of measures to help to weed people out that aren’t there for the right reasons, whether it’s the sort of penalties that you impose on centres that don’t act when this evidence comes to light, or naming and shaming centres, giving information to parents about the conditions that are in the centres where their children are, or putting in place things like CCTV. 

I want to make the point if I can, PK, that 99.9 per cent of the people who care for our kids every single day in these centres love them, they care for them, they educate them, they’re great people that are doing really, really important work, and at the moment they’re as shocked and angry as everybody else in Australia. Their jobs are on TV for all of the wrong reasons. They want to make sure that we do everything we can to weed out the people that shouldn’t be there too. 

KARVELAS: We also learnt today that the alleged Melbourne paedophile, Joshua Dale Brown, worked at an additional daycare centre that has not been listed by authorities online. That brings the total number of centres he’s worked at to 24. I mean, Minister, why – I know this a state issue in terms of the investigation, but why are we still finding out about child care centres several weeks after the first allegations? 

CLARE: It’s a bloody good question. This is a nightmare for hundreds more parents, mums and dads who now have to go through the wringer of working out whether their kids are sick or not. And for their little kids, they’ve got to go through the trauma of testing – blood tests and urine tests – to find out whether they’ve got an infectious disease or not. 

It strikes me when I saw this yesterday that this is another reason why we need an educator register, a database that tells us where people are working and where they have been working. The company responsible here should know this at the click of a button. But so should we. This shouldn’t be the sort of information that comes out in drip feed form, it should be information that’s easy to access quickly. 

KARVELAS: It seems that there might be more centres. I mean, have you been briefed about whether there are even potentially more that we might find out about? 

CLARE: No, I haven’t. The Victorian Police would be briefing the Victorian Government specifically on that. But I just make the general point, this is the sort of information that police should have at their fingertips, it’s the sort of information that we should have right now. We don’t have it, but we should do. 

KARVELAS: Is your legislation on child care changes that you’ve been talking about ready to table into the Parliament and have you briefed the Opposition? 

CLARE: Yeah, the legislation is almost finalised. I’ll introduce that legislation into the Parliament next week, and we held our first briefing with the Opposition on the legislation today. I want to take this opportunity to thank Sussan Ley, the Opposition Leader, and Jonno Duniam, the Shadow Minister, for the really constructive way in which they’re working with us on this legislation to make sure we get it right. You know, it’s not always the case that Labor and Liberal work together the way we should. We are here, and that’s really important with legislation like this. 

So, as I said, I’ll introduce the legislation next week. What the bill will do is give us the power to cut off funding to child care centres where they’re not up to scratch when it comes to safety. 

At the moment a state regulator can shut a centre down tomorrow if they think there’s an imminent threat to safety. But where they’ve identified centres that aren’t meeting the standard and repeatedly they’re not meeting that standard, this will give us the power to issue a condition to that centre, and say that if you don’t meet the standards that we’ve set for you as a nation over the course of, it might be a couple of months, then we will suspend your child care funding or we’ll cancel it. 

And there’s nothing more important in running a child care centre than the taxpayer funding that runs it – it’s about 70 per cent of the funding that runs a child care centre, it can’t run without it. This is the biggest stick that the Commonwealth has to wield here, and putting a condition on a centre that we would provide publicly, so parents know about it, I think is the sort of thing that hopefully will lift standards to where they need to be. 

If we get this legislation right, it won’t mean that we’re shutting centres down, it will mean that we’re lifting standards up where centres aren’t meeting the standards at the moment. 

KARVELAS: Okay, that’s really interesting. So, you’ll issue essentially a warning that will then be publicly shared, would that be like on a central website where people can look to see ‑‑ 

CLARE: That’s right. 

KARVELAS: ‑‑ if this has been – and what’s the timeframe? ‘Cause that must be all articulated, it has to be in the legislation, for which they have to respond ‑‑

CLARE: Yeah. 

KARVELAS: ‑‑ before that money is suspended?  

CLARE: The legislation won’t set out the specific timeframe. There will be discretion provided to the Secretary of my Department, but we’re anticipating, depending on circumstances, you’re talking about a couple of months. 

But let me just make the point again, if we’ve identified a centre where there’s a threat to kids right now, state regulators can shut it down. This is about centres where over a period of time they’re just not meeting the National Quality Framework standard to say, unless you get there soon, the centre is not going to be funded by the taxpayer. 

KARVELAS: So, at the moment “Working Towards,” as you know, is a rating given to a centre that doesn’t meet quality rating standards. I’m just confused about how that will work still. These centres, are they allowed to keep operating? For how long will you be able to keep operating if you’re just “Working Towards”? 

CLARE: At first instance what we’re intending to do if we get this legislation passed is to work with the state governments and the state regulators on the centres that they’re most concerned about, that are under that category that you’ve just described where they’re concerned that they’re repeatedly not working hard enough to get to the standard they need to be under the National Quality Framework. 

So we’ll work with states and territories on the centres that we think need to be the subject of this legislation first and set those conditions for them, set a timeframe for them, and if they don’t meet those conditions within that timeframe, then suspend the child care subsidy payment that helps that centre to operate or cancel it altogether. 

KARVELAS: And you said this is about lifting standards rather than shutting child care centres down. Of course that would always want to have that aim, because you need children in care —

CLARE: Indeed. 

KARVELAS: — or the system would collapse, right? 

CLARE: That’s right. 

KARVELAS: But do you envisage that inevitably some child care centres will have to close down? You would think that would have to be an inevitability of a tough system.  

CLARE: It is a tough system, and that may very well happen. We’re not putting this legislation into the Parliament as an idle threat. But these centres run – 70 per cent of the funding is based on the child care subsidy that the taxpayer provides to help child care centres run. This is the biggest stick we have to wield, to say to centres that if you want to continue to receive this support from the Australian taxpayer, then you have to meet that standard, and if you don’t, then funding will be suspended or cancelled. 

And what I’m hoping is that that threat is going to be strong enough to get the boards of these companies or the investors in these companies to sit up and listen and realise that we’re serious here and if you don’t meet the standard, then the funding will be cut off. 

KARVELAS: Spot checks by your Department is another issue that you’ve raised. Are they only going to be deployed for fraud, or will it be child safety as well? 

CLARE: Principally fraud but not exclusively fraud. At the moment I’ve got a team of investigators in the Department of Education that can do checks on child care centres for fraud. Unfortunately it’s the case that this exists, that child care centres might claim a child is there for three days but they’re only there for two days, and they’re claiming funding from the taxpayer for three days. This legislation will give my officers the power to be able to go in without a warrant or without the AFP to do those checks. 

But while they’re there, they’ll be able to also examine the safety of centres and share that information with state regulators that do the lion’s share of this work. 

The Federal Government sets the standards, the state governments do the lion’s share of the work in terms of regulating the system and making sure that it’s safe. 

KARVELAS: Should there be a national regulator though? Because that’s part of the issue, isn’t it, that we’ve got state-based regulation, it’s quite inconsistent across states. Is there an option for a national regulation? 

CLARE: There’s a national authority at the moment, ACECQA, that helps to set that standard, and they work closely with the states and territories in the work that they do. 

There’s a separate question that’s posed by the Productivity Commission’s report last year about whether we set up an Early Education and Care Commission that would look at how we reform the system over the next decade and beyond. That recommendation wasn’t principally about safety; it wanted government to look at a steward for the system to make it more accessible and more affordable. I’ve got an open mind to that recommendation, Patricia, it’s something that we’ll look at over the medium term. It wasn’t intended to be something specifically about safety, but that’s something that it could potentially include.

KARVELAS: Oh, that’s really interesting. So, you think you could take the Productivity Commission’s recommendation and sort of morph it into something broader?  

CLARE: Potentially. It’s the sort of thing it’s my job as a Minister to sit down with smart people and pick their brains about how this would work best in practice, people like Georgie Dent at The Parenthood I spoke to the other day about this. 

I want to make sure that we get this right, I want to make sure that our system is affordable for mums and dads, that it’s accessible everywhere around the country, but most importantly that it’s safe. That’s what this legislation is fundamentally about. But it’s not the only thing that we need to do. 

The other things that have got to be on the table here are this register so we can track people across the system, identify when people are moving from centre to centre to centre and whether that should be a red flag that something is wrong here, that people are just moving people on rather than reporting them to a regulator or to the police. Proper mandatory child safety training for everybody who works in our centres. 

I said a moment ago that 99.9 per cent of people who work in our centres are fantastic people. We’ve got to equip them with the skills they need to identify the bad person that might be up to the most horrific of crimes in our centres. And then CCTV as well, which can potentially play a role in deterring somebody from getting up to no good but also help police with their investigations as well. 

KARVELAS: Minister, if I could just ask you about the Antisemitism Envoy’s report, which of course has been handed to the government. You’ve been talking about this as well. As you know ‑‑ 

CLARE: Yeah. 

KARVELAS: ‑‑ your colleague Ed Husic is critical of some parts – not all – but some parts of the report, including the very definition of antisemitism that it’s using. Are you troubled by this definition? 

CLARE: No, I’m not. I had a quick look at what Ed had to say. I think Ed was fundamentally making the point that any definition of antisemitism shouldn’t stop somebody from criticising the Government of Israel, and I think he’s right in that respect. I don’t think the definition does, by the way.

But I’ve been critical of the Government of Israel. I think as long as you can make that point very, very clear, you’re on pretty good ground.

KARVELAS: But it does actually, and I’m just looking at the words here, it does actually refer to the State of Israel by claiming that the existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavour. Do you think that’s antisemitic? 

CLARE: No, I think what Ed was saying is it’s a little bit different to then be called an antisemite for criticising the Government of Israel. That’s the fundamental point I think ‑‑ 

KARVELAS: The existence of Israel is really at the heart of the question, isn’t it? That’s what some people criticise. 

CLARE: You know my view, the view of the Government, the view I think of the overwhelming majority of people watching the tele today is that we want two countries in the Middle East that sit side by side, one’s called Israel, one’s called Palestine, and they can live together in peace and security behind secure borders and have the sort of safe life that we take for granted here in Australia and in many other parts of the world. 

KARVELAS: How did the part of the report – this is something that Ed Husic definitely mentioned in relation to younger Australians holding views that are antisemitic. Do you think that – are you witnessing that younger Australians have higher rates of antisemitism? 

CLARE: I was asked this question today. I said certainly social media plays a role here, and I’m hoping that the ban on access to social media for young people under 16, when that comes into force later this year, is going to have a positive impact on that, but also the mental health and wellbeing of younger Australians. 

I was also asked about the recommendations in the report about universities. We’re considering those at the moment. We’re not making any announcements about that at the moment. But antisemitism is real, it’s a poison that we’ve seen infect parts of the community. There’s no place for it in our universities, there’s no place for it anywhere in Australia, but it’s just one type of the sort of racism that we see in our community and in our universities. 

I made the point today that we’ve established a Student Ombudsman that provides a vehicle for students to make complaints, whether it’s about antisemitism, Islamophobia or sexual assaults, or any concerns that they’ve got about the way their university has dealt with them. 

TEQSA, which is the federal regulator of our universities, has certain powers to intervene here and works closely with universities on this. It has the power to put conditions on universities or to go to court and issue fines. I think there’s an open question there about whether TEQSA needs more powers in this area. 

And I also made the point today that we will shortly receive a report from the Special Envoy Combating Islamophobia, and we want to see their report as well, as well as the report that we received a few weeks ago. 

KARVELAS: So, will they be considered together? 

CLARE: I think that’s the way in which we should consider it, that’s probably the best way to go about this. I’ll also receive a report in a couple of months’ time from the Race Discrimination Commissioner about racism in all its ugly forms in our universities, and I’m sure there’s Indigenous Australians and Asian Australians and international students watching today that are saying, “Don’t forget about me, this affects me too”.

We don’t necessarily need to wait for that report before we take action. You can do this step‑by‑step. But I just flag, I want to see that report from the Special Envoy on Islamophobia, and there’s also a piece of work that I’ve commissioned around the governance, improving the governance of our universities, that I’ll receive too. And I also want to think about what more powers we should properly give TEQSA, the Tertiary Education Regulator here. 

KARVELAS: That’s really interesting. Jason Clare, Minister, it’s been great to speak to you. Thanks for joining us. 

CLARE: Thanks PK.

Source: Murray Darling Basin Authority

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks very much for coming along this morning. 

I’m here at the University of Tasmania’s campus right here in the heart of Sydney training the next generation of nurses and paramedics. And a couple of weeks ago we kicked off for the first time paid prac. That’s financial support. 

Paid prac is financial support for teaching students, for nursing students, for midwifery students and for social work students to provide them with a little bit of financial help while they do the practical part of their training, with the practical part of their university degree. 

Placement poverty is a real thing. As we developed the Universities Accord, one of the things that leapt out time after time talking to students was the financial challenges that come with doing the practical part of your university degree. And students over there in the background mentioned it to me just a minute ago. One student told me that she had to delay or extend her degree for a year just because of the financial challenges of doing your prac and having enough money to put food on the table, to pay your bills. This is one of a whole suite of recommendations in the Universities Accord that we’re implementing. 

Another thing that came out of the Universities Accord was the reform that is needed to our HECS system, or what we used to call HECS – what we now call HELP – to student debt. Next week I’ll introduce two pieces of legislation into the Federal Parliament. The first cuts students debt by 20 per cent and the second one will cut funding to child care centres that aren’t up to scratch. 

On the first bill, this is something that we promised the Australian people during the election campaign – that we would cut the student debt of 3 million Australians by 20 per cent. It’s worth something in the order of $16 billion dollars. And for the average Australian with a student debt it will cut their debt by more than $5,500. It will take a lot of weight off the shoulders of a lot of young Australians who are just out of uni, just getting started, just getting on their feet looking to move out of home or save up to get a mortgage. That money taken off their HECS bill will make a world of difference. 

And the other bill that we’ll introduce next week, as I said, will cut funding from child care centres that aren’t up to scratch. This is something that we promised in the last week of Parliament before the election was called. We did that in response to the revelations that came out of the Four Corners exposé earlier this year about abuse and neglect in child care centres. 

The truth is that if we want real reform in early education and care, if we want every child care centre to pay attention to safety, to give it the priority that it needs and deserves, then the most powerful weapon the Federal Government has to wield here is money. Child care centres don’t work, don’t operate without the child care subsidy. It represents about 70 per cent of the funding that runs a child care centre. 

The purpose of this legislation isn’t to shut child care centres down, it’s to raise standards up. What it will do is set conditions on centres that if they don’t meet the sort of standards that parents expect and that our kids deserve, then funding will be suspended or removed entirely. And, as I said, the purpose of this is not to shut centres down but to lift standards up. It’s just one of the things that we need to do to improve the safety of children in our child care centres. 

Today I’m also releasing this document, which is a roadmap of some of the key reforms that we will roll out in education over the next 12 months. It doesn’t set out everything, but it sets out some of the key reforms, including this legislation to cut student debt by 20 per cent, including this legislation to cut funding to child care centres that aren’t up to scratch. But this year we will also introduce legislation to improve the integrity of the international education system and legislation to permanently establish an Australian Tertiary Education Commission. That and much more that’s needed to make our education system better and fairer and safer. 

Happy to take some questions. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, on child care, when can we expect to see a national child care worker register up and running, and what’s the process from here to establish that? 

CLARE: It’s a good question. I was asked this question this morning. Work is already underway on that. States and territories have agreed that we need one and we need to accelerate the work to stand that up. 

The first steps are what the states are taking now – Victoria has already said that it will augment its existing teacher register to include the educators that work in their centres. They think that they can do that over the course of the next few months. What we want to do is see all states build that up and then join it up. So that work is underway with states at the moment as well as the federal authority that’s responsible in this area, called ACECQA. 

JOURNALIST: You have acknowledged that the government has been too slow on child care reform. Who’s the minister responsible for that, and who do you hold responsible for the fact that it has been slow? 

CLARE: I’ve been pretty blunt. I’ve said that, yes, action has been taken but more action is needed and it needs to happen quicker. I don’t think Australian parents are interested in excuses here. They want action. And action requires all levels of government to work together and the industry to join in as well. 

Have a look at the revelations today that another 800 children have to get tested, blood tests and urine tests. Think about the anxiety that mums and dads are going through today, think about the trauma that kids are going to have to go through with all of that testing. 

Now, the company that runs those centres should have known where this bloke was and when he was working there. The Victorian Government is working as quickly as they can to track all of this down. But it highlights to me the importance of having a national database or a national register like the one you just asked in the previous question so you can track people down when they cross borders, when they move centres. 

JOURNALIST: And what point do you think it would become – you know, that particular case, that person moved around a lot. At what point do you think it would become suspicious if someone within the system was moving around a lot? 

CLARE: So conscious this is a live investigation, so let’s pose this question in general terms. 

JOURNALIST: Yeah. 

CLARE: If we build this register the right way it helps us to identify or prompt red flags when somebody is moving for the wrong reasons. There’ll be some times people who will move between centre and centre because they’re labour hire, but there may be instances where people are moving from centre to centre because they’re quietly being moved on. 

If the system works the way it needs to work, when something is not right, the police are called and the regulator comes in. And, if necessary, the centre is shut down. 

JOURNALIST: We’re hearing some parents demand that centres only have female staff. What do you think of that? 

CLARE: I think you might have asked me this question, Fiona, last week, there’s a bit of media about this. Have a look at the Four Corners evidence that shows that this is not just a problem with blokes. It’s a problem with women as well. We’ve had royal commissions. We’ve had the child safety review that I commissioned after that serial paedophile was arrested and convicted in Queensland. We know what we need to do here. In none of those reports did they recommend this. What they’re recommending is that register, they’re recommending national mandatory safety training so that the 99.9 per cent of people who work in our centres who are good, honest, hard-working people who love our kids and care for them and educate our kids have the skills they need to identify the person that’s up to no good, and things like CCTV so that we can deter bad people from doing bad things and help police when bad things happen. There’ll be individual centres that will talk to mums and dads about the way in which they operate in the system. But just cutting blokes out of it all together is not going to be the solution. 

JOURNALIST: Is it discrimination, Minister? 

CLARE: I don’t think there’s any example of any other profession in the country where it’s gender specific. The more important point I want to stress here is if we’re serious here about making sure that our kids are looked after and they’re safe, just identifying one gender is not the way to do it. 

JOURNALIST: And also just on a follow-up on this matter, parents have naturally lost confidence in the system because of what’s happened. Some parents are now opting for in-home care where grandparents or relatives look after kids. Would you ever envisage a situation where the government might subsidise something like that, where parents or grandparents got paid to look after their grandchildren or – 

CLARE: That’s not something the government is considering. 

What we want to make sure of is that the system is as safe as it needs to be. We want it to be affordable, we want it to be accessible, but most important of all we want our kids to be as safe as they possibly can be. 

Now, this is an essential service for mums and dads. There’s more than a million mums and dads out there today who are watching this, it might be in their own workplace. They might be working from home, but they know how important this is. They can’t live the lives that they’re living without this. But it’s also important for their kids, too. It’s providing them with the building blocks for the education they’re yet to have. 

If you ask principals and teachers at schools, they’ll tell you that they can identify the kids when they first arrive at primary school that have been in early education and care, whether it’s sitting up straight, whether it’s listening or whether it’s having those literacy and numeracy fundamentals. All of those things make them ready to learn. 

Now, at the moment there’s lots of kids in early education and care, but there’s some that are still missing out because they’re from really poor and disadvantaged backgrounds. And they start school already behind. So, we’ve got to make the system better. We’ve got to make the system fairer. But, most importantly, we need to make the system safer. 

JOURNALIST: Do you support Jillian Segal’s policies to withhold funding from universities if they fail to stop or address antisemitism? 

CLARE: So, we’re considering Jillian Segal’s report, the Special Envoy on antisemitism. I won’t respond today to those recommendations. But there are things that we are already doing in this space. I need to underline the point that there is no place for the poison of antisemitism in our universities. 

JOURNALIST: So, you won’t say whether you support – 

CLARE: Hang on. 

JOURNALIST: Sorry. 

CLARE: There’s no place for the poison of racism in all of its ugly and obnoxious forms in our universities or anywhere else. I’m not going to say today what our response to that recommendation will be. What I will say is we’ve taken a number of steps already. We’ve established a National Student Ombudsman for the first time so students that make complaints to their universities that are unheard have an independent person to complain to. And that ombudsman is up and running right now. 

Second is TEQSA, who is the higher education regulator, already has powers in this area, whether it’s to put conditions on universities or to apply to a court to impose fines on universities. There’s an open question about the powers that TEQSA has today and whether they should be changed. That’s something that is being considered right now as part of a broader review of university governance. 

The other thing I would say is that I don’t intend to look at this report in isolation. But next month the Government will receive a report from the Special Envoy in Combating Islamophobia, and so we wait to see what his recommendations will be. And broader than that, I’ve asked the Race Discrimination Commissioner to conduct a review of racism in our universities. The fact is it exists in our universities in all its ugly forms – ask Indigenous students, ask Islamic students, ask Asian students, ask international students, ask the people who work in our universities of different backgrounds, and they’ll tell you that it is real and that action is needed. 

Before we consider those recommendations to their final conclusion, I want to look at the recommendations of the Special Envoy on Islamophobia, and I also want to see the work of the Race Discrimination Commissioner. 

JOURNALIST: Just on that same topic, does that mean you probably won’t expect the Government’s response to those recommendations, including funding, until after those reports come down? And there were also some specific mentions of social media and growing antisemitism amongst young people because of social media. Would you back an awareness campaign or the report’s recommendation of a project to support trusted voices to publicly refute antisemitic views? 

CLARE: That’s a little outside my portfolio. I’d make the general point that social media plays a role here. It’s not the only reason, but one of the benefits of removing access to social media for young people under the age of 16 might be that less of this poison enters the ears and eyeballs of our young Australians. 

On your first question, we expect to see that report from the Special Envoy on Islamophobia next month. We’ll get the report from the Race Discrimination Commissioner later this year. But I do think I need to look at all of those reports that might make different recommendations here. I want to tackle racism in whatever form it comes. 

JOURNALIST: So, it would be a holistic response, not just addressing antisemitism? 

CLARE: There are recommendations in that report that apply to education. There’s recommendations that apply to other parts of government as well. 

JOURNALIST: So, it won’t be accepted in full, the recommendations? 

CLARE: I didn’t say that. Don’t put words in my mouth. 

JOURNALIST: At the same time, then? 

CLARE: I’m saying that we’re considering it carefully. We’ve got to consult as part of that. I want to see what the Special Envoy on Islamophobia has to say as well. I think that’s fair. I think that’s the right thing to do. But it’s not just antisemitism and it’s not just Islamophobia – ask Indigenous kids at university today and they’ll say, “well, don’t forget me.” 

JOURNALIST: So next month we’ll expect – 

CLARE: Next month, we’ll receive the report from the Special Envoy on Islamophobia. 

JOURNALIST: And then you’ll hand down – or you’ll say whether you adopt the recommendations? 

CLARE: Next month we’ll receive the report from the Special Envoy on Islamophobia. Later this year, we’ll get the report from the Race Discrimination Commissioner, which will look at this across the board. 

JOURNALIST: And I do have just one more on funding and then we can go back to child care. But there have been some comparisons of this funding issue to the Trump administration, what we’ve seen with Harvard and Columbia University. Is that really something that a Labor Government would consider doing – removing funding from a public institution? So, isn’t that kind of a gross overreach, as some people have said? 

CLARE: I’ll make no comment on that. Have a look at my previous answer. I made the point that TEQSA, the regulator, has powers here already. They’re different in kind to what’s being recommended in this report. But they enable TEQSA to go in and either put conditions on a university or to penalise them, to apply to a court to issue fines. There’s an open question about the role that TEQSA plays here. They’re already playing an important role in helping universities to lift their standards. I mentioned a couple of pieces of work that are ongoing in Government at the moment. There’s a separate piece of work on improving the governance of our universities generally. You would have seen reports today from chancellors, which I welcome, about how do we improve the way in which decisions are made about the remuneration of vice chancellors. That makes sense on its face to me, but that body that’s doing that work about the governance of our universities will present its recommendations to Government in October of this year. 

JOURNALIST: On that, can I just ask you – this is a bit outlandish – but do you think VCs are overpaid? 

CLARE: Well –

JOURNALIST: Given that 

CLARE: My answer to that is that I think it makes sense – I think it makes a lot of sense, the decisions around the pay of vice-chancellors to be considered by the Remuneration Tribunal. That’s what chancellors have suggested today. When you think about it, public universities are largely funded by public funds. Politicians’ salaries are set by the Remuneration Tribunal. So are the salaries of judges and public servants. But I will wait to see that report, which we’ll get in a couple of months, about reforms to the governance of universities, not just salaries of vice‑chancellors but also what more we need to do in areas of wage theft and making sure that everybody who works in universities are properly paid. And then broader reforms that they’re considering about the councils, the senates, the boards of universities, how they operate, who are represented on them, to make sure that our universities are fit for the future.

Our universities are incredibly important and they’re going to be more important tomorrow than they are today, just like TAFEs. When I was a kid less than 10 per cent of people had a university degree. Now it’s almost 50 per cent. We know that by the middle of this decade even more kids will go on to uni and more will go on to TAFE, and we’ve got to make sure that our whole tertiary education system is set up for them. And this is part of it. 

JOURNALIST: Oh, hi Minister Clare, just back to child care, we learned yesterday that accused paedophile Joshua Brown worked at an additional four daycare centres, bringing the total now to 23. My question is: does the casualised nature of the workforce pose risks to children? And how will a centralised system for monitoring workers that you have planned actually work? 

CLARE: This question gives me an opportunity to talk about the pay rise that’s rolling out for child care workers now. My older cousin has worked in the sector for 30 years. I remember when my eldest was first in child care I said, “how do I pick a good centre?” And she said, “find a place where the team has been there forever. Where they’re permanent and where they love working there and they all know each other, and they all know the kids.” Right. One of the benefits of paying people more is more people want to do the job. And we’ve seen already with the start of the rollout of the 15 per cent pay rise, more people applying to work in the sector and drop in vacancies. That’s going to help with that balance about permanency as well as casual workers. 

I really do worry that with all of the horror that mums and dads are experiencing that people who work in this sector are just as angry and just as horrified with what they’re seeing and that a lot of people are feeling like there’s a target on their back and that they might not want to work here. We need good people in this sector more than ever, and this pay rise is one part of that. 

In terms of how the register will work, that’s something that my Department is working with state and territory departments on right now. We’ve agreed that we need to do it. We’re working on the system and how it should work. I talked about setting it up and joining it up. And this will be one of the things that’s considered when education ministers meet for a standalone meeting on child safety next month. 

JOURNALIST: Can I ask one more question about the Segal recommendations? 

CLARE: Sure. 

JOURNALIST: Former Labor Minister Ed Husic today came out and sort of told the Government not to be too heavy-handed, is how he put it, in responding to the antisemitism crisis. Do you have any thoughts on that? And do you think the report enacted in full would be too heavy-handed? 

CLARE: It may be an opportunity to say that Ed’s a great bloke and he’s one of my best mates, and I take his counsel and advice all the time. And I think you can see from my answer today that this is something that we’re going to give careful consideration to, having a look at it not in isolation but having a look at racism in all its ugly forms across our universities and across our community.

JOURNALIST: Is this something that you think that federal resources should be used to police, when it comes to universities and how they deal with these things? 

CLARE: Sorry, Fi, just explain a little. 

JOURNALIST: Is it – so when we’re talking about universities dealing with antisemitism and other related issues, should federal resources be used to monitor how they’re going with that? 

CLARE: They already are. They already are. When you think about the decision that I made and that I got states to agree to set up the student ombudsman, it was very much about that. It wasn’t just about that. All of the horrific evidence that came to me when I first got this position about the sexual assault and harassment of particularly female students in our universities, in particular, in student accommodation, made me believe that action was required, and action was taken. And that’s why that ombudsman was set up. 

That involves, I think more than $50 million dollars of taxpayer money, Commonwealth money, to set that agency up, to set that ombudsman up. And we’ve given that ombudsman real teeth so that when she makes a recommendation universities have to implement it. There’ll be legislation I’ll re-introduce into the parliament around that as well when parliament returns. 

The investment that we’ve made to ask the Race Discrimination Commissioner to conduct a review into respect at unis, into racism in our universities, I think is evidence that I do believe the Commonwealth has a role here to make sure that our universities are safe places too, that many don’t feel afraid to go to uni. We want more people to want to study at uni. These are places where people study, work and live. They’ve got to be as safe as they possibly can be. There is no place for any type of racism in our country, whether it’s in our unis or anywhere else. 

JOURNALIST: Dom, anything from you? 

JOURNALIST: Yes, thank you. Just want to go back to the HECS stuff. 

CLARE: Sure, mate. 

JOURNALIST: And ask: with the introduction of the legislation next week, after that, when can we expect the next tranche of university reforms from the Accord? Do you have – is HECS still the focus of that tranche in terms of, you know, how it’s indexed, some other tweaks that can be made, will that be looked at soon? 

CLARE: Thanks for the question. It’s an opportunity for me to explain in a little bit more detail the bill that will go in next week. 

Number one, it will cut student debt by 20 per cent, but it will also make structural changes to the way HECS, or student debt operates. It will increase the amount of money you have to earn before you start paying off HECS from 54,000 to I think it’s about $67,000. 

So, in other words, you don’t start paying off your university degree until your degree starts to pay off for you. And it makes an even more important structural change to the way in which you pay off the debt. It will effectively reduce the amount that you have to pay off each and every year when you’re on a low income. 

So, the best way to explain that is if you’re on an income of $70,000 today, when this legislation passes it will reduce the minimum amount you have to repay every year by about $1,300. So that’s a real cost of living benefit for a lot of people that are on very modest incomes. 

JOURNALIST: Just a two-parter then, still on HECS: in terms of has any modelling been done that by raising that people are worse off in the long term? For example, less payments equals more money that then gets indexed each year, so if you don’t reach that threshold, you know, for three more years, you’ve got a higher HECS debt that gets indexed and it kind of compounds? 

CLARE: Okay, that’s an important opportunity to make the point that this is a minimum repayment. There is nothing that stops or will stop people from making additional repayments if they choose to do so.

JOURNALIST: And then the indexation – sorry, just to clarify – the indexation I was referring to was how HECS, the money gets taken out every month, but then it gets only subtracted, I think, from the debt at the end of each year, or in June or something like that. So, indexation is applied. 

CLARE: Okay. 

JOURNALIST: Is that what you’re looking at as well? Is that part of the next tranche? 

CLARE: So, in last year’s budget we announced part 1 of our response to the Universities Accord. This is a blueprint for the next decade. It’s a big report with a lot of recommendations. We have implemented now in part or in full about 31 of those recommendations. But over the – in part with the support of the Tertiary Education Commission, which has now been established in an interim reform a week or so ago, we will now look at other recommendations in that report and what the next steps need to be in reforming our higher education system, in making it better and fairer. And in the report, I released today, it touches on some of those things. 

One of them, which is not the sexiest thing – it won’t make the front page of the paper – but it’s a structural change which is going to be very important is changing the way we fund our universities. That will start from January of next year. And the introduction for the first time ever of real needs-based funding for our universities. 

Last year I struck agreements with every state and territory to fix the funding of our public schools on a needs-basis, like David Gonski said we should all those years ago. Now we want to apply the same sort of model to our universities, so funding follows the students and more students from disadvantaged backgrounds, from the outer suburbs of our cities, from our regions who need more support to not just start a degree but finish a degree get it. 

JOURNALIST: And that includes the Jobs Ready Graduate Scheme? 

CLARE: That’s something we’re asking ATEC to have a look at. All right. Thank you.

ENDS

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

Source:

A once much-loved winery at Nichols Point which was recently destroyed by fire has greatly impacted the local community.

Around 11pm on Wednesday 9 July, CFA responded to a structure fire on Ginquam Avenue in Nichols Point.

Crews arrived to find the winery well alight and worked hard to suppress the fire.

CFA had eight units on scene from Irymple, Mildura, and Red Cliffs, supported by two Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) crews.

Incident Controller and Captain of Irymple Fire Brigade Andrew Millen said the incident was complex and challenging.

“On arrival the external walls had fallen in as well as the roof,” he said.

“We requested additional resources because we knew we were in for a long fire fight.

“The weather was also a challenge; it was sleeting with rain and a very strong wind.”

Inside the premises were also some vintage cars and several pianos.

The venue was a popular local spot and the impact of the fire will be felt in the community.

Andrew said the incident required a strategic, dynamic plan to be implemented and as a result of this approach crews from CFA and FRV worked together to bring the fire under control. 

“It was a great team effort for all involved,” he said.

“The fire was in Irymple’s primary area of response, however given its size and complexity we were really well supported by FRV and surrounding CFA brigades.”

The incident was declared under control at 12.14am Thursday and safe at 10.58am Friday 11 July.

The fire was not suspicious and was deemed accidental.

Submitted by	CFA Media

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

The Northern Territory Police Force has charged a 23-year-old female after a vehicle was stolen from the Katherine Showgrounds last night.

About 10:30pm, the Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre (JESCC) received reports of a silver Toyota Hilux being stolen from the showgrounds while the owner was unloading items from the rear of the vehicle.

Police members responded and observed the vehicle on Murray Street a short time later. A pursuit was commenced with the stolen vehicle and shortly terminated for safety reasons.

About 12am, the JESCC received reports of a burglary at a café on Katherine Terrace. It is alleged a number of offenders forced entry and stole various items before fleeing in the silver Hilux. Police observed the vehicle travelling on Chambers Drive and attempted a traffic apprehension. A pursuit was initiated after the vehicle failed to stop; however, it was terminated not long after for safety reasons.

Police CCTV Operators observed the vehicle travelling north over the Katherine high level bridge at 4:55am. All units coordinated an apprehension plan and tyre deflation devices were successfully deployed about 5:10am, on the high level bridge.

The stolen motor vehicle was recovered on Riverbank Drive and police arrested a 23-year-old female as she exited the vehicle. The female was charged with Drive a motor vehicle without consent and she was bailed to appear in Katherine Local Court on 28 August 2025.

Strike Force Cerberus has carriage of the investigation, and several alleged offenders remain outstanding.

Acting Superintendent Warren Scott said “With the significant influx of people in Katherine this weekend for the show, we’ve increased our local police presence to ensure the safety and enjoyment of all.

“Our officers will have a visible presence at the showgrounds and around licensed venues in the CBD to support a fun and secure environment for both locals and visitors alike.”

Anyone with information in relation to this incident is urged to contact police on 131 444. Please reference job number P25189674.

Anonymous reports can also be made via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.