Category: MIL-OSI

Source: Tasmania Police

Police investigate suspicious house fire in Invermay overnight

Thursday, 18 December 2025 – 11:07 am.

Police are investigating a suspicious house fire at a residence in New St Invermay overnight.Crews from Tasmania Fire Service were called to the scene about 8.15pm, where they found that a fire had been lit on the exterior of the unit and had tracked inside.Fire was controlled quickly, minimizing damage to the unit,The unit was unoccupied at the time of the fire.TFS investigators deemed the fire to be deliberately lit and the matter has been handed to Tasmania Police for investigation.Anyone with information, or dash cam or CCTV of anyone acting suspiciously in the area just prior to the fire, should contact Launceston Criminal Investigation Branch on 131444.You can also report to Crime Stoppers on 1800333000 or crimestopperstas.com.au, You can remain anonymous.

Source: New South Wales Ministerial News

From 2026 parents and carers will need to enrol their children for local three and four-year-old kinder programs through the City of Greater Bendigo.

City of Greater Bendigo Community and Environmental Health Manager Sue Harrison said the City will undertake responsibility for the Central Registration and Enrolment Scheme (CRES) for local kindergarten programs from January to ensure families have a streamlined and equitable process for enrolling their children in early learning.

“The service is currently provided by Loddon Mallee Preschool Association under a contract with the City.  This contract is ending and the City has decided to bring enrolments back in-house,” Ms Harrison said.

“By bringing the Central Registration and Enrolment Scheme back in-house, the City will be able to better support local families and providers and use data to plan for future needs.

“The transition will also strengthen the City’s role in supporting early years development and other programs run by the City.

“Central enrolment helps families navigate the process with confidence and ensures children have the best start in life.

“The City acknowledges and thanks LMPA for their significant contribution in delivering this important service to families across Greater Bendigo for many years.

In Victoria all three and four year old children get funded kinder, saving families significant costs.

From 2026, the City will manage enrolments for 25 stand-alone kindergartens across Greater Bendigo and approximately 30 long day care kindergarten programs.  There will be a total of 1,756 kindergarten places in stand-alone kindergartens and 256 kindergarten sessions will be delivered across Greater Bendigo.

The City will accept online enrolments from late January via its website.

For more information email or phone:

[email protected]

5434 6352

Source: Australian Ministers for Regional Development

The ACCC has decided to oppose Yamaha Motor Australia Pty Ltd’s proposed acquisition of Telwater Pty Ltd. This decision follows an in-depth investigation that found the proposed acquisition is likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition in the wholesale supply of outboard motors in Australia.

The ACCC is concerned that the lessening of competition resulting from the proposed acquisition is likely to leave consumers with lower quality and higher prices, as well as fewer choices of outboard motor brands. 

Telwater is the market leader, with a market share of approximately 60 per cent to 70 per cent in the manufacture and supply of aluminium trailer boats in Australia through its Quintrex, Stacer and Yellowfin brands. Yamaha is the leading supplier of outboard motors.

“This acquisition is likely to significantly disadvantage rival outboard motor suppliers in competing effectively with Yamaha,” ACCC Commissioner Dr Philip Williams said.

“Our investigation found that a combined Yamaha/Telwater would likely have both the ability and incentive to leverage Telwater’s significant market position in aluminium trailer boats into the outboard motors market. This may arise by the combined Yamaha/Telwater requiring or incentivising dealers that stock Telwater aluminium trailer boats to also sell Yamaha outboard motors by adopting a bundling or tying strategy.”

“We are concerned that bundling or tying the supply of Telwater boats to Yamaha outboard motors would lead many dealers who currently sell Telwater aluminium trailer boats and non-Yamaha outboard motors to switch some or all of their outboard motor purchases to Yamaha,” Dr Williams said.

“As a result, competing outboard motor suppliers would likely face a material loss of wholesale sales and higher costs of distributing their products to end customers. Competing outboard motor suppliers that lose access to the Telwater dealer network would then likely face significant difficulty and increased costs in re-establishing or expanding their presence in Australia.”

“This would have the likely effect of substantially lessening competition,” Dr Williams said.  

The ACCC’s assessment principally focussed on the impact of the proposed acquisition on a national market for the wholesale supply of outboard motors in Australia. Competition concerns may also arise in specific local markets.

Further information can be found on the ACCC’s public register: Yamaha Motor Australia Pty Ltd – Telwater Pty Ltd | ACCC.

Notes to editors

‘Outboard motors’ are standalone systems that are installed to the outside hull of the boat, as opposed to inboard motors which are installed inside the boat’s hull and used for larger boats.

Trailer boats are small marine vessels that can be fitted to a trailer for easy transportation and generally range between two to nine metres in length. Trailer boats can be made from various materials, with the most common being aluminium or fibreglass.

Aluminium boats are primarily used for recreational boating in Australia. Aluminium boats are generally lighter, more durable and generally less expensive than fibreglass boats.

Aluminium boats and outboard motors are complementary products, often purchased by consumers together. The complementary nature of these products is highly relevant to the ACCC’s competition assessment, which tests whether the merged firm would have the ability and incentive to link the two products and the competitive effects of a linking strategy. Bundling and tying are two key ways products can be linked.

Bundling involves selling two (or more) products at a single price. This could involve the merged entity offering significant targeted discounts on Telwater boat/Yamaha motor packages to dealers, potentially combined with higher ‘standalone’ prices for Telwater boats. This practice would incentivise dealers to limit their sales of rival outboard motors.

Tying involves making the purchase of one product (the tying product) conditional on the purchase of another product (the tied product). This could involve the merged entity requiring dealers that purchase Telwater aluminium trailer boats to also become a Yamaha outboard motor dealer and contractually restricting the dealer from selling competing outboard motor brands.

More information on how the ACCC considers conglomerate effects can be found in section four of the ACCC’s Merger Assessment Guidelines.

Background

Yamaha is proposing to acquire 100 per cent of the shares of Telwater from Bombardier Recreation Products Inc (BRP), alongside a property in Coomera, Queensland used to manufacture, fit and warehouse aluminium trailer boats.

The ACCC previously outlined its preliminary concerns with the proposed acquisition in its Statement of Issues in October 2025.

Trailer boats are generally used for leisure activities, such as fishing and cruising. Recreational trailer boats typically use an outboard motor.

Yamaha Motor Company Ltd (YMC) manufactures outboard motors in Asia, primarily in Japan, which are then imported into Australia by its wholly owned subsidiary, Yamaha Motor Australia Pty Ltd (Yamaha). Yamaha supplies the outboard motors to dealers (retailers) Australia wide. Dealers then supply the outboard motors to end-customers.

Yamaha does not manufacture boats in Australia. YMC subsidiaries manufacture trailer boats overseas for various international markets. Yamaha and a related business have supplied a small number of these trailer boats to dealers in Australia, primarily via a third party Australian distributor. Yamaha also owns the trademarks for a small number of aluminium trailer boat and trailer brands, which were previously licensed to a third party manufacturer and are not currently in use. Yamaha does not supply trailers for boats in Australia.

Telwater manufactures aluminium trailer boats and trailers in Australia and supplies them to dealers, who then sell to end customers. Telwater currently supplies three lines of trailer boats: Quintrex, Stacer and Yellowfin branded boats.

Telwater supplies custom-fitted trailers that are sold together with its boats (branded under Telwater), or loose trailers (under the brand name ‘Move’) that can be used for any trailer boat. Telwater also supplies a limited number of outboard motors to dealers as part of a package with a Telwater boat and also potentially a trailer. Telwater is a non-exclusive distributor of Mercury outboard motors, with Mercury also supplying its outboard motors to dealers itself and via other wholesalers. Telwater also supplies a very small number of Rotax outboard motors (which are manufactured and distributed by BRP), as part of a package with some of its boats.

Source: Australia Government Statements 2

Bridget Brennan, Host: Well, as more details come out about the men behind Sunday’s terror attack, there are calls for urgent change. And Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Matt Thistlethwaite joins us now from Sydney. Good morning, Minister. Thanks very much for joining us on News Breakfast.

Matt Thistlethwaite, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade: Good morning, Bridget.

Brennan: Understandably, there is so much anguish in the community right now and there’s starting to be some anger as well directed towards your government. Is it true that you didn’t do enough to prevent this attack?

Assistant Minister: Look, we certainly appreciate that Australians, and particularly members of the Jewish community are angry. They’re mourning, they’re grieving. And I’m certainly there to support the Jewish community in my electorate. I’ve had several meetings with Jewish leaders. I’ve been attending events with them and vigils. We have strengthened our laws to try and combat antisemitism in Australia. But we do know that there is more work to do and over the coming days and weeks, there will be a package of measures that we will look to introduce that will strengthen our laws that will fight antisemitism and ensure that we protect not only the Jewish community, but all Australians into the future.

Brennan: So, let’s get some more information on that package of measures, because I think what the community is really after is specific responses, concrete responses and more information about what the government is planning. Can you outline any of the measures you plan to take?

Assistant Minister: Well, we’ve already strengthened hate speech laws in Australia, particularly those that lead to violence. We’ve criminalised the use of Nazi symbols, criminalised doxing. We’ve taken measures to upgrade security at Jewish institutions throughout the country. We’ve implemented some of the key points in the Jillian Segal report, but there’s more to do with that and that will be the foundation of the further work. The Prime Minister has already announced that work’s begun on gun law reform that will be an important part of it. And of course, we’ll have a look at our migration settings to make sure that they’re appropriate and that they can weed out and stop people who have antisemitic or racist views that may incite violence into Australia and ensure that people like that can’t migrate to our country.

Brennan: Just turning back to the Segal report, obviously when it came out, there was emphatic support for the report from some Jewish organisations, from other sectors and some other organisations. There was some reticence as to some of the recommendations. Do you anticipate that you will adopt that full report recommendations in full, or are you going to have to go, you know, line by line recommendation, recommendation? It has been six months, so it’s been a while since there’s been a proper response?

Assistant Minister: Yeah, we’ve already adopted many of the recommendations, particularly the law reform recommendations, some of the educational recommendations and certainly the security measures. There are a number that we’re working through at the moment and some of them do require the cooperation and support of the states and territories. For instance, the changes to the education curriculum they require the support of the states and territories. So, we’re working to achieve that and ensure that early in the new year that we’re implementing some of those changes that are recommended. But aside from that, if there’s anything further that we need to do, we’re certainly working with Jewish community leaders at the moment to look at what further needs to be done to ensure that we bolster our antisemitic laws, laws that combat antisemitism in Australia and ensure that we’re protecting not only the Jewish community, the Australian community as well.

Brennan: Do you agree with former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s comments that the Prime Minister needs to take direct responsibility for this attack?

Assistant Minister: Look, Josh is a mate. We entered the Parliament at around the same time. We served on committees together. I’ve got a lot of respect for Josh, and as a leading member of the Jewish community, I understand, certainly understand his grief and his anger at the moment. And I want to work with Josh. My message to Josh is, mate, let’s try and work together. I want to reach out to members of the Coalition on the package of reforms that we’ll bring to the Parliament around all these measures to try and work together. I think that we owe that to the Jewish community to bring national unity and to work in the interests of them and all Australians so this never happens again.

Brennan: I’ll just return to the question, Minister. Do you think the Prime Minister needs to take direct, personal responsibility for the attack, as Mr. Frydenberg suggested?

Assistant Minister: Well, the Prime Minister certainly has been showing leadership and support for the Jewish community. He was the Prime Minister that led the motion in the Parliament in the wake of October 7th that strongly condemned the attacks by Hamas that supported Israel’s right to defend itself and said that we stood with the people, Jewish people of Australia. That’s never changed. The Prime Minister I’ve known for 30 years, he is a man that is deeply committed to combating antisemitism and to combating racism in Australia. And he’s led a government that have delivered the strongest laws that we’ve ever had to try and stop that. But of course, we know that there is more work to do and that is why we are working with the leadership of the Jewish community to understand what they want and to ensure that we put in place the laws that ensure that this never happens again in Australia.

Brennan: Alright, we’ll leave it there. Thank you very much, Matt Thistlethwaite, for your time this morning.

Assistant Minister: Thanks, Bridget.

Source: Victoria Country Fire Authority

Source: Victoria Country Fire Authority

The CFA community is mourning the loss of a dedicated and influential member, Roger Walker AFSM, a man whose name is imbedded in both the history of Kyneton Fire Brigade and the wider Coliban Group.

Submitted by	CFA Media

Source: New South Wales Ministerial News

Due to major upgrade works being undertaken through the Victorian Government’s Regional Sports Infrastructure Program, the Bendigo Showgrounds in Holmes Road North Bendigo will be unavailable as a Bushfire Place of Last Resort (also known as a Neighbourhood Safer Place) should bushfire threaten this summer.

Other Bushfire Places of Last Resort in Greater Bendigo are located at:

• Axedale Primary School Oval, 81 High Street Axedale
• Lansell Square Shopping Centre car park, Calder Highway Kangaroo Flat
• Queen Elizabeth Oval, View Street Bendigo
• Canterbury Park car park and events area, Simpsons Road Eaglehawk
• Maiden Gully Primary School, basketball courts, Carolyn Way
• Lord’s Raceway, McIvor Highway Junortoun
• Strathfieldsaye Community Hub – Club Court (JG Edwards Oval east of cricket pitch to Uxbridge Street)
• Dower Park, Station Street Kangaroo Flat
• Redesdale Recreation Reserve oval, Corner Moylans Road and Kyneton-Heathcote Road
• Holy Rosary Primary School oval, 18 Pohlman Street Heathcote

City of Greater Bendigo Climate Change and Environment Manager Michelle Wyatt said people who would normally choose the Bendigo Showgrounds as a Place of Last Resort should instead consider using the Queen Elizabeth Oval in View Street Bendigo or the Canterbury Park Car Park off Simpsons Road Eaglehawk.

“These two sites are the closest to the Bendigo Showgrounds,” said Ms Wyatt.

“Bushfire Places of Last Resort are a place of last resort in a bushfire emergency and should only be used if all other plans have failed.

“They should not be considered as places to relocate to when leaving early and Emergency Services and other support agencies will not be in place to provide assistance.

“If you choose to shelter at a Bushfire Place of Last Resort you will need to take your own food and water, protective clothing, pet food, a mobile phone, radio, first aid and medications.”

Source: Australian Capital Territory – State Government

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Source: Australian Ministers for Regional Development

The ACCC has accepted a court enforceable undertaking from Golf Imports Pty Ltd after the golf equipment supplier admitted to engaging in resale price maintenance by prohibiting retailers from selling its products below a set price, in breach of Australian competition law.

Golf Imports is an Australian importer and wholesaler that supplies well-known brands such as Callaway to prominent golf retailers including Drummond Golf, GolfBox, and Golf World.

Golf Imports admitted that between April 2022 and July 2025, it included clauses in documents published on Golf Imports’ website that prohibited retailers from advertising their products below Golf Imports’ specified price.

Under Australian competition law, it is illegal for suppliers to prevent, or attempt to prevent, resellers from advertising or selling goods or services below a specified minimum price. This conduct is known as resale price maintenance.

“Price competition is a fundamental part of our market economy, and central to that is retailers being able to set their prices as they see fit,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said. 

“Resale price maintenance can keep prices higher than they otherwise would be and cause significant consumer harm, particularly at a time of increased cost of living pressure.”

“Suppliers should be aware that any attempt to engage in resale price maintenance could result in ACCC enforcement action, including court proceedings where appropriate,” Ms Lowe said.

The illegal clauses that prohibited retailers from advertising the price of products for an amount that was less than the price Golf Imports had specified were contained in Golf Imports’ Online Policy and Supply Agreement. 

These clauses stated that Golf Imports would suspend or terminate the retailer’s  ability to advertise or sell any goods supplied by Golf Imports if the retailer did not comply with this pricing restriction.  Golf Imports did not take further steps to enforce those clauses after they were published on its website.

Golf Imports’ undertaking, which is in effect for three years, requires it to remove all relevant clauses from its online policy and supply agreement, communicate these changes to its customers, and implement a compliance program. 

A copy of the undertaking is available at here: Golf Imports Pty Ltd

Background

Golf Imports was established in 2006. Its product guide contains over 100 pages of products, stocking several well-known golf brands including Callaway. Golf Imports is the exclusive Australian distributor of products by Izzo Golf, Infiniti Golf and Golf Pride.

It is illegal for businesses of any size to impose minimum prices for the resale of their goods or services. For example, suppliers must not:

• set minimum prices in formal policies or agreements;
• offer retailers a discount if they sell at or above a minimum price;
• refuse to supply retailers that sell below a minimum price; or
• punish retailers for selling below a set price, for example, by taking away a discount or sending a warning.

In December 2023, the Federal Court ordered power tool supplier, Techtronic, to pay penalties totalling $15 million after it admitted it had engaged in resale price maintenance conduct.

Further information relating to minimum resale prices can be found on the ACCC’s website: Minimum resale prices

Source: Australia Government Statements 2

Julia Bradley, Reporter: Also joining me now is Matt Thistlethwaite. He’s the Assistant Immigration and Foreign Affairs Minister. Matt, thank you for joining us on Sky News. You’re well aware of this, there is white hot anger in the community about the Albanese Government’s moves so far on the issue of antisemitism. People say not enough has been done and Jewish Australians have been failed here. What is your response to that?

Matt Thistlethwaite, Assistant Minster for Foreign Affairs and Trade: Well, I respect the Jewish community. I’ve got a very strong Jewish community in my area that I’m working very closely with. We’re wrapping our arms around them at the moment and trying to support them as much as we can. Our government’s strengthened laws to combat antisemitism, but we know that we’ve got more work to do. And in the coming days and weeks we’ll bring some new measures to Parliament to combat antisemitism, to reform gun laws, to look at migration, to make sure that we’re doing all we can to ensure that this never happens in Australia again.

Bradley: The Prime Minister chose the antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segel. She put out recommendations to fix this issue. They haven’t all been adopted. Why?

Assistant Minister: We’ve adopted many of them —

Bradley: Why not all of them?

Assistant Minister: The strengthening legal aspects of that recommendations have been adopted. The educational changes are being adopted and we’re working through the remaining recommendations. But in the coming days and weeks we will provide an update and we’ll get onto working through the Parliament to adopt as many of those key points in that document as possible.

Bradley: Why the lag on this? I mean, she’s been appointed as the expert in this area. We’ve seen the worst terror attack in Australia’s history. Now, why the delay?

Assistant Minister: Well, we haven’t delayed. We’ve been. We’ve been adopting those recommendations and there’s —

Bradley: Been a delay in implementing them in full.

Assistant Minister: We’ve been implementing them. Many of them require the cooperation of the states and territories and we’re working through that, particularly the changes to the education system, the national curriculum, to ensure that we’re educating children about the Holocaust, about antisemitism and what it looks like and how to combat it. They take time because you’re changing the education curriculum and you need to do that with the state. So, we’re working through that and we’re delivering those outcomes on another front.

Bradley: One of the recommendations was antisemitism needs to be rooted out if you’re going to make someone a citizen here in Australia, need to be implemented as a priority.

Assistant Minister: Yeah. We’ll certainly look at the migration settings to make sure that no one who has antisemitic views comes to Australia and migrates to Australia. The challenge is how you identify that. And we’ll make sure that we’re working to strengthen those laws to ensure that people who hold antisemitic views or even racist views generally don’t come to Australia.

Bradley: We know that one of those alleged gunmen, Naveed, was being looked at by ASIO a long time before all of this happened, and a long time before his dad was also granted a gun licence. Has ASIO failed here? Should they take some of the blame? Has there been a weakness here?

Assistant Minister: Well, I have every confidence in our security and intelligence services. They got the largest budget that they’ve ever had. They did identify one of the gunmen in 2019. They cast some scrutiny over him in association with others that he was consorting with —

Bradley: Why did that fall through the cracks? Why wasn’t an eye kept on him?

Assistant Minister: Well, ASIO make these decisions and they make decisions based on the intelligence that they have. But we remain confident in the work of ASIO. I think it’s important to point out through Operation Avalite that when ASIO indicated to our government that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was involved in antisemitic attacks here in Australia, our government acted within hours to expel the Iranian ambassador and to proscribe that group a terrorist organisation.

Bradley: Does there need to be a bolstering of ASIO’s resources?

Assistant Minister: Well, ASIO has the largest budget that it has ever had. So, we’ve bolstered ASIO’s resources to make sure that they have the tools and the staff and the personnel to make sure that they identify these things in the future.

Bradley: On the Prime Minister, I’ve seen some chatter on social media about people being angry. He hasn’t gone to visit the victims of this Bondi tragedy. We saw him in hospital with Ahmed Al Ahmed, that hero who stepped in to disarm one of the gunmen. Why hasn’t he visited the people who’ve been injured in this massacre?

Assistant Minister: Well, I understand that the Prime Minister has visited victims in hospital and I’ve spent the last two nights with the Prime Minister at events with the Jewish community. We met with leaders of the Jewish community at a Chanukah vigil at the Governor-General’s residence on Tuesday evening. Last night we were at ecumenical service at St. Mary’s Cathedral where the Prime Minister spoke of his support for the Jewish community and said that all Australians stand with the Jewish community. So, we’re working as hard as we can with the Jewish community to make sure that they get the support that they need to get through this difficult time.

Bradley: Police in the UK are moving to ban “globalise the intifada”. Is that something Australia would do?

Assistant Minister: Yeah. We’ve certainly strengthened the hate speech laws, particularly where they incite violence. And I think people need to realise that comments such as that the river to the sea, they’re antisemitic and they have to stop. And particularly over the coming months. I think the Premier’s right. We need a summer of calm and people shouldn’t seek to use this conflict in the Middle east to drive division and hatred here in Australia.

Bradley: So, we can expect more arrests in Australia regarding those chants of that nature?

Assistant Minister: We’ve certainly strengthened the laws. We’ve made it a crime now to chant things that incite violence here —

Bradley: Will those laws be enacted? Are you confident there will be arrests?

Assistant Minister: Yeah. Well, there’s been arrests that have been made and we’ll make sure that the police have the necessary resources to ensure that they’re combating anti Semitism and any race in our community when it comes to hate speech.

Bradley: Last question. I know you’ve got to go. Hate preachers. There are allegations that one of those, you know, alleged gunmen was influenced by hate preachers. What is the Albanese Government going to do about this?

Assistant Minister: Well, we’ve already strengthened those laws to make it a crime to preach hate that incites violence. And we’ll provide the resources to the security and intelligence agencies, to the police to make sure that people are arrested and prosecuted if they do spew and preach hate that incites violence here in Australia.

Bradley: Matt Thistlethwaite, thank you for your time.

Assistant Minister: Thank you.