For years everyone has been dancing around Trump’s unpredictability, his bullying and his threats. It’s past time to reassert our values

A 500-year-old Buddha statue that was found buried by a roadside in Australia has been returned to China, leaving an ongoing mystery about how it arrived in the country.

The 15cm (six-inch) bronze figurine was formally handed over to Chinese consular representatives during a ceremony in the coastal town of Denham in Shark Bay on Tuesday, the public broadcaster ABC reported.

It will be taken to China for further evaluation to establish its history before being displayed at a museum in Beijing.

Discoverers Leon Deschamps and Shayne Thomson unearthed the statue in 2018 while testing metal detecting equipment in the area.

Since then, they have said it should be returned to China as a gesture of goodwill.

Simon Wu, president of the Australia China Friendship Society Western Australia, described the return as extraordinarily generous.

“Today is an example of how we can bring cultures, countries and people together through a small object. It is showing respect and goodwill,” Wu told the repatriation ceremony.

The figurine – believed to be the oldest Chinese artefact ever found in Australia – was used in ceremonies celebrating the Buddha’s birthday. During the ritual, worshippers would pour water over the statue’s shoulders while chanting sutras to encourage good deeds and compassionate thoughts.

Asian art specialist Lee Young authenticated the statue as a genuine piece from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), but how it ended up in Australia remains a mystery.

Some media reports have claimed that it may have been carried on the treasure ships of the celebrated 15th century seafarer Zheng He – but there is no evidence that he ever reached Australia.

A more plausible theory is that the statue arrived with Chinese pearlers and fishermen in the 19th century.

Shark Bay became the birthplace of Western Australia’s pearling industry, which relied heavily on Malay, Chinese and Indigenous Australian labourers.

According to Western Australian Museum records, an 1886 census showed that more than 200 people were working in the local pearling industry, including 60 Europeans, 102 Chinese and 68 Malays.

That year, 68 pearling vessels were operating in the area, seven of which were Chinese-owned. However, the industry declined in subsequent years and the local authorities imposed a series of restrictions on Chinese immigration.

The ABC reported that the Buddha would be returned to China along with some of Shark Bay’s distinctive red earth and a golden pearl shell.

In 2023, Australia returned a batch of valuable cultural relics to China, including items seized by customs, as well as pieces donated by the National Gallery of Australia and a private citizen.

"It's good when the dingoes eat cats, because they are killing our precious animals, like the Greater Bilby and desert mouse," Ms Hunter said.

...

A single feral cat roaming in the desert kills more than 700 small animals per year, according to WA's Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.

The four-second CCTV video of Katie Arthur appears unremarkable.

The 30-year-old Melbourne woman is standing in front of an elevator wearing a black hat, a long black coat, blue jeans and white sneakers.

She is clutching her handbag when she presses the call button on the lift.

At her feet are two large flatpack boxes for recycling from the three single beds she just assembled inside an apartment she leases to international students at a CBD tower.

It is only when you know where she is coming from and what allegedly took place that the fuller picture emerges.

Ms Arthur has been drugged, raped and photographed in a compromised state, she claims, and is struggling to collect her thoughts.

The rest of the boxes are still inside the apartment. The fact that she collected any is a window into her confused state.

“F**k you, you can get the rest,” she told the man before fleeing.

Her alleged attacker is not far behind her when she reaches the lobby and bumps into another tenant. He catches up to her while she is talking to the other individual.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Hi Kate’, like really smug. I was just fuming,” Ms Arthur says.

The alleged attack, which took place earlier this year, was the beginning of a nightmare for the Melbourne accommodation provider that has seen her alleged attacker flee the country and left her with limited prospects of achieving justice.

Ms Arthur, who gave news.com.au written permission to be identified, said the man who raped her is a “monster” and that his attack was calculated and extremely cruel.

But what happened next made things so much worse.

News.com.au has viewed the WhatsApp messages from the man Ms Arthur says drugged and raped her that afternoon inside the short-term accommodation.

For legal reasons — and because charges were never laid — he cannot be named, but news.com.au can reveal he was a Mexican student studying at the University of Melbourne and was living with several other Mexican temporary citizens at the time.

The man first made contact with Ms Arthur in the first half of this year when she received a text message inquiring about an apartment for rent in Melbourne.

“I knew it was a Mexican phone number because I’d had Mexican tenants before,” Ms Arthur said.

The man wanted to know whether he and five others could rent an apartment from Ms Arthur in the CBD. Lease documents were signed and the group arrived several weeks later when Ms Arthur gave them a tour of the complex.

Four days after, Ms Arthur dropped off several chairs at the apartment at the tenants’ request. The group was having a gathering and she knew several of the tenants. She stayed for an hour and had two drinks.

Over several days, the man and Ms Arthur texted back and forth about a time for her to assemble three single beds inside the apartment.

“When I’m I (sic) going to see you?” the man wrote.

“I can come and do the beds whenever you like,” Ms Arthur responded.

“Tomorrow. Like 2pm,” the man wrote.

The following day, Ms Arthur asked if he was “still good for 2?” and told him she was “10 or so mins away”.

He replied, saying the group was “really hungry” and would be getting some food. He invited her, but she told him to “head out and just leave the door open”.

“I’ll do the beds then come join,” she said.

Ms Arthur has documented what happened next in a formal statement to Victoria Police. She said the man returned to the apartment without the other tenants and offered her a drink before opening a bottle of red wine.

She reluctantly took a few sips before returning to assemble the flatpack furniture. Ms Arthur says the man began asking personal questions, including whether she had “used Tinder before”.

“He made a comment saying, ‘No one is my type, you are my type, I want to marry you’,” Ms Arthur says.

“I just laughed it off.”

Around 5pm that afternoon, having finished assembling the three beds, Ms Arthur claims the man followed her to the master bedroom where she had the bedding and linen, told her “you have not drank much” and soon after “leaned in to kiss me on my mouth”.

“I remember pulling away my face and making a joke about it,” she said.

“I cannot remember exactly what I said, but I think it may have been, ‘in your dreams’.”

She says she only remembers “snippets” after that and believes she was drugged and raped.

She recalls him “trying to pick her up” but struggling because she was taller than him, and she remembers him putting on a condom and raping her.

Her next memory is of him “standing over me”, she told news.com.au.

“He’s standing over me on the other side of the bed. I believe he was taking a photo. I said, ‘Do you think I’m an idiot?’ I was getting my clothes on, he was still doing it. I sat at the table for one minute and texted my boyfriend. I said, ‘(I’m) not OK’.”

Ms Arthur went to police to make a formal statement. In emails seen by news.com.au, she was told by a senior constable at the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) that he could not take her statement for eight days due to a lack of available officers.

“I will need to obtain a formal statement from you and conduct further investigation before making any arrests,” she was told.

“I do not have grounds to seize his passport at this stage without further evidence which includes your statement amongst other things.

“I am tied up (for the next eight days). I have asked around the office and consulted my supervisor and there is no one else available to do a statement any earlier.”

She was told a team of five was juggling 108 active cases.

News.com.au understands Ms Arthur flagged with police that she was worried her attacker would flee the country. A few days after the email from police, he did just that.

Ms Arthur learned almost two weeks after that the man had returned to Mexico. She has since raised concerns about the handling of her allegations and questioned why police did not request to put the man’s name on an airport watch list.

A review of the management of the case was finalised by the Police Complaints Unit with no findings of misconduct, but “a number of learnings were identified”, Ms Arthur was told via email.

She has not been told what those learnings were and news.com.au has approached Victoria Police for comment.

A police spokesperson said Victoria Police has been in “constant contact with the victim and the investigation is very much active and ongoing”.

They said the delay in scheduling a time for SOCIT detectives to take her statement was “so there was sufficient time to take a detailed, thorough report”.

“No alert was issued for restrictions on international travel because police did not have evidence to meet the legal threshold required to prevent the person leaving the country,” the spokesperson said.

“Melbourne SOCIT is progressing the matter as quickly as possible, noting it’s complex and we must ensure investigations are thorough. Victoria Police has referred the woman to the relevant support services.”

Mauricio Kuri González is a Mexican politician and the current Governor of Santiago de Querétaro, a city in central Mexico.

In a message to Ms Arthur, seen by news.com.au, he expressed his regret and urged her to contact the Mexican Consulate in Australia.

“First of all, I am deeply sorry to hear about the terrible experience you went through,” Mr González wrote.

​

One thing I find genuinely ironic is how many people on the left, including socialists and progressives, support high immigration while also claiming to stand up for workers against big business.

Isn't there a pretty obvious contradiction here?

Australia has billion-dollar industries, highly profitable corporations and businesses that depend on a steady supply of workers. When employers can't find enough workers at the wages they're offering, they have two options: offer better pay and conditions to attract local workers, or change how their business operates.

Yet high immigration can increase the supply of available labour, potentially reducing the pressure on employers to raise wages, improve conditions or invest in productivity. The effects vary between industries and occupations, but it's a legitimate question about whose interests the system serves.

If a business can only remain profitable by continually importing workers willing to accept lower wages or less favourable conditions, is that really an efficient business model? Or is it one that relies on keeping labour cheap?

And if a major corporation has billions in revenue but claims it can't afford to pay competitive wages to attract Australian workers, why should expanding the labour supply be the default solution rather than expecting that business to adapt?

This is where I think the class politics gets interesting.

Reducing immigration could shift some bargaining power back towards workers. If labour becomes harder to obtain, employers may have to compete more aggressively for staff through higher wages, better conditions, training and investment in automation.

That could mean a greater share of the economic pie going to workers rather than being retained as profits or captured through lower labour costs. It could also make certain business models less viable, which isn't necessarily a bad thing if those models depend on permanently cheap labour.

Obviously, immigration isn't the only factor affecting wages. Productivity, union strength, industry concentration, housing costs, outsourcing and government policy all matter. Migrants are workers too, and they can be exploited by the same employers. Cutting immigration alone also won't automatically guarantee higher wages.

But I think the underlying question deserves more attention:

Why do so many people who oppose the power of corporations support a policy that can increase the supply of labour available to those same corporations?

If the objective is to improve conditions for the working class, shouldn't we at least be questioning whether high immigration levels serve that objective?

I'm not arguing that Australia should stop immigration altogether. I'm arguing that immigration levels should be set with the interests of existing workers, wage growth, housing affordability and living standards in mind, rather than treating employer demand for additional labour as an overriding priority.

Genuine question: If Australia substantially reduced net overseas migration for several years, wouldn't at least some employers have to raise wages, train local workers and invest in productivity? And if that transferred some income from business owners to workers, why wouldn't the economic left support it?

AustralianSuper - the largest super fund in the country - recently decided to increase fees when the rest of the industry is trending the other way (HostPlus, ART and many others)

With 270 staff soaking it up in AustralianSuper offices in London and New York, it is shameful that all of its active options consistently underperform the index over all meaningful time periods

AustralianSuper also deliberately cripple their only indexed offering by forcing 30% defensive assets and no pure international indexed equity option. This is at least in part to disguise the fact that all of their active options would underperform a market cap weighted global equities index

In FY2025 AustralianSuper spent $30 million on promotion, marketing and sponsorship. They have repeatedly refused to itemise this expenditure, citing commercial interests

In FY2025 the top eighteen staff at AustralianSuper were paid a total of $20 million = averaging $1.1 million dollars per person

Choose a fund that puts your interests first

You can’t control performance but you can control asset allocation, fees and your own investment behaviour

Generally, a low-cost passive indexed diversified mix of domestic and international shares beats higher-cost actively managed options over time

SUPER FUND COMPARISON by u/SwaankyKoala

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sR0CyX8GswPiktOrfqRloNMY-fBlzFUL/htmlview

The definitive reference

A 37-year-old man was mauled by two dogs in Brisbane’s north on Friday, with council officers finally capturing both animals.

The man was bitten on both arms by two dogs while riding his bike on a park track and was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries.

Police were able to track down one of the dogs after the attack, with the help of helicopters, but were still looking for the second 12 hours later.

Brisbane City Council confirmed to News24.com.au that it successfully captured the second dog on Saturday morning.

Emergency services were called to 7th Brigade Park on Kittyhawk Drive in Chermside about 6:15pm following reports two dogs had attacked a man, reported to be pitbulls.

7News reports the dogs dragged him off the bike path.

The man sustained “significant” and “serious” injuries and was taken by Queensland Ambulance paramedics to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

Police said the dogs fled the scene after the attack.

Helicopters were used by police to search for the dogs over the area, with clips posted online by locals showing them overhead.

"Both dogs involved are now in Council possession and a decision on their future will be made as soon as possible," a council spokesperson told News24.com.au.

"The dogs are registered at the same address and have not previously been declared dangerous. 

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim of last night’s horrific dog attack."

One local dog owner said in a social media post online that she called emergency services after hearing yells. 

"Tonight I heard dogs barking, I truly thought it was dogs just barking at one another," she wrote.

"I heard yelling, I thought the male voice was trying to break up a dog fight [but] then the yelling kept going."

Hot Flushes. Night sweats. Vaginal dryness. Painful sex. A frequent need to wee.

Menopause marks the end of a woman's reproductive years and is associated with a range of symptoms that can affect their quality of life.

There's a lot of information and misinformation about the best treatments to help ease the severity of symptoms. 

In a bid to make things easier, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) has developed a new set of clinical guidelines. 

The guidelines clarify when to use menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) over other medicines and what options are available for those with a history of breast cancer.

RANZCOG guideline development group chair Catriona Melville said they wanted to "cut through the noise" and provide clear, evidence-based recommendations for clinicians to discuss with their patients.

"If your clinician is not clear about where the evidence lies and what's safe and what isn't safe, and what's recommended and what isn't recommended, then they're not in a position to have that patient-centred discussion about what the available [treatment] options are," she said.

The new guidelines provide evidence-based advice for managing the symptoms of menopause, which begins 12 months after a woman's last period. 

The guidelines cover vasomotor symptoms (such as hot flushes and night sweats) and genito-urinary symptoms (such as vaginal dryness and the frequent need to urinate) of menopause in women 40 years and above.

They do not cover the management of bone density, joint pain, libido, depression or anxiety.

Magdalena Simonis, a practising GP and women's health expert from the University of Melbourne, said not all women experienced the same type or severity of symptoms.

While she was not involved in developing the guidelines, she said they reinforced the need for clinicians to treat the whole person in front of them, not just the symptom.  

"We should also be looking at lifestyle and other risk factors around the time of the menopause," Dr Simonis said. 

"This is a really important time to talk about [cholesterol] lipid control, bone density management and lifestyle activities.

"Looking at family history of other cancers, breast screening, cervical screening and having that conversation around chronic conditions."

The guidelines list a range of possible treatment options for different menopausal symptoms, including menopausal hormone therapy (MHT), acupuncture and hypnosis, ranking available evidence on a scale of very low to high.

The guidelines recommend that women taking MHT have an annual review with their doctor.

But there's not enough evidence that weight loss or physical activity alone will improve hot flushes or night sweats, or that hypnosis will improve sleep. 

Dr Melville, a specialist gynaecologist and sub-specialist in sexual and reproductive health, said the new guidelines would hopefully make it easier for clinicians and patients to understand their options.

For example, women with a history of breast cancer can be offered vaginal oestrogen to ease menopausal symptoms.

Although RANZCOG had previously released statements about managing menopausal symptoms, Dr Melville said these were their first evidence-based guidelines.

Women should receive the same standardised recommendations no matter who they see or where they live if clinicians across Australia use the same guidelines.

Jean Hailes for Women's Health chief executive Sarah White, who was not involved with the guidelines, said this was important because clinicians wanted to give their patients the very best support, but there was a lot of online misinformation to wade through.

"It really will help the health professional to have these new guidelines sitting in front of them so that they can talk them through and reassure women that they are getting the very best advice," she said.

The guidelines also encourage clinicians to ask women approaching menopause if they experience any "troublesome" symptoms, especially if patients are First Nations, Māori and Pacific Islander women and others who may experience barriers to treatment.

This will make it easier for women to get help, even if they find it hard to ask.

The Australian government has funded separate perimenopause and menopause guidelines expected to be released next year. 

These guidelines, which RANZCOG is contributing to, will be continually updated as new evidence emerges.

Dr Simonis welcomed the spotlight on the health of menopausal women.

She encouraged anyone experiencing troublesome symptoms to book an appointment with their GP and advised women approaching mid-life to schedule a check-up.

The scene described is viewed across the dining room of the Melbourne Club – a men-only private members’ club on Collins Street. At the table are former prime minister Tony Abbott; his former chief of staff, Peta Credlin; and her husband, former Liberal Party federal director Brian Loughnane.

Their return, according to the Liberal source watching from across the room, is the fulfilment of a plan that began the day Sussan Ley replaced Peter Dutton as Liberal leader following last year’s disastrous federal election defeat. It is about power, policy influence and a purging of moderates.

“This started the minute that Ley took over from Dutton as federal leader,” the source said. “And Abbott is now federal president, Loughnane is now president of the Victorian division, and Peta has her nightly show on Sky and her weekly newspaper columns, which she uses to promote everything those two are doing, as well as absolutely savage anyone who dares cross her, Tony or Brian.

“The missing bit in that is that they also got Angus in as federal leader,” the source says, referring to Angus Taylor.

“He was their candidate, and his policy agenda is their policy agenda. Every single bit of it. It’s their party again. The real worry is that this time they have enough power, and enough muscle, and enough desire, to actually drive the moderates out of the party altogether.”

Credlin’s media commentary, the source says, is clear evidence of the trio’s hard-right agenda.

“Peta doesn’t hide it. The people I would call traditional Liberals are to her just Labor-lite lefty ‘moderates’ – she always puts the word moderate in inverted commas to exaggerate our weirdness – who need to be drummed out of the party. It’s crazy stuff.”

Away from the cameras, the method is more personal.

Another long-time observer of Victorian Liberal machinations says Credlin has been using her new membership of the Alexandra Club, the women-only club diagonally across Collins Street from the Melbourne Club, referred to by its own members as the “snake pit”, to “charm, cajole and coerce” anyone she thinks might stray from her ideological line.

“Peta can be as charming as she can be fierce,” the observer tells The Saturday Paper this week. “So when someone steps out of line, or maybe needs some encouragement to take a position on one of her causes, she’s not afraid to set up a meeting and prosecute her case as forcefully and as passionately as she did when she was running Abbott’s office. And that’s what she is doing.”

In the same week that former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg called for the Liberals to return to the political centre in his memoir, A Grateful Son, igniting speculation about a comeback, moderates fear that caving in to One Nation’s policy agenda will permanently alienate metropolitan middle-class voters.

That unease is sharpened by how the current leadership came about.

Under Dutton, who in 2025 led the party to its worst election defeat, Abbott was kept at arm’s length, with one New South Wales moderate telling The Saturday Paper that Dutton had repeatedly rebuffed Abbott’s efforts to run for a federal seat at that election. Sussan Ley, by the same account, regarded Abbott as the last person she wanted out front.

Angus Taylor was a different proposition.

According to the same NSW moderate, Abbott’s decision to involve himself in the push to replace Ley with Taylor in February this year was driven in large part by an obsession with stopping the NSW moderates.

A central motive, the Liberal source says, was a fear that Ley would unpick the federal takeover of the NSW Liberal Party, which was at the time subject to federal intervention and being administered by a committee that included two Victorian Liberals – former Howard government minister Richard Alston and former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale – who are both aligned with the party’s hard-right.

That takeover followed an urgent review of the NSW division by Brian Loughnane after the division had bungled the nomination of more than 140 candidates for the 2024 local government elections.

“Brian is one of the nicest, most gentle people in Liberal Party politics. And he is an extremely capable administrator and a very effective and disciplined campaign manager,” says the NSW moderate.

“But what all that masks is his quite determined ideological bent, as well as his ability to deliver that ideological agenda. What that all adds up to is that Brian comes across as a neutral player, who just wants to help the party win – and he is that most of the time!

“But what he also wants is for his side of the party to win, and that’s not my side of the party, and that’s how we ended up with two hard-right Victorians running our division and doing everything they could to shut the moderates out. It was appalling, and behind all of it was Abbott and Credlin and Brian.”

The consequences are now visible in policy, says one serving federal Liberal MP.

“They’re not afraid of One Nation’s agenda – they actually want the Liberal Party to be advocating these positions, too, and that’s what we’re seeing on things like migration and energy. Next thing you know we’ll be announcing the abolition of the Family Court, or that we’re going to outlaw no-fault divorce.”

Even Abbott’s strengths may not be enough. His discipline and doggedness still count, the NSW moderate says, but the world “has just moved on”. If a decade ago an opposition leader could simply punch at Labor’s narrative, the source believes that today’s Liberal Party leader should be able to offer voters an alternative narrative that is built on prosperity and opportunity.

The NSW moderate sees a paradox in the trio’s approach to One Nation, too.

While Abbott has warned the Liberals against becoming “One Nation-lite”, the moderate argues that by abandoning net zero and pandering to One Nation on issues such as migration, the Liberals are doing exactly that.

“Abbott is the one who has asked the question of why voters would vote for the fake version – by which he means us – when you can have the real thing and vote for One Nation. But under him and Taylor, that’s exactly what we are doing. So I’m not sure what the logic is there,” the NSW moderate says.

“To be fair to Tony, he has calmed down a bit since he took over as federal president, and you can see that he is trying to pull himself back a lot more and try to focus on fixing the party administration, which is exactly the job of a federal president.”

With Victorian state Liberal leader Jess Wilson on track to fend off One Nation and win a parliament majority in her own right in the Victorian state election next month, there are, however, concerns that Loughnane – and by association Abbott and Credlin – will be able to take a significant share of the credit.

“The key to why the Liberal Party is about to win a majority in Victoria is because they were finally able to deal with Moira Deeming,” says a senior Liberal Party source.

Deeming, an upper house MP from Melbourne’s west, became a cause célèbre on the party’s right after a 2023 anti-trans rally that was also attended by a group of neo-Nazis, prompting then Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto to push for her expulsion from the parliamentary party.

Egged on by Abbott and Credlin, Deeming sued Pesutto, claiming he had defamed her, and won $300,000 in damages plus legal costs. The episode cost Pesutto his leadership and Deeming was welcomed back into the party.

Ahead of a preselection vote in March, Abbott, Credlin and Wilson all endorsed Deeming. Credlin had earlier shared text messages with Deeming on how to influence a partyroom vote and promising her a soft interview on her show. “We will work [the interview up] question by question,” Credlin wrote. “We need you to survive this. You will lead the party one day.”

In June, Deeming dropped another bombshell: she made an allegation against another former state Liberal leader, Matthew Guy, claiming he grabbed her violently and put her in a headlock at a gala dinner the previous month.

Those allegations collapsed when CCTV footage of the incident could not substantiate the claims. When Jess Wilson referred the matter to the party’s state executive, Deeming was disendorsed as a candidate. She has subsequently resigned from the Liberal Party and joined Family First.

“What’s missing from that narrative is that it was Abbott and Credlin who created Deeming,” a senior Liberal source says.

“She was such a menace because she was acting with the protection of Abbott and Credlin,” says another Victorian Liberal. “Abbott and Credlin dropped her very quickly, but they have also sort of gotten away with it, and now if Wilson wins, and wins comfortably, my fear is that it will be them who claim the credit.”

As the saga of Abbott, Credlin and Loughnane continues to play out, many Liberal MPs in Canberra this week were directing their ire not at them but at Josh Frydenberg and what is being referred to as “the festival of Josh” that has surrounded the release of his memoir.

In the book’s final chapter, Frydenberg argues the Coalition must restore its primary vote to “the high 30s or low 40s” by returning to the political centre. He also advocates for lifting the GST.

“Endless coverage in The Australian, separate book launches in Sydney and Melbourne that has generated hype and more hype about party direction and raising the GST, and basically just undermining the job we’re trying to do up here, which is get rid of this Labor government,” was how one Liberal shadow minister characterised the week.

“Angus has, over the past month or so, started to show results. We’re releasing policy, we’re getting traction attacking the government, and we were looking ahead at a great week in parliament. But then what happened? Josh. And as usual, it’s all about fucking Josh. It was an incredible lifeline for Labor. It saved them.”

According to another federal Liberal MP, Taylor managed to put together the best week of his leadership despite Frydenberg.

“Taylor did two things that impressed me,” the MP says. “First he dismissed Frydenberg’s so-called manifesto, and second, he didn’t allow himself to get distracted by it. A lot us thought it would dominate our internal conversations, but it didn’t. We grumbled, but we didn’t descend into hand-wringing, and I credit Angus for that. I have no knowledge of it, but I wonder if he also put the brakes on Credlin and Abbott firing back at Josh, too.”

One senior Victorian Liberal sympathetic to the former treasurer says Frydenberg is merely responding to the steady stream of party figures and donors who have been telling him that “someone’s got to rescue this ship”, because the federal team “don’t seem able to rescue themselves”.

The latest published opinion polls explain the anxiety, showing the Coalition on between 20 and 23 per cent, well below the roughly 32 per cent primary vote that saw Peter Dutton deliver their worst federal election result.

“Everyone likes Angus. Everyone likes Sussan Ley,” the Liberal says. “But they’re all thinking, these guys are on 20 per cent. They’re going nowhere.”

Taylor’s team, the Victorian Liberal argues, has no answer.

“These people don’t seem to have any new ideas,” the source says, adding that the one idea they did have, on indexing the income tax brackets to keep pace with inflation, “they’ve buried”.

The cure, the Victorian Liberal says, is to change the subject from Hanson’s favourite topics to subjects the Liberals know better, such as the economy.

“If all you do all day long is talk about immigration and all the Hanson stuff, there’s actually more to life than that,” the MP says.

As for anyone in the parliamentary party briefing against Frydenberg, the Victorian Liberal has little patience.

“Listen, people up in Canberra, you’re on 20 per cent. So, you shouldn’t be backgrounding against anybody at all. If you’re on 40 per cent, feel free to background against Josh Frydenberg. But given that you’re on 20, please keep quiet.”

Another senior Liberal also dismissed concerns that the release of Frydenberg’s book was destabilising.

“Josh Frydenberg is expressing very real concern about the long-term future of the party. This is not a sort of short-term set of considerations. I don’t think he’s trying to put himself up as a figure in opposition to Angus, or for that matter, to Tony, or for that matter, to Andrew Hastie. Potentially, I think he is basically saying, ‘This is what I believe, and this is what I care about.’ ”

https://www.cotality.com/au/resources/quarterly-rental-review-report

A major probe involving homicide detectives is under way following the sudden death of a five-year-old boy.

About 6.40am on Monday, emergency services attended a home in Grafton, in NSW’s Northern Rivers region, after it was a reported a child was unresponsive.

CPR was performed by police with an ambulance crew shortly taking over, but the youngster was tragically unable to be saved.

The Daily Telegraph reports the child was found duct-taped in his sleeping bag and with tape wrapped around his head.

It is understood the boy’s parents are being questioned by police.

On Friday, NSW Police confirmed that investigations into the circumstances are under way, with members of the state’s homicide squad involved in the operation.

A post mortem examination is due to be carried out to establish the circumstances of the boy’s tragic death.

No arrests have been made.

Police have appealed for anybody with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Detectives have released CCTV images as they continue to appeal for information after multiple sexual offences were allegedly committed against women on walking trails in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Officers attached to Northern Beaches Police Area Command commenced investigations after three separate incidents were reported in the Narrabeen area on Wednesday 7 October 2026 and Thursday 8 October 2026.

In each incident, a male allegedly approached women on walking trails, sexually touched them and then rode away on an e-bike. In one of the incidents, the man also made inappropriate sexual comments.

Following an appeal for information, on Monday 12 October 2026, officers received a report that a woman had been approached by a male at Narrabeen Lagoon, near South Creek Road, Wheeler Heights, about 4.30pm on Thursday 1 October 2026. The man allegedly sexually touched the woman before riding away on an e-bike.

Police received a further report that between 5pm and 5.30pm that day (Monday 12 October 2026), two women walking along Narrabeen Lagoon near Bilarong Reserve had been sexually touched by a male riding an e-bike.

Strike Force Mexvo has since been established to investigate these incidents with the assistance of State Crime Command’s Sex Crimes Squad.

As investigations continue, detectives have released CCTV images of a male who may be able to assist with their inquiries.

The male depicted in the CCTV is described as being of Caucasian appearance, believed to be aged under 25 years, about 175cm tall and of medium build.

Strike force officers are investigating whether the incidents are linked.

Anyone with information, mobile phone, dashcam footage, or who may have witnessed any of the incidents is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Is this dual take common? The only party supporting these simultaneously is Sustainable Australia which is a tiny party...

The Currie Lab, within the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, is one of few laboratories worldwide to study ghost sharks. Much of the natural history of these mysterious marine creatures – also known as elephant sharks or fish – is unknown to science. To have their eggs on hand is a rare privilege.

Federal MP David Repacholi has condemned racist stickers appearing around Cessnock in New South Wales’ Hunter Region, warning that attempts to spread hate and division would not be accepted in the local community.

In a social media post, Repacholi described the stickers as “disgusting racist” material and called on residents to report their locations so they could be removed.

“Enough of this racist bullshit,” he wrote.

“The cowards spreading this rubbish don’t represent our community.”

The latest stickers reportedly depicts a man of Indian appearance defecating on a street, alongside the message:

“If this is you culture? We don’t like it”.

It also states that “32% of Australia’s population is foreign born”, claims India is “at the top of that list” and calls for:

“REMIGRATION NOW!”

Repacholi said racism had no place in Cessnock or the wider Hunter Region.

“Racism isn’t welcome in Cessnock. It isn’t welcome in the Hunter. And it won’t go unchallenged,” he said.

“We’re better and stronger than the hate and division these people are trying to spread.”

He urged residents who had seen the stickers to tell him where they were located so the material could be reported and removed.

“Don’t give these cowards any more publicity than they deserve,” he added.

The latest incident follows a similar controversy in July, when racist leaflets targeting Indian migrants and promoting anti-immigration messages were reportedly distributed in letterboxes across Kurri Kurri, also in the Hunter Region.

The leaflets urged residents to “keep curry” out of the town and promoted concepts including “remigration” and the preservation of culture.

Repacholi condemned that material at the time, warning that racist leaflets had been distributed across the community and saying local doctors had already faced racist comments and abuse.

Bob Katter has accused the Prime Minister of refusing to give resource-rich North Queensland a fair go, as the push to form a breakaway seventh Aussie state gains momentum.

The colourful exchange erupted during Question Time on Monday, when the outspoken Kennedy MP challenged Mr Albanese to commission a report into the viability of splitting Queensland and creating Australia’s seventh state.

Mr Albanese admitted the proposal was “not on his bingo card”, joking that the break-up of Queensland could produce a Premier Katter and would weaken Queensland’s State of Origin team.

“The idea of a break-up of the states, including the great state of Queensland, would perhaps see a Premier Katter in Far North Queensland,” the Prime Minister said.

“Which might or might not be a good thing.

“It would weaken the Queensland State of Origin team somewhat, given the magnificent players who’ve come from places like Cloncurry and Mount Isa.”

But while the exchange drew laughter in parliament, Mr Katter said the Prime Minister’s response had reinforced his belief that Brisbane and Canberra were unwilling to relinquish the economic benefits generated by northern Queensland.

When news.com.au recently broke the news of the renewed push for the seventh state, an internal poll – receiving more than 9000 votes – found 69 per cent were in favour of North Queensland’s secession.

Speaking to this outlet after Question Time, Mr Katter accused Brisbane and Canberra of “bludging” off the resource-rich region for a financial benefit they played little part in producing.

“I’m getting the message that they’re not going to give up all that bloody money coming out of North Queensland to a North Queensland state,” he said.

“They’re not gonna give up all that bloody money … No way, Jose.

“And of course, the Brisbane government would be fanatical about it. Fanatical.”

Mr Katter argued that Brisbane would ultimately be better off with the succession, however, with an initial loss compensated by a “vast treasure trove” that would come through the region’s mining, agricultural and water development opportunities.

The renewed statehood push follows years of campaigning by the Katter family, with Robbie Katter, Bob’s son and the leader of Katter’s Australian Party, previously moving a motion in the Queensland parliament calling for steps to establish a separate state under section 124 of the Australian Constitution.

The provision allows for new states to be formed from existing states with the relevant parliamentary consent, although any proposal would face significant political hurdles.

Bob Katter suggested the campaign could initially pursue territory status, rather than full statehood, acknowledging the difficulty of securing the necessary support.

“Give us eight seats in North Queensland. We will give you a new territory,” he said.

“I’m not saying state, it’s a little bit difficult.”

He argued that a new administration could deliver many of the benefits of statehood while giving northern communities greater autonomy.

The veteran MP also linked the campaign to broader concerns about Australia’s economic independence, criticising reliance on imported goods and the management of the country’s coal and gas industries.

During Question Time, Mr Katter told the Prime Minister that North Queensland had about one million people, compared with Brisbane’s population of roughly 1.1 million, yet it remained governed from the state capital roughly 3000km away.

He cited $1 billion in mining investment and another $1 billion in irrigated agriculture that he claimed were being held back by decisions made in Brisbane.

Mr Albanese acknowledged the challenges facing regional Queensland, saying there was a case for ensuring Far North Queensland received its fair share of resources, particularly infrastructure.

He pointed to projects including the Einasleigh River Bridge and the upgrade of Karumba Airport, as well as his visits to communities such as Normanton and Cloncurry.

The Prime Minister also defended the 2032 Brisbane Olympics after Mr Katter compared Queensland’s $70 billion budget with the amount he claimed would be squandered on the two-week sporting event.

Mr Albanese said the Games would generate economic activity and jobs, with some events to be held in regional Queensland.

He also pointed to the lasting benefits of infrastructure built for previous Olympic Games in Sydney and Melbourne.

But Mr Katter remained scathing about what he described as the gulf between Brisbane’s infrastructure spending and the needs of the north.

He contrasted the kilometres of tunnels being built in Brisbane with what he said was the absence of comparable infrastructure in North Queensland, arguing that a single half-kilometre tunnel could help unlock mineral resources.

His criticism extended to the delayed electricity connection intended to link Mount Isa to the national grid.

Mr Katter said politicians had posed for photographs announcing the project more than three years earlier, but claimed not a single pylon had been erected.

“That’s the sort of government North Queensland is getting,” he said.

“We can’t even get electricity for the fourth biggest industrial centre in Australia.”

The constitutional pathway remains difficult, and the Prime Minister gave no commitment to commission the report requested in parliament.

Instead, Mr Albanese defended his government’s record in the region and the benefits he believes the Olympics will bring.

For Mr Katter and many North Queenslanders, however, the exchange was further evidence that the statehood campaign is still struggling to be taken seriously by the political establishment.

And despite the Prime Minister’s suggestion that a breakaway state could produce a “Premier Katter”, the veteran MP made clear he believes the argument is about far more than his own political future.

There’s a simple solution to homelessness, advocates say. You need a house, and you need support