France has long embraced subversion. Its revolutionaries, rebellious students and intellectual provocateurs occupy a cherished place in the national imagination. In May 1968, student protests and mass strikes paralysed the country and shook Charles de Gaulle’s government. Half a century later, the gilets jaunes turned anger over fuel taxes and living costs into a prolonged confrontation with the state. In 2023, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 brought nationwide strikes, burning barricades and violent clashes with police.

Sadly, it seems that admiration for defiance made the French too accepting of destruction.

I am writing from my living room on the fourth floor of my building in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris. All I can hear are the sirens of fire engines and police cars.

The unrest began with students demanding more teachers and better school conditions. Fair enough. It widened to include unions and protesters concerned about living costs and public services, and today, peaceful demonstrations turned into arson, looting and attacks on public buildings. The French call it la casse. Cars and rubbish bins burned in Paris; shops are being looted as I write. In Marseille, a municipal police station was damaged. In Limoges, the town hall was also set alight, with local reporting describing flames reaching the roof. In Lyon, fire broke out inside a tourism office.

I was in Lyon just weeks ago. Such a magnificent city, with an extraordinary history. Watching this is heartbreaking. This is the destruction of a community’s property, paid for by the very public in whose name protesters claim to act.

My French friends tell me to stop watching television and let it pass. It always has, they say. ‘Il faut avoir une attitude pleine de nonchalance vis-à-vis de ces choses-là. C’est très français.’

Strikes and demonstrations are so familiar in France that disruption is something people organise their lives around. My friends’ response suggests that even violence can become another inconvenience to wait out. Surely a country should expect more.

France has forceful police. Although tear gas and water cannons have been deployed, the police cannot fix the acceptance of declining standards in public behaviour.

When destruction repeatedly accompanies demonstrations, we learn which streets to avoid and wait for the clean-up. Accountability gives way to managing the inconvenience.

Beneath that resignation are fractures that France has allowed to deepen. The Republic promises equal citizenship, but the experience of belonging to it can differ enormously depending on where someone grows up, the school they attend and their prospects of finding work. The OECD has found immigrant students in France more isolated from non-immigrant students than the OECD average, with residential segregation and economic inequality contributing to divisions in schooling. Sharing a nationality does not necessarily mean sharing much of a life.

There is also a failure of reciprocity. A country must offer its citizens a fair chance to belong and contribute. Citizens, in return, owe something to the society that provides their rights: respect for its laws, its public assets and other people’s freedoms. When government fails to deliver, and individuals treat responsibility as optional, that relationship begins to break down.

Governments cannot repeatedly promise better services, fail to deliver them and expect public confidence to survive. Ministers should have to explain what went wrong, account for the money spent and face consequences for persistent failure.

France’s tradition of revolt did not create all these divisions, but romanticising confrontation, then accepting its destruction as inevitable, makes them harder to repair. Anger becomes an excuse for conduct that deserves condemnation. Political failure becomes so familiar that nobody expects consequences. Meanwhile, the people carrying on, paying taxes and keeping businesses open are left to absorb the damage.

That is the French lesson Australia should take seriously. We do not need to face identical circumstances to recognise the danger of allowing disappointment in government, separation between communities and declining expectations of public behaviour to reinforce one another.

Our circumstances differ, but we have housing pressures, financial hardship and distrust in political leadership. Scanlon Foundation research identifies economic pressures, discrimination and prejudice as challenges to cohesion, while finding resilience worth protecting.

As a country shaped by migration, we cannot leave integration to chance. People need opportunities to work, learn English and participate. They also need clear expectations about citizenship, common laws and respect for others.

Governments must match population growth with housing, infrastructure and services. Otherwise, people compete for necessities and blame their neighbours for failures made in political office. Young Australians need a credible prospect of independence, rather than another assurance that their difficulties are understood.

We should demand more of our politicians and ourselves. Political loyalty must not excuse incompetence, as much as sympathy for a cause must not excuse violence. Police must act lawfully, and those who destroy livelihoods must face consequences.

Respect includes the business owner, the employee, the resident and the peaceful protester whose cause is damaged by violence.

My French friends may be right that this will pass. But the victims and taxpayers will still be paying for the destruction when everyone else has moved on.

We should all learn from the French lesson: when we stop demanding accountability from those who govern and those who destroy, we give both permission to carry on.

An Australian public servant of Indian origin has been arrested and subsequently denied bail by a court in Canberra for stalking a woman and threatening to use government databases to obtain information about her and her family, according to media reports.

Suyash Sinha, 31, was arrested on Tuesday, October 13, following a police raid on his home, the state-owned ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News reported.

Sinha appeared before the Australian Capital Territory Magistrates Court on Wednesday, October 14, where Special Magistrate Lucinda Wilson refused his bail application, saying the risk to the complainant’s safety and well-being was “too great,” the report said.

Sinha, who became an Australian citizen last week, is accused of stalking the woman, whom he allegedly met through a dating app in January, the Region Canberra news portal reported.

Sinha allegedly continued messaging the woman after she rejected his advances. In August, he described what she was wearing while she was shopping at a Coles supermarket in Canberra, saying he was there too, the report said.

The woman later agreed to meet Sinha at a pub to ask him to stop contacting her. During the meeting, he said he worked in finance for the ACT government and named one of her siblings, claiming that “anyone could be looked up in government systems,” it said.

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is a self-governing territory of Australia that contains Canberra, the national capital.

The woman subsequently received multiple friend requests from different social media accounts with intimidating usernames and approached police in September, according to the news portal.

Prosecutors told the court the woman was terrified and experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, ABC News reported.

The prosecution opposed bail, arguing that Sinha was fixated on the woman and could endanger her safety or interfere with evidence and witnesses, the report said.

“He’s fixated on this person, and he’s refused to accept ‘no’ as an answer to his advances,” the prosecutor was quoted as saying by ABC News.

Special Magistrate Wilson told Sinha the woman had never expressed interest in a relationship with him in the 10 months since he first contacted her.

“But you did not give up. Ever,” Wilson was quoted as saying by the Region Canberra news portal.

Sinha’s lawyer argued against the “allegations” and said that the accused had no prior criminal history and had been financially supporting his family members in India and his brother in Canberra, the news portal said.

Sinha has been remanded in custody, with the case adjourned to November 4, it said.

A Brisbane dog owner has issued an impassioned defence of her pets after a jogger was seriously mauled in north Brisbane, just hours before she was dramatically arrested by police.

The man’s condition has been downgraded to stable since the attack on Friday evening, which wounded his face, arm and leg.

The dramatic incident began about 6pm, and involved police officers firing their guns at the dogs, and the police helicopter scouring the suburb of Chermside looking for the animals; one was found soon after, and the second was found the following morning.

The dogs’ owner agreed to speak to 9News, but police swooped while the camera crew was still at her house, and she was taken away in handcuffs.

A police spokesperson on Sunday said the woman was arrested on an unrelated matter.

The police spokesperson said senior officers had already reviewed the shooting, and that the dogs ran away soon after the firearms were used on Friday evening.

“Attending officers were confronted with an immediate and serious safety risk and, after initial attempts to subdue the animals were unsuccessful, were required to discharge their service firearms in response to the risk posed to members of the community and others at the scene,” the spokesperson said.

“As with all police use of force incidents, the matter has been recorded and reviewed by senior officers in accordance with Queensland Police Service policy and procedures.”

The Brisbane City Council is expected to file an order which will see the dogs put down – owners have the ability to challenge such orders.

The dogs’ owner, Layla Evans, told 9News the dogs were protective of her and her partner, but other than that “they’re really good dogs”.

She said the police suspected the dogs escaped from the tent she lives in.

“My mother rung me to say she was with the police … and I had to come down, had to come down and try to find my dog,” Ms Evans said.

“I walked all over town, I walked over the park, couldn’t find them anywhere.

“Shattered, I’m shattered to bits.”

The 37-year-old man was attacked by the two dogs at Seventh Brigade Park in Chermside about 6.15pm on Friday.

He suffered significant lacerations to his face and arms, before being taken to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a critical condition.

It is understood he was running when the dogs attacked.

The police helicopter was called in to help locate the dogs on Friday night, with one captured soon after.

The second dog was found at a property on Newman Rd, Wavell Heights, on Saturday morning.

Wavell Heights resident Monique Moore told the Courier Mail she had seen the first dog at a veterinary clinic, where she had taken her elderly dog to be put down.

“We were getting our elderly dog put to sleep and the authorities brought the dog there in the car park,” Ms Moore said.

Witnesses reported hearing a woman yelling a dog’s name in a nearby street, about the time of the attack, the Courier Mail reported.

Chermside’s weekly 5km park run still went ahead on Saturday morning, with runners asked not to bring dogs and to keep small children close.

Newlywed cafe owners Manali Purohit and Ashish Sharma recall well the day a new neighbour moved in with ambitions to open a grocery store.

“We thought, ‘Oh, that’s fantastic, that would synergise very well with our business’,” Sharma told AAP.

Purohit, a Mumbai-raised pastry chef, and her husband had only recently acted on their dream to open their vegan eatery, And Bodega, on St Georges Road in Melbourne’s Fitzroy North.

But it wasn’t long before the presence of their next-door tenants began to stir unease among tight-knit locals.

“We knew pretty early on it may not be a grocery store, it may be like something like a tobacco store,” Sharma said.

“My wife was already a little anxious ... there was a little bit of inevitability.”

Customers also expressed concern to them about the possibility arsonists could target the neighbourhood as they had in relation to over 150 other tobacconist stores across Victoria since March 2023.

Then in late-September, as she arrived for an early morning baking shift, the glint of exposed glass jutting from the shop’s front window caught Purohit’s eye.

Plastered to the wall was a handwritten note, according to another witness spoken to by AAP.

They attributed it to a group now synonymous with the city’s tobacco wars: The Commission.

The glass was again smashed last Thursday, with CCTV allegedly capturing a car driving past the tobacconist, before bricks were hurtled into the shopfront.

By Monday, early morning Triple Zero calls from terrified locals reported hearing explosions about 3.45am.

The damage destroyed the tobacconist, devastated And Bodega and another cafe, and left Mr Sharma and Purohit with “what looked like a bomb site” where their plant-based cafe once thrived.

“There were these little canisters strewn all across our premise ... the severity and the ferociousness of these things ... it’s terrorism,” Sharma said.

Investigators believe at least one offender forced entry to the tobacconist and set it alight but no arrests have been made.

There’s nothing to suggest the targeted business was selling illicit tobacco, police say.

The attack is one in a spate that has gripped Melbourne in the past two weeks, as authorities struggle to curb a years-long scourge of tobacco store fires.

Facing a damage bill of well over $100,000, Sharma has joined a growing chorus of industry experts and economists calling for Australia’s tobacco excise to be cut in a bid to reduce demand for cheap illegal cigarettes.

“Why let a black market, why let these types of actors form any sort of foothold in our society?” he said.

“It’s real stubbornness from politicians ... somebody needs to just make the easy call and be like we’re just abolishing this tax and we’re not letting any new tobacco stores open.”

Around 80 per cent of all tobacco consumed in 2025 was illegal, up from 12 per cent in 2017, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates.

At the same time, the tobacco excise has more than tripled.

The federal government continues to prioritise a law enforcement approach to choking the illicit trade.

Yet it has stubbornly resisted demands to slash the excise, which generated $7.4 billion in 2024-25.

“We cannot overstate the emphasis on shutting down retail premises that are blatantly selling illegal products in high streets,” Assistant Customs Minister Julian Hill recently told AAP.

Contrastingly, the coalition has vowed to slash the tobacco excise by 80 per cent if elected, dropping the average price of cigarettes from $40-$50 to roughly $16-$26.

One Nation wants to slash the tax by 75 per cent and freeze indexation for five years.

Reducing the excise is the only credible way for to smoke out Australia’s $8.5 billion nicotine black market, says Deakin University criminologist James Martin.

“By relying on these reactive solutions, none of this is addressing the fundamental problem and that is strong persistent demand for affordable and appealing types of nicotine,” Dr Martin says.

“As long as that demand (for affordable nicotine) is there, there will be criminal suppliers who will be prepared to capitalise and take the risks to supply that demand.

However, University of Sydney public health professor Becky Freeman says shrinking the excise risks creating a “race to the bottom with criminals”, while also risking a spike in smoking rates.

“I don’t think people understand just how cheap illicit tobacco can go,” she said.

The cost of manufacturing packs of cigarettes in parts of Southeast Asia to be imported into Australia can be as low as one Australian dollar, Prof Beckman estimates.

Earlier this month, Victorian police announced the closure of 61 stores with alleged links to organised crime caught selling illicit tobacco, alongside major cigarette, vape tobacco and cash seizures.

However, Prof Freeman argues the state government has taken too long to act.

“If this was really a priority, it’s something that should have been done ages ago,” she said..

Queensland launched initial tobacco and vape shutdown orders in September 2024 and was followed quickly by South Australia.

Retailers raised concerns that illicit tobacco-linked arson attacks could spread to legitimate businesses during a Victorian inquiry into tobacco and vaping controls more than two years ago.

The probe also found state and local governments were not taking enforcement action against illicit sales due to a lack of resources, safety concerns and legislative deficiencies.

Small and medium businesses were at increased risk of violence due to the illicit tobacco trade, the inquiry’s final report found in August 2024.

“It’s sadly not surprising Victoria is having all these problems because they’ve been so slow to enact enforcement,” Prof Freeman said.

The Victorian government has not responded to AAP’s request for comment.

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

"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.

An elderly man has been arrested after allegedly stabbing a woman in a Blacktown shopping centre.

The police operation unfolded after emergency services were called to the centre on Patrick St in Blacktown, following reports of an armed offender.

Police were told a woman, 79, had been stabbed multiple times.

She was treated by paramedics before being taken to hospital in a serious condition.

A 93-year-old man, believed to be known to the woman, was arrested nearby and taken to Blacktown Police Station.

A crime scene has been established by specialist police and inquiries are ongoing.

No charges have been laid.

A 13-year-old boy has been arrested and charged over 11 separate incidents involving the sexual assault or harassment of women in the Narrabeen Lagoon area of Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

The incidents occurred between September 7 and October 12, involving women and girls aged between 13 and 54.

NSW Police established specialist sexual crimes investigation unit Strike Force Mexvo following the string of sexual assault and harassment reports from women in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Strike Force Mexvo brought together specialist detectives and officers from the Sex Crimes Squad to investigate the possible link between descriptions of the perpetrator and areas involved in the recently reported offences.

The unit then released footage of the suspect on Friday, showing a male with a blurred face on an e-bike.

Police urged anyone who knew the male to provide further information of his whereabouts and identity.

On Saturday evening, the boy presented himself to police and was arrested.

“Following a public appeal, a 13-year-old boy was arrested after attending Mona Vale Police Station about 7.30pm yesterday (Saturday 17 October 2026),” a police statement announced

The teenager was then taken to Manly Police Station and charged with three counts of behaving in an offensive manner in a public place and eight counts of sexually touching another person without consent.

The first reported incident in the teen’s alleged string of sexual offences occurred at 3.55pm on October 7 when a woman was allegedly sexually touched by a man riding an e-bike while she was walking on the Narrabeen Lagoon trail.

She described the perpetrator, who sped off after committing the alleged assault, as having a slim build, wearing a fluorescent yellow shirt and dark pants.

Another incident occurred at about 3.15pm the following day of October 8 when a runner on the nearby Narrabeen Lake trail was allegedly subjected to inappropriate sexual remarks.

The victim described the perpetrator as being of Caucasian appearance, aged between 17 and 25, and having short spiky hair and sideburns.

Two hours later on the same day, an e-bike rider allegedly approached another woman exercising at Bilarong Reserve and sexually touched her before fleeing on his e-bike.

She described the offender as having blond, curly hair and estimated his age to be around 15 or 16-years-old.

On Monday October 12, two women were allegedly sexually touched in the same hour whilst walking beside Narrabeen Lagoon in the afternoon.

The offender was once again said to be riding an e-bike and described as Caucasian, aged between 16 and 18, approximately 175cm tall and wearing a bright yellow top with green on the sides, long black pants and a round black helmet.

A sixth woman then came forward to police on October 12 with information of an incident on October 1 where she was allegedly sexually touched by a man on an e-bike at Narrabeen Lagoon.

Police have also alleged the same perpetrator carried out a similar offence on September 7.

“It will also be alleged that a woman was spoken to inappropriately at the intersection of Waroon Road and Carawa Road, Cromer, about 6.45pm on Monday 7 September 2026,” the police statement said.

One of the women involved in the string of alleged assaults spoke to local publication Manly Observer about the offence in which she was allegedly touched on the behind.

“I just went on a walk, and sat for a while at a bench. There was someone on an e-bike loitering around Bilarong park area,” the young woman told Manly Observer.

“I didn’t think much of it, then stood up to walk again and [was] listening to a podcast.

“It just gave me a huge fright,” she said.

The boy has been granted conditional bail and is due to appear before a children’s court on Wednesday November 4.

Senior Labor and Coalition parliamentarians say the Greens have “questions” to answer as Senator Jordon Steele-John faces an internal probe into claims of inappropriate behaviour toward women.

Senator Steele-John this week took leave from the Greens party room after current and former members wrote to leader David Shoebridge asking him to investigation allegations spanning “almost a decade”.

Reporting has since revealed that the party’s Western Australia branch kept a 47-page crisis management plan detailing how to manage media coverage of any allegations against Senator Steele-John.

It also instructed staff to monitor any related chatter on social media from party members.

Senator Shoebridge – who clinched the Greens leadership late last month with Senator Steele-John’s backing – has denied any knowledge of the document or the allegations.

Cabinet minister Tim Ayres told News24 on Sunday there were “questions” for the new leader to answer.

Asked if he thought Senator Shoebridge knew of the allegations before they became public, he directed the queries to minor party’s leader.

Senator Ayres also denied ever hearing any rumours about Senator Steele-John.

“No, I had not heard rumours of these allegation,” he said.

Opposition frontbencher Sarah Henderson also said “the Greens have a lot of explaining to do”.

“It is appropriate that there should be a proper, I hope, independent inquiry into these allegations,” she said, speaking to the same broadcaster.

Senator Steele-John has rejected the claims against him, saying they try “to assert I am someone I am not”.

“I have referred this matter to the WA Greens, so that a fair, independent process can be commissioned that upholds the principles of natural justice and ensures procedural fairness for everyone involved,” he said.

“These claims are made without specifics, any allegation of this nature is extremely serious and must be treated accordingly.

“If someone has made an allegation, I am prepared to address it.”

I really love print periodicals, so I thought I'd make a post to share the ones that I know of and seek out recommendations for additional ones.

I'm looking for recommendations for Australian print magazines that cover some amount of news, politics, literature, arts, culture, science, sustainability, and/or ecology.

I am not interested in publications that primarily focus on music, fashion, sports/surf/skate culture, homes/architecture/design, gardening, or weddings.

I'm especially keen on indie publications!

There are so many amazing online-only publications, but I'm looking for print media specifically: I don't enjoy e-readers, or being on screens, any more than I already have to be.

***Australian print periodicals that are already on my radar:****

• with an option for ongoing subscription:
  • news and politics
    • the saturday paper (technically a newspaper, but am including since it's published once a week rather than daily)
    • the monthly
    • quarterly essay
    • arena
  • science and sustainability
    • australian geographic
    • renew
    • sanctuary
    • green
  • other/misc
    • frankie
    • vault
    • new philosopher
    • never too small
    • walkers journal
  • literature
    • overland
    • meanjin
    • voiceworks
    • griffith review
    • australian book review
    • westerly
    • HEAT
    • island
    • southerly
• with no option for ongoing subscription:
  • the story
  • archer
  • galah
  • peppermint
  • mince
  • no cure
• no longer in print (as far as I can tell) (rip <3):
  • smith journal
  • the lifted brow
  • demure
  • tart
  • dumbo feather
  • lunch lady

Are there any other homegrown periodicals with decent journalism and writing? Let's keep local print media alive together 💜

A former digital forensic officer in Bendigo has been charged with offences including possession of child abuse material.

Vincent Manner, 57, was this week charged with misconduct in public office, failing to provide information under warrant, and up to six counts of accessing and possessing child abuse material.

Mr Manner was suspended without pay in August last year, but resigned amid a police investigation in November.

Police said the investigation was undertaken by the Professional Standards Unit in conjunction with the Cybercrime Squad, and worked with the Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) "to understand the impact of the ongoing enquiry on any current investigations or court matters".

"Following the identification of a number of potentially affected matters, a formal review of the forensic data was conducted. This re-examination has been completed," a police statement read.

"At this stage it is believed all issues have been identified and reviewed and impacted parties have been notified."

Mr Manner will face Bendigo Magistrates Court on November 4.

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.

Australia’s budget would remain mired in deficit for more than 10 years under One Nation’s plans for lower migration, delivering an economic blow that would drive up national debt by an extra $275 billion.

As political parties of all stripes come under pressure to appease public anxiety about immigration, a 10-year analysis of lower migration scenarios using Parliamentary Budget Office tools exposes the economic and fiscal consequences of blunt measures to bring fewer people to the country.

According to the analysis, Pauline Hanson’s three-year negative migration scenario would also reduce Australia’s economic output by $212 billion by the middle of next decade, when there would be 820,000 fewer taxpaying workers in the economy.

Former Coalition finance minister Mathias Cormann, now head of the OECD, on Saturday warned against setting “arbitrary migration caps” without thought to their impact on businesses, hospitals or universities.

“An ageing country that chooses to shrink its working-age population while promising to spend more on health, care and defence has not developed a plan. It has put forward a contradiction,” he said in a speech.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.Alex Ellinghausen

The analysis shows cutting migration to the Coalition’s desired levels would mean $150 billion more debt in a decade under current migration settings, demonstrating the opposition has a high-wire task in executing precise changes to the visa system that avoid a compounding fiscal fallout.

The Labor government is already wearing backlash from the hospitality and accommodation sector, which relies on migrant labour, for its decision to limit working holidaymaker visas as a key measure to quickly bring down the net overseas migration intake.

Public anxiety about immigration has grown alongside the number of temporary visa holders in Australia, but industry and business groups are becoming increasingly concerned that a political contest to drive numbers down quickly risks jeopardising the economy.

The Australian Hotels Association made its own intervention into public debate this week with an AI-generated advertisement that showed services falling apart as migrant workers disappeared from cafes, aged care homes, supermarkets and hotels across the country.

“The hotel industry understands the need for migration changes, but it’s unfair our sector is copping the brunt of the planned cuts,” Accommodation Australia chief executive James Goodwin said. “There must be a better balance across the different visa categories and sectors of the economy.”

Labor will cut second- and third-year working holidaymaker visas and student family visas in its plans to get net overseas migration numbers down to 225,000. The Coalition will target graduates and refugees to hit a 100,000 target, before lifting it to 160,000 with more skilled entrants.

One Nation has not specified its plans but wants three years of negative migration, before a maximum net intake of 130,000 people a year, which would retain regional workers.

Deciphering the economic impacts of lower migration

Economist Chris Richardson said higher migration levels generally gave the federal government a higher tax intake, although they saddled state governments with more spending. He said there were not examples of economic models that effectively combined the impact of migration on federal budgets, state budgets and the complex issue of housing.

The budget office’s “build your own budget” calculator is one tool that enables users to compare policy initiatives, including cuts to net overseas migration, and their impact on the federal budget and population growth over time.

It is limited and assumes current policy settings, so the Coalition’s plans to reconfigure the migration program cannot be factored into the forecasts. But without published budget analysis from the opposition or One Nation, it is one measure to gauge the fiscal impact of cuts if current migration settings were maintained but scaled down to include fewer people.

Based on One Nation’s desired immigration levels, by the middle of next decade the country would have 820,000 fewer people in paid employment. That has a flow-on impact on personal income tax, company tax and GST collections.

Under the government’s policies, the budget is expected to show cumulative deficits of $108 billion over the next decade, returning to the black in 2034-35. But One Nation would run cumulative deficits of $391 billion, and the budget would not return to surplus over the next 10 years.

The larger deficits mean more gross debt, which is currently $995 billion. By the middle of next decade, current government policy would take debt to almost $1.4 trillion. But with deep cuts in net overseas migration, One Nation would have debt at $1.67 trillion.

The Coalition’s numbers, under today’s migration settings, would lead to debt at $1.54 trillion. There would also be a 430,000 drop in the number of working people, and run-up deficits worth $262 billion. It would get back to surplus in 2036-37.

The opposition’s own analysis deviates significantly from these estimates because the Coalition plans on changing the mix of migrants, whereas the PBO budget tool assumes the make-up of the migration program remains the same as today but in smaller numbers.

The Coalition forecasts losing $6.1 billion over the four-year forward estimates because of lower migration. However, halving the refugee intake from 20,000 to 10,000 people would deliver $2.7 billion in budget savings, while a new skilled project visa scheme is forecast to deliver $3.9 billion.

The Coalition says its policy would improve the budget bottom line by $260 million in four years and $2.5 billion over the decade, although it has not published the analysis, which was also completed by the PBO, so it is unclear what other caveats or conditions are factored into that scenario.

Richardson said high-skilled young adult migrants delivered the most positive budget and economic impact, but changing migration policy was complex. “As the government has tried to wind back migration in recent years, it’s increasingly clear that it’s hard,” he said.

“Regardless of what any political party wants to do, we’ve built a system that’s a supertanker – it doesn’t change direction fast. The politics have changed, but the poles and wires of the system haven’t.”

The Coalition is mounting its case for lower migration levels as it competes in the polls with One Nation, which has not outlined any policy details or addressed economic impacts.

A spokesperson for leader Angus Taylor said One Nation’s policy was a mess while the government had been relying on migration to pump up their budget, claiming the Coalition could both deliver a historic cut to migration and fully protect the economy.

Cormann, in his speech to the right-leaning Centre for Independent Studies in Brisbane on Saturday, doused that argument. He acknowledged public concern about immigration had grown, particularly because of housing shortfalls, but rejected cutting immigration as the answer.

“That concern [housing] is legitimate ... The answer is to fix what made it legitimate: housing supply, infrastructure, services and the composition of the intake, not to shrink the country,” said the former minister in the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments.

“We cannot have fewer workers and more hospitals, more aged care, a bigger pension bill and more defence all at the same time. Someone has to pay for all that. You cannot shrink your way out of that bind. You can only grow your way out of 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

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.’ ”

It might seem bizarre that an Australian species has become an invasive pest overseas. The flow of introduced species usually goes the other way. But these yabbies were forged in the intense crucible of the Australian climate. Unfortunately, they may be all but unstoppable in the Zambesi – and many other water bodies around the world.

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.

A shooting in Melbourne is under investigation after two young men were found seriously injured.

The 22-year-old man from from Dallas and the 19-year-old man from Craigieburn were found injured inside a home on Kaniva St in Dallas about 8.20am on Sunday.

Victoria Police said emergency services found the men “seriously injured, possibly shot.”

An Ambulance Victoria spokesperson described them as having “upper body injuries”.

The two men are believed to be known to each other.

No one else is believed to have been involved in the shooting incident.

A Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance and Advanced Life Support paramedic crews were sent to the home.

Both injured men were taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital under police guard, Victoria Police said.

Detectives are now probing the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

The strong El Niño currently under way in the Pacific Ocean raises the specter of marine heat waves and coral bleaching once again threatening Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef. And now new research has revealed the complex interplay of atmospheric patterns and weather systems thousands of kilometers apart that can combine in a recipe potentially fatal for coral reefs.