Accused Bondi shooter makes temporary courtroom look
Accused Bondi terrorist Naveed Akram made temporary remarks to a courtroom because the names of some victims stay sealed, AAP reviews.
The 24-year-old known as in from jail to face Sydney’s Downing Centre native courtroom on Monday morning on 59 fees, together with homicide and terrorism offences. He’s accused of finishing up Australia’s deadliest terror assault, when 15 folks had been killed and 40 injured throughout beachside Hanukah celebrations at Bondi Seaside.
The youthful man spoke after a Justice of the Peace on Monday continued suppression orders defending victims and survivors of the assault who haven’t chosen to determine themselves publicly.
Akram was wearing a inexperienced prison-issued jumper, together with his fingers in his lap as he listened to the in any other case uneventful case point out.
He was requested a number of temporary questions, responding both “yeah” or “yep” to the courtroom. He’s subsequent resulting from seem on 9 April.
Key occasions
Building yard for nuclear subs will value at the very least $30bn
No less than $30bn shall be spent constructing a building yard to ultimately construct nuclear submarines for Australia below the Aukus settlement, AAP reviews.
The federal authorities introduced on Sunday it had pledged $3.9bn as a down fee to safe the way forward for the Submarine Building Yard within the northern Adelaide suburb of Osborne. The federal government hopes the undertaking will create 10,000 jobs in design and building in addition to as much as 1,000 apprentices per yr at an on-site coaching facility.
The way forward for Aukus has been below a cloud for months because the US introduced it could overview the phrases of the settlement. However the prime minister dismissed issues that the promised shipyard would by no means see an Aukus vessel.
The value tag comes from an estimate offered by Australian Naval Infrastructure, the federal government’s hand-picked firm tasked with delivering the Aukus facility. In addition to building, the brand new yard will embrace functionality for the testing and fee of the submarines.
Accused Bondi shooter makes temporary courtroom look
Accused Bondi terrorist Naveed Akram made temporary remarks to a courtroom because the names of some victims stay sealed, AAP reviews.
The 24-year-old known as in from jail to face Sydney’s Downing Centre native courtroom on Monday morning on 59 fees, together with homicide and terrorism offences. He’s accused of finishing up Australia’s deadliest terror assault, when 15 folks had been killed and 40 injured throughout beachside Hanukah celebrations at Bondi Seaside.
The youthful man spoke after a Justice of the Peace on Monday continued suppression orders defending victims and survivors of the assault who haven’t chosen to determine themselves publicly.
Akram was wearing a inexperienced prison-issued jumper, together with his fingers in his lap as he listened to the in any other case uneventful case point out.
He was requested a number of temporary questions, responding both “yeah” or “yep” to the courtroom. He’s subsequent resulting from seem on 9 April.
Caitlin Cassidy
File variety of Australians to begin college levels in 2026
A report variety of Australians will start a college diploma this yr, the federal authorities has introduced, because it seeks to fulfill an bold goal for tertiary participation.
In keeping with preliminary knowledge from the Division of Training, college purposes for commencing undergraduate college students are up 4.6% in contrast with the identical time final yr, whereas affords are up 2.5%.
There was a selected enhance for social work (up 19%) whereas engineering and science purposes are up by 9% and nursing and instructing are up by 6%.
It follows the allocation of an additional 9,500 home locations to universities this yr by the newly established Australian Tertiary Training Fee (Atec) on high of 2025 ranges.
The schooling minister, Jason Clare, stated an extra 16,000 absolutely funded commonwealth supported locations could be allotted in 2027, rising to 200,000 over the following decade:
The Universities Accord says that, by 2050, 80% of the workforce will want a tertiary qualification. The one option to hit that focus on is to assist extra folks go to school and Tafe. This can assist extra folks construct the abilities they want for the roles of the long run.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland will get a brand new interim police commissioner
Brett Pointing has been introduced as interim Queensland police commissioner.
Steve Gollschewki introduced his resignation final week. He was promoted to commissioner in 2024 however stepped apart in 2025 after being recognized with lung most cancers.
Pointing served within the QPS for greater than 40 years earlier than leaving to the Australian federal police in 2018. He served as an adviser on the current QPS overview which really useful shifting sources away from home violence case administration and administration to frontline policing.
“Its an incredible honour and certainly an incredible privilege to be appointed commissioner of the Queensland police service,” Pointing stated.
He stated his priorities had been to cut back quantity crime corresponding to break and entry, home violence and automobile fatalities, and to “take away the pointless pink tape and complexity” imposed on the frontline, amongst others.
He’ll take up the position subsequent week. His interim time period will final 12 months.
Sydney man charged after allegedly damaging 35 automobiles in resort automobile park
A Sydney man has been charged after allegedly damaging greater than 30 automobiles in a resort automobile park within the metropolis’s CBD on Monday morning.
NSW police stated the person, 42, was arrested after they had been known as to the automobile park simply earlier than 4am. Upon arrival, officers had been advised the person was allegedly armed with a site visitors cone and had broken the automobile park’s increase gate. The person then allegedly went on to break 35 autos.
Police estimated the entire harm to be price about $100,000.
The person was arrested after a brief foot pursuit and has since been charged with 37 counts of damaging of property. He was refused bail and can seem earlier than courtroom right now.
Tom McIlroy
Farmers name for ‘significant market entry’ as a part of any free commerce take care of EU
Farmers say any new free commerce settlement between Australia and the European Union should ship “commercially significant market entry” for producers right here.
Over the weekend Australia and the EU appeared on the point of hanging an extended sought-after commerce deal, forward of a deliberate go to to Australia by the European Fee president, Ursula von der Leyen, due inside months.
The commerce minister, Don Farrell, took half in two days of talks in Brussels final week, with the 2 sides speaking up progress. However farmers within the 27-member bloc have lengthy held issues about higher imports of Australian beef and lamb.
The Nationwide Farmers’ Federation president, Hamish McIntyre, stated any deal should enhance the flexibility of farmers to promote to about 450 million European customers. He famous that was a normal set by Farrell himself earlier than travelling abroad.
“Australian agriculture is pro-trade and helps a high-quality settlement with the EU,” McIntyre stated, including:
Nonetheless, business expects the federal government will maintain agency to the usual it publicly set.
The ultimate name now rests with the prime minister, who should guarantee any settlement delivers real, commercially significant market entry for Australian farmers.
Something much less would fall in need of the federal government’s said place and undermine confidence in Australia’s dedication to open, liberalised commerce.
Sarah Basford Canales
Meta officers fronting inquiry on local weather misinformation
Officers from Fb and Instagram’s dad or mum firm, Meta, are going through senators at a parliamentary listening to on local weather misinformation this morning.
Victorian Labor senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah famous the items of content material eliminated had “actually fallen off a cliff” since 2022. In 2022, 91,000 items of content material had been eliminated, with 9,700 posts eliminated in 2023 and 350 posts in 2024.
Meta’s head of coverage for Australia, New Zealand and Pacific islands, Cheryl Seeto, defined the sharp drop in content material removals associated to the World Well being Group’s choice to elevate the Covid-19 public well being emergency declaration.
She stated:
When that emergency declaration was lifted, we did revise that coverage, such that the coverage that also stays now, we’ll solely take away Covid-related misinformation in nations the place there’s an energetic Covid-19 associated emergency.
Meta is trialling the usage of group notes, like X, in the USA and stated it would seemingly be launched to Australia whether it is profitable. Meta stated it had blocked 692m faux accounts globally within the third quarter of 2025.
In Australia, Meta pays information businesses, AAP and AFP, to factcheck articles shared throughout its platforms however officers didn’t understand how many individuals labored in these groups.
New seek for proof in lacking boy Gus Lamont case
Tory Shepherd
South Australian police have introduced a brand new seek for proof at Oak Park Station, the house of four-year-old Gus Lamont, who went lacking final yr.
On 5 February, police declared his disappearance a major crime and stated somebody who lived with Gus was a suspect.
In a press release right now, they stated:
Members hooked up to Job Drive Horizon conducting inquiries into the disappearance of four-year-old Gus Lamont on 27 September 2025 have returned to Oak Park Station to proceed trying to find proof.
It’s anticipated that Job Drive Horizon detectives will stay within the space for at the very least the following two days.
An replace on the search actions shall be offered as they progress.
Cait Kelly
In case you missed it, NSW is getting an additional vacation this yr
Individuals in Australia’s most populous state have been granted an Anzac Day lengthy weekend for the following two years, and could possibly be in line for extra public holidays.
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has introduced the state would have an additional public vacation in 2026 and 2027, when Anzac Day falls on a Saturday and Sunday.
Remembrance providers are held nationwide on 25 April, however solely folks in Western Australia and ACT had beforehand been granted an extra public vacation on the next Monday.
However others stated they received’t do likewise, with the governments of Victoria and Queensland declaring no such public vacation could be created.
Not like New 12 months’s Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, there had been no further public holidays declared in NSW when Anzac Day fell on a weekend.
Learn extra right here:
NSW element extra fees in opposition to males accused of aged driver rip-off
NSW police will lay extra fees in opposition to two males accused of scamming aged drivers in carparks throughout the state over a number of days in January.
Police first stated final month they’d arrested two males, aged 37 and 57, as a part of a rip-off through which one of many males would allegedly strategy a sufferer, claiming there was a problem with their automobile earlier than asking them to boost the bonnet to examine it. Whereas the bonnet was up, one other man would allegedly steal gadgets from contained in the sufferer’s automobile.
The pair had been charged with 72 offences every in early January and refused bail.
Investigators now allege extra offences in further areas, together with Waratah, Gundagai, Wyong and Sydney, amongst others. Police imagine the pair got here to Australia in late December, utilizing allegedly false representations on passenger playing cards and visa purposes.
They may lay an extra 17 offences in opposition to the pair, encompassing fees of fraud, stealing, getting into a car with out consent and making false statements to officers working below the migration at.
Police are interesting for extra details about anybody who could have handled the lads.
Patrick Commins
Treasury contemplating adjustments to Australia’s contentious tobacco excise, as calls develop for a freeze
Consultants say a freeze on the federal authorities’s contentious tobacco excise ought to be thought-about, after the Treasury revealed it was modelling the impacts of cigarette costs on demand amid a booming black market.
Lachlan Vass, a analysis supervisor on the e61 Institute, stated the Treasury’s examination of “value elasticity” and demand for tobacco could be a needed step to costing potential reforms to the excise.
Jim Chalmers, the treasurer, and Mark Butler, the well being minister, have beforehand rebuffed any suggestion that lowering the sky-high value of cigarettes was the answer to curbing the black market commerce, which has ballooned over the previous 5 years and smashed a $17.8bn gap within the funds since 2020-21.
However when requested at Senate estimates final week why a minimize to the excise couldn’t be thought-about as a part of a wider technique to curb the unlawful tobacco commerce, Katy Gallagher, the finance minister, left the door open to a change in excise coverage.
Learn extra right here:
Search continues for aged man who was allegedly kidnapped by mistake
The search continues for a grandfather who was allegedly kidnapped by mistake in a botched underworld kidnapping, AAP reviews.
The 85-year-old Sydney man, Chris Baghsarian, was alone in his North Ryde house when he was taken and bundled into dark-coloured SUV on Friday morning. Police maintain grave issues for the grandfather, who wants each day remedy, after they had been known as to the house by neighbours who heard a commotion about 5am.
Detective Appearing Supt Andrew Marks urged for the discharge of the aged man:
Police contemplate that Mr Baghsarian was not the meant goal … You may have the incorrect particular person.
Learn extra right here:
Wildlife officers nonetheless trying to find entangled humpback whale in Victoria
Victoria’s Division of Vitality, Atmosphere and Local weather Motion (DEECA) continues to be trying to find a humpback whale entangled in rope off the Gippsland coast.
The company stated the juvenile whale was first seen late Saturday by a wildlife tour boat, heading slowly south about 250 metres off the coast of Cape Wellington. The animal was seen once more on Sunday morning and was described as transferring “very slowly”, showing underweight.
DEECA will ship a airplane up right now to proceed trying to find the whale in hopes of offering help.
The company stated it’s prone to be the identical whale that was seen earlier this month in Jervis Bay, NSW. Members of the general public who see the animal are urged to name the DEECA emergency hotline on 1300 136 017.
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IMF finds Australia managing ‘soft-landing’ on financial restoration
The Worldwide Financial Fund launched a report on Sunday saying the Australian economic system was managing a “soft landing” however stated inflationary pressures had “re-emerged” in current months.
The physique stated the nation’s financial restoration is anticipated to proceed within the near-term however added wage progress is anticipated to average additional, partially resulting from weak productiveness progress. The IMF stated yesterday:
Government administrators welcomed Australia’s progress towards a delicate touchdown and inside stability, however uncertainties relating to residual extra demand and provide capability within the context of weak productiveness progress.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, stated the report was usually excellent news for the economic system, telling RN Breakfast:
It was a really constructive report about Australia and in regards to the authorities’s financial plan, it was a robust endorsement. … It described our funds administration as efficient.
Court docket battle begins over Coles’ grocery costs
Jonathan Barrett
A extremely anticipated federal courtroom battle between the competitors regulator and grocery store large Coles begins right now, testing allegations the retailer provided “illusory” reductions on tons of of on a regular basis merchandise.
The Australian Competitors and Client Fee (ACCC) is looking for giant penalties and group service orders in opposition to Coles, which, together with Woolworths, controls two-thirds of the Australian grocery market.
An identical case in opposition to Woolworths is anticipated to be heard at a later date.
The ten-day listening to in Melbourne will scrutinise pricing practices involving tons of of merchandise, from immediate espresso to chocolate biscuits, over an prolonged interval.
The regulator alleges that Coles briefly inflated costs earlier than marking the gadgets as discounted below promotions like “Down Down,” in a practice known as “was/is” pricing.
Coles is defending the claims, arguing pricing was a response to elevated prices from suppliers.
The case begins throughout a interval of reigniting inflation, with groceries and different family prices rising strongly once more.
Krishani Dhanji
Labor releases numbers exhibiting funds could be $14bn worse off below Coalition
The federal government has launched figures that, it says, present the federal funds could be $14bn worse over two years if the Coalition had received the 2025 election.
The figures launched by Labor declare these funds deficits would add $22bn to gross debt over the approaching decade, leading to $8.4bn in further curiosity funds, primarily based on the Coalition’s costings that had been launched forward of the election.
The Coalition’s nuclear plan will not be included within the figures.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says the numbers show Angus Taylor and the newly elected deputy chief, Jane Hume, “blew up their financial credibility” throughout the election marketing campaign.
Chalmers stated:
Angus Taylor is the poster baby for the Coalition’s financial madness. These figures present Angus Taylor has no credibility on the economic system and that’s precisely why the Liberal celebration is an entire bin hearth.
Angus Taylor and Jane Hume blew up their election marketing campaign, they blew up their financial credibility, and these numbers present they might have blown the funds too.
Aussie medal celebration continues with twin moguls bronze
Australian skier Matt Graham bounced again from particular person disappointment so as to add one other medal to the one he collected eight years in the past in Pyeongchang and proceed the Aussie success story at Milan-Cortina, AAP reviews.
He grew to become the nation’s third moguls medallist on the Video games on Sunday. It was Australia’s record-extending fifth medal of the Olympics and was hard-won given Graham’s a number of accidents which have included a fractured neck, collarbone, damaged ribs and lung contusions.
Graham clawed his approach on to the rostrum with a win over Japan’s Takuya Shimakawa within the small remaining, which determined the bronze medal. The Australian outscored his rival 20 to fifteen. The Canadian all-time nice Mikaël Kingsbury received the gold medal after taking silver within the particular person.
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Good morning
Good morning, and welcome to Monday. Nick Visser right here to information you thru the day’s information. Right here’s what’s on deck:
The federal courtroom will maintain a listening to on the Australian Competitors and Client Fee’s (ACCC) case in opposition to Coles and Woolworths right now after the patron watchdog sued the grocery giants in 2024 over allegations they misled buyers utilizing “illusory” reductions on tons of of merchandise. The listening to will happen in Melbourne, with the courtroom noting the ACCC is looking for “a big penalty” for the alleged breaches of shopper legislation.
Australia is as much as 5 medals on the Winter Olympics in Milan after skier Matt Graham took house bronze within the new twin moguls occasions. “This implies so much, the opposite day was a bit bittersweet, coming fifth after I knew I had sufficient to get on the rostrum so right now was a bit about redemption, I used to be fired up,” he advised reporters after the achievement.
Persist with us.
