Melbourne Metro tunnel to open on 30 November
Anthony Albanese is in Melbourne, where he and the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, have announced the opening date of the city’s new Metro tunnel project.
Allan said she was “thrilled” the Metro tunnel would be in operation from 30 November, with the long-awaited $15.5bn federal and state project ready to open a little earlier than its expected December launch.
The prime minister said the project had been spoken about for more than a decade.
“This will be fantastic on November 30th, but it would have been opened years earlier had the money not been ripped out,” Albanese said, referring to Tony Abbott’s budget decisions in 2014.
It opens up the opportunity for further investment, further expansion and the key to people getting around major cities around the world is always public transport, including this great city here of Melbourne.
He confirmed that more money would be set aside for the city’s suburban rail loop, adding:
I feel a sense of obligation to do the right thing by Victorians, as I feel an obligation to be prime minister for the whole country, not just for Sydney.
Trains are expected to run every 20 minutes during the so-called “summer start” period. Read more here:
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Updated at 20.06 EST
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Four more magic sand products contaminated by asbestos
Kmart and Target have issued a recall notice for four coloured sand products that they say are linked to asbestos contamination.
The news comes as schools in the ACT and one in Queensland were last week shut due to concerns over asbestos found in the play product.
The recall affects Kmart and Target’s 14-piece sand castle building set and blue, green and pink magic sand products.
“The product is being recalled because the sand may include asbestos, which is a prohibited substance in Australia. The product may cause a risk to health as asbestos has been detected in some samples after laboratory testing”, the notice stated.
Importantly, respirable asbestos has not been detected in any of the tested samples. The release of respirable asbestos fibres is unlikely to occur in its current state, unless the sand is processed by mechanical means such as crushing or pulverising. The risk that any asbestos found, that is likely to be airborne or fine enough for inhalation, is low.
The ACT government said that all impacted public schools would on Sunday afternoon provide an update to families about arrangements for learning on Monday.
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Updated at 22.58 EST
Tom McIlroy
Coalition drama continues as it meets to discuss climate policy
The rolling drama of the Coalition’s climate policy is continuing this afternoon, with Liberal and Nationals MPs preparing to join a virtual party room meeting in the next hour. They’ll discuss a combined energy and emissions policy for the next election, coming days after the Liberals formally decided to drop support for net zero by 2050 policies.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, is trying to straddle competing demands from the conservative and moderate factions in her party while trying to present a united front against Labor.
We’re expecting a press conference from the opposition later on this afternoon, but we already know the broad outlines of the policy.
The Liberal shadow ministry on Thursday agreed a future Coalition government would remove a net zero by 2050 commitment, as well as removing Labor’s legislated 43% emissions reduction target by 2030 and its 82% renewables target. They plan to focus on energy prices for households and business and for a future Coalition government to prop up coal and other fossil fuels.
However the Liberal plan would not include withdrawing from the Paris agreement and achieving net zero emissions would be considered a “welcome outcome”.
The decision – and Sunday’s meeting – is expected to calm tensions around Ley’s leadership, but given the Coalition’s poor standing in the polls, a challenge by leadership aspirants Angus Taylor or Andrew Hastie is still likely some time in 2026.
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Updated at 22.14 EST
Alice Wong, a ‘luminary of the disability justice movement’, dies
Over to the US, where Alice Wong, a writer and disability rights activist who was born with muscular dystrophy and whose independence and writing inspired others, has died. She was 51.
Tributes to Wong are flowing, with one close friend of Wong’s calling her a “luminary of the disability justice movement” who wanted to see a world where people with disabilities, especially those of marginalized demographics who were people of color, LGBTQ+ people and immigrants, could live freely and have full autonomy over their lives and decisions.
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P-plater denied bail after crash that killed pregnant woman
The teenager who was behind the wheel of a car involved in a tragic crash that killed a woman and her unborn child will remain behind bars.
P-plater Aaron Papazoglu, 19, was driving a BMW that struck a Kia station wagon on Friday evening, with the second car hitting a 33-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant, reports AAP.
Paramedics treated the woman at Hornsby, in Sydney’s north-west, and she was taken to hospital but neither her nor her baby could be saved.
Papazoglu, who has no previous criminal or driving offences, accelerated through an intersection when the traffic light changed to orange, his lawyer Patrick Schmidt told Parramatta local court on Sunday.
Papazoglu is facing three charges, including dangerous driving occasioning death and causing the loss of a foetus. The teenager had not been using any drugs or alcohol, was not street racing and had not run a red light, Schmidt said.
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Updated at 21.49 EST
Cait Kelly
Last week, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people in Victoria lodged a native title claim for Melbourne and its surrounds. The premier, Jacinta Allan, heralded it as a “positive step” forward, and the 11 members making the claim have been quick to point out it won’t affect the rights of property owners in Melbourne.
But some rightwing commentators have likened it to “apartheid”, saying it will cause “racial division”.
So what is native title? And what does it mean for Melbourne?
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US tariff cuts a ‘direct result’ of Australian advocacy, Albanese claims
Anthony Albanese has welcomed the Trump administration’s decision to drop tariffs on beef and other agricultural exports to the US, claiming the reversal was a “direct result” of his government’s advocacy.
Speaking with reporters in Melbourne a short time ago, the prime minister said the move was “something that we’ve continued to advocate for” and that genuine reciprocal tariffs would be zero, given Australia does not have tariffs on US goods or services. He continued:
The decision on beef and some other agricultural products is welcomed and is a direct result of the strong advocacy of Don Farrell as the trade minister, of the other Australian ministers, and indeed my meetings with President [Donald] Trump where we’ve had three meetings over the last month.
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Updated at 20.57 EST
Penny Wong condemns the Coalition’s ‘disrespect’ for the Pacific
Circling back to Penny Wong, who appeared on the ABC’s Insiders this morning.
The foreign minister has slammed the Coalition over what she called its “disrespect” for the Pacific.
“The Pacific’s view of the Coalition’s approach to climate policy is well documented and it has become emblematic of the Coalition’s disrespect for the Pacific. That was the case under Tony Abbott, that was the case under Scott Morrison, and, regrettably, it is the case under Sussan Ley,” Wong said.
She said the Pacific region regards climate change as its No 1 issue.
So, when parties ostensibly of government in our country … make jokes about water lapping at the door, or demonstrate to them that they simply are not prepared to act – what the Pacific take from that is disrespect.
Now, we know our prosperity and our security is tied to our region. This just demonstrates again that the Coalition not only would impose higher costs on Australians but impose a cost on Australia in our region.
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Updated at 20.36 EST
Albanese calls the Coalition a squabbling ‘rabble and clown show’
Anthony Albanese used the Melbourne Metro launch announcement as an opportunity to slam the Coalition’s approach to climate change – and the uncertainty wrought by its stance on net zero.
“We see that in order to have investment, you need certainty,” he told reporters in Melbourne a short time ago.
“And, that’s why the Coalition’s ongoing talking to each other about the net zero abolition that is now their policy is an example of what happens when you don’t have certainty, when you don’t have a plan, when you just squabble,” he said.
If anyone thinks that there is certainty in the Coalition going forward, then they’re not paying any attention to the rabble and clown show that the Coalition have become when it comes to energy policy and climate policy.
He said the Coalition was trying to “pretend” it had a common position.
They’re just going back to where they were before – and Australians shouldn’t pay the price of Coalition chaos because that is what we are dealing with now.
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Updated at 20.32 EST
Melbourne Metro tunnel to open on 30 November
Anthony Albanese is in Melbourne, where he and the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, have announced the opening date of the city’s new Metro tunnel project.
Allan said she was “thrilled” the Metro tunnel would be in operation from 30 November, with the long-awaited $15.5bn federal and state project ready to open a little earlier than its expected December launch.
The prime minister said the project had been spoken about for more than a decade.
“This will be fantastic on November 30th, but it would have been opened years earlier had the money not been ripped out,” Albanese said, referring to Tony Abbott’s budget decisions in 2014.
It opens up the opportunity for further investment, further expansion and the key to people getting around major cities around the world is always public transport, including this great city here of Melbourne.
He confirmed that more money would be set aside for the city’s suburban rail loop, adding:
I feel a sense of obligation to do the right thing by Victorians, as I feel an obligation to be prime minister for the whole country, not just for Sydney.
Trains are expected to run every 20 minutes during the so-called “summer start” period. Read more here:
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Updated at 20.06 EST
Meta, Google and TikTok to be included in media bargaining measures
Tom McIlroy
The man charged with rolling out a new measure to make social media platforms pay for news content they take from Australian publishers says Meta, Google and Tiktok will be covered by the rules.
Daniel Mulino, the Albanese government’s assistant treasurer, is designing the news media bargaining incentive, designed to penalise big tech companies not paying for the media content they make money from.
Large social media and search platforms with Australian-derived revenue of at least $250m will be subject to the new rules, irrespective of whether they carry news content, according to a discussion paper released last week.
“Our expectation is that Meta, Google and Tiktok would fall within that,” he told Sky this morning.
Mulino said he had been consulting with media players, with digital platforms and also briefing the Trump administration about the plans. Trump had threatened to retaliate over what he viewed as unfair treatment of American-based platforms.
First announced in December 2024, its start date of the new scheme is yet to be decided and will be subject to a month-long public consultation by the government.
“We’re seeing a reflection from stakeholders that they’re keen to engage constructively with the government,” he said.
All of the digital platforms have indicated, initially, that they’re really keen to engage and that’s a very welcome thing from my perspective.
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Updated at 19.31 EST
‘Have a drink on us’: $35k shout after gig cancelled
Hard rock band Amyl and the Sniffers has shouted thousands of free drinks for fans after a gig was shut down over safety fears.
The Melbourne-based outfit was due to play a free, all-ages show at Federation Square last night, but the event was cancelled minutes before lead singer Amy Taylor and her band mates were due to hit the stage, with The Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation which operates Fed Square reportedly saying there had been multiple breaches of security barriers, reports AAP.
“Hello Fed Square and everybody who came to show up, we’re so f**king sorry that we couldn’t play,” Taylor said in an Instagram post .
She said a “bunch of people” rushed the barriers, making the event unsafe.
“Especially because it was all ages, we just can’t have that,” she said.
The band told fans “to have a drink on us”, opening $5,000 tabs at seven venues.
“We really wanted to play,” Taylor said. “I was chucking a tantrum like no tomorrow. You can’t imagine it, and I’m so sorry. Just have some fun tonight.”
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Updated at 19.10 EST
