Federal and state politics, policy, and governance
A Queensland Audit Office report has exposed how Queensland Police signed a controversial 15-year lease without approval or informing auditors. The $116 million Stones Corner deal was entered into without allocated funding.
James Callahan 
Victoria will receive about $1.7 billion more in GST than NSW in 2026-27, despite having a smaller population, according to the latest Commonwealth Grants Commission distribution. The shift underscores a complex redistribution debate with implications for state budgets across Australia.
Yuki Tamura 
Members of the Iranian diaspora in Malaysia attempted to reach the Iranian women's football team as it transited through Kuala Lumpur, but reports indicate security officials prevented the exchange.
Patrick Donnelly 
The Victorian Government is set to boost state coffers by $50 million through the sale of surplus land held by VicRoads next to the EastLink tollway. The transaction reflects a broader effort to monetise underused government assets.
Daniel Kovac 
X has come under fire for granting a blue checkmark to Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, despite his appearance on US sanctions lists since 2019. The account adds to mounting evidence that the platform has systematically failed to prevent sanctioned Iranian officials from paying for premium services.
Victoria Crawford 
The Teamsters union has urged the US Department of Justice to block Paramount Skydance's proposed $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery unless the companies provide enforceable guarantees on domestic production and worker protections.
Oliver Pemberton 
Australia's Defence Minister has announced expanded security arrangements with Indonesia, Japan and Papua New Guinea, as the country wrestles with whether it can afford to modernise its military fast enough to counter China's expanding regional presence.
Aisha Khoury 
Queensland has received a pitch to repurpose Rockhampton's Olympic village into military dormitories for Australian and foreign forces following the 2032 Games.
Priya Narayanan 
A bipartisan US Senate bill would require the FBI to obtain a warrant before searching Americans' communications, closing what critics call a Fourth Amendment loophole in federal surveillance law.
Tanya Birch 
The Greens' retreat in the 2025 federal election has created a succession crisis in Brunswick as Labor aims to exploit the party's weakness by pushing harder-left policies in the marginal Richmond seat.
Marcus Ashbrook 
Documents show the Western Australian government sidelined its water utility from Alcoa oversight, raising questions about how safety decisions get made when economic interests clash.
Daniel Kovac 
Privacy campaigners are raising concerns that Palantir's Federated Data Platform could enable UK immigration and police departments to access confidential patient information, citing the firm's controversial work with US immigration enforcement.
Ella Sullivan 
The Trump administration's unprecedented move to designate Anthropic a national security threat exposes how government power can override commercial partnership when political disagreement emerges.
Aisha Khoury 
The UK has built its first end-to-end manufacturing facility for ceramic matrix composites, marking a strategic shift towards independence in a critical military technology vulnerable to supply chain disruption.
Yuki Tamura 
A petrol station in Geraldton has been fined for charging more than what it reported to WA's FuelWatch system. It's one of several recent enforcement actions against fuel retailers bending the rules.
Ella Sullivan 
The UK government is consulting on letting AI datacenters jump the electricity grid queue, sparking concerns from housing developers who fear new homes will be further delayed.
Grace Okonkwo 
Western Australia's government is facing allegations of unfair treatment after allocating extra parliamentary staff to some minor parties but not others in the state parliament.
Kate Morrison 
Victoria's Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas drew attention to cabinet friction by liking a critical social media post about government policy, signalling underlying tensions over major health system changes.
Riley Fitzgerald 
After footage shows young e-bike riders narrowly avoiding a bus collision in Fairfield, the mayor is pushing for urgent action as injuries from e-bike incidents surge across NSW.
Yuki Tamura 
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has made clear that blanket tariff removal is off the table, even as the Trump administration faces mounting legal challenges to its trade policies.
Mitchell Tan