PM hails ‘landmark’ national cabinet deal on hospital funding
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the federal government has reached an agreement in national cabinet for hospital funding.
He says the “landmark” agreement will deliver an extra $25bn in funding over the next five years, for a record $219.6bn in funding over the next five years.
He says:
This is three times more additional funding for public hospitals than was agreed to under the five-year agreement under the Morrison government.
He says the national cabinet agreement will ensure access to world-class healthcare as well as disability support, and also secure the future of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Key events
Queensland and Northern Territory say no movement on opposition to gun buyback scheme
Lia Finocchiaro, the chief minister of the Northern Territory, says while she welcomes the federal government’s gun buyback scheme, “Territorians won’t foot the bill”.
I’ve been honest and upfront about that from day one. We respect the decisions other states have around gun reform.
David Crisafulli, the Queensland premier, is also asked about the scheme. He says: “You know my opinion on that.” He adds:
I’ll always do what’s right for my state and that’s what we’ve done today.
Read more here:
Albanese says Israeli president’s visit about nation uniting after Bondi attack
Albanese is asked about the Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia next month in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
The prime minister says the visit will be focused on combating division, not stoking it. He says:
That is the particular focus of this visit, I welcome the fact that President Herzog is coming here. The nation needs to look towards uniting.
We have too much division and people have their views on the Middle East. But I’ll make this point, that Australia is not in a position to solve by ourselves the Middle East issues and people don’t want that conflict brought here.
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, says he also believes that there “should be an opportunity for that community to grieve”.
Albanese thanks premiers for deal
Albanese says the success of the hospital funding deal has been about finding common ground, and thanks the premiers and chief ministers for the work to reach this agreement.
He says the government wants to cut waiting lists and reduce emergency department wait times.
This funding deal is about a better deal for Australians, about better healthcare, about strengthening Medicare, consistent with my government’s commitment to strengthen Medicare as a focal point for the Australian health system, but also as a great source national pride.
PM hails ‘landmark’ national cabinet deal on hospital funding
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the federal government has reached an agreement in national cabinet for hospital funding.
He says the “landmark” agreement will deliver an extra $25bn in funding over the next five years, for a record $219.6bn in funding over the next five years.
He says:
This is three times more additional funding for public hospitals than was agreed to under the five-year agreement under the Morrison government.
He says the national cabinet agreement will ensure access to world-class healthcare as well as disability support, and also secure the future of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Ley announces Liberal-only frontbench but leaves door open to Coalition reunion
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Sussan Ley has appointed an interim Liberal-only shadow ministry after the Coalition split.
The opposition leader has assigned the old Nationals portfolios to existing Liberal shadow ministers in an acting capacity for the upcoming starting week, which starts on Tuesday.
The interim appointments include.
-
Shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien will add financial services
-
Shadow foreign minister Michaelia Cash will add trade, investment and tourism
-
Shadow health minister Anne Ruston will add agriculture, fisheries and forestry
-
Shadow energy minister Dan Tehan will add resources and northern Australia
-
Shadow special minister of state James McGrath will add infrastructure, transport, regional development, local government and territories
-
Angus Taylor will add veterans’ affairs
-
Angie Bell will water and emergency management
The acting arrangements will end before the start of the following sitting week, starting on 10 February, when Ley plans to promote six MPs to shadow cabinet and two to the outer shadow ministry.
It means the Nationals effectively have nine days to reconcile with the Liberals before Ley appoints a permanent, Liberal-only frontbench.
In a statement, Ley said:
There is enormous talent in the parliamentary Liberal party and my party room is more than capable of permanently fulfilling each and every one of those roles.
Equally, the Nationals’ decision to leave the Coalition was both regrettable and unnecessary and that door remains open. The Liberal and National parties exist to serve the Australian people and the maintenance of a strong and functioning relationship between both is in the national interest — whether we are in a formal Coalition or not.
Guardian Australia this week reported Ley wanted to meet David Littleproud for last-minute talks on the future of the Coalition ahead of parliament’s return, but the Nationals leader rebuffed the invitation to focus on a leadership spill scheduled for Monday afternoon.
In the statement, Ley said:
I understand and respect his (Littlepround’s) decision to await his party’s consideration of a forthcoming spill motion. Following Monday’s parliamentary meeting of the Nationals, I will attempt to meet with whoever is elected as their leader.
The prospects of Ley facing her own leadership challenge appear to be dwindling after internal rivals Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie failed to agree on which right faction MP would challenge her.
Two arrested after stolen car allegedly driven at officers in Geelong
A 37-year-old man and 43-year-old woman were arrested on Thursday after allegedly driving a stolen Kia into officers in Newtown, Geelong at 3.40pm on Thursday.
The allegedly stolen vehicle was spotted by police air wing near the Princes Highway, and when officers attempted to intercept the car, it allegedly reversed into a school bus in an attempt to flee.
Those on the bus were uninjured.
The car then allegedly was driven into an officer, who discharged their firearm, before the car collided with another vehicle and the pair allegedly fled on foot before being arrested nearby.
The man was transported to hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the arm. The woman was also taken to hospital with minor injuries.
The armed crime squad will investigate the incident with professional standards command oversight, per standard practice for when a police firearm is discharged.
Police allege the vehicle was stolen in NSW.
Taxpayers foot $1.1bn a year cost of imprisoning young people
Taxpayers spent $1.1bn a year imprisoning children as detention numbers rise across Australia, an increase of $100m in one year, AAP reports.
The Productivity Commission’s latest report on government services, released late on Thursday, shows youth detention spending has surged by $400m in five years.
Youth detention costs an average of $1.3m per child per year, or more than $3,600 a day, according to the data. The report stated there were about 860 young people in detention in Australia in 2025, up from 792 in 2020.
In Victoria, the cost exceeds $2.6m per child per year, the highest of any state or territory.
Indigenous children remain overrepresented in youth detention centres, the report states. On an average day, 734 children are imprisoned across Australia, with 62% of those being Indigenous young people.
The number of Indigenous children in detention surged in NSW, up 86% since 2020-21. In the Northern Territory, 95% of detained children are Indigenous.
Graham Readfearn
Cultural custodians win right to argue human rights breach after claim Adani mine was damaging sacred springs
Cultural custodians have won the right to argue in court that Adani’s controversial Carmichael mine in Queensland could have breached their human rights by threatening a sacred spring system.
The Queensland government had been arguing for two years the group’s human right’s argument should be thrown out, but the state’s supreme court has decided this week in favour of the Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan and Jagalingou group.
The group is trying to force a judicial review into what they claim is the state government’s failure to act on evidence the Doongmabulla springs were being damaged.
Scientists have claimed the levels of the springs have been dropping due to the mine and that hydrocarbons have been detected in monitoring bores and the springs.
The indigenous group’s Adrian Burragubba said:
Two years and two governments down, and the case can finally go to trial. Both the previous Labor Government and current LNP Government have tried to shut us down. The Queensland Attorney-General, Deb Frecklington, even intervened to argue our cultural rights don’t really exist as enforceable rights. The Court disagreed.”
A spokesperson for the state’s environment minister, Andrew Powell, said the government would not provide comment on a case that was going through the court. The spokesperson did not answer a question of whether the government would appeal the decision.
Adani’s mine operator, Bravus, have said it is complying with all conditions and have rejected claims the springs were being damaged.
Samantha Lewis
No increase in Women’s Asian Cup prize money despite player pleas for ‘respect’
It has been billed as the most successful Women’s Asian Cup to date, yet prize money at the upcoming tournament in Australia will not increase from what was offered by the Asian Football Confederation at the last edition four years ago.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the world’s oldest women’s national team competition introduced prize money for the first time in 2022, distributing US$1.8m among the nations who finished in the top four.
But the AFC will not offer a bigger prize pot at this year’s tournament, which starts on March 1, ignoring multiple player requests to address its stagnation amid a global women’s football boom.
“The AFC acknowledges the importance of increasing the prize money of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup participating teams, while noting that the prize money for the upcoming edition in Australia remains consistent with previous editions,” an AFC spokesperson said.
Read more:
Patrick Commins
Government announces $600m for First Nations housing
The government has launched the third round of its Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), which will include $600m to improve housing outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Through the HAFF, Housing Australia provides loans and grants for projects that increase the supply of social and affordable housing.
The latest round will deliver 21,000 homes by mid-2029, as part of a bigger commitment of 55,000 homes by the end of the decade.
New figures released last night showed social housing as a share of all homes fell to a record low of 3.6% in 2025, as waitlists for affordable homes blew out amid climbing homelessness.
The chief executive of Australian Community Housing, Mark Degotardi, said “the scale of Australia’s housing challenge is significant, but we now have a commonwealth government that’s serious about building its way out of it, rather than just talking about it”.
In what Labor is calling an “historic” moment, the $600m dedicated funding deal announced this morning will be designed in partnership with indigenous communities and include a 10% First Nations tenancy target across all social housing delivered under the third round of the HAFF.
Christopher Knaus
Human rights advocates and Greens call for review into immigration detention contracts
Advocates and the Greens have called for a review of the Australian government’s immigration detention contracts with a private prison operator following revelations of their involvement in Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.
Management and Training Corporation (MTC) is a major player in the United States’ private prison industry and is holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees at a handful of large detention facilities across California, Texas and New Mexico. The company’s treatment of detainees has attracted a string of complaints – including over the use of solitary confinement as a retaliatory measure, severe overcrowding, and a death in custody – and prompted concern from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and Greens senator David Shoebridge have both called for a review of Australia’s contracts MTC, which give it responsibility for the offshore processing facility on Nauru and Australia’s onshore detention network.
Shoebridge said:
MTC’s track record in the United States, including documented reports of abuse and deaths in custody, makes it clear they are not, and never have been, acceptable to run detention facilities in Australia.
No company that profits globally from immigration crackdowns and mass detention should be entrusted with the care of vulnerable people in Australian government custody.
ABF seizes illicit tobacco manufacturing machine capable of making up to 3.6m cigarettes a day
The Australian Border Force seized a large tobacco manufacturing machine capable of producing up to 3.6m cigarettes a day during a raid in Sydney on Thursday.
The ABF said it conducted the operation at a self-storage facility in the suburb of Rouse Hill, executing two warrants to uncover equipment allegedly used in the manufacture of illicit tobacco. The agency also seized more than 7.5kg of loose-leaf tobacco, nearly 6,000 vaping devices and eight boxes of suspected counterfeit tobacco packaging.
Samuel Harnden, the acting superintendent of the ABF’s illicit tobacco taskforce, said the agency was targeting such products at “every level – importation, production, distribution, and supply”. He added:
There are clear and established links between local illicit tobacco manufacturing in Australia and organised criminal syndicates.
Every illicit tobacco purchase provides funding to these criminal syndicates, giving them the funds that drive further violence and serious criminal activity.
Penry Buckley
Final V-set service welcomed by crowd of thousands at Sydney’s Central station
The final service on the oldest electric train in operation on NSW’s rail network, the V-set, has been welcomed by a crowd of thousands at Sydney’s Central station this morning.
Hundreds gathered at 5.47am this morning in the Blue Mountains today, with some sleeping on the platform overnight to secure a spot on the train. Even more welcomed passengers such as John Graham and Sydney Trains’ CEO, Matt Longland, as it pulled into Platform 2 played in by a brass railway band.
True to form, the 8.32am service from Lithgow arrived about 15 minutes late. The driver of today’s service, Peter Gunczy, said it was fitting the final V-set had been slightly delayed:
I’m truly humbled by today. I really am. This is a real big turnout. I’ve spent the best part of 41 years driving these V-sets, and it’s really, really emotional for me personally, and I’m trying really hard not to well up, but we’re going all right.
The V-sets were first commissioned in the 1960s, and built in Australia by Comeng, formerly Commonwealth Engineering, at its Granville factory in Sydney before it ceased operations in 1989. The first V-sets debuted in 1970, although the remaining sets date from 1977.
They are being fully replaced by the $4bn Mariyung trains, which were delivered five years late following a serious of union disputes including over the need to widen tunnels on the Blue Mountains line.
Four people injured in dog attack near Melbourne
Four people were seriously injured in a dog attack in Melton West on Thursday evening.
Victoria police said emergency officials responded to an address just before 10pm. Paramedics treated a man in his 20s, a male in his late teens, a woman in her 30s and a female in her late teens at the scene before all were transported to the hospital in serious but stable condition.
A council ranger was called to apprehend the dog, which belonged to the injured parties. A second dog at the address was also seized.
Nine Entertainment offloads radio network for $56m
Amanda Meade
Nine Entertainment has sold its radio network for $56m and bought an outdoor media platform for $850m and converted its wholly-owned regional television station NBN in northern NSW to an affiliate station.
Matt Stanton, Nine Group’s chief executive officer, said:
Today’s announcements mark a critical milestone in our Nine2028 transformation. These transactions will create a more efficient, higher-growth, and digitally powered Nine Group for our consumers, advertisers, shareholders and people.
Nine’s broadcast radio assets – 2GB, 3AW, 4BC, 6PR, 2UE, Magic1278 and 4BH will be sold to the Laundy Family Office on a cash and debt free enterprise value of $56m, the company told the ASX.
Arthur Laundy, a billionaire publican, owns more than 40 venues across NSW.
Patrick Commins
Australia spends more on tax breaks for landlords than social housing, homelessness and rent assistance combined
Australia spends billions of dollars more on tax breaks for property investors than on social housing, homelessness and rent assistance combined, according to research by the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss).
The analysis comes as new data from the Productivity Commission reveals the share of homes dedicated to social housing has dropped to a record low 3.6%, from 5.7% in the 1990s.
The collapse in accessible homes for low-income families coincides with an affordability crisis that has seen rents soar, waitlists for social housing blow out and rising homelessness.
A week after the OECD called on the Albanese government to boost its investment in social housing, research by Acoss reveals that tax concessions for landlords cost $12.3bn in 2025.
In contrast, total expenditure on the key housing assistance programs totalled $9.6bn.
Read more here:
Heatwave continues across Australia
Daisy Dumas
The heatwave affecting a swathe of Australia continues to topple temperature records.
Yesterday, three towns in South Australia set new all-time record highs. Marree reached 49.8C, Roxby Downs, 49.6C, and Leigh Creek, 48.2C, Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said.
Ballera in Queensland set a new record of 48.1C, while New South Wales’ highest temperatures were in Smithville, 48.9C, and Wilcannia, 48.3C.
It is the latest in a run of record-breaking hot days. On Wednesday, three NSW towns recorded new all-time records, with Tibooburra reaching 48.7C, White Cliffs, 48.3C, and Hay 48.4C.
Narramore said another extremely hot day with temperatures of up to 48C was expected in the SA interior today. Heatwave conditions will also remain in western NSW and northern Victoria until Saturday, he said.
By Sunday, southern Queensland will bear the brunt of the heat – on Monday, cooler conditions are expected to deliver reprieve to the whole of Australia’s south-east.
