Australia news live: Telstra misled some customers over NBN speeds, court finds; AustralianSuper fined $27m for undisclosed duplicate accounts

Caitlin Cassidy

Dutton ‘wants to tell teachers what to teach and how to teach’, Haythorpe says

Haythorpe also pointed to Donald Trump’s agenda in the US, including his declaration to dismantle the department of education, significantly cut annual funding to the sector and crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Why should we care here? There is much at risk for preschools, schools and Tafe if a Dutton government is elected.

Peter Dutton has spent three years attacking and undermining teachers, making clear he will address what he sees as ‘woke agendas’ and ‘indoctrination’. He wants to tell teachers what to teach and how to teach it. That includes mandating explicit direct instruction in every classroom.

The politicisation of education – such as attacking a ‘woke agenda’, as Peter Dutton puts it – sends a dangerous message about the role of knowledge in society.

Turning to policy, Haythorpe said Tafe had experienced an “extraordinary turnaround” under Labor with the rollout of fee-free places, while also backing commitments to fully fund public schools within the decade.

We must ensure that every parent, principal, teacher and support staff member knows when they vote what is at stake in early childhood education, in schools and in Tafe … See you on the campaign trail.

Caitlin Cassidy

First Nations justice ‘at stake’ with ‘risk of a Dutton government’, education union head says

The federal president of the Australian Education Union, Correna Haythorpe, has told the body’s annual federal conference that First Nations justice is “at stake” this federal election with the “risk of a Dutton government”.

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, education minister, Jason Clare, and Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne are in attendance.

Haythorpe:

We cannot allow rightwing governments to pull back from their responsibility to the First Nations peoples and communities that they purport to represent and serve.

Peter Dutton has built his career in politics by stoking culture wars. His recent and vocal refusal to stand in front of the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander flag is just the tip of that iceberg.

Frankly, these are blatant attempts to revive the Howard-era culture wars that are divisive and destructive and need to be left where they belong – in the ash heap of history.

Haythorpe said education was a powerful tool that could “challenge biases, dismantle stereotypes, and create inclusive environments”.

With that opportunity comes immense responsibility – to unflinchingly examine the truth of colonisation, and to ensure that the complexities and contradictions of contemporary Australian society are understood in the classroom and beyond.

Benita Kolovos

Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has called the alleged behaviour of two students at Gladstone Park Secondary, who have reportedly been suspended over explicit AI images, “appalling”.

Speaking to local media in Bendigo this afternoon, she said:

This behaviour is appalling. This behaviour is outrageous and it has no place in our classrooms here in Victoria, it has no place in any room or any community in our state. Young girls and women deserve to feel safe and respected in the classroom …

This behaviour breaches that trust, breaches that respect, it holds not just women and girls back, it holds boys and men back too. That is why police will do their investigations into this outrageous, appalling behaviour, but it’s also why it’s just so important that the programs we’ve got rolled out in our schools like respectful relationships, dealing with this toxic culture that we see led by the Andrew Tate types that are not providing the role models for anyone of any gender.

It’s about working with boys and girls, women and men, in classrooms and in communities, about how we can provide a safe and respectful environment for everyone.

Sian Cain

Neighbours cancelled for second time

The long-running Australian soap Neighbours has been cancelled – again, just two years after it was revived by streaming giant Amazon.

“We are sad to announce that Neighbours will be resting from December 2025,” read an official statement from the show on Friday morning.

Production on Neighbours will wrap in July, its producer, Fremantle, confirmed. New episodes will continue to air on Amazon Prime Video globally and Australia’s Channel Ten four times a week until the end of 2025 – “with all the big soapie twists and turns that our viewers love”, the statement read.

Neighbours first ended production in 2022, capping off a record 37-year run, when Fremantle failed to secure another UK broadcaster after Channel 5 withdrew support. The subsequent outpouring of affection for the show after the cancellation led to Amazon announcing a few months later it would reboot Neighbours for its now-defunct Freevee streaming service, with Neighbours: A New Chapter launching in 2023.

Channel 5 backed out for financial reasons, but the show had continued to rate well in the UK’s busy soap market, attracting 1.5 million UK viewers a day in 2022.

With Amazon withdrawing now, Neighbours is yet again dependent on locking in another international sale or streaming deal to save it, as Ten has previously said it was not commercially viable for it to fund production alone.

Read the full story here:

Benita Kolovos

Victorian premier Jacinta Allan was asked this afternoon about the decision not to renew the contract of deputy police commissioner, Neil Paterson, just days after Shane Patton resigned as top cop.

Allan said:

I’d like to acknowledge the significant period of service deputy commissioner Neil Paterson has provided to both Victoria police and also to the wider Victoria community. We thank him for his service. It is absolutely clear that we are entering a period of transition for Victoria police, and we’ll continue to work and support the Victoria police, as we have done in providing them with the tools and the resources and the powers and the support they need that they do in turn to keep our community safe.

She would not say whether it was the government or the new acting chief commissioner Rick Nugent’s decision not to renew Paterson’s contract.

Allan said:

I’m not going to go into detailed discussions that may be occurring with the leadership of Victoria police.

Telstra misled some customers over NBN speeds, court finds

Josh Taylor

Telstra downgraded the upload speeds for thousands of Belong NBN customers without informing them at the time or lowering prices, a federal court has found.

In May 2020, NBN Co introduced a new wholesale speed tier of 100Mbps down and 20Mbps up, in addition to the existing 40Mbps upload speed tier, at a wholesale price of $7 less for Telstra.

In a federal court judgment today, it said Telstra company Belong analysed the customers on the existing 100/40 plan and found 8,897 (or approximately 98.5%) of Belong’s 9,038 premium customers had never or rarely used upload speeds of more than 20Mbps.

Nearly all of these customers were moved to the lower upload speed without informing them in October and November 2020. The court found Telstra did not begin notification until March 2021, at which point a “goodwill credit” of $90 was offered to around 2,500 customers. For another 6,000 customers, the court found Telstra never disclosed the upload speed, but customers would have reasonably construed the service was the same upload speed.

ACCC commissioner Liza Carver said:

There was no reduction to the price Telstra charged its customers even though the cost charged by NBN Co to Telstra was $7 a month less for the new lower-speed service.

The ACCC is seeking declarations, penalties, consumer redress, costs and other orders to be determined at a later date.

Caitlin Cassidy

Blacktown students to get guaranteed co-ed access

Students in Blacktown will have guaranteed access to a place in a co-educational high school from next year as part of the NSW government’s commitment to give all families a co-ed option from 2027.

Intake areas for nearby co-ed high schools in Sydney’s west will be adjusted to include students living in the current catchment for Blacktown Boys and Blacktown Girls high schools.

Consultation with the school community found a preference for Blacktown Boys and Girls high schools to remain as single-sex schools, the Department of Education said. Intake areas of nearby schools will be updated in March.

Deputy premier and minister for education, Prue Car, said the re-adjustment of intake areas would apply to hundreds of students.

The Minns Labor government promised to consult with each community on access to co-education, and this is another step towards delivering access for all families in NSW.

Rafqa Touma

Lebanon president calls on diaspora in Australia to take part in ‘revival and reconstruction efforts’

Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay and Sheikh Malek Zeidan addressed the Parliamentary Friends of Lebanon event last night, marking the election of Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun, at NSW parliament with MPs and community and religious leaders of the Lebanese diaspora in Australia.

In his address, Tarabay called on the Australian government to strengthen ties with Lebanon through infrastructure, healthcare, education and support of the Lebanese army:

I’m grateful for the opportunity to speak, not only on behalf of my own flock, but also for the many Lebanese of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds who have chosen to make Australia their home …

[Lebanon] is a significant haven of diversity, freedom and tolerance, where more than 18 religious communities co-exist, forming a cultural and spiritual mosaic. While we rejoice in this diversity, we must also note that in 1975 a civil war broke out, and Lebanon became a collateral victim of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

After 50 years since the beginning of the war, Lebanon desires no more conflict and hatred. Lebanon seeks peace and stability. Lebanon should not be taken hostage by any regional or internal armed forces. Instead, Lebanon should adopt active and positive neutrality as a guiding principle to promote pluralism and guarantee its citizens the right to pursue their dreams and ambitions in a sovereign state.

We turn to our [Australian] government and say this is an ideal moment to assist our beloved Lebanon with the expertise for which Australia is internationally renowned. We do not ask for financial aid but for specialists in infrastructure, renewable energy, medicine and healthcare, environmental care, economic management, education, advancement of women’s rights, scientific development and support for the Lebanese army. Such expertise can form strong and enduring ties between our two nations.

Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, also addressed the event in a video message, acknowledging Australia as a “friend to Lebanon” and calling on the diaspora in Australia to “take part in the revival and reconstruction efforts”.

Australia’s largest industry superannuation provider has been fined $27m for failing to notify members of their duplicate accounts.

Federal court justice Lisa Hespe on Friday made the ruling against AustralianSuper, finding it contravened the Superannuation Industry Act.

The company admitted that between July 2013 and June 2022, more than 90,000 of its members had multiple accounts that should have been merged.

As a result, those members incurred approximately $69m in losses through multiple administration fees, insurance premiums and lost investment earnings.

Hespe said in her judgement:

AustralianSuper is Australia’s largest industry superannuation fund. It is inexcusable for it to not have had processes and systems in place to ensure compliance with a specific legislative requirement.

AustralianSuper reported the issue to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission in December 2021, and Justice Hespe noted it cooperated during the investigation and federal court proceedings.

Asic and AustralianSuper had jointly submitted that the $27m penalty was appropriate, and Justice Hespe agreed:

The penalties in this case need to be large enough to deter other superannuation fund trustees from failing to diligently discharge their duties to act in members’ best financial interests.

I am satisfied that AustralianSuper is unlikely to engage in this contravention again given the remedial action it has taken and its acceptance of its wrongdoing.

Continued in next post

Labor MP Andrew Charlton: Australia “owes Lebanon a debt”

Rafqa Touma

Labor’s Andrew Charlton said Australia is committed to being “a good mate to Lebanon in its hour of need” at an event hosting Lebanese community and religious leaders at NSW parliament last night.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, and opposition leader, Mark Speakman, were also among politicians present at the Parliamentary Friends of Lebanon event, joining Maronite bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, sheikh Malek Zeidan and community leaders in marking the election of general Joseph Aoun as president after a two-year vacancy.

Charlton, MP for Parramatta and co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Lebanon group, celebrated the election of Aoun, and as prime minister judge Nawaf Salam, as “pivotal” at a time of “great hope, but also one of great challenge”. He continued to commit to being “a good mate to Lebanon in its hour of need”:

Mateship has always been a cherished part of the Australian character … On behalf of the Australian government, I want to say to you tonight that Australia is committed to be a good mate to Lebanon in its hour of need … We will give Lebanon every support to turn this moment of hope into lasting and positive change.

The Lebanese people have rebuilt before, and they will rebuild again, but my message is they should not have to rebuild alone … Australia has a duty to stand by Lebanon, not just because it is right, but because we owe Lebanon a debt of gratitude. For generations, Lebanese people have helped build Australia … and they’ve contributed across every sector … now Lebanon needs us. It’s our turn to give back.

Australia can play an important role in Lebanon’s recovery, by providing skills and capability in education and health and engineering and science and innovation, by providing support for displaced people, by supporting economic partnerships that create jobs and build stability, by increasing investment in Lebanon and advocating in forums around the world to ensure that Lebanon gets the resources that it needs.

Charlton’s address comes months after Israel’s bombardment of southern Lebanon with a wave of airstrikes on alleged Hezbollah targets which left the country with its highest daily death toll since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. At the time foreign minister Penny Wong said “Lebanon cannot become the next Gaza” but Lebanese Australians condemned government inaction.

His address also comes in the leadup to the federal election, after a tight race against Liberal candidate Maria Kovacic in his electorate of Parramatta in 2022, with the vote swinging in his favour by just 1%.

Poker machine losses in NSW hit a record high of $8.64bn in 2024, surpassing the record losses of the previous two years and reinforcing concerns that government harm-minimisation measures haven’t gone far enough.

Quarterly data from Liquor and Gambling NSW showed a 7% increase in net profit for the state’s pubs and clubs over the year. Australians lose more money per capita to gambling than the population of any other country.

Chief executive of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Martin Thomas, said the losses represented “social harm on an industrial scale” across NSW.

Thomas said:

Frequent polls have shown that Australians want real gambling reform including the banning of all gambling ads – which has the support of more than 70% of the community.

While the NSW government should be applauded by banning gambling ads from its transport network, there is no excuse now for it not to implement a carded system of play for all poker machines in the state. It is a move that Victoria has committed to, it’s now time for NSW to act.

And as we approach a federal election we must also see the implementation of the Murphy report which included a recommendation for the ban of all gambling advertising implemented over three years.

The alliance is also calling for mandatory cashless cards with pre-set loss limits, which was a recommendation of the NSW Crime Commission.