Australia news LIVE: Unannounced spot checks in childcare centres to be fast-tracked; Trump's ‘big beautiful bill' clears US Congress

Sydney Morning Herald

16 hours ago

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11.31am
Discussions to make CCTV in childcare centres mandatory: Clare
By Cindy Yin
Education ministers will discuss whether CCTV cameras should be made mandatory in childcare centres after a childcare worker in Melbourne was charged with more than 70 alleged child sex abuse offences
Asked on Sky News whether it would be made mandatory, Education Minister Jason Clare said it was one of the issues education ministers will discuss at their meeting next month.
'One of the things that having a CCTV camera in a childcare centre can do is if there's somebody who is potentially up to no good, they know the camera's there, it means it's less likely they're going to act,' he said.
'It was a recommendation out of an independent review that NSW did, and it was released last week.
'They have to be in the right places – if deterrence is going to work, how you set them up is just as critical as whether you've got them there at all,' Clare said.
10.52am
Unannounced spot checks in childcare centres to be fast-tracked
By Cindy Yin
Education Minister Jason Clare has said unannounced spot checks will soon be able to take place in childcare centres following a childcare worker in Melbourne being charged with more than 70 alleged child sex abuse offences.
Clare said the government would fast-track legislation when parliament returns on July 22 to give approximately 150 people in his department the power to perform unannounced spot checks at childcare centres.
'[It] gives the sort of people who work in my department who investigate fraud in childcare centres the ability to do spot checks, unannounced visits,' Clare told Sky News.
'They won't need a warrant, they won't need the police to come with them when they're investigating fraud in childcare centres'.
Another aspect of the legislation gives the government the ability to cut off funding to childcare centres persistently not meeting child safety standards.
10.23am
Nvidia briefly on track to become world's most valuable company ever
Chipmaker Nvidia hit a market value of $US3.92 trillion ($5.96 trillion) on Thursday (Friday AEST), briefly putting it on track to become the most valuable company in history as Wall Street doubled down on optimism about AI.
Shares of the leading designer of high-end AI chips rose as much as 2.4 per cent in early trading, giving the company a higher market capitalisation than Apple's, with a record closing value of $US3.915 trillion in December 2024.
The company is close to overtaking Apple's all-time record and becoming the world's most valuable company in history.
Wall Street lifted following the report from the US government, which said employers added 147,000 more jobs to their payrolls last month than they cut.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs, notching a third week of gains. The Dow closed up 0.77 per cent, only 0.41 per cent away from its own record.
The unexpected acceleration in hiring signals the US job market is holding up despite worries about how president Donald Trump's tariffs may hurt the economy and inflation.
9.53am
Saudi defence minister met with Trump to discuss Iran de-escalation, Fox News reports
Saudi Arabian Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman met with US President Donald Trump and other officials at the White House on Thursday (Friday AEST) to discuss de-escalation efforts with Iran, Fox News reported.
Talks included discussions about getting to the negotiating table with Iran and de-escalating the conflict, according to Fox News sources. Discussions also reportedly included ending the war in Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages.
Sources also told Fox News, 'there was progress and optimism on all fronts.'
Khalid is the younger brother of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump says US has given Ukraine too many weapons
US President Donald Trump complained that the United States provided too many weapons to Ukraine under the previous administration, his first public comments on the pause in some shipments as Russia escalates its latest offensive.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday (Friday AEST) before boarding Air Force One for a flight to Iowa, Trump said former President Joe Biden 'emptied out our whole country giving them weapons, and we have to make sure that we have enough for ourselves.'
Air defence missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons are among those being withheld from Ukraine.
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Trump, who also spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday (Friday AEST), suggested he wasn't completely cutting off US assistance to Ukraine.
'We've given so many weapons,' he said, adding that 'we are working with them and trying to help them.'
Trump said he had a 'pretty long call' with Putin that 'didn't make any progress' in resolving the war, which the Republican president had promised to swiftly bring to a conclusion.
'I'm not happy about that,' he said.
The Kremlin described the conversation as 'frank and constructive' — the sixth publicly disclosed chat between the two leaders since Trump returned to the White House.
While discussing the situation around Iran and in the broader Middle East, Putin emphasised the need to resolve all differences 'exclusively by political and diplomatic means,' said Yuri Ushakov, his foreign affairs adviser.
The leaders agreed that Russian and U.S. officials will maintain contact on the issue, he added.
9.06am
Qantas says frequent flyer information secure after hack
By Chris Zappone
Qantas expects to be able next week to share the details of individual customer data that was affected by the hack of a call centre platform, based on the pace of an ongoing forensic investigation, the airline has said in an update.
The breaching of up to 6 million customers' data, first revealed on Wednesday, prompted a reassurance that frequent flyer accounts were secure, even as the airline reminded customers they could update passwords and PINs at any time.
To date, Qantas has not been contacted by anyone claiming to have the data since the incident, which was suspected to be the work of the Scattered Spider criminal cyber group. Qantas is continuing to work with government authorities to investigate the event.
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'Our investigation is progressing well, with our cybersecurity teams working alongside leading external specialists to determine what information has been accessed,' Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson said.
'We're finalising a process that will enable us to provide affected customers with more information about their personal information that was potentially compromised.'
Next week, Qantas 'will be in a position' to tell affected customers which types of their personal data were contained in the third-party system that was accessed.
'This will confirm specific data fields for each individual, which will vary from customer to customer,' Qantas said in a statement.
Qantas became the latest major airline to be hit by a cyber breach, revealing on Wednesday that hackers had accessed customers' personal information from one of its call centres.
In the Friday morning update, Qantas reiterated that frequent flyer passwords, PIN numbers and log in details were not accessed or compromised, 'but customers can update these details at any time'.
8.53am
Sporting stars, UK leaders pay tribute to Liverpool FC's Diogo Jota after car crash death
By David Crowe
Football champions and political leaders have led the stunned reaction to the sudden death of Liverpool FC star Diogo Jota in a fiery car crash in northern Spain less than two weeks after he married his long-term partner.
The Portuguese champion was driving with his brother, Andre Silva, when a tyre blew out on their Lamborghini, forcing it off the road. The vehicle became engulfed in flames and the two men died at the scene.
Photographs and footage published in Spanish media showed a burnt and destroyed Lamborghini by the side of the highway.
The London Telegraph reported that Jota had been told to drive 10 hours to a Spanish ferry rather than fly to Britain. It said Jota had been given medical advice to avoid taking a plane back for training, but that it was unclear where he was given that advice.
Thousands of fans gathered at the Liverpool club's home ground, Anfield Stadium, as champions expressed their shock at the news.
Jota, 28, began playing for his country as a teenager and represented Portugal at the 2022 World Cup. He signed with Liverpool for a reported £41 million ($85 million) in 2020 and was a star forward in the club's victory in the Premier League this year.
8.34am
New interstellar comet will keep a safe distance from Earth, NASA says
NASA astronomers spotted an interstellar comet in Chile earlier this week and have confirmed it poses no threat to Earth.
Officially, it's the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system.
'These things take millions of years to go from one stellar neighbourhood to another, so this thing has likely been travelling through space for hundreds of millions of years, even billions of years,' said Paul Chodas, director of NASA's centre for near Earth object studies. 'We don't know, and so we can't predict which star it came from.'
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The comet is 670 million kilometres from the sun, out near Jupiter, and heading in the direction of Earth at 59 kilometres per second.
NASA said the comet will make its closest approach to the sun in late October, scooting between the orbits of Mars and Earth — but closer to the red planet than us, at a safe distance of 240 million kilometres.
Astronomers around the world are monitoring the icy snowball, which has officially been designated as 3I/Atlas to determine its size and shape. Chodas said there have been more than 100 observations since its discovery on July 1, with preliminary reports of a tail and a cloud of gas and dust around the comet's nucleus.
The comet should be visible by telescope until September, before it gets too close to the sun, and reappear in December on the other side of the sun.
8.15am
'We will back you the whole way': Nationals back PM's small business plan
By Cindy Yin
Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie has welcomed the PM's push for businesses to drive growth in the economy instead of the government, but has criticised the move by saying it came too late.
Speaking on Sky News today, the Nationals senator welcomed the shift in Labor's outlook, saying the government had 'finally woken up'.
'The government has finally woken up and realised, after spending the first three years smashing small business and our industrial base through a raft of industrial relations policies, energy policies and new regulation … They've suddenly realised that government jobs don't grow the economy.'
She also said the Nationals would throw their support behind any business-first policies Labor puts forward in its second term.
'Please, prime minister and treasurer, use the huge mandate the Australian people have given you to set our country up for the future, and we will back you the whole way. We want our country to be stronger, more prosperous and more secure,' McKenzie said.
'They've got a huge mandate – it's a great opportunity to do the type of deep reform that our economy needs, and our country needs, to set us up for the next century.'
7.49am
'Government doing less': PM to deliver vision for Australia's economy
By Cindy Yin
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will outline the government's immediate and long-term economic vision for Australia in a speech he will deliver at a News Corp event in Sydney later today.
Albanese will say Labor, now in their second term of government, must establish an economic plan which will make it ­'easier for business to create jobs, start and finish projects, invest in new technology and build new ­facilities'.
'Some of this involves government doing less: clearing away unnecessary or outdated regulation. Eliminating frustrating overlap between local, state and federal laws,' the prime minister will say.
'Yet value also lies in areas where government can do better. Better aligning our investments in TAFE and vocational education, to deliver the skilled workforce employers need. And making sure those vital skills can cross state borders in real time. Working to our ambitious goals in housing and renewables, by getting projects approved and built faster, while maintaining our commitment to sustainability and safety.'
He will also discuss major economic and political issues affecting Australian businesses and households, with speeches from a slew of business heavyweights.
'This is not a task government can, or should, tackle alone,' Albanese will say. 'In a strong, dynamic and ­productive economy, government should be a driver of growth – but not the driver of growth. ­Facilitating private sector investment and job creation, not seeking to replace it.
'From big employers to the millions of small businesses right around Australia, our government wants you to be able to resume your rightful place as the primary source of growth in our economy.'