Australia news as it happened: Education Minister admits childcare reform has taken too long; Wong says Trump administration ‘keen’ to meet PM; alert issued over rogue super schemes

Thanks for following our live blog – that’s a wrap for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with more live coverage.

Here’s a quick recap of today’s top stories:

• Federal Education Minister Jason Clare admitted government reforms in the childcare sector have been too slow. This comes after a Melbourne childcare worker was charged with more than 70 alleged child sex abuse offences. The National Children’s Commissioner has urged national cabinet to prioritise child safety.
• In response to news of accused Melbourne paedophile Joshua Dale Brown, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has appointed two reviewers to make urgent recommendations to bolster safety in the childcare sector. The WA government has also launched a snap review of its childcare system and working with children checks following Brown’s arrest.
• Melissa McIntosh, the new Coalition spokesperson for women, has called for a cultural overhaul of the Liberal Party in a letter to the NSW Women’s Council, according to the ABC.

Liberal MP Melissa McIntosh said she was open to the idea of gender quotas, but called for greater systemic change within the party.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

• A man in northern NSW has died from Australian bat lyssavirus – the state’s first recorded case of the rare rabies-related disease.
• Brett Button, convicted over the Hunter Valley wedding bus crash that killed 10 and injured 25 in June 2023, has appealed his “manifestly excessive” 32-year sentence.
• The Queensland and federal governments have signed a new Olympic funding agreement, redirecting $1.2 billion in federal funds to a stadium in Brisbane’s Victoria Park.
• The death toll from a ferry sinking near Bali has risen to at least four. Rescuers continue searching for 38 people still missing after the vessel, carrying 65, sank in rough seas.
• Ukraine is bracing for increased Russian attacks after US President Donald Trump suspended arms shipments. The decision has sparked formal complaints and internal Republican Party divisions.
• Australia’s corporate watchdog has warned of rogue superannuation schemes amid concerns that more than $1 billion in retirement savings may have been lost to misconduct.
• A jury has cleared music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering charges. However, the 55-year-old was found guilty of two prostitution-related offences and has been remanded in custody while awaiting sentencing.

Thanks again for joining us. We’ll see you tomorrow for more news from Australia and beyond.

Astronomers are racing to determine the nature of a big, bright, superfast object from beyond our solar system hurtling towards the sun.

The European Space Agency said it could be the third-ever confirmed object we’ve detected in our cosmic neighbourhood that originated from outside our solar system.

An image of New Interstellar Object #A11pl3Z captured by astronomer David Rankin in Arizona.Credit: David Rankin, Saguaro Observatory

The agency is monitoring the eccentric path of the ultra-rare interstellar object, provisionally called A11pl3Z, through a network of telescopes across the globe.

The object is sailing past Jupiter’s orbit at more than 60 kilometres a second and will fly deep into the solar system, skimming past Mars.

“It’s travelling whoppingly fast, at an estimated 245,000km/h,” said Swinburne University of Technology astrophysicist Sara Webb. “It is absolutely yeeting it through the solar system.”

That sensational speed is the giveaway that this is probably a visitor from beyond our solar system.

Read more on this story here.

Circling back to shadow immigration spokesperson Paul Scarr, the Coalition senator said his party has “a lot of work to do” to repair its relationship with Australia’s migrant communities.

Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Scarr reflected on the Liberal Party’s “devastating results” at the last election, and said there needed to be considerable engagement with migrant communities.

“... and there needs to be an appreciation that we are talking about real people and real families. And communities and people who want to know that they belong in our country, which they do belong,” he said.

Coalition senator Paul Scarr.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

When pressed on whether his comments implied the Liberal Party had failed to make multicultural communities feel included, Scarr admitted that the party’s “clumsy rhetoric” may have at times alienated them.

“Any rhetoric which makes Australians who have come to this country in the past as migrants, any rhetoric which suggests to them in some way that the Liberal Party doesn’t have empathy, doesn’t support them and doesn’t have their interests at heart ... is negative rhetoric from my perspective,” he said.

“We all have to be careful to make sure we are very positive about our migrants and the contribution they have made to our wonderful country. And I am absolutely passionate about that.”

The Western Australian government has launched a snap review into the state’s childcare system in the wake of reviewing its working with children system following the arrest of accused Melbourne paedophile Joshua Dale Brown.

WA Premier Roger Cook confirmed the review would look at the rules and regulations governing the state’s childcare sector, including things like working with children checks and police clearances.

WA Premier Roger Cook confirmed a review into the state’s childcare sector.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I hope this review provides Western Australian parents with the confidence that the childcare sector in Western Australia is well regulated,” he said.

In the wake of victim survivors calling for men to be banned from working in childcare centres, Cook said it wasn’t something the government was considering.

“I understand at the moment, everyone’s emotions are heightened, and that leads you to, it leads everyone to a range of views and comments,” he said.

“Obviously, we don’t want to discriminate against people just simply because of their gender, that’s not who we are.

“But we do need to make sure that we keep our kids safe, and I’m sure the regulatory authorities will take everything into account.”

Opposition immigration spokesperson Paul Scarr has been questioned on the Coalition’s pre-election promise to slash Australia’s net overseas migration levels by 100,000 people each year.

Asked whether he was still committed to the figure, Scarr said the Coalition was in the process of reviewing all of its policies and that he could not answer whether the proposed cut was too big.

“I really want to engage with the relevant stakeholders, I want to get the best possible evidence that’s applicable at the time when we need to make this decision and make decisions on the basis of our national interest after very, very extensive consultation,” he said on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

Scarr agreed a shortage of skilled workers in Australia was an “incredibly important issue” but would not be drawn on whether the 100,000 cut per year was a definitive number.

“The policy we come up with needs to be measured, it needs to be considered, and we’ve got to get the tone right in terms of discussing these issues in our community,” he said.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has appointed two reviewers to make urgent recommendations to bolster safety in the childcare sector, following news that a childcare worker in Melbourne has been charged with more than 70 alleged child sex abuse offences.

Former premier of South Australia Jay Weatherill and Pamela White, chair of the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority, have been named to lead the review.

Weatherill is now the executive director of democracy at the Susan McKinnon Foundation and previously also led the Thrive by Five campaign. White chairs the registration and qualifications authority, has been in the public service for more than 30 years and sits on Victoria’s Country Fire Authority board.

The review will report back by August 15.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says the government is still striving towards building 250,000 homes a year to meet their target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029.

“I know there are people who are waving the white flag, and I remind people we are one year into a five-year target,” she told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

“It is really important that we use this goal to try to make changes, and we have a productivity roundtable led by the Treasurer coming up in August and that’s going to be a really important moment for our country and housing.”

O’Neil said the government needs to tackle the “crazy thicket” of red tape faced by builders wanting to build homes.

“With all the complexities around the housing crisis, it comes back to something quite simple: In 40 years we have not been building enough homes in our country,” she said.

“If we want to change that, we need to change the capacity of all builders out there to construct homes. I’m really clear, it has become too hard to build a house our country. I want builders on building sites building homes, not sitting in the office filling in endless forms.”

New York: As the paparazzi waited outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouse for Sean “Diddy” Combs’ family to emerge, they stood cheek to cheek with a foe more vicious than a scandal-plagued star and more formidable than a celebrity lawyer.

They were battling a bunch of insurgent influencers, TikTokers, podcasters and court-watchers, all intent on capturing the moment Team Combs appeared after the hip-hop star was refused bail while awaiting sentencing on prostitution charges.

In New York, space is always at a premium. No more so than in the press pen outside a celebrity trial when the whole world’s establishment media is jostling for prime position against what they see as a bunch of upstarts.

“We are working press,” one independent video journalist, whom this masthead has chosen not to name, yelled at a rubbernecker with a selfie stick. “You have to move. What’s it for, your blog? It’s just so rude, unbelievably rude. I don’t know how you live with yourself.”

Read the full story from North America correspondent Michael Koziol here.

Nothing tests a consumer’s fragile faith or a company’s integrity quite like a cyberattack. Qantas’ brand is in a particularly precarious position given it is in the process of restoration after a couple of years of neglect.

For Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson, the theft of personal information of an estimated six million of her customers represents a significant blow to the progress of the company’s rehabilitation.

Qantas has been the target of a cyberattack.Credit: Bloomberg

And there is something deeply personal about a breach of one’s confidential data that creates a particular brand of vulnerability and fury among those affected.

Since 2022’s famous Optus data hack that led to the departure of its chief executive, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, Australians have become increasingly familiar with receiving that dreaded email that says: “I’m writing to inform you that we believe your personal information was accessed during the cyber incident we recently experienced.”

How Qantas weathers this attack will depend in large part on whether the airline is perceived as villain or victim, the size and the nature of the information stolen.

Read more on this opinion piece from business columnist Elizabeth Knight here.

The Queensland and Commonwealth governments have agreed on a new intergovernmental Olympic funding agreement, with $1.2 billion in federal funding to be redirected to the new stadium in Brisbane’s Victoria Park.

The rest of the $7.1 billion funding package would deliver minor venues on a 50/50 funding basis.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie and federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King at the Queensland Media Club in Brisbane on Thursday.Credit: Cameron Atfield

The Albanese government had agreed to fund the proposed Brisbane Arena, but the Crisafulli government’s new delivery plan instead left the arena – to be built at Woolloongabba in the city’s inner south – to the private sector to deliver.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie and federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King confirmed that the agreement reached this week would be signed shortly.

Bleijie also announced four venues – the Logan and Moreton Bay indoor sports centres, the Sunshine Coast outdoor stadium and Barlow Park in Cairns – went out to procurement at 1pm today.