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AEC investigating why nearly half of votes at NSW polling place declared informal
The AEC has confirmed it is investigating reports of a high level of informal ballots at a polling place in the town of Missabotti, NSW. The ABC reports of the 111 people who filled out ballots, 50 were declared informal and rejected from the official tally.
An AEC spokesperson said the commission was investigating reports that staff at the polling place, in NSW’s Cowper electorate, may have provided incorrect instructions to voters. The spokesperson said in a statement:
If the reports from Cowper are accurate and our staff were providing incorrect instructions, this is disappointing. As we begin planning for the probable 2028 federal election, the AEC will seek to improve our education around providing voting instructions for polling place staff.
The AEC said it undertook a “significant” range of communication to voters in the lead-up to the election and that ballot papers had formality instructions on them. The body will study informal ballot papers from the 2025 election but called informality a “complex phenomenon” that can also be linked to external factors.
The AEC spokesperson stressed that the results in Cowper would not have changed with those 50 votes, as s MP Pat Conaghan won by a margin of nearly 5,400 votes over independent Caz Heise.
While any issues around formality are concerning, it is important to be clear that the reported 50 informal votes at a single polling place would not affect the election result in Cowper, which has a margin of 5,397 votes.
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Luca Ittimani
Back in April, Stacey told us he was confident One Nation would win big at the election, claiming Australians would resonate with his stance on the cost of living, housing, immigration, infrastructure failures and “all the crises we have”:
We are going to win anyway. I think the state of the nation, and the sentiment and temper of the people, are looking at a change.
Stacey used to be a Liberal party member but left in anger at Malcolm Turnbull’s 2015 coup against Tony Abbott:
I’d left the Liberal Party in high dudgeon after Turnbull did his defenestration of Tony Abbott and just thought that the utter disloyalty and the narcissism and the selfishness of Turnbull was something that I found appalling.
Stacey briefly joined the Seniors United Party, running against Barnaby Joyce at a 2017 by-election, which he said was “just kind of a frolic”. He won 324 votes then. At this election, he won a combined 301,242 votes under the One Nation banner and in his own name.
Luca Ittimani
New One Nation senator for NSW: ‘I complain and I’m standing up’
If you’re wondering who the new One Nation senator for New South Wales is, we interviewed him a month ago at the state’s ballot draw.
Warwick Stacey, today confirmed as the newest senator for NSW, may not have handed his party the balance of power but in April said he hoped to stand up to the Labor government:
If we [can] ... we’re going to choke any divisive and destructive legislation that Albanese might try to put through.
One Nation, we’re here to perform the impossible – it’s not the impossible, we’re going to do it – which is to turn Australia around.
He said Australians had to make their voices heard if they wanted to overcome the last “18 years of leadership crisis”:
The people have been fed a steady diet of failure of leadership ...
Australia needs people to stand up, not to complain. If you complain, stand up. And I complain and I’m standing up. I love the challenge.
Petra Stock
Activists mourn marine life killed by SA’s toxic algal bloom
Activists dressed in black have staged a symbolic funeral for sea creatures killed by South Australia’s devastating algal bloom outside the state’s environment department.
More than 30 mourners silently displayed images of dead marine life, alongside placards reading “Our ocean kin are dying for climate truth”, surrounded by candles and incense. Activist Dylan Drakos said:
Our oceans and sea life are not simply dying – they are being killed by continued fossil fuel expansion, climate negligence, and government inaction. We’re here today because our grief must become the catalyst for urgent change.
More than 200 marine species, including deepwater sharks, leafy sea dragons and octopuses, have been killed by the toxic bloom, which started in March driven by an ongoing marine heatwave and calm conditions.
Protesters called for state and federal governments to release all environmental data relating to the toxic bloom and marine heatwave, to stop fossil fuel expansion and restore marine habitats.
Cait Kelly
AFR rich list shows massive leap in country’s largest fortunes
This morning, the AFR rich list was released. While many of us are trying to manage paying high rents or mortgages during a cost-of-living crisis, the story at the top end is a lot different.
The country’s 200 largest fortunes have collectively leapt 6.9% in the past year to $667.8bn.
While Gina Rineheart has kept the top spot for the sixth year in a row, her net worth has lost 6%, but still sits at a staggering $38.11b. She was followed by developer Harry Triguboff, whose net worth increased by 12% to $29.65b and Anthony Pratt & Family, owners of Visy, whose net wealth increased 11% to $25.84b.
The Oxfam Australia acting chief executive, Chrisanta Muli, said the list showed a “deep and growing divide”.
While everyday Australians face a rising cost of living, skyrocketing rents and stagnant wages, the wealth of the richest continues to grow, largely untaxed.
This concentration of wealth is the result of government policy choices that favour the few at the expense of the majority. A tax on the richest 1% of Australians could raise billions of dollars to fund the services and support communities urgently need, both in Australia and in lower-income countries.
To end poverty, we must address extreme wealth. The Rich List should be a wake-up call – it’s time to build a fairer Australia where wealth works for everyone – not just the richest few.
Petra Stock
Victorian government approves gas import terminal near Melbourne, won’t ‘undermine’ net zero target
Victoria’s planning minister has approved a gas import terminal in Corio Bay, 75km south west of Melbourne under the state’s Environment Effects Act.
The Viva Energy terminal proposes to import up to 160 petajoules of liquefied natural gas – about 88% of Victoria’s 2024 gas consumption – from other states in order to meet local demand.
In her assessment, the state planning minister, Sonya Kilkenny, said the project did “not undermine the state’s net zero emissions target for 2045” and environmental impacts on Corio Bay and the Ramsar-listed Port Phillip Bay and Bellarine Peninsula Wetland could be managed. She said:
We are striking the right balance between development and environmental responsibility.
The terminal has been proposed as an interim measure – to meet projected shortfalls from 2029 as Bass Strait gas fields approached their end of life, while Victoria moved away from fossil gas.
The Victorian Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, condemned the decision, calling the project dangerous, polluting and unnecessary. She said combined with the federal government’s proposed approval of the North West Shelf extension it showed “Labor simply does not give a stuff about climate change”.
Before it can go ahead, the proposed import terminal still requires approval under federal environmental laws, and other technical and heritage consents.
AEC investigating why nearly half of votes at NSW polling place declared informal
The AEC has confirmed it is investigating reports of a high level of informal ballots at a polling place in the town of Missabotti, NSW. The ABC reports of the 111 people who filled out ballots, 50 were declared informal and rejected from the official tally.
An AEC spokesperson said the commission was investigating reports that staff at the polling place, in NSW’s Cowper electorate, may have provided incorrect instructions to voters. The spokesperson said in a statement:
If the reports from Cowper are accurate and our staff were providing incorrect instructions, this is disappointing. As we begin planning for the probable 2028 federal election, the AEC will seek to improve our education around providing voting instructions for polling place staff.
The AEC said it undertook a “significant” range of communication to voters in the lead-up to the election and that ballot papers had formality instructions on them. The body will study informal ballot papers from the 2025 election but called informality a “complex phenomenon” that can also be linked to external factors.
The AEC spokesperson stressed that the results in Cowper would not have changed with those 50 votes, as s MP Pat Conaghan won by a margin of nearly 5,400 votes over independent Caz Heise.
While any issues around formality are concerning, it is important to be clear that the reported 50 informal votes at a single polling place would not affect the election result in Cowper, which has a margin of 5,397 votes.
Community anger builds over Woodside gas extension, with new protest planned today
Community anger is continuing to simmer after the life span of a mammoth gas project was extended for decades, AAP reports. Woodside’s North West Shelf project – which hosts Australia’s biggest gas export plant – has been given the green light by the federal government to keep operating until 2070.
Campaign group Disrupt Burrup Hub will on Friday gather outside the WA district court, arguing the decision to extend the project’s life showed the government “cannot be trusted with protecting First Nations culture or our climate”.
The protest will double as a support rally for three people who targeted Woodside’s 2023 annual general meeting with stench gas and flares in what the group has previously said was an attempt to get the building evacuated.
Gerard Mazza, Jesse Noakes and Tahlia Stolarski have pleaded guilty to creating a false belief in their protest. They will face the district court for sentencing on Friday.
One Nation wins another Senate seat after NSW results declared
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has won another seat in parliament after Warwick Stacey secured the final spot in the NSW Senate race.
One Nation will now have four seats in the upper house – double the previous term – with Stacey and West Australian businessman Tyron Whitten joining Hanson and fellow incumbent Malcolm Roberts.
Labor’s Tony Sheldon and Tim Ayres were elected along with Liberals Andrew Bragg and Jessica Collins.
The Greens deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, won the fifth spot.
The winners, in order of their election, are:
SHELDON, Tony – Labor
BRAGG, Andrew – Liberal
AYRES, Tim – Labor
COLLINS, Jessica – Liberal
FARUQI, Mehreen – The Greens
STACEY, Warwick – Pauline Hanson’s One Nation
The NSW floods have dumped a year’s worth of landfill on some towns. Where does it all go?
More on the floods and ongoing clean-up efforts. Some towns have been bogged down by mounds of destroyed couches, fridges and mattresses.
By the time the cleanup is done, some councils expect the amount sent to landfill due to flooding will match the entire volume of waste that is usually sent there for an entire year. Paul De Szell, the liveable communities director for MidCoast council, says that poses a problem:
If you put a year of landfill in one month, the system doesn’t function.
De Szell said while clean-up can take months, getting damaged property out of homes and away from people is essential to protect public health.
[The waste] is wet, it starts to smell. There’s all sorts of bacteria that exists in that flood waste so it’s very important to get that waste off the ground as soon as possible.
The Guardian’s Kate Lyons has more, with pictures from Blake Sharp-Wiggins:
King Charles sends message of support after NSW floods
King Charles has written to express his sympathy and support for those recovering from the record flooding on NSW’s mid-north coast. In a statement, he thanked emergency workers and volunteers, saying:
We can only say that our thoughts are very much with all those who have been affected so badly, especially the family and friends of the five people who tragically lost their lives. We send our special prayers, and the deepest possible sympathy, to all who mourn them.
As the immediate emergency passes, I am only too aware that communities are confronting dreadful, soul-destroying damage to homes, properties and infrastructure, and the loss of precious livelihoods and livestock. As many hundreds of families have been displaced from their homes, I am deeply conscious that the impact of the crisis will endure for many months.
What you should know about NB.1.8.1, the new Covid variant
More than five years since Covid was initially declared a pandemic, we’re still experiencing regular waves of infections.
It is more difficult to track the occurrence of the virus nowadays, as fewer people are testing and reporting infections. But available data suggests in late May 2025 case numbers in Australia were ticking upwards.
Even if neutralising antibody levels are modestly reduced against NB.1.8.1, the WHO has noted current Covid vaccines should still protect against severe disease with this variant.
Read more here:
Woman charged after allegedly stabbing four people in eastern Victoria
Police have charged a 24-year-old woman after four people were allegedly stabbed in Bairnsdale, Victoria, on Thursday night.
Investigators say they were told a woman was behaving erratically at a supermarket in the city just before 10pm last night. Police allege the woman approached a staff member, stabbed him in the stomach and left the store.
She then allegedly had an altercation with a man at in nearby fast-food restaurant car park, assaulted a man at a hotel and stabbed a man at the Bairnsdale train station. All four people were taken to hospital, with the supermarket worker still in serious condition. The other three were treated for minor injuries and released.
Police arrested the woman at the station and have since charged her with intentionally causing injury and recklessly causing injury.
Queensland tourism minister ‘confident’ Great Barrier Reef won’t be listed by Unesco as in-danger
Andrew Powell, Queensland’s tourism minister, says he is confident that Unesco, the UN world heritage body, won’t list the Great Barrier Reef as in-danger. Unesco has been threatening for years that the mammoth natural wonder could be designated as such if Australia doesn’t take greater efforts to address climate change and a series of mass coral bleachings.
Powell told RN Breakfast:
We have to ensure that we can continue to protect our reef and have our tourism operators continue to offer the product that they do. So I’m confident that [we have] got the processes, the practices, the programs, the investment that is required to ensure that we’re doing all we can at the state level to keep the reef off that Unesco list.
Powell said he was a “little bit frustrated” by previous Queensland governments actions on the reef, but said he remains focused on the site as an international draw card.
I’m a father of five. I want my kids to continue to experience the Great Barrier Reef in the same way I have, if not in a better way.
You can read more about the Unesco threats here:
Pat Dodson says he is encouraged about Labor’s comments on truth-telling
Pat Dodson, a former Labor senator and a commissioner of the 1989 royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, said he was dismayed and saddened after the death of a 24-year-old Indigenous man in police custody in Alice Springs earlier this week.
Dodson, known as “the father of reconciliation”, said he was encouraged that the Albanese government signalled this week it remained open to truth-telling and treaty. He told RN Breakfast:
I’m encouraged that the way to go forward is being proposed. Proposed or that they’re open to that, and obviously it’s got to be committed to, and then they’ve got to set up a process to enact it. But it’s a great thing because we’ve got to start listening to the different stories.
These are unique peoples with a unique culture who are here prior to the colonisation of the nation and we’ve got to start respecting them as such and dealing with them.
Read more here:
Hume says it’s time to ‘straighten your tiara’ and get to work, as her mother would say
Hume went on to say that, despite her feelings, she would support Ley’s leadership and work to “win back the hearts and minds and votes of Australians”. She told Sunrise:
The most important thing we can all do here now is get behind Sussan Ley, put our shoulders to the wheel. Because there’s a very big task ahead of us.
As my very wise mother would say: ‘Stop your nonsense, chin up, chest out, straighten your tiara and let’s get on with the job.’
Jane Hume: ‘Of course it hurts’ being demoted to backbench
The Liberal senator Jane Hume said she was hurt after being demoted from the shadow cabinet to the backbench this week under the newly reformed Coalition. “This isn’t the playground. This is the parliament,” she said this morning. Hume spoke to Sunrise:
Of course it hurts. It hurts professionally because I was a hard-working and prolific and high-profile member of the frontbench in the previous opposition. It hurts personally, too, because you know, Sussan and I are friends.
Hume went on to say there was something “liberating” about being on the backbench and being able to “speak without having to stick to the party line”.
That’s certainly going to make for much more interesting Sunrise interviews.
Read more about the new shadow cabinet here:
Dai Le says Magda Szubanski’s diagnosis reminded her of her own health troubles
MP Dai Le was on Today this morning and spoke about actor and comedian Magda Szubanski, who said yesterday she has been diagnosed with stage four blood cancer. Le, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, said this morning:
I mean, as a breast cancer survivor, when I watched that clip, I remember also when I had to shave my hair off because I knew that my hair would fall off once chemo started.
And it’s so great that she actually, you know, can talk about it because a lot of women just don’t don’t want to go there.
Le said it was one of the most difficult times in her life when she received her own diagnosis. She encouraged people to speak with their doctors early if they had any troubling symptoms.
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Mark Butler reiterates Australia will not bail out Healthscope
The health minister reiterated on RN Breakfast that the government would not bail out Healthscope, the private equity-backed operator of Sydney’s embattled Northern Beaches hospital. The company has maintained its 37 hospitals will remain open as it works through receivership. Butler said:
We’re not going to bail out an overseas private equity who made a play to make a profit. We’re not going to do that, I don’t think there would be many taxpayers who would urge me to do that.
As possible, we can see an orderly transfer and sale of these important assets to a more stable operator.
Read more on the collapse of Healthscope from the Guardian’s Jonathan Barrett and Natasha May here:
