Australia news live: new national standards for ebikes; man dies after trying to protect Sunshine shop from alleged thieves

Ebikes to face new safety standards

Krishani Dhanji

The government has asked the consumer watchdog to draw up some national safety standards to crack down on the sale of unsafe ebikes in Australia.

Ebike incidents have escalated in recent years (as their use has also skyrocketed). NSW recorded 226 injuries related to ebikes in 2024. In the first seven months of 2025, that had already to surged to 233 injuries plus four deaths.

The government says new rules will ensure the standards are the same across all states and territories and will apply to the sale of ebikes, e-scooters and e-skateboards. High-powered and high-speed devices linked to serious injuries and deaths won’t be allowed to be sold.

The transport minister, Catherine King, says:

This standard will give Australians the confidence that the products being sold are legal and fit for purpose, and will help keep Australians safe.

Schoolboys cruise on ebikes on Sydney’s northern beaches. Photograph: Andrew Quilty

Key events

Icac resumes as factional ally of Angus Taylor due to appear next week

The NSW Icac’s Operation Rosny hearings into corruption in the NSW Liberal party have resumed this morning, with Reformer Jean-Claude Perrottet, the younger brother of former premier, Dominic Perrottet, giving evidence again.

Yesterday, he admitted he occasionally paid for memberships of people he was signing up to the Liberal Party, which the inquiry has heard is against party rules. Branch stacking is not itself illegal, but the group is under investigation for allegedly soliciting or accepting illegal donations as part of branch-stacking efforts. Jean-Claude Perrottet has previously denied any wrongdoing, while Dominic Perrottet has not been named in any allegations by Icac.

Icac has also announced next week’s witnesses. They include Jeremy Greenwood, who was originally scheduled to appear this week.

He has been named in two allegations. The corruption watchdog is examining a second allegation that between 2020 and 2023, Liberal figures including Greenwood solicited or accepted donations from fugitive property developer Jean Nassif and his company, Toplace in exchange for the pursuit of outcomes sought by Nassif.

Also expected to appear on Wednesday and Thursday next week is Catholic Schools NSW chief executive, Dallas McInerney. Icac is investigating the allegation that illegal donations were made by the schools governing body, arranged and approved by McInerney.

Last week the inquiry heard a message sent by McInerney, who is a factional ally of federal opposition leader, Angus Taylor, to Reformer advising of a plan to “shake down Angus for 10K”. Taylor has not been named in Icac’s allegations and has denied he ever made payments to the Reformers.

Man and pregnant woman found dead in outback Queensland home in apparent murder-suicide

A sad update from our earlier post:

A pregnant woman and a man have been found dead at a home in the outback Queensland town of Charleville, in an apparent murder-suicide after a protracted overnight standoff with police.

Several streets in the remote town, 600km west of Toowoomba, were locked down by police on Wednesday evening after officers arrived at the property on King Street after reports of “a serious assault”.

Read more here:

Ed Husic looking forward to returning to full duties ‘shortly’

We have more from Ed Husic’s office following news he was injured in a car crash this week. Husic’s team wrote on Instagram:

Mr Husic thanked the doctors, nurses and paramedics at Westmead Hospital for providing him with outstanding care and thanked his family and friends for their support, especially during his hospital stay.

He said he looked forward to returning to full parliamentary duties shortly and assured constituents his electorate team would continue to support the people of Chifley in the meantime.

Nearly 1,500 properties bought using first home buyers’ 5% deposit scheme converted into investments

The government’s 5% deposit scheme for first home buyers has enabled the purchase of nearly 1,500 properties that were turned into investments, new data shows.

The scheme is also helping hundreds of Australians earning more than $300,000 a year, after Labor stopped excluding high-income borrowers.

First-time buyers can borrow 95% of a property’s value and have the government guarantee the loan, waiving costly lenders’ mortgage insurance, under the scheme.

Housing Australia, which runs the program, provided the data in response to a Senate estimates question on notice in June.

Read more here:

Man, 60, dies after alleged assault by group of youths in Melbourne

A 60-year-old man has died after an alleged assault in Melbourne, where he was allegedly set upon by a group of youths.

Victoria police said the man sustained critical injuries on 1 August after the group of young people allegedly attempted to steal items from a nearby store in the suburb of Sunshine. The victim allegedly came to the aid of a shop employee before he was attacked himself.

The man was transported to hospital, but died yesterday, 5 August.

Two boys, aged 12 and 15 and two girls, both 14, have been charged with affray, violent disorder and intentionally causing serious injury and injury. They have been remanded to appear before a children’s court.

Earlier charges against a boy, 13, were dropped after investigations exonerated him.

Detectives will consider upgrading the charges already laid after the man’s death.

Labor MP Ed Husic taken to hospital with fractures and concussion after car accident

Labor MP Ed Husic was hospitalised this week after his car was involved in an accident with a truck travelling on Sydney’s M7 motorway.

The incident happened when the Chifley MP was travelling home from his electorate office, around 6.20pm on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson.

Husic was treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to hospital for assessment and treatment.

Read more here:

Bowen says government confident about gambling reforms

Bowen was also asked about the government’s gambling reforms and criticism from the Greens and the Coalition that they don’t go far enough.

He told RN:

This is the biggest anti-gambling or gambling moderation program in Australian history. We’ve already done so much. We do have ambitions to do more.

It’s not unusual, frankly, at this point for parties that aren’t the government to say they’re not supporting this legislation and for there’s been speculation the legislation will fail. Our track record as a government of getting legislation through the Senate, despite the fact we don’t have a majority there, is pretty good. …

Obviously, we work with parties of goodwill and good faith across the parliament to see our legislation through.

Bowen says national rules for datacentres in the national interest

Chris Bowen, the federal energy minister, said the government will continue to target national rules on datacentres despite opposition from state or territory governments, saying any other approach is not in the national interest.

Bowen spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, a day after saying the federal government would override any state government that opposes its national rules. He also maintained the Albanese government is committed to powering the AI boom with renewable energy.

Bowen told RN this morning:

We’ve made clear that this is a national approach and we will use national legislation because these datacentres – while the investment is very welcome, and Australia has one of the biggest and hottest datacentre markets in the world for investment – that’s something we welcome, providing it’s in our national interest.

And in our national interest is that the datacentres work within the constraints and the rules that the governments of Australia wish to place on them …

A let-er-rip approach … whatever they want approach, would see bills go up, reliability go down, and datacentres dominate the energy system in a way which is not in the national interest.

Man, woman dead after hours-long siege lockdown in regional Queensland

An hours-long siege ended in tragedy after a man and woman were found dead in an outback home, AAP reports.

Several streets in Charleville, 600km west of Toowoomba in Queensland, were thrust into lockdown after police were called to investigate reports of a serious assault at the home around 6pm on Wednesday.

Residents in a three-street block were forced to retreat into their homes for nearly eight hours as specialist police surrounded the area. The emergency public safety declaration was revoked just before 2am on Thursday.

A 45-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman were found dead in the home.

A crime scene was set up and a report is being prepared for the coroner. Police will hold a press conference on the matter later this morning.

New South Wales man charged on allegations of threatening MP on social media

A New South Wales man has been charged for allegedly threatening violence towards a female MP in social media posts earlier this week.

Officials said the man allegedly made a number of posts towards the parliamentarian, making alleged threats of violence, threats to damage property and statements that they intended to find the victim in public and cause her harm.

After an investigation, police arrested the man, 43, in Tascott on the NSW Central Coast on Wednesday.

He was charged with the use of a carriage service to threaten serious harm. He was refused bail and will appear before court today.

News Corp’s Australian division weighs on robust results

News Corp has delivered a strong rise in revenue across its global business, despite weakness in its news division, marked by a slide in digital subscribers at its Australian mastheads.

The Rupert Murdoch family-backed business reported a 7% lift in full-year revenue to $US9bn, according to financials released this morning, driven by strong results in its business news-focused Dow Jones unit, book publishing and digital real estate assets.

Its well known news media division, however, weighed on results, with advertising revenue falling 2% during the financial year to 30 June. The company’s global newspaper stable includes the Sun and the Times in London, the New York Post and The Australian, and many other mastheads.

Digital subscribers at News Corp Australia slid from 1,166,000 to 1,162,000 during the year, according to the company’s internal data.

News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson used the results to hit out at AI models that “pilfer and profit from our work” without compensation.

“We will pursue those pilferers, and companies that are clients of these crass kleptomaniacs should know they are patently in possession of stolen goods,” Thomson said.

News Corp already has commercial agreements in place with OpenAI and Meta.

Thomson claimed that “without our journalists, our authors, our data, our brands and our professional expertise, users would be drowning in a slimy sea of AI slop”.

Ebikes to face new safety standards

The government has asked the consumer watchdog to draw up some national safety standards to crack down on the sale of unsafe ebikes in Australia.

Ebike incidents have escalated in recent years (as their use has also skyrocketed). NSW recorded 226 injuries related to ebikes in 2024. In the first seven months of 2025, that had already to surged to 233 injuries plus four deaths.

The government says new rules will ensure the standards are the same across all states and territories and will apply to the sale of ebikes, e-scooters and e-skateboards. High-powered and high-speed devices linked to serious injuries and deaths won’t be allowed to be sold.

The transport minister, Catherine King, says:

This standard will give Australians the confidence that the products being sold are legal and fit for purpose, and will help keep Australians safe.

States and territories shut down hundreds of substandard childcare services

Almost 600 childcare services were shut down in the latest quarter, a twentyfold increase on the same quarter last year, as federal, state and territory governments crack down on dodgy and underperforming providers.

State and territory regulators took action against 589 services and cancelled their approval to operate – meaning they lost access to childcare subsidy funding and cannot legally run. Though, not all of those services were currently operating.

The government says state and territory regulators also took 1,538 compliance actions in the March quarter – which puts providers on notice if they are not meeting standards. It was double the number of notices compared with the same time last year.

Governments have been under significant pressure to lift safety and standards across the childcare sector following allegations of child sexual abuse and safety breaches.

The education minister, Jason Clare, says the proportion of childcare services meeting the national quality standards has lifted from 88% in 2022 to 92%.

Enforcement action is at record highs. The percentage of services meeting the national quality and safety standards is at the highest level ever as well.

We have also introduced legislation to cut funding to centres that aren’t up to scratch … This is a good sign. But there is more to do.

Welcome to Thursday

Good morning, Nick Visser here to guide you through the day’s news. Here’s what’s on deck:

A New South Wales man was charged after allegedly threatening violence against a female MP via social media. Officials allege the man threatened to find the victim in public and cause her harm. He will appear before court today.

States and territories shut down almost 600 childcare services in the last quarter for substandard care, part of a broader crackdown on dodgy or underperforming providers.

The government has asked the consumer watchdog to draw up national safety standards for ebikes amid a rise in incidents in recent years. NSW recorded 226 injuries related to ebikes in 2024, but that figure surged to 233 in just the first half of 2025.

Stick with us.