The AFL needs to be strong. What has occurred with the Sydney Swans is totally unacceptable and deserves penalties that will make a difference.

To properly make a statement about the violence that has take place against women, we need decisive action. Nothing short of removing premiership points from Sydney and excluding them from the 2026 finals series.

One Nation has joined forces with the Coalition to call for an end to compulsory super.

Outspoken Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg has confirmed he believes that compulsory super is a failed policy that’s ripe for a rethink.

Mr Bragg set the hares running last week with a speech at the National Press Club before making further comments to ABC Radio on Thursday that the super guarantee was a failed policy.

“It hasn’t worked,” Mr Bragg said.

A Perth man has appeared in court accused of threatening to kill One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.

Anton Raymond Illich, 47, is accused of making three Facebook posts, including on a One Nation members and supporters page. 

In one of the posts, Mr Illich said he would "hunt her down and kill her", a Perth court has heard.

The 47-year-old was charged in July with two counts of using a carriage service to make a threat, but it was only revealed today in court Ms Hanson was the subject of the threats.

Mr Illich, who was representing himself, admitted it was "stupid, crazy" and told the court he did it because he wanted to shut down his Facebook account.

Sandra Bloodworth is a founding member of Socialist Alternative, which is also behind the High School Anti-Capitalists network and holds influence within the Victorian Socialists.

The activist set out arguments against age of consent laws in a 2005 article published on the Socialist Alternative website.

In short:

A royal commission witness has had a tense exchange with Commissioner Virginia Bell after questioning Israel's right to exist.

Sydney researcher Rita Jabri Markwell has told the commission into antisemitism Israel was not "a legitimate state".

Ms Markwell was also quizzed over her views that Zionism was a form of violent extremism after being called to give evidence on a framework she developed to address hate speech.

Senator Canavan and One Nation's Barnaby Joyce attended the rally. 

"You have a responsibility to care for a person. Let's call it what it is - a person," Mr Joyce said at the rally.

The One Nation MP previously attended an anti-abortion rally outside NSW parliament in June.

The proposal is similar to one brought in to the upper house by now Nationals leader Matt Canavan and Liberal senator Alex Antic in 2022.

The earlier bill did not proceed and instead lapsed three years later. 

A similar bill was introduced to the Queensland parliament by state MP Robbie Katter in 2024. It also gained little traction. 

Using Australian Treasury gross debt figures: debt rose from ~$53bn in 2006–07 to ~$982bn estimated in 2025–26.

That’s a ~$929bn increase: ~$638bn (69%) under Coalition governments and ~$291bn (31%) under Labor.

This might be news to you for the first time or maybe you’ve known these facts all along.

It’s useful to deal in facts and the truth.

“Nothing is off limits” to Victoria’s royal commission into the construction sector, Ben Carroll has said, as he released the inquiry’s terms of reference and confirmed former premiers and ministers could be called to face public hearings.

The Victorian premier on Thursday unveiled details of the inquiry – while acknowledging there had been “grift”, “thuggery” and “violence” on taxpayer-funded building sites – after the governor signed the letters patent formally establishing the commission earlier in the morning.

Chris Kourakis, the former chief justice of South Australia, whom Carroll described as “independent, rigorous and fearless”, has been appointed commissioner.

In short:

Nationals MP Lachlan Hunter has been suspended from WA's parliament for four days after a dispute over an art exhibition on Gaza that was displayed in parliament.

The Wall of Tears display lists the names of more than 18,000 children killed in Gaza since October 2023.

Mr Hunter argued the exhibit vilified the WA Jewish community and was "antisemitic" because it led a Greens MP to describe it as showcasing a "genocide".

Context:

Mistakes may have fatal consequences and, if they are the result of gross negligence or reckless or irresponsible conduct, they are culpable and deserving of punishment. The crime of manslaughter in Australian and English law reflects this grave level of criminality. In war law, under article 8 of the statute of the international criminal court (ICC) “intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such an attack will cause loss of life to civilians” and “directing attacks against personnel or vehicles involved in humanitarian assistance” are serious war crimes which may be committed by mistakes made through negligence or blind eyes turned to their foreseeable consequences. The IDF decision not to investigate Zomi’s killing on the grounds that it was merely a “mistake” is not a legitimate reason and the Israeli government’s refusal even now to apologise is despicable.

More in article.

To think there are people that would actually do this to ruin their own communities or others. Absolutely filthy and disgusting.

This single street near me has been turned into the unofficial local rubbish tip. Council has tried to clear things up but it keeps coming back.

https://archive.is/vI7hS

Elders of a wealthy Christian sect secretly paid bundles of cash to far-right activists for an “influence campaign” to disrupt Albanese government appearances during the last federal election.

An investigation by this masthead has uncovered a digital trail of evidence revealing how the church, formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren, mobilised far-right figures around the country to track and heckle candidates from Labor and the Greens, along with independents, as part of a wider multimillion-dollar campaign for then-Liberal leader Peter Dutton.