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NSW environment minister says government ‘deeply upset’ over koala deaths
Lisa Cox
The NSW environment minister, Penny Sharpe, says the Minns government is “deeply upset” after several koalas died following a failed attempt to reintroduce them to a forest in the state’s far south and a full investigation into what occurred is under way.
Sharpe said at a press conference:
The reality is that we do translocations, and sometimes, unfortunately, they have not been successful. This particular translocation is actually under investigation.
We’re of course deeply upset about the fact that these koalas did not survive but we’re also getting to the bottom of it and doing a full investigation of what occurred here.
Guardian Australia revealed on Monday that seven of 13 koalas selected for the translocation project in April had died, two with signs of septicaemia, and the remaining animals were taken into care. The environment department said six koalas had since been returned to their original habitat in the Upper Nepean state conservation area and were healthy.
The translocation project was aiming to re-establish a koala population in an area of the South East Forest national park near Bega where the species is locally extinct.
Sharpe said on Tuesday translocation projects involving a range of species were happening all over the state and many had been successful. She said the government needed to get to the bottom of why the south-east forest project had failed:
It is not just necessarily the fact that they were translocated. We need to get to the bottom of that. There is a role for translocation, we’ll continue to do that. This is obviously a tragic event, but we’re determined to get to the bottom of it.
Key events
Caitlin Cassidy
Education union says university governance ‘completely broken’
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) says university governance is “completely broken” after a new report into staff on governing bodies found a secretive culture was operating behind closed doors.
The NTEU report, released on Tuesday, interviewed 26% of the 81 publicly listed staff representatives serving on university senates and councils.
More than half (59%) described the governance culture as “very negative”, reporting bullying, intimidation and exclusion. Some 71% were unable to report back to staff, despite being elected to do so, and 90% said agendas and minutes were not publicly available.
The NTEU national president, Dr Alison Barnes, said university governance was “completely broken”.
Decisions are being made behind closed doors by people with no connection to the daily realities of staff or students. For too long, universities have acted like corporations – chasing rankings and surplus targets – while governance boards rubber-stamp decisions that have harmed the people who make education and research possible.
The report recommended university councils and senates be made up of at least 50% elected members, with the majority to have experience in the public sector.
Jordyn Beazley
NSW police yet to withdraw protest charge against Hannah Thomas as promised as she pleads not guilty
New South Wales police are yet to withdraw a charge against pro-Palestine protester Hannah Thomas that relied on a rarely used emergency power introduced in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots.
Thomas was arrested and charged alongside four others at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney on 27 June that was attended by about 60 people at SEC Plating. The 35-year-old was taken to hospital, with her lawyers alleging a police officer punched her in the face. Last week, Thomas underwent a second round of surgery amid fears she could lose sight in her right eye.
The former Greens candidate had her matter briefly heard in Bankstown local court on Tuesday, where her solicitor, Stewart O’Connell, said Thomas would plead not guilty to three charges: resisting police, failure to comply with a move on direction, and refusing or failing to comply with a direction to disperse.
The last charge is yet to be withdrawn, despite the assistant commissioner Brett McFadden saying last week it would be.
Read more here:
Albanese says dialogue must remain central to Australia-China relationship
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, delivered opening remarks a moment ago during his meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, praising the economic relationship between the two countries which allows trade to flow “freely to the benefit of both countries, and to people and businesses on both sides”. Albanese said:
Australia will remain a strong supporter of free and fair trade …
Australia values our relationship with China, and we’ll continue to approach it in a calm and consistent manner guided by our national interest, by which we regard very much as the relationship being positive is just that. It is in our national interest, and indeed, in the interest of the region as well.
Albanese added dialogue between Australia and China needed to remain “at the centre of our relationship”, saying:
I welcome the opportunity to set out Australia’s views and interests and our thinking on how we can maintain peace, security, stability and prosperity in our region. And I look forward very much to another productive conversation with you today both at this meeting.
Luca Ittimani
Small businesses say they will still struggle if surcharges removed
The Reserve Bank’s proposal to eradicate card surcharges could leave small businesses much worse off than big companies, payment system experts warn.
Removing surcharges for credit and debit card payments and other reforms proposed by the RBA on Tuesday do not go far enough to address the fees faced by businesses including retailers, restaurants, cafes and convenience stores, the Independent Payments Forum (IPF) said.
The IPF said its participants, which included more than 100,000 small firms, would struggle to stay in business if forced to drop surcharges.
A cafe selling a $5 cup of coffee would see its profit margin halved if it had to cover the system cost, with profit per cup falling from 16.5c to 8.5c, paying networks the 8c difference which would previously have been covered by surcharges, according to IPF analysis. The alternative response of lifting prices to cover lost surcharge revenue could make small businesses less competitive.
Big businesses are less likely to surcharge and typically pay less for payment systems, but small firms pay more and rely on the charges to offer customers competitive prices, IPF co-founder Bradford Kelly said. He said:
The proposed regulatory options fail small businesses and the local communities they serve. Rather, they benefit big business, big banks and big offshore companies.
Kelly said the RBA should consider alternatives including capping the card scheme fees businesses pay. The Reserve Bank’s Tuesday report instead recommended the surcharge removal be paired with a separate cap on charges and increased fee transparency, which it estimated would save small businesses $185m per year.
Hospitality businesses have criticised the proposal and small business payment network Tyro has seen its share price slip 7% today, but its competitor Square welcomed the reform. Commonwealth Bank had called for an across-the-board surcharge ban in January. You can read more here:
Queensland government rejects plans for coalmine near Bundaberg
The Queensland government rejected a plan for a proposed coalmine in the Bundaberg region earlier today after the state’s attorney general found it was not in the public interest. Fox Resources applied for an exploratory mineral development licence in 2019 for a large region of agricultural land about 20km north of Bundaburg.
That application was rejected by Queensland’s previous Labor government in 2022, but the decision was overturned in late 2023, prompting Fox to reapply. The rejection today ends that process.
The attorney general, Deb Frecklington, said in a statement “many significant community concerns were raised about the potential impacts of a future coalmine on the region’s agricultural industry, water resources, environmental values, liveability, and tourism industry”.
Benita Kolovos
830 more families to be contacted by Victorian health officials over precautionary testing
Victorian chief health officer Dr Christian McGrath issued a statement confirming 830 additional families will be contacted by his department as a result of the new information provided to police about Brown’s work history.
He said precautionary testing will be recommended for about 800 children. McGrath said:
We’re contacting around 830 families after new information was provided by Victoria police as part of its ongoing investigation, to offer wraparound supports and provide testing recommendations. This is obviously a highly distressing situation, and I want to reassure all families being contacted that the potential exposure risk to an infectious disease for their child remains low.
Our recommendation for testing is a precaution and the test results we’ve received to date as part of this investigation reaffirms that the risk is low.
He said there remains no wider public health risk and the infection can be treated with antibiotics.
Lisa Cox
Sharpe asked why government did not make koala deaths public
Sharpe was also asked why the government had not made the koala deaths public when they occurred in April. The incident, and the translocation project itself, only came to light when it was reported by Guardian Australia this week, prompting calls from the NSW Greens for a review.
Sharpe said:
OK, so it’s July. The point I’d make here is that the investigation is under way. We actually need to get to the bottom of it. My preference is not just to say, look, some koalas have died, and I don’t know and isn’t that sad.
The way that I want to deal with these matters is that we’ve had this terrible incident, we’re doing an investigation, and I want to provide people with all the information about what actually happened. And people don’t actually speculate.
Sharpe said while translocation projects happened successfully “all around the state”, this one “has not gone well, but no one is hiding from that”.
NSW environment minister says government ‘deeply upset’ over koala deaths
Lisa Cox
The NSW environment minister, Penny Sharpe, says the Minns government is “deeply upset” after several koalas died following a failed attempt to reintroduce them to a forest in the state’s far south and a full investigation into what occurred is under way.
Sharpe said at a press conference:
The reality is that we do translocations, and sometimes, unfortunately, they have not been successful. This particular translocation is actually under investigation.
We’re of course deeply upset about the fact that these koalas did not survive but we’re also getting to the bottom of it and doing a full investigation of what occurred here.
Guardian Australia revealed on Monday that seven of 13 koalas selected for the translocation project in April had died, two with signs of septicaemia, and the remaining animals were taken into care. The environment department said six koalas had since been returned to their original habitat in the Upper Nepean state conservation area and were healthy.
The translocation project was aiming to re-establish a koala population in an area of the South East Forest national park near Bega where the species is locally extinct.
Sharpe said on Tuesday translocation projects involving a range of species were happening all over the state and many had been successful. She said the government needed to get to the bottom of why the south-east forest project had failed:
It is not just necessarily the fact that they were translocated. We need to get to the bottom of that. There is a role for translocation, we’ll continue to do that. This is obviously a tragic event, but we’re determined to get to the bottom of it.
Josh Taylor
X lawyers fire back at eSafety commissioner in case over how social media company handles terror content
Lawyers acting for the eSafety commissioner in a case against X over the notice issued to the company over how it tackles terror content were accused by X’s lawyers of attempting to turn the hearing “into a royal commission into certain aspects of X”.
This week the administrative review tribunal (ART) is considering whether the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, was correct to issue a notice to X in March last year to report on how it deals with terror content on its platform.
When lawyers acting for eSafety raised in cross-examination of an X employee whether she was aware that X’s owner, Elon Musk, had “referred to the eSafety commissioner as the commissar”, X argued Musk’s view was irrelevant.
Government barrister, Stephen Lloyd, said X was trying to argue that eSafety was being “unduly adversarial” in its dealings with X, and X broke off negotiations at a critical point before the notice was issued. He said:
It was the leadership of their company that took an aggressive approach.
X’s solicitor argued “this is an attempt by the eSafety commission to turn this hearing into a royal commission into certain aspects of X”.
The case is being heard over the course of this week.
Four more Victorian childcare centres added to alleged paedophile’s work history
Benita Kolovos
More families will be contacted by Victorian authorities to get their children tested for sexually transmitted infections after police established alleged paedophile Joshua Dale Brown worked at four more childcare centres.
Earlier this month, the 26-year-old childcare worker was charged with more than 70 offences relating to eight alleged victims, aged between five months and two years old.
Authorities at the time released a list of 20 childcare centres where Brown worked between January 2017 and May 2025, along with his known employment dates, and urged about 1,200 children be tested for infectious disease.
Police on Tuesday issued a statement confirming four more childcare centres – Kids Academy Waratah Estate in Mickleham and Milestones Early Learning centres in Braybrook Greensborough and Tarneit – have been added to Brown’s work history.
Ten of the 20 centres already identified have also been updated based on new information provided to police, who have also removed Papilio Early Learning in Hoppers Crossing off the list after they found the information Brown had worked there between 22 August 2024 and 12 March 2025 was incorrect.
Police said authorities were now contacting families affected.
Acting Cmdr Janet Stevenson said:
We are working through a large amount of information that has been provided to us. Each piece of information has to be individually assessed and verified before it can be used as part of the investigation or released to the public. I understand there are people who will be frustrated and I want to reinforce that this is a continually evolving and changing situation. What hasn’t changed is that this investigation remains the highest priority for Victoria police.
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