Australia news live: Burke announces new group targeting illegal tobacco; crocodile closes pool at luxury resort | Australia news
Burke announces national disruption group for illegal tobacco trade The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has announced on ABC’s Insiders program there will be a national disruption group targeting illegal tobacco headed up by the Australian Border Force, with state and territory police, the Australian federal police, Austrac, the home affairs department, the criminal intelligence…
Burke announces national disruption group for illegal tobacco trade
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has announced on ABC’s Insiders program there will be a national disruption group targeting illegal tobacco headed up by the Australian Border Force, with state and territory police, the Australian federal police, Austrac, the home affairs department, the criminal intelligence commission, the department of health, and the illicit tobacco and vape commissioner.
He said:
We’re bringing all of that together in a single disruption group. Because to do this, it’s not only the interception and the good work that border force do intercepting containers at the border and intercepting illegal tobacco at the airport. We also need to look at what happens before it reaches the border, what happens post-border, what happens at the warehouse level, and what happens in terms of the flow of funds for these organisations as well. So, that national disruption group involves, you know, if there’s a cohesion of threats and a convergence of threats, there needs to be a convergence of protection in responding, and that’s what we’re announcing today.
He said it will be a higher level of coordination than is currently happening, with every agency in the group “looking at every stage of this supply chain”.
Key events
Dodo says 1,600 email accounts accessed, with 34 unauthorised SIM swaps
Vocus-owned internet provider Dodo says it detected suspicious activity on email accounts for Dodo customers on Friday night, which led to 34 unauthorised SIM swaps.
The company said it detected the activity on Friday and temporarily suspended email services for Dodo and iPrimus customers – which was restored on Sunday.
The investigation found 1,600 Dodo email accounts were accessed leading to the swapped SIMs. The company is working to reverse the SIM swaps.
Dodo customers will need to call 1300 038 224 to restore complete access to their email account by setting a new password.
Vocus said it was monitoring the situation and had notified the relevant authorities.
Protests under way across Australia
A series of anti-immigration protests and counter protests are taking place across the capital cities in Australia.
In Melbourne, Victoria police were seen keeping the anti-immigration protesters separated from the counter protesters around Flinders Street station.
Waist-deep snow and weather challenging Mt Field search for missing hiker
Tasmania police say the search for missing bushwalker Daryl Fong has continued through the weekend, despite challenging weather.
The 30-year-old was on a day hike in the Mt Field area, and hasn’t had contact with anyone since 5 October.
Fong has not been seen or heard from since then, and the personal located beacon he is believed to have been carrying has not been activated.
Search and rescue operations including the use of a helicopter have been ongoing, but efforts on Sunday are being hampered by dangerous weather conditions, including waist-deep snow, police say.
Crocodile spotted in Port Douglas hotel pool
Benita Kolovos
Guests at a luxury resort in far north Queensland have snapped a visitor swimming in their pool – a juvenile crocodile making itself right at home.
Two TikTok users posted footage of the crocodile in the lagoon-style pool at the Sheraton Mirage in Port Douglas on Saturday afternoon. Guardian Australia has confirmed the incident occurred, though staff were unable to comment.
“I don’t want to alarm anyone, but there is a crocodile in the Sheraton pool,” Lisa Keller says in her TikTok video.
In a second video, she showed people continuing to sunbathe on lounge chairs around the pool with the caption “not a single person cares”.
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Another user shared footage of the crocodile along with the popular “sit back and relax” audio, often used on TikTok to poke fun at peaceful travel moments interrupted by annoying tourists. But this time, it was the crocodile causing the disturbance.
“just a croc casually having a dip in the Grand Mirage Port Douglas pool,” user @jasssyyl posted.
Another user replied that it was not the first time a crocodile made an appearance at the hotel, with another spotted on the golf course. Earlier this year, a large saltwater crocodile was also spotted on the 10th hole fairway of the Palmer Sea Reef golf course, about 3km away from the Sheraton hotel. Room rates at the five-star hotel range from about $400 to $1,900 a night.
Tasmanians urged to stay indoors as damaging winds batter state
Severe weather in Tasmania has prompted the state’s police to urge the public to stay indoors, and especially off the water and away from remote areas.
Severe weather warnings for damaging winds were issued on Sunday morning for most of the state, including Hobart. Damaging north-westerly wind gusts of about 100km/h were possible around the city with heavier winds expected in elevated terrain and in exposed far-southern Tasmania today, the Bureau of Meteorology warned.
Wind gusts of 154km/h were recorded this morning on Maatsuyker Island, off Tasmania’s south coast, at 8.46am and a 139km/h wind gust was recorded at Scotts Peak at 8.44 am.
In an alert this morning, Tasmania police urged the public to “reconsider any non-essential outdoor activities, especially those involving watercraft or remote areas.”
The statement continued:
These sorts of weather conditions impact our ability to conduct search and rescue response, with high winds preventing helicopter operations.
Please reconsider any high-risk activities, including boating or hiking, and make choices that prioritise your safety and the safety of others.
Stay informed, stay safe, and help emergency services by making responsible choices.
While the winds may ease off this evening, they are expected to redevelop around mid-morning on Monday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Sarah Basford Canales
Palestinian visas should not be cancelled as Gaza ‘infrastructure isn’t there’, Duniam says
Following from the previous post:
Some politicians on the right, such as Pauline Hanson, have suggested Palestinian visas should be cancelled amid the ceasefire and peace negotiations under way to end the fighting and rebuild the territory, which has been decimated by Israeli forces.
Asked whether visas should be cancelled, the shadow home affairs minister, Jonathon Duniam, told Sky News “not abruptly”.
You only have to go on Google Earth and see the destruction in the Gaza Strip. People’s houses are no longer there, the infrastructure isn’t there.
Australia needs to help Palestinians fleeing Gaza to ‘get back to their country’, shadow home affairs minister says
Sarah Basford Canales
Jonathon Duniam says Australia needs to help Palestinians fleeing to Australia from Gaza “get back to their country where they belong”.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, told the National Press Club last week there were around 600-700 Palestinians with Australian visas yet to arrive in the country, with Burke noting his department was not sure, in some cases, whether they were still alive.
Burke noted the double standard in regards to security checks applied to Palestinians coming to Australia, saying they were the “most heavily scrutinised people” in the world.
Duniam told Sky News Australia needed to consider how Palestinians could be returned to Gaza after a peace deal was finalised.
[Palestinians are] no longer fleeing war – yes there is destruction, they may not have access to food and clean water, but over time they will. So do these people need to come straight away? And indeed for those who are already here – the 1,900 or thereabouts, nearly 2,000 – we need to look at that and help them get back to their country where they belong, where their families are, and look to assist them in doing so as well over the course of time.
Andrew Messenger
Evicted and dying of cancer Tammie spent her final months desperately house hunting in Brisbane
A month before she died of cancer, Tammie Thrower was evicted and thrust into homelessness.
The mother of three had battled stage four bowel cancer since 2023, undergoing round after round of chemotherapy. But in January of this year it spread to her brain.
Six months later she was kicked out of her home in Manly in Brisbane’s south. She spent her last months house-hunting in vain.
Though shocking, her story is common. Homeless outreach service, Micah Projects, has records of 21 people who died of diagnosed terminal illnesses while homeless in 2025 in Brisbane alone.
Read more:
Sarah Basford Canales
Time to ‘draw a line’ under Coalition grieving on election loss, Duniam says
Jonathan Duniam says it’s time for the opposition to “strap our boots up” and get on with the job after a messy few months of internal bickering since the federal election.
In the five months since Labor’s historic win, the Coalition has undergone a series of shadow ministry reshuffles and internal spats over energy and immigration policy.
Earlier this morning, the shadow home affairs minister told Sky News the fallout of an election loss is “never pretty”, but the opposition needed to focus on scrutinising the government.
Duniam, who took on the shadow home affairs portfolio last week after Andrew Hastie quit the opposition frontbench, said:
Well look, it’s never pretty after an election loss. I think the tone of some of the contributions that you referenced there have pointed to the need to draw a line under that part of the grieving process. I myself am focused on this portfolio and something I’ve said often is a government is only as good as its opposition, and it’s time for us now to strap our boots up and just get on with the job of holding this government to account.
Duniam said he would take a “methodical approach” to determining the appropriate immigration settings in his new portfolio.
What it’s like to be on the frontline of a cyber-attack
Tim Brown will remember 12 December 2020 for ever.
It was the day the software company SolarWinds was notified it had been hacked by Russia.
Brown, the chief information security officer at SolarWinds, immediately understood the implications: any of the company’s more than 300,000 global clients could be affected too.
Read more:
Albanese heads to US for Trump meeting
Josh Butler
As we have mentioned earlier, Anthony Albanese will fly to Washington DC today to meet President Donald Trump on Monday (which will be very early Tuesday morning, Australian time).
“Australia and the United States are the strongest of allies and closest of friends. Our unique relationship is underpinned by a shared vision for peace and security, close economic connections and deep personal ties between our two nations,” Albanese said in a statement ahead of the trip.
The visit will be an opportunity to deepen these ties, including on trade and investment, defence cooperation and AUKUS, as well as the shared goal of maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
Joining Albanese on the trip will be resources minister, Madeleine King, and industry minister, Tim Ayres – underscoring the likelihood that critical minerals will be a key point of discussion for the Trump-Albanese meeting.
Albanese said he was looking forward “to a positive and constructive meeting with President Trump at the White House.” It’ll be only a quick trip, with Albanese in DC from 19-21 October.
Richard Marles will be acting prime minister from Sunday until Tuesday night, then Penny Wong will act as PM from Tuesday night until Albanese’s return later in the week.
Verbal spray from Trump to Albanese would not damage US-Australia alliance, Clare says
A potential verbal spray from Donald Trump towards Anthony Albanese during talks at the White House would not mean the alliance between the US and Australia is damaged, the education minister, Jason Clare, says.
AAP reports Clare dismissed suggestions a testy meeting with Trump would be a setback to the relationship with the US.
“I doubt that’s a problem. I think most Australians understand the importance of the relationship between America and Australia,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
We’ve got different views on different things – Medicare, gun laws are good examples of that – but we’ve got more in common than we have that separates us or divides us.
It’s these sorts of values and those sorts of interests that will drive the conversation and the relationship between President Trump and Prime Minister Albanese.”
The prime minister will be joined by the resources minister, Madeleine King, and industry and innovation minister, Tim Ayres, for parts of the trip.
A critical minerals deal with the US is likely to be used as leverage to seek lower tariffs on exports.
Clare said any possible critical minerals deal would not mean the relationship with other countries, such as China, would be strained.
“We’re in favour of free and fair trade. China is our biggest trading partner. The US is our greatest and most important ally,” he said.
A big part of our responsibility as a mature government is to work with both nations in Australia’s interest.
Luca Ittimani
Automated banking systems failing to account for customers’ circumstances, financial watchdog says
Banks are outright ignoring or offering “cookie cutter” responses to a rising number of hardship requests from struggling customers, despite repeated regulatory crackdowns.
Nearly 2,900 customers complained their bank had failed to respond to pleas for assistance in 2024-25, new data from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (Afca) showed.
Read more:
Burke announces national disruption group for illegal tobacco trade
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has announced on ABC’s Insiders program there will be a national disruption group targeting illegal tobacco headed up by the Australian Border Force, with state and territory police, the Australian federal police, Austrac, the home affairs department, the criminal intelligence commission, the department of health, and the illicit tobacco and vape commissioner.
He said:
We’re bringing all of that together in a single disruption group. Because to do this, it’s not only the interception and the good work that border force do intercepting containers at the border and intercepting illegal tobacco at the airport. We also need to look at what happens before it reaches the border, what happens post-border, what happens at the warehouse level, and what happens in terms of the flow of funds for these organisations as well. So, that national disruption group involves, you know, if there’s a cohesion of threats and a convergence of threats, there needs to be a convergence of protection in responding, and that’s what we’re announcing today.
He said it will be a higher level of coordination than is currently happening, with every agency in the group “looking at every stage of this supply chain”.
NZYQ cohort sent to Nauru will receive 30-year visas, Burke says
On the NZYQ cohort and the deal made by the government to transfer them to Nauru, the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, says it is “roughly correct” that the number of visas issued for the cohort to be sent to Nauru is in the high teens to 20s.
He said those transferred will have work rights in Nauru, and the visas are for 30 years.
Burke said he has inspected the accommodation and health facilities and said the standard is good, and “way beyond what some of the speculation about health standards has been”.
Burke indicated those sent to Nauru could not be brought back to Australia for health treatment.