This blog is closed

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

‘If Australian datacentres are going to power the AI revolution, we deserve a fair return’ – David Pocock

Independent senator David Pocock has published an opinion piece about the growth of AI datacentres in Australia and how the gold rush should benefit Australians. He writes:

Huge investment in this space is pouring into Australia. In the past year, Microsoft has announced $25bn will go into Australian datacentres and Amazon Web Services has committed another $20bn.

The prime minister has posed for photos with the CEOs of both companies, welcoming the investment with open arms despite a growing backlash by communities against AI and datacentre construction. At a time when economic growth is sluggish, the government sees billions of dollars in investment as making for a good headline.

I think if you look at the programme itself, it’s a great podcast that she’s done a great job on a topic that I’m sure will be of real interest and real importance to many Australians who suffer from those conditions, and particularly young Australians and young Australian women.

So there’s a balance in all these things … for the ABC to be ensuring that we bring great content to air and also acknowledging that, you know, with some of the people that we work with, sometimes there will be controversy.

Obviously we’ve looked at Charlie’s comments. I think he did express that they were his own view. They weren’t represented at the ABC. It was a little bit on the hop and a little bit not. So I think we felt comfortable that we were able to accept that his comments weren’t a breach of the ABC code of conduct.

Australia leads world in residential solar per capita with 22GW installed but commercial and industrial sector has deployed only a quarter of that

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia’s revolution in rooftop solar has left behind commercial and industrial buildings, where installations have lagged far behind homes, according to new analysis.

Australia leads the world in residential solar on per capita terms, with 22GW installed as of last December. But businesses have only installed about a quarter of that – 5.6GW – despite consuming more electricity than households, a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has found.

Media outlets argue man’s name should be made public and police acting to protect him from ‘embarrassment’

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A Queensland magistrate has suppressed the name of a man with a “high public profile” during an ongoing extortion case in Cairns.

The man – referred to in court as MM – is not a party to the case, which was back before the Cairns magistrates court on Monday.

Trucks with billboards depicting phrase alongside Jacinta Allan wearing a black pointed hat have been seen around Melbourne for about six weeks

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Julia Gillard and Anthony Albanese have joined a chorus of politicians criticising a truck-mounted billboard featuring the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, alongside the phrase “ditch the witch”.

The billboards, which have been seen travelling around Melbourne for about six weeks, also ran AI-generated images of Allan wearing a black pointed hat and with warts on her chin, in between advertisements for a brothel.

Sunil Sharma disappeared in Punjab state on 22 May, with police arresting four people, including his brother

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

An Australian teacher who went missing in India for two weeks was allegedly murdered by his brother over a property dispute, police say.

Melbourne maths teacher Sunil Sharma disappeared on 22 May after he travelled to Amritsar, in India’s north-western Punjab state.

This blog is now closed

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Is Australian music at risk of extinction? Here’s what the data tells us

The music that charts in Australia has changed considerably over the past couple of decades – rock is out, country is in and old tracks are new again.

Because of Richard’s brilliant research, advanced Melanoma went from a death sentence to a curable disease. As a result of that breakthrough, in a country with the highest melanoma rates on earth, thousands of Australians are alive today. …

After being diagnosed with brain cancer, Australians got to know Richard as a man of warmth and hope. He faced his disease with optimism, with a smile, and with a deep sense of purpose. Just a few months ago, living with stage four brain cancer, he was still riding his bike through Tasmania, raising money for a cure.

Scolyer, who did pioneering work on immunotherapy, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in 2023

• Richard Scolyer’s open letter to Australians

• Richard Scolyer obituary

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Prof Richard Scolyer, the world-renowned cancer researcher and former Australian of the year, has died at the age of 59.

Scolyer’s family shared a statement the eminent pathologist and melanoma expert penned before his final stages of illness.

Hanson compares former soldier’s prosecution for war crimes to her 2003 jailing for electoral fraud, which was later overturned

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, told a rally in support of Ben Roberts-Smith that the former soldier accused of war crimes is a person “I respect and I admire”, before its organiser called for “an army of civilians” to support him.

About 100 supporters gathered in Rocks Riverside Park in Seventeen Mile Rocks in southern Brisbane on Sunday.

This blog is now closed

Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australian borrowing personal loans in record amounts

Australians are borrowing record amounts in personal loans as a long-term buildup in living costs wipes out savings buffers.

Nauran government says its citizens are ‘friendly’ after MP spoke of serious threats allegedly made against former detainees

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The Nauruan government has issued a rare statement insisting it is a “friendly” and “welcoming” country after a whistleblower alleged “serious threats of physical violence” were made against a group of non-citizens removed there by the Albanese government.

The unexpected defence, sent shortly after midday on Thursday, was mounted hours after the independent MP Andrew Wilkie used his three-minute constituency statement to read claims from an anonymous whistleblower familiar with the arrangements of the secretive $2.5bn deal between Australia and Nauru.