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16 Sep 2026, 07:33 GMT Tom McIlroy Political editor

Home affairs minister Tony Burke will detail long-awaited changes as support for One Nation surges amid immigration debate Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Foreign students will face tough restrictions on the ability to bring family members into Australia, as the federal government shifts sections of the country’s immigration system away from demand-driven settings. Long-awaited changes will be revealed by the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, on Thursday, and are expected to include efforts to stop visa overstays and limit lengthy appeals processes for applicants. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...

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15 Sep 2026, 21:29 GMT Luca Ittimani and Caitlin Cassidy

Compromise revealed as senior personnel from OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, meets Albanese ministers Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast The Albanese government is considering giving AI companies access to Australian creatives’ works by default as it pursues a compromise with US tech giants. The proposals were revealed as senior personnel from OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, met with Labor ministers and warned that Australia’s copyright laws were preventing the company from training models locally. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...

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15 Sep 2026, 15:00 GMT Sarah Martin Senior correspondent

Exclusive: Lee Hanson also appears to be regularly campaigning for party during work hours, social media shows Listen to Guardian Australia’s podcast The Populist here Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Pauline Hanson’s daughter, Lee Hanson, has been working in Tasmania as a senior adviser to a New South Wales One Nation senator without the required ministerial approval, Guardian Australia can reveal. Under work base arrangements that apply to the staff of all MPs, a personal adviser such as Hanson can only be allowed to work in a location other than Canberra or the parliamentarian’s home base with approval from the special minister of state. Continue reading...

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15 Sep 2026, 08:04 GMT Achol Arok and Krishani Dhanji

Today’s blog is closed Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas , says there is optimism that steel making will continue in his state, after the closure of a major blast furnace at Whyalla was announced yesterday. Speaking to ABC News Breakfast from Whyalla and donned in some hi-vis, Malinauskas says there was disappointment, heartbreak, but also a sense of inevitability when the announcement was made. [Whyalla] has the capacity to be a viable operation but it hasn’t been recapitalised. The blast furnace is over 60 years old. It was first built in 1965 and blast furnaces of this age not to be realigned on a frequent basis. This hasn’t been done in 20 years. The fact it’s still going is a miracle. We need to have the plant recapitalised and that’s exactly the plan we have in conjunction with the federal government … if we lose this capacity behind me, this country doesn’t have structural steel-making capacity and we can’t afford that. If Pauline Hanson wants to take us down the road of Americanising our politics, so people in a family who disagree on political issues can’t speak to each other any longer, this is the pathway to do it … We’ve got lots of challenges facing Australia, but we’re not going to solve them by punching down on things that are brilliant about our country. So I think it’s rotten. I think it’s awful. I think it’s ugly. I just don’t agree with those comments. But I actually do agree with Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price when she says that there are serious issues that do need to be discussed. And these comments shouldn’t be a distraction from them. I mean, why aren’t we closing the gap? Continue reading...

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15 Sep 2026, 05:42 GMT Sarah Basford Canales

One Nation leader had been condemned by figures from across the political spectrum over the resurfaced podcast comments Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Pauline Hanson has made a qualified apology after describing Indigenous Australians as the “most primitive race on Earth”, saying she did not intend to upset people and said she was sorry “if I offended people”. The One Nation leader has been under fire from figures across the political spectrum after the comments from a podcast released in September 2025 resurfaced. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...

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15 Sep 2026, 05:24 GMT Nick Visser with AAP

Stefanovic agrees to purchase shares from joint owner of 123 Podcast with fledgling show on hiatus since August after Tommy Robinson interview Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Former Today host Karl Stefanovic has cited an “irreconcilable breakdown” in dealings with his business partner as the New South Wales supreme court weighs how best to divvy up their holdings in a fledgling podcast. The relationship between the long-time face of Nine’s flagship Today program and the joint owner of podcast company 123 Podcast, Keshnee Ibrahim, has irretrievably broken down, the court heard on Tuesday. Continue reading...

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14 Sep 2026, 15:00 GMT Sarah Martin Senior correspondent

Pauline Hanson’s gas policy and the party’s relationship with Rinehart is examined in a new Guardian podcast series, The Populist Listen: The Populist: Aeroplanes and bulldozers | Episode 1 – podcast Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast One Nation has come under fire for quietly shelving support for a new domestic gas reservation policy in preference for a policy that favours the party’s billionaire patron, Gina Rinehart. The Albanese government has announced it will establish a new reservation policy for Australia’s east coast, requiring gas exporters to supply a portion of the gas they produce to the domestic market. The policy is aimed at “modestly” supplying the domestic market to put downward pressure on prices for consumers. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...

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14 Sep 2026, 08:16 GMT Tom McIlroy Political editor

Universities Australia says party can’t take skills and jobs out of the country and ‘pretend there will be no consequences’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast One Nation’s latest immigration policy would “smash the Australian economy” and force hospitals and aged care facilities to close, Labor has warned, while the university sector has urged against a “race to the bottom” on cutting overseas arrivals. One Nation said on Monday it would cut the number of temporary migrants in Australia by more than 750,000 over three years, targeting international students and family members of skilled migrants. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...

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14 Sep 2026, 08:06 GMT Achol Arok and Krishani Dhanji

This blog is now closed Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Hanson’s comments on Albanese’s mother ‘gratuitous and unnecessary’: Hume Jane Hume has joined the pile on, blasting Pauline Hanson for her comments about Anthony Albanese’s mother. I think that these comments were gratuitous and unnecessary. And the idea that you would disparage people that have grown up in social housing, I think, is a little distasteful. I mean, it doubles down on the fact that Senator Hanson has also disrespected our veteran community with her atrocious comments about Andrew Hastie in that cartoon. Calling a veteran a traitor, I think, is possibly the worst thing you can do. But this does seem to be a common theme in One Nation now, that sort of unnecessarily provocative rhetoric. Continue reading...

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14 Sep 2026, 07:59 GMT Kat Wong and Penry Buckley

Jean Nassif tells inquiry his statements were ‘all talk’ borne from frustration with former building commissioner David Chandler and 2GB radio shockjock Ray Hadley Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast The fugitive property developer Jean Nassif has bragged about taking down his political foes and bolstering the right wing of the Liberal party in calls played to the New South Wales corruption watchdog, as he vowed to “speak [his] heart” at his much-anticipated appearance. Nassif, 58, appeared on Monday at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry via video link from Lebanon. Continue reading...

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14 Sep 2026, 06:38 GMT Sarah Basford Canales

Indigenous senators have criticised One Nation leader saying the comments showed ‘wilful ignorance’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Federal parliamentarians from across the political spectrum have joined in condemning resurfaced comments by Pauline Hanson as “nasty” and “derogatory”, after she labelled Indigenous Australians the “most primitive race on Earth”. The Indigenous affairs minister, Malarndirri McCarthy, a Yanyuwa and Garrwa woman, described the One Nation senator’s comments as “totally outrageous” while her opposition counterpart, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, said Hanson’s comments showed “wilful ignorance” and had “dragged the conversation into appalling territory”. Continue reading...

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