Victoria police to lay 775 new charges against man for alleged illegal recording in Melbourne hospitals
Victoria police will lay an additional 775 charges against a man as part of an ongoing investigation into an illegal recording device at Melbourne hospitals.
Police allege the man, 27, used a mobile phone as a recording device in staff toilets at three hospitals; Austin Hospital in Heidelberg, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
The new charges are linked to alleged stalking, the production of intimate images and installing an optical surveillance device.
The expected new charges are in addition to 133 that were laid in July and August this year, bringing the total to 908.
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Judgment in Lehrmann appeal of defamation case coming this morning
Amanda Meade
The judgment in Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal of his defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson will be handed down in the federal court this morning.
Lehrmann is appealing Justice Michael Lee’s April 2024 judgment, which found the former Liberal staffer was not defamed when The Project broadcast an interview with Brittany Higgins in 2021 in which she alleged she was raped in Parliament House.
Justice Michael Wigney will deliver judgment on behalf of the full court, justices Wigney, Craig Colvin and Wendy Abraham, and will read a summary of reasons. The full judgement will be published online.
During the two-day appeal hearing in August, Lehrmann’s lawyer, Zali Burrows, apologised to the court for her client’s failure to appoint an experienced barrister and explained he could not afford one.
Bruce Lehrmann. Photograph: Ethan James/AAP
Lehrmann argued he was denied procedural fairness because Lee’s findings about the alleged rape differed from the one alleged by Ten and Wilkinson. Burrows said Lehrmann was not given a chance to respond to that version of the rape.
Ten’s barrister Matt Collins KC told the court Lehrmann’s grounds of appeal were “misconceived” and “a distraction, in our respectful submission”.
“Because, at the end of the day, this was a defamation case, not a rape case,” Collins said.
Lee awarded $2m in costs against Lehrmann for the failed defamation which were put on hold pending the appeal.
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Victoria police to lay 775 new charges against man for alleged illegal recording in Melbourne hospitals
Victoria police will lay an additional 775 charges against a man as part of an ongoing investigation into an illegal recording device at Melbourne hospitals.
Police allege the man, 27, used a mobile phone as a recording device in staff toilets at three hospitals; Austin Hospital in Heidelberg, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
The new charges are linked to alleged stalking, the production of intimate images and installing an optical surveillance device.
The expected new charges are in addition to 133 that were laid in July and August this year, bringing the total to 908.
ShareKate Lyons
NDIS plans will be computer-generated, with human involvement dramatically cut under sweeping overhaul
Funding and support plans for national disability insurance scheme participants will be generated by a computer program and staff will have no discretion to amend them, under a major overhaul of the NDIS to be rolled out next year, Guardian Australia can reveal.
Under the changes, human involvement in deciding support for NDIS participants will be dramatically reduced.
Details of the sweeping changes to the way NDIS plans are made were outlined in a recent internal briefing to National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) staff, seen by Guardian Australia.
The changes, which are due to be rolled out from mid-2026 under the NDIS’s New Framework Planning model, will also significantly affect a participant’s right to appeal decisions about their funding. If NDIS participants appeal against their plans to the administrative review tribunal, the ART will no longer have the authority to alter a person’s plan or reinstate funding, according to the staff briefing.
Read more of Guardian Australia’s exclusive here:
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Nicholas Jordan
What’s the best sorbet in Australian supermarkets? We’ve got you covered
To make a bad sorbet you need to be inept or cheap. But supermarkets distribute the cheapest foods on earth and usually the range in quality is hellish to “huh! pretty good”. Excellence needs time and care that supermarkets can’t afford, except for sorbets for some reason.
We tasted 15 products, all single-flavour fruit sorbets, predominantly lemon and mango. We scored them on texture, taste and how representative they were of the fruit, though the latter criteria wasn’t included in the final score. The final score was heavily weighted towards taste.
The winner? It tastes as though it has been made with raspberries that have gone through a superheroic transformation. Cosmic rays, super serum or magic have turned normal raspberries into velvety, sweeter and more acidic versions of themselves.
Read more here:
Smell, taste and texture were important metrics for sorbet, and most were scored highly. Photograph: Rémi Chauvin/The GuardianShare
Updated at 17.49 EST
Annual level of anti-Jewish incidents remains three times higher than average, peak body says
There were 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents logged by Jewish groups and state bodies in a 12-month period ending in September, more than three times the yearly average, according to new data released today.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said those figures include an “unprecedented” number of arson and vandalism attacks. The report says:
The total number of reported antisemitic incidents in Australia has continued at unprecedentedly high levels for a second consecutive year. Although this year’s total was somewhat less than the previous year’s, which was an all-time record, there was actually an increase in the number of arson and vandalism attacks.
The average annual number of anti-Jewish incidents between October 2014 and September 2023, before Hamas’ October 7 attacks, was 342.
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Updated at 17.47 EST
Trains suspended on Sydney’s Blue Mountains line after car falls onto tracks
Commuters along one Sydney train line will have difficulties getting to work this morning after a car fell on to the tracks, landing upturned beneath an overpass.
Photograph: NSW trainlink west
NSW TrainLink West shared photos of the accident earlier this morning, showing the grey sedan on the tracks near the suburb of Blaxland. The route is not running between Springwood and Emu Plains, but a small number of buses are running as a replacement service.
“Please delay travel if possible or allow plenty of extra travel time,” the agency wrote on social media.
NSW police said the driver of the car, a man in his 20s, was able to exit the vehicle and treated at the scene by paramedics for minor injuries. He was not taken to hospital.
Disruptions are expected to continue throughout the day, NSW TrainLink West said, “so please allow extra travel time and plan ahead”.
#BlueMountainsLine Trains are not running between Springwood and Emu Plains due to a vehicle on the tracks at Blaxland.
Limited buses are starting to run between Springwood and Penrith. Please delay travel if possible or allow plenty of extra travel time. pic.twitter.com/3k90W8j8O5
— NSW TrainLink West (@TrainLinkWest) December 2, 2025Share
Updated at 16.52 EST
YouTube will comply with under-16s social media ban but says it will ‘make kids less safe’
Josh Butler
YouTube has agreed to comply with the federal government’s under-16s social media ban, announcing its decision a week out from the 10 December start date.
However Google, the owner of the video site, has again strongly criticised the law, saying it “won’t keep teens safer online” and “fundamentally misunderstands” how children use the internet.
Rachel Lord, Google and YouTube Australia’s public policy senior manager, confirmed the video platform will comply with the legislation in a blog post on Wednesday.
She said the site will automatically sign out all users it detects to be aged under 16. However users under 16 will still be able to watch YouTube videos in a signed-out state.
Lord said not signing in would mean children lose access to “features that only work when you are signed into an account, including subscriptions, playlists and likes, and default wellbeing settings like “Take a Break” and Bedtime Reminders”.
Google also warns that parents “will lose the ability to supervise their teen or tween’s account on YouTube”, such as content settings blocking specific channels.
Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
Lord said “this rushed regulation misunderstands our platform and the way young Australians use it. Most importantly, this law will not fulfill its promise to make kids safer online, and will, in fact, make Australian kids less safe on YouTube”.
She said a lack of parental controls and safety filters “are the unfortunate consequences of a rushed legislative process that failed to allow for adequate consultation and consideration of the real complexities of online safety regulation.”
The law also fundamentally misunderstands why teens come to YouTube in the first place.
We are committed to finding a better path forward to keep kids safe online.
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Updated at 16.45 EST
Josh Taylor
More on the eSafety commissioner’s letter to a US lawmaker
Julie Inman Grant told senators that Australians expect companies providing services into Australia to abide by Australian laws. She also pointed out that since the Wakeley church stabbing case that X challenged in the court and eSafety ended up dropping, the agency had accepted geo-blocking Australian users from seeing the posts as compliance with Australian law.
So the conclusion is nothing that we do here with the Online Safety Act affects anything that an American platform will serve to Americans. So no, it does not impinge upon Americans’ freedom of speech.
Inman Grant would not make her letter public until Jim Jordan had seen it, she said, noting that Jordan’s letter to her made its way to Sky News at the same time it was sent to her
I am just in the process of sending that to the chairman right now. I think out of respect for him – when he sent me his letter, he sent it concurrently, it appears, to Sky News – I prefer to send it official to official.
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David Pocock disappointed Labor ducking key recommendations after ‘jobs for mates’ report
Independent senator David Pocock said he was deeply disappointed the Labor government had largely refused to accept the recommendations made in a scathing “jobs for mates” report released yesterday.
Pocock spoke to RN Breakfast, saying there remained “legitimate circumstances” whether former politicians were the “right person” for some jobs. His comments come after the anticipated report by former public service commissioner Lynette Briggs, who found broad dissatisfaction with the processes used by government departments and ministers in making appointments to many boards.
Pocock said the lack of guardrails to ensure integrity was “corrosive to our democracy”, adding:
It’s so disappointing to have a Labor government that talked such a big game and I think very rightly criticised the Morrison government on jobs for mates.
When given all these recommendations, and I think critically the need to actually legislate this, they’ve said, ‘no, we’re just going to have a framework and a little bit more transparency, we want to be able to continue to essentially appoint who we want’.
David Pocock. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 16.23 EST
eSafety chief rejects US congressman’s claim she is a ‘zealot for global takedowns’
Josh Taylor
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has rejected claims from a US congressman that she is a “zealot for global takedowns” and has said she has written back to him to explain her role.
Last month, Jim Jordan, the US Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, wrote to Inman Grant asking her to speak before the committee he chairs.
He requested Inman Grant be interviewed by the committee, stating “your expansive interpretation and enforcement of Australia’s [Online Safety Act] … directly threatens American speech”. Jordan referenced eSafety’s failed attempt to have X remove tweets of footage of the 2024 church stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.
Jordan referred to Inman Grant as a “noted zealot for global takedowns”.
Inman Grant was due to indicate yesterday whether she would agree to the interview to Jordan. But she told Senate estimates last night she was sending a letter to Jordan, but did not confirm whether she would appear before the committee.
What I am zealous about is protecting children online but I will be going back to him with a letter, explaining a few things.
US congressman Jim Jordan had requested Australia’s eSafety commissioner be interviewed by the House judiciary committee. Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 16.00 EST
Union asks workplace regulators to investigate ANZ
Jonathan Barrett
The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has called for an investigation into ANZ’s handling of major job cuts after accusing the bank of failing to act on serious health and safety concerns raised by workers.
FSU’s decision to write to workplace health and safety regulators across Australia follows a decision by the major bank to slash 3,500 jobs, including some just before Christmas.
The ANZ chief executive, Nuno Matos, told parliament last month the cuts were “not something I am proud of”, but added that they were in the “best interests of our customers” because the bank’s operations had become too complex.
The FSU national president Wendy Street said:
[Matos has] refused to delay redundancies for employees who face an exit in December, refused to provide clarity on the outstanding job cuts and isn’t showing even a basic level of compassion for people under enormous stress ahead of Christmas.
People are distressed as they face uncertainty as they’re being forced out at the most stressful time of the year.
ANZ declined to comment.
ANZ CEO Nuno Matos. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Indigenous Australians twice as likely to face barriers accessing internet, study finds
Douglas Smith
Indigenous Australians are twice as likely as other Australians to face barriers to accessing, affording and using the internet, a university report has found.
The Mapping the Digital Gap report conducted by RMIT and Swinburne University of Technology, found barriers are far greater for those living in remote areas of the country, with three in four Indigenous people living in remote and very remote communities experiencing digital exclusion.
Assoc Prof Daniel Featherstone from RMIT said it meant significant barriers in accessing and using online services needed for daily social, economic and cultural life.
He said:
Connectivity is an essential service nowadays, especially in remote communities.
But there are a range of barriers to having affordable and reliable internet access in these communities – largely due to limited or strained infrastructure, low household connectivity and high reliance on pre-paid mobile services.
While the study found a 10.5-point digital gap on the Australian digital inclusion index (ADII), the research also found an 8.7-point improvement in digital ability for Indigenous people in very remote communities, rising from 45.8 in 2023 to 54.5 in 2025.
The ADII measures how Australians access and use digital technologies, factoring in digital skills and affordability out of 100.
A young woman uses the internet at Alice Springs library. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The GuardianShare
Good morning
And welcome to a new day. Nick Visser here to take things over – let’s get to it.
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Updated at 15.18 EST
Bruce Lehrmann to learn fate of defamation appeal
Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann will today learn whether a second return to the lion’s den has overturned his loss in a defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, AAP reports.
The 30-year-old sued for defamation over an interview with Brittany Higgins on The Project in 2021.
In 2024 Justice Michael Lee found against Lehrmann, and said in his judgment that Higgins’s claims Lehrmann had raped her inside Parliament House two years earlier were established on the balance of probabilities.
He commented in his judgment that: “Having escaped the lion’s den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat.”
Lehrmann appealed against the finding during a two-day hearing in August, arguing the judge erred in finding Ten and Wilkinson had legally justified the imputation of rape.
After months of deliberations, the full bench of the federal court is due to hand down its decision today.
Bruce Lehrmann. Photograph: Steve Markham/AAPShare
Updated at 16.27 EST
Josh Taylor
More from the Roblox questions last night:
David Pocock asked if eSafety was conducting its own experiments such as those carried out by our reporter Sarah Martin to see what Roblox features are like.
Inman Grant said eSafety was assessing if it had the legal ability to set up accounts for its own testing.
We look at a range of factors in terms of determining what we consider to be the relative risk, experts, things like that. Where those tests have been done.
[On the weekend] I’m often reading 404 Media or the Guardian or whatever it is, or Wired and sending [my team] some research to look at.
So we’re doing that. We’re doing some of our own testing. And we’re using our transparency powers, but we’re also just taking complaints in from the general public through our complaints schemes every day.
eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant at Senate estimates in October. Photograph: Dominic Giannini/AAPShare
eSafety probed on Roblox following Guardian investigation
Independent senator David Pocock asked the eSafety commissioner in Senate estimates last night about Guardian Australia’s investigation into Roblox and what children may experience on the platform.
With Roblox not subject to the under-16s social media ban, Pocock asked whether Roblox was deemed as a gaming platform or a platform that is “actually enabling social interactions”?
Julie Inman Grant responded by detailing the changes Roblox has announced that would use age assurance to separate age groups from interacting with each other.
eSafety officials said that Roblox has been assessed as having a primary purpose for gaming – which is one of the exemptions from the ban – but as services evolve over time and more features are added that have a social aspect, it is something the platforms must continually assess themselves as to whether they might be covered by the ban.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will take the helm.
It was a busy night at Senate estimates, with the eSafety commissioner grilled on matters relating to the imminent social media ban for under-16s. First, independent senator David Pocock asked Julie Inman Grant about Guardian Australia’s investigation into Roblox and why the platform is not subject to the ban. Inman Grant also told senators that she rejected claims from a US congressman that she was a “zealot for global takedowns”. More coming up.
Indigenous Australians are twice as likely as other Australians to face barriers to accessing, affording and using the internet, a university report has found. Minding the Digital Gap found that poor strained infrastructure, low household connectivity and reliance on prepaid mobile services hampered access. More soon.
And this morning the federal court will hand down its judgment on Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal against his defamation case loss against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson. We’ll be bringing you all the developments.
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