Aussie

⚠️ LABOR MOVES TO FINE SOCIAL MEDIA GIANTS $100M OVER “HARMFUL” CONTENT

The Albanese Government is preparing new laws that could see social media companies fined more than $100 million if they fail to reduce “harmful” content pushed through their algorithms.

The government says the laws are aimed at material such as illegal pornography, violent content and harmful material targeting children, but critics are demanding clarity over who ultimately decides what counts as “harmful”.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has warned the plan could become a “serious threat to free speech.”

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🚨 COALITION MOVES TO CRIMINALISE FLAG DESECRATION AND LOCK IN JANUARY 26

Angus Taylor’s Coalition is proposing new federal laws to make the serious public desecration of the Australian flag a criminal offence, with penalties of up to 10 years’ jail for deliberately damaging significant war memorials.

The proposal would also formally recognise January 26 as Australia Day, meaning any future change to the date would require a national plebiscite.

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🚨 NSW GANGLAND SHOOTINGS SURGE TOWARD FOUR-YEAR HIGH

There were already 50 organised-crime shootings in public places this year as of August 28, with 48 of them in metropolitan Sydney.

That is already more than the totals recorded in 2023 or 2024, and puts NSW on track to pass the 67 shootings recorded last year.

The surge comes after two innocent men were killed in suspected mistaken-identity shootings in Sydney this week, with police warning organised-crime groups are increasingly recruiting young shooters through encrypted apps.

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🚨 FIVE TEENS CHARGED AFTER MACHETE BRAWL AT PENRITH STATION

Five teenage boys have been charged following an alleged armed brawl at Penrith railway station on Wednesday, where police say a machete was produced and a responding officer was assaulted.

The boys are aged between 13 and 16. Police allege one 16-year-old was found with a machete concealed in his pants, while one of the 15-year-olds charged was allegedly already on bail.


Police say the officer was not injured. Investigations are continuing.

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🚨 NT GOVERNMENT DECLARES “NO MORE CODDLING CRIMINALS”

Most members of the Northern Territory Justice Policy Partnership, a formal advisory group created to bring Indigenous organisations, justice experts and government together on Aboriginal crime and justice policy, have now resigned or suspended their involvement.

They say the NT Government repeatedly ignored their advice. Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby hit back, rejecting what she called “identity politics” and declaring there would be “no more coddling criminals.”

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⚠️ NATIONALS LEADER WARNS SCHOOLS ARE PUSHING AN “ANTI-BOY IDEOLOGY”

Nationals leader Matt Canavan says boys are being alienated at school by what he calls the growing “feminisation” of education and an “anti-boy ideology.”

Canavan argues boys are too often lectured about gender and privilege instead of being supported, and says schools need more male teachers and role models.

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⚠️ Former UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has admitted that Britain's mass immigration surge was the result of deliberate policy choices, not an accident.

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🚨 ALBANESE GOVT SPENDS $2M EXPANDING “RACISM REGISTER”

The Albanese Government is providing up to $2 million to expand Call It Out, a national register where people can report racism and discrimination against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

The funding will expand data collection and create an online dashboard, with the information intended to help shape future government anti-racism policy.

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⚠️ TRANS PLAYER WINS TOP GOALSCORER AWARD IN VICTORIAN WOMEN’S SOCCER

Transgender player Maximillia Kostur has won the top goalscorer award in Victoria’s premier women’s knockout competition, as female players raise concerns about fairness and safety.

Former US professional Addison Steiner said Kostur was noticeably faster and stronger, while another female player said some players were “too scared to go in for tackles.”

Football Victoria says players are not required to disclose their sex at birth and has defended its inclusion policy.

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🚨 TEEN PLEADS GUILTY TO PREPARING ISIS-INSPIRED SYDNEY TERROR ATTACK

A 16-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to preparing a terrorist attack after being radicalised online from the age of 14.

The court heard he researched the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Marathon as possible targets, searched for pressure-cooker bomb instructions and discussed attacking large crowds.

He was arrested over the plot at his Western Sydney home in August 2024 and has now pleaded guilty, with sentencing set for October 29.

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⚠️ MINNS TELLS INDIAN COMMUNITY “WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK”

NSW Premier Chris Minns has told Indians they are “hugely important for our future” and that his government “has got their back” during his first official trip to India.

Minns also said Australia needs to keep international education “open” and “warm” despite the ongoing debate over migration and student visas. The trip included the launch of Western Sydney University’s new campus in Uttar Pradesh.

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🚨 AFL CLEARS TRANS PLAYER FOR WOMEN’S FOOTY DESPITE SAFETY CONCERNS

The AFL has allowed transgender player Freya Golding to continue competing in Adelaide women’s football despite three clubs formally raising safety and duty-of-care concerns.

Golding previously played senior men’s football and is reported to be around 188cm (6’3”) and 92kg. The AFL ruled his participation did not pose an “unacceptable” safety risk.

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⚠️ HANSON ACCUSES ALBANESE OF FUELLING POLITICAL VIOLENCE

Pauline Hanson has accused Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers of inflaming political tensions after Albanese told Labor supporters: “Across the world hard right populists are on the march. Peddling politics that is dangerous, divisive and downright dishonest.”

He then added: “We simply must defeat them. We owe it to history.”

The comments came just after One Nation flipped a Labor seat held for almost 20 years in WA, with a new poll now putting the party ahead of Labor nationally, 30% to 29%.

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🚨 ONE NATION WINS HISTORIC WA SEAT FROM LABOR

One Nation has won the Secret Harbour by-election, taking its first-ever lower-house seat in Western Australia.

Labor had held the area for almost two decades and went into the race with an 11.5% margin, but One Nation’s Luke Herdegen pulled off a historic upset.

Herdegen declared there were now “no safe Labor seats” and called the result part of an “orange tsunami.”

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🚨 FORMER ASIO SOURCE WHO WARNED OF BONDI GUNMEN TO TESTIFY

A former ASIO source known as “Marcus”, who spent six years posing as a radical imam to infiltrate Islamic State networks in western Sydney, says he will give evidence to the Bondi royal commission and NSW Police from overseas.

Marcus claims he personally knew Naveed and Sajid Akram and warned ASIO about them in 2019, years before the Bondi attack. He had sought to return to Australia to testify, but two visa applications were rejected.

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