Key events
Grass trees set aflame after South Australia bushfire
An uncontrolled bushfire in South Australia set dozens of grass trees aflame last night as 175 firefighters worked in steep and challenging terrain to try and contain the blaze.
Willunga Country Fire Service said the Deep Creek bushfire quickly scorched a large area, requiring a coordinated firefighting effort from multiple agencies and crews both on the ground and in the air.
Dramatic images show a field of grass trees engulfed in flames as dozens of firetrucks attempted to stop the spread of the fire.
The area is currently subject to a watch and act bushfire warning, urging some in the area to leave now amid potential threats to safety.
Wildlife rescue reminds drivers to stop and check after koala’s miraculous survival
A wildlife rescue in South Australia reminded drivers this weekend to stop and check if you hit an animal, after the incredible story of Axle the koala, who survived a recent run-in with a car.
Southern Koala and Echidna Rescue said the koala is “incredibly lucky to be alive” after being hit with such force that he was “thrown through the grille of a car … and yet, somehow he has come away with only minor injuries”.
Our amazing volunteer rescuers responded just before midnight and carefully worked to free Axle from the car. He was vet-checked today and, aside from a scrape and what we imagine is a very sore head, this brave boy is remarkably okay.
The photos below so the koala trapped inside the vehicle before his rescue.
Huge thank you to the driver who stopped, checked, and called our 24-hour hotline. One phone call truly made all the difference.
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Melissa Davey
Big tobacco gives big to the Nationals
The National party received a combined total of $225,500 from big tobacco companies through a combination of donations and “other receipts” (which includes membership fees, corporate sponsorship, grants, contracts etc) in the 2024-25 financial year.
The Australian Electoral Commission’s annual financial disclosure return information from political parties was published today, and it shows that one month before the federal election, tobacco company Philip Morris Ltd (PMI) increased its donation direct to the Nationals from the previous year significantly, up from $100,000 to $137,500.
The donation also followed PMI’s federal pre-budget submission where the tobacco company called for a Productivity Commission “root-and-branch review into Australia’s tobacco and illicit nicotine market” and for “an immediate freeze in tobacco excise rates”.
Meanwhile, British American Tobacco’s contributions to the Nationals via “other receipts” were $88,000, and was disclosed by Laneway Assets, the body that collects membership fees for the Nationals.
Benita Kolovos
Allan says risks of ‘Liberal National One Nation circus’ are too great
Jacinta Allan also had a crack at the Liberal’s disunity, saying it was proof the party “only have one setting: cut”.
The premier went on:
It’s in their bones. They even cut their leaders: six in seven years. And to avoid the next cut, their current leader is spending this weekend [cozying] up with One Nation.
Allan is referring to the Across Victoria Alliance conference in Horsham, which One Nation’s recruit, Barnaby Joyce, will also be speaking at. She described the event as a “misinformation convention”:
Mark my words: The Liberal National One Nation circus will push her further away from families and further towards the extremes. Liberals are too busy fighting each other to fight for Victorians. They have no solutions – just cuts. That’s their risk.
And this is my question: Who do you trust to invest in the things that really matter to your family: A Labor government, with a record of investment, that fights for change? Or a Liberal government, with a record of cuts, that fights itself? New solutions – or no solutions. Change – or cuts.
Benita Kolovos
Allan tells Labor caucus party must deliver ‘new solutions’
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has tried out a new – yet very familiar – slogan in her first speech to the Labor caucus this year ahead of the November state election.
Victorian Labor MPs gathered to hear from the premier this morning after their annual caucus retreat was cancelled last week due to a national cabinet meeting to finalise a $25bn landmark health and hospital agreement.
In the speech, Allan told MPs the role of a Labor government was to deliver “new solutions” to the “challenges that families are facing” – including rising cost of living, navigating the health system and finding an affordable home in an area they want to live in.
She also touched on community safety, saying it was the “right decision” to introduce “adult time for violent crime” laws, allowing children who commit serious violent offences to be dealt with by the county court, where they face much longer sentences than the three-year maximum in children’s court.
Allan used “new solutions” seven times in the short speech.
It’s strikingly similar to the “Real solutions for all Victorians” slogan Matthew Guy and the Coalition used at the 2022 election.
Victoria police ‘believe strongly’ Dezi Freeman is dead
Catie McLeod
Victoria police say they “believe strongly” that Dezi Freeman has died and his body is in the Mount Buffalo area.
Adam Tilley, a detective inspector with a taskforce focused on finding the man, has been speaking to reporters in north-east Victoria after the police force launched a new five-day search of the area for Freeman or his remains.
Freeman, also known as Desmond Filby, fled into the bush in August after a fatal confrontation with two police officers at a property in Porepunkah, about 300km north-east of Melbourne. Tilley said today police had found “no proof of life” in their search for Freeman and that:
We are comfortable that we don’t believe he is here alive, however we are keeping an open mind.
We do believe strongly that he is in this area deceased.
Police have said more than 100 officers and volunteers will join a targeted five-day search of Mount Buffalo national park based on “intelligence derived from information police obtained in relation to a gunshot heard a short time after the fatal incident at Freeman’s Rayner Track property” in August.
Tilley said police were exploring “three scenarios”: Freeman is dead in the Mount Buffalo area “either by self-harm or misadventure”, that he has been able to escape the area and is being harboured by a person or people, or that he is on the run unassisted and he just has not been located.
Tilley confirmed cadaver dogs were involved in the search, which he said was expected to take place over 1.3 square kms of terrain – about the size of 52 MCG ovals.
Nationals MPs to meet this afternoon to debate future of the Coalition
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The Nationals are set to debate whether to urgently reform the Coalition at a party room meeting in which David Littleproud’s leadership will be put to the test.
The country party’s MPs are scheduled to meet at 2pm in Canberra ahead of federal parliament’s return on Tuesday.
As announced last week, the Nationals MP, Colin Boyce, will move a motion to spill the leadership after claiming Littleproud was leading the party towards electoral disaster with the decision to blow up the Coalition.
The spill motion is doomed to fail with even Boyce conceding Littleproud’s position is safe.
Ahead of the meeting, a senior Nationals MP, Darren Chester, said he planned to move a separate motion calling on the party’s leadership to immediately work to reunite the Coalition for the remainder of this term of parliament.
Chester said:
Today I will be moving a motion in the Nationals party room which calls on our leadership to move urgently and restore the Coalition because the things that unite us are bigger than the things that divide us.
My motion is: that this meeting of the Nationals parliamentary party authorises the elected leadership team to negotiate in good faith with the Liberal party elected leadership team as a matter of urgency, with a view towards re-establishing a Coalition for the duration of the 48th federal parliament.
In moving the motion, let me be clear, I will support current leader David Littleproud in the leadership ballot and remain committed to working with whomever my friends and colleagues in the Liberal party choose as their leader. That’s their choice and I will respect their decision.
Nationals spill push doomed to fail, but will go ahead
Queensland MP Colin Boyce will attempt to trigger a spill motion against the Nationals leader at 2pm on Monday as politicians return to parliament, AAP reports.
However, he was realistic about his chances of unseating the incumbent.
“David Littleproud will remain the leader and he will be comprehensively voted in,” Boyce told ABC radio this morning.
Boyce, however, said he was moving forward because:
I’m hoping to achieve a change of leadership in the National party and the Liberal party, and then I hope that we can form a Coalition agreement, wipe the slate clean, get rid of the egos and personalities, start afresh.
The backbencher said he believes the Nationals are committing “political suicide” by trying to go it alone without the Liberal party’s support.
Patrick Commins
Most mortgaged homeowners won’t see repayments increase if the RBA hikes interest rates this week
A large majority of the 3.3 million mortgaged homeowners will not see their repayments increase should the Reserve Bank hike rates on Tuesday.
Financial markets and most economists expect the RBA will lift its cash rate target from 3.6% to 3.85%, marking the shortest and shallowest rate rise cycle in memory after inflation roared back in the second half of last year.
The central bank cut rates three times last year, but for most customers of three of the four major banks, lower variable rates did not automatically translate to lower home loan repayments.
National Australia Bank reports that eight in 10 of its variable mortgage borrowers did not reduce their payments through last year’s three rate cuts, and at the Commonwealth Bank the share was between 85% and 90%.
ANZ has not reported how many of its customers contacted the bank to lower their repayments after each cut.
Westpac is the only big bank to automatically adjust a borrower’s direct debit after a rate cut, if they have asked to pay the minimum.
Read more:
Albanese prepared to get back to work as ‘other side’ continues ‘bizarre behaviour’
The prime minister said:
We’re very focused on the national interest as we bring parliament back. We will continue to look for how we can make sure that we have sustainability in our systems, that we provide responsible economic management, that we continue to deliver for people in lifting up their quality of life.
That is our focus each and every day.
He said the government would get “back to work” while the “other side engaged in their bizarre behaviour”.
Albanese addresses Labor party room
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is addressing the Labor party room in Canberra before parliament officially resumes tomorrow.
He is talking about the effort to tighten gun laws and pass hate speech legislation after the Bondi attack, changes to Medicare to lower drug prices, the ongoing opening of new urgent care clinics, an expansion of subsidised childcare and other reforms.
“In January, of course, we got a lot done,” Albanese said.
AEC releases numbers on big money political donations
Josh Butler
Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting donated nearly $900,000 to rightwing campaign group Advance in the last financial year, in the lead-up to the 2025 election.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) released its 2024-25 annual financial disclosure return information on Monday, revealing the biggest donors and spenders in federal politics. Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy was again the biggest donor, kicking in more than $53m to political ventures backed by the mining magnate – $302,9012 to his United Australia party, and $52.9m to the Trumpet of Patriots which Palmer bankrolled. Neither party had any members elected at the May 2025 election.
Pro-climate funding vehicle Climate 200 declared receiving $9.5m in donations and distributing $10.9m to candidates it supported, including federal politicians Sophie Scamps, Allegra Spender, Monique Ryan and Kate Chaney. Some of its bigger donations came from Atlassian founders Scott Farquhar ($500,000) and Mike Cannon-Brookes ($300,000).
Advance, the rightwing campaign group which has lobbied Coalition MPs to dump net zero and run campaigns to “stop mass immigration”, declared receiving $13.5m and spending $12.4m in 2024-25. Its two biggest donations came from Hancock Prospecting, of which Rinehart – Australia’s richest person – is executive chair.
Hancock gave two donations, of $500,000 and $395,000, to Advance in October 2024 and February 2025 respectively.
Australia’s Tame Impala wins Grammy
Tame Impala, one of several Australian acts up for awards tonight, have taken home a Grammy for the best dance/electronic recording.
The nod comes for the track End of Summer.
Other local acts in the running tonight include punk darlings Amyl and the Sniffers and alt dance group Rüfüs Du Sol.
Keep an eye out for the Guardian’s Grammys liveblog, coming soon.
Josh Taylor
Snapchat disabled more than 415,000 Australian accounts in social media ban
Snapchat locked or disabled the accounts of more than 415,000 users in Australia identified as being under 16 as part of its compliance with the social media ban.
The company said it continues to lock more accounts daily, but said there are “significant gaps” in the implementation of the ban that could undermine it.
In a blog post on Monday, the company said:
First, there are real technical limitations to accurate and dependable age verification. The Australian government’s own trial, published in 2025, found that available age estimation technology was only accurate to within 2-3 years on average. In practice, this means some young people under 16 may be able to bypass protections, potentially leaving them with reduced safeguards, while others over 16 may incorrectly lose access.
Snap said there were also other apps where users communicate that escaped the ban, meaning teens would turn to alternative, less regulated, messaging apps.
While we don’t yet have data to quantify this shift, it’s a risk that deserves serious consideration as policymakers evaluate whether the law is achieving its intended outcomes.
Snap, like others in the sector, has called for app-store-level age verification. The company has faced criticisms over reports of teens able to easily bypass the facial age assurance technology, and it said it is working constructively with the government to improve the implementation.
The total number of account deactivations since the ban came into effect is 4.7m across the 10 platforms, however it is understood this includes not just accounts identified as being under 16, but includes historical, inactive and duplicate accounts for YouTube in particular.
Could Cory Bernardi be the next One Nation recruit?
Josh Butler
Former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi’s recent endorsement of One Nation has set off speculation he may be the next recruit for the party, which has hyped an announcement of “some very big names” to their ranks this week.
Bernardi, who quit the Liberals in 2017 to start his own party, the Australian Conservatives, before quitting the Senate in 2020, wrote in a Substack post last week “seeing One Nation’s progress is a great lesson for anyone aspire to make a change in their own life or in the lives of others” and that he was “lending my shoulder to the ON wheel”.
That post was shared by another former Coalition MP, George Christensen, in recent days.
In an email to One Nation supporters last week, the party’s chief of staff, James Ashby, said “in the coming days, we will be revealing some very big names”, which he claimed would “shock the nation”. Nationals turned One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has also teased more possible switches from the Coalition this week.
2GB radio this morning reported “rumours” that Bernardi could run for One Nation in South Australia. Pauline Hanson’s office declined to comment, refusing to confirm or deny when contacted this morning. We’ve also contacted Bernardi for comment.
Covid-19 cases won’t cause stir at Winter Olympics, Aussie delegation says
Australia’s Winter Olympics preparations will continue with minimal fuss in northern Italy despite two members of staff testing positive for Covid-19, AAP reports.
The individuals, who won’t be competing at the 25th edition of the winters, were symptomatic and tested positive on 28 and 31 January, with measures in place to contain any possible spread of infection.
“The Australian Winter Olympic team has medical protocols in place for any infectious disease or illness and are standard operating procedures for high performance environments which are being followed,” chef de mission and former aerial skier Alisa Camplin said.
Fifty-three men and women will compete in green and gold, the second-largest Australian team ever and largest for 12 years.
