Australia news live: Alan Joyce secures final $3.8m bonus; man caught riding motorbike at 218km/hr on Queensland highway

Former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce secures final $3.8m bonus

Jonathan Barrett

Alan Joyce has secured a final bonus worth $3.8m, two years after the prominent Qantas chief executive left the airline after a series of corporate decisions sparked a reputational crisis.

While Joyce’s various incentives were reduced due to several scandals occurring under his watch, the final payout was linked to a 2023-25 incentive plan that is now vesting.

The airline’s share price is at record highs, which has lifted the value of the incentive.

Qantas was previously found to have illegally sacked more than 1,800 workers, and agreed to pay a $100m civil penalty after striking a deal with the consumer watchdog for allegedly selling tens of thousands of tickets to flights that had already been cancelled in its system.

The airline lodged its annual report today, which showed that his successor, Vanessa Hudson, received $6.3m last financial year, up more than 40% on the prior year.

Hudson had her short term bonus reduced in response to a major cyber attack on Qantas customers.

Updated at 04.33 CEST

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Atlassian to buy The Browser Company in $610m deal

Australian tech giant Atlassian will acquire The Browser Company of New York – the startup behind the Arc and Dia browsers – in a deal worth about $610m US or $933m AUD. Shares of the San Francisco-based company fell about 2%.

The companies plan to build what they call “the browser for knowledge work in the AI era”. Atlassian says Dia, The Browser Company’s AI-native browser, will be refocused for workplace use.

The New York-based startup’s Dia browser, which was launched earlier this year, faces tough competition from the likes of Nvidia-backed Perplexity’s Comet and Brave’s Leo.

Atlassian co-founder and co-chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes said “today’s browsers weren’t built for work, they were built for browsing”.

By combining The Browser Company’s passion for browsers with our understanding of knowledge workers, we see a huge opportunity to transform the way work gets done.

Dia will be designed to provide context across email, project management and design tools, while integrating AI features and personal memory.

The Browser Company, founded in 2020, has gained millions of users with Arc and Dia. Its co-founder Josh Miller said Atlassian’s reach would help them “move faster, dream bigger” in building an AI browser tailored for work.

Atlassian, which counts more than 300,000 customers including 80% of the Fortune 500, will fund the deal from cash reserves. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of its 2026 financial year, pending regulatory approvals.

Updated at 06.20 CEST

Australians turning away from sugary drinks, new data shows

Fewer Australians are drinking sweetened drinks than a decade ago, new data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has found.

James Eynstone-Hinkins, ABS head of health statistics, said today’s data gave a comprehensive snapshot of Australia’s nutrition, including we’re eating, our energy intakes and the types of diets we follow.

The proportion of people who drank sweetened beverages fell from 49.2% in 1995 to 42.2% in 2011–12 and then to 28.9% in 2023. Nearly three in four children drank sweetened beverages in 1995. This fell to one in four children in 2023.

Sweetened beverages are an example of ‘discretionary choices’ in our diets, which are food and drinks that are high in energy, saturated fat, salt or sugar and have low levels of essential nutrients.

One third of daily energy intake came from discretionary food and drinks in 2023, down from 35.4% in 2011–12, the data found.

Eynstone-Hinkins said the leading foods contributing to discretionary energy came from Cereal-based mixed dishes, including foods like takeaway burgers and pizza. This was also the most popular food group – eaten by more than half, or 52%, of people on a typical day.

The data also found almost one in eight households experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months, including 34% of lone parent family households.

One in four people 15 years and over were following a diet.

NSW police continue to search for alleged vandals of Sydney’s Anzac Memorial

The cost of vandalism to the Sydney Anzac Memorial has been estimated by police at around $10,000.

Addressing the media this afternoon, the chief inspector of the Sydney City Police Area Command, Gary Coffey, said CCTV footage of the two men who allegedly vandalised the memorial would be released to the public in an effort to apprehend them.

He said about 12.20pm on Thursday two unknown men believed to be in their 50s or 60s were captured on CCTV spraying a substance on to the walls and steps of the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park.

He said police were contacted a few hours later and attended the scene, with CCTV showing more than 20 pictures that had been marked. Conservation experts have since taken a sample of the substance.

They made their way inside the memorial, walked around the memorial, appeared to have small bottles in their hands and they’ve deposited this oil based substance at various locations.

He said the damage was still visible on Friday, adding it would take time to restore the heritage-listed site.

We are absolutely desperate for someone in the community to identify these two individuals and make sure they’re held accountable for their actions.

The war memorial is a sacred site for our community and to do this is absolutely disgusting.

Updated at 05.55 CEST

Body found in search for missing diver off NSW coast

A body has been located during the search for a diver who was last seen off the mid north coast of New South Wales on Wednesday morning.

Just after 10.50am, emergency services were called to Myall Lakes national park at Seal Rocks after reports a spearfisherman hadn’t returned from water.

Police were told the 32-year-old man dived into the water near Skeleton Rock about 10.20am and failed to resurface.

Officers, with assistance from Marine Rescue NSW, the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service, NSW Ambulance and Surf Life Saving, began a multi-agency search to find the man.

About 11.30am today, police divers found the body of a man nearby. While yet to be formally identified, the body is believed to be that of the missing spearfisherman.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.

Updated at 06.04 CEST

Shots fired in western Sydney, police say

A police operation is underway after shots were fires in Greystanes, a suburb in greater western Sydney, today.

Just after 12pm, officers were called to Victor Street after reports of shots fired from one car towards another.

The two vehicles then left the scene, police say:

Police are at the scene and inquiries are under way.

Members of the public are urged to avoid the area.

Updated at 06.03 CEST

Man caught riding motorbike at 218km/hr in a 100km/hr zone in rural Queensland, police say

A man has been fined nearly $2,000 after he was caught riding a motorbike at 218km/h in a 100km/h zone on a highway in rural Queensland, police say.

Queensland police have issued a statement saying they stopped the 51-year-old yesterday afternoon in Warwick, a town about 130km south-west of Brisbane.

Police said they had allegedly observed him speeding on the 2025 BMW S1000RR motorcycle on the New England Highway south of Warwick in The Glen about 12.50pm.

The highway patrol officers who stopped the man fined him $1,919 and issued him with eight demerit points, police said.

The Warwick patrol group inspector, Kelly Hanlen, said:

There’s no excuse for travelling at excessive speed anywhere, any time but even more so on roads where there are several additional road hazards to deal with.

This includes road conditions like loose gravel and narrow lanes as well as wildlife encounters, reduced visibility from dust or fog, reduced lighting and increased risk of driver fatigue.

Hanlen said the incident coincided with rural road safety month, a national awareness campaign run in September by the Australian Road Safety Foundation.

Updated at 05.36 CEST

Andrew Messenger

Brisbane park heritage listed ahead of 2032 Olympics

The entire inner-city Brisbane park set to host the 2032 Olympics has been heritage-listed by the Queensland Heritage Council.

Victoria Park will be home to two stadia, including the city’s biggest, built for the games. It was gazetted as a park in 1875, but most of the park spent the last century as a golf course. Part of the park had been listed already. The amendment expands its listing to cover the whole park.

An aerial view of Victoria Park and the Brisbane CBD. Photograph: Jono Searle/AAP

The council judged that it should be listed under five different criteria including the aesthetics of its 1920s-era electric substation and its importance to Queensland’s history. The listing won’t prevent the stadium from being built.

The heritage council said it was satisfied that “while change is likely to occur at the place through the planned construction of the stadium … there is a reasonable probability the cultural heritage significance of the place can be conserved”.

Heritage law also no longer applies after the state government passed legislation in May to exempt Olympics venues from any heritage, planning or Indigenous heritage laws on the basis of urgency while also increasing planning regulation on windfarm development.

Updated at 05.10 CEST

Vice-chancellor of University of Melbourne urged to sacrifice 10% of salary to save Meanjin

More than 700 people have signed an open letter requesting that the vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne (UoM), Prof Emma Johnston, sacrifice 10% of her current salary to save the literary journal Meanjin.

After 85 years, Meanjin, run by the university’s subsidiary Melbourne University Publishing (MUP), will publish its final edition in December. Although the journal’s editor, Esther Anatolitis, worked her last day at Meanjin on Thursday, the spring and summer quarterly editions of the journal are already at the printers.

The letter, penned by novelist and poet Alan Fyfe, says writers and literary workers are “saddened and distressed by the closure of one of Australia’s longest standing literary journals, Meanjin”.

We understand the financial pressures of modern academies, and that thrift must be found somewhere. With this in mind, we approach you with a simple proposal: a small voluntary pay cut of 10% of your current salary would save the university $150,000, an ample amount to keep a literature journal running and publishing.

This would still leave you with the handsome payrate of $1,350,000 per annum; and with all accommodation and other expense perks intact. We understand that the job of Vice Chancellor of a leading university entails some hard work that deserves fair compensation. A 10% salary cut, however, would leave you still over $341,000 (converted to AUD) better off annually than the Vice Chancellor of The University of Cambridge.

Johnston was approached for comment.

Updated at 05.30 CEST

Sydney’s Anzac Memorial allegedly damaged by two men

NSW police are appealing for information after alleged “malicious damage” to Sydney’s Anzac Memorial.

In a statement, police said about 12.20pm yesterday two unknown men were seen spraying a substance on to the walls and steps of the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park.

One man was seen to spray the substance on to the eastern walls and northern steps of the memorial, while the other man was seen to spray a substance on to the southern steps.

Shortly after, both men were seen to leave the Anzac Memorial and walk together in a northern direction through Hyde Park.

Officers from Sydney City Police Area Command have begun an investigation into the incident and have released images and CCTV vision of two men who might be able to assist with inquiries.

Both men are described as being Caucasian appearance, about 50-60 years old, one with a large build and black and grey hair and one with a solid build and shaved head.

Updated at 04.33 CEST

Former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce secures final $3.8m bonus

Jonathan Barrett

Alan Joyce has secured a final bonus worth $3.8m, two years after the prominent Qantas chief executive left the airline after a series of corporate decisions sparked a reputational crisis.

While Joyce’s various incentives were reduced due to several scandals occurring under his watch, the final payout was linked to a 2023-25 incentive plan that is now vesting.

The airline’s share price is at record highs, which has lifted the value of the incentive.

The airline lodged its annual report today, which showed that his successor, Vanessa Hudson, received $6.3m last financial year, up more than 40% on the prior year.

Hudson had her short term bonus reduced in response to a major cyber attack on Qantas customers.

Updated at 04.33 CEST

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