ABF seizes illicit tobacco manufacturing machine capable of making up to 3.6m cigarettes a day
The Australian Border Force seized a large tobacco manufacturing machine capable of producing up to 3.6m cigarettes a day during a raid in Sydney on Thursday.
The ABF said it conducted the operation at a self-storage facility in the suburb of Rouse Hill, executing two warrants to uncover equipment allegedly used in the manufacture of illicit tobacco. The agency also seized more than 7.5kg of loose-leaf tobacco, nearly 6,000 vaping devices and eight boxes of suspected counterfeit tobacco packaging.
Samuel Harnden, the acting superintendent of the ABF’s illicit tobacco taskforce, said the agency was targeting such products at “every level – importation, production, distribution, and supply”. He added:
There are clear and established links between local illicit tobacco manufacturing in Australia and organised criminal syndicates.
Every illicit tobacco purchase provides funding to these criminal syndicates, giving them the funds that drive further violence and serious criminal activity.
ABF officers uncovered an illegal cigarette manufacturing operation during a targeted raid in Sydney. Photograph: Department of Home AffairsShare
Updated at 00.24 CET
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Samantha Lewis
No increase in Women’s Asian Cup prize money despite player pleas for ‘respect’
It has been billed as the most successful Women’s Asian Cup to date, yet prize money at the upcoming tournament in Australia will not increase from what was offered by the Asian Football Confederation at the last edition four years ago.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the world’s oldest women’s national team competition introduced prize money for the first time in 2022, distributing US$1.8m among the nations who finished in the top four.
The 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup trophy. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images
But the AFC will not offer a bigger prize pot at this year’s tournament, which starts on March 1, ignoring multiple player requests to address its stagnation amid a global women’s football boom.
“The AFC acknowledges the importance of increasing the prize money of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup participating teams, while noting that the prize money for the upcoming edition in Australia remains consistent with previous editions,” an AFC spokesperson said.
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SharePatrick Commins
Government announces $600m for First Nations housing
The government has launched the third round of its Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), which will include $600m to improve housing outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Through the HAFF, Housing Australia provides loans and grants for projects that increase the supply of social and affordable housing.
The latest round will deliver 21,000 homes by mid-2029, as part of a bigger commitment of 55,000 homes by the end of the decade.
New figures released last night showed social housing as a share of all homes fell to a record low of 3.6% in 2025, as waitlists for affordable homes blew out amid climbing homelessness.
The chief executive of Australian Community Housing, Mark Degotardi, said “the scale of Australia’s housing challenge is significant, but we now have a commonwealth government that’s serious about building its way out of it, rather than just talking about it”.
In what Labor is calling an “historic” moment, the $600m dedicated funding deal announced this morning will be designed in partnership with indigenous communities and include a 10% First Nations tenancy target across all social housing delivered under the third round of the HAFF.
ShareChristopher Knaus
Human rights advocates and Greens call for review into immigration detention contracts
Advocates and the Greens have called for a review of the Australian government’s immigration detention contracts with a private prison operator following revelations of their involvement in Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.
Management and Training Corporation (MTC) is a major player in the United States’ private prison industry and is holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees at a handful of large detention facilities across California, Texas and New Mexico. The company’s treatment of detainees has attracted a string of complaints – including over the use of solitary confinement as a retaliatory measure, severe overcrowding, and a death in custody – and prompted concern from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and Greens senator David Shoebridge have both called for a review of Australia’s contracts MTC, which give it responsibility for the offshore processing facility on Nauru and Australia’s onshore detention network.
Shoebridge said:
MTC’s track record in the United States, including documented reports of abuse and deaths in custody, makes it clear they are not, and never have been, acceptable to run detention facilities in Australia.
No company that profits globally from immigration crackdowns and mass detention should be entrusted with the care of vulnerable people in Australian government custody.
David Shoebridge. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
ABF seizes illicit tobacco manufacturing machine capable of making up to 3.6m cigarettes a day
The Australian Border Force seized a large tobacco manufacturing machine capable of producing up to 3.6m cigarettes a day during a raid in Sydney on Thursday.
The ABF said it conducted the operation at a self-storage facility in the suburb of Rouse Hill, executing two warrants to uncover equipment allegedly used in the manufacture of illicit tobacco. The agency also seized more than 7.5kg of loose-leaf tobacco, nearly 6,000 vaping devices and eight boxes of suspected counterfeit tobacco packaging.
Samuel Harnden, the acting superintendent of the ABF’s illicit tobacco taskforce, said the agency was targeting such products at “every level – importation, production, distribution, and supply”. He added:
There are clear and established links between local illicit tobacco manufacturing in Australia and organised criminal syndicates.
Every illicit tobacco purchase provides funding to these criminal syndicates, giving them the funds that drive further violence and serious criminal activity.
ABF officers uncovered an illegal cigarette manufacturing operation during a targeted raid in Sydney. Photograph: Department of Home AffairsShare
Updated at 00.24 CET
Penry Buckley
Final V-set service welcomed by crowd of thousands at Sydney’s Central station
The final service on the oldest electric train in operation on NSW’s rail network, the V-set, has been welcomed by a crowd of thousands at Sydney’s Central station this morning.
Hundreds gathered at 5.47am this morning in the Blue Mountains today, with some sleeping on the platform overnight to secure a spot on the train. Even more welcomed passengers such as John Graham and Sydney Trains’ CEO, Matt Longland, as it pulled into Platform 2 played in by a brass railway band.
True to form, the 8.32am service from Lithgow arrived about 15 minutes late. The driver of today’s service, Peter Gunczy, said it was fitting the final V-set had been slightly delayed:
I’m truly humbled by today. I really am. This is a real big turnout. I’ve spent the best part of 41 years driving these V-sets, and it’s really, really emotional for me personally, and I’m trying really hard not to well up, but we’re going all right.
A new Mariyung Intercity train (right) is seen next to a V-set Intercity train. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
The V-sets were first commissioned in the 1960s, and built in Australia by Comeng, formerly Commonwealth Engineering, at its Granville factory in Sydney before it ceased operations in 1989. The first V-sets debuted in 1970, although the remaining sets date from 1977.
They are being fully replaced by the $4bn Mariyung trains, which were delivered five years late following a serious of union disputes including over the need to widen tunnels on the Blue Mountains line.
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Updated at 23.52 CET
Four people injured in dog attack near Melbourne
Four people were seriously injured in a dog attack in Melton West on Thursday evening.
Victoria police said emergency officials responded to an address just before 10pm. Paramedics treated a man in his 20s, a male in his late teens, a woman in her 30s and a female in her late teens at the scene before all were transported to the hospital in serious but stable condition.
A council ranger was called to apprehend the dog, which belonged to the injured parties. A second dog at the address was also seized.
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Nine Entertainment offloads radio network for $56m
Amanda Meade
Nine Entertainment has sold its radio network for $56m and bought an outdoor media platform for $850m and converted its wholly-owned regional television station NBN in northern NSW to an affiliate station.
Matt Stanton, Nine Group’s chief executive officer, said:
Today’s announcements mark a critical milestone in our Nine2028 transformation. These transactions will create a more efficient, higher-growth, and digitally powered Nine Group for our consumers, advertisers, shareholders and people.
Nine’s broadcast radio assets – 2GB, 3AW, 4BC, 6PR, 2UE, Magic1278 and 4BH will be sold to the Laundy Family Office on a cash and debt free enterprise value of $56m, the company told the ASX.
Arthur Laundy, a billionaire publican, owns more than 40 venues across NSW.
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Updated at 23.08 CET
Patrick Commins
Australia spends more on tax breaks for landlords than social housing, homelessness and rent assistance combined
Australia spends billions of dollars more on tax breaks for property investors than on social housing, homelessness and rent assistance combined, according to research by the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss).
The analysis comes as new data from the Productivity Commission reveals the share of homes dedicated to social housing has dropped to a record low 3.6%, from 5.7% in the 1990s.
The collapse in accessible homes for low-income families coincides with an affordability crisis that has seen rents soar, waitlists for social housing blow out and rising homelessness.
A week after the OECD called on the Albanese government to boost its investment in social housing, research by Acoss reveals that tax concessions for landlords cost $12.3bn in 2025.
In contrast, total expenditure on the key housing assistance programs totalled $9.6bn.
Read more here:
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Heatwave continues across Australia
Daisy Dumas
The heatwave affecting a swathe of Australia continues to topple temperature records.
Yesterday, three towns in South Australia set new all-time record highs. Marree reached 49.8C, Roxby Downs, 49.6C, and Leigh Creek, 48.2C, Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said.
Ballera in Queensland set a new record of 48.1C, while New South Wales’ highest temperatures were in Smithville, 48.9C, and Wilcannia, 48.3C.
It is the latest in a run of record-breaking hot days. On Wednesday, three NSW towns recorded new all-time records, with Tibooburra reaching 48.7C, White Cliffs, 48.3C, and Hay 48.4C.
Narramore said another extremely hot day with temperatures of up to 48C was expected in the SA interior today. Heatwave conditions will also remain in western NSW and northern Victoria until Saturday, he said.
By Sunday, southern Queensland will bear the brunt of the heat – on Monday, cooler conditions are expected to deliver reprieve to the whole of Australia’s south-east.
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Updated at 22.57 CET
Queensland health minister said federal government still has to bridge the gap on funding deal
Tim Nicholls, the Queensland health minister, said he still thinks there’s a “bit of water to flow under the bridge” in discussions between states and the federal government over hospital funding.
Nicholls spoke to RN Breakfast this morning;
There’s quite a bit of work for the commonwealth to do to step up to the mark because the last offer that was put forward was rejected by states. Because it was inadequate and failed to address the burgeoning problems that we have.
We’re negotiating respectfully with them, but quite frankly, the most recent offer wasn’t up to scratch, and we hope to see some improvements on it.
Tim Nicholls. Photograph: Jono Searle/AAPShare
Butler says Australia closely monitoring spread of Nipah virus overseas
Butler was asked about the spread of Nipah virus in India, which has had confirmed two cases over the past month. The deadly virus has prompted airport screenings across parts of Asia, although Indian officials said there had been “timely containment” of cases.
The virus has low human-to-human transmission, but it has a high fatality rate of 40% to 75%. There is no vaccine.
Butler told RN earlier:
It’s not transmissible in the way that your listeners would understand Covid or the flu to be transmitted in an airborne way. It requires very close personal contact between humans and the exchange effectively of bodily fluids. So there’s reason to hope that this has been contained.
But we’re monitoring it very, very closely. We don’t have any advice at the moment to change our existing protocols for sick travellers who arrive in Australia. There already are protocols for that, but we’ll continue to watch the situation closely.
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Updated at 22.38 CET
Liberal senator stands by Sussan Ley
Liberal senator Maria Kovacic said she doesn’t believe there will be a challenge to Sussan Ley’s leadership in the next fortnight.
Kovacic, the shadow assistant minister to the opposition leader, said she believes Ley has kept her commitments and that she continued to back her, telling RN:
I support her, she is working hard.
She’s keeping her commitment that she made to our party room and the commitment that she made to Australians.
The senator was asked about a meeting of Liberal men yesterday before a funeral for a late colleague, and if was appropriate that members of Lee’s leadership team seemed to be discussing her future.
Kovacic said she wouldn’t comment on the supposed meeting, saying she was focused on the normal term of parliament, which begins next week. She added Australians expected the opposition to lead:
They expect us to lead and they expect us to serve. And leadership isn’t a title. True leadership is based on a culture of service and selflessness.
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Updated at 22.03 CET
Butler: cost of failure on health funding deal would be ‘very significant’
The federal health minister, Mark Butler, said he is “cautiously optimistic” the federal government will reach a deal with states and territories on health funding and the timing of changes to the NDIS, although he said the country was “running out of time” to reach one.
Butler told RN Breakfast:
I think everyone understands today is critical. … The cost of failure will be very significant because there is a shared commitment not only to ensure our hospitals run well and deal with some changes in the population … but also I think all jurisdictions recognise the need to get the NDIS back on track and ensure that it meets its original objectives.
Mark Butler. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 21.52 CET
National cabinet meeting today to hash out hospital funding and gun buyback details
National cabinet will meet today in Sydney after the Albanese government offered to delay the start of the new program for early intervention autism services, part of a proposed deal to secure an agreement on hospitals and disability funding.
Premiers and chief ministers from across the country look likely to agree to the deal, which would push back the start of the new $2bn Thriving Kids scheme to October. It had been due to start on 1 July, but state governments said they weren’t ready to take the responsibility for the program yet.
Additional details meant to appeal to states and territories include budget funding “adjustments” that would benefit some smaller regions as they struggle with rising costs for health and hospital services.
Albanese will also press for a commitment to the new gun buyback program, set to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Queensland and the Northern Territory have so far refused to sign up.
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Updated at 21.39 CET
Teenager’s body found in NSW Blue Mountains
NSW police found the body of a 16-year-old boy yesterday who had gone missing in the Blue Mountains.
Officials said two boys, aged 16 and 17, had traveled to the area on Tuesday for a three-day camping trip near Mt Hay. The older boy activated his personal locator beacon on Wednesday evening after the pair became separated.
A land and air search later found the 17-year-old and he was winched from a campground in the area, although the rescue teams could not find the younger boy.
Officials continued searching, and found the body of the 16-year-old in a creek in Blue Gum Forest, in the Blue Mountains national park.
A post-mortem examination will be carried out and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
A general view of the Blue Mountains in NSW. Photograph: James D Morgan/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 21.40 CET
More than 2.3m reports of unauthorised practices against NDIS participants in 2024-25
Cait Kelly
In 2024-25, there were more than 2.3m incidents of unauthorised use of restrictive practices against NDIS participants, including locking people in rooms, sedated with medicine, or physically holding them down.
Across the year 739,418 people were affected by unauthorised restraints, which were then reported to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (NQSC).
On top of this, there were 34,104 other reportable incidents across the year, mostly concerning the alleged abuse and neglect (43.6%), followed by serious injury, including accidents (33.4%).
In 2024-25, total expenditure on disability services was $51.1bn, an increase of 5.5% compared to 2023-24 and an average annual growth rate since 2019 of 16.2%.
ShareCait Kelly
In response to the aged care data, the Greens spokesperson for older people, senator Penny Allman-Payne, said:
This is a national shame. Eight months is far too long for someone in their 80s or 90s to have to wait for help.
The shortage of aged care is the direct and intended consequence of Labor’s decision to ‘ration’ care through the limited release of home care packages.
Older Australians are dying waiting up to a year or more for care, and the major parties would rather fund nuclear submarines and handouts for big corporations than make sure our parents and grandparents are looked after in those final stages of life.
When the Greens opposed Labor’s new Aged Care Act in the Parliament, we warned the government that this is what would happen.
In a wealthy country like ours, our parents and grandparents should be able to get the care they need at the time that they need it.
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Wait-time blow-out for at-home aged care services
Cait Kelly
The median wait time between older Australians getting approved for in-home care packages and the support starting has blown out to 245 days, up from 118 days in 2023-24, according to data released by the Productivity Commission.
On top of this, the median time to receive an aged care assessment increased by 22.7% (from 22 to 27 days) in 2024-25.
The proportion of residential aged care services that met total care minute targets was still under 50%, but increased between 2023-24 (34.0%) and 2024-25 (45.9%).
The data comes just after the Department of Health and Ageing revealed in Senate estimates last year that, as of 31 October 2025, there were 266,352 people waiting for aged care.
This included 113,150 people waiting for an aged care needs assessment, 107,281 people on the National Priority System waiting for a package at their approved level, and an additional 45,921 people waiting for a Simple Assessment for CHSP (commonwealth home support program).
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Good morning
Hello, it’s Nick Visser here, ready to take you through today’s news as it happens.
National cabinet is meeting today in Sydney, where premiers and chief ministers look likely to agree to a deal from the federal government offering to delay the start of a new program for early intervention autism services under changes to the NDIS, and provide budget top-ups for smaller states, part of efforts to secure an overdue deal on hospitals and disability funding.
Anthony Albanese will also push national cabinet to thrash out details of the federal government’s looming gun buyback program, set to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, even as Queensland and the Northern Territory refuse to sign up.
Let’s get into it.
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