Australia news live: betting companies allegedly offered problem gamblers drugs to fuel addiction, Senate inquiry hears | Australia news
Parliamentary inquiry told gambling companies provided drugs to big spending punters
Tom McIlroy
A Senate inquiry into the Albanese government’s gambling laws has heard allegations that betting companies and casinos are providing big spending punters with drugs, free accommodation and escorts.
Anti-gambling campaigner Tim Costello told Monday’s hearing he was preparing to give a character reference to a man being detained in Sydney’s Silverwater prison, who was allegedly targeted by promoters.
The man is preparing to plead guilty to charges over theft of more than $12m, Costello said.
Costello alleged to the hearing that gambling companies including TAB and Sportsbet offered the man drugs, escorts, and free accommodation.
He was given free accommodation at Star Casino. He had to leave each week so they could technically say he wasn’t living there and come back the next morning.
He was the TAB’s biggest customer in that time. They were giving him $50,000 bonus bets. He was also Sportsbet’s biggest customer.
They were flying him to grand finals. They were offering him escorts, drugs, whatever he wanted. He was doing turnover of more than $20m a month.
He is very distressed, having been brought up in a church family, about the disgrace to his family and to himself, and that’s why he’ll be pleading guilty.
Key events
Luca Ittimani
Toll road operator says new deal won’t cost company money
The tollway operator, Transurban, says the NSW reforms won’t hurt its bottom line.
The changes are part of negotiations between the state Labor government and the private operator. Chris Minns, the premier, campaigned on a promise of ending Sydney’s “tollmania”.
The government’s central solution to date has been the weekly toll cap, with motorists paying no more than $60 a week (temporarily reduced to $50 for 2026-27). Transurban today announced it would also pay $75m to fund that cap.
Even accounting for that payout, the company says they won’t be suffering. They told investors the reforms would have no net cost to their near term distributions or their net five year funds flow, because they expect road use (and therefore total toll payments) to pick up.
Luca Ittimani
Sydney road tolls to fall under state government deal
Tolls are set to fall on some Sydney motorways after the operator, Transurban, reached a long-awaited deal with the New South Wales government.
Motorbike tolls will be halved on all motorways gradually, starting from July 2027.
Tolls will fall 10% on 1 July 2027 for the Lane Cove Tunnel and “longer journeys” on the M2. The cross city tunnel’s toll will fall 20% when the new western harbour tunnel opens, scheduled for 2028.
M7 trip fees at present stop rising after 20km. That cap will fall to 18km from 1 January 2028, pending a deal to widen the motorway.
The eastern distributor motorway is set to bring in tolls in both directions from when the western harbour tunnel opens, but with north and south tolls at just over half of the current northbound level.
The government has previously promised to bring in two-way tolling on to the harbour bridge as well. The promised 4% toll hike from 1 July 2027 for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the harbour tunnel has been trimmed to 3.25%.
Users of the Westconnex motorway will not get any discounts. The government said ti could not reach an agreement with Transurban that would have been “good value” for motorists and taxpayers.
Penry Buckley
NSW Icac’s Operation Rosny hearings resume
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) has begun the second of eight weeks of hearings as part of Operation Rosny today.
Robert Assaf, the first witness from the conservative right Liberal factional group the Reformers to give evidence so far, is appearing before the commission again today. Reformers Jean-Claude Perrottet and Jeremy Greenwood will give evidence later this week.
The inquiry is investigating allegations that Reformers including Assaf, Perrottet and Greenwood solicited or accepted illegal donations to recruit or renew members to the party, a practice known as “branch stacking”, which is not of itself illegal. The group wanted more conservative policies on same-sex marriage, transgender rights, abortion and euthanasia.
Damien Tudehope, the NSW shadow attorney general and Liberal leader in the upper house, is expected to appear before the inquiry later today. Tudehope, who has stood aside from his shadow cabinet roles during the inquiry, is not named in any allegations and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
His name was mentioned frequently during the first week of hearings. Reformers Jean-Claude Perrottet and Christian Ellis worked as staffers in Tudehope’s office, and Tudehope gave frequent talks at Reformers recruitment events. His former business partner Michael O’Hara, who is alleged to have made illegal donations, was the inquiry’s first witness. O’Hara disputed whether his payments to the Reformers counted as political donations.
Jean-Claude Perrottet has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Parliamentary inquiry told gambling companies provided drugs to big spending punters
Tom McIlroy
A Senate inquiry into the Albanese government’s gambling laws has heard allegations that betting companies and casinos are providing big spending punters with drugs, free accommodation and escorts.
Anti-gambling campaigner Tim Costello told Monday’s hearing he was preparing to give a character reference to a man being detained in Sydney’s Silverwater prison, who was allegedly targeted by promoters.
The man is preparing to plead guilty to charges over theft of more than $12m, Costello said.
Costello alleged to the hearing that gambling companies including TAB and Sportsbet offered the man drugs, escorts, and free accommodation.
He was given free accommodation at Star Casino. He had to leave each week so they could technically say he wasn’t living there and come back the next morning.
He was the TAB’s biggest customer in that time. They were giving him $50,000 bonus bets. He was also Sportsbet’s biggest customer.
They were flying him to grand finals. They were offering him escorts, drugs, whatever he wanted. He was doing turnover of more than $20m a month.
He is very distressed, having been brought up in a church family, about the disgrace to his family and to himself, and that’s why he’ll be pleading guilty.
Josh Butler
Angus Taylor and Anthony Albanese on leave this week
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, is on leave for most of this week, his office has announced, with the deputy leader, Jane Hume, acting in his stead.
Taylor will be on leave from today until Thursday, a spokesperson advised today.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is also on leave this week, his office announced last week, returning to work Thursday and with Richard Marles as acting PM in the interim.
Hume was set to hold a press conference this morning in Brisbane.
Laurie Daley steps down as Blues coach
Laurie Daley has ended months of speculation by officially quitting his role as NSW State of Origin coach, AAP reports.
The NSWRL on Monday paid tribute to “true blue” Daley while announcing he would be stepping down after NSW successfully won back the shield from Queensland following a turbulent 2026 campaign.
The Blues claimed the series 2-1 after becoming only the fourth team in Origin history to win a decider at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
NSWRL chief executive David Trodden said:
NSWRL owes a massive debt of gratitude to Laurie for the service he has given to his state as both a player and a coach.
He has also led NSW to arguably two of the greatest Origin series wins of all time as a coach, after ending Queensland’s eight-year winning streak in 2014 and overcoming adversity to steer the Blues home in 2026.
Those wins transcended football. They lifted and reinvigorated the whole state. He deserves to leave the NSW Origin arena as the hero that he is.
Amanda Meade
Alan Jones trial on indecent assault and sexual touching charges begins in Sydney
The high-profile trial of former broadcaster Alan Jones for indecent assault and sexual touching charges begins today in Sydney’s Downing Centre local court and is expected to run for four months and hear from 76 witnesses.
Judge Glenn Walsh will hear from six complainants who were allegedly indecently assaulted by the 85-year-old between 2003 and 2020.
Jones is facing 22 charges at his judge-alone trial. They include 20 indecent assault and two sexual touching charges, the court was told in pre-trial hearings last month. In 2018 the offence of indecent assault was replaced by sexual touching, carrying a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
Jones has denied all wrongdoing and said the allegations are all either baseless or they distort the truth.
Read more here:
Luca Ittimani
House prices slide across Australia as Middle East conflict and tax changes begin to bite
House prices have fallen in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth as the market downturn spreads across Australia.
New Cotality data, released on Monday, showed prices have fallen across most of the nation since May.
Brisbane’s median price has fallen about $8,000 since May, to equal its March level of $1.1m. The city’s dwelling prices had increased for an historic 40 consecutive months, since February 2023, until they fell in June. Adelaide and Perth median home prices have each fallen about $4,000 below their record highs set in May, at $944,000 and $1.03m respectively.
In June, regional Australia’s home values fell overall for the first time since January 2023. Regional home values fell or stayed flat in every state in July.
Nationally, the median home price is now $928,000 – about $19,000 below its March peak.
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Helicopter company ‘deeply saddened’ after fatal accident in Greece
McDermott Aviation, the company that owns the two firefighting helicopters that collided in Greece, released a statement this morning saying it was deeply saddened by the accident.
John McDermott, the founder and president of the company, said in a statement:
We are deeply saddened to confirm that the two crew members aboard one of the helicopters have lost their lives. The two crew members from the second helicopter are in the care of medical professionals.
Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families, friends and colleagues of those affected by this tragic incident. Both crews were undertaking the critical work of supporting firefighting operations to help protect communities.
McDermott Aviation is working closely with the relevant authorities and will continue to assist as they undertake their investigation into the incident.
Chalmers says house prices have fallen before after periods of ‘extraordinary’ growth
Chalmers was asked about a fall in house prices across the country as major tax changes begin to bite.
The treasurer said it’s “not uncommon” to see prices fall as they have been following periods of ‘extraordinary growth’, pointing to similar declines in 2022 at the beginning of the rate hiking cycle and between 2017 and 2019.
He told RN:
Investment in housing is a long-term investment. People don’t make investments in housing from day to day or week to week, month to month. And so, from time to time, you will see movements in prices like these.
But housing is a long-term investment, and we continue to expect over the course of the coming years that prices will continue to rise, but more modestly than before.
Chalmers maintains fuel excise cut never meant to be permanent
Jim Chalmers said prices have indeed come up over the past month, but they are “substantially lower” than when the excise relief came into effect.
He spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying the cut was “never intended to be permanent”:
Prices have come up a bit, but they are substantially lower than when we first introduced this excise relief. The excise relief has played a really important role in taking some of the edge off these cost of living pressures that have been turbocharged by a war in the Middle East.
It was never intended to be permanent. … It’s done a really important job, but we can’t afford to continue it forever.
He said the government hasn’t been considering bringing them back it petrol prices climb again.
Krishani Dhanji
Chalmers puts service stations on notice … again
Now that the fuel exercise cut has ended, the treasurer has told the consumer watchdog to closely monitor service stations to make sure they’re not price gouging.
After the outbreak of war in the Middle East, the government temporarily cut the fuel excise in half. That was then increased slightly last month, saving about 16c per litre at the wholesale price for an extra month. The excise cut ended at midnight on Monday.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says the ACCC will be watching servos and suppliers “like a hawk”.
The regulator will step up its monitoring of fuel price movements. Any price increase that can’t be explained will face serious scrutiny from the ACCC.
We’ve jacked up the penalties for petrol stations that rip off Australians. They face multimillion-dollar fines if they break the law.
Chalmers made the same warning when the fuel excise cut was reduced last month. It’s expected to take a few days for changes to flow through to the bowser.
LinkedIn dragged into news bargaining incentive legislation, despite lobbying from Microsoft
Krishani Dhanji
The government has released new details of its news bargaining incentive legislation, with LinkedIn no longer exempt from the agreement – which will force platforms to pay for news content.
The platforms – Google, Meta, TikTok and now LinkedIn – will have to make deals with at least six media organisations (an increase from four under the draft legislation) or pay 2.5% of their digital revenue made in Australia.
The government has announced the changes after consultations with industry.
The charge rate for companies that don’t sign deals has increased, from 2.25% to 2.5% of their digital advertising revenue. The government has changed the rules from the platforms having to pay a percentage of their total revenue made in Australia to just digital advertising revenue.
It means revenue from the phones Google sells, for example, will be exempt from the news bargaining incentive payments – since that doesn’t count as digital revenue.
Guardian Australia revealed last month that Microsoft had lobbied the government in March 2025 to keep LinkedIn and Bing exempt from the new rules. Bing still won’t be liable to pay the incentive, because its digital advertising revenue in Australia is under the $250m threshold.
In a statement, the minister for financial services, Daniel Mulino said the changes “do not alter the intent of the legislation and remain true to the policy rationale”.
We want digital platforms to do deals with a diverse range of media organisations and have shown good faith with both the platforms and media companies during the consultation process.
Good morning
Good morning, and happy Monday. Nick Visser here to get the week’s news going. Here’s what’s on deck:
The high-profile trial of former broadcaster Alan Jones for indecent assault and sexual touching charges begins today in Sydney.
LinkedIn has been pulled into the government’s news bargaining incentive legislation and will no longer be exempt from the agreement. The announcement comes after consultation with the industry, with the government saying the changes “remain true to the policy rationale”.
The treasurer Jim Chalmers, has issued a warning to service stations amid ongoing tension in the Middle East, saying he will be watching them “like a hawk”. The fuel excise cut has now come off but it is expected to take a few days for the changes to flow through to the bowser.
Stick with us.
