Australia news live: federal police investigating building industry corruption raid Melbourne properties; Naplan exams hit by ‘technical issue’
Reports of AFP raids in relation to construction industry
There are reports that the Australian Federal Police have conducted raids on properties in the Melbourne suburbs of Northcote and Templestowe Lower today, in connection with alleged criminal and corrupt conduct in the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU).
In a statement, an AFP spokesperson said:
The AFP is executing search warrants in Northcote and Templestowe Lower, Victoria, today (13 March, 2025).
The search warrants are part of the AFP’s response to allegations of corruption in the Victorian building industry.
There is no threat to public safety.
Further comment will be made at an appropriate time.
Here’s some background to the allegations against the union:
The CFMEU has been approached for comment.
Key events
Taylor avoids blaming Trump for tariffs and says real question is how Labor will fix the problem
Taylor claimed that the Coalition was able to “work through it” with Trump and the United States when they were in power because they had “a very close relationship”, “showed respect for [the US] throughout” and “recognised where they were coming from”.
Pressed by the interviewer on whether the tariff imposition is actually the fault – or decision, or responsibility – ultimately of Donald Trump, rather than the Australian government, Taylor brushed off the suggestion to come back to his line about how the Labor government should be doing more.
Taylor said:
Of course, it is not a good thing. We have been very clear about that, we want free trade, we want access to market and I have been clear in many interviews that we do not agree with this US administration on trade.
The real question here is: how are you going to get in and fix the problem?
To Malcolm Turnbull’s credit, at the time, different context, he worked out how to stop the problem in that context. It is now to [this] government to solve the problem in this context and they failed and are looking for people to blame and that is not the right way to go about it.
Angus Taylor says Australia must act with allies to ‘stop global trade war’ in face of Trump tariffs
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, has said Australia needs to act with its allies outside of the United States to “stop [a] global trade war” and protect the national economy.
Speaking to the ABC a little earlier about the impact of the US tariffs, Taylor said:
What is very clear is that we did get an exemption when we were in government and this government has failed. We saw the treasurer go off to the US Washington, DC, make a big deal of it and got photo ops, talked to all the bigwigs, and came back empty-handed.
The truth is that the government now has to get on, work with like-minded colleagues, work with our friends in Canada and other countries around the world, to do everything we can to stop global trade war because right now we are not prepared. We are not in the position we need to be, economically, to be able to cope with another shock.
Reports of AFP raids in relation to construction industry
There are reports that the Australian Federal Police have conducted raids on properties in the Melbourne suburbs of Northcote and Templestowe Lower today, in connection with alleged criminal and corrupt conduct in the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU).
In a statement, an AFP spokesperson said:
The AFP is executing search warrants in Northcote and Templestowe Lower, Victoria, today (13 March, 2025).
The search warrants are part of the AFP’s response to allegations of corruption in the Victorian building industry.
There is no threat to public safety.
Further comment will be made at an appropriate time.
Here’s some background to the allegations against the union:
The CFMEU has been approached for comment.
Naplan tests hit by ‘technical issue’
Caitlin Cassidy
Naplan tests have been hit with a technical issue, causing a temporary delay for some Australian students this morning.
A spokesperson for Acara, which manages the tests, said it was “aware of an incident that affected the Naplan test platform earlier this morning”.
The spokesperson said:
Action has been taken to address the technical issue and schools have been advised and are able to continue testing.
The delay, which lasted for about 30 minutes, was fixed on Thursday morning and testing was able to resume. Investigations were continuing into how many schools were affected.
A spokesperson for the NSW Education Standards Authority, which was affected by the issue, said it was providing detailed advice to all schools:
Schools who paused testing can restart today, or can choose to postpone until tomorrow. Teachers are able to provide students with extra time to allow for any disruptions to their tests.
Naplan testing kicked off on Wednesday and will run until 24 March.
NSW police employee charged after alleged breath-test reading of 0.166
A NSW police employee was charged with drink-driving overnight after returning a breath-test with an alleged reading of 0.166.
In a statement issued today, NSW police said the staff member, who is attached to a specialist command, is not a sworn employee (that is, an officer). The 51-year-old woman was stopped in Kellyville on Wednesday night “due to the manner of driving”.
She undertook a roadside breath test which allegedly returned a positive result, and was then taken to Castle Hill police station for a breath analysis.
She has been charged and is due to appear in Parramatta local court on 3 April 2025. Her licence has been suspended and her employment status is under review.
Cait Kelly
Trans, non-binary and gender diverse people are experiencing poorer mental health, new research shows
Trans, non-binary and gender diverse people are experiencing poorer mental health in Australia than the broader population, with the crisis only worsening, says new research from the University of Melbourne.
Published this week in BMJ Mental Health, the research tracks the mental health of respondents of all gender identities between 2001 and 2022, the first nationally representative study of its size and scale.
Using the Mental Health Inventory subscale, which scores mental health of an individual between a worst score of 0 and a best possible score of 100, the research found that between 2001 and 2010, TGD Australians registered 5 to 7 points lower than the general population.
Between 2011 and 2022, this difference increased, with TGD Australians registering scores 8 to 13 points worse than cisgender respondents.
Karinna Saxby from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne said:
Trans, non-binary or gender-diverse people are dealing not only with the psychological distress of gender dysphoria, but are also more likely to face social stigma, discrimination, violence and human rights challenges.
These findings show that there is a desperate need for immediate policy action to support the mental health of trans, non-binary and genderdiverse people, as well as the building of better health data structures to help us understand how we can address the gap.
Daisy Dumas
Mayor says man arrested for alleged threat against Islamic school is unemployed and ‘prolific on social media’
The mayor of Canterbury Bankstown says he believes the man arrested and charged for allegedly making a bomb threat to an Islamic school in south-western Sydney to be unemployed and a prolific social media user.
Bilal El-Hayek said in a statement this afternoon:
I would like to thank the police for dealing with this matter as a priority and for keeping me informed along the way.
I understand the man charged is unemployed, living outside our area and is prolific on social media.
I also understand police have contacted the school’s principal and also given them certain assurances.
The man, a 53-year-old from Bradbury, allegedly posted the word “kaboom” followed by three bomb emojis below a social media post by El-Hayek about the opening of the new Al-Faisal College campus in Lakemba.
Cait Kelly
On the ACOSS research, the organisation’s CEO, Dr Cassandra Goldie, says:
It’s a complete travesty that in one of the world’s wealthiest nations people are getting sick, skipping meals and delaying medical appointments because they can’t afford to cool and power their homes.
Climate change is making heatwaves more frequent and intense, with more deaths related to heat than all other natural disasters combined. We urgently need to help people improve the thermal performance of housing, electrify and access rooftop solar and home batteries, with the most help going to low-income and First Nations housing.
The government must also deliver permanent cost of living relief by raising the rate of JobSeeker and related payment, and the remote area allowance, so people on low incomes can afford their energy bills and be lifted out of poverty.
Cait Kelly
People skipping meals to pay energy bills, ACOSS research reveals
People experiencing financial and social disadvantage are skipping meals to pay their energy bills as nine in ten struggle to keep their homes cool in summer new research by ACOSS has revealed.
A survey of 1,011 people across Australia found almost two thirds (64%) of people surveyed are struggling to pay their energy bills, going without essentials to cover the costs.
More than nine in ten people surveyed (92%) reported negative impacts of their home getting too hot, with 14% seeking medical attention in the last year because of the heat.
First Nations people and renters were particularly impacted, with 88% of First Nations respondents struggling to afford their bills, followed by renters (76%), income support recipients (75%) and people with a disability or chronic health condition (72%).
Stephanie Convery
Thanks so much for your work so far today, Catie McLeod! I’m Stephanie Convery and I’ll be taking you through the rest of this afternoon’s news.
