Australia news live: Julie Inman-Grant says ‘time for new leadership’ at eSafety; Ayres defends ‘cooperation’ with OpenAI after hack | Australia news

Some findings from the eSafety report on online game providers

The eSafety commission released a major new report into online game service providers today, examining how the companies keep kids safe on the internet, or fail to do so.

The report found that “left unchecked or unmoderated, there is a risk that these games could contain unlawful material or serve as high-risk environments for child sexual exploitation and abuse or activity which promotes, incites or instructs in matters of crime or violence”.

Most of the providers employed tools to proactively detect unlawful or harmful material, but the quality and coverage of those tools varied across each one. eSafety said it expect the industry to raise the bar to combat serious harms like child sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual extortion and material or activity that promotes or incites violence.

Some of the providers also took longer than others to respond to user or automatic reports of specific harms, which could leave other users exposed to serious harms for longer.

The full findings are available here.

Julie Inman-Grant, the eSafety commissioner, confirmed this morning “it’s probably time for new leadership” at the body after serving 10 years in the role.

She spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying 10 years was a “good, round, solid number”, adding:

We’ve increased the office tenfold. We’ve done amazing things. I think with the new digital duty of care, I’m going to be actively shaping that to the extent that I can and getting all the right pieces in place.

But it’s probably time for new leadership. This is not an easy gig from a personal perspective, but also professionally, it’s been the role of a lifetime. And, you know, to be able to try and make some positive change has been an incredible opportunity. But yeah, I think it’s time to be thinking about what’s next.

Industry minister says it is important Australia works in tandem with AI

Tim Ayres, the minister for industry and innovation, was asked this morning why the government’s rhetoric on artificial intelligence had softened after an initially stern tone on the OpenAI breach.

Ayres said the government had, in fact, been direct with OpenAI, but maintained the country and tech giants had to work in tandem. He told RN Breakfast:

It reinforces the government’s approach here, which is about making sure that artificial intelligence investment here supports Australia’s national interest, happens on Australia’s terms.

He said Albanese had initially given a direct, firm message to the founder of OpenAI, but that has since been followed by “extensive, enhanced cooperation, working through the issues in a constructive way”.

It underscores why it is that we’re legislating AI standards, why it is that we’re seeking to secure the right level of artificial intelligence investment, including training investment here in Australia, because it makes Australia stronger and means that we are part of shaping the technology and that is crucial for Australia and Australians.

Minns government vows to regulate labour hire in NSW

The Minns government has pledged to regulate labour hire in New South Wales if reelected, a move meant to protect workers and businesses from dodgy labour hire providers.

An independent report found earlier this year a number of labour supply companies had been incorporated within days of each other at the same address, with the same director and secretary, during the Western Sydney Airport Metro project.

The investigation found suspected underpayment of workers, insurance fraud, tax fraud and unaccounted invoices worth than $10m.

The contractor was terminated after the report.

Other entities, including farmers and unions, have raised concerns about labour hire providers in the horticulture sector.

Sophie Cotsis, the minister for industrial relations, said in a statement:

The NSW Government has zero-tolerance for the exploitation of workers, and this commitment builds on the work we are doing to stamp out dodgy labour hire firms.

Every worker deserves fair pay, access to their entitlements, and to work and live in a safe environment and a labour hire licencing scheme is an important step in ensuring safer workplaces for labour hire workers.

Former Wallaby hooker Nathan Charles diagnosed with MND at 37

The former Wallaby Nathan Charles, who became the first cystic fibrosis sufferer in the world to play a contact sport professionally, has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND).

AAP reports the 37-year-old, who played four Test matches for Australia, revealed he has been diagnosed with the same disease as retired South Sydney NRL star Jai Arrow.

During a Stan Sport interview with former Wallaby turned commentator Justin Harrison, Charles said he had only recently been diagnosed.

Read more:

Good morning, and happy Friday. Nick Visser here to take over the blog. Let’s get to it.

Atlassian enters 10-year solar energy deal with community co-op to power Sydney HQ

A solar farm owned by a group of community investors has secured a 10-year deal with one of Australia’s biggest technology companies to help power its headquarters, Australian Associated Press reports.

Atlassian announced its virtual power purchase agreement with the Goulburn Community Energy Co-operative on Friday in a deal that will fund almost 70% of the project’s output over the next decade.

Electricity generated by the project in NSW’s Southern Tablelands will help to meet the renewable energy needs of the tech firm’s 39-storey Sydney base, currently in construction near Central station, when it opens in 2028.

The announcement comes amid heated debate over whether technology companies should be required to invest in renewable energy generation to meet growing demands from data centres and artificial intelligence operations in Australia.

The solar and battery farm, located on 2.2 hectares of industrial land in Goulburn, features 2,300 solar panels and a four megawatt-hour battery. Owned by a group of about 288 local investors, who contributed a minimum of $400, the farm connected to the electricity grid in March 2026, 12 years after it was proposed.

The agreement follows a $2.3m NSW government grant and would support local workers and suppliers, Andrew Bray, the Goulburn Community Energy Co-operative chair, said:

Our active volunteers and investor community worked patiently and diligently across a number of years to see this project come to fruition.

To have a blue-chip Australian company like Atlassian come on board as a commercial partner is a huge vote of confidence in what we have built.

Online gaming services are failing to take enough action to prevent children being exposed to harmful content, a new report from the eSafety Commissioner has found.

In a report published today, the online safety watchdog found measures adopted by gaming providers were not up to standard and varied in quality between platforms.

Platforms with the dominant purpose of gaming are not covered under Australia’s under-16s social media ban but are subject to the eSafety Commissioner’s information gathering notices.

The report – which drew details from Fortnite’s developer, Epic Games, Roblox, Minecraft and Valve’s Steam – found some positive signs but overall determined “disparities and shortcomings”.

Among them, examples of some platforms relying on age self-declaration resulting in children being able to easily access third-party content lacking sufficient content moderation as well as a limited number of human moderators to respond to harmful content.

The commissioner, Julie Inman-Grant, said:

While we have seen some safety improvements as a result of sustained regulatory pressure, including the recent court-enforceable undertakings we accepted from Roblox, there is still significant work to be done across the board to prevent serious harms in online gaming to children.

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.