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NSW police allege three arrests in mistaken identity shooting of Sydney student ‘hired guns’ linked to organised crime

NSW police are holding a press conference after two men and a teenage boy were charged in relation to the alleged mistaken identity shooting of Sydney student Marco Tapia.

Three people, aged 22, 23 and 16, were arrested in Junee, near Wagga Wagga, yesterday. They were charged with a series of offences: murder, two counts of special aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offence – weapon and possessing an unauthorised prohibited firearm.

Two others were previously arrested in relation to the shooting and charged with murder, boys aged 14 and 16.

Det Supt Joe Doueihi said police will allege they were contracted as “hired guns” by organised crime groups to commit the shooting. He said Tapia was a “completely innocent party” in the shooting and alleged there was an intended target who resided on the same street. The alleged target has links to organised crime groups, Doueihi said.

He went on:

These investigations are complex and take some time to go through the evidence. There are thousands and thousands of hours of CCTV, telecommunication information, download, and reviews of communication devices, forensic evidence, canvassing witness statements.

Once we have the opportunity to go through all of that and put it all together, we were able to identify that there was a strong case [allegedly] implicating these three males in this offence.

Six Australian universities in top 100 in global rankings

The University of Melbourne is the top Australian university in the Times Higher Education rankings this year, one of six local institutions in the top 100.

Melbourne Uni clocked in at No 34 on the rankings, which evaluate teaching environments, research, contributions to industry and innovation and international outlook.

The others who ranked highly were:

• The University of Sydney at 51

• Monash University at 61

• The University of Queensland at 73

• UNSW Sydney at 75

• Australian National University at 77

The rankings said Australia bucked a larger trend of western universities falling in the rankings, remaining “relatively stable”. A release accompanying the news said:

Although Australia’s overall score declined slightly as a result of falls in research productivity, doctorate-staff ratio, student-staff ratio and research strength, there were improvements in research and institutional income, along with reputation and citation impact.

Overall, the University of Oxford ranked No 1 for the 11th year in a row.

Abigail Bradshaw, the director general of the Australian Signals Directorate, said Australia is beholden to AI companies that are willing to give the country access to sophisticated models, but added partnerships work “both ways”.

Bradshaw spoke to RN Breakfast this morning after the OpenAI breach of a Medicare website, saying Australia has “unique insights” to offer such companies that are valuable for technology giants. She said:

It’s a give and take here. And I think what’s important also is to look at the content of that apology. It’s not just the headline. The apology is important. We shouldn’t miss that moment.

But actually, look at the content of what OpenAI have set out there. That is not insignificant. They are agreeing actually to sharing, for example, preliminary findings. They have taken a really significant step in slowing down the release of the next model to ensure that guardrails and sufficient safeguards are put in place. They have given an offer of practical support.

And in fact, that is consistent with our experience, with our engagement with not just OpenAI, but the other labs, Anthropic and others, over the last six months … And I think that’s a really important precedent for the way this relationship proceeds into the future.

Why are there so many bogong moths, and how can you safely remove them from your home?

Skies over parts of New South Wales have been aflutter in recent days as swarms of bogong moths begin their annual migration, travelling up to 1,000 km from their breeding grounds in different parts of the country to a small number of cool caves in the Australian Alps.

Sightings of the endangered moth have increased over the last two years, but reports to the citizen science program Moth Tracker this September alone have exceeded 2025’s total figures, according to Zoos Victoria, which runs the platform.

What do the burgeoning insect numbers mean for their recovery, and what should you do if you find bogongs inside your home?

Laneway festival just dropped its lineup for next year’s event, and there are some heavy hitters from both the international scene and Australian shores.

Irish rock darlings Fontaines D.C. are headlining alongside Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams. In pop land, Slayyyter and Adéla join the deeply fun Kim Petras and Muna.

Australia’s own Ninajirachi, Ecca Vandal and Swapmeet are on the bill, too, as are many more acts bound to make a good time.

Check out the lineup below:

As we brought you earlier, senators David Shoebridge and Steph Hodgins-May have now confirmed they will stand for leadership positions in the Greens’ party room ballot.

In a statement posted to Shoebridge’s Instagram, the pair said they would be a “fresh leadership team”.

We do not seek to reform Labor, but to replace them,” the statement reads, potentially signalling a bolder stance on how they would deal with the government and push for reform.

The answer to the rise of One Nation and the far right is giving people hope, and making people’s lives better with real economic and environmental security.

They cited “a meal before school” for children, “no new coal and gas”, and “holding back the wave of US billionaire tech bros and their vampire AI data centres” in the pitch.

Shoebridge and Hodgins-May also said the Greens needed to be “a bigger mass movement” and expressed support for the idea of former MP Max Chandler-Mather for ordinary party members – not just the parliamentary wing – to have a say in electing the leader. No details on how that would work, but the pair said they would “work with the party on this”.

Hume says Reserve Bank had no choice but to raise rates after Chalmers ‘unable to control’ domestic factors

Jane Hume, the deputy opposition leader, said the Reserve Bank “of course” had no choice but to raise interest rates yesterday, laying blame on the Labor government’s spending.

Hume spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, touting the Coalition’s proposed petrol price “shield” to cut the fuel excise at a certain threshold. But she added:

The real issue here is whether your economy is resilient enough to be able to handle those international shocks. My concern here is that this particular rate rise, which we know has taken the cash rates to its highest level in 15 years, has demonstrated that Jim Chalmers has been found out as the emperor, he has no clothes. …

He has been unable to control the domestic factors using the fiscal levers. That means that Michelle Bullock, as the independent governor of the Reserve Bank, has had to pull the monetary policy levers that much harder.

Hume said there was “so much more” the government could do, claiming Labor had “frittered away” windfall gains and spent them, adding to inflation.

Then we wonder why there’s domestic strains, domestic capacity issues. That’s what Michelle Bullock is referring to. She’s too polite to point the finger directly, but there is no way that she should take the blame for having to raise.

Who is potential Greens deputy leader candidate Steph Hodgins-May?

So who is the first-term senator expected to announce a leadership ticket tilt with David Shoebridge?

The 41-year-old Steph Hodgins-May was appointed to the Senate in May 2024 after Janet Rice called time on a decade in parliament the month before.

The party’s resources spokesperson, Hodgins-May in June accused fossil fuel companies of using the programs and sponsorships to “build social licence” with kids.

Get your dirty hands off our kids, that is our message to the fossil fuel industry, who have no place in early-learning centres, in schools, or in our cultural institutions in this country.

Children should go to school to get evidence-based education, not to be brainwashed by fossil fuel corporations seeking to build social licence.

Born in Ballarat, Hodgins-May was head of the Pacific for Greenpeace Australia from 2020 to 2023, and also holds a law degree. She ran for the Victorian seat of Macnamara (and its predecessor, Melbourne Ports) at the 2016, 2019 and 2022 elections.

In a post on Instagram yesterday she wished Larissa Waters well, commending the outgoing leader on her “courage, wisdom and care”.

The Greens are expected to hold a leadership vote today, and party sources yesterday and today said two new contenders are likely to enter the contest – David Shoebridge and Steph Hodgins-May.

A formal confirmation is expected shortly, which we’ll bring you. Shoebridge yesterday didn’t rule out running for the leadership role, and we’re told that he and Hodgins-May are looking at a joint ticket.

They would join Mehreen Faruqi and Nick McKim, who announced a run for leader and deputy respectively, and Sarah Hanson-Young who has also announced her candidacy.

More to come through the day.

Australian Signals Directorate chief says OpenAI’s ‘substantive’ steps key to future security after Medicare breach

Abigail Bradshaw, the director general of the Australian Signals Directorate, said yesterday’s apology by OpenAI after a hack of a Medicare website was important, but the “substantive” steps the tech company plans to better safeguard sensitive information is the bigger takeaway.

OpenAI apologised for the breach yesterday and said an executive will front parliament next week to speak about the episode and what will be done to prevent it from happening again.

Bradshaw told ABC News:

I think that the message out of this is – this is a demonstration, in fact, about how Australia can participate in developing new norms, new behaviours, and new protocols which are beneficial to Australians but, in fact, are shaping norms which will impact people around the world.

She added the signals directorate had been working to defend Australian data from emerging technology and “fortify” itself.

There has been work and engagement over the last six months utilising – including models that aren’t publicly available – to fortify the sensitive networks of, for example, financial institutions, health institutions, energy providers.

That process enabled us to – with great speed – identify vulnerabilities in code and patch those prior to the rollout of that really important national process.

Wife of Australian detained by Vietnam says she has concerns about his welfare

Chloe Dang, the wife of a missing Vietnamese Australian democracy campaigner, said she hasn’t slept for days after her husband went missing during a trip to Cambodia.

Tran Hiep, 50, was due to return to Bangkok, Thailand, earlier this month and reunite with his wife, but never returned. Dang said the government has since confirmed he has been detained by Vietnamese authorities on what have been described as “fabricated” charges.

Dang said she hasn’t heard anything from her husband, but found out yesterday from Vietnam that he was in the country. She said she does not know where he is being held, or the status of his wellbeing.

“My most concern is his wellbeing as well, because it’s been 12 days and we hadn’t heard anything,” she told ABC News Breakfast. “He’s an Australian citizen. He went into Cambodia legally. And now, the accusation is he tried to pass the border [into Vietnam] illegally.”

She’s asked the Australian government to do everything they can to secure his release, saying officials have been assisting her and her family.

Good morning, Nick Visser here once more to guide you through the day’s news. Let’s get to it.

Two men and a teenage boy have been charged in relation to the alleged mistaken identity shooting of Sydney student Marco Tapia – including the person who allegedly held the gun – police say.

Tapia, 23, was shot inside his family’s home in Glen Alpine early on 1 September. Police have alleged perpetrators had the wrong home and person.

The trio – aged 22, 23 and 16 – were arrested in Junee, near Wagga Wagga, yesterday and charged with a series of offences: murder, two counts of special aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offence – weapon and possessing an unauthorised prohibited firearm.

Detectives will allege in court the three – one allegedly armed with a pistol – entered the home and confronted Tapia, before he was fatally shot.

All three will appear in court today – the teenager will appear in children’s court.

Two other teenage boys have been charged and remain before the courts.

Early works are beginning on the second stage of the long-awaited train line to Melbourne airport – a 7.6km stretch of the train line from Albion to Keilor East, where a new station will be built.

Anthony Albanese will be in Melbourne today with Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, to announce that site investigations, procurement and development work will begin in the coming weeks.

Built alongside the Jacana freight corridor, this stage of the project will feature a 500m rail bridge to carry trains over the Maribyrnong River.

Community engagement and early designs will follow next year, with major construction on the Keilor East station to begin in 2028 and finish in 2031.

The first stage of Melbourne Airport Rail, which involves the creation of the “Sunshine superhub” and the construction of new stations at Tottenham and Albion, is expected to be completed in 2030.

A man has been charged with murder after the deaths of two men at Gurranang, about 25km north of Grafton in northern New South Wales, police said.

About 3pm on Sunday 13 September, police were called to a house after reports the body of a 79-year-old man had been found.

Officers visited the house again on Monday when they found the body of a 59-year-old man in a shed on the property.

Detectives arrested a 32-year-old man at a hospital in Grafton yesterday afternoon.

He was taken to Grafton police station where he was charged with two counts of murder and stealing a motor vehicle.

He was refused bail to appear before court today.

OpenAI’s Medicare breach has prompted a government-wide assessment of cyber systems to bolster Australia’s public sector against further AI threats – deliberate or not.

Home affairs directed all government departments and agencies to undertake a “rapid” stocktake of legacy systems, to formulate risk management for legacy technology and to report their compliance back to the department.

The directive prioritises systems of government significance – the government’s critical systems – with a review due by the end of the year, while other systems will be assessed by March.

The acting home affairs minister, Richard Marles, said AI is “changing the environment in which we operate at extraordinary speed.”

We can’t wait for an old system to fail before replacing it. We need to identify vulnerabilities and deal with them before they can be exploited.

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.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will be in Melbourne today with Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, to announce early works are beginning on the second stage of the long-awaited train line to Melbourne airport. More coming up.

A man has been charged with murder after the deaths of two men at Gurranang, about 25km north of Grafton in northern New South Wales, police said. More on that soon.