Australians advised to reconsider travel to Lebanon
Australia has directed the departure of all dependants of Australian officials posted in Israel and Lebanon as a precautionary measure due to regional tensions.
The government has also offered voluntary departures to dependants of Australian officials posted in Jordan, Qatar and the UAE and continues to advise exercise a high degree of caution in these destinations.
Australia’s embassies in Tel Aviv and Beirut remained open but the situation in the Middle East was “unpredictable” and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said people should reconsider travel to Lebanon and Israel.
“If you’re in [these two countries], we continue to advise you consider leaving while commercial options to depart are still available,” Dfat said on its Smartraveller website.
The site warned last night:
The security situation in the Middle East is unpredictable. Regional tensions remain high and there continues to be a risk of military conflict.
The situation could deteriorate with no warning.
It said Australians should monitor events, follow the advice of local authorities and follow the latest updates at Smartraveller.gov.au.
Key events
Advocate for gambling reform reiterates calls for regulator and ban on ads
Reverend Tim Costello, the chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, spoke to RN Breakfast this morning about efforts to combat gambling, including the rollout of BetStop, a self-exclusion register.
Costello said Australians were living in an “extraordinary reality” where you “can’t escape gambling”:
We are literally saturated. You know, sadly, gambling companies now even own our kids …
Right at the moment, you have the farcical situation that under 16, you can’t be on social media, which I support. But they’re inundated with gambling ads online, on TV. 900,000 of young Australians gambled last year, even though it’s illegal now.
Costello reiterated calls to for a national gambling regulator and a ban on gambling ads, saying he believes a majority of the Labor caucus would support those moves. But he said it seems the industry had a stranglehold on society.
More than 53,000 Australians had registered with BetStop between its launch in August 2023 and 1 December 2025, AAP reports. The self-exclusion register blocks access to phone and online gambling providers, and prevents them from contacting the person.
A review of BetStop’s efficacy found areas for improvement, however, as well as “several serious breaches” by gambling companies targeting people on the register.
Costello said it is a “very good program”, but too few people had heard about it.
Boy riding e-scooter allegedly hit by ute in pedestrian crossing in Sydney’s west
A boy riding an e-scooter was allegedly hit by a ute at a pedestrian crossing in Sydney’s west last night.
Emergency services were called to South Granville around 10pm. On arrival, paramedics treated the boy, 10, before he was taken to Westmead Children’s hospital in a serious but stable condition.
The driver, a 29-year-old man, was taken to the hospital for mandatory testing. No charges have been laid.
A crime scene has been established.
‘There will be more savings in the budget’, Chalmers says
Chalmers said the upcoming budget will be “ambitious”, but also recognise the “pressures on people, but also the pressures more broadly on our economy”.
He said those include inflation, productivity and “all this global economic uncertainty”.
These are the key factors and pressures that we’re focused on as we get closer towards making some key decisions about what will be and won’t be in the budget in May.
The budget, he added will include cost savings.
“We’ve made that clear,” Chalmers said. “It’s one of the reasons why we’ve been able to help engineer the biggest positive turnaround in the budget since federation. People can expect to see more of that in May. And as part of that, there will be more savings.”
Chalmers said the government is ‘very focused’ on inflation leading up to the next federal budget
Treasurer Jim Chalmers spoke to RN Breakfast amid the latest inflation numbers, which show price rises have persisted into 2026 and boosted predictions for another rate hike. Inflation stayed at 3.8% in January.
Chalmers told RN:
Inflation was steady in January, but it’s higher than we’d like. We’re upfront about that. I don’t make predictions about future movements in interest rates, but I assure your listeners that the government is very focused on this inflation challenge. It’s a big part of our thinking in the lead-up to the budget in May …
But we have made a lot of progress together as a country since the peak of inflation in 2022. But it’s higher than we’d like for longer than we’d like, and that means there’s more work to be done.
Man dies in unit fire in Sydney’s west
A man died and a women was taken to hospital after a unit fire in Sydney’s west last night.
Emergency services were called to a unit in St Marys around 7.15pm. On arrival, officers found the third floor of the unit complex “well alight”.
A woman, believed to be in her 40s, was able to evacuate and taken to the hospital in serious but stable condition. Fire and Rescue later extinguished the blaze, before finding the body of a man, believed to be in his 40s, inside.
A crime scene has been established and an investigation into the cause of the fire is under way.
Two men to appear in court over kidnap and murder of Chris Baghsarian in Sydney
Two men will appear at Bankstown local court today charged with the kidnapping and murder of 85-year-old Chris Baghsarian whose body was found on the outskirts of Sydney this week.
The pair were arrested at addresses in Kenthurst and Castle Hill yesterday before police said last night that they had been charged.
Here’s our full story:
Good morning, and happy Thursday. Nick Visser here to take you through the morning’s news. Let’s get to it.
NSW premier Chris Minns plans crackdown on anti-gay violence
NSW premier Chris Minns is examining changes to the law to deal with hate crimes against gay and bisexual people in the wake of shocking reports of Islamic State-inspired violence.
After an ABC report detailed several attacks in Sydney, Minns said last night he had spoken to cabinet office officials and the Attorney-General’s department about “looking at changes to the law to put in massive new penalties specifically to target this abhorrent behaviour”.
We will not allow a situation in New South Wales where people are being targeted because of their sexuality by somebody else.
I want to make sure that we’re in a situation where police have got the resources, the DPP has the resources, so that if someone is convicted of a crime like that, they can throw the book at them and they are subject to a significant jail penalty.
It is never acceptable, and I can imagine there’d a lot of young people, a lot of gay people online who would ordinarily expect to meet someone in their community and do it in a safe way, to be targeted in this way, it’s a throwback to a shocking period in Sydney’s history, and it will not be tolerated in 2026. We’ll be looking at urgent legislation soon to target this shocking new crime.
Australians advised to reconsider travel to Lebanon
Australia has directed the departure of all dependants of Australian officials posted in Israel and Lebanon as a precautionary measure due to regional tensions.
The government has also offered voluntary departures to dependants of Australian officials posted in Jordan, Qatar and the UAE and continues to advise exercise a high degree of caution in these destinations.
Australia’s embassies in Tel Aviv and Beirut remained open but the situation in the Middle East was “unpredictable” and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said people should reconsider travel to Lebanon and Israel.
“If you’re in [these two countries], we continue to advise you consider leaving while commercial options to depart are still available,” Dfat said on its Smartraveller website.
The site warned last night:
The security situation in the Middle East is unpredictable. Regional tensions remain high and there continues to be a risk of military conflict.
The situation could deteriorate with no warning.
It said Australians should monitor events, follow the advice of local authorities and follow the latest updates at Smartraveller.gov.au.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the morning’s breaking news before Nick Visser takes the wheel.
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, is examining changes to the law to deal with hate crimes against gay and bisexual people after shocking reports of Islamic State-inspred violence. More coming up.
Two men will appear at Bankstown local court today charged with the kidnapping and murder of 85-year-old Chris Baghsarian, whose body was found on the outskirts of Sydney this week. The pair were arrested yesterday before police said last night that they had been charged.
And as tensions rise in the Middle East, the Australian government has ordered evacuations for the families of diplomats and officials in Lebanon and Israel, and offered voluntary evacuations to those in three other countries.
