Australia news live: tax expert says house price explosion put nation on track to ‘neo-feudalism’; royal commission defines antisemitism

New Zealand backs Australia in removing Andrew from line of succession

New Zealand has said it would support the UK government if it proposes to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession, Reuters reports.

The former prince was arrested last Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office after being accused of sharing sensitive information with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein while serving as the UK’s trade envoy.

A spokesperson for Christopher Luxon, the country’s prime minister, said:

If the UK government proposes to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the order of succession, New Zealand would support it.

The UK government has said any proposals would come after the police investigation concludes.

New Zealand’s backing comes after the Australian PM, Anthony Albanese, wrote to Keir Starmer saying his government would support “any proposal” to remove Andrew from the line of succession.

Banks compare Apple Pay to ‘toll booths’ on roads they didn’t pay for

A parliamentary committee on digital payments, chaired by Labor MP Ed Husic, is holding hearings today and tomorrow and it’s gearing up to be a fight between the banks and tech companies, which Husic described as “Kong v Godzilla”.

Apple Pay charges card issuers a fee, estimated to be 0.15% of the transaction value for each credit card transaction. Google Pay does not make this charge, and the banking sector finds it frustrating that Apple is charging these fees.

Speaking before the committee this morning, former Liberal minister Simon Birmingham, who is now the chief executive of the Australian Banking Association, said:

These global players generate significant value from Australian commerce and the infrastructure and services provided by Australian companies, yet they do not face the same regulatory obligations or requirements to invest in and support Australia’s payments infrastructure.

To put it simply, these companies do not build or maintain the roads that Australian commerce runs on. Yet they placed their own toll booths at key intersections.

Husic said it was “big banks v big tech” and asked what guarantee there would be that any changes parliament made to limit charged fees would benefit consumers and businesses, and not just the banks.

Birmingham said that the banking sector is much more competitive than those running digital wallets, and that existing sector regulation benefits consumers

Apple is due to appear before the committee this afternoon.

Senior counsel makes opening statement in royal commission on antisemitism

Richard Lancaster, senior counsel assisting the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion, has made a statement as part of the first public hearing for the proceedings.

Speaking in Sydney this morning, the barrister said the antisemitic attack on Jewish Australians in Bondi on 14 December was a “truly horrifying event”.

He acknowledged the immense trauma and deep sadness the massacre had caused to Jewish Australians, as well as members of the community living in Bondi, people visiting for a meal or a swim that evening, “those who bravely rushed to help” and many other people across Australia.

He said counsel assisting would lead evidence to identify antisemitic conduct in Australian society; inquire into the drivers of antisemitism; identify what law enforcement and security agencies have been doing to tackle antisemitic conduct; and inquire into the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the attack. Evidence will include witness statements and oral and expert evidence.

He said social cohesion was a “consensus that a diverse, multicultural society can subsist and thrive only by mutual acceptance of our respective democratic freedoms exercised according to law. Social cohesion begins with empathy.”

He continued:

A large part of the work of this commission will be to present evidence to allow a broader understanding of the scourge of antisemitism, its nature and prevalence throughout Australian society and its impact on the lives of fellow Australians.

He encouraged members of the public to make submissions to the inquiry via the commission’s website, with submissions highlighting urgent matters due by 13 March so that they may be included in the commissioner’s interim report, expected by 30 April. Other submissions would be received throughout April and May.

To avoid prejudicing criminal proceedings against the person charged with committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of attempted murder, it would not be possible for the commission to examine all elements of the Bondi attack, he added.

Coffee cups, truck laws leave shoppers with hefty bill

Patchwork laws between states, including those that ban single-use plastics, are driving up costs for shoppers, AAP reports.

It’s a claim Australia’s peak retail body makes in a new report that argues the “regulatory fragmentation” costs households about $900m a year.

Single-use coffee cups are legal in some states but cannott be used in others, meaning retailers are spending more to comply with laws while being forced to run separate, jurisdiction-specific supply chains.

The Australian Retail Council says coffee cups are an example of the contrasting laws hurting retailers and driving up prices. The council’s chief policy officer, Glenn Fahey, said:

Right now, a truck carrying a legal load in Sydney can be forced to stop at the border and transfer that load on to a different vehicle simply to continue to Brisbane.

Delivery schedules are dictated by mismatched local rules and different council curfews … this friction ultimately ends up in the price on the shelf that every Australian pays.

Victoria premier getting advice on any potential legislation needed over former prince Andrew

Allan said she was also receiving advice on whether the Victorian parliament needed to pass legislation to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the royal line of succession. She said:

Apologies for going down this rabbit hole for a moment, but my memory when the British monarchy changed the line of succession to allow women to be the heir to the throne, my understanding was that we did need at that time to have a formal process in the Victorian parliament to enable that to take place.

So when I was listening to the news this morning and hearing the prime ministers comments [about] how he’s written to the British prime minister, it did give me pause to reflect that there may need to be a mechanism here in the Victorian parliament. I’ve got to get some advice on that.

Antisemitism commissioner Virginia Bell says building social cohesion will likely take years

The first public hearing in the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion has taken place.

In her opening statement a short time ago, the commissioner, Virginia Bell, a former high court justice, said building social cohesion was likely to take years.

“Examining the ways in which we might strengthen social cohesion in Australia could well be the work of years, not months,” she said. The commissioner is required to deliver her final report to the governor general and state governors no later than the first anniversary of the Bondi massacre on 14 December.

“Anniversaries are important,” she said, adding that the first anniversary for those affected by the attack “is going to be a difficult time”:

One small part of coming to terms with the events of that evening will be the work of this commission. I regard the delivery of my report on or before the first anniversary as a matter of critical importance.

She said the inquiry would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism for the proceedings.

“It provides antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews which may be expressed as a hatred towards Jews” and included antisemitism directed toward Jewish or non Jewish individuals, their property and towards Jewish community institutions and religious facilities, she said.

She added that while some examples of conduct attached to the definition were controversial, “criticism of the policies that may be pursued by the government of Israel from time to time is not of itself antisemitic”.

She said she was “interested in hearing from Jewish Australians who’ve experienced antisemitism, whether at school or at university or in the workplace or elsewhere,” and that while making a submission does not commit a person to giving evidence in public, she was confident members of the Jewish community would be willing to give evidence in public about their experiences of antisemitism.

She said that while antisemitism may be the oldest religious and ethnic prejudice, other religions and ethnicities were also subject to prejudice in Australia and that the inquiry would include religious faiths, ethnicities and cultures generally – but that the focus of this commission is tackling antisemitism.

Allan says she will not ‘play politics’ regarding potential return of Syrian returnees into Victoria

At her press conference earlier this morning, the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, was asked about the potential return of Australian women and their children linked to Islamic State fighters.

On Monday, her NSW counterpart, Chris Minns, said his government was expecting about a third of the group – which consists of 11 women and 23 children – to possibly return to the state if authorities in Syria allow them to leave the Roj refugee camp.

On Tuesday morning, Allan rejected suggestions the other two-thirds would be residing in Victoria. She said:

The assessment of travel applications and travel documents for Australian citizens is a matter for the commonwealth, particularly so when we are seeing these applications come from citizens who have been involved in foreign conflict … I will say our officials are engaged with commonwealth officials as is appropriate, but I’m not going to go into detail of those discussions at this stage because that would not be appropriate.

Asked why she would not provide the same level of detail as Minns, Allan replied:

I am very clear that citizens have rights, but so too do the citizens of Victoria to have their safety protected, which is why I will work through these matters appropriately, through officials, through the framework of ensuring that the community, the safety of the Victorian community, is first and foremost in the consideration of these matters.

She said she will not “play politics” with the issue.

Breunig: tax system’s goal not to ‘punish’ older people but to assist those who need it

He said: “We all want to live in a country where old people are rich; we should incentivise people to work hard and save during their lifetime.”

He said the system had not caught up with the reality that older Australians were wealthier than they used to be.

It used to be that being old meant that you were poor and so we have a lot of money that we transfer to older people simply because they are old.

But a lot of old people aren’t poor any more, but we are still transferring money to them as if they were poor.

So this idea of old being a tag for poverty, we need to move beyond and now we need to say, let’s target that assistance to people who really need it.

One of the country’s leading tax experts says the explosion in housing wealth has put us on the path towards a neo-feudal society where your prosperity depends in large part whether your parents own land or property.

“That is the trajectory we are on,” Bob Breunig, the director of the ANU’s tax and transfer institute, said. “I don’t think we are back to pre-French revolution times, but I am worried about that,” he told a parliamentary committee into the capital gains tax.

Breunig in May 2025 authored an influential report showing how the tax and transfer system has become more generous to older Australians over recent generation.

We often frame the equality problem as an intergenerational one, an old versus young problem, which it’s not really.

If you are young and your parents have a lot of assets, those assets will eventually come to you. So the real inequality between people in the same generation [is] those who have assets and those who don’t.

City of Sydney moves to allow more buskers in more places

The City of Sydney is moving to allow buskers to perform in more high-traffic areas after a hearing from dozens of performers who take to the streets with song.

The updated policies, if finalised, will allow more busking in areas like Pitt Street Mall and along most of George Street in the CBD. The changes will allow for a “greater diversity of performance styles” and provide clearer guidelines for performers, businesses and the public. A community feedback form is open from now until early April.

Clover Moore, the lord mayor of Sydney, said in a statement:

Having heard loudly and clearly buskers want more space and flexibility, we flipped the script so buskers can perform wherever they want with a few exceptions we’re asking they respectfully avoid.

We’re committed to working closely with the NSW government, who manage Barangaroo, The Rocks, Circular Quay and the rail network to better align busking programs and provide a single source of information for buskers across Sydney sites.

Baghsarian has been missing for 11 days

Baghsarian has been missing since 13 February, when police said he was abducted from his home in North Ryde in a mistaken kidnapping.

Police have been searching for the man ever since, turning their attention to an abandoned and derelict property in Dural, NSW, where they believe Bagsharian was held at some point after his kidnapping.

Yesterday, police appealed for information about a grey Toyota Corolla seen in the Glenorie area, which was later found burnt out in Westmead. They have been searching bushland near Glenorie this week.

Officials said Monday “hope is fading” to find Baghsarian alive, but said they would not give up on the effort to locate him.

NSW police have located unconfirmed human remains in the ongoing search for Chris Baghsarian, the 85-year-old man mistakenly kidnapped earlier this month.

Police said in a statement:

Following extensive inquiries, about 8am today (Tuesday 24 February 2026), detectives located what is believed to be human remains near a golf club in Pitt Town.

Investigations continue. We’ll bring you more as the news comes in.

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has announced the government will standardise the guidelines for diagnosing endometriosis, with ultrasounds to become the “first step” in identifying the condition.

The announcement follows a Four Corners report on Monday night into allegations of unnecessary endometriosis surgeries on women. Allan said she was “sickened” by the allegations and referred them to Victoria police:

Without commenting on the specific case, let me be clear – performing unnecessary surgery is a crime, removing a woman’s organs without a clinical need is a crime, and assisting in that conduct is a crime.

She said Safer Care Victoria – the state’s health watchdog – will sit on the review ordered by Epworth “to ensure it is rigorous, transparent and focused on patient safety”.

Safer Care Victoria will also publish clinical guidelines, making it clear that a less invasive ultrasound should be the first step for diagnosing endometriosis across Victoria. Allan said an invasive laparoscopy was often being used as the first diagnostic tool, “despite growing evidence that it is not always necessary.”

She said that the government would also provide additional training to help doctors recognise and appropriately treat endometriosis. She added that she was exploring the introduction of a “pink tick” to indicate which clinicians have completed the training.

It’s extraordinary that I should even need to propose such a thing, because women’s care is core business. But I am determined to restore confidence in a system that all women rely on.

Some parts of Victoria should prepare for heavy rain with potential for flash flooding, SES says

Severe thunderstorms, heavy rain and damaging winds are set to lash large areas of a state, with authorities urging residents to brace for dangerous conditions, AAP reports.

Communities across northern and central parts of Victoria, including Melbourne, are forecast to be affected by wild weather from Tuesday afternoon.

Heavy downpours which could trigger flash flooding are expected, with six-hour rainfall totals of 40mm to 70mm possible. Residents should remain on alert to flash flooding in the coming hours, Victoria State Emergency Service’s spokesperson, Josh Gamble, told AAP.

Flash flooding happens fast. Roads can become very dangerous very quickly. It’s deeper than it looks … Low-lying and creekside communities [should be] on alert, particularly those that are known in those flash flood areas in and around the Melbourne areas.

A warning has also been issued for towns located within fire-affected grounds, with authorities warning that burnt land does not absorb water effectively, meaning runoff can occur quickly and without warning.