A NSW man has been charged after allegedly threatening violence against a female MP on social media, with officials alleging he said he would find the victim in public and cause her harm. He is due to appear before court today.
News Corp’s Australian division has also reported that its parent company delivered a strong rise in revenue across its global business, despite weakness in its news division and a slide in digital rs at its Australian mastheads.
The Rupert Murdoch family-backed business reported a 7% lift in full-year revenue to $US9bn, according to financials released this morning, driven by strong results in its business news-focused Dow Jones unit, book publishing and digital real estate assets.
Its well known news media division, however, weighed on results, with advertising revenue falling 2% during the financial year to 30 June. The company’s global newspaper stable includes The Sun and The Times in London, the New York Post and The Australian, and many other mastheads.
Digital rs at News Corp Australia slid from 1,166,000 to 1,162,000 during the year, according to the company’s internal data.
News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson used the results to attack AI models that he said “pilfer and profit from our work” without compensation.
“We will pursue those pilferers, and companies that are clients of these crass kleptomaniacs should know they are patently in possession of stolen goods,” Thomson said.
News Corp already has commercial agreements in place with OpenAI and Meta.
How will new ebike safety standards work?
The government has asked the consumer watchdog to draw up national safety standards to crack down on the sale of unsafe ebikes in Australia. The move comes as ebike use has skyrocketed and incidents have increased, including in NSW.
NSW recorded 226 injuries related to ebikes in 2024. In the first seven months of 2025, that had already surged to 233 injuries plus four deaths.
The government says the new rules will ensure standards are the same across all states and territories and will apply to the sale of ebikes, e-scooters and e-skateboards. High-powered and high-speed devices linked to serious injuries and deaths won’t be allowed to be sold.
Transport minister Catherine King said the standard would give Australians confidence that the products being sold are legal and fit for purpose, and would help keep Australians safe.
“This standard will give Australians the confidence that the products being sold are legal and fit for purpose, and will help keep Australians safe.”
The government has not said when the proposed standards will take effect, but the direction marks a broader effort to rein in unsafe electric rideable devices amid rising injuries and fatalities.
Why are childcare regulators taking stronger action?
Almost 600 childcare services were shut down in the latest quarter, a twentyfold increase on the same quarter last year, as federal, state and territory governments crack down on dodgy and underperforming providers.
State and territory regulators took action against 589 services and cancelled their approval to operate, meaning they lost access to childcare subsidy funding and cannot legally run. Though not all of those services were currently operating, the action amounted to a major escalation in enforcement.
The government says state and territory regulators also took 1,538 compliance actions in the March quarter, which puts providers on notice if they are not meeting standards. That was double the number of notices compared with the same time last year.
Governments have been under significant pressure to lift safety and standards across the childcare sector following allegations of child sexual abuse and safety breaches.
Education minister Jason Clare said the proportion of childcare services meeting the national quality standards had lifted from 88% in 2022 to 92%.
“Enforcement action is at record highs. The percentage of services meeting the national quality and safety standards is at the highest level ever as well.
We have also introduced legislation to cut funding to centres that aren’t up to scratch … This is a good sign. But there is more to do.”
The increase in enforcement and compliance action shows governments are continuing to apply pressure to operators that fall short of required standards, while also pointing to improvements in quality across the sector.
Welcome to Thursday
Good morning, Nick Visser here to guide you through the day’s news. Here’s what’s on deck:
A man was charged after allegedly threatening violence against a female MP via social media. Officials allege the man threatened to find the victim in public and cause her harm. He will appear before court today.
States and territories shut down almost 600 childcare services in the last quarter for substandard care, part of a broader crackdown on dodgy or underperforming providers.
The government has asked the consumer watchdog to draw up national safety standards for ebikes amid a rise in incidents in recent years. NSW recorded 226 injuries related to ebikes in 2024, but that figure surged to 233 in just the first half of 2025.
New concerns about unsafe ebikes have emerged alongside wider scrutiny of the rapidly growing market, with the proposed standards aimed at preventing high-powered and high-speed devices from being sold legally.
