Australian news and politics live: PM accuses media of publishing Hamas propaganda amid Palestine backlash

Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth says it is “not surprising” that Treasury would prepare advice for the government ahead of next week’s economic reform roundtable, after leaked departmental documents outlined possible outcomes from the talks.

The documents, obtained by the ABC, reportedly included suggestions such as a pause on the National Construction Code, a policy the Coalition supported before the election but which Labor had opposed.

Ms Rishworth has been pressed on whether the summit’s outcomes had already been set.

“It’s not surprising that Treasury would prepare advice to government and of course, in the lead-up to the productivity round-table, there has been ministers and other organisations holding a lot of discussions,” she told ABC News Breakfast on Thursday morning.

“This is a really important opportunities to talk about some of the long-term challenges.”

When asked directly if the National Construction Code would be paused: “I’m not going to get to the ins what will be considered by the productivity round-table and by other ministers and by Government. What I would say is that housing particular has been a big focus of our government,” she said.

Disturbing new details have surfaced following the horrific discovery of the bodies of 39-year-old pregnant woman Athena Georgopoulos and her 50-year-old partner Andrew Gunn in their Mount Waverley home.

A disagreement over a dog may have sparked the chilling double homicide, the ​Herald Sun​ reports.

Mr Gunn, known locally as “Morph,” was rarely seen without his beloved German Shepherd, Dragon, and according to locals, rising tensions between Mr Gunn and accused killer Ross Judd had begun to centre around the dog.

The couple’s bodies were found inside their Adrienne Crescent unit around 9.55pm on Monday.

Mr Gunn was allegedly decapitated with his head mounted on a spike, in what was described by police as an “unimaginably horrific crime scene”.

​Read more.​

Rising construction costs and rental increases may prove to be stumbling blocks for further rate cuts from the Reserve Bank.

The latest data from Cotality shows there are concerns for housing inflation and its knock-on effects off the back of rental re-acceleration picking up in state capitals for the first time in two years.

The capital city rental value index has increased by three per cent to July 2025, up from 2.7 per cent a month before, according to Cotality’s August monthly housing chart pack.

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Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has intensified her criticism of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s plan to recognise Palestine at the United Nations next month, after Hamas publicly praised the move as showing political “courage.”

Ms Ley has argued the prospect of a lasting peace was getting “further and further away” by the day, and that conditions tied to the recognition, including removing Hamas from influence in Palestine, were almost “impossible” to meet.

“It doesn’t bring about a two-state solution, it doesn’t make the world a safer place,” Ms Ley told Nine.

“Anthony Albanese is making a real mess of this... On the same day, a listed terror organisation calls our Prime Minister a hero, while our closest ally, the US, says that these actions are going to make peace in the region less likely.

“Remember, the Prime Minister used justification for this decision by saying Hamas would not be involved? And I saw the Treasurer yesterday saying, oh, Hamas will have no role in a future Palestinian state. Really? As if we can control these things?

“The question now is for the prime minister to say, if you have made this conditional, and you keep saying you have, whereas it looks to me to be completely unconditional, what are you going to do now, especially now that Hamas has hailed you as a hero?”