
Australia news live: productivity commissioner warns of job cuts coming from AI; aged care provider to close
Date: 2025-06-11T20:32:16.000Z
Title: Welcome
Content: Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I'm Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser to take you through the day.
The new industry and science minister, Tim Ayres, warns today that Australia must 'lean in hard' to the benefits of artificial intelligence or else risk ending up 'on the end of somebody else's supply chain'. His comments follow an appearance by Australia's productivity commissioner on 7.30 last night in which she said AI could cost jobs. More coming up.
We'll bring you news soon of a big aged care provider which is closing next month.
And parties in Tasmania will be gearing up for another election campaign today after the state's governor said she had been left with no choice but to call a poll to resolve the Apple Isle's political crisis. We'll have the latest.
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The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
Anthony Albanese channels Gen Z in parliament with ‘delulu' jab at Australian coalition
Resurfaced footage shows Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese using the Gen Z slang word "delulu" in parliament. Mr Albanese used the phrase "delulu with no solulu" to describe the Coalition's energy and economic plan, fulfilling a dare from the Happy Hour with Lucy and Nikki Podcast in March 2025. His use of the term prompted a mix of laughs and cheers from the parliamentary chamber. The word "delulu", a play on delusion, was officially added to the Cambridge Dictionary on Monday, 18 August, as part of a significant update. Watch the video in full above.


The Guardian
3 minutes ago
- The Guardian
University of Melbourne breached students' privacy by using wifi network to monitor pro-Palestine protest
The University of Melbourne (UoM) breached Victoria's Privacy and Data Protection Act when it used its wifi network to surveil students and staff holding a pro-Palestine protest last May, which could have resulted in a 'significant breach of trust', the state's deputy information commissioner has found. The investigation, released on Wednesday, was prompted by media reports alleging UoM digitally tracked people at the sit-in to uncover potential misconduct. The deputy commissioner found the university used a combination of wifi location data, student card photographs and CCTV footage to identify 22 students who failed to comply with orders to leave the university's Arts West building on 20 May. The investigation found the university did not give adequate notice or justification for how the data would be used. Sign up: AU Breaking News email It took less than a day for the university to authorise the use of data for surveillance purposes and only 'superficial' consideration was given to privacy protection, the report found. The UoM used analysis of wifi location data, CCTV footage, and a review of 10 staff members' email accounts to identify staff involved in the protest, the report found. As a result, three staff members received formal written warnings. Misconduct proceedings were brought against 20 of the students, with 19 receiving a 'reprimand and caution'. The deputy commissioner found the UoM had not contravened information privacy principles (IPPs) in the state's Privacy and Data Protection Act with its CCTV footage use. But it found the UoM had breached two IPPs by failing to adequately inform students and staff about how their personal information had been used, and because using wifi location data to identify individuals in a misconduct investigation was an unauthorised reason. It also found that the university's accessing of staff email accounts for disciplinary proceedings 'fell below the standard' expected. 'The university failed to obtain a social licence for the use of this technology,' the report found. 'Because the collection and use of the data involved the surveillance of students and staff, and surveillance by its nature is antithetical to human rights, the breach was serious.' The deputy commissioner did not issue a compliance notice because of the remedial steps taken by the UoM during the investigation, including developing a new surveillance policy and amending its terms of use and associated policies. The chief operating officer of the UoM, Katerina Kapobassis, said the university acknowledged it could have provided 'clearer active notice' to students and staff about its use of wifi location data. 'However, we maintain that the use of Wi-Fi location data in student misconduct cases was reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances, given the overriding need to keep our community safe and conduct our core activities of teaching, learning and research,' she said. 'The university takes its privacy obligations seriously and has cooperated openly and responsively to the deputy commissioner in the conduct of her investigation. 'The university has already completed a number of actions that are proposed in the final report, and all others are progressing.' The investigation also found the university's wifi terms of use, IT policies and privacy statements were 'poorly presented, contained misleading headings and titles, and contained information that made the purpose of collection and use unclear'. 'The extent of the impact on the individuals whose Wi-Fi location data was used to determine their physical whereabouts was significant,' the report found. 'Each was subjected to a form of surveillance … They are likely to have experienced a significant breach of trust. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'The deputy commissioner remains concerned by the university's practices … and will continue to seek evidence and assurance that it has completed the actions it has agreed to.' The Unimelb for Palestine group welcomed the investigation's findings, which it said exposed the 'deep structural failures in how the university governs data, communicates … and respects fundamental human rights'. The group said it found the decision not to issue a compliance notice 'deeply disappointing'. 'The report does not undo the harm the university has inflicted – through both its past mishandling of misconduct proceedings against Mahmoud's Hall [Arts West] protesters, and its ongoing efforts to expel and suspend other student protesters based on unauthorised and unlawfully obtained data,' the group said. 'So-called liberal institutions – including the UoM - have acted exceptionally to suppress solidarity with Palestine amidst a genocide.' In April, the Human Rights Law Centre, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International wrote to the UoM's vice chancellor, citing serious concerns over its wifi policy, which they said permitted the surveillance of all users without suspicion of wrongdoing or misuse of the network. Principal lawyer Berndaette Zaydan is appealing the suspensions and expulsions of UoM student protestors and said she would use the findings to strengthen their legal fight. The UoM branch president of the National Tertiary Education Union, David Gonzalez, said the deputy commissioner had reinforced what staff had been saying 'all along', that 'they were misusing this information, and it was wrong'. 'There was never an expectation that we would be tracked using Wi-Fi previously,' Gonzalez, who sat in on disciplinary proceedings with staff as a result of the protest, said. 'A large amount of my members are very concerned with their privacy. This is validating for a lot of people who felt gaslit … It's just an erosion of trust.'


Auto Car
32 minutes ago
- Auto Car
How 3D-printing made this intercooler 10 times lighter
3D-printing technology – or, to use its proper name, additive manufacturing (AM) – has progressed fast over the past five years. Dutch car company Donkervoort is one of the latest to take advantage of its unique benefits, by 3D-printing intercoolers for its forthcoming P24 RS supercar. These were developed by Australia's Conflux, and the technique goes one step further than merely being a convenient way to manufacture things. By using AM, the weight of the aluminium-alloy liquid-to-air intercoolers has been slashed from 16kg to 1.4kg. Conflux describes the technique as Formula 1 technology (its founder has a background in the sport), and it has other benefits too: this intercooler has superior thermal performance and packaging benefits to conventional equivalents. It should be tougher too, because it's a single, one-piece structure with no joints or welds. Donkervoort issued a specification for the intercooler and Conflux actually improved on it, returning a design that was so effective that it could be downsized still further from the original prototype. Rather than mounted at the front of the car, the compact intercoolers can be sited within the engine bay, reducing the length of the inlet tract by two-thirds. The result is quicker throttle response, better efficiency and optimised weight distribution, all of which directly benefit the driver. Coolant flowing through the intercooler is dedicated to the job and cooled by an external radiator not shared with any other drivetrain cooling system. AM is a process whereby, controlled by a 3D computer model, objects are formed by firing lasers into a bed of powdered material, fusing it together. Conflux makes the new intercoolers from AlSi10Mg, a high-grade aluminium alloy that it claims is one of the most common and well accepted aluminium alloys in the industry. Conflux also uses it for components in aviation, motorsport and industrial applications. Intercoolers are needed because when air is compressed (by a turbocharger in this case), it heats up and becomes less dense. For maximum performance and trouble-free combustion, an engine needs cool induction air. An intercooler cools down the compressed and heated air before it enters the engine by conducting heat through finned walls into a coolant. Thanks to the AM process, these fins in the new Conflux intercooler are extremely thin: at 160 microns, just two or three times thicker than a human hair. And the thinner the fins can be, the more effective they will be at conducting away the unwanted heat.