Espionage costing Australia $13b a year: ASIO chief
Lifting the lid on some recent plots, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation chief Mike Burgess revealed in one case a foreign spy stole branches off a rare fruit tree while sneaking around a secret horticultural centre.
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Sydney Morning Herald
16 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Secret tobacco storeroom revealed in police raid
New footage has revealed a secret shop door allegedly hiding thousands of illegal cigarettes and vapes. Queensland Health revealed today it has seized about 45 million cigarettes, 350,000 vapes and more than six tonnes of loose-leaf tobacco across the state since November last year. A newly released police video from one raid in Wide Bay, north of Brisbane, in March shows a cabinet concealing a secret storeroom filled with well over 5000 illegally imported cigarette packets. A separate video shows huge quantities of tobacco on a table, with stacks of counterfeit Australian packaging nearby. It comes amid government efforts to curb off-the-books sales, with harsher penalties and additional powers for health authorities announced in May. Last year this masthead revealed importers were flooding the Queensland market with more illegal tobacco than ever before. Brisbane Times visited 10 convenience stores and tobacconists across multiple suburbs in November 2024 – all openly sold Manchester cigarettes, and many also stocked illegal Chinese brand Double Happiness, Korean brand ESSE, imported Marlboro Reds and Winfield Blues, among others. Prices ranged from $17 to $25 per packet – about 50 per cent cheaper than most legitimately taxed plain-packaging equivalents.
Sydney Morning Herald
16 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The move that has killed off Friday-night drinks
Gather round, young workers. Let me tell you a story of what work was like in the olden days. It might sound strange, but once upon a time people across the city would descend upon a central location at the same time, toiling away from Monday to Friday in a common space together. Then, on the final afternoon of the last workday, a small ritual would occur in many workplaces. In some of them, platters laden with 'chips and dips' would materialise on a large table near the kitchen. In others, a drinks cart would be wheeled between cubicles, offering cold drinks to weary workers. And, more often than not, a colleague would appear at your desk to invite you to the pub to digest the week's events and swap upcoming plans for the weekend. These historic vignettes are not from decades in the past, you only need to rewind your memory back to 2019 to remember them. For countless generations, workers celebrated the end of the week by heading to the local watering hole. Today, however, thanks in part to changing ways of working, WFH is killing Friday night drinks. Loading According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, about 40 per cent of Australian employees now spend some of their week under hybrid arrangements, and it's caused a drastic change to how we socialise. The most common days to be in the office? Tuesday to Thursday. And the most likely days to work from home? Mondays and Fridays. But it's not all the fault of WFH, as there's a perfect storm of trends that has led us to this moment. The first is a long-term shift of younger Australians away from alcohol.
The Age
16 minutes ago
- The Age
Secret tobacco storeroom revealed in police raid
New footage has revealed a secret shop door allegedly hiding thousands of illegal cigarettes and vapes. Queensland Health revealed today it has seized about 45 million cigarettes, 350,000 vapes and more than six tonnes of loose-leaf tobacco across the state since November last year. A newly released police video from one raid in Wide Bay, north of Brisbane, in March shows a cabinet concealing a secret storeroom filled with well over 5000 illegally imported cigarette packets. A separate video shows huge quantities of tobacco on a table, with stacks of counterfeit Australian packaging nearby. It comes amid government efforts to curb off-the-books sales, with harsher penalties and additional powers for health authorities announced in May. Last year this masthead revealed importers were flooding the Queensland market with more illegal tobacco than ever before. Brisbane Times visited 10 convenience stores and tobacconists across multiple suburbs in November 2024 – all openly sold Manchester cigarettes, and many also stocked illegal Chinese brand Double Happiness, Korean brand ESSE, imported Marlboro Reds and Winfield Blues, among others. Prices ranged from $17 to $25 per packet – about 50 per cent cheaper than most legitimately taxed plain-packaging equivalents.
