Unaccountable, unfair, poorly managed deployments of such everyday AI systems have the potential to cause enormous harm.

We’ve seen Robodebt harm hundreds of thousands of Australians. Sexist AI-enabled job recruitment tools, AI-enabled stadium security systems that let a gun into the Melbourne Cricket Ground, racist policing algorithms, and AI meal-planners that recommend poisonous recipes are just a few among thousands of examples of everyday AI harms and risks.

In short:

NSW Premier Chris Minns and Police Minister Yasmin Catley could be forced to give evidence in court in a case related to February's protest at Sydney's Town Hall.

The pair, along with Tourism Minister Steve Kamper and senior police, have been served subpoenas to shed light on planning of the police operation.

The politicians and police have been approached for comment.

The NSW premier and two ministers could be forced to give evidence in court during the week of the state election, in the criminal case against protesters who opposed the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The party’s leader, Ellen Sandell, lambasted Labor’s decision on Tuesday to run an open ticket in Prahran, an inner Melbourne seat currently held by the Liberals’ Rachel Westaway on a tiny 1.3% margin.

It means Labor’s how-to-vote material will encourage voters to place their candidate, Meghan Hopper, first on the ballot but will not direct them how to allocate their remaining preferences. Instead, the remaining boxes on its how-to-vote material will probably remain blank.

Labor preferences are key to the Greens cinching back the seat, which they lost in a 2025 byelection.

Caught in the crossfire? Sweeping crackdown on Rising Tide raises questions

By Madeline Link
November 11 2026 - 1:43pm

City of Newcastle's blanket ban on Rising Tide events has raised questions about whether the move in effect bans all protest on Newcastle council-owned land or opens the council up to legal challenges.

Fury erupted at Tuesday night's meeting after Newcastle lord mayor Gavin Morris used his casting vote to push through a motion banning Rising Tide and its associates or affiliated groups from using community-owned land for events, now and into the future.

Rising Tide spokeswoman Alexa Stuart said the move was one of the "most extreme measures" to repress protest by a local council.

"Last night's motion was outrageous, unprecedented and frankly a betrayal to the people of Newcastle," Ms Stuart said.

"We have seen the true colours of the lord mayor, Gavin Morris, who this morning on radio confirmed that he was comfortable in banning any group associated with Rising Tide, explicitly including Free Palestine, from holding events or protests on council land.

"The scope of this anti-democratic measure is quite unhinged and deeply concerning."

The Newcastle Herald has contacted groups including Free Palestine Newcastle, the Knitting Nannas and Food Not Bombs for comment.

Rising Tide spokesman Zack Schofield called the "desperate attempt" to "suppress protest" proof that Rising Tide had been effective in building pressure against the world's largest coal port.

"Newcastle residents who understand the urgency of climate change should be appalled that their local government has decided to side with fossil fuel corporates, and they should join us," Mr Schofield said.

"History is made by those who show up, and governments cannot arrest or suppress their way out of the climate crisis."

Mr Schofield said Rising Tide did not need an event licence from City of Newcastle to gather and protest peacefully on public land.

He confirmed Paddle for the Planet will go ahead on Saturday at Horseshoe beach, as will future protests.

"Over movement to defend our future will continue to grow until there is an urgent phase out of coal mining and coal exports, including a fast, fair and funded transition to support coal workers and communities of the Hunter Region."

On 1233 ABC Radio Newcastle on Wednesday morning, the lord mayor was asked whether a rally to free Palestine would be allowed on council-owned land under the ban.

"Um, well, no, yes, correct. So they have been a part of Rising Tide that we know of. Yes," Cr Morris said.

"But you might have unwittingly or unintentionally banned a bunch of groups that might want to have a rally about something else entirely here?" interviewer Paul Culliver asked.

"I would feel comfortable with that," Cr Morris said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Cr Morris told the Herald the ban was "purely towards Rising Tide".

"We don't want Rising Tide to organise another protest under another name of one of those associated groups," Cr Morris said.

"So that is why that was put there, because there are now different arms and those groups are working together."

Cr Morris clarified the ban was "not necessarily" aimed at a free Palestine rally, but was about Rising Tide using other group names "as a facade" to hold events.

"I think the applications as they come through can be judged on their merit," Cr Morris said. As for potential future legal challenges, Cr Morris said he has done what he can, and anything beyond the lord mayoral minute is a legal matter.

Rising Tide plans to hold a Paddle for the Planet event on Saturday, which does not require council approval, and its People's Blockade in February next year, which requires council approval to use council-owned land for camping.

On Tuesday night, Labor councillor Declan Clausen crossed the floor, voting in favour of the lord mayoral minute despite his Labor colleagues voting against it.

"I recognise the right of people to advocate for stronger climate action, but supporting that cause does not require council to facilitate every method of protest, particularly when it is then used to justify acts of non-compliance and significant safety," Cr Clausen said at Tuesday's meeting.

"I also acknowledge that I went to the Newcastle community at the 2026 lord mayoral by-election with a clear position on Rising Tide's use of council land, as just a clear matter of principle, I believe that it's important that I vote in a manner that is consistent with the commitments that I made to voters at that election."

Cr Clausen did not participate in the council's consideration of Rising Tide's application last year because of a conflict of interest, but on Tuesday said those circumstances no longer applied.

Australian Alliance 4 Palestine has organised rallies

Demanding an End to State Repression. Across the country, people are coming together to stand against the criminalisation of political speech and defend our right to protest.

Both governments framed the mission as neighbours helping each other. The embassy points out that during Australia's 2020 bushfires Indonesia sent personnel from its national disaster management agency and its military to help, under Operation Bushfire Assist.

For the NSW crews the work is familiar, even if the terrain is not. A large air tanker over burning peat faces the same problem as one over Australian bush: the fire often smoulders underground, so water from above can knock down flames and slow the spread, but it cannot put out the peat by itself. The air operation is scheduled to end on 12 November. Any extension will depend on what the next joint assessment finds.

Another great opinion piece, imv, about the US elections/ Australian data centre issue +.

Where data centres were on the ballots, Americans voted no – so comprehensively that just one of the 41 ballots passed...

We know Australians don’t like data centres, but so far it’s not as all-encompassing a public issue.

But Australian governments have a history of being suckers to industry. We did it with fossil fuels and we have started doing it with AI companies. Now that the US has hit a stumbling block on approvals, Big Tech will start looking for the next good-enough sucker to keep their growth plans on track...

Australia is primed to be that sucker. Not because the public wants it. Not because there are any demonstrable benefits to people. Certainly not because we have the resources to spare. And not because we’ll even own it. But because our governments love to be wrong in the “right” company...

The playbook is almost exactly the same as fossil fuels – despite not contributing much, if anything, to the economic prosperity of Australian citizens (in fact, the opposite), the AI industry is presenting itself to Australia as the backbone of a future economy – it just needs subsidies, Australian resources and tax write-offs to one day have it recognised.

We’re not all in yet, but we don’t have a great history of standing up to these robber barons.

In America, you could see the shift happening as tech overlords worked out they need to care about some sort of social licence, with the focus increasingly on linking renewable energy with AI.

But renewables are good for the environment only if they replace fossil fuels. That part of the equation is never made as public as it should be in these conversations. It’s not hard to see where that shift ends up – renewable energy companies suddenly seeing potential in what were unviable projects if they promise to power data centres – with both taking the “reasonable” position that fossil fuels like gas will have to underwrite the project in the short term.

In the US, the blue-nami hit so hard that creatures like OpenAI boss Sam Altman immediately began talking about how “people should always be in control of the future” and “people should not cede control of the future to superintelligence, and that requirement should ultimately constrain AI progress”.

Or – and stay with me here – governments working for people should constrain Big Tech, which is actively working against people. And the planet. Because that’s what people and the planet need.

Australia has a habit of having these conversations vertically, or top down, when they affect people horizontally – as in all of us, across the board.

Despite Donald Trump demanding that Americans get behind the data centre boom, communities are pushing back against Big Tech, questioning who benefits from the AI gold rush and taking that anger to the ballot box.

It’s a message politicians ignore at their peril and a stark warning for Australia. It reinforces a question I’ve been asking for a while: are AI data centres worth it, and what are Australians actually getting in return?

Recent Capital Brief Demos polling found just 23% of Australians believe the country should lead the world in hosting data centres, while 37% oppose any further construction. Only 24% believe data centres are good for Australia’s economic development, and 44% don’t think they benefit ordinary Australians.

... we’ve got to keep asking the tough questions: will these data centres pay their fair share of tax? How will we protect our art and culture from being scraped to train AI models? And what regulations will genuinely protect communities from having their energy and water siphoned off to server and bot farms?

We need digital infrastructure, secure domestic data storage and computing capacity to support our economy and public services.

But there is a fundamental difference between building infrastructure Australians need and allowing big US tech companies to establish enormous industrial facilities near our homes, schools and farms while communities absorb the costs.

Trump’s war, not government spending, is driving Australia’s inflation

Australia’s moderate level of inflation is being driven by the increase in the world price of oil, which was caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz after the United States and Israel attacked Iran. More recently, the boom in data centres has been pushing up prices of construction and energy.

Higher interest rates will do nothing to slow either of these causes of inflation, and nor will cuts in spending.

The six ideas make a lot of sense (mostly) but I'm disappointed there's no mention of AUKUS.

American voters sent a warning about what happens when governments lose sight of citizens' daily lives. Aussie voters want affordable groceries and housing, better aged care, and a secure future for our kids and Country. If Anthony Albanese keeps telling us those things are too expensive while continuing to waste billions on AUKUS, an electoral reckoning will follow.

United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese named Palantir among the companies profiting from an “economy of genocide”.

DPC spokesperson Subhi Awad said public money is still flowing to Palantir through the Future Fund, which holds $114.6 million in Palantir shares, and government agencies continue to purchase Palantir technology.

“Westpac didn’t wake up with a conscience,” Justice for Palestine Magan-djin spokesperson Remah Naji said. “We made its relationship with Palantir a liability.

[Sign up for updates about the next Dump Palantir Coalition campaign.]

DE-PAYWALLED ARCHIVE LINK: https://archive.is/9Hi33

Doctors fear Catholic takeover of NSW hospitals will usher in ‘religious doctrine’

Rachel Rasker
November 2, 2026 — 7:30pm

Senior doctors at a NSW hospital have demanded the government intervene before an imminent takeover by a Catholic provider they fear will lead to widespread service cuts for expectant mothers and cancer patients.

Calvary Health Care will take over 16 hospitals nationwide by the end of this month after the financial collapse of Healthscope, including four in Sydney and two in the Hunter.

The acquisitions will more than double the hospital portfolio of the Catholic not-for-profit, which has a “mission to bring the healing ministry of Jesus to those who are sick”, according to its website.

Clinicians have raised concerns about the provider’s expansion from 14 hospitals to 30 within a year, affecting about 2140 beds nationwide, with reproductive and voluntary assisted dying (VAD) services at risk at facilities including Norwest Private, Lady Davidson Hospital in North Turramurra, Brisbane Private, Darwin Private and Hunter Valley Private.

Calvary follows Catholic Health Australia’s Code of Ethical Standards, which bars contraception, termination of pregnancy, IVF services and VAD.

The concerns are most acute in Newcastle, where the only private maternity hospital between Sydney and the Queensland border is located. The city is also a major centre for cancer treatment and palliative care.

At Newcastle Private, doctors were informed via email that Calvary’s “clinical governance, mission and ethical frameworks would apply”, but were assured that clinical implications would be discussed “openly and respectfully” before transition arrangements were finalised.

Dr Peter Harrigan, a consultant anaesthetist who has worked at Newcastle Private for 20 years, said Calvary should not impose its values on patients or restrict access to services offered for decades.

“I’m very concerned this institution may refuse to continue services that [Newcastle Private] already deliver, that doctors are already well practised and skilled at ... on the basis of Catholic religious doctrine,” Harrigan said. “I don’t think that is justified.”

Hospital staff described a lack of consultation about which services would be affected, and that a staff forum on October 22 was the first meeting with Calvary leaders. Several doctors in attendance described answers about reproductive and VAD services as evasive.

“They were desperate not to actually say anything definitive,” Harrigan said.

Clinicians said the government should step in and make Calvary’s licence conditional on not cutting existing services.

Community members were invited to “have your say” through NSW Health’s website, but Harrigan said staff were not informed about this. Feedback was limited to 1000 characters and the webpage did not name Calvary, instead referring to it by its ABN entity title, LCMHC 2 Limited.

A Newcastle Private nurse not authorised to speak publicly said: “It feels very tokenistic, when it’s a fail-safe for them to say, ‘well, we did provide this … but we’re not sharing it anywhere, not telling anyone about it, not making it commonly known’.”

Obstetrician Dr Denise Nesbitt, who has delivered between 5000 and 6000 babies in a 40-year career in the region, said restrictions on reproductive services could contribute to a service desert in the region.

Nesbitt said services she was concerned about included tubal ligation during caesarean sections and termination of pregnancy due to foetal abnormalities.

“To take that choice from women in 2026 is really disturbing,” she said, and raised concerns about possible impacts on single mothers and LGBTQ patients and staff.

A doctor at the hospital not authorised to speak publicly said patients at Calvary’s other facility in the region, Calvary Mater, were often transferred to Newcastle Private for VAD. He said this was already a “frustrating” arrangement which would need to be diverted to another service.

Go Gentle chief executive Dr Linda Swan said transfers were highly distressing for acutely unwell patients.

“You’re talking about people who are dying and in the last days of their life,” Swan said. “Transferring them to another facility is incredibly difficult when these people struggle to even get out of bed.”

Swan said even if Calvary staff did not provide VAD, they should allow trained practitioners onsite, and backed calls for the government to intervene.

“This is an issue of government ensuring that there’s fair and equitable access to a legally available healthcare service,” Swan said.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park did not commit to an intervention over the licence transfer but said IVF, terminations, contraceptive procedures and VAD remain available outside of Newcastle Private.

He said the local health district would work to meet local demand for services either within NSW Health facilities or through other local private providers.

Doctors raised concerns about the added pressure this could place on already overstretched public hospitals.

Calvary Health Care declined to comment. NSW Health did not respond to requests for comment.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his government lack the credibility to lead international climate negotiations at next week’s COP31 summit in Türkiye, according to academics.

More than 500 experts from Australian universities and research institutes have urged the Prime Minister to end approvals for new or expanded coal, oil and gas projects, arguing Australia cannot demand climate action from other countries while continuing to green-light fossil fuel projects at home.

😆

The short article provides a great summary of all the AUKUS issues that have been considered by the AUKUS inquiry.

The report findings and recommendations will be presented this Wednesday 4th by Peter Garrett and Chris Barrie. You can watch on ABC 24 at 12.30pm AEDT at https://iview.abc.net.au/show/national-press-club-address

On Sunday, the New South Wales police launched a permanent special unit to patrol tourist areas, crowded public spaces, major events, sporting matches and places of worship – armed with military rifles.

The new patrol unit was promised in the wake of the Bondi terror attack and has been welcomed by sections of the Jewish community, with police saying it aims to deter threats and better position police to respond to armed offender attacks. But the decision to heavily arm the unit has been met with a mixed response from experts and civil liberties groups, with some warning against the potential for “mission creep” and the “American-style militarisation of our police force”.

Nobody elected Jillian Segal. Anthony Albanese appointed her in July 2024. She has drafted a blueprint for policing a nation’s political life.

Her October priorities report decides who may march and whether masked, which academics keep grants, which artists keep commissions, which visa holders stay and who judges the ABC and SBS. One unelected envoy, answerable to no voter, proposing state supervision of what Australians say about a foreign country.

this makes me feel awful. how do we fight this?

“Trust has been broken,” says a senior Labor party source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. “Unions don’t believe this government has been focused on working people because they haven’t been.”

Labor insiders say tension between the industrial and parliamentary wings of the movement is nothing new and when appropriately managed, it can lead to policy change and better ideas.

“That has thoroughly broken down,” said one senior Labor source. “It’s been broken to such an extent that unions are now left with no option but to pursue their member interests at the exclusion of our political interests.”

One senior Labor source was more direct. He told colleagues criticising unions to stop doing so.

“This is a problem within our movement,” they say. “Anyone who say unions should subjugate their members’ interests to us as the political wing of the movement should not earn positions of authority.”

“We are absolutely not campaigning for Labor,” says Lucy Honan, a state councillor with the Australian Education Union in Melbourne. “I can’t even describe to you the sense of anger we have. It’s desperation and anger.”

The Health and Community Services Union, meanwhile, has eight members running this election – none for the Labor party it is affiliated with. Its secretary, Paul Healey, has signed off on flyers encouraging members to support the Greens and Socialist candidates.