MHLoppy2

• Cabinet documents from 2003 have been unsealed [by the National Archives of Australia, after the documents' confidentiality period expired].
• The documents reveal some of the high-level discussions of the government, including on the Iraq War.
• Much of the deliberations on the war have been kept secret, despite the then-defence minister supporting their release.

[Victorian premier Jeff] Kennett’s press release promoting the event declared this “important Australian culinary delicacy has tantalised Australians since white settlement” and “the pursuit of the best vanilla slice and the best vanilla slice baker in Australia should be of great national interest”.

Proclaimed as a national icon, the vanilla slice is a familiar sight in Australian bakeries – but where did this pastry come from?

We asked them:

• Do you believe the government you currently serve is doing enough to combat domestic violence? (For government MPs)

• What would you like to see the Albanese government do about this issue? (For opposition MPs)

• What active steps have you taken in your communities to help address women dying at the hands of their partners?

• What kind of cultural change do you think would help make a difference in your communities?

Just 20 out of the 92 MPs responded by the original publication time and only ten had answered the questions asked.

Once followed up, 25 responded and 21 answered questions.

• Airbnb misled Australian customers by charging them in US dollars when they made a booking.

• The short-stay accommodation provider has been fined $15 million for breaching consumer law, and will pay $400,000 towards the ACCC's costs.

• Airbnb will also spend about $15 million to compensate more than 63,000 affected customers.

Several Westpac Bank customers are experiencing outages using their phone and online banking.

The bank has acknowledged they are aware of the issue in a statement.

The issue is also impacting St George customers, which is owned by Westpac Bank

Westpac also owns Bank of Melbourne, BankSA, BT and RAMS.

Reports about the exact scope of the outage currently differ wildly. Some outlets saying "thousands" some saying "millions", some saying "intermittent", some not.

Edit: literally while I was confirming the scope, apparently service started being restored.

Online and phone banking has been restored to most Westpac Bank customers after an outage that lasted a number of hours.

Chemist Warehouse has struck a deal with Sigma Healthcare to create the biggest pharmacy company in Australia [...] a company with a value in excess of $8.8 billion.

It also makes Sigma Healthcare a substantially bigger player in the market. Right now, Sigma has a market capitalisation of $810 million — but the deal grows its value by almost 11 times.

But it's not only the monetary value of the company that makes this such a big deal — it would also make it one of the top 100 companies listed on the ASX.

The merger will create three tiers of pharmacy that won't compete with each other: the big box discount (Chemist Warehouse), the full service (Amcal, My Chemist) and the discount (Discount Drug Stores).

(The article isn't that long, but its content is hard to summarize without significant information loss.)

Temporary migration has jumped sharply over the past year — largely driven by foreign students — leading to a record intake. This was previously described as a post-COVID 19 influx of returning foreign students, but the ABC understands the government believes this is more than a one-off surge.

As part of the new migration strategy — which has already been signed off by cabinet and follows months of consultation with the higher education sector, business groups and other stakeholders — steps will be taken to cut the intake of foreign students entering low-quality courses.

The ABC understands the government will not cap the number of foreign students allowed in but will crack down on low-quality training providers and limit opportunities for student visas to be used as a backdoor for low-skilled workers to stay in Australia.

The new strategy will also involve new efforts to retain the best-performing students in Australia and new pathways to attract more high-skilled permanent migrants.

"People are coming here, enrolling in courses that don't really add substantially to either their skills base or to the national interest here," Mr Albanese said.

Coverage from SBS has a bit more background on the "why" for those interested.

Edit: ABC has some followup coverage of its own, mostly on the "what".

While a new [Senate] inquiry looks set to examine [Coles and Woolworths'] profit margins, New Zealand offers a lesson in just how difficult it is to disrupt a duopoly. [They have] no Aldi or IGA, and the duopoly there has also faced allegations of price gouging.

The New Zealand competition watchdog has already held a market study into why food costs so much in Aotearoa and established a grocery commissioner to help implement its recommendations.

But 18 months down the line, Kiwis are still reporting their grocery bill as a major financial concern — for the first time, some families are struggling with the cost of putting food on the table.

Based on this experience, advocacy group Consumer NZ said an inquiry could be helpful to establish the facts around whether or not supermarket giants were making more than what was fair.

But they warned the process was slow, and ultimately if it did not lead to bold changes, the business of selling food to Australians was likely to continue being a very closed, and expensive, shop.

• Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest is attending the COP28 climate conference in the United Arab Emirates.
• He says energy bosses should have their heads "put up on spikes" for not committing to phase out fossil fuels.
• It comes as some companies, including the national oil company of the UAE, defy calls for a wind-down of fossil fuel use.

Quote with context:

And he took particular aim at the oil and gas bosses who were dismissing the calls, describing them as "selfish beyond belief".

He said their actions were jeopardising the lives of millions of people in overwhelmingly poor countries who were at risk of "lethal humidity", or an inability to cool themselves down. "If you can't cool yourself you're actually an oven burning around 100 watts all the time," Dr Forrest said.

"If you can [sic] get rid of that heat energy, you cook.

"And when these deaths occur — and they're occurring now, but when they occur at much larger-scale — I want these so-called people who are very smart to be held to account.

"It's their heads which should be put up on spikes because they wilfully ignored and they didn't care."

• Mike Pezzullo was a central architect and inaugural boss of the Home Affairs Department.
• He has been stood down on full pay pending an inquiry into his conduct.
• Changes to secretary pay and conditions mean Mr Pezzullo might not receive a termination payment.

One of the most powerful figures in the public service has been sacked after leaked conversations revealed the depths of his attempts to influence the government on policy and the shape of government.

Mike Pezzullo, the head of the Home Affairs Department, was considered one of the most influential figures in the machinery of government even before alleged private conversations with a Liberal powerbroker exposed he had seemingly spent years using a political backchannel to influence prime ministers and undermine others.

[...]

The inquiry found Mr Pezzullo had broken the public service code of conduct on at least 14 occasions. The breaches included:

• Using his duty, power, status or authority to seek to gain a benefit or advantage for himself
• Engaged in gossip and disrespectful critique of ministers and public servants
• Failed to maintain confidentiality of sensitive government information
• Failed to act apolitically in his employment
• Failed to disclose a conflict of interest