Key events
Caitlin Cassidy
Student writing skills have declined for more than a decade, new NAPLAN analysis reveals, prompting the creation of new resources to explicitly teach writing across all subject areas.
The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) analysis, released on Thursday, found average NAPLAN scores for persuasive writing skills had fallen since 2011, with particularly pronounced dips in Years 7 and 9.
In response, AERO has released a framework to provide professional learning for teachers to explicitly teach and assess writing across different subject areas like maths and science.
AERO Ceo, Jenny Donovan, said improving students’ writing skills was a “national challenge”.
Teaching writing isn’t just the task of English teachers; it is an important skill in all subject areas and requires explicit and systematic instruction by both primary and secondary teachers.
When teachers have a shared language for discussing sentence structure, grammar and punctuation, it supports a cohesive and consistent approach to teaching writing and assessment.
Australia sanctions more Russian individuals and groups
Josh Butler
The federal government has imposed sanctions on a further 37 Russians and seven groups, in response to the war in Ukraine.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, and the defence minister, Richard Marles, said it was part of “further action to support Ukraine and hold Russia to account for its illegal and immoral war”, in addition to sending an aircraft and 100 ADF personnel to Europe, as we brought you earlier.
“As part of the Albanese government’s ongoing work to hold Russia to account for its illegal invasion of Ukraine, Australia has also today imposed another wave of sanctions designed to further weaken Russia’s war economy,” the ministers said.
This includes new targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on 37 individuals, and targeted financial sanctions on seven entities. These sanctions target Russia’s defence, energy, transport, insurance, electronics and finance sectors, as well as promulgators of Russian disinformation and propaganda.
Individuals sanctioned include some involved in shipping companies, a Russian oil producer, banking firms and entities including electronics manufacturers.
Wong said: “Australia remains steadfast in our support for Ukraine and in our commitment to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.
Our targeted sanctions reflect our close coordination with key Nato partners, including the UK, Canada and the European Union.
Wong said it meant Australia had now imposed more than 1,500 sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion and that the government “will continue to work with partners to disrupt Russia’s ability to fund its illegal and immoral war”.
Henry Belot
One of Australia’s wealthiest and most exclusive private schools, Scotch College in Melbourne, has written a poem to solicit donations from its financial supporters.
As Guardian Australia reported earlier today, the Albanese government has been urged to end an “outrageous” and “cruel joke” that incentivises donations to Australia’s richest private schools in return for a tax deduction.
That view isn’t shared by private schools and their peak body, which argues these tax deductible donations to finance school buildings are “essential” and that they benefit the broader local community.
On Wednesday morning, the Scotch College Foundation sent its supporters a six paragraph poem to “solicit your dough”. The email, sent days before the end of the financial year, noted donations to the school’s “archive and museum fund are tax deductible”.
At the risk of violating Guardian Australia’s word count, here is the poem in full:
Walk With Us
In stone, in gate, in path and name, The echoes of our founders flame. Their vision, bold, still lights our way— A beacon burning bright today.
Beneath the trees where stories grow, Where reverence and progress flow, We raise our hands to give, to build, To shape the dreams that they once willed.
Let Forbes arise in sculpted grace, A founder’s soul etched into place. At Glenferrie’s gates, let heritage gleam— A centenary reminder of Littlejohn’s dream.
In Ballarat, where Lawson lies, Restore his rest beneath the skies. For all who lead must be revered, Their memory held, their purpose clear.
Along the trail in Hawthorn’s heart, We’ll walk the past as future’s start. Each step, a lesson, our path well known. A history proudly claimed, our own.
So join this cause, stand side by side, With faith, with pride, in grateful stride. Your gift upholds the legacy— A story shaped by you and me.
Chris Minns accuses Mark Latham of being ‘one of the most bigoted MPs in the country’
Anne Davies
It’s all been pretty fiery in NSW parliament’s final question time before the winter break.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has lashed the former Labor figure turned One Nation turned independent Mark Latham, in NSW parliament’s question time, calling him one of the “most bigoted MPs in the country”.
And three people were thrown out of the public gallery for protesting against the ongoing military activity in Gaza.
An attack by Latham on the independent Alex Greenwich on Tuesday night under privilege seems to have been the final straw for the premier but certainly not the only reason.
Minns also cited his attacks on domestic violence campaigner Rosie Battie; his “odious” X account, which he said was “filled with antisemitism”, and his support for the Dural caravan inquiry, which has induced Minns’ personal staff to appear under threat of being arrested for failing to comply with summonses.
Latham has also been siding with the opposition and the Greens (plus other independents) and has blocked several key pieces of legislation that the government dearly wanted to pass, including reforms to the workers’ compensation Laws. Minns said:
I am reminded of the old adage: never wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty. But this is one of the most bigoted MPs in the country.
His attorney general, Michael Daley, warned that Donald Trump was the albatross around former Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s neck and that Latham would be similarly a lead weight for NSW opposition leader Mark Speakman.
Life sentences for ‘horrific’ toolbox murders
Three men found guilty of the “horrific” murder of two people who drowned in a toolbox have been given a 30-year life sentence.
Cory Breton, 28, and Iuliana Triscaru, 31, were killed at Kingston in Logan, south of Brisbane, on 24 January 2016.
The pair had been beaten, stabbed and choked before they were stuffed into a 2-metre-long toolbox.
Stou Daniels, Davy Malu Junior Taiao and Trent Michael Thrupp were found guilty of the pair’s murder for a second time after a retrial.
Justice Glenn Martin said they had engaged in “appalling conduct” when he sentenced the trio in the Queensland supreme court on Thursday.
“It is difficult to imagine the immense terror they felt in the hours leading up to their deaths,” he said.
Justice Martin accepted crown prosecutor Nathan Crane’s submission that the three defendants should serve 30 years instead of the mandatory 20-year minimum.
All three defendants have already spent more than nine years in custody, which was recognised as time served.
– Australian Associated Press
Luca Ittimani
Nearly 340,000 jobs are unfilled in Australia, including an extra 10,000 positions left vacant February as workers shortages remain difficult to fill.
The near-3% increase in the number of job vacancies in the three months to May followed a small fall over the three months to February, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data out today.
Construction jobs and those in professional, scientific and technical services contributed the most to the uptick, with thousands of skilled positions left unfilled.
Health workers are still in high demand but the number of vacancies has declined from nearly 62,000 open jobs in May 2024 to nearly 55,000 last month.
Businesses’ struggle to find workers is a key risk the Reserve Bank has warned of as it cutting interest rates at its next board meeting in July, with governor Michele Bullock warning in May a persistently tight labour market and strong job growth a sign it could be too soon for more rate cuts.
Unfilled jobs spiked in 2022 to a high of 474,000 before falling below 330,000 in August 2024, but instead of continuing their fall, they’ve stayed at that high ever since. Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said:
Compared with May 2024, the number of job vacancies in May 2025 was down by 9,600, or 2.8 per cent. This was the smallest annual fall in job vacancies in the last two years.
Over the year, the number of unemployed people for each job vacancy grew from 1.7 to 1.8. This is well below the pre-pandemic level of 3.1 in February 2020, indicating there is still high labour demand.
A rate cut is expected in July, with markets almost fully pricing in a full 25-basis-point cut this morning after inflation data yesterday fell lower than expected, but economists have warned the meeting will be a “close call”. Read more here:
Andrew Messenger
Queensland budget in reply speech ends with ‘small target’ attack
And Queensland’s budget reply has come to an end after about an hour.
Its main theme was a criticism that the LNP in government and opposition tents to shy away from big fights and instead presents a “small target”. All the good ideas in the budget, Steven Miles said, were rebranded Labor ones, and he said there was little else.
It’s a line of attack he’s prosecuted from his time as premier before losing last October’s election.
The elephant in the room is that Queensland’s conservative parties have a historically terrible record of re-election. The last non-Labor premier to win a second term was Joh Bjelkie-Petersen – in 1969.
Miles said “this is the budget of a government that cares only about itself and its longevity”. He said:
I know this premier’s ego is obsessed with not being a one term LNP premier. Instead of focusing on his re-election campaign in 2028 though, I call on the premier to focus on the now, here today, when people are struggling to pay the rent or turn the lights on.
It strikes me that the premier has gotten so good at being a small target that he doesn’t even know what he stands for any more. He’s mastered the art of saying nothing so well. I’m not even sure he remembers what he believes in. You can’t be a small target in government. You can’t fix big problems by playing small. But that’s all he knows how to do. You can’t just show, you can’t show up here just because you like the sound of your own voice.
I say to Queenslanders: don’t let them treat you like this.
Andrew Messenger
Steven Miles reveals housing commitments in budget in reply speech
The budget in reply speech by the Queensland opposition leader, Steven Miles, continues.
He’s made two major commitments, both of them relating to the state’s housing crisis.
A Labor government elected in 2028 would extend 50% land tax concessions for build to rent projects which include a social housing element, he said.
And he would bring back a free Tafe program in order to train the workers he said would be needed to build them. He said:
Unfortunately, young Queenslanders researching Tafe training today are faced with a web page telling them that free Tafe has run out under this government.
Miles said the government had instead taken a Nimby approach, cancelling a number of housing projects and undermining his government’s “state facilitated development” process, reducing approvals.
How can we expect to deliver the homes of the future if this LNP government is standing in the way of progress, literally canceling projects and winding back planning short cuts? It’s like the government is playing a game of stakes and ladders with itself but removing all the ladders.
That’s why this government should direct the planning department to continue to pursue state facilitated development as one mechanism to increase housing supply.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland Labor claims LNP has banned land acknowledgments from some public service email signatures
Queensland’s Labor opposition claims the government has banned members of the public service from making land acknowledgements in their email signature.
An internal departmental directive shows that members of at least one agency have been given a “strict directive” about branding in emails.
“Departments are no longer permitted to add additional departmental branding elements such as the First Nations acknowledgment” to email signatures, it says.
The shadow minister for reconciliation, Leanne Enoch, asked the minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Fiona Simpson, if the government had consulted on the decision.
“I have been consulting with the communities of Palm Island about the fact they want to have the dignity of owning their own homes. I have been consulting with communities such as Kowanyama … where they were indicating that there is more than just a gap. There is a hole in regard to frontline services,” Simpson said.
Nobody brought up signature blocks.
The Liberal National party’s first act in government was to cancel the state’s pathway to treaty process and close its truth telling and healing inquiry.
Steven Miles begins Queensland budget reply speech
Andrew Messenger
Labor leader Steven Miles has kicked off his budget reply speech in Queensland parliament.
Last year’s pre-election budget was absolutely packed with cost of living relief, and Miles has focused on the relative lack of giveaways in Tuesday’s.
It was the first LNP budget in a decade, since premier Campbell Newman lost office in 2015. Partly through enormous borrowings
The speech is tipped to focus on housing and putting food on the table, but it’s unclear if it will include new major policy announcements. Miles’ speech has been much less awaited than Crisafulli’s address last year, in which he announced much of the party’s agenda in government. With the state election not due for three years it’s unlikely Labor will do the same thing this year.
With an election slated for Tasmania next month – which may lead to a toppling of the state’s year conservative government after 11 years in power – Crisafulli may wind up the only Coalition premier in the country.
Labor spent much of question time demanding answers on capital projects supposedly unfunded by the new government, and complaining about a change in colour in state branding from maroon to blue, supposedly an act of treason in State of Origin season.
