Gas producers to be forced to set aside 20% of exports for east coast reserve
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Gas companies will be forced to set aside 20% of export volumes for domestic use under a reservation scheme designed to shore up supplies and bring down prices for households and businesses on the east coast.
The federal government announced the final design of the gas reservation on Thursday after consultation with industry and other stakeholders.
Key events
Penry Buckley
NSW premier denies making phone call at centre of alleged donations scandal
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has denied making a secret phone call about what to do with undeclared donations amid reports the state’s election watchdog has reopened an investigation into the decade-old incident.
Last year, a former NSW Labor staffer gave secret evidence to an upper house parliamentary committee claiming that he was phoned in 2014 by Minns, then a candidate for the seat of Kogarah, asking what to do with thousands of dollars from a fundraiser at the Sunny Harbour Seafood restaurant in Hurstville after he and his campaign allegedly staff failed to keep a record of the sources.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported today that the NSW Electoral Commission (EC) had reopened its investigation, closed in 2023, and was conducting interviews about the donations.
Asked today if he or his staff were being interviewed as part of a potential investigation, Minns said:
Look, I’m in a difficult position, I can’t comment about ongoing investigations, whether they’re taking place or not, so, but I would say that I absolutely reject any suggestions I’ve committed any offence in relation to this or any other electoral matter.
… More specifically, I specifically reject any suggestion of a phone conversation with an individual suggesting that I was part of some conspiracy relating to donations and having them apply or sneak through the Electoral Commission.
The NSW EC declined to comment or confirm whether it was conducting an investigation, as per its compliance and enforcement publication policy.
Luca Ittimani
Former Age editor says it’s a ‘failure of journalism’ that Jewish stories were not heard until royal commission
Michael Gawenda, the former editor-in-chief of the Age newspaper, has said surprise at the Jewish people’s testimony to the royal commission showed the Australian media had failed to cover antisemitism.
Gawenda said, as he had entered the royal commission today to give evidence, a reporter told him they had not until this week’s testimony been aware of Jewish people’s experiences of abuse. Gawenda said:
This is a failure of journalism. Why weren’t these stories told before? Why was there a need to have a royal commission to tell these stories? … The excuse cannot be that they didn’t have the journalists to do it.
He went on:
How is it possible that a journalist [didn’t know]? … I know how it’s possible: because the media didn’t cover these issues.
Gawenda said he believed the Australian media had minimised antisemitism and could start to deny opportunities to reporters who did not oppose Israel.
My concern is that there’ll be this bar, that if you’re a journalist, Jewish or not Jewish, who supports the state of Israel or is not an anti-Zionist, you’re unlikely to get a job.
Luca Ittimani
Israeli musician had to stop performing after cancellation campaign, royal commission hears
An Israeli musician in Australia had to stop performing after facing efforts to cancel his shows and being told he was a “baby killer”, the royal commission into antisemitism has heard.
The man, who spoke under the pseudonym ABK, moved to Australia in 2020 after completing his compulsory military service in the Israeli Defence Force. He said:
I’m very proud of my service. Back in my service, I saved a lot of innocent lives, Palestinians and a lot of other innocent lives of different countries that I’m not allowed to say.
He is a multi-instrumentalist who collaborated with other musicians in Australia and sings in different languages including Hebrew and English, he said. He was in Israel on 7 October 2023 while visiting family. He said:
I lost full trust. My first anger was towards the Israeli government, as that was my absolutely personal feelings, and since then it’s obviously a much more complicated matter.
When he returned to Australia, he played a show in Melbourne, where he said a few attenders began shouting “free Palestine” at him. He said:
We didn’t expect to have something like that, obviously, after what happened.
His efforts to arrange an Israeli-themed night he had previously run in Australia were rejected, he said. He was told people were contacting venues to cancel his shows and he began receiving online messages describing him and his band as “genocide supporters” and “baby killers”. Photos of him in his Israeli Defence Force uniform were posted online, which he said he believed were hacked from his personal social media.
ASX continues upswing as Iran mulls US peace proposal
The Australian share market is on track for a second straight session of gains, as oil prices eased on hopes of a potential peace deal between the United States and Iran, AAP reports.
The S&P/ASX200 gained 0.85% by noon as the broader All Ordinaries gained 0.89%. The continued upswing followed a positive session on Wall Street, following reports that the US had proposed a memorandum of understanding to Iran to end the war.
Energy stocks tumbled 3.1% as Brent crude fell to US$101.50 a barrel, dropping more than 10% since Tuesday and weighing on oil and gas giants Woodside and Santos.
The Australian dollar was buying US72.47 cents, up slightly from US72.30 cents on Wednesday at 5pm, buoyed by improving risk sentiment and a weaker greenback.
Gas producers to be forced to set aside 20% of exports for east coast reserve
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Gas companies will be forced to set aside 20% of export volumes for domestic use under a reservation scheme designed to shore up supplies and bring down prices for households and businesses on the east coast.
The federal government announced the final design of the gas reservation on Thursday after consultation with industry and other stakeholders.
Ima Caldwell
More frosty scenes this morning, this time from Falls Creek, Victoria. A light dusting of snow fell over the village this morning, with local temperatures dipping as low as -5.6C overnight.
NSW health system ‘not safe for Jewish people’, Sydney nurse manager tells royal commission
Luca Ittimani
A nurse manager for a New South Wales health district has said her department has left the healthcare system “not safe for Jewish people”.
The Sydney resident and dual Australian-Israeli citizen, under the pseudonym “AAV”, told the antisemitism royal commission her cousin was killed and was the last hostage to be returned to Israel after being taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October 2023.
AAV said she put posters of the hostages on the wall in her office space in the hospital, and wore a necklace and yellow ribbon in memory of the hostages in the weeks after the attack. She said her manager told her to remove them “because of the likelihood of them upsetting or offending other people”.
As recently as December 2025, her request to share a “happy Hanukah” message was rejected by her hospital’s media team over sensitivities about the Gaza war, she said, adding:
NSW Health …. having tolerated this behaviour, it means that the health care system is not only not safe for Jewish people. It’s potentially not safe for anyone that comes from some sort of diverse background.”
AAV said some of her colleagues in NSW Health had made offensive comments to her:
They’ll pass me in a corridor and just sort of say, ‘Oh shame on you’ or ‘you must be really ashamed to belong to a group of child killers’. I’ve also been called Zionist scum. I’ve had staff pass me and try to justify the response of Hamas on Israel. … It made me feel very targeted, at times very disempowered.
Luca Ittimani
Jewish climate justice director was encouraged to resign, royal commission hears
Stephanie Cunio, a Sephardi and Mizrahi Jew, has told the antisemitism royal commission she felt she had to step down from her role in a climate group after 7 October 2023.
Cunio said she had been a board member on an environmental non-government organisation, which she chose not to name. After Hamas’ attack, younger and migrant members of the climate movement argued with leaders and older members to advocate for Palestine, while the board began meeting without her, she said. Cunio said:
I got called up by a board member and the board member said: ‘I know this is getting very difficult for you, um, you know, maybe you should consider leaving.’
She compared her reaction to a previous experience of sexual harassment:
You know what to say but the words don’t come out. The words are: ‘Actually, you need to keep me safe. I’m a board member and I deserve safety’ … It all really got too much so I did what I was advised and it was very liberating.
Cunio said she had also founded a chat group to organise climate activists of diverse backgrounds but felt she had to leave the chat after 7 October when the members began speaking about Israel’s response with no acknowledgment of the 1,200 people killed.
She said Jewish people were seen as “white” and separate to multicultural Australia:
I really enjoyed being in solidarity with these people … it was really heartbreaking.
Krishani Dhanji
No timeline on fixing controversial job ready graduates scheme, Labor says
The education minister, Jason Clare, says he has no timeline on fixing the job ready graduates program, despite repeatedly calling the controversial Morrison-era scheme a “failure” in its attempt to discourage students from undertaking humanities degrees.
The scheme was introduced in 2021 to incentivise students to take degrees such as science, nursing, education and IT, and disincentivise humanities, law and creative arts degrees by significantly increasing fees. It’s been in place longer under the Albanese government than under the Liberals.
Clare, speaking to reporters in Sydney this morning, said it was expensive and complex to fix, but that the new Australian Tertiary Education Commission, established under legislation earlier this year, would be able to look at it. When it will do that, is still unclear.
I’ve said that JRG is a failure if the purpose of the former government was to get people to not study the things that they are passionate about.
I’ve also said that it is expensive and complex to fix. The Atec, the Australian Tertiary Education Commission has got the ability now to be able to look at the costs across the whole system. And I said that this is unfinished business and that there is more work to do, but I won’t set a timeline on that today.
Treasury modelling revealed earlier this week found it will take one quarter of humanities students more than 25 years to repay their degrees.
Luca Ittimani
Owners of closed kosher kitchen tell royal commission of ‘devastating’ blaze
The owners of a kosher restaurant in Bondi that burnt down in 2024 have spoken at the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion as it begins its fourth day of hearings.
Judith Lewis told the commission she was the managing director of Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, formerly on Bondi’s busy Curlewis Street, and a great-grandmother in a large Jewish family. She, her husband and her parents established the kosher caterer in 1970, before it became a restaurant.
Karyn Lewis, Judith’s daughter, said she had worked at Lewis’ for close to 40 years, joined by her cousins and her children over the years. It had been the first kosher takeaway restaurant in Sydney before catering for airlines, hospitals, jails and offering fine dining, she said.
The restaurant burnt down in October 2024 and has not reopened. Judith Lewis said:
A lot of people came and met there, and were able to sit and eat and then see other people there. It was a communal centre … For us it’s devastating because we’re not seeing all our friends, because the customers very much became our friends.
The commission then moved into a closed session to hear the Lewises’ evidence without prejudicing criminal proceedings over the attack on the restaurant.
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