CANBERRA, ACT, May 18 -- Australian Federal Police issued the following media release: A Victorian man was sentenced by the Melbourne County Court on 14 May, 2026, after pleading guilty to stealing mobile phone numbers from unsuspecting victims of identity theft. The Lynbrook man, 35, was sentenced to two years and two months' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 12 months. He had previously pleaded guilty to: * Nine counts of cause unauthorised access, modification or impairment of d...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 18 -- Australian Federal Police issued the following media release: Editor's note: An image from the search warrant is available on Hightail. A Far North Queensland man is expected to appear in Innisfail Magistrates Court today (18 May, 2026) charged with 34 online child abuse offences. In 2024, the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) received information relating to an Australian resident allegedly in contact with a known online child abuse fac...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 18 -- Australian Federal Police issued the following media release: AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett Seventeen tonnes of illicit drugs, mostly cocaine, has been seized by local and international law enforcement in the Pacific since January. That equates to about three tonnes of illicit drugs seized every month since the start of this year. For the entire year in 2025, the total seizure of illicit drugs in the Pacific region was about 4.6 tonnes. The increase is partly becau...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 18 -- The Treasurer of Australia issued the following transcript: Note Joint press conference with The Hon Clare O'Neil MP Minister for Housing, Homelessness and Cities Subjects: 2026 Budget, housing, trusts, polling, Foreign Investment Review Board Jim Chalmers: It's the week after Budget and we'll be in 4 cities in 4days, talking about a budget which is all about helping people through this global oil shock, at the same time as we take some difficult decisions to refo...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 17 -- The Prime Minister of Australia issued the following media release: ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER:I'm absolutely delighted to be back in Tasmania, on the banks of the beautiful Derwent. And I'm here with the Premier of Tasmania, Jeremy Rockliff, about a project that we've discussed on my last visit to Tasmania with the State Minister, Kerry Vincent, and with a full crew of my team; Peter Khalil, the Assistant Minister for Defence, who has had responsibility for this ...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 17 -- The Prime Minister of Australia issued the following media release: KATE THWAITES, MEMBER FOR JAGAJAGA: Good morning, everyone. I'm Kate Thwaites, I'm the Member for Jagajaga. It's an absolute pleasure to be welcoming the Prime Minister, the Housing Minister, and my State colleague, Anthony Carbines, here today to Rosanna, where we are going to be putting 45 new homes just here. As you can see, they're just about ready to go. So, that will be people in our community get...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 17 -- The Prime Minister of Australia issued the following media release: The Albanese Federal Government and Rockliff State Government will work together to redevelop and transform Tasmania's Dowsing Point to provide more housing, open space and community infrastructure. The 31-hectare site, which currently houses the Derwent Barracks, has been identified for divestment as part of the Australian Government's response to the independent Defence Estate Audit. The Albanese an...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 17 -- The Treasurer of Australia issued the following transcript: Note Subjects: Budget, Budget reply, housing reform, intergenerational equity, tax policies Jim Chalmers: There are 2 very big differences in the Budget and the Budget reply handed down last week. The first one is our Budget was one of the most responsible in memory, and the Budget reply was one of the least responsible. Angus Taylor's Budget reply is a recipe for much bigger deficits, much more debt and mu...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 17 -- The Treasurer of Australia issued the following transcript: Note Subjects: tax reform package, capital gains tax changes, productivity David Speers: Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, welcome to the program. Jim Chalmers: Thanks very much, David. Speers: Let's start with this idea from Angus Taylor about indexing tax thresholds. Why won't you end bracket creep once and for all? Chalmers: We are cutting income taxes, we're cutting income taxes 5 times using 3 different me...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 16 -- The Prime Minister of Australia issued the following media release: The Albanese Government is celebrating 40 years of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) and investing in more life-changing research, through the establishment of the Distinguished Fellow for Prevention and Early Intervention in Child Health. The Government is committing $5 million to establish the Distinguished Fellow position. The funding will be used to support the salaries of the Distin...