Ahead of their departure for the world’s most prestigious art fair, a visual artist and a curator have no time to hold grudges against detractors who waged a campaign to cancel them.

Khaled Sabsabi has been given the rare honour of exhibiting at Venice Biennale’s main exhibition and in the Australia Pavilion.

It comes after he and collaborator Michael Dagostino were axed in February 2025 as the country’s official entry.

Sabsabi explained how seeing his spiritual guide recently in Lebanon rooted him after the debacle.

“When I sat with my sheikh, we talked about what does it mean to love someone that may have hurt you or disrespected you,” he said.

“In the end, it came back to: if the divine and the creator are built on mercy and empathy, then why can’t a human aspire to those attributes?”

He described his upcoming installations “as one body with two limbs”.

The duo were ditched after two of Sabsabi’s early artworks, one showing slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and another depicting the 9/11 attacks, were criticised by conservative MPs in federal parliament.

That set off a chain reaction.

Days after glowingly announcing them as the country’s Venice representatives, the national arts funding body, Creative Australia, cancelled their selection and tore up a sizeable contract.

The board’s decision was made on the grounds Sabsabi and Dagostino’s selection would cause a “prolonged and divisive debate”, chief executive Adrian Collette said at the time.

Arts Minister Tony Burke distanced himself from the decision, denying any political interference, while admitting he spoke with the CEO hours before the board meeting that sealed the artists’ fate.

The cancellation spectacularly backfired with more than 4000 people, including some of Australia’s most respected artists, calling for the pair to be reinstated.

Creative Australia chair Robert Morgan has since retired, replaced by Indigenous playwright Wesley Enoch, who apologised and reinstated the pair after an independent review.

“We don’t have time for grudges – life is too short,” Dagostino told AAP.

The pair have been buoyed by community support and solidarity from the arts sector in a galvanising watershed moment.

“If it wasn’t for the support of the people, we wouldn’t be in the position to present two works and it’s a first,” Sabsabi said.

Mr Burke described the rare Venice Biennale plaudit in February as a huge win and “another example of global recognition of Australian art”.

Delving into spirituality and migration, Sabsabi said his work titled “conference of one’s self” encourages the audience to come in with an open mind and heart.

“I brought it back to the individual, it’s about being emotionally inspired and to be able to have moments of reflection and pause,” he said.

The pair emphasised their artistic experiences had been shaped and were grounded in the cultural diversity of western Sydney, which will be displayed to an international audience.

The biennale attracts about 700,000 visitors annually and artists from 99 countries are represented in the 2026 edition.

Artworks are housed in pavilions across expansive gardens. Australia is one of 30 nations with a permanent pavilion.

Dagostino, who also heads up the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, said Sabsabi’s latest work was about “what joins us rather than what divides us”.

“Khaled’s work doesn’t have a fixed position … all art is read through the time it is created and 50 years later it’s read differently,” he said.

The 61st Venice Biennale begins on May 9.

Investors are tipping the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates for the second month running after hawkish commentary from the central bank’s second-in-command.

RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser struck a pessimistic tone about the impact of the war in Iran on inflation in a podcast interview with The Conversation’s Michelle Grattan.

That prompted a sharp re-pricing in money markets for the RBA’s next board meeting on March 17.

Ahead of the podcast, released on Tuesday, market pricing implied the chance of the RBA lifting the cash rate to 4.1 per cent was less than one-third.

Afterwards, it surged to almost two-thirds.

Speaking just before RBA board members enter their pre-meeting media blackout period, Mr Hauser’s comments were viewed by some economists as laying the groundwork for a hike.

Economists at Bank of America, UBS and Capital Economics brought forward their rate rise forecast to March, while TD Securities views an increase then as an even bet.

“There is a credible case to hike next week,’ TD senior rates strategist Prashant Newnaha said.

Compared to remarks by governor Michele Bullock the week prior, Mr Hauser painted a more dire picture of how conflict in the Middle East could cause oil prices to surge and entrench inflation.

The cost of oil whipsawed on the back of contradictory commentary by US President Donald Trump, from a high of $US118 a barrel to around $US90, in one of the most chaotic 24 hours commodities traders have witnessed.

“If we fail to act decisively enough to prevent inflation staying high or even rising  … it will be bad for everyone and it’s worth us continuously reminding ourselves just how toxic inflation is,” Mr Hauser said.

IFM Investors chief economist Alex Joiner noted a change in tone that suggested the board would be more comfortable with hiking rates, even if it caused unemployment to rise.

“(Mr Hauser) interestingly omitted any mention of the board’s strategy of ‘preserving gains’ in the labour market, only saying he’d be ‘happy’ if full employment was maintained,” Mr Joiner wrote in a post on X.

The deputy governor noted risks to both sides, with the war in the Middle East likely to cause higher inflation and to put downward pressure on growth.

“I think there will be a very genuine debate,” Mr Hauser said.

It poses a dilemma for the RBA, which will be mindful of being squeezed between its dual mandates of keeping inflation low and targeting full employment.

How the conflict played out was highly uncertain, which could be seen as emphasising the need to stay on hold, NAB economists said.

But Mr Hauser also concluded recent data confirmed even more decisively that the economy was constrained on the supply side.

“All up, we take Hauser’s comments as putting the market on notice that it should not be surprised if the RBA decides to raise rates next week,” NAB economists said in a research note.

Two people involved in the former coalition government’s unlawful robodebt scheme have been found to be corrupt.

A National Anti-Corruption Commission inquiry on Wednesday found two of six people referred to it for investigation engaged in corrupt conduct, while it cleared the remaining four.

Those cleared included former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison, who initiated the scheme while in the role of social services minister.

The watchdog found ex-departmental general manager of business integrity Mark Withnail carried out corrupt conduct by intentionally misleading the Department of Social Services during the preparation of a cabinet submission in 2015.

It also found department deputy secretary Serena Wilson carried out corrupt conduct by misleading the Commonwealth Ombudsman during an investigation in 2017.

Mr Morrison was not found to be corrupt, with his failure to realise bureaucratic advice was misleading put down to shortcomings by federal departments.

The corruption watchdog did not make recommendations in its final report, which followed referrals from the royal commission into the robodebt scheme.

The watchdog initially chose not to investigate the referrals before the controversial decision was overturned.

The over-ruling came after National Anti-Corruption Commission Inspector Gail Furness found commission head Paul Brereton engaged in misconduct as he had ties with one of the six officials but did not adequately recuse himself from decisions.

Between 2016 and 2019, the former coalition government’s robodebt scheme recovered more than $750 million from almost 400,000 people.

Many welfare recipients were falsely accused of owing the government money and the program was linked to several suicides.

The Albanese government has promised it will release a sealed section of the robodebt royal commission’s final report after the conclusion of the investigation.

“The illegal robodebt scheme was a betrayal of everyday Australians, resulting in human tragedy and untold misery,” Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said.

“The royal commission was clear in its findings and we must work to ensure this can never occur again.”

The US and Israel have pounded Iran with what the Pentagon and Iranians on the ground called the most intense airstrikes of the ‌war, despite global markets betting President Donald Trump will seek to end the conflict soon.

Raising the stakes for the global economy, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they would block oil shipments from the Gulf unless US and Israeli attacks cease.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also said it launched missiles at Qatar’s ‌US-operated Al Udeid base and the Al Harir base in Iraq’s Kurdistan.

But the White House reiterated Trump’s threat to hit Iran hard over moves to stop the flow of energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, where the war has effectively halted one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

“Today will be yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran: the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence more refined and better than ever,” US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday, US time.

In a message posted to his Truth Social platform later in the day, Trump said, “Within the last few hours, we have hit, and completely destroyed” 10 of Iran’s “inactive” mine-laying vessels. 

US Central Command later said on social media platform X its forces had eliminated 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz and posted footage of vessels being blown up.

Tehran residents reached by Reuters described the war’s most intense night of bombardment.

“It was like hell. They were bombing everywhere, every part of Tehran,” a resident said by phone, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “My children are afraid to sleep now.”

A historic surge in crude oil prices on ​Monday to nearly $US120 ($A168) a barrel was reversed as Brent crude settled back down below $US90 ($A126) on Tuesday. 

A source familiar with Israel’s war plans told Reuters the Israeli military wanted to inflict as much damage as possible before the window for further strikes closes, under the assumption Trump could end the war at any time.

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said the war would proceed until his country and the US determine the time had come to cease hostilities, but that Israel was not seeking an “endless war”.

Trump at a Monday press conference said the US had already inflicted serious damage and predicted the conflict would end before the four weeks he ​initially set out.

Several congressional aides have said they expect the White House to soon request as much as $US50 billion ($A70 billion) in additional funding for the war.

Several senior Iranian officials voiced defiance.

“Certainly, we are not seeking a ceasefire; we believe the aggressor must be struck in the mouth so that they learn a lesson,” Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, posted on X.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told PBS that Tehran was unlikely to resume negotiations with the US.

A spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guards said Tehran would not allow “one litre” ‌of Middle Eastern oil to reach America or its allies while US and Israeli attacks continue.

“We are the ones who will determine the end of the war,” the spokesperson said.

More than 1300 Iranian civilians have been killed since the US and Israeli air strikes began on February 28, according to Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani. 

Scores have also been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon to root out the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, which has fired into Israel in solidarity with Iran.

Iranian strikes on Israel have killed 12 people. Iran has struck US military bases and diplomatic missions in Arab Gulf states but also hit hotels, closed ​airports and damaged oil infrastructure.

In addition to the six US soldiers killed at the ⁠outset of the conflict, the Pentagon on Tuesday estimated about 140 American troops have been wounded, the vast majority of them characterised as minor.

Athleisure brand Lululemon has been fined more than $700,000 after hundreds of thousands of emails were sent without offering the option to unsubscribe.

The brand violated spam laws after sending more than 370,000 emails containing commercial content, including shipping updates and promotional material, without an unsubscribe option, an Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found.

The watchdog found Lululemon mischaracterised the service messages, including order confirmation emails, that had a clear marketing purpose between December 2024 and January 2025. 

“In this case Lululemon sent service emails such as a shipping updates that also contained sales material and direct links to promotions,” authority member Samantha Yorke said.

Lululemon has since paid the $703,000 fine over the breach, which was described as an easily avoidable error by the consumer watchdog. 

“Businesses need to understand that marketing messages must have an unsubscribe option and the simplest way to comply is to keep transactional or service messages separate from sales content and links,” Ms Yorke said.

“This is the fifth enforcement action the ACMA has undertaken in the last 18 months against businesses that have incorrectly treated messages as non-commercial even though they contained or had links to clearly commercial material.”

In 2024, the Commonwealth Bank paid a $7.5 million penalty after it sent more than 170 million emails that did include a way to unsubscribe. 

Online gambling provider PointsBet has also been hit with a $500,000 penalty after sending 700 emails containing a direct link to its betting products without including an unsubscribe function in 2023.

Telstra paid a $600,000 penalty after it sent close to 10.5 million text messages that did not comply with spam laws.

Lululemon was previously fined more than $32,000 in 2017 for falsely telling customers they were not entitled to refunds or replacements.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleged the website, in ads for sale products, falsely stated that consumers weren’t entitled to a return, remedy, refund or exchange of a product under any circumstance. 

The athleisure brand has entered into a comprehensive court-enforceable undertaking committing it to an independent review of its spam rule compliance, according to the watchdog.

The business will need to report to the ACMA on the implementation of recommended improvements.

Danish toy-maker Lego has posted sharply increased net profits for 2025 in results released from its head office in the town of Billund says.

Profits were up 21 per cent on the year to 16.7 billion kroner ($A3.6 billion), it said.

Revenue rose 12 per cent to 83.5 billion kroner on the back of strong demand in all market groups and among both children and adults that the company attributed to its “strong brand equity, innovative new products, strategic partnerships and excellent retail execution”.

Lego increased its range to more than 860 products last year, with favourites including Lego City, Lego Technic and Lego Star Wars, and also new products Lego Botanicals and Lego Icons. 

Lego highlighted Formula 1 sets based on a partnership with the 2025 racing season and an increase in its digital games range. 

Chief executive Niels B Christiansen said the company had attained a share of more than half in recyclable and recycled materials in producing its toys.

The US military has not yet escorted any commercial ships through the ‌Strait of Hormuz, the White House says just after US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright ‌deleted a post on X in which had said the US Navy successfully escorted an ‌oil tanker through the key water way.

The US-Israel war against Iran has already effectively halted shipments through the Strait along Iran’s coast, where a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes, and Middle East oil producers have run out of storage and stopped pumping.

US President ‌Donald Trump said ‌on March ⁠3 that the US would provide protection through the Strait for ​oil tankers. 

The Pentagon on Tuesday renewed threats to hit Iran harder unless shipments can flow through and said it was striking Iranian mine-laying vessels and mine storage facilities.

Wright then posted on X that the US navy had escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz “to ensure ⁠oil remains flowing to global markets”.

Soon after, he ‌deleted ​the post for reasons that were unclear.

The United States has not yet escorted any oil ​tankers or vessels through ‌the Strait of Hormuz, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters when asked ​about the issue at a press conference later on Tuesday.

Commenting on Wright’s remarks, a spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards denied an oil ship had been escorted.

“Any movement ​of ​the US fleet and its allies ​will be stopped by our missiles and drones,” ‌Ali Mohammad Naini said in comments carried by Iranian state media.

The top US general earlier on Tuesday said the U.S. military has started looking at ways to potentially escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, should it be ordered to do so.

“We’re looking at a ​range of options there,” General Dan Caine told reporters at the Pentagon.

Lower income taxes for working Australians should be top priority in the budget, independent MP Allegra Spender will urge the treasurer, as she sets out her vision to fix the nation’s economy.

Ms Spender will release the first in a series of tax white papers with an address to the National Press Club on Wednesday, setting out a vision for tax reform to boost productivity and tackle intergenerational equity.

The first white paper will focus on the personal tax system and how younger workers are increasingly relied upon to bear a larger share of the tax burden as the population ages.

Meanwhile, those who earn income from assets typically pay a smaller proportion of tax, despite tending to have far greater wealth, thanks in part to the housing price boom that has left home ownership a distant prospect for young Australians.

A former consultant with an economics degree from Cambridge, Ms Spender has been outspoken about the issues plaguing Australia’s tax system, helping push Treasurer Jim Chalmers towards reform.

Following his economic reform roundtable in 2025, of which Ms Spender was the only crossbench attendee, Dr Chalmers directed Treasury to look at reforms that will make the system fairer for younger Australians and boost productivity.

Paring back the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing concessions for property investors are some of the measures being considered ahead of the May 12 budget.

The treasurer hosted a gathering of market economists, including CBA’s Luke Yeaman, Westpac’s Luci Ellis and Challenger chief economist Jonathan Kearns, on Friday for a discussion about the economy and the budget.

While he declined to talk about Friday’s discussions, Dr Kearns told AAP the treasurer had a tricky task ahead of him if he wanted to achieve his tax reform goals while not leaving the budget worse off.

To get major tax packages through, governments have historically had to “buy off” the losers, which means they have tended to lose revenue.

That’s something Labor can’t afford right now. 

Deficits are projected for at least the next decade, even though inflation is running hot, which means the government should be targeting a balanced budget or a slight surplus, the former RBA official said.

Considering those competing priorities, cutting government spending from its historically high level should be part of the conversation to allow for tax reform while getting the budget in better shape, Dr Kearns said.

Hundreds of homes are set to be affected as rising floodwaters peak at a sodden community.

Thousands of people could be isolated for days at the Queensland regional hub of Bundaberg after the Burnett River burst its banks, triggering memories of a 2010 disaster.

More than 400 homes and businesses are under threat, with the river set to peak at 7.6 metres early on Wednesday.

It is only just below the 7.92m levels of 16 years earlier when the city of more than 70,000 people was inundated and hundreds forced to evacuate.

Locals were asked to leave immediately late on Tuesday before the community’s two major bridges were shut down, leaving about 10,000 people isolated – potentially for a number of days.

Bundaberg Mayor Helen Blackburn acknowledged the mental health impacts on people who had been caught up in previous floods and implored them to put their personal safety first.

“We’re not new to this, we’ve done it before,” she said.

“We can replace possessions. We can’t replace people.”

Water rescue crews and extra emergency services, including more than 30 police officers, have been sent to the Bundaberg region in preparation.

Almost 800 roads across Queensland have been cut by floodwaters after a tropical low left a trail of destruction, claiming about 1000 livestock.

Flooding has also affected the Northern Territory.

More rain has stalled the clean-up at Katherine, where hundreds of people remain in shelters, houses are still without power and crocodiles have been spotted in floodwaters.

Hundreds of residents from the communities of Daly River, Palumpa, Beswick and Jilkminggan were airlifted at the weekend, mostly to Darwin.

Residents in the NT capital have been asked to minimise water use after flooding shut down a Darwin River Dam pump station.

Temporary generators have been put in place, with the full water supply set to return in the coming days.

Darwin residents have been thanked for restricting use but water pressure is still set to be reduced in homes on Wednesday to cope as the pump station is fixed.

Flood watches were in place across much of the NT, particularly on the Top End’s northwest coast including Darwin, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

“Within this flood watch area, any river, creek, lagoon, billabong, any waterway, is going to be very, very responsive to heavy falls that can occur,” the bureau’s Shenage Gamble told reporters on Tuesday.

That could readily lead to localised and flash flooding, she said.

Italy has bought a rare portrait by baroque master Caravaggio, the ‌culture ministry says.

It cost 30 million euros ($A49 million), one of the largest sums the state has ever paid for a single artwork.

Painted in 1598, the work depicts Monsignor Maffeo Barberini, an influential cleric who later became Pope Urban VIII, one of the great patrons of the arts of his time.

The work had been held in a private Florence collection and was attributed to Caravaggio in 1963.

It was ‌shown in public ⁠for the first time in 2024 at Rome’s Palazzo Barberini and ​will now enter that museum’s permanent collection.

“After more than a year of negotiations, we are announcing today the acquisition … of an extraordinary masterpiece by Caravaggio,” Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said in a statement.

He described the purchase as part of a broader effort to strengthen Italy’s public cultural heritage and prevent major works ⁠from disappearing into private collections.

The acquisition comes a ‌month ​after the culture ministry bought Antonello da Messina’s Ecce Homo for $US14.9 million ($A20.9 million), securing the rare work by the ​15th-century Renaissance master ‌just as it was due to be auctioned in New York.

Caravaggio, whose real name was ​Michelangelo Merisi, was a master of the chiaroscuro technique of lighting to make his subjects seem to come alive.

He died in 1610 in his late 30s after a ​turbulent ​life.

The painting of the future Pope ​Urban VIII is one of only a handful of ‌surviving Caravaggio portraits, with others having been lost or destroyed.

Only about 60 paintings worldwide are attributed to Caravaggio, many depicting religious narratives.

The Barberini portrait shows the bearded cleric seated and seemingly issuing instructions with a subtle gesture of his right hand.

The culture ministry said it would look to ​buy more artworks in the coming months “with the aim of making available to scholars and enthusiasts ​certain masterpieces of art ⁠history that would otherwise be destined for the private market”.