US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Goldman Sachs’ departing top lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler, will testify before the US ‌House Oversight Committee, over their past ties to the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Ruemmler ‌resigned over links to late sex offender after documents released by the US Justice Department showed she accepted gifts from Epstein and advised him on handling media inquiries about his crimes.

“Ruemmler welcomes ‌the opportunity to ‌appear ⁠before the committee,” the spokeswoman Jennifer ​Connelly, said in a statement.

“She has done nothing wrong and had no knowledge of any ongoing criminal activity on his part.”

Ruemmler was a criminal defence lawyer ⁠at the time of ‌her ​interactions with Epstein and shared a client with him, ​Connelly added.

Lutnick has also agreed to be probed about his ties to Epstein.

“Secretary Lutnick has proactively agreed to appear voluntarily before the House Committee ‌on Oversight and Government Reform. I commend his demonstrated commitment to transparency and appreciate his willingness to engage with the committee,” Representative James Comer, the panel’s chair said on X on Tuesday.

The Justice Department in January released millions of new files related to Epstein, including emails that ‌showed Lutnick visited Epstein’s ‌private Caribbean ⁠island for lunch years after he claimed to have ​cut off ties.

Lutnick, appointed to his post by President Donald Trump last year, now faces calls from both Democrats and Republicans to resign.

“I look forward to appearing before the committee. I have done ⁠nothing wrong and I want to ‌set ​the record straight,” Axios quoted Lutnick as saying.

Last month, Lutnick told lawmakers he “barely had anything to do with” Epstein.

Lutnick said the two men had exchanged only about 10 emails and ​met three times over 14 years. Lutnick said a lunch with Epstein took place only because he was on a boat near the island and ​his family was present for ​the lunch.

Lutnick is one of a host ‌of powerful men in politics, business and entertainment, including Trump himself, who are under fire for their ties with Epstein.

Lutnick also is in the hot seat over apparent contradictions between the newly released documents and his prior remarks about Epstein, who lived ​next door to him in New York when Lutnick was CEO of Cantor ​Fitzgerald.

Earlier on Tuesday, a judge granted preliminary approval to an agreement ‌for Epstein’s estate to pay a multi-million dollar settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit that accused two of the disgraced financier’s advisers of ‌aiding and ‌abetting ⁠his sex trafficking of young women and ​teenage girls.

Boies Schiller Flexner, a law firm representing Epstein victims, announced the settlement – worth as much as $US35 million ($A50 million) – on February 19.

The owner of liquor chain Dan Murphy’s has increased sales after offering customers lower prices, although that’s yet to translate to higher profits.

Endeavour, which also owns the bottle shop chain BWS and hundreds of pubs, reported a bottom-line interim net profit of $247 million, which was about $50 million less than its last first-half result.

Group sales were up 0.9 per cent to $6.7 billion.

The group was restarting “top line growth” in its retail bottle shop business, which comprises more than 1700 stores, said CEO Jayne Hrdlicka, the former head of Virgin Australia.

“In a challenging market, our increased focus on value and price leadership has been embraced by our customers and is delivering sales growth and market share gains,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.

Sales for Dan Murphy’s and BWS rose 0.2 per cent to $5.5 billion, while the pubs division, which includes more than 350 hotels, boosted revenue by 4.4 per cent to about $1.2 billion.

Sales for the latter were driven by an uplift in gaming, better performances at refurbished venues, and a positive trend in food and bar transactions.

“Hotels delivered its strongest monthly sales result ever in December, supported by record sales in the week leading up to Christmas, as well as record sales of food, bar and accommodation on New Year’s Eve,” Endeavour said.

Some of the hotels under the Endeavour umbrella include Brisbane’s Breakfast Creek Hotel, Young & Jackson in Melbourne, and the Jamison Hotel in Sydney.

Looking ahead, Endeavour said the outlook for consumer spending was uncertain given elevated inflation and rising interest rates.

“The group’s scale, value proposition and market-leading brands mean we are well positioned to compete and win in a market where consumers remain focused on value for money,” it added.

Sales for the first seven weeks of the second half of 2025/26 were 1.3 per cent higher for its bottle shops and 4.5 per cent for its hotels.

Endeavour will pay a first-half dividend of 10.8 cents, down from 12.5 cents previously.

Blessed with wind and solar resources, renewable energy companies are clamouring to take part in the bounty of NSW amid a global oil crisis.

More than 15 projects worth a total of $34.4 billion in potential investment are being looked over at the newly established Investment Delivery Authority.

The government is hoping dozens of projects in the next couple of decades will generate enough electricity to power 5.5 million homes with Australia’s biggest coal-fired facility Eraring extended to 2029.

Coal still remains the biggest export at some $33 billion, but the state wants to spruik its green credentials with 43 projects in the past three years as it aims to reduce greenhouse emissions by 50 per cent by 2030.

The IDA’s four-person panel overrides councils and accelerates planning approvals for businesses amid complaints making major investments in NSW is too complex and time-consuming.

“These endorsed projects will mean more reliable and affordable power for NSW, and more jobs and investment right across the state, particularly in regional NSW,” Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said on Wednesday.

Renewable sources delivered 40 per cent of energy in the National Electricity Market, with Australia targeting a goal of 82 per cent by the end of the decade.

Two hotel projects valued at $482 million have also been endorsed to proceed to the next stage.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, who is due to front a budget estimates hearing in parliament on Wednesday, said long-term economic growth was in the offing with NSW signalling to global markets that it was “open for business.”

NSW accounted for 65 per cent of Australia’s venture capital investment in 2024, and hosts five out of eight “unicorn” companies – privately-held start-ups valued at more than $1 billion.

Menka Michaelides can’t help but feel worried about how her business will cope with plans to legislate the right to work from home.

The small business owner believes the laws, which will come into effect in Victoria from September 1, will create a “two-tier” system in workplaces, dividing employees who can work from home from those who cannot.

Premier Jacinta Allan says the changes will do the opposite, helping workers save money, cut their commute and boost workforce participation.

All businesses will be roped into the policy to legislate a right for employees to work from home two days a week if they reasonably can with the provision to be enshrined in the Equal Opportunity Act.

For Ms Michaelides, who owns and runs Pro Repair Auto Care Centre in Melbourne’s inner suburbs, the proposed laws are a cause for concern.

“It’s going to create a two-tier situation where, the admin staff have the ability and the right to work from home. But the blue collar workers will have to come in,” she told AAP. 

“That will create a divide and would add another layer to our business, making it harder to get things done.”

The business owner also raised concerns about the red tape involved, including the added responsibility of ensuring employees have a safe workspace while working from home.

“We are a safe business, we have occupational health and safety standards to ensure we have the signage and equipment to ensure things don’t happen. But how can I ensure that happens at home? I can’t control that,” Ms Michaelides said.

“Yet we’re going to be liable for that.”

The policy only applies to workers who can “reasonably” do their job from home, although the extent of who falls into that category is not yet clear.

“You cannot be the checkout person in a small shop and expect to work from home, but if you’re a back-office person do you need to be at work every day?,” Swinburne human resource management expert Peter Holland told AAP.

“The mandate would be for those companies that are a bit recalcitrant – my way or the highway.”

Professor Holland said small businesses could benefit from providing flexibility to workers in a tight labour market and compared the reforms to Australia introducing paid maternity leave in 1973 and superannuation in 1992.

The premier on Tuesday said the proposed laws would apply to workplaces of all sizes.

She had said an exemption would be considered for small businesses when launching a consultation period in August.

The legislation will be introduced to the Victorian parliament in July.

“Work from home works for families, because it saves time and money and it gets more parents working,” she said.

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said she supports working from home but has demanded more detail from the government.

Increased federal government spending is set to drive Australia’s economic growth to its highest level in almost a decade, outside of the pandemic.

Sharp growth in defence investment and spending by federal public corporations contributed to a 0.9 per cent rise in public investment in the December quarter, despite a sharp fall in public infrastructure work, Westpac economists said in a research note.

After retreating in the first half of 2025, the strong rebound in public demand, following a 1.3 per cent lift in the September quarter, contradicts Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ claims that government spending is not fuelling inflation.

Alongside other stronger-than-expected economic indicators released in recent days, like higher public inventory figures, Westpac’s Pat Bustamante, Mantas Vanagas and Neha Sharma revised up their December quarter GDP growth forecast to 1.1 per cent.

If borne out in national accounts figures, set to be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, that would represent the nation’s highest quarterly economic growth rate since December 2016, outside of the COVID-19 period.

Defence investment rose 7.1 per cent over the quarter and investment by federal public corporations climbed 6.1 per cent, offsetting lower investment from state and local governments.

Experts caution that the budget is better at gauging trends in government spending than public demand data.

But following the RBA’s rate hike in February, Dr Chalmers consistently argued public demand’s contribution to inflation was falling.

“Cost-of-living support measures have largely come to an end but programs such as the NDIS could continue supporting government spending going forward,” the Westpac trio said in the note.

They expect GDP growth ran at 2.6 per cent year-on-year, which would be higher than the Reserve Bank’s forecast of 2.3 per cent, included in its Statement on Monetary Policy in February.

Because of Australia’s weak productivity growth performance, the RBA estimates that GDP growth higher than about two per cent per year would exceed the economy’s speed limit and cause inflation to rise.

In a speech to the Australian Financial Review Business Summit on Tuesday, RBA governor Michele Bullock said demand was outstripping the economy’s capacity, causing inflation to run hotter than the central bank was comfortable with.

“The economy’s supply potential appears to have been somewhat lower than previously assessed,” she said.

Commonwealth Bank economists upgraded their December quarter GDP forecast from 0.7 per cent to one per cent, which would be “well above” estimates of potential.

On top of this, conflict in the Middle East has ignited fears of a dramatic rise in oil prices, which would add more fuel to the inflation fire.

“The RBA is already on edge having lifted the cash rate in February,” said CBA’s Ashwin Clarke, Harry Ottley and Belinda Allen in a research note.

“A strong finish to 2025 does not shift the outlook but it does suggest the changes the RBA made to its assessment of the output gap were warranted.”

That supports their view that the RBA will need to hike rates further to bring the economy back to balance and increases the likelihood that the board could move as early as March 17, they said.

Australia’s support of US strikes against Iran continues to draw fire as a UN expert blasts Canberra’s stance on the military action.

It was “crystal clear” the US-Israeli strikes were an illegal, armed aggression against Iran, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter Terrorism Ben Saul said.

“Every death in Iran is a violation of the human right to life as well under international human rights law,” he told AAP.

“These aren’t acts in self-defence because Iran has not attacked either country and is not about to imminently attack them and the security council hasn’t given any authorisation.”

Professor Saul accused the federal government of “trashing” rules of world order while dodging questions around the legality of the attacks. 

Australia was one of the fist countries to back the strikes by US and Israeli forces on Iran at the weekend.

Tehran has retaliated with a barrage of drones and missiles aimed at neighbouring states targeting oil and natural gas infrastructure.

Asked if the strikes were legal, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles each have said that was a question for the United States and Israel. 

“It is for the US and Israel to explain the legal basis, and they’ve made comments about that,” Senator Wong told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday. 

Mr Albanese has said Iran’s retaliation since the initial strikes showed why it was a threat to peace and stability in the region.

About 115,000 Australians are believed to be stranded in the Middle East as the conflict continues to disrupt air travel.

Australia’s embassy in Saudi Arabia has warned citizens in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran to shelter in place, while an Australian defence base in the United Arab Emirates was hit in an Iranian attack.

Some limited flights are resuming out of the UAE but services have been largely grounded, throwing plans into chaos and threatening to leave Australians stranded for weeks.

Prof Saul rejected arguments the strikes could be justified as pre-emptive self-defence aimed at preventing Iran from developing or using nuclear weapons.

“Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon, hasn’t taken the decision to build one and hasn’t ordered that one is about to be used,” Prof Saul said. 

Middle powers like Australia must stand up for international law and follow suite with other countries including Spain and Switzerland that strongly protested against the attacks, Prof Saul said.

He said it was disappointing Australia seemed to support a “violation” of the United Nations Charter by “trashing the most fundamental rule of world order and peace of the last 80 years”.

The UN expert suggested the federal government’s cautious tone might reflect a desire to preserve the AUKUS submarine deal and avoid trade retaliation from Washington.

He argued such a stance risked emboldening countries such as the US and Israel to “keep violating international law in other situations”.

Opposition industry spokesman Andrew Hastie, an Afghanistan veteran, said US President Donald Trump’s four to five-week timeline for action in Iran was optimistic. 

“I think the rules-based global order is dead and buried and so these sorts of legal arguments are nice, but we live in the world of reality,” he told Sky News.

Small businesses have been roped into an incoming Australian-first legal right for staff to work from home as industry figures warn it will send trade interstate and abroad. 

All businesses will be subject to the Victorian government’s policy to legislate a right for employees to work from home two days a week if they reasonably can, Premier Jacinta Allan announced on Tuesday.

The premier had said an exemption would be considered for small businesses when launching a consultation period in August.

But while the legislation was still being drafted, the “key detail” was ticked off in a cabinet meeting on Monday.

Ms Allan said the policy would get more women back into the workforce, lifting participation rates and economic productivity.  

“People want to see their right to work from home protected because it’s at risk,” she told reporters on Tuesday.

“It’s at risk from employers who are … refusing requests to work from home for people who can.”

The decision would create a cost and compliance burden for “mum and dad” operators and sole traders with as few as one employee, Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chair Matthew Addison said.

“Small business don’t have a team of lawyers to interpret this,” he told AAP.

“They are already saying they lose a day a week on red tape – here’s some more red tape for them.”

Mr Addison said the election-year legislation appeared to “appeal to part of the population” and he doesn’t believe there is an appetite for it to spread nationally.

Victoria’s business and investment community have expressed a sentiment that the state is not business-friendly enough, spawning a catchcry of “Anywhere But Melbourne” and “Anywhere but Victoria”.

“We have borders but businesses and capital don’t,” Victorian Chamber of Commerce acting chief executive Scott Veenker said.

“The economy is in such a fragile state … this is just another reason for people to choose other states or other countries to trade in.”

The policy, as described by the state Labor government, only applies to workers who can “reasonably” do their job from home.

“We haven’t tested it and it’s ambiguous by nature,” Swinburne human resource management expert Peter Holland said.

“You cannot be the checkout person in a small shop and expect to work from home, but if you’re a back-office person do you need to be at work every day?

“The mandate would be for those companies that are a bit recalcitrant – my way or the highway.”

Professor Holland said small businesses could benefit from providing flexibility to workers in a tight labour market and compared the reforms to Australia introducing paid maternity leave in 1973 and superannuation in 1992.

“The world was going to fall in and it didn’t,” he said.

“It’s a positive for everybody. We’re in a different world now post-COVID.”

The Victorian opposition is trying to avoid being wedged politically on the legislation, with Liberal leader Jess Wilson maintaining she supports working from home while demanding more detail from the government.

Ms Allan has repeatedly pushed back against claims the move may not be legal, pointing to advice about an “explicit provision” in the Fair Work Act for state-based anti-discrimination laws.

Section 109 of the Australian Constitution dictates that if a state law conflicts with a Commonwealth law, the latter prevails. 

“We have advice that it is constitutionally valid,” Ms Allan said.

“But let’s be clear, what does it say about someone who wants to race off to the High Court to strip away a worker’s right to work from home.”

A scathing Liberal review into the party’s disastrous federal election campaign has called out its ability to “thoughtlessly offend” migrants as its new leadership adopts a more hardline stance on immigration.

The examination of the party’s worst electoral result in history has also singled out then-leader Peter Dutton’s personality, a lack of coherent policies and poor campaigning.

The Liberals put off almost all demographics, especially women, young people and multicultural Australians.

“The party’s capacity to thoughtlessly offend groups, including the Chinese, was, as others have observed, a widespread problem,” according to the report compiled by party elders Nick Minchin and Pru Goward.

“The 2025 federal Liberal campaign failure is widely considered to be the worst campaign the party has ever fought.”

Liberals criticised the lack of women’s policies in their submissions, while female candidates told reviewers Mr Dutton was disliked by women and they didn’t want him to visit their electorates.

“Peter Dutton’s previous ministerial image as a hard man needed considerable work with paid and unpaid media, but that did not eventuate,” the review noted. 

“Peter Dutton was viewed as lacking connection with women and younger voters.”

This was compounded by Labor’s “negative portrayal of Peter Dutton with personal references to Voldemort and Mediscare”.

Mr Dutton’s reflection of US President Donald Trump, described “in the unkind words of one candidate (as) Temu Trump”, handicapped the campaign.

So too did the then-leader attending a fundraiser in Sydney when his Brisbane-based electorate was subject to floods, while the prime minister was highly visible on the ground during the natural disaster.

His actions were compared to former prime minister Scott Morrison, whose decision to holiday during the 2019 bushfires was “a political disaster”.

“It contributed to the perception of Peter Dutton as a politician who did not care,” the report said. 

“The electorate expects to see and hear an upbeat and inspiring leader. All of that was lacking and the leader’s grim and introverted demeanour, clothed in the ubiquitous suit whatever the occasion, did not change during the campaign.”

A crack down on working from home arrangements, which was later scrapped because of its unpopularity, was one such policy that alienated voters, and a regional candidate said it cost her the seat.

“After at least a decade of a declining female vote it remains a mystery that the party has not performed a deep-dive into its causes,” the review said.

Angus Taylor took over the party’s top job in February after knifing Sussan Ley, the federal Liberals’ first female leader.

It resulted in the head of Hilma’s Network, an organisation which aims to promote Liberal women, to resign her membership.

The review had said the party should work closer with Hilma’s Network to improve female representation and policies.

Mr Taylor continues to take a harder line on immigration and has made subscribing to “Australian values” the cornerstone of his pitch.

The leader dumped moderate Paul Scarr from the immigration portfolio after he had urged his colleagues to stay away from anti-migrant rhetoric.

The review also found the Liberals’ opposition to Labor’s tax cuts on the eve of the election “immediately impacted on the coalition’s economic credentials, historically, a strong part of the coalition’s brand”.

Mr Taylor has acknowledged this was a mistake and vowed to take a package of lower taxes to the next election.

Two men armed with knives have been shot dead by police in incidents in Sydney and Brisbane.

The fatal incidents within 40 minutes of each other came hours after officers in Newcastle fired on a man wanted by police on Tuesday morning.

At an inner-Sydney unit complex, a knife-wielding offender died after a police office opened fire.

The man had entered a unit complex in the upmarket suburb of Potts Point and assaulted two women in separate units about 10.50am.

Arriving officers used a taser to control him but it was ineffective, police said.

The alleged attacker then confronted police before an officer fired one shot, hitting the man, who died at the scene, Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna said.

The women, aged 48 and 56, suffered facial injuries and were taken to hospital.

Mr McKenna would not speculate on why the stun gun was ineffective.

“Tasers have been an effective part of our arsenal,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

“They are a less-lethal option but like anything, they’re not always successful.

“(Police) don’t come to work to be confronted by this type of thing or take a life – that’s the last thing we want to do.”

He emphasised officers had been responding to the women in distress when the situation escalated quickly.

A crime scene was established with officers using sheets to cover the dead man, who is believed to be aged in his late 30s to early 40s.

The street was cordoned off with a helicopter flying above the scene and up to 20 riot cars, police vehicles and ambulances descending on the block.

Nuria Cobos, who has been living down the quiet street for about a year, described the scene as confronting in a safe neighbourhood.

“I feel lucky. I went out for a walk and came back to see all of this,” the 40-year-old woman told AAP.

With several detectives entering the street in front of the HMAS Kuttabul navy base, she was waiting to be let back in along with confused food delivery drivers.

Forty minutes later, police responding to a welfare check request shot dead a man in his Tingalpa home in Brisbane’s east.

Officers had attempted to negotiate with the 21-year-old man but he made threats with a knife towards officers and was shot, police said.

He died at the scene with one officer suffering a minor injury

“These incidents are often dynamic … and split-second decisions need to be made,” Acting Chief Superintendent Heath McQueen told reporters.

“I am confident that the use of force is appropriate.”

The matter is also being investigated with oversight from Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission.

In a third incident, a man was shot as police from a high-risk domestic violence offender squad tried to arrest him in inner-city Newcastle.

The officers forced entry into a unit at 8.30am and found the man – wanted on five warrants – armed with an edged weapon, police said.

Two stun guns were deployed but both were ineffective.

The man, 36, allegedly continued threatening officers before a police officer shot him in the shoulder, police said.

He survived and was taken to hospital in a stable condition.

Both NSW incidents are being investigated by out-of-area police before being reviewed by the internal police investigative unit.

Each investigation was overseen by the state police watchdog.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

Lifeline 13 11 14

Men’s Referral Service 1300 766 491

China’s annual parliament meeting is expected to show tolerance for slightly slower economic growth in 2026, opening the door for greater, albeit not decisive, efforts to curb ‌industrial overcapacity and rebalance the export-reliant economy.

Most analysts expect Premier Li Qiang’s report on March 5, the first day of the gathering, to announce a growth target of between 4.5 per cent and 5 per cent, while pledging to boost both consumption and investment ‌in high-tech industries.

China’s 15th five-year plan, which sets strategic objectives and policies for 2026–30 and will be released the same day, is expected to reaffirm this dual, and contradictory, goal.

“Policymakers will step up efforts to spur consumption while continuing to ‌stress tech-driven new productive forces,” said a policy adviser who expects the target to shift to a range, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the topic’s sensitivity.

This dual pledge is decades old but Beijing has been far more successful in expanding its vast industrial complex than the consumer sector, turning China into a mighty manufacturing power that dominates strategic supply chains and giving it leverage in the intensifying rivalry with the US and its allies.

China’s 5 per cent growth last year has largely been achieved through a $US1.2 trillion ($A1.7 trillion) trade surplus, while domestic consumption lagged.

This growth model has fuelled unsustainable debt, wasteful investment, deflationary pressures and industrial overcapacity.

But it is hard for Beijing to ‌completely give it up ‌at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions ⁠that call for a higher degree of self-sufficiency in key industries such as semiconductors and aircraft – where China is still catching up with the US.

“There ​is clearly some tension between these two agendas and so we will be looking to the full five-year plan to clarify what balance the leadership will strike,” analysts at Capital Economics said in a note.

“That balance will determine how much progress is made in tackling overcapacity and deflation over the next few years.”

A more flexible growth target would give policymakers room to pursue some painful structural reforms, such as accelerating efforts started last year to curb industrial capacity and contain price wars in various sectors.

Expectations that Beijing may set this year’s growth target as a range came after about two thirds of China’s provincial governments downgraded their own ambitions, even if in some cases that ⁠only meant shifting wording from ‘above’ to ‘around.’

Guangdong, the country’s largest provincial economy, set its 2026 growth target at 4.5–5 per cent, down from “around ‌5 per cent” in 2025. Jiangsu, the second-largest, ​set a 5 per cent target, compared with “above 5 per cent” last year.

“If confirmed, this would signal a stronger willingness among policymakers to tolerate slower but more sustainable growth, rather than relying on debt-fuelled investment stimulus that risks exacerbating supply–demand imbalances,” ​said Michelle Lam, Greater ‌China economist at Societe Generale.

Morgan Stanley analysts are among those expecting the target to remain unchanged at around 5 per cent. They estimate the weighted average of provincial targets at 5.1 per cent versus last year’s 5.4 per cent.

They said “Beijing values ​anchoring confidence” and that the first year of a new quinquennial plan “is not the moment to blink.”

Beijing is expected to keep the budget deficit at 4.0 per cent of GDP, with debt issuance plans similar to last year.

The US Supreme Court’s decision in February to strike down President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” imposed in 2025, including on China, reduces the need for more sizeable stimulus.