Australian shares have stumbled as bond market woes continue to weigh on investor confidence, with miners, banks and technology stocks taking hits.

The S&P/ASX200 fell 66.8 points on Thursday, down 0.77 per cent, to 8660.9, as the broader All Ordinaries gave up 71.4 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 8823.2.

Local shares tracked a weak overnight session from global counterparts, with US markets easing as traders mulled tightening borrowing conditions, while European bond yields spiked as France’s sovereign debt woes raised fears about other Eurozone economies.

Local banks and miners weighed heavily, as concerns about the domestic economy and global growth continued to loom large.

The Australian dollar is buying 69.55 US dollars, down from 69.70 US cents on Wednesday at 5pm.

A half-billion-dollar election splurge that included a controversial golf club grant has driven a wedge between senior ministers and public servants.

The $560 million Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program has drawn sharp criticism from good-governance groups for funding promises made at the 2025 election.

It has been unclear who made the decisions behind the half-billion fund, which saw projects in Labor-held electorates and, in particular, marginal seats receiving a disproportionate share of the money.

One of those projects – a $6 million upgrade to Marrickville Golf Club in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electorate – has come in for particular criticism.

But the government department responsible for infrastructure funding has revealed it played no role in determining the recipients, which were hand-picked by Labor and announced on the campaign trail.

In a submission to a Senate probe, the infrastructure department said it was not involved in picking or deciding how much to fund each project in the invite-only funding round.

“The department had no role in identifying, selecting or recommending projects or applicants invited to apply under the program, nor determining project funding value,” its submission said.

“The department did not provide any advice to government in relation to identifying, selecting or recommending applicants invited to apply at any point, and the government did not seek any such advice from the department.”

Catherine Williams, the executive director of the Centre for Public Integrity, which blew the whistle on the grant round, said the revelation put the onus on Mr Albanese’s government to explain funding selection.

“It is incumbent upon the government to explain how that process occurred,” Dr Williams said.

“A failure to explain would see serious integrity questions continue to swirl around how this half a billion dollars of precious public money was allocated.”

The funding round will be examined in two days of Senate hearings later in October after a Greens push to launch the probe, which was supported by the coalition.

Greens deputy leader Steph Hodgins-May said the department’s submission left unanswered the “obvious question” around selection.

“Signs are increasingly pointing towards an unprecedented level of ministerial and party discretion to allocate millions of dollars through a closed-off and shady grants process,” she told AAP.

Ministers should break with tradition and turn up to the hearings to explain themselves, Senator Hodgins-May added.

“I expect anyone involved in this process, from identifying applicants through to actually handing out the money, to front up to our inquiry,” she said.

“Increasingly, that appears to be senior ministers of this Labor government themselves.”

Labor has defended the grant round as important to fund smaller promises made during the campaign, many of which were also promised by the coalition.

The Centre for Public Integrity and other good governance groups describe the closed-shop funding round as well below best-practice.

Constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey, who has also lodged a submission to the probe, called the funding “grey corruption”, using a phrase previously deployed by Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood.

“If federal politicians want to win elections by making promises about swimming pools, golf clubs and community centres in their electorates, then they need lessons in both federalism and integrity,” Professor Twomey said.

“This is not about ‘being a good local member’. It is about indulging in grey corruption and the misuse of public money at the public’s expense.”

Nature is in “freefall” across the world, but recoveries in species from tigers to tuna provide hope for reversing declines, conservationists have said.

Conservation charity WWF has unveiled its latest Living Planet report, which shows that wildlife populations have declined globally by nearly three-quarters since 1970.

There have also been “bright spots” signs of recovery, including in the UK where otters, beavers, white tailed eagles and bluefin tuna have all staged comebacks, while captive breeding and reintroductions have helped European bison return from extinction in the wild to 10 countries in just over 50 years.

WWF said wildlife recovery can take place “remarkably quickly” with rapid action, but warned it would be a mistake to think conservation alone would enable a global recovery of nature.

Major shifts are needed in the energy, food and finance systems that are driving declines, the conservation charity said – with signs that positive “tipping points” are already under way in energy at least.

Figures from the Living Planet index analysis carried out with the Zoological Society of London as part of the report show wildlife populations worldwide declined by an average of 73 per cent between 1970 and 2022.

The assessment, which measures changes in the sizes of populations of 5,970 species of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, using methods ranging from camera traps and scat analysis to aerial surveys, also found that half of the studied populations were stable or increasing.

The report also details success stories, ranging from concerted conservation work leading to a 70 per cent increase in wild tiger numbers since 2010, to revivals in sea otters in North America, southern African elephants, green turtles, and Atlantic and Pacific bluefin tuna.

It shows “there’s grounds for hope”, according to WWF’s chief scientific adviser Dr Mike Barrett, even though “nature remains in freefall” at the global scale.

Otters were pushed “right to the brink” of extinction in the UK but are now relatively common across the country while there have been successes with reintroductions of species that had been lost altogether including beavers and white-tailed eagles, Dr Barrett said.

He said: “These are examples of species that can recover, can be reintroduced and recover when we actually do the right thing, when the right policies, the right conservation measures, the right protections, are in place.

“But we have got to keep emphasising that these are bright spots against an overall picture that is still one of decline.”

This decline is being driven by threats from climate change mainly caused by burning fossil fuels, to agriculture, which is the largest cause of habitat loss, and financial systems driving investment into activities that harm nature.

Dr Barrett said: “It’s clear that global biodiversity loss is now widely recognised as an existential threat to economic stability and security and human wellbeing.

“Given the appalling damage that humanity has inflicted on the planet over many decades, it is a remarkable truth that we have still got a way out.

He warned that nature could not recover once negative “tipping points” are passed, such as the collapse of the world’s warm water coral reefs.

House prices are likely to continue to fall in the coming months, Australia’s largest residential and commercial property listings site says.

REA Group’s outlook is similar to the nation’s biggest home loan lender, Commonwealth Bank.

Chief executive Matt Comyn said this week he doesn’t expect the housing market to bottom out until well into 2027.

CommBank economists continue to predict house prices to fall by nine per cent in this downturn, driven by four interest rate rises this year, and after the federal government tightened tax benefits around negative gearing and capital gains in this year’s budget.

The biggest factor contributing to the uncertainty in the property market is the prospect of higher interest rates, REA boss Cameron McIntyre said on Thursday.

Future house price falls are likely over the coming months as last month’s interest rate rise, the tax changes and the cumulative impact of higher borrowing costs weigh on buyer demand,” he told shareholders at an annual meeting.

“However, resilient employment, limited forced selling and homeowner equity buffers, along with ongoing constrained supply, should put a floor under the falls we see,” he said.

The central bank last week raised the key cash interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.60 per cent – the highest level in 15 years.

That prompted all the major banks to pass on the increase to customers, with variable interest home loans now attracting rates of about eight per cent per annum.

CommBank expects the Reserve Bank of Australia to hold off on further rate rises this year, although it cautions that the prospect of a November hike remains a possibility.

“I think clearly that will be a live decision that will be revisited,” Mr Comyn told ABC radio on Wednesday.

The bank’s economists still think that Australia is at, or close to, the peak of the rate hike cycle, with cuts to come next year.

“We continue to expect two rate cuts in late 2027,” economist Lucinda Jerogin said in a recent research note.

National property values fell 1.1 per cent in September, taking the total decline since the March peak to 5.2 per cent, according to Cotality data released last week.

The median dwelling value dropped to $899,236 – essentially back to where it was 12 months ago.

Market watchers say it could take time for buyers to be persuaded they are paying the right price given the backdrop of higher interest rates and falling values.

The tax man doubling down on blocking credit card payments has prompted accusations of a double standard and sounded alarm bells within the government.

Australians will no longer be able to pay tax with credit cards from December, after the ATO declared on October 1 it could not absorb the credit card surcharges it was now banned from passing on to taxpayers. 

The tax office held its ground in a meeting with business groups on Wednesday, which bred complaints it was shirking a new cost burden the government was forcing on vendors.

Labor frontbencher Claire O’Neill revealed anxieties about the ATO’s firm stance. 

“The government does have some real concerns about what the ATO is proposing to do here,” she told Nine’s Today program on Thursday.

“Cash flow is the biggest thing that’s often of concern for small business, and using credit cards to pay tax bill is a way that a lot of people are just managing that issue.

“We really want the ATO to go back and talk to business about what they’ve decided to do here.”

The ban on credit card surcharges, handed down by the Reserve Bank, is expected to save consumers about $1.6 billion a year.

About 2.3 per cent of tax payments were made with credit cards in the 2024/25 financial year, most of them from privately owned, wealthy groups, public and multinational businesses, according to the tax office. 

The agency has pledged to write to those with a payment plan linked to a credit card, explaining the changes and their options.

But Digital Economy Minister Andrew Charlton said the government was behind the ATO.

“They don’t want the people who are not paying by credit card, which is 98 per cent  of taxpayers, to be subsidising those that do,” he told ABC Radio.

“The tax office offers payment plans for small businesses … the cost of those plans, the interest rate on those plans, is much lower than the interest rate on credit cards.”

Lowering caps on interchange fees between banks and card issuers, which also came into effect on October 1, could help offset some of the new policy’s growing pains, Mr Charlton said.

But the government was plugging a double standard by forcing businesses to shoulder credit card surcharges while the ATO let itself off the hook, according to Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie. 

“The prime minister promised that removing the surcharge would make coffees go down somehow – evanesco, surchargio, disappearo,” she said. 

“The government needs to direct the ATO to accept credit cards because the reality is, if you’re paying cash or card right now, you are paying a surcharge for Labor’s economic failure.”

Business groups have urged the tax office to rethink its decision, with opposition frontbenchers pleading with the government to strong-arm the agency.

Near-record high levels of government spending could threaten Australia’s fiscal health in the long run if the nation’s economic luck runs out, a major ratings agency has warned.

Federal government payments hit 26.9 per cent of gross domestic product in the 2025/26 financial year, which was the highest level in 40 years excluding COVID-19.

S&P Global Ratings lead analyst Martin Foo said that Australia’s high levels of tax revenue meant that was not a problem in the short term.

Indeed, S&P recently reaffirmed the commonwealth’s AAA sovereign credit rating.

But it posed two potential problems down the track.

Firstly, Australia’s elevated spending was structural in nature, including higher spending on defence, aged care, social security and interest payments.

“These all look like they’re here to stay, and that could be a problem if revenue windfalls decline,” Mr Foo said.

Australia’s tax take has benefited in recent years from high company and income taxes.

At 24.1 per cent of GDP, tax revenue is at the highest level on record, except for 2004/05 and 2005/06 at the start of the mining boom.

But if elevated commodity prices faltered or the unemployment rate was to rise suddenly, Australia’s recent run of tax windfalls could come to an end.

The comments were echoed by veteran economist Chris Richardson.

“Making permanent promises off the back of temporary windfalls is the oldest mistake in the budgetary book,” he said.

The second problem was that high government spending was complicating the job of the Reserve Bank, Mr Foo said.

“Right now we have a situation where the RBA and the government are, in some cases, pulling in opposite directions,” he said.

“The RBA is trying to clamp down on inflation that’s primarily driven by growth in aggregate demand, and that means that you have the two major arms of public policy in Australia really not being as effective in delivering their individual mandates as they could otherwise be.”

Following the RBA’s decision to raise interest rates in late September, Governor Michele Bullock said the Middle East conflict had worsened inflation in recent months, but domestic capacity pressures were the main factor driving the breakout in price growth.

But Treasurer Jim Chalmers said growth in public demand had been easing while the private economy had been accelerating.

“If you think about the last year or so, compared to the year before, public final demand growth has halved while private final demand growth has tripled. And so that gives you a good sense that there are other factors at play,” he told Bloomberg Australia in an interview.

Ms Bullock said the underlying reason why the economy was breaking out in inflation sweats despite relatively subdued growth was because productivity had been “doing nothing”.

Part of the reason why productivity has stagnated was because Australia was being throttled by regulation, according to a report produced by consultancy Mandala for the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

If the federal government rolled back the regulatory burden back to 2000s levels, Australia’s economy would be boosted by at least $20 billion a year, the report found.

Australia needed to have a national conversation around what an acceptable level of risk, said the institute’s chief executive Mark Rigotti.

The population has come to expect 100 per cent perfection and governments have been expected to react with new regulation every time something goes wrong, without thinking about the long-term impacts to overall prosperity.

“If we don’t fix this, all of our grandkids are going to be worse off,” Mr Rigotti said.

Migration policies delivered by the major parties are being described as a missed opportunity to bring construction apprentices to Australia to help boost desperately needed housing supply.

The government, coalition and One Nation have in recent weeks announced much-touted plans to slash migrant intake across the country as it becomes a hot political issue.

The parties each have different policies about the role of international students and tradespeople in the economy.

Labor’s plan includes a redesign of the skilled migration points test so housing construction trade qualifications carry the same point value as a university degree.

But one thing all the plans share is that student visas settings do not allow for apprenticeships to be undertaken.

That was short-sighted in a housing crisis, where young migrant trainees could bolster supply, Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn said.

Domestic drop-out rates for construction apprenticeships are at 50 per cent and Ms Wawn said the dwindling number of tradies could in part be fixed by allowing enthusiastic apprentices into the country.

“If we are going to continue on with international students into Australia, particularly where we can provide them with opportunities to stay in the country, we should be linking that to greater incentives in the areas where skills really matter,” she said.

There would be strong take-up from business owners if the visa settings were to change, but a lot of work would be needed to get there, Housing Institute Australia’s ACT director Geordan Murray said.

International students are only allowed to work up to 48 hours a fortnight during their study periods, which is not enough to complete an apprenticeship.

Trade qualifications are heavily subsidised for Australian students.

But that’s not the case for those from overseas who complete them once on more permanent visas, so it is unlikely it would be the case on a student visa.

“It would cost considerably more for them to do a trade than for a local student – not dissimilar to what happens at universities – but the price point could be comparable to a university degree,” Mr Murray told AAP.

“That then raises a question about where they want to spend their money, when considering a trade verse a university degree.”

He said it was a crucial area to evolve in the Australian visa system, and one that was welcomed by the industry.

Esther Nothman was in Israel when she learned the worst terror attack in the Jewish nation’s history was unfolding.

The Jewish-Australian received a phone call on the morning of October 7, 2023 and was told “something terrible was going on in southern Israel”.

“We turned the TV on and it was a nightmare,” Ms Nothman told AAP at Sydney’s Bondi Bondi on Wednesday, the third anniversary of the deadly attack by Hamas.

“Just like 9/11, you just didn’t believe what was happening … within a few hours, the family put the pressure on to come home.”

The massacre left about 1200 dead and resulted in 251 people taken hostage by the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, designated a terror organisation by Australia and its allies.

Wednesday’s dawn ceremony at Bondi Pavilion began with a minute’s silence at 6.29am – the exact time the attack in Israel began.

Ms Nothman, from nearby Bondi Junction, said the commemorative event was particularly meaningful after December’s massacre at the pavilion.

She said that attack during a Hanukkah celebration – which killed 15 victims – left the Jewish community terrified.

“During the commemoration, there was a siren going through the beach, and I just felt, could it possibly be this wonderful commemoration was under attack?” Ms Nothman said.

“Many people who turned up here had trepidation about even coming.”

Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, who was among the speakers, described the October 7 attack as a day when “young Israelis went out to dance at the Nova Music Festival and never came home”.

For supporters of the Palestinian cause, the anniversary was a day to draw attention to the Israeli assault on Gaza that followed the Hamas attack.

More than 74,000 people have been killed and 175,000 wounded in the bombardment, according to Gaza health officials.

A scattered crowd of about 100 people gathered on the steps of Victoria’s state library for an all-day silent sit-in, calling for a permanent ceasefire and just resolution for Palestinians.

Organiser Tasnim Sammak said October 7 marked the beginning of a genocidal military offensive in Gaza.

“We’re marking three years of this military campaign and to call for an end,” she told AAP.

“It’s a peaceful, silent vigil for people to grieve and mourn and to reflect on the violence we face.”

About 100 people turned up at Sydney’s Town Hall where candles were lit and flowers were arranged in the shape of a heart.

The muted affair comes after NSW Premier Chris Minns saying it would diminish from the organisers’ cause, Jews against the Occupation, and lead some to think they have sympathy for Hamas.

In Melbourne, a heavy police presence ensured the vigil remained peaceful with officers separating right-wing and pro-Israel influencer Avi Yemeni from the small crowd.

Police shielded dozens of demonstrators wearing keffiyehs (Palestinian scarves) in the city centre forming a straight line.

Several leaders condemned planned pro-Palestinian events on the anniversary as inflammatory and insensitive to the Jewish community.

When asked about the criticism, Ms Sammak, who has displaced family members in Gaza, said several Jewish people had also joined the vigil.

“They understand the situation for Jews around the world is also connected to a just resolution,” she said.

Ben Carasso, a prominent Israeli child advocate, travelled to Sydney from Tel Aviv for the Bondi service.

The 11-year-old said he began speaking on behalf of his nation’s children after the 2023 attack.

“It’s about … your friends losing their parents and their siblings … and friends being evacuated from their homes,” he told AAP. 

“This isn’t a normal childhood and I wanted the world to understand that.”

Jewish children in Australia were also suffering from rising anti-Semitism since the attack on Israel, Ben said, paying tribute to 10-year-old Matilda, who was killed in the Bondi massacre.

“There’s a really big connection between October 7 and what happened on Bondi Beach,” he said. 

Local state MP and NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane said anti-Semitic hate had emerged in Australia since the 2023 terrorist attack.

“Our community has woken up again and again to graffiti, vandalism, firebombings,” she said.

The ceremony closed with a performance of the Australian and Israeli national anthems, performed by Ben Goldstein, a singer-songwriter from Bondi.

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European stocks and the euro have dropped as oil prices ‌rise above $US100 amid renewed Middle East tensions while fiscal concerns continue to weigh on sentiment.

MSCI’s main world stocks index fell 0.28 per cent on Wednesday, while Europe’s STOXX 600 was down ‌0.45 per cent.

Nasdaq futures fell 0.11 per cent while S&P 500 futures were roughly unchanged. 

The S&P 500 hit a fresh record on Tuesday, up about 0.6 per cent on the day, while the tech-heavy ‌Nasdaq gained 0.4 per cent to also mark a record high. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5 per cent.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan was down 0.5 per cent, led by declines in Hong Kong and Singapore. 

The index is up 0.9 per cent so far in October.

“In the very early stages of the fourth quarter, typically the best quarter of the year for equity returns, markets are being driven by a confusing ‘stocks up, US breadth down, yields up, oil down and up, and down’ narrative,” ‌said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, an economist ‌at Raymond James.

Brent crude ⁠rose one per cent to $US101.58 per barrel as the market weighed supply constraints from a storm heading for US oil-producing ​regions and attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on Saudi Arabia.

The French yield spread versus safe-haven German Bunds – a market gauge of the risk premium investors demand to hold French debt – was wider after narrowing for two days. 

It was last at 131 bps, and reached almost 160 bps last week.

French bonds have been under pressure as expectations of higher European Central Bank rates and political uncertainty before the 2027 election raise doubts over France’s ability to fix its finances.

The ​rekindling of investor ‌concerns weighed on the euro, which slipped 0.47 per cent to $US1.1208. 

It slid to a 17-month low against the dollar at $US1.1161 earlier this week.

Wider yield spreads in ​the euro area weigh on the single currency by boosting expectations of European Central Bank monetary easing, reviving worries about fiscal sustainability and stoking fears of increasing fragmentation in the euro area.

The yield on the US 10-year Treasury bond was up 3.8 ​bps ​at 5.307 per cent.

Market participants would closely watch a 10-year Treasury bond ​auction later in the day and a 30-year auction on Thursday, which would show ‌the depth of investor demand for US debt, analysts said.

US longer-dated yields hit a 24-year high on Monday amid a persistent sell-off since late August due to inflation and the fiscal outlook.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.33 per cent to 102.18 following a 0.27 per cent slide in the prior session.

The Japanese yen weakened 0.1 per cent to 158.30 per dollar. Sterling dipped 0.2 per cent to $US1.3228.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday will publish the minutes of its September 15-16 policy meeting, ​which will be scrutinised for potential rate moves over the next few months.

Traders scaled back expectations of a Fed rate increase this month to 19 per cent ​from about 50 per cent a week earlier.

Spot gold ⁠was down 0.6 per cent at $US4,135.28 per ounce.

Sweeping cuts to temporary migrants won’t impact Australia’s ability to access aged care and health workers, the opposition leader insists, despite little detail on how the sector will be affected.

The coalition announced on Tuesday it would reduce net overseas migration from its annual level of nearly 300,000 people to about 100,000 in the first year if it won the next election.

The bulk of the reduction would be achieved by slashing the stock of temporary migrants by about 650,000 over four years.

Australia had become a guest worker economy under Labor and the changes would recalibrate the system to focus more on skilled workers rather than temporary workers, coalition leader Angus Taylor said.

But Australia’s care economy, such as aged care providers, are heavily reliant on temporary visa holders.

A 2024 survey by the Department of Health found more than one-in-five aged care workers were temporary visa holders, with 20 per cent of them on temporary graduate visas, which the coalition has vowed to abolish.

The coalition included in its forecasts an allocation of 10,000 post-study transitional visas per year, for students completing PhDs, studying at regional universities or studying health or education.

Mr Taylor later confirmed that aged care workers would also be included in the transitional visa cohort.

“We’ve created transition arrangements and exemptions for health and aged care workers as part of the plan,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

More skilled visa places would also be allocated to aged care workers, he said.

But the plan does not detail a breakdown of how the transitional visas will be split up.

Tom Symondson, chief executive of aged care peak body Ageing Australia, said opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston had provided assurance the aged care workforce would not be impacted by the changes.

“The worst thing we could do now is reduce the number of staff we have in aged care,” he told AAP.

Mr Symondson said of direct care staff in the sector, about 70,000 were on temporary visas of one form or another.

But the sector also relies on a large workforce not providing direct care, such as cleaners and kitchen staff, who are not included in skilled visa categories and whose status remains unclear.

“This is why it’s really important that changes to migration settings consider all of the impacts on sectors like aged care, and we would not be the only sector that’s concerned,” Mr Symondson said.

Small Business Minister Anne Aly, whose mother worked in aged care, said the coalition was unable to explain how their policy would impact the sector.

“Whenever I talk to small businesses, they say the same thing,” she told ABC TV.

“We have to continue to look at a domestic workforce … but in the interim, we need a temporary workforce to fill those skill shortages.”

The coalition would also require visa holders to leave the country before applying for a new visa, in an attempt to curtail so-called “visa hopping”.

The opposition claims bridging visas would be virtually eliminated, which Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie confirmed would require boosting the home affairs’ department’s processing capacity.

“We are going to be putting more resources into home affairs to actually get the visa processing sorted, we’re also putting more resources into home affairs to actually locate (overstayers) and help them leave,” she told Seven’s Sunrise program.

“You won’t be able to graduate and then go be an Uber driver as an engineer – you’ll have to go home.”

But former Immigration Department deputy secretary Abul Rizvi said the coalition would find it near impossible in practice to eliminate bridging visas, which are above 400,000.