Australian businesses have fallen behind their global peers in the race to secure enterprise data lying beyond their home country’s borders, as territorial battles rage across Europe.

The war ground is the legal concept of data sovereignty, which accepts that digital data is subject to the laws and government of the country where it is collected, processed and stored.

This maxim exposes data managed abroad to geopolitical risk, including situations where a government could legally seize or block access to data kept within its borders.

Some 90 per cent of global corporate leaders agree that data sovereignty is a business concern, according to an eight-country survey by American data management and storage company Everpure.

But 64 per cent don’t have a formal data sovereignty strategy to address that risk, the poll of more than 2000 C-Suite executives found.

As well, the response from the 300 Australian chief executives in the survey showed the nation’s large, outward-looking corporations are behind their overseas counterparts.

Some 74 per cent didn’t have a data strategy, despite 85 per cent recognising it was a top-line business concern.

The Australian response was surprising because the nation was normally up to speed on such matters, Everpure chief technology officer Matt Oostveen said.

“The starting gun’s been fired, but we’re still only a few steps out,” he told a briefing.

“We’re lagging behind the global average and there’s a gap to close.”

That gap can’t be closed by just ramping up security.

“Security people need to be educated that, unfortunately, you can’t encrypt your way through this one,” Mr Oostveen said.

For instance, the survey found that only 26 per cent of respondents believed a disruption due to something as simple as a government switching off a server was a key geopolitical risk.

“That’s incredibly low,” Mr Oostveen said.

“We have a group of people out there whistling past the graveyard here, because at any moment we could see a shift in an administration’s point of view of particular countries that are exporting digital services.

“And we’ve seen it happen with some nations in Western Europe.”

The issue attracting international attention is the legal clash between the US government’s CLOUD Act and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.

The American law says a US-based technology company must bow to data requests by US authorities under warrant, regardless of where that data is held.

But under European law, EU firms and foreign cloud providers operating in Europe cannot hand over the personal data of EU citizens to a third country, barring some sort of official or treaty-like arrangement.

The Catch-22-like struggle is ongoing.

Meanwhile, Australia could be lagging on data sovereignty because of a sense of isolation and distance, Mr Oostveen suspects.

“It’s been a real political issue for some time now in Western Europe,” he said.

“Those countries have been at the forefront and the first to lay down a legislative platform to stand upon, whereas Australia has been largely behind the curve.”

But some Australian corporations are responding by putting out tenders to move their data back onshore, under a phenomenon known as geopatriation.

“They’re looking to protect it, and they’re bringing it back where possible,” Mr Oostveen said, adding that Australia might need more data centres.

“We need it. We need it for sovereignty.”

Brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are among Australians’ favourite things.

The delivery of a record 283 million parcels in the last half of 2025, including a bumper 111 million over the Christmas season, helped Australia Post record a modest profit as its letters business steeply declined.

But regional and rural post office licensees and consumers are missing out on their own special delivery, as the national postal service actively maintains its dominance, a Senate inquiry has been told.

Under Australia Post’s current contracts, independently-owned post offices cannot provide parcel collection and return services for competitors, according to the Australian Parcels Industry Forum.

A submission from the forum, which represents FedEx and Team Global Express, said attempts to work with licensees have been met with resistance from Australia Post and requests to communicate through lawyers.

Australia Post holds 70 per cent of the national e-commerce parcels market, along with at least 95 per cent in regional areas.

“When you have a 95 per cent market share player … there’s not a lot of incentive for service improvement there,” forum executive member Jon Bell told the inquiry in Canberra on Wednesday.

“We have a large number of retailers telling us they could sell a lot more product to regional Australians if only they had a choice of parcel delivery.

“We’ve even had retailers tell us they block certain postcodes on their website from delivery because it’s just too much hassle, too slow, or too expensive to use current services.”

For example, people in Queensland’s Darling Downs region have 46 package collection points at community post offices, the forum’s submission said.

But there are only 18 pick-up locations if a retailer uses a different carrier, with a potential 165km round-trip to the closest depot.

Alternative carriers have long lobbied Australia Post to open up its network, including Sendle before its abrupt collapse in January.

Economic modelling showed if Australia Post allowed competitors access to post offices, as is common around the world, it would generate $1.5 billion over 10 years, the forum’s submission said.

That figure would include new national revenue, about 1000 regional jobs and would enable Australia Post to expand its growing parcels market.

Competitors could fulfil “final mile” deliveries, bringing overall postage costs down, Conference of Asia Pacific Express Carriers executive Tom Harden told the inquiry.

“If there’s a lower cost for the final mile, everyone gets a little bit cheaper, and we get a little bit faster,” Mr Harden said.

“We get better service, businesses can now expand into those networks … there’s more jobs, and all the natural economic things start flowing from that.”

Australia Post’s submission said its mandated function was to supply national postal services.

But it also had to meet shareholders’ expectations, creating tension as its letters business and demand for other traditional services declined.

A jump in headline inflation to four per cent will do little to dispel the Reserve Bank of Australia’s concerns inflation remains too high.

Higher fuel prices as a result of the Middle East conflict contributed to the rise in the annual consumer price index in August, from 3.5 per cent the month prior, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Wednesday.

But the annual trimmed mean – a measure of underlying inflation preferred by the central bank – came in at 3.6 per cent for a third straight month, reinforcing RBA governor Michele Bullock’s concerns inflation pressures were not easing.

Speaking after the central bank hiked interest rates to a 15-year high of 4.6 per cent on Tuesday, Ms Bullock said such a result would confirm a consistent pattern of stubborn inflation during the past six months.

In the end, Wednesday’s result was slightly softer than economists had been expecting, but it did not leave the RBA with any red faces over its decision to hike a day earlier, KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne said.

“Essentially today’s data validates the RBA’s decision yesterday to raise rates as it shows inflation is still far from under control, leaving the RBA with no choice but to act,” Dr Rynne said.

Despite the annual trimmed mean coming in line with consensus forecasts, the monthly increase of 0.2 per cent was below expectations for a rise of 0.3 per cent.

More important was that the crucial quarterly trimmed mean, which will be released shortly before the RBA’s next meeting on Melbourne Cup day, is still on track to print at around one per cent.

“The question is, does a one per cent trimmed mean trigger a hike in November?” Citi’s Josh Williamson and Faraz Syed said.

“We continue to expect RBA to hike again by 25 basis points in November. The bank cannot forecast inflation returning back to the target in the next six months, and therefore needs to tighten policy further to curb inflation expectations.”

A 14.8 per cent spike in fuel prices in August, as the government’s temporary excise cut wore off, drove the jump in the headline figure but was excluded from the trimmed mean, which elides volatile items to show a clearer picture of the underlying drivers of inflation.

However, a 0.4 per cent increase in market services inflation, such as hairdressing, insurance and restaurant meals, suggested price growth might be a bit stickier than expected, Commonwealth Bank senior economist Trent Saunders said.

“Overall, the market services detail was mixed in August but continues to point to an aggregate inflation rate that will make it difficult for the RBA to hit its target in a timely manner,” he said.

Scrutiny has ratcheted up on the drivers of the inflation outbreak.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said while Australia already had an inflation challenge, it has been made worse by the re-escalation in the Middle East conflict.

Ms Bullock said the Middle East conflict and the AI investment boom were contributing to inflation, but it had been primarily driven by domestic capacity pressures.

Ms Bullock’s predecessor as governor, Philip Lowe, said excessive government spending was making inflation worse.

Dr Lowe, who left the central bank in 2023 after Treasurer Jim Chalmers chose not to renew his tenure as governor, said the government should be banking high tax receipts given the phase of the economic cycle.

“Now we find ourselves running sizeable budget deficits at a time where we’re at full employment and commodity prices are very high,” he told an Institute of Public Affairs podcast, released on Tuesday evening.

The federal budget recorded a $22.3 billion deficit in 2025/26, Dr Chalmers revealed on Monday.

Commonwealth Bank and Westpac followed Macquarie on Wednesday in announcing they would pass the interest rate hike to borrowers in full.

AI companies can’t be trusted to police themselves following the hacking of government websites, Australia’s online safety boss says.

Australia is the first known nation to have its government data breached by a rogue AI agent, following recent revelations that an OpenAI model gained access to Medicare statistics in June. 

It was later revealed OpenAI also breached multiple government websites in the US.

After AI giants signed a voluntary accord to develop their own safety standards following a meeting with US President Donald Trump, eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the companies could not enforce measures themselves.

“Clearly, they haven’t policed themselves or we wouldn’t have had the OpenAI Medicare hack or the Hugging Face hack or anything else,” she told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday.

“They’ve had time – the end of self-regulation is over. And it’s great to see that we, along with others, want to take this on and create better online futures for our people.”

The commissioner said the calls for self regulation from AI companies mirrored similar requests at the birth of the internet and social media.

Ms Inman Grant said further controls needed to be placed on the industry, with Australia in a “perilous place” as AI companies had not built adequate safety mechanisms. 

She held concerns about people feeding AI private data, which would likely include information needed for speeches. 

“We have to take control now. We, of course, will always rather work with the industry rather than against them, but something has to change,” she said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has long touted the benefits of AI, encouraging Australians and his own party to use it, albeit carefully. 

“This is a complex area. AI can transform our economy, boost productivity, and lead to revolutionary breakthroughs in health care, innovation, and science,” he told reporters on Wednesday. 

“But there are risks there as well, and we need to make sure that we mitigate the risks.”

OpenAI on Tuesday issued an apology for the breach, offering to set up an independent task force to investigate privacy concerns, alongside one launched by the government.

The company and its competitor Anthropic have both said they would slow production of their latest AI models. 

The government has also ordered all departments to audit their old technology and patch any holes that could allow an AI agent to access data.

The home affairs department-driven push to mothball old systems announced on Wednesday tracks with a sweeping cybersecurity overhaul slated for completion by 2030.

Abigail Bradshaw, the Australian Signals Directorate’s director-general, said her team had been working with non-publicly available AI software for more than six months to strengthen government systems – something many other developed countries had not been able to do.

The directorate had access to private security measures to ensure the 2026 census was secure, and was now helping other government departments, Ms Bradshaw said on Wednesday. 

“Australia can participate in developing new norms, new behaviours, and new protocols which are beneficial to Australians and are shaping norms which will impact people around the world,” she told ABC Television.

Her directorate had been working with other Five Eyes nations since June to ensure Australia was on the frontier of security movements.

The federal government has been accused of shifting costs to states and territories as well as a GST carve-up that “threatens the fiscal stability of the federation”.

Queensland Treasurer David Janetzki on Wednesday took aim at the commonwealth at the first National Press Club event to be held in Brisbane.

Mr Janetzki said cost-shifting of long held federal responsibilities or agreements from Canberra was “problematic” and had to be called out.

“Some of it is subtle, some of it is not,” he said.

He said Queensland Treasury modelling tallied more than $22 billion in costs having to be picked up by the state by the end of the 2030/31 financial year.

The biggest driver in cost shifting was NDIS reforms at up to $10 billion, along with $5.8 billion for people waiting on federally funded aged care places in public hospitals plus $2.1 billion under a 50-50 state-national road funding split.

“These were not decisions of the Queensland government, nor any state or territory government, and we have no say in them,” Mr Janetzki said.

The treasurer pushed for a GST overhaul, saying Queensland was the only state to go backwards in real terms over the past three years.

“We are not looking for a special deal, we’re looking for a fair deal,” he said.

“The current system is a drag on productivity and a handbrake on economic development.”

Mr Janetzki said that while GST revenue had swollen by 80 per cent over the past decade, Queensland’s share had grown 39 per cent compared to 66 per cent for NSW, 116 per cent for Victoria and 397 per cent for Western Australia.

“In the least surprising thing you’ll ever hear, Queensland, together with most states, wants change,” Mr Janetzki said.

“To be blunt, the GST carve-up threatens the fiscal stability of the federation.”

State treasurers have been making submissions to the Federal Productivity Commission review into the GST, with the consultation period finishing on Wednesday.

Mr Janetzki said he had called for a 25 per cent discount to assess mining revenue in Queensland’s submission.

The commission’s interim report in August recommended the federal government scrap its deal with Western Australia, a suggestion prime minister Anthony Albanese has rejected.

The final report is due to be handed to the federal government in December.

Premier David Crisafulli told reporters on Wednesday that Queensland was getting “stitched up” on the GST.

“All we want from Canberra is a fair rub and we will do the rest.”

The new Greens leadership is vowing to take the political fight to Labor as change at the top of the party triggers internal ructions.

NSW Senator David Shoebridge was elected party leader on Wednesday, promising he and new deputy Steph Hodgins-May would take on the Labor government and a surging One Nation.

But the vote has brought out some disquiet from former deputy leader and leadership candidate Mehreen Faruqi, who took to social media within hours of the announcement.

“Of course, I am disappointed the party room chose another direction, and know many others will feel the same way,” she said, pointing to the major issues facing voters around the world.

“I did not stand again for deputy leader today because, on reflection, I believe I can best play my part in that action outside the constraints of the leadership team.”

Senator Shoebridge won the final ballot 7-4 against Senator Faruqi after party leader Larissa Waters resigned over health issues.

Senator Faruqi echoed calls from the Greens’ internal think tank to introduce member voting for new leadership instead of relying on the will of the partyroom.

“Without a member vote, we cannot call ourselves a grassroots party,” Senator Faruqi said. 

Senator Shoebridge acknowledged the work of his predecessors and the challenge ahead during his first appearance as leader.

“We know the Greens need to seize this moment because politics demands it of us,” he said on Wednesday, blaming the government for creating the space for right-wing party One Nation to surge in popularity.

“The Greens, the progressive alternative … we’re here to beat down One Nation and we’re here to replace Labor and return hope and faith to politics.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers acknowledged the change in leadership and said Labor would continue to work with the party in good faith.

“I’m told that he was particularly focused on the Labor Party in his introductory remarks,” Dr Chalmers said.

“It’s really important that we focus on the risks posed to workers and to our economy by One Nation, the Liberal Party and the National Party.”

Taking on the gas industry and tech giants would form a focus of the party in the immediate future, Senator Hodgins-May said.

“I am looking forward to working with David to bring a bold vision to Australia, to grow our movement, to confront the impending climate crisis that is here now,” the Victorian senator said.

The party, which has a primary vote of about 12 per cent in most opinion polls and holds the balance of power in the upper house, voted for the new leadership team during a two-day policy meeting in Sydney.

The change in leadership comes days after Senator Waters’ decision to step down from the leadership due to her worsening health.

During her first media appearance since that announcement, she said it had been a privilege to lead the Greens since the election.

“Whilst I’m proud of the time that I have spent leading this incredible team, I am very proud to be a humble backbencher and a senator for Queensland after I take some medical leave,” she said.

She took the reins during a transitional phase after the minor party lost three lower-house seats, including the electorate of then-leader Adam Bandt, at the 2025 election.

Senator Shoebridge paid tribute to Senator Waters for her leadership in the face of personal struggles.

“There are few politicians that you can really point to who so clearly put the planet and the public ahead of their own interests,” he said.

“Our party was rock solid behind Larissa, but I can’t tell you how much of a joy it is going to be over the next 18 months. 

“A lot of hard work, but what a joy.”

Australian shares have had their strongest session since early August after lower-than-feared inflation figures tempered concerns of further imminent interest rate hikes.

The S&P/ASX200 gained 80 points on Wednesday, up 0.92 per cent, to 8,798.3, as the broader All Ordinaries improved by 82.6 points, or 0.93 per cent, to 8,969.2.

Headline inflation rose 4.0 per cent in the year to August, up from July’s 3.5 per cent but below forecasts, leaving the door open to further Reserve Bank cash rate hikes while providing slightly more breathing room than previously feared.

Interest rate-sensitive sectors like consumer retail and real estate – recently under pressure due to high borrowing costs and weak market sentiment – rebounded more than 2.6 and 3.6 per cent respectively, leading the other nine sectors higher.

The Australian dollar is buying 69.76 US cents, down from 69.93 US cents on Tuesday at 5pm.

The wife of an Australian human rights activist missing in Cambodia has rubbished claims her husband planned terrorist activities in Vietnam after he was charged by authorities.

Democracy campaigner Tran Hiep was due to meet his wife, Chloe Dang, at Bangkok’s airport after travelling to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh to meet with human rights defenders.

But the 50-year-old Melbourne man never boarded his flight and has not been heard from since September 18.

Vietnamese authorities confirmed late on Monday that Mr Hiep, also known as Ho Pham Hiep Huy, had been arrested along with Vietnamese-Norwegian human rights activist Nguyen Duc Thuan and Thai Cong Truong Son.

The country’s Ministry of Public Security said the trio were detained on September 18 while allegedly attempting to cross illegally from Cambodia into Vietnam.

It said they had admitted to being members of Viet Tan, a pro-democracy diaspora political party which is a proscribed terrorist organisation under Vietnam’s communist government.

The men are accused of entering the country to conduct “terrorist and sabotage activities” and of forging seals and documents. 

Ms Dang she was proud of her husband and was upset he had been labelled a terrorist.

“Viet Tan, which he is a member of, is only to raise awareness about human rights and freedom of speech, so that has nothing to do with terrorism,” she told AAP.

“He’s been a human rights activist long before we met each other.”

The 36-year-old said her husband led a regular life working, fixing things around their home at St Albans in Melbourne’s west, and fishing and camping with her on weekends.

Viet Tan has accused Vietnamese authorities of kidnapping Mr Hiep and Mr Thuan.

The group denies claims the two men illegally entered Vietnam from the Cambodian border.

“This is a blatant fabrication intended to conceal the fact that the Viet Tan members were abducted in Cambodia and forcibly taken to Vietnam,” the group said in a statement.

Ms Dang says her husband had no intention of going to Vietnam and claimed the Vietnamese government’s timeline of Mr Hiep’s alleged movements did not add up.

She said he was due to board his flight from Cambodia to Bangkok just one or two hours after the time authorities claim he tried to illegally cross the border into Vietnam.

“I (was) going to be the one to pick him up at the airport,” she told ABC Radio.

“It’s impossible.”

Vietnamese authorities did not inform the Australian embassy in Hanoi or the federal government of her husband’s arrest, Ms Dang said, and she found out through the news.

She still doesn’t know where in Vietnam her husband is being detained.

“As a wife, I worry about that as well and sometimes I used to tell him ‘always be careful because outside of Australia, it’s different and you don’t know what’s going to happen’,” Ms Dang said.

Mr Hiep founded the Australian Alliance to Combat Human Trafficking and was travelling to meet with dissident Vietnamese activists for training in Cambodia, according to Viet Tan.

Viet Tan has called on Norwegian and Australian authorities, as well as human rights organisations, to press the Vietnamese government for the immediate and unconditional release of both men.

Vietnam has ramped up its crackdown on dissidents in recent years, with more than 55 activists arrested under broad criminal laws in 2025.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said the government was providing consular assistance and engaging with Mr Hiep’s family.

Every political party says that Australia is in the midst of a housing crisis, but they still can’t agree on how best to fix it.

Partisan differences have prevented another Senate inquiry into intergenerational housing inequity from charting a clear way forward, as it handed down its report on Wednesday.

Greens senator and committee chair Barbara Pocock repeated calls in the report for more public housing, a national rent cap and low-interest mortgages for first-home buyers.

The coalition, represented by opposition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg, once again promised to repeal Labor’s changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax, slash the size of the construction code, and increase reporting requirements for Housing Australia.

Meanwhile, Labor’s senators Carol Brown and Corinne Mulholland insisted that the government’s budget changes and boost to social-housing funding through the Housing Australia Future Fund were already making a difference.

Curbs to investor tax breaks have contributed to property prices falling 3.6 per cent nationwide since their March peak, according to Cotality.

Credit growth figures released on Wednesday also showed growth in owner-occupier loans had overtaken investors, rising 0.5 per cent in August compared to 0.4 per cent for investors.

Still, investors and owner-occupiers were both softening in line with the cyclical downturn.

But Senator Bragg said budget tax changes made housing inequity worse because they destroyed the opportunity for young people to create enough wealth to afford a deposit.

“The government have made it illegal to build a cheap house through the construction code,” he told News24.

Senator Pocock called for at least 10 per cent of total housing stock to be made up of public and community housing, up from the current level of about 3.7 per cent.

She said the inquiry revealed “a housing system stacked against younger generations who have lost the intergenerational housing lottery”.

“With 640,000 people in need of social housing, the government’s pathetic attempts at building social and affordable housing won’t meet existing demand. Every target is being missed,” Senator Pocock said.

Labor touted its work on boosting supply as it seeks to build 1.2 million new homes in five years as part of the National Housing Accord, even though it is falling further behind schedule.

Dwelling approvals fell 6.1 per cent in August to 16,953, driven by a 21.2 per cent decline in detached homes, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported.

Monthly approvals were still near a five-year high at 18,202.

Master Builders Australia said higher construction costs, interest rates and taxes were making it harder for the sector to meet its supply target.

“Modelling confirms that the budget will deprive us of many new homes over the years ahead and force rents even higher,” Master Builders chief executive Denita Wawn said.

Sydney Airport is safe despite investigations into air traffic control rostering and fatigue concerns, which might have contributed to near misses between aircraft, a federal minister says. 

Between July and August, Sydney Airport narrowly avoided four collisions on runways, including one in which a jet was damaged and unable to turn around. 

Ground staff and pilots had to act on each occasion to avoid a major collision. 

“Based on information detailed in our preliminary reports, staff resourcing within Sydney Tower at the time of many of the occurrences has emerged as a recurring area of enquiry,” Australia Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Angus Mitchell told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

“We recognise that air traffic control systems are under strain globally and I acknowledge the professionalism, training and commitment of air traffic controllers.”

Transport Minister Catherine King said Sydney Airport was co-operating well with all investigations and the airport remained safe for travellers. 

A new independent assurance panel has been launched to help Sydney implement changes to its air traffic control. 

Retired Air Vice Marshal Ken Robinson has been appointed as chair of the panel. Other members will join for an initial six-month period. 

In one incident, a flight attendant fractured a wrist after being knocked off their feet as the plane stopped suddenly on a runway where a larger aircraft was being towed. The risk was transitory, but two planes stopped with 30 metres between them.

In another near miss, an air traffic controller was sent for a break and had completed handover just seven seconds before a plane was wrongly cleared to cross the runway and came within 120 metres of a landing aircraft. 

The airport regularly uses overtime shifts to fill gaps in rosters and there were predictions of elevated fatigue risks for tower staff at the time of incidents. 

There were also concerns about air traffic controllers carrying out multiple responsibilities at the same time and conducting live training while being expected to keep on top of usual duties. 

Fatigue risk did not necessarily mean staff felt that way, Mr Mitchell said. Rather, a mathematical equation based on staffing levels and rosters meant there was reasonable belief that they could be.

Air traffic controllers at Sydney Airport took an average of 17 days of sick leave last financial year, documents revealed, which was higher than at other major Australian airports. 

The controllers cannot turn up to work unwell or tired – not as a matter of decorum but as a legal requirement – and are entitled to unlimited sick leave as a result.

The incidents at Sydney Airport are being examined to help understand how to fix issues across the country. 

Sydney had a 20 per cent higher incident rate than other major Australian airports. 

“The air traffic control challenges facing Sydney Airport are widely recognised, and I am encouraged by the work under way to address them,” Mr Mitchell said. 

The Department of Infrastructure and Civil Aviation Safety Authority are working to improve aviation safety, particularly as new air traffic controllers are trained.

The final reports on the incidents are set to be released in coming months.