Another struggling metals smelter will receive a $2 billion bailout from federal and state governments in a bid to shore up manufacturing jobs.

Australia’s second-largest aluminium smelter – Rio Tinto’s Boyne aluminium smelter in the central Queensland town of Gladstone – will be the beneficiary of the cash splash.

The investment will support 1000 jobs at the site and another two thousand other roles around Gladstone, federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres said.

In return, Rio Tinto will pour $7.5 billion into new renewable energy generation and storage projects around Queensland.

The bill for the $2 billion funding boost will be split equally between the Queensland and Federal governments, Senator Ayres said.

“With a considerable public investment, we are catalysing a fourfold private investment that will build out the renewable energy grid and keep thousands of good regional jobs in central Queensland,” he said in a statement on Wednesday morning.

The partnership between the smelter and the two governments would allow the smelter to continue operating until at least 2040 while building out Queensland’s renewable energy grid, Rio Tinto aluminium and lithium chief executive Jérôme Pécresse said.

“As fossil fuels become increasingly expensive, this investment, combined with the power purchase agreements we have already signed, positions Boyne to be among the world’s first aluminium smelters underpinned by solar and wind power,” he said.

The Boyne smelter has been operating in Gladstone since 1982.

It refines raw alumina – produced from bauxite ore – into aluminium and then casts the molten metal into products, ready to ship.

Last year, the federal government also helped bail out Glencore’s copper smelter in Queensland, the Whyalla steelworks in South Australia and Nyrstar smelters in Hobart and Port Pirie.

Senior government figures have distanced themselves from official advice suggesting a $40 cap at the petrol pump could help tackle critical fuel shortages in parts of Australia.

The war in the Middle East has sent petrol, diesel and jet fuel prices skyrocketing, causing chaos for travellers as the cost of flying soars and some services are cancelled.

A surge in motorists stocking up has led to hundreds of service stations running dry.

A national fuel emergency response manual suggests a daily transaction limit, which could be set by the federal energy minister.

At current prices, the $40 cap equates to around 16 litres.

The document was developed in 2019 and such a limit was not being considered, ministers said on Wednesday.

“The government has no intention of applying caps to the consumption of petrol,” Trade Minister Don Farrell told reporters in Canberra.

The manual was obtained by former independent senator Rex Patrick under freedom of information laws.

“The government is already using a number of approaches suggested in the manual,” he told AAP.

“I don’t think they are necessarily prescriptive … for example the $40 purchase cap may well be adjusted to some other number,” Mr Patrick said.

Any rationing of petrol must be fair and transparent, while helping constrain demand, the document said.

“Whilst the ‘total transaction value’ would be fixed, the price per litre would be able to fluctuate according to the normal operation of the market,” it said.

“This would have the effect of reducing or increasing the volume of fuel sold if prices rise or fall respectively.”

It also outlines other measures the government could take, including directing fuel to be delivered to areas of shortage or essential users, ordering petrol companies to maintain minimum stocks, transferring fuel between states and territories and directing refineries to produce quantities of petrol or diesel.

Some of those steps have already been taken in the wake of the Middle East war.

Soaring oil prices are also throwing travel plans into disarray, with Jetstar confirming it has cut back on flights due to rising jet fuel prices and other costs.

One in 10 of the budget carrier’s May services have been impacted, including domestic New Zealand services and flights between Auckland and Sydney and Brisbane, a spokeswoman said.

Most affected passengers have been offered seats on same-day Jetstar flights.

The government needed to be more transparent about its response to soaring fuel prices, shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash told Seven’s Sunrise program.

“Apparently they understand that people are doing it tough, but they are doing nothing to alleviate that pain,” she said.

Keeping track of corporate interests behind third parties during election campaigns has been recommended by a federal inquiry to stamp out astroturfing.

Parliamentarians were told the practice of astroturfing – posing as grassroots organisations despite ties to political parties or lobby groups – was common during the 2025 federal poll.

The Australian government should also officially endorse the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change launched at COP30 in Brazil, a majority of Greens, Labor, Liberal and independent senators recommended.

The inquiry, led by Greens senator Peter Whish Wilson, found communities were experiencing a coordinated onslaught of anti-renewables messaging.

“Deliberate and deceptive campaigns that undermine information integrity on climate change and energy – or manipulate public discourse to obstruct policy – have stalled climate action, including the rollout of renewable energy in Australia,” he said.

Evidence of false and misleading claims about clean energy and climate change being disseminated by think tanks, PR firms, bloggers, media companies and third party fronts for fossil fuel interests was collected during the hearings.

Social media algorithms rewarding outrage to drive revenue and generative AI simplifying the creation of fake images and automated bot accounts were described as enablers.

Digital platforms should have responsibility for addressing and monitoring “psychosocial harms”, the committee recommended.

Setting up an “internet observatory” to track the hidden influence of digital ecosystems would further help improve transparency online.

Three senators lodged dissenting reports, including Nationals senator Matt Canavan.

The Nationals leader said the inquiry was used as “an attempt to bully and cajole people into silence”, including local communities opposed to large-scale renewables development in rural areas.

Labor senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah, deputy chair of the inquiry, said a tried-and-tested playbook from overseas had been imported into Australia.

“Against a backdrop of a global oil shock, concerted efforts to undermine renewables is eroding our energy resilience while pitting neighbour against neighbour in regional communities,” she said.

Climate denial still exists but has overwhelmingly been replaced by delay strategies, testified Australian National University political scientist Christian Downie.

Renewables are frequent targets of unsubstantiated claims, such as the widely debunked narrative that offshore wind turbines cause whale deaths.

Alarming, impassioned social media posts can have a chilling effect on the public who are far more likely to feel “confused” and “powerless” by the energy transition than angry, 89 Degrees East social researcher Rebecca Huntley told the hearing.

The Australian Security Leaders Climate Group has been calling for tougher measures on tech giants to fight the “climate disinformation war” threatening institutional trust, economic resilience and national security.

The group, led by former Australian Defence Force chief Admiral Chris Barrie, wants social media companies held accountable for disinformation on their platforms.

Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru is to be sold for $A2.56 billion.

The news is bound to catch the eye of Cricket Australia and the states as they consider whether to cash in on the Big Bash League and adopt a frachise model.

While the huge Indian market is a very different proposition to Australia’s the sale highlights the ever-growing value of T20 cricket franchises.

The team, one of the IPL’s eight original franchises, won its first men’s title in 2025 after 17 years, with Australian seamer Josh Hazlewood and Indian superstar batter Virat ​Kohli among the key players.

Hazlewood will play for RCB this season, as will Tim David, their fees being $A2.2m and $A500,000 respectively.

A consortium comprising Aditya Birla Group, Times of India Group, Bolt Ventures, and Blackstone said on Tuesday it would acquire RCB, ending a weeks-long bidding war.

The seller United Spirits, ‌the Indian arm of UK-based drinks giant Diageo, are selling as they view the team “non-core” to its primary alcohol business.

The Indian ‌Premier League, the ‌world’s richest cricket ⁠league, counts Bollywood stars and Indian tycoons among its backers but is ​now attracting major private equity firms with the prospect of rapidly rising revenue and profits and massive viewership globally.

Rajasthan Royals, majority owned by London-based venture capitalist Manoj Badale, is also in a separate sale process.

Key factors driving interest in the league are a doubling in the value of broadcast rights to more than $A8.6 billion in the most ⁠recent auction in 2022, rising franchise revenues and the Indian ‌cricket board ​BCCI’s pooled revenue-sharing model that bolsters team revenues.

The acquisition encompasses both the men’s IPL franchise and the ​Women’s Premier ‌League franchise and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Rising costs and cash flow pressures could force thousands of small business owners to dip into personal savings to comply with new superannuation rules.

Changes slated for July 1 require employers to pay employees superannuation at the same time as their salary.

But there are warnings it could make or break small businesses, as the war in the Middle East and other costs affect the hip pockets of owners.

A survey of 500 small firms found about a third (31 per cent) expect to dip into their personal savings to comply with the new rules.

Five in every six businesses said paying superannuation more frequently would put pressure on their cash flow.

More than half of the businesses surveyed by Xero cited delayed customer payments as their biggest challenge to managing ongoing cash flow, having cost them more than $15,000 on average last year.

Under the current system, employers generally pay contributions quarterly.

Lolly shop owner Rachel Turner is among nine in 10 surveyed businesses that back the changes, saying it gives stability to her young employees.

But she expects teething problems as she and others enter another tricky, financially murky period after miraculously surviving the pandemic off the back of her daughter’s ingenuity.

The idea of streaming videos showing the candy-making process garnered Sticky millions of followers flocking to the shop’s social media including pop singer Billie Eilish.

“When COVID hit, foot traffic dried up and we almost went broke,” Ms Turner told AAP from tourist hotspot The Rocks in central Sydney.

Sticky now faces rising costs as the fuel crisis ripples through her supply chain.

“Sugar is more expensive, jars are more expensive, packaging is more expensive – everything’s going to be more expensive,” she said.

Small Business Association of Australia chief executive Anne Nalder said the super impact would be immediate on a diverse sector.

“We have one cap fits all and it doesn’t matter whether you’re a big BHP or a small operator, the same rules apply and that just doesn’t work. It never has and never will,” she told AAP on Monday.

“We should have learned a lesson from the pandemic, but we haven’t learned any lessons.”

Several transport and freight unions have also jointly called on the government to allow emergency powers to deal with surging fuel prices.

“Businesses are at imminent risk of collapse … because there are huge retailers and other clients out there refusing to pay their fair share for skyrocketing fuel costs,” Transport Workers’ Union secretary Michael Kaine said.

The Australian Taxation Office estimates $6.25 billion worth of super went unpaid in the most recent financial year data.

French investigators raided the Paris offices of Swiss bank Edmond de Rothschild as part ‌of a corruption investigation into a diplomat named in documents linked to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the financial prosecutor’s ‌office said.

The name of Fabrice Aidan, a middle-ranking French diplomat who was seconded to the United Nations from 2006 to 2013 and later worked at the bank, appeared in more than 200 documents released by the US Justice Department.

These include emails he is alleged to have sent Epstein between 2010 and 2016 from ‌his personal and ‌UN accounts.

Some ⁠of the emails reviewed by Reuters show the transfer of UN Security Council ​briefings and other confidential documents to Epstein during that period.

Aidan has denied wrongdoing.

The French foreign ministry has also begun an administrative investigation and disciplinary proceedings against Aidan. The ministry and Aidan’s lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The search was carried out on Friday in the presence of Ariane de Rothschild, the Swiss bank’s boss, ⁠a source close to the bank said.

Edmond de Rothschild was ‌cooperating fully ​with the justice system in the investigation led by the financial prosecutor, the same source said, adding that ​an internal inquiry ‌had been launched as soon as suspicions emerged concerning the former employee, who worked at the bank from ​2014 to 2016.

A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment.

The investigation is being led by officers from France’s central office against corruption and financial and tax offences, which questioned Aidan ​in ​a voluntary interview in late February.

The French financial ​prosecutor’s office said it was investigating accusations of passive corruption ‌of a foreign public official and complicity in that crime, targeting Aidan in particular.

Ariane de Rothschild also appeared in the files released by the US Justice Department in January, which showed she kept up a years-long personal correspondence with Epstein before his 2019 arrest.

After the files were released, a spokesperson for the bank said that Epstein ​was a business acquaintance of de Rothschild from 2013 to 2019. De Rothschild had no knowledge of ​Epstein’s conduct, the spokesperson said.

Prosecco producers are “popping corks” in celebration of a long-awaited free trade deal that slashes tariffs on key goods, but it has drawn fierce backlash from farmers.

After almost a decade of negotiations, Australia and the European Union have struck an agreement that will expand trade across a range of areas.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Canberra to sign the agreement alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, saying on Tuesday it was a fair deal “that delivers for your businesses and one that delivers for ours”.

Australia will remove a five per cent tariff on imports of European products, which hits car makers such as BMW and Mercedes along with producers of goods such as fashion products, food and drinks.

EU tariffs will be removed on imports of a wide range of Australian goods, including critical minerals, manufactured items and many dairy products.

Despite pressure from European winemakers, Australian producers will be allowed to keep using the term “prosecco” for domestic sales, but they will have to phase out the term over the next decade for exports.

Katherine Brown, a fourth-generation winemaker with Brown Brothers, said she would be “popping corks and celebrating” after years of anxiously waiting for negotiations to finalise. 

“It’s fantastic that we’ve been told the prosecco name for that grape variety will retain domestically in Australia,” she told AAP. 

“The name will phase out for export markets, but 95 per cent of Australian prosecco is drunk in Australia anyway, so we have to look at this as a major win.”

Ms Brown said the deal gave Australian prosecco a future as growers were hesitant to plant the grape during prolonged negotiations which “left the industry in limbo”.

“It now gives us a really strong stance to put further investment into it, put in more prosecco vineyards and keep enjoying this amazing drop,” she said. 

“The fact we got to retain the name in Australia is the main part of the fight we’ve been fighting.”

Domestic manufacturers will retain the rights to describe their products as parmesan and kransky, but other cheese names such as feta, romano and gruyere will eventually be phased out.

Farmers and rice growers are among those left furious by the agreement, with some saying it delivers no commercially meaningful market access despite an increase in quotas. 

After years of pushing for expanded export quotas, the nation’s red meat industry denounced the deal, labelling it the worst free trade agreement the nation had signed.

Market access for an additional 30,600 tonnes of beef and 25,000 tonnes of sheep meat per year fell far below the minimum amounts offered to competitor nations such as New Zealand.

Sheep Producers Australia chief executive Bonnie Skinner said the deal, for sheep meat, is largely unchanged from the one Australia rejected in 2023.

“The increase in access is small and critically, it does not unlock real commercial opportunities,” she said. 

“For a premium market like the EU, this falls short of what was needed.”

An additional 8500 tonnes of rice was granted, which has left SunRice Group chief executive Paul Serra “incredibly disappointed”.

He said Australian rice growers “are already facing mounting pressures from water buybacks and continued dry conditions in southern NSW”. 

“The government’s failure to deliver meaningful EU market access for Australian rice is a significant shortfall in the FTA,” he said.

The government is weighing up a broader range of reform options than usual in the lead up to the budget as the treasurer braces for worsening inflation data.

Jim Chalmers has expanded on recent comments framing the upcoming May budget as his most ambitious yet, telling a Business Council dinner on Tuesday he was confident of landing “something meaningful” with the business community’s help.

The government’s influential expenditure review committee, which is responsible for deciding what’s in and what’s out of the federal budget and includes Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, met for hours on Tuesday and will meet again on Wednesday.

“We are absolutely full tilt now working through a broader than usual range of options,” Dr Chalmers said.

Treasury has been drawing up a number of reforms that align with the treasurer’s stated principles of improving intergenerational equity, encouraging investment and simplifying the tax system.

Reported options include cutting property-investor tax concessions, beefing up the levy on windfall gas profits,and axing an expensive tax break for electric vehicles.

Rather than a choice between resilience or reform, Dr Chalmers said the budget will be about both resilience and reform.

Australia was well prepared for the inflation and growth challenges the war in the Middle East would throw up, he said.

“But we will be buffeted.”

Headline inflation was already running at 3.8 per cent over the year to January and is expected to climb even further from the Reserve Bank’s two to three per cent target band, as soaring oil costs result in second order price increases across the economy.

ANZ Bank economist Adelaide Timbrell forecast inflation to peak at 4.9 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, before falling to 2.6 per cent by the end of 2027.

“Thereafter, we forecast some disinflation from the impacts of lower real incomes growth and higher interest rates on demand,” she said.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will reveal February inflation data on Wednesday, which will give a final snapshot of the inflation picture before the outbreak of war.

Dr Chalmers flagged a substantial productivity package to make it easier to build, invest and get compliance costs down, building on the work the government has already done since the August 2025 economic reform roundtable.

But opposition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg said Labor had done nothing to cut red tape and make it easier to build new homes.

In a separate speech to the Business Council, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor will tout new analysis that shows the average Australian will be $35,000 worse off over the next decade in lost national income if current productivity projections are borne out.

“That would be more than a lost decade of productivity under Labor,” he will say.

“There’s a critical reason for Australia’s economic slowdown: the Albanese Government has been shifting Australia away from a free-enterprise economy and towards a government-directed economy.”

Much of the blame lies with regulator “quangos”, which have become overbearing and seen their remits expand under Labor, Mr Taylor will say.

ABC staff are striking for the first time in 20 years after the majority voted down the national broadcaster’s latest pay offer.

Staff are protesting against short-term contracts and limited career progression, along with a lacklustre pay deal with a below-inflation increase.

The strike has forced ABC’s flagship news programs including Radio National Breakfast off air, instead playing pre-programmed shows and BBC content.

Journalists have been advised not to speak to the media ahead of the strike, which begins at 11am AEDT on Wednesday.

Large gatherings are expected outside ABC offices nationwide, including in Melbourne and Sydney, during the 24-hour strike.

The Community and Public Sector Union and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance are representing staff taking action at the ABC.

“We’ve been in bargaining for a long time now with the ABC and what we want to see is a pay off that reflects cost-of-living pressures and actually respects the really important work that the ABC do,” CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly told AAP.

“ABC plays such an important role in our society and in Australian storytelling and it’s really important ABC management come to the table.”

About 60 per cent of ABC staff rejected management’s offer that included a 10 per cent pay rise across three years.

The unions are also demanding greater night-shift penalty rates, reproductive health leave, and rules relating to artificial intelligence.

“Experienced journalists and media workers are being asked to do more with less – with fewer opportunities for pay progression, less certainty about their future, and growing workloads,” MEAA chief executive Erin Madeley said. 

It will be the organisation’s first major strike since 2006.

ABC managing director Hugh Marks said the deal was financially responsible and competitive for the industry.

“The average tenure of an ABC staff member is more than 10 years, which is three times the economy average … over 90 per cent of ABC staff are ongoing employees,” Mr Marks said.

“The pay offer reflects the maximum level the ABC can sustainably provide and is balanced when looking across all the factors that we need to consider.”

More than 4400 people work at the ABC, including 2000 in news, the largest division.

The ABC has been contacted for comment.

A sandbagged and already-saturated outback town is back on major flood alert as it continues a rollercoaster ride through consecutive storms.

Katherine locals were ready to breathe a sigh of relief after the Northern Territory town of 10,000 residents looked set to dodge major damage from former tropical cyclone Narelle.

But they face another anxious wait after the flood level warning for the nearby Katherine River was upped from moderate to major on Tuesday.

Katherine is bracing in the aftermath of ex-cyclone Narelle, which also has Western Australia on edge as it continues its tour of northern Australia.

The flood peak is expected on Wednesday, with levels to remain high for about 24 hours.

The town is still reeling from houses and businesses being inundated earlier in March in the worst flooding in almost 30 years.

Then came ex-cyclone Narelle which dumped more rain on saturated catchments.

Katherine residents would be feeling concerned with the latest flood level predictions, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said on Tuesday.

“This has been a huge rollercoaster for them … everyone is prepared, and that’s the important thing – people know what to expect.”

Katherine has backed itself to deal with the latest flooding threat, with locals feeling better prepared following a huge sandbagging operation and establishment of a field hospital.

Vicki Maddox, manager of Katherine’s Big4 Breeze holiday park, said their clean-up was on hold until the latest threat passed.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen and we’re not going to go and do all that again because that was so hard,” she told AAP on Tuesday.

The park’s 12 cabins, bunkhouse, safari tents and office went under in the last flood and all the ruined bedding and furniture had to be thrown out ahead of a repaint.

Ms Finocchiaro conceded weary Territorians were “done with the wet season”, however more wild weather could be ahead with another low looming in the Arafura Sea.

Hundreds were forced to evacuate when Narelle hit the NT coast on Sunday, with about 6500 people losing power, water or both.

The township of Adelaide River, south of Darwin, had five houses inundated and the Daly River community was totally submerged.

Hundreds of Daly River people who evacuated to Darwin have been relocated from the showgrounds to more comfortable accommodation at Batchelor, south of the NT capital.

Evacuees from the Gulf of Carpentaria community of Numbulwar were returning home on Tuesday.

The system, which weakened to below cyclone strength after making landfall in the NT, caused much less damage than expected.

It crossed into WA’s Kimberley region on Monday, sweeping past the remote town of Wyndham and the Indigenous community of Kalumburu as it tracked southwest.

“We were up to our ankles at one point later in the afternoon, but as always, water around here subsides very quickly,” Kalumburu Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Kim Holm told AAP.

Waterways around the coastal town rose overnight, but there was no wind damage to any homes ensuring it was business as usual for the community’s 300 residents, Ms Holm said. 

“We’ve got lots of kids having great fun in the muddy puddles,” she said.

The system was forecast to cross the coast north of Broome into the Indian Ocean on Tuesday and “almost immediately start re-intensifying”, the Bureau of Meteorology said. 

The storm could become a category four cyclone, with wind gusts of up to 279km/h, by Thursday as it tracks along the WA coast past Broome and the Pilbara region.

The tropical cyclone is then forecast to curve back towards the WA coast, potentially impacting as far south as Perth on the weekend.

Narelle crossed the coast in far north Queensland on Friday as a severe category four, knocking out power and communications.

However it caused minimal damage as it passed Cape York Peninsula, with power fully restored on Tuesday to the 2000-plus people affected.