The first real test of the 48th parliament is under way as MPs sink their teeth into the daily grind of political business.

With the pageantry of parliament’s opening day out of the way, senators and MPs have begun their work in earnest.

New rules have been implemented in a crack down on disorderly behaviour of MPs, with members now facing eviction from the chamber of up to three hours for bad conduct, up from the maximum one-hour penalty in the last parliament.

The changes could prove useful as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, backed by one of Labor’s largest-ever majorities, prepares to face off against Opposition Leader Sussan Ley in Question Time for the first time.

With Labor holding a lion’s share of 94 seats in the lower chamber – compared to the coalition’s 43 – the 48th parliament will be the first time its politicians sit on both sides of the aisle in the House of Representatives.

As a result, a long list of new Labor MPs have all but monopolised the house to deliver their first speeches.

Banks MP Zhi Soon paid tribute to the multicultural community in southwest Sydney that helped raise him.

“One moment I was eating a Devon sandwich, the next a curry laksa, a kibbeh, a banh xeo, or a pani puri,” he told the chamber.

“I’m a proud Asian-Australian, I’m a proud Malaysian-Australian, I’m a proud Chinese-Australian, but most of all, I am a proud Australian.”

Former school teacher and Deakin MP Matt Gregg used his address to lay bare the consequences of social media on education and young Australians.

“Some of the toughest teachers I’ve ever worked with have felt they need to leave the profession – harassed with misogynistic and other anti-social behaviours like never before,” he said.

“Young people themselves feel it in their own sense of self-worth – they know something is wrong.

“We must continue to meet the challenges posed by social media and the landscape it’s created, not with panic, but with serious, thoughtful action.”

Although first speeches will make up much of the lower house agenda, the government wasted no time in kicking off its agenda with Education Minister Jason Clare using the first hour of sitting to introduce priority legislation.

A proposal to slash university debt by 20 per cent for three million Australians was delivered in the house first thing after Labor campaigned heavily on the promise.

People with an average HECS debt of $27,600 will have $5520 wiped from their loans.

The coalition is expected to support the move which will wipe $16 billion off student debt but is waiting to see the fine print.

Mr Clare also introduced legislation that would strengthen safety in the childcare system after promising to expedite the bill in response to shocking sexual abuse allegations against a Victorian childcare worker.

The federal government is about to be forced to release a draft response to a landmark gambling reform report, which has been left untouched for more than two years.

Communications Minister Anika Wells, who picked up the portfolio after Labor’s May 3 election win, has flagged upcoming changes to gambling advertising.

Her first meeting outside of department briefings was with Rod Glover, the husband of late Labor MP Peta Murphy, who championed a ban on gambling ads.

A draft response by the communications department to the “you win some, you lose more” report handed down by a bipartisan parliamentary committee was prepared for the previous minister in November 2024.

But the department refused to release the 32-page document under freedom of information laws.

The Murphy report’s key recommendation was to phase out gambling advertising on television and online, which received unanimous support from Labor, coalition and crossbench MPs on the committee.

Labor’s draft policy, which was never formally released but briefed to stakeholders in mid-2024, included banning betting ads during, before and after live sports broadcasts and limiting them to two an hour outside of that parameter.

Independent senator David Pocock is pushing to have the draft recommendations and ministerial briefings released under a Senate order for the production of documents, after freedom of information requests were similarly rejected.

The Liberals and the Greens have given their support, meaning his order is set to pass the Senate on Wednesday, giving Labor until the end of the month to comply or explain why they will continue to keep the documents secret.

A third order requests correspondence between the prime minister and gambling sector representatives and lobbying efforts from sporting codes after he intervened to shelve any action before the election.

Labor’s inaction was “one of the biggest failures of the last parliament and a wrong I hope we can right this time”, Senator Pocock told AAP.

Reform advocates are keen to find a middle ground, arguing the longer the status quo goes on, the more people are being hurt as there are few restrictions on gambling advertising.

While stakeholders are pushing for a blanket ban, there is an openness to compromise on restricting when betting ads can be broadcast on live TV.

They’re also pushing hard for a complete advertising ban on social media and on inducements, which is when gambling companies entice people to bet more by offering incentives such as bonus bets.

But the gambling lobby is strongly against a blanket social media ban, instead saying technology could be used to avoid targeting children.

The sector is similarly opposed to stopping inducements.

There is a willingness to discuss stopping broad inducement advertising, but gambling companies want to retain the right to push advertising to people signed up to their platforms.

The Murphy review recommended that the government immediately prohibit online gambling inducements and their advertising.

Commercial broadcasters and sports codes argued they needed advertising revenue to stay viable, while gambling companies warned a blanket ban would push Australians into using illegal overseas wagering sites.

The AFL and NRL receive tens of millions of dollars a year as a cut from gambling agencies.

Some advocates are hopeful there will be an announcement on the next steps before the end of the year, with the federal government yet to respond to the landmark report 25 months after it was handed down.

National Gambling Helpline 1800 858 858

Childcare centres that fail to meet standards could soon be stripped of their funding under reforms fast-tracked in response to horrifying abuse allegations.

The changes were introduced to the House of Representatives on the first day of parliamentary business since the May election.

They follow widespread calls for change after a Victorian childcare worker was charged with dozens of sex offences involving children.

State regulators can already shut a centre on the spot if there is an imminent threat to safety.

But Education Minister Jason Clare said the Commonwealth could also try to lift standards through its available levers.

“We have to do everything that we can to ensure the safety of our children when they walk or when they’re carried through the doors of an early education and care service,” he told parliament on Wednesday.

“Funding is the big weapon that the Australian government has to wield here.

“The real purpose of this legislation isn’t to shut centres down, but to raise standards.”

Any childcare operators that fail to meet quality, safety and compliance standards could be prevented from opening new centres and might be cut off from receiving government subsidies, which typically cover a large proportion of parents’ fees.

Providers would be issued with a formal notice requiring an explanation within 28 days with the Department of Education able to cancel or suspend an operator’s approval.

“Providers that can improve their services to meet the standard will get the chance to do that,” Mr Clare said.

“Services that don’t or can’t or won’t will lose their access to funding.”

The bill also expands commonwealth powers to publish information about providers that are sanctioned for non-compliance.

State, territory and federal ministers are expected to meet in August to discuss other changes, including mandatory CCTV in childcare centres, establishing a national worker registry and mandatory child-safety training.

Information on centres for which childcare subsidy approvals have been suspended or cancelled can already be viewed on the department’s website.

But the legislation would also allow for information to be made public when compliance action is taken against providers, like when an infringement notice is issued.

Commonwealth-authorised officers would also be given more powers to do their jobs through the ability to enter premises without consent during operating hours to detect non-compliance across the sector.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said the coalition would need to examine the legislation closely.

“I wanted this issue to be above politics, as somebody who’s dropped my own children off at child care and now sees my children dropping their children at child care,” she told ABC News.

“I’m incredibly concerned, so I do want to be constructive, but that being constructive doesn’t mean giving the government a blank cheque when it comes to goodwill on this issue.”

Mr Clare said parents were “not interested in excuses, they expect action”.

There were still issues with sharing information on working-with-children checks between jurisdictions, he added, and more work would be done at an upcoming meeting of state and federal attorneys-general.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

US President Donald Trump says CBS parent company Paramount has paid him $US16 million ($A25 million) as part of a lawsuit settlement.

This month, Paramount agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump claiming that the CBS news program 60 Minutes deceptively edited an interview with former vice president Kamala Harris that the network broadcast in October.

Paramount needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission for its $US8.4 billion ($A12.9 billion) merger with Skydance Media. The FCC did not make a decision by the 180-day informal deadline in mid-May and FCC Chair Brendan Carr has denied Trump’s lawsuit was a factor.

Paramount declined comment.

Trump and CBS formally agreed on Tuesday to the dismissal of his lawsuit, according to a court filing.

“We have just achieved a BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN in our Historic Lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount… Paramount/CBS/60 Minutes have today paid $16 Million Dollars in settlement, and we also anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Skydance declined to comment on Trump’s social media post.

Skydance and its investors plan to acquire National Amusements, which holds the family’s controlling stake in Paramount. Skydance will subsequently be merged into Paramount, with its CEO, David Ellison, becoming Paramount’s next chief executive.

The payment comes after CBS faced a barrage of criticism over its controversial decision to axe Stephen Colbert’s Late Night talk show after he labelled Paramount’s decision to pay the settlement to Trump a “big fat bribe”.

The New York Post previously reported Ellison, son of billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, agreed to run up to $US20 million ($A31 million) in public service announcements to promote causes supported by the president.

Following publication, Paramount issued a statement that its settlement with Trump “does not include PSAs or anything related to PSAs”.

Paramount also said it had no knowledge of any promises or commitments made to Trump other than those put forth by the mediator.

Laws to cut debts for university students and graduates are expected to be waved through parliament, saving people hundreds of dollars a year in repayments.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said legislation to slash HECS debts by 20 per cent and increase income thresholds before minimum repayments kick in will make the system fairer.

“It means you start paying off your uni degree when uni starts to pay off for you,” he said while introducing the bill to the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

It is the first bill the Albanese government put before parliament at the start of its second term.

People earning between $60,000 and $180,000 will save hundreds of dollars each year under the changes.

Someone on $70,000 will save the most – $1300 a year – on minimum repayments due to an increase to the thresholds at which the debts must be paid back.

“That’s real cost-of-living help,” Mr Clare said.

“More money in your pocket, not the government’s, when you really need it.”

The bill is set to sail through both houses of parliament after the opposition flagged it would support the measure.

The coalition originally opposed the bill, calling it “elitist”, but changed its tune after a thumping election loss in May.

“We will be constructive where we can,” Opposition Leader Sussan Ley told Sky News. 

“That doesn’t mean a blank cheque of goodwill for everything that comes across the table from the Labor Party.”

Bruce Chapman, the architect of the HECS scheme, said the relief would make the system fairer by giving those on lower salaries more money in their pockets.

But the top priority should be reviewing the price of each degree because humanities students finish with the highest level of debt and end up being the lowest-paid graduates.

“All the prices are wrong,” Professor Chapman told AAP.

Mr Clare said further reforms were being looked at after the failure of the former Liberal government’s job-ready program.

The program aimed to fill skills shortages by making it cheaper to take courses like teaching, nursing and psychology, while doubling the cost of popular degrees including law, communications, business, humanities and the arts.

“If the intention there was to reduce the number of people doing arts degrees, it hasn’t worked,” Mr Clare said.

“People study the courses they’re interested in, that they want to do, that they love.”

The universities’ accord final report branded the program “deeply unfair” because it punished students who followed their interests.

It recommended that fees reflect future earning potential as part of 47 recommendations to reform the sector.

Other aspects about how HECS debts were paid off also needed to be addressed, Prof Chapman said.

HECS repayments are taken from a person’s pay slip if they’re earning above an income threshold.

But the money isn’t immediately taken off the total debt and is instead deducted as a lump sum at the end of the financial year after indexation has been applied.

The university accord recommended the arrangement be changed to make the system fairer. 

The Australian Tertiary Education Commission has been established in an interim capacity to implement long-term university reform and will review the HECS system over the next 12 months.

Mr Clare will introduce further legislation in the coming months to set the commission up as a permanent body.

Indonesia has agreed to eliminate tariffs on more than 99 per cent of US goods and scrap all non-tariff barriers facing American firms, while the US will drop threatened tariffs on Indonesian products to 19 per cent from 32 per cent.

Trump hailed the deal, which he first announced on July 15, in a posting on his Truth Social media platform, calling it a “huge win for our Automakers, Tech Companies, Workers, Farmers, Ranchers, and Manufacturers.”

Details of a framework for the accord were released in a joint statement by both countries, and a fact sheet issued by the White House. They said negotiators for both countries would finalise the actual agreement in coming weeks.

“Today, the United States of America and the Republic of Indonesia agreed to a framework for negotiating an agreement on reciprocal trade to strengthen our bilateral economic relationship, which will provide both countries’ exporters unprecedented access to each other’s markets,” the statement said.

The Indonesia deal is among only a handful reached so far by the Trump administration ahead of an August 1 deadline when higher tariffs are due to kick in.

The US tariff rate on Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, matches the 19 per cent announced for the Philippines earlier on Tuesday. Vietnam’s tariff rate has been set at 20 per cent.

Under the agreement, Indonesia will immediately drop its plans to levy tariffs on internet data flows and it agreed to support renewal of a longstanding World Trade Organization moratorium on e-commerce duties, a senior Trump administration official told reporters on a conference call.

Indonesia also will remove recently enacted pre-shipment inspections and verifications of US exports that have posed problems for US agricultural exports and contributed to a growing US farm trade deficit, the official said.

The official, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said the agreement could help restore the surplus in agricultural goods that the United States once had with Indonesia, until it implemented the pre-shipment requirements.

In a win for US automakers, the official said Indonesia has agreed to accept US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for vehicles exported from the United States to the growing country of 280 million people.

Indonesia also has agreed to remove export restrictions on industrial commodities, including critical minerals, the joint statement said. The US official said it would also remove local content requirements for products using these commodities that were shipped to the United States.

The joint statement said the US would reduce the reciprocal tariff rate to 19 per cent, and “may also identify certain commodities that are not naturally available or domestically produced in the United States for a further reduction in the reciprocal tariff rate”.

US President Donald Trump has announced a trade deal with Japan he says will result in Japan investing $US550 billion ($A842 billion) into the United States and pay a 15 per cent reciprocal tariff.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump added that Japan will open to trade for cars, trucks, rice and certain agricultural products, among other items.

“This is a very exciting time for the United States of America, and especially for the fact that we will continue to always have a great relationship with the Country of Japan,” he said.

Trump’s announcement follows a meeting with Japan’s top tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, at the White House on Tuesday, according the Asahi newspaper.

The newspaper also reported that Akazawa held meetings with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Don’t let cybercriminals turn your bank account into a money mule.

That’s the warning from authorities who have issued a major alert to bank customers, some of whom have been taking payments of as little as $200 to share their details.

Money mules are people who are knowingly or unknowingly recruited by criminal syndicates to transfer illicit money in and out of their personal accounts, making it appear legitimate.

As more criminal networks seek ways to launder their ill-gotten gains, they are open to paying money mules anything from $200 to $500 to help out.

But taking that “commission” can lead to serious legal consequences, like life in prison.

“It is illegal to rent, buy or sell bank accounts, and doing so supports the criminal ecosystem,” Australian Federal Police Detective Superintendent Marie Andersson said on Tuesday.

“Your account may be housing money derived from scams, extortion, drug trafficking and terrorism.”

The warning comes after a 26-year-old Sydney woman was jailed for 21 months in April for renting 10 bank accounts to a Vietnamese money laundering syndicate.

The syndicate used mules in Sydney and Melbourne to pick up and deposit cash through ATMs and into bank accounts.

This mule regularly changed her clothes and wore wigs and sunglasses to conceal her identity from ATM cameras during the deposits.

The 10 accounts she used laundered $3.8 million in proceeds of crime, which was transferred overseas.

In 2024, around $142 million was lost to scammers through bank transfers in Australia, according to Scamwatch.

Criminals target mules through social media, messaging or gaming platforms, online advertisements and chat forums.

Common methods include employment scams, where people are promised quick and easy money for transferring funds into their bank accounts.

Others are threat scams, where victims are threatened with criminal charges and arrest unless they transfer funds.

There are also romance scams, where the criminals build an online relationship with a person before asking for personal bank account details or to transfer money

Money mules are increasingly being asked to move funds through cryptocurrency and global money transfer apps, which can be faster and more discreet.

“Renting or selling your bank account may seem harmless, but you may be unwittingly helping a scammer to rip off a family member or someone else you know,” Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh said.

“Don’t let criminals cash in on your bank account.”

Money laundering is a serious criminal offence with charges carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Australia’s banks should use artificial intelligence to enrich their customers’ lives and help address hesitation towards the technology, the corporate watchdog says.

The nation should not rush into heaping more regulation on AI as guardrails are already in place and more rules could have a chilling effect on innovation, ASIC chair Joe Longo will tell a roomful of bankers in Sydney on Wednesday.

Mr Longo has previously cautioned against over-regulation more generally, and will again urge lawmakers not to address a perceived problem by simply throwing more rules at it.

“The reality is, as I have said publicly before, the more specific and narrowly targeted regulation becomes, the more complex it becomes,” Mr Longo will say in a speech at an Australian Banking Association conference.

“It gets harder to understand, harder to comply with, and harder for regulators to enforce.”

That results in a burden borne by all Australians through lost time and productivity, and makes it harder for regulators to combat scams, predatory lending and other unfair practices.

“And it becomes a handbrake on innovation, when you have got to spend more on compliance lawyers than coders.”

While ASIC is not rushing to impose new regulation, Mr Longo acknowledges more may be needed in future.

But his focus is on applying existing laws. Guardrails already exist, and regulators just need to be more imaginative about how to apply them.

“In other words, we’ve got to kick the tyres a bit and see just how far our technology-neutral framework will flex,” Mr Longo will say.

ASIC is still keeping a close eye on how businesses adopt AI, and Mr Longo wants to see banks using AI to actually improve their customers’ lives.

This could include preventing low-income customers from paying millions of dollars in fees they were entitled to avoid, as ASIC found in a report on the banks’ treatment of Indigenous customers.

He cited the example of a single mum from South Australia who was charged more than $2600 in overdraw fees over five years.

“It would be a true win for customer-centric banking if your algorithm prompted you to serve your customers better before an ASIC report did,” he will say.

“We’ve already seen that customer trust in AI and its potential to improve customer service is eroding. If banks get this wrong, we’re likely to see a significant setback in AI legitimacy and trust.”

The level of Australian businesses going under appears to be stabilising, but firms are still becoming insolvent at record-high numbers.

Restaurants and construction firms remain hardest hit in CreditorWatch’s monthly Business Risk Index, which found more than 14,000 businesses went bust in the 2024-25 financial year.

But income tax cuts and government cost of living measures have helped the rate of insolvencies plateau, CreditorWatch said.

And with defaulted payments falling 6.5 per cent in June, there is some hope the overall health of businesses is on the up.

“It’s a promising signal business cash flow pressures may be easing, but with insolvencies still running 33 per cent above 2024/25 levels, and particularly elevated in hospitality and construction, I’m not getting too excited just yet,” CreditorWatch CEO Patrick Coghlan said.

“We’ll continue to monitor for early signs of sustained recovery, but the next six months will be critical for determining whether insolvency rates begin to fall or remain stubbornly high.”

Businesses were struggling to stay afloat in typically stable sectors such as health care and education, showing the breadth of the economic strain, Mr Coghlan said.

Hospitality businesses remain under the pump, with one in 10 closing in the year to June 2025.

While insolvencies have plateaued generally, they remain trending higher among the food and beverage sector.

Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association CEO Wes Lambert said it was no longer a case of if a hospitality business would close, but rather which one would shut it doors.

“It’s a real threat for many businesses in the hospitality industry, especially those in CBDs with work-from-home now fully enshrined into employment culture, and with tourism remaining at levels not seen since 2016,” he told AAP.

“Demand is low while wages, rents, utilities, insurance and other expenses are between 30 and 50 per cent higher than they were before COVID-19.”

Mr Lambert said Australia needed to attract more tourists, and needed genuine discussion about the cost pressures on industries such as hospitality.

A quarter of all business that became insolvent in 2024/25 were in the construction sector.

But given the large overall number of construction businesses, less than one per cent of all of them became insolvent.

CreditorWatch labelled a rise in education and healthcare insolvencies “somewhat unusual” given both sectors are largely underpinned by government funding.

Education was hit by immigration and foreign student policies, they found.

The 14,716 business insolvencies recorded in 2024/25 was a massive 33 per cent jump year-on-year.