Australians looking for love are having their social media used against them as AI is used to tailor romance scams before Valentine’s Day.

Scammers have long used intimacy to groom victims into opening up their wallets around the holiday.

But the rise of AI has allowed criminals to turbocharge their efforts and create scams that are highly sophisticated and even more emotionally manipulative, UNSW computer science lecturer Lesley Land warns.

The technology can be used to analyse people’s social media profiles and craft romance scams targeted to each victim.

“Some people release a lot of personal information, so it might know you’ve become a single mum, just gone through a divorce, or you’ve lost a loved one,” Dr Land told AAP.

“They can just just feed this into the computer learning machines, and automatically create conversations to lure potential victims.”

Traditional romance scams would often require bad actors to speak with victims for months or years on end.

But AI can also automate romance scams, allowing frausters to expand their operations.

Since 2020, Australians have lost more than $220 million to dating and romance scams alone, according to CHOICE.

Many who fell victim did not want to talk about their experiences, which could make it hard to help them, Dr Land said.

“Lots of people have been scammed but they can be filled with shame,” she said.

“People might ask: why were you deceived? Couldn’t you see it coming?

“It’s really very insidious because of the grooming process.”

CHOICE and other consumer advocacy groups including Financial Counselling Australia, Australian Communications Consumer Action Network and more are calling on the federal government to address gaps in their proposed scam protections.

The Commonwealth’s Scams Prevention Framework places no obligations on businesses where scams are rife such as dating apps, email services and online market places, according to the groups.

“Placing the burden on a broken-hearted consumer – at the lowest point in their life – to fight to get their money back when they are the victim is topsy-turvy,” Financial Rights Legal Centre director Alexandra Kelly said.

Though some industries, such as banking, are using AI to try to stop scams before they reach customers, Dr Land also urges Australians to be more aware of scams and report any to police.

Flawless-looking photos, vague and repetitive answers on dating apps, and fast-moving relationships are clues to potential romance scams, according to the Australian Banking Association.

More than 3000 older Australians remain stranded in public hospitals waiting for aged care, as the nation’s health ministers warn of a growing crisis that is stretching emergency departments and costing billions.

State and territory health ministers will present the federal government with an aged care report card at a meeting in Canberra on Friday, showing 3137 people are in hospitals awaiting aged care.

The number of aged care patients who have no medical reason to be in hospital has surged by 30 per cent in five months, according to the ministers’ report card.

Queensland was experiencing the highest level of bed-blocking, with 1096 aged care patients in public hospitals, followed by NSW at 848 and South Australia at 383.

The ministers’ report said there was a direct link between bed-blocking and emergency department waiting times.

Its release highlights continued tensions between jurisdictions over the issue, despite the eleventh-hour signing in January of a deal which provides states and territories with an extra $25 billion in commonwealth funding for hospitals.

Part of that funding will help the states manage elderly patients languishing in hospitals, but state and territory ministers maintain more resources are needed to address the “spiralling” problem.

They say the issue is costing taxpayers “well over” a billion dollars a year, with some patients stuck in hospital for years.

Some patients in SA were being cared for in a hotel which the state Labor government had turned into a transition care facility, Health Minister Chris Picton said.

“We continue to call on the federal government to address this crisis that is their responsibility,” Mr Picton said in a statement.

“The 3137 older Australians currently stranded in hospitals right across the nation need a home, not a hospital bed.”

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has acknowledged the growing problem, saying a new care facility needed to be opened every three days for the next 20 years to accommodate the ageing population.

“Demand for aged care services really is skyrocketing right now because we are in the midst of the first of the baby boomers turning 80,” Mr Butler told FIVEAA radio last week.

“It’s placing pressure right across the system. I know it’s placing pressure on hospitals.”

About 90,000 Australians were set to turn 80 in 2027, compared to roughly 15,000 in 2010, Mr Butler said.

He said while more facilities were quickly needed, the government was increasing the number of home care packages.

The NSW and Victorian health ministers were not included in the joint-statement to the federal government.

A 2025 report by an independent NSW advisory council on ageing said underinvestment in the sector contributed to the care shortage, along with old building stock and increased construction costs.

That report also highlighted the negative effects of lengthy hospital stays on older patients, including physical and mental decline and exposure to infections.

“Lengthy stays can also exacerbate loneliness and social isolation,” the NSW report said.

“Such stays can also add to pressure on family carers.”

Australia’s biggest bank has extended its reach into the business market and says the sector is doing well, particularly in the regions, despite the threat of higher interest rates down the track.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia revealed this week it had increased its share of the sector to 26.9 per cent, more than eight percentage points ahead of the next business bank competitor.

That lead delivers CBA a lot of business deposits and opens up channels to more lending to businesses.

It also gives the bank insights, which helps identify those it should be focusing on increasing lending to.

“At the moment, it’s an incredibly benign environment,” CBA business bank head Mike Vacy-Lyle told AAP.

“We are incredibly pleased with the credit quality of the portfolio.”

Mr Vacy-Lyle said the bank’s business arm has grown to 1.3 times market system, which means it’s sitting above the average growth of the business banking market as a whole.

“So we’ve been able to safely navigate the credit environment,” he said.

But interest rate storm clouds lie ahead after the central bank earlier in February raised rates for the first time in two years.

More rises are on the way, with economists tipping another hike as early as May.

Last time, the business sectors most under stress included residential developers, builders, and discretionary retail (nice to have but not essential goods and services).

CBA is watching closely, particularly in the agricultural sector and in Victoria, which has suffered another summer of bushfires and is still experiencing drought in some areas.

“It’s been devastating to many people … there and that’s been a big concern of ours, and that drought persists, so we are a little bit worried about that,” Mr Vacy-Lyle said.

CBA is also watching Melbourne, given business confidence has been up and down in Victoria, where the incumbent Labor government is under pressure.

“We are going to need to watch some of the hospitality businesses … in the city of Melbourne,” Mr Vacy-Lyle said. 

“We’ll have to look at your second-tier commercial property places like Melbourne, maybe watch that as we enter an increasing rates cycle.”

Further afield, businesses in regional Australia are proving resilient, according to CBA’s data.

It’s seeing good growth in regional Queensland and Western Australia and continued growth in regional NSW and even parts of Victoria.

“You know, this phenomenon of the regions outperforming the metros – there really is merit in that sort of sentiment, and it seems to be continuing, Mr Vacy-Lyle said.

A new Liberal Party leader could soon emerge as Angus Taylor prepares to lock horns with the party’s first female head in a special party room meeting.

Mr Taylor’s resignation from Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s front bench on Wednesday signalled the first step in his challenge for the party’s top job.

Liberal MP Phil Thompson’s resignation from the shadow NDIS portfolio followed on Thursday, with he and Senator Jess Collins writing to Ms Ley to request a special party room meeting. 

The leadership meeting is scheduled for 9am on Friday.

After Mr Thompson’s resignation, Mr Taylor used an Instagram post to declare he was running to take the party’s top job. 

“Our country is in trouble. The Labor government has failed and the Liberal Party has lost its way,” he said 

“I’m running to be the leader of the Liberal Party because I believe Australia is worth fighting for.”

Mr Taylor believes he has the numbers to win the leadership.

Nine MPs and senators quit Ms Ley’s front bench on Thursday, including Michaelia Cash, Matt O’Sullivan, Jonno Duniam, Leah Blyth, James Paterson, Claire Chandler, James McGrath and Dan Tehan.

Mr Tehan said he would run for the party’s deputy during the spill motion.

Ms Ley has not spoken publicly about the impending spill, instead publishing a series of social media posts in which she offered a “better future” and that “we will ease the squeeze”. 

While speculation over threats to her tenure started in late 2025, Liberals began openly contemplating a leadership change after a Newspoll published in The Australian on Monday, showing the coalition slipped to a primary vote of 18 per cent. 

At the same time, support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation surged to 27 per cent. 

Senator O’Sullivan said the polls were clear and change at the top was needed.

“This impasse has to be dealt with this week,” he told reporters in Canberra. 

“Angus Taylor will be able to present a very strong and compelling vision to the Australian people.”

But senator Paul Scarr backed Ms Ley, saying she had shown “great resilience, great grace, since she was elected”.

“Her response to the Bondi terrorist attack showed wonderful leadership,” he said. 

“Sussan has earned my loyalty. I thank her for the opportunity she gave to me.”

UK culture minister Lisa Nandy says she has decided to ‌intervene in the proposed acquisition of the ‌Telegraph Media Group by the owner of the Daily Mail, DMGT on public interest and competition grounds.

Nandy said in a ‌statement that ‌she ⁠had issued a public interest intervention ​notice due to concerns the acquisition warranted further investigation.

The proposed 500 million pound ($A957 million) purchase would bring the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph ⁠newspapers under ‌the same ​umbrella as the Daily Mail, Mail ​on Sunday, ‌Metro and The i Paper.

DMGT previously said ​the Telegraph would remain editorially independent.

Nandy’s decision sends the deal to ​the United Kingdom’s ​media regulator Ofcom ​and the Competition and ‌Markets Authority to examine media plurality and competition issues.

Both must report back to Nandy by June 10.

Britain’s economy barely grew in the final quarter of 2025 ‌as activity fared worse than initially estimated during the run-up to finance minister Rachel Reeves’ budget.

Gross domestic ‌product grew by 0.1 per cent in the October-to-December period, the same slow pace as in the third quarter, the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters, as well as the Bank of England, had forecast 0.2 per cent fourth-quarter growth compared with the previous three months.

The period was marked by rampant speculation about tax increases before Reeves’ budget on November 26.

The ONS revised down monthly GDP ‌data for the ‌three months to ⁠November to show a 0.1 per cent contraction rather than 0.1 per cent growth.

Some more recent data has ​suggested that uncertainty has lifted for consumers and businesses.

“Looking at various surveys, there were some tentative signs that sentiment turned a corner and started to improve after the budget last year, which could help deliver a pick-up in activity this year,” Luke Bartholomew, deputy chief economist at Aberdeen, said.

“However, recent political uncertainty may see that sentiment bounce reverse.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has had to fight to ⁠keep his grip on Downing Street this week due to fallout from ‌the Jeffrey Epstein ​scandal.

Thursday’s figures underscored why investors think that the Bank of England is more likely than not to cut interest rates again ​in March.

The monthly ‌GDP data showed a sharp downward revision to growth.

The data suggested hesitancy on the part of businesses during the fourth ​quarter as their investment fell by almost three per cent – the biggest quarter-on-quarter drop since early 2021, driven largely by volatile transport investment.

Manufacturing was the biggest ​driver of the increase in output, despite the fact that car ‌output was still recovering from September’s cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover, while the dominant services sector was flat.

Construction output contracted by 2.1 per cent.

In 2025 as a whole, Britain’s economy grew by an annual average 1.3 per cent, the Office for National Statistics said, compared with 0.9 per cent in France, 0.7 per cent in Italy and 0.4 per cent in Germany.

British economic growth per head contracted by 0.1 per cent for a second quarter, ​although it rose by 1.0 per cent for 2025 as a whole.

In December alone, the economy grew by 0.1 per cent, the ​ONS said, as expected in the ⁠Reuters poll.

That left the size of the economy back at its level of ​June 2025.

Calls for a royal commission into CFMEU corruption that has “permanently” damaged Victoria’s economy have been rejected by its premier.

Jacinta Allan has also questioned a damning report’s claim that major project budget blowouts caused by CFMEU misconduct cost Victorian taxpayers $15 billion.

The Victorian premier on Thursday fronted the media for the first time since an explosive report alleged the CFMEU’s Victorian branch under ex-boss John Setka became a crime syndicate while the state government did nothing.

Barrister Geoffrey Watson SC’s findings claimed worksites became drug distribution hubs, killers were handed high paying jobs and strippers performed for night crews after organised crime infiltrated the union.

Mr Watson on Thursday said damage to the Victorian economy caused by CFMEU corruption could be everlasting.

He made the concession when quizzed about his report entitled Rotting from the Top, which named former union officials Setka and Joe Myles as malign influences, along with Victorian underworld figure Mick Gatto.

In his report Mr Watson wrote: “There will be many examples of Gatto’s criminal conduct in this report.

“Gatto has damaged the building industry and damaged the Victorian economy – maybe permanently.”

Asked at Queensland’s inquiry into construction industry misconduct if that was hyperbolic, Mr Watson replied: “It’s not at all”.

Victoria’s $100 billion Big Build under Premier Daniel Andrews was a catalyst for Setka’s CFMEU becoming a “violent, hateful and greedy rabble” as the state government turned a blind eye for years, the report said.

Ms Allan was the minister responsible for transport infrastructure during Setka’s CFMEU reign.

The premier on Thursday apologised to the state’s construction workers for the “rotten culture that was in place”, saying some of the report’s allegations were absolutely sickening.

However, she rejected the need for a royal commission into CFMEU rorts or a referral to the state corruption watchdog.

Ms Allan said the state government cracked down immediately once it was aware of union misconduct allegations in mid-2024, and insisted all the CFMEU’s “bad actors” had been removed.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that I and my government (have) zero tolerance for this alleged behaviour,” she told reporters in a tense media conference.

“Indeed during my time as minister when allegations were raised with me, I referred allegations to the relevant authorities.”

She also rejected the report’s estimate that major project budget blowouts caused by CFMEU corruption had cost Victorian taxpayers $15 billion.

“This is a claim that the administrator has said is not well tested or properly founded, so let’s be clear that is not a claim that has been substantiated by the administrator,” she said.

Pages from the report perceived to be highly damaging to the Victorian Labor government were initially redacted at the request of CFMEU administrator Mark Irving KC.

But the deleted sections were unearthed and published by the Queensland commission of inquiry on Wednesday.

Victorian shadow attorney-general James Newbury wrote to the state corruption watchdog on Thursday to request an urgent investigation into Mr Watson’s report findings and the deleted sections.

“The corruption uncovered to date is of a scale that makes it the worst seen in our country’s history,” he wrote in a letter seen by AAP.

The Victorian corruption watchdog was contacted for comment.

The fallout from the report came as ex-CFMEU official and bikie Joel Leavitt, 32, was arrested along with another two men on Thursday.

Detectives from a task force investigating criminal behaviour linked to the construction industry made the arrests over allegations a demand for $663,000 was made at a west Melbourne property on January 19.

Mr Levitt, a patched Bandidos member, was described as a “brutal criminal with a bad criminal record” in Mr Watson’s report.

Governments are making the right moves on housing affordability but builders are still finding it “very challenging” to bring on new supply, RBA governor Michele Bullock says.

Speaking at a second parliamentary hearing in less than one week, Ms Bullock reiterated that a shortage of housing was the key issue. 

“Governments seem to be making the right noises in terms of looking at ways of freeing up the ability to make it easier for developments, and high density I think is an important part of this,” she said in Canberra on Thursday.

“When the bank talks to companies – building companies – in liaison, they say that the process of getting a high-density development approved is very, very challenging, particularly in New South Wales.”

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said Ms Bullock’s turn of phrase – that governments were making the right noises – was revealing.

“I’d go further than that,” she responded. 

“In the NSW government’s case, they are actually making moves.”

In recent years, the NSW Labor government has increased allowable building heights around transport hubs, reduced local councils’ ability to stall projects and streamlined the state’s planning approvals pathways.

But planning delays remain a major barrier to builders nationwide, said the Housing Industry Association.

Almost nine in 10 builders surveyed in HIA’s Small Business Conditions Report reported that approval time frames exceeded eight weeks, and one in three experienced delays of more than six months.

“For small businesses, time is money and lengthy approval processes mean higher holding costs, delayed starts and increased financial risk, which reduces the number of homes that can be delivered,” HIA managing director Jocelyn Martin said.

Making it easier to win development approvals is only one piece of the puzzle.

Actually finishing projects has become harder since the COVID-19 pandemic as the industry has faced numerous constraints, Ms Bullock said.

“What we hear from our liaison, and this is easing somewhat, but certainly in the year or so coming out of COVID, the time taken to finish actually strung out because you couldn’t get these trades, so there was a big backlog,” she said.

While the industry remains well behind the National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million new homes over five years, there are some promising signs.

Houses are now almost one per cent cheaper to build than at the start of the accord in July 2024, Treasury housing group director general Ben Rimmer said.

“Houses are also getting faster to build,” he told Senate estimates.

“There’s been a 10 per cent improvement in that outcome over that same time period. One might think 10 per cent doesn’t sound like much. 

“That’s a month off the average construction time, give or take, for detached dwellings. Which means the builder can move on to the next project faster, more houses getting built.”

More than one million households and businesses have swapped old copper for new fibre connections since NBN Co announced plans to ditch the technology, with many of the upgrades in regional areas.

The change, along with the release of updated plans, boosted the nation’s average broadband speeds and downloads to record levels, with almost one-in-three premises connected at 500 megabits per second or faster.

NBN Co revealed the changes with its half-year financial results on Thursday, where it also announced its revenue had grown to $2.94 billion during the period and it posted a smaller loss before tax of $350 million.

The announcements come a year after the federal government invested an additional $3 billion in the National Broadband Network to upgrade legacy copper connections, with NBN Co contributing $800 million to the project.

More than 287,000 households and businesses had taken the fibre upgrade offer in the six months to December 2025, NBN Co chief executive Ellie Sweeney said, representing a 32 per cent jump compared to last year.

“Australians are choosing full fibre at an impressive rate, with more than 47,000 upgrades completed each month and every month over the past year,” she said.

“Importantly, 26 per cent of upgrades were in regional areas and we’re bringing world-class connectivity to even more Australians.”

The Fibre Connect program, which replaced copper with faster and more reliable fibre optic technology, was on track to be completed by the end of 2030, she said.

The network’s growing fibre backbone had already lowered NBN Co’s operating expenses, Ms Sweeney said, as it required less maintenance than the older, less weather-resistant technology.

A program offering broadband plan upgrades, launched in September, also delivered speed boosts, with two-in-five premises (41 per cent) accessing 100 megabit per second download speeds, and almost one in three (31 per cent) using services at 500mbps or more.

Average downloads also increased by 65 gigabytes per month or 13 per cent during the period, Ms Sweeney said, with NBN users downloading an average of 557GB each month.

“This is important because it demonstrates a simple fact: when Australians can access higher speeds at better value, they do not just upgrade, their usage expands and demand keeps rising,” she said.

“It’s allowing Australian homes and businesses to stay ahead of the curve and handle data demands of today and also the years to come.”

The upgrades and price increases pushed up residential spending by $3 a month to $52 and raised NBN Co’s telecommunications revenue by four per cent, while its total revenue rose by two per cent.

The company’s capital expenditure dropped by 22 per cent during the six months, mainly due to the completion of fixed wireless and satellite upgrade programs.

More than 8.6 million premises are actively connected to the NBN – a figure that rose by 0.3 per cent over the past year.

A pair of battery-powered locomotives powered by the world’s largest land-mobile battery are set to help one of Australia’s biggest miners reach its ambitious decarbonisation goals.

Iron ore giant Fortescue estimates the electric train engines will help reduce the company’s diesel use by about one million litres annually.

Fortescue Metals and Operations chief executive Dino Otranto said decarbonising the company’s Pilbara rail network was critical to eliminating fossil fuels from its operations by 2030.

“The commissioning of these battery electric locomotives demonstrates that heavy-haul rail can operate reliably without fossil fuels,” he said.

The locomotives’ batteries, which have a capacity of 14.5MWh, will be powered by renewable energy delivered via Fortescue’s Pilbara Energy Connect program.

“For a mining operation of this scale, decarbonisation only works if renewable energy is firm, reliable and available 24/7,” Mr Otranto said.

“That’s why we’re building an integrated system combining large-scale solar and wind generation, battery storage and transmission infrastructure.”

The plan includes more than 480km of already constructed high-voltage transmission lines to link Fortescue’s energy infrastructure to its operations and rail network.

“This infrastructure enables renewable power to replace diesel and gas, in real time, across the Pilbara,” Mr Otranto said.

Power for the network will be generated in part by a 100 megawatt solar farm at Fortescue’s North Star Junction site, where a 250MWh battery energy storage system has recently been installed.

The miner has almost finished building a 190 megawatt solar farm at its Cloudbreak operation and has plans to construct two more, potentially boosting energy generation by more than a gigawatt.

Fortescue said its growing portfolio of solar, wind, battery storage and electrified transmission infrastructure will help it reach its 2030 Real Zero Target 

It is also the most comprehensive decarbonisation program under construction in the global mining sector.

“Real Zero is about transforming the way we power our assets, move our materials and run our operations, not offsetting emissions but eliminating them,” Mr Otranto said.