Australians could face more local news and program blackouts if the national broadcaster’s management cannot reach a resolution with striking workers.

For the first time in two decades, ABC staff went on strike for 24 hours from 11am AEDT on Wednesday to push for better pay and conditions.

Workers are warning of further industrial action if their demands aren’t met.

As its employees walked off the job, the ABC was forced to broadcast content from the BBC, re-runs and members statements in federal parliament to fill the void.

Youth broadcaster Triple J switched over to a pre-prepared playlist of music as staff walked out.

Nightly news bulletins and flagship current affairs program 7.30 did not go to air on Wednesday evening and ABC News Breakfast won’t be broadcast on Thursday morning along with local breakfast and morning radio programs.

Thousands of striking journalists, camera operators, technicians and other staff rallied outside more than 60 ABC offices, including in Melbourne and Sydney.

It was a strange feeling for Victorian state political reporter Richard Willingham, who said workers were walking off the job because they don’t feel they can get ahead or survive working as a journalist.

Management had long told workers everything was rosy at the ABC, but business journalist Dan Ziffer said they had ignored the unstable, insecure employment conditions and stagnating pay.

“The ABC is a bit like a shit boyfriend,” he told the crowd in Melbourne.

Radio presenter David Marr said workers had sent management a warning there would be more staff strife if things did not change.

“Further down the track there’s going to be more trouble unless this fundamental is addressed – decent wages,” he told the Sydney gathering.

Public service union organiser Sam McCrone said staff across the nation had shown up and were willing to fight after management applied for a hearing in the Fair Work Commission.

“If that change of venue doesn’t come with a change of attitude from management, this fight will continue,” he said.

ABC managing director Hugh Marks defended the last rejected pay offer – 10 per cent across three years – as financially responsible and competitive for the industry.

Unions and workers across many sectors were showing an increasing willingness to take industrial action, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer partner Rohan Doyle said.

“Workers are understandably pushing for pay increases that keep pace with inflation … but at the same time many employers are under pressure,” the enterprise bargaining and industrial disputes expert told AAP.

With both sides of the bargaining table being squeezed, Mr Doyle expects strikes to become more prevalent unless productivity gains can be found.

“There’s no simple fix,” Mr Doyle said.

The industrial action is the broadcaster’s first major strike since 2006.

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

Communications Minister Anika Wells signalled she wouldn’t intervene to end the dispute.

With fuel shortages biting amid global tensions, the federal government is betting Australia’s future on a tighter link between industry, science and research.

Industry Minister Tim Ayres used his first National Press Club address to outline Labor’s strategy for a more connected system.

His speech came three weeks into the Iran war where “the world is being remade around us, rules and norms are in flux” as service stations run dry of fuel as the conflict escalates. 

“We don’t have time to stand around admiring problems. We must make Australia stronger, smarter, safer and more resilient to the shocks that keep coming,” he said on Wednesday.

Senator Ayres spent the morning in central Queensland announcing a $2 billion bailout to secure the future of the Boyne aluminium smelter.

He was asked about the government’s decision to support Rio Tinto, which owns the smelter and turns over billions in profits each year, instead of other start ups.

“It delivers economic security for that region, it connects that industrial region with the Australian economy, it represents a $7.5 billion investment from Rio Tinto and power purchasing agreements that will build new renewable energy projects,” Senator Ayres said. 

“That is a slam dunk in productivity terms, in investment terms, and we are working hard in an environment where the market for products … is being shaped by international markets that aren’t level playing fields.”

Senator Ayres said he was “unashamedly for regional economies” and they were essential for Australia’s future security and resilience. 

“There are a few people up in parliament – Matt Canavan and Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie – who posture alongside other people’s muscle cars and pretend they have always been interested in Australian automotive manufacturing,” he said.

“Save us the hypocrisy of the approach, a very confused approach from people who pretend to have recently discovered industrial policy and sovereign manufacturing.”

Asked if he would follow calls from the Australian Academy of Science to secure ongoing public funding for the CSIRO after major job cuts, Senator Ayres said the government would protect its future.

“We’ll be here for Australian science, we’ll back Australians science capability, because it’s there,” he said. 

CSIRO cut up to 250 jobs in late 2025, following over 800 previous redundancies, with the environment, agriculture and food units among those hit the hardest.

On Monday, Senator Ayres revealed eight per cent of Australia’s service stations were without at least one type of fuel, and told the press club the current times “require deep thinking, heavy lifting and a co-ordinated effort”.

“Times are tough, and budget processes are tough. But this is the Albanese government’s mission,” he said.

“To stop the drift and replace it with discipline and determination to deliver at a critical juncture in Australia’s history.”

Taking credit for “the largest pro-manufacturing industrial policy in Australian history”, Senator Ayres said it would be “all hands-on deck” to bring together governments and the private sector.

“My job is to bring that effort together, to squeeze every ounce out of the system and deliver with impact,” he said.

The local share market has had its best day in almost a year, after reports the US is seeking a ceasefire with Iran buoyed investor sentiment.

The S&P/ASX200 surged 154.9 points on Wednesday, up 1.85 per cent, to 8,534.3, as the broader All Ordinaries gained 174 points, or 2.03 per cent, to 8,745.3.

It was the bourse’s best day since April 10, 2025, helping it claw back more than $56 billion of an estimated $300 billion wiped from its combined value since the conflict began.

Beaten down mining stocks were the biggest benefactors after three weeks of heavy losses, the basic materials sector up more than four per cent and clambering out of bear market territory.

The Australian dollar is buying 69.76 US cents, up from 69.66 US cents on Tuesday at 5pm.

Stocks rose and oil fell on Wednesday on reports the US is seeking a month-long ceasefire in its war on Iran, and had sent a 15-point plan to Iran for discussion, raising hopes for a resumption of oil exports out of ‌the Persian Gulf.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.9 per cent in the Asia morning, European futures lifted 1.2 per cent and Brent crude futures fell about 6.0 per cent to $US98.30 ($A140.47) a barrel.

Equity markets in ‌Australia, South Korea and Japan rose about 2.0 per cent in morning trade and gold, which investors had been selling to take profit after a long rally, rose 1.6 per cent.

“The market ‌is trading the headlines at the moment,” said Kerry Craig, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in Melbourne.

“So there’s a positive tone. The difficulty is now…there are still unknowns about where this actually goes from here and whether there’s anything material in terms of a ceasefire.”

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the US was making progress in negotiating an end to the war, including winning an important concession from Tehran, while a source confirmed that Washington had sent Iran ‌a 15-point settlement proposal.

Israel’s Channel ‌12, quoting three sources, ⁠said the US was seeking a month-long ceasefire to discuss the 15-point plan.

Tehran has denied that direct ​talks have taken place.

Markets have responded well, though cautiously, to rumblings since Monday that the US is looking for an end to hostilities, since it is not really clear if there is much progress on when the Strait of Hormuz can open to oil tankers.

So far this week the dollar is marginally lower – and it was under slight pressure on Wednesday morning – buying 158.8 yen and trading at $US1.1620 ($A1.6605) per euro.

Brent crude prices remain up 35 per cent since the war began and near the $US100 ($A143) ⁠a barrel level that’s already causing economic pain for buyers in Asia who are ‌paying up for ​jet fuel and diesel.

Interest rate markets have also stuck with expectations of fairly extreme responses from central bankers, pricing a series of hikes in Europe, Britain, Japan ​and Australia in ‌the coming months to tame inflation, and no further US rate cuts.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields dropped around five basis points to 4.34 per cent in Tokyo trade ​and two-year yields fell by a similar margin to 3.875 per cent.

Yields fall when bond prices rise.

“For now, it feels like a market that is reacting rather than anticipating, and until there is clearer alignment from both sides, I would expect price action to remain fragile,” said Marc Velan, ​head ​of investments at Lucerne Asset Management in Singapore.

“People are reluctant to ​chase moves that are entirely headline-driven and can reverse quickly.”

On the ground US, ‌Israeli and Iranian strikes have continued and sources said Washington was preparing to send more troops to the region.

Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday the US was expected to send thousands of soldiers from the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East.

The Australian dollar hung around 70 US cents after February inflation data – from before the outbreak of war – was a tad cooler than expected.

War worries have also obscured growing concerns in credit markets where ​there are signs of stress in private credit and Ares Management on Tuesday became the latest asset manager to cap withdrawals at a private debt ​fund, spooking investors.

Shares of Ares, which managed ⁠around $US623 billion ($A890 billion) in assets at the end of 2025, fell 1.0 per cent on Tuesday. They are down 36 per cent so ​far this year.

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.