Australia news as it happened: Attorneys-general agree to working with children check overhaul; US responds to Australia recognising Palestinian state; Russian troops make gains before Putin-Trump summit

Drug consumption is rising across Australia’s capital cities, with methamphetamine and MDMA at record highs, a report has found.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s latest wastewater report, released on Friday, also shows heroin use is at record levels in regional areas.

Methamphetamine had the highest average consumption in regional sites in South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria, while the highest average cocaine consumption was in Sydney.

Darwin and Sydney recorded the highest MDMA consumption, while cannabis consumption was highest in Hobart.

The ACIC said the results reflected “the increasing diversity of illicit drug markets in Australia”, and “the recovery of these illicit drug markets following the impact of COVID-19 restrictions”.

“Transnational and domestic serious and organised crime groups have rapidly re-established and expanded their operations, taking advantage of increased demand and evolving trafficking methods to supply these highly profitable markets,” it said.

It also said Australia had been relatively successful in preventing threats from fentanyl compared with other countries.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the increase in consumption was in line with other nations with comparable economies.

He praised government agencies for “stopping more illegal drugs than are making it over the border”.

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Accenture has announced it will buy Australian cybersecurity firm CyberCX in its largest-ever deal in the sector, with the Australian Financial Review valuing the transaction at more than $1 billion.

“The move represents Accenture’s largest cybersecurity acquisition to date and will significantly bolster Accenture’s cybersecurity services in Asia Pacific,” the company said in a statement on Friday.

“This strategic move is timely given Accenture’s recent State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2025 report, which found that 97 per cent of Australian organisations were not adequately prepared to secure their AI-driven future, with 80 per cent lacking the critical data and AI cybersecurity practices needed to protect models, data pipelines and cloud infrastructure.”

A wave of devastating cyberattacks has battered Australia, including a 2022 breach at telecom major Optus that exposed the personal data of up to 10 million users, and a hack on health insurer Medibank affecting nearly 10 million customers.

In July, Qantas Airways disclosed that criminals had infiltrated one of its call centres, accessing personal information of 6 million customers.

Melbourne-based CyberCX was formed in 2019 through the merger of 12 smaller cybersecurity firms backed by BGH Capital.

A literary festival in regional Victoria has cancelled its opening night gala, hours before the event, and a number of sessions have been scrapped as the list of writers withdrawing from the event over free speech concerns continues to grow.

On Wednesday, participants in the La Trobe University stream of the Bendigo Writers Festival received a code of conduct, detailing what they could and couldn’t say at the event.

Since then, others in the line-up have been told the code would be in their festival pack when they arrived.

Read more here.

Talks in Geneva on the world’s first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution have failed to reach a consensus, according to delegates on Friday.

“South Africa is disappointed that it was not possible for this session to agree a legally binding treaty, and positions remain far apart,” its delegate told a closing meeting of the negotiations early on Friday.

More than 1000 delegates have gathered in Geneva for the sixth round of talks, after a meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in South Korea late last year ended without a deal.

The committee is a group established by the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2022 with the mandate to develop a legally binding global treaty to address plastic pollution.

Negotiations had gone into overtime on Thursday as countries scrambled to bridge deep divisions over the extent of future curbs.

AP

National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds says she is “hugely relieved” that there will be a tougher, national working with children check system in place by the end of the year.

The move was announced this afternoon after weeks of scrutiny catalysed by a childcare worker in Victoria – who had a valid check – being charged with 70 counts of child sex abuse, including rape.

People banned from holding a working with children check in one jurisdiction will be banned in all under the fast-tracked reforms.

“If this happens, it will make a difference to the safety of children,” Hollonds said on ABC News’ Afternoon Briefing.

Hollonds was asked whether she was confident there would be changes over who could receive working with children checks.

“I think the announcement today doesn’t make this particular screening tool any stronger,” she said. “It does need to be stronger – it is very basic still and mostly about police convictions in the past.

“I think the name itself – ‘working with children check’ – gives the impression that it is assessing your suitability to care for children, which it’s clearly not.”

Shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser, who also appeared on the program, said he welcomed the news that the scheme would take only four months to roll out – instead of one year as the government initially suggested – after the attorneys-general met.

He was also asked about the fact the scheme would not be exactly the same in all states and territories.

“I think we will need to look at the details of what comes out there and if it is not really a harmonised system, and if people cannot really get that information to make sure that it is easy for a childcare employer to determine whether a person banned in one state may be applying to work in their childcare centre in a different state ... we will be pointing these matters out and holding the government to account for its decisions,” he said.

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Energy Minister Chris Bowen has announced the launch of a new scheme, designed to give farmers and their regional communities “clearer, independent information about companies seeking to develop renewable energy projects on their land”.

The Renewable Energy Developer Rating Scheme will initially be open to 60 developers, before being made more widely available from March 2026.

In recent years, there has been minor but vocal opposition in regional Australia to proposed solar and wind farms and upgrades to transmission lines, with some farmers vowing to block developers from accessing their land.

“Australian farmers and regional communities deserve straight answers and high standards,” Bowen said on Friday.

“This independent rating scheme will shine a light on developer behaviour, so landholders can make informed decisions and will ensure everyone lifts their game when it comes to working with communities.

“Good operators who engage early and respectfully will be recognised – and those who don’t will be required to lift their game. That’s how we build confidence and get the right projects in the right places.”

The scheme has been in development for several years, after a 2023 review found that developers “were supportive of a scheme that would enable communities to identify capable and quality developers”.

Earlier today, a report by the Clean Energy Council found the number of new renewable energy projects being invested in is falling well short of the pace required to hit Australia’s 2030 target of 82 per cent of energy needs being generated by renewables.

On this day four years ago, the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, barely weeks after the United States withdrew its troops after 20 years of operations.

In the years since, Afghanis have suffered two earthquakes and serious floods, while the Islamic fundamentalist government has sought to re-implement Sharia law and many of the gender discriminatory policies of its first time in control.

At the same time, awareness of the country’s plight has largely been overshadowed by other conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan and the Middle East.

In July, Russia became the first – and currently only – country to recognise the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

While Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says it engages with the Taliban on matters such as humanitarian assistance, it says this work does not mean it recognises the group as the country’s legitimate government.

On Wednesday, a US watchdog said Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers divert international aid by force and other means, block minority communities from receiving aid and may collude with UN officials to seek kickbacks.

With AP