Australia news as it happened: David Stratton dies; Albanese, Chalmers react to leaked treasury document; Midwife charged with manslaughter following allegedly unsuccessful home birth

A woman who worked as a private midwife has been charged with manslaughter following the death of a baby after an allegedly unsuccessful home birth last year.

Police arrested the 36-year-old woman in Newcastle at 8.30am this morning, charging her with manslaughter and reckless grievous bodily harm.

They allege she attended a home in Newcastle’s western suburbs to assist a woman with a home birth in October last year, but failed to act upon signs of complications and requests by the woman to attend hospital over the following two days.

The woman later went to hospital, where the baby was delivered by emergency caesarean. Police say the baby died there, allegedly after suffering significant medical complications following the unsuccessful home birth.

The woman, who has dual nationality, has been granted bail conditional on her remaining in Australia, and not practising as a midwife or healthcare professional. The matter will return to court on October 15.

It comes after two women were charged in March this year with manslaughter following the death of a baby during a home birth in Coffs Harbour on NSW’s North Coast in September 2022.

Childcare centres are not checking whether their staff are allowed to work with children before hiring, a NSW inquiry has been told.

The revelations of major breakdowns in the safety of 500,000 infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers were aired on Thursday as working with children’s checks were put under the microscope.

Banned workers were allowed to continue working for years without oversight, the NSW parliamentary inquiry into childcare was told.

Inquiry chair Abigail Boyd said internal government documents showed dozens of workers were banned each year, but few children’s checks were cancelled.

In one case, an educator banned in 2019 was approved for a new check in 2021 and continued working up to 2023 before being stopped.

Nearly half of the banned staff reported to the Office of the Children’s Guardian over three years did not even have a check to cancel, Boyd said.

Acting Children’s Guardian Rachael Ward said the childcare regulator was not required to report which staff it has banned, to allow for checks to be cancelled.

“They haven’t broken any law by not sharing that information,” Ward said.

Ward, in the role for five months, was unaware her office had only cancelled 21 checks of the 235 prohibited workers reported between 2021 and 2024.

The inquiry comes amid nationwide scrutiny on the regulation and safety of childcare after shocking reports of children allegedly being sexually abused, left restrained in high chairs for hours and receiving substandard meals.

G8 Education, the operator of a centre where Melbourne man Joshua Dale Brown allegedly abused children in his care, said in a submission that its staff were struggling emotionally while working through the fallout of the abuse revelations.

AAP

Almost 10 classrooms worth of children are being held in NSW jails as bail changes trigger a sharp increase in custody numbers.

NSW Premier Chris Minns defended his bail changes on Thursday as data showed more than 230 children were in NSW jails in June.

That figure was 34 per cent higher than two years earlier, the state’s crime statistics bureau said.

It reversed a trend of declining numbers of jailed children, the bureau’s executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said.

The majority of jailed children have not been convicted, with only 66 in custody due to sentencing.

More than 70 per cent are on remand while they go through the court process.

But the increase is not necessarily driven by laws placing additional tests on bail, suggesting access to bail has tightened.

“It seems to be beyond just the offences that were targeted or the particular circumstances that were targeted under the legislative change,” Fitzgerald said.

The state government has limited access to bail for children aged 14 and over accused of break-and-enter and motor vehicle theft offences while bailed on similar charges.

Bail for accused domestic violence offenders has also been restricted.

In Victoria, the state government announced changes to its bail laws in March following some high-profile offences.

Parts of the reforms were introduced later so that the state could hire extra corrections staff to cope with the expected influx in prisons there.

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Staying with Afternoon Briefing, and the opposition has had its say on that leaked Treasury document which suggested in advance some of the outcomes of next week’s productivity roundtable.

“I think it’s very curious that two of the Treasury ideas were ideas that we had at the last election,” said shadow minister for housing and productivity Senator Andrew Bragg when he went on the show.

“That tells you that the central agency thinks that Coalition policy ideas are credible.

“In fact, the government said during the last campaign that changing the National Construction Code was a bad idea and, in fact, Ed Husic said that it would result in there being bad houses or shoddy housing in Australia.

“So, there was a reason this was our policy – because we knew there was a lot of red tape in the housing sector. And in relation to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, we also had a policy there to remove some of the red tape and to get the approvals moving.

“These are not new ideas. These are ideas that Labor would have known about last term. But instead of actually helping housing, in the last term, they put in place lots and lots of red tape.”

Bragg also wouldn’t be drawn on whether he still supported the opposition’s pledge from this year’s election campaign to cut new migrants by 100,000 people a year. Host Patricia Karvelas noted shadow home affairs minister Andrew Hastie reaffirmed his support for this target last week.

Earlier today we learned from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that the unemployment rate has dropped to 4.2 per cent (about 10,000 more employed people) and that the share of working women has also hit a record high.

Also included in this data drop was that the gender pay gap is at 11.5 per cent, down 0.4 per cent since the last set of data in February and on par with the record low of August 2024.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher welcomed this during her appearance on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

“By reducing the gender pay gap and addressing some of those wage inequity areas, like in the care economy, that women are now earning more and keeping more of that than when we came to government. And that’s been a key focus for us in driving gender equality.”

Gallagher was also asked about the Greens’ push for childcare reform to be part of next week’s productivity roundtable.

“I did an ACT roundtable yesterday that will feed into the national roundtable, and it certainly was raised as part of that,” Gallagher said.

“I have no doubt issues around the provision of early education and care, and how we – in particular – build the workforce and make sure that early education and care is safe, will be part of discussions and ideas that are raised.”

Gallagher also said she expected a proposed trial of a road-user charge for electric vehicles (EVs) to be discussed at the roundtable. Earlier today, new data showed sales of EVs in Australia are at a record high.

Returning to one of our top stories now, and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher was on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing about a leaked Treasury document suggesting the outcomes that should result from next week’s productivity roundtable – before it has even taken place.

The document’s suggestions include a plan to freeze changes to the National Construction Code and to use AI to speed up housing approvals.

“Are these things that are done and dusted?” asked host Patricia Karvelas.

“Not at all,” Gallagher replied, echoing the prime minister, treasurer and employment minister in their reactions to the leaked document earlier today.

“They’re definitely – the ones that have been reported in the ABC – are definitely ideas and issues that have been raised, I think, with all of us as we’ve been developing the roundtable. Next week, obviously, we’ll concentrate some of the discussion around it.

“But nothing has been decided... We’re not going to tell people what ideas they can and can’t raise. We want a good discussion and, if there are areas of consensus for us to think further about what can be done.

“This [roundtable] is a rare but genuine opportunity to bring people together and talk about some of the things that various stakeholders representing different parts of the economy”

Tributes have begun to flow for beloved Australian movie critic David Stratton, who has died aged 85, including from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“With dry humour and sharp insight, David Stratton shared his love of film with our country,” Albanese wrote on X.

“All of us who tuned in to At the Movies respected him for his deep knowledge and for the gentle and generous way he passed it on.

“May he rest in peace.”

Read more about David Stratton’s life here.

Negotiators working on a proposed treaty to address global plastic pollution discussed a new draft of the text Wednesday that wouldn’t limit plastic production or address chemicals used in plastic products.

The biggest issue of the talks has been whether the treaty should impose caps on producing new plastic or focus instead on things like better design, recycling and reuse.

About 100 countries want to limit production as well as tackle clean-up and recycling. Many have said it’s essential to address toxic chemicals.

Powerful oil and gas-producing nations and the plastics industry oppose production limits. They want a treaty focused on better waste management and reuse.

Countries with very divergent views expressed disappointment with the draft. It could change significantly and a new version is expected today – the last scheduled day of the negotiations.

Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the chair of the negotiating committee, wrote the draft based on the views expressed by nations over the course of the negotiations. He told them that he did it to move them closer to a legally binding instrument, and they can shape and improve it, as well as add and delete wording.

“With little time left,” he said, “it’s time to build bridges, not dig in over red lines”.

AP