dailynewsnblog
Medicines regulator and nation’s chief doctor reject US paracetamol claims
Natasha May
Australia’s current chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd, and the medicines regulator say they “join with other global medicines regulators, leading clinicians and scientists worldwide in rejecting claims regarding the use of paracetamol in pregnancy, and the subsequent risk of development of ADHD or autism in children”.
A statement issued moments ago by the Therapeutic Drugs Administration says:
Robust scientific evidence shows no causal link between the use of paracetamol in pregnancy and autism or ADHD, with several large and reliable studies directly contradicting these claims.
Paracetamol remains the recommended treatment option for pain or fever in pregnant women when used as directed. Importantly, untreated fever and pain can pose risks to the unborn baby, highlighting the importance of managing these symptoms with recommended treatment.
Pregnant women should speak to their healthcare professionals if they have questions about any medication during pregnancy.
Key events
Benita Kolovos
Vic parliament’s new integrity watchdog clears MPs in manure investigation
The Victorian parliament’s new integrity watchdog has botched its first investigation – into the manure dumped out the front of premier Jacinta Allan’s office – by issuing defective notices.
In a report tabled on Tuesday, the Parliamentary Workplace Standards and Integrity Commission made no finding of misconduct by Liberal MPs Bev McArthur and Nicole Werner, who assisted an angry farmer to deliver a box of cow manure to the door of Allan’s parliament office on 20 May.
They said the duo cooperated fully with their investigation. However, the commission midway through “became aware of a technical issue” with their investigation request notices as they were approved by a commissioner but issued by their staff:
Consequently, in the interests of transparency, fairness, and accountability, the commission has decided not to consider the evidence collected through the original request notices.
The commission decided not to reissue the notices because “repeating investigative interviews and evidence collection is not proportionate to the nature of the alleged conduct”.
The Parliamentary Workplace Standards and Integrity Commission was established in late 2024 to investigate all bullying, harassment, sexual harassment and victimisation complaints made against sitting MPs.
According to its 2024/25 annual report, tabled on Thursday, it has received 13 referrals since 1 January. Of those, seven were dismissed because they did not fall within the jurisdiction of the watchdog.
Adeshola Ore
Police dog and handler injured after freeway collision in Melbourne
A Melbourne police dog named Rocco survived a freeway collision after being ejected from a patrol vehicle on Monday night.
Victoria police charged a man over the collision, in Melbourne’s north-west, which left Rocco and his handler injured.
Police alleged a white Mercedes Benz collided with the rear of a police vehicle in Tullamarine at about 10.45pm last night. During the incident, Rocco the German Shepherd was ejected from the police car.
The dog is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries and his handler was treated at the scene for minor injuries and taken to the hospital for observation.
The driver of the Mercedes, a 19-year-old man, stopped at the scene and was unharmed. A passenger in the vehicle, a woman, 21, was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The man has since been charged with reckless conduct endangering life, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, driving in a dangerous manner, unlicensed driving and probationary driver using a prohibited vehicle.
He was bailed and is due to appear in court in January.
Benita Kolovos
Two Labor MPS will not recontest their seats in next election
Two Victorian Labor MPs have announced they will not recontest their seats at the 2026 state election.
Bayswater MP Jackson Taylor and Melton MP Steve McGhie both announced their plans on Tuesday afternoon.
Both MPs were first elected at the 2018 “Danslide” election, with Taylor winning the eastern suburbs seat off the Liberals for the first time since 2006 after having served the local community as a police officer, a police prosecutor and a councillor.
He issued a statement on social media saying it was the “right time to step back” ahead of the birth of his second child. Taylor wrote:
Being in politics and public office has given me incredible opportunities to work with our community and achieve things together that I’m immensely proud of. But it has also meant a lot of time away from my family. This hasn’t been an easy decision, but after nearly 10 years in public life, including my time on council – it feels like the right time to step back.
McGhie, meanwhile, won the western suburbs seat – and fended off challenges since – after 13 years leading the Victorian ambulance union. He wrote on social media that it was time to “pass the baton and create space for fresh energy and new ideas to the next generation”:
From the moment Dan Andrews encouraged me to put my hand up, it has been an absolute privilege to serve. I am grateful to have worked under the leadership of strong Labor Premiers, first Daniel Andrews and now Jacinta Allan.
Allan issued statements thanking both men for their service. Both will serve until the election. Labor will begin the process of preselecting candidates next week.
Nick Visser
That’s all for me. Adeshola Ore will take it from here. Enjoy your Tuesday!
Jordyn Beazley
Sydney’s Night Stalker rapist pleads guilty to 13 charges over attacks against women in 1990s
A man accused of terrorising women in the early 1990s across Sydney, who was dubbed the Night Stalker, has pleaded guilty to 13 charges.
The man appeared before Downing Centre local court on Thursday, weeks after the serial rapist was unmasked as Glenn Gary Cameron. His identity had remained a secret since he was arrested more than 18 months ago due to suppression orders.
Cameron, now 61, was accused of assaulting at least eight women while in his 20s between 1991 and 1993 in Sydney’s inner-west and eastern suburbs, specifically Moore Park.
Cameron was arrested in February 2024 at Sydney airport after a breakthrough in forensic technology helped police progress the 30-year-old cold case.
He had initially faced 36 charges, including 19 counts of aggravated sexual assault involving a threat to inflict actual bodily harm on a victim with a weapon and eight counts of indecent assault.
Read more:
Andrew Messenger
Queensland’s premier declares he’s ‘not interested in fairweather friends’ from big corporates
David Crisafulli is giving his first state of the state address, an event organised by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.
The premier repeated an oft-heard line about the state being “open for business”, but said that “should not be misconstrued as a chance for corporations to transfer their liabilities and the business downside to Queensland and to the Queensland government”.
The state government is currently under pressure by the resources sector to slash coal royalties after a string of coalmine closure announcements last week the mining lobby blamed on the state’s progressive royalties scheme. Crisafulli said:
We’re not interested in fair-weather friends who come running for the dollars when things are good, then abandon Queensland … in the name of shareholder profits when the going gets tough.
Meanwhile, Glencore has also threatened to close its giant Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville refinery.
The state and federal governments recently presented the company a bailout plan. Crisafulli said “we will leave nothing in the tank to get this deal done”:
But it can’t be one-way traffic. Glencore needs to be prepared to amend their business model and commit to investing in the asset to ensure the continuity of a business – whoever may run it in the future. It’s a partnership. It’s two way street.
Sarah Basford Canales
Australia’s aerial fire-fighting fleet to ramp up soon
The National Emergency Management Agency’s acting head, Joe Buffone, says Australia’s aerial fire-flighting fleet will ramp up significantly from next month ahead of the summer.
Buffone told a media briefing this morning there was just one Black Hawk helicopter in the national fleet at the moment, but the remaining 161 aircraft promised in May last year would begin filtering in from early October.
NEMA’s boss said it was important that aircraft in the fleet could be utilised for different weather responses. For example, he said, a helicopter last year dealt mostly with flood responses despite having a primary responsibility for fire-fighting.
In response to some criticisms about the federal government not yet accepting recommendations from the 2020 bushfire royal commission, Buffone said:
The important thing is that we have the aircraft, the right mix of aircraft, for the season ahead and, in particular, as we said, our focus is shifting to this multi-use capability, which allows us to have aircraft for longer periods of time, more effective and [which can] actually can be used across multiple hazards.
Jordyn Beazley
Police officer charged with assault after Hannah Thomas injured at pro-Palestine protest in Sydney
A New South Wales police officer has been charged with assaulting Hannah Thomas, who sustained a serious eye injury after she was arrested at a protest in June.
Thomas was arrested and charged alongside four others at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney on 27 June that was attended by about 60 people at SEC Plating.
The 35-year-old was taken to hospital and underwent two rounds of surgery to her right eye and will soon undergo a third.
Earlier this month, the office of the director of public prosecutions (DPP) dropped all three charges against Thomas.
Read more:
Natasha May
TGA aware of Trump’s claims, but says ‘robust studies have refuted’ them
The TGA said it is aware of announcements by the US administration that use of paracetamol in pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk of autism and ADHD in children, though a causal association has not been established.
Their statement continued:
Whilst there are published articles suggesting an association between maternal paracetamol use and childhood autism, they had methodological limitations. More recent and robust studies have refuted these claims, supporting the weight of other scientific evidence that does not support a causal link between paracetamol and autism or ADHD.
… International peer regulators including the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the United Kingdom have reiterated that paracetamol should continue to be used in line with product information documents. Following evaluation in 2019 the European Medicines Agency (EMA) found that scientific evidence regarding effects of paracetamol on childhood neurodevelopment was inconclusive.
Medicines regulator and nation’s chief doctor reject US paracetamol claims
Natasha May
Australia’s current chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd, and the medicines regulator say they “join with other global medicines regulators, leading clinicians and scientists worldwide in rejecting claims regarding the use of paracetamol in pregnancy, and the subsequent risk of development of ADHD or autism in children”.
A statement issued moments ago by the Therapeutic Drugs Administration says:
Robust scientific evidence shows no causal link between the use of paracetamol in pregnancy and autism or ADHD, with several large and reliable studies directly contradicting these claims.
Paracetamol remains the recommended treatment option for pain or fever in pregnant women when used as directed. Importantly, untreated fever and pain can pose risks to the unborn baby, highlighting the importance of managing these symptoms with recommended treatment.
Pregnant women should speak to their healthcare professionals if they have questions about any medication during pregnancy.
Sarah Basford Canales
Defence should not be ‘first port of call’ after disasters, emergency management head says
The head of Australia’s emergency management agency says the army should “not be the first port of call” during catastrophic weather events as he delivered a sobering outlook for the upcoming high-risk season.
In a media briefing this morning, Joe Buffone, acting head of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), spoke of the increase in adverse weather events in recent years, such as floods and bushfires, but said the agency’s work extended to other crises, including those in national security and biosecurity.
Buffone said a key takeaway was that defence should not be called in every time there’s a weather emergency unless it is absolutely critical.
He said:
Defence [has] a critical role in actually defending Australia. That’s their primary role. What they will do, though, is that they still will support, you know, significant disasters – in particular, in the urgent emergency, life-saving space, but they are not looking at continuing to support recovery efforts unless it is of a scale that they need to support. They’ve got to focus on their primary role, which is defending Australia …
The key message is Defence … cannot be the first port of call in a disaster.
Luca Ittimani
AI datacentres could force an early water price hike, regulator warns
The NSW price regulator just announced a price hike for Sydney water but warned another could come early if new datacentres are quick to arrive.
Large volumes of water are used to cool the vast warehouses which store and process data. New AI models such as ChatGPT make heavy use of them.
Open-source estimates suggest Australia already has 265 datacentres, with Amazon among the companies investing billions to build the projects in Sydney and Melbourne, and the NSW government has reportedly approved 90 more.
Sydney Water told the independent pricing and regulatory tribunal it expected such centres to consume up to 250 megalitres a day, about one-sixth of Sydney’s present water consumption. Local councils argued it could be even more than that.
Ipart warned it may need to hike prices earlier than usual if datacentre installations accelerate before the next scheduled 2029-30 review, but for now it believed existing projects could be covered under the existing system. Its report read:
There is a possibility that Sydney Water may need to expand its system capacity materially over the next few years, potentially at significant additional cost. It may also sell more water than we have allowed for in setting prices … [and if so] we may consider reviewing and setting new prices before 2029-30.
Former CMO Paul Kelly: Trump’s announcement ‘cruel’ to pregnant women
Natasha May
Australia’s former chief medical officer says the Trump administration’s announcement tying paracetamol to autism is “cruel” to pregnant women and unnecessarily puts blame on parents of children with autism, without evidence backing it up.
Prof Paul Kelly told Guardian Australia he believed the announcement was a use of “mal-information” – twisting information to reach a certain end:
I don’t think it’s about protecting children from autism. I do worry that it’s part of a smoke screen for larger announcements which may well involve vaccines, which has been a long-held view of the current secretary for health in the Trump administration, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Kelly also said the announcement goes against the best evidence we have, which was a Swedish study published last year of almost 2.5 million births, “essentially put the issue to bed. There is no link between paracetamol and autism.”
What an announcement like this does do is places blame on parents of children with autism “with no evidence that that’s the case.” Kelly said:
That feeling of blame and of guilt is really common and incredibly dangerous and not a helpful emotion.
He also says it’s “cruel” to tell pregnant women in real pain or experiencing a fever not to take medication that is safe and effective.
Read more about what Australian experts are worried about here:
Why are Sydney’s water bills rising by hundreds of dollars?
Luca Ittimani
As we reported earlier, Sydney Water has gained permission to hike its prices 14% on 1 October.
NSW’s independent pricing and regulatory tribunal says the increase is necessary to cover the rising costs of water distribution. The hike will give Sydney Water an extra $179m per year to cover its day-to-day operations, including rising costs for water purchase and treatment.
The price increase will weigh more on the variable usage charge, which relates to how much water a household uses up, rather than the fixed fee to connect to the water service. As a result, Sydney customers are expected to cut back their water usage in response to the price hike, meaning water usage will stay at about the same level for the next five years despite a growing population.
The fee increase will also cover an increased spend on capital works so Sydney Water can replace ageing infrastructure and build new connections, storm water connections near the new Western Sydney airport and network expansions to cover greater use of the city’s desalination plant
An extra $180m has been allocated toward works on the city’s ocean-draining sewers, which some experts believe are to blame for thousands of debris balls or “fatbergs” washing ashore in the last year.
Difficult weather, among other factors, has made it harder to carry out expansions of networks around the outfall sewers at North Head, Bondi and Malabar. Ipart suggested the additional spend after NSW Health and the Environment Protection Authority called for the sewers to be prioritised. The review read:
We have sought, and will continue, to protect consumers from unjustified price increases for water and wastewater services. However, increases in maximum prices are required now to fund efficient expenditure to deliver reliable and safe water services and to reflect a fair contribution between today’s customers and future customers.
Adeshola Ore
Eighth person charged with murder over Cobblebank stabbing deaths
Victoria police have charged an eighth teenager with murder after the stabbing deaths of 15-year-old Dau Akueng and 12-year-old Chol Achiek in Cobblebank in Melbourne’s west earlier this month.
In a statement, police said a 15-year-old boy was charged in relation to Dau’s death. He is due to appear at a children’s court at a later date.
Last week, police arrested seven males, aged between 15 and 19 after raids on homes in Melbourne’s north and west by homicide squad detectives. They were interviewed by police before charges were laid on Friday afternoon.
A 19-year-old Thornhill man, two 16-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy were charged with the murder of Dau.
A 19-year-old Caroline Springs man, an 18-year-old Wollert man and a 16-year-old boy were charged with the murder of Chol.
Jonathan Barrett
Myer sees sharp uptick in threatening behaviour against staff
Myer has warned of a steep increase in threatening behaviour against its staff, prompting the retailer to support the use of body cameras and personal safety alarms for employees.
The department store chain said in financial results released today there had been a 79% increase in incidents of threatening behaviour over the past 12 months, including verbal or physical abuse.
The company said:
With customer violence against retail workers on the rise, resulting in significant increases in abuse, and incidents involving weapons, the company supports both government policy and technology-based solutions, such as the roll out of body-worn cameras and personal safety alarms, to equip the Myer team in addressing this growing trend.
The retailer said it had reduced theft levels from the prior reporting period by boosting in-store security and other measures such as employee safety cameras.
Myer shares are being sold off heavily today, down 30%, following the release of its financials. The department store chain reported a 30% slide in annual net profit to $36.8m, excluding impairments.
Penry Buckley
‘Lack of management capability’ at Sydney trains body
The rail review has also identified significant issues with the way the body which runs the day-to-day operations of the city’s trains, the Rail Operations Centre (ROC), responded to the incident.
The review found that the continuation of delays into a second day appeared to be have been caused by “lack of management capability in dealing with an incident of this kind”.
Asked if anyone has been dismissed from the ROC, the Sydney Trains chief executive, Matt Longland, says there have been a “handful of changes”:
I have made a number of changes to the leadership, both in engineering and also in operations, and people have left the organisation … I don’t want to go into the detail of individual circumstances. I don’t think that’s appropriate … we are committed to improve the way of working at the ROC and also in the way that we respond to incidents on site.
Penry Buckley
More than 120 wire issues detected since Sydney trains incident
The NSW transport minister, John Graham, has given a press conference following the releasing of a “sobering” review into rail safety on Sydney’s train network, as we reported earlier.
Graham says since the incident on 20 May a network-wide digital scan has identified 126 additional points of interest on the network, which have now been resolved.
The review, led by transport industry expert Kerry Schott and commissioned after an overhead wire snapped and fell on to the roof of a train, found the wire was first observed to be beyond its operational capacity – or “condemning limit” – during a network-wide inspection commissioned in 2020.
This inspection was outside the normal program of maintenance, and the issues with the wire were not acted on, although it was visually inspected as recently as April this year.
The Sydney Trains chief executive, Matt Longland, says the network has “let down passengers down”:
I do apologise for what they had to experience over those two days. The gaps in process, in technology and in systems, were made very clear by the review team. I think the key standouts were the fact that this wiring fault should not have occurred. It should have been picked up in the inspection process and it could have been avoided. Secondly, the response and the repair took far too long.
