Government fund lends $45m to Arnott’s to help Tim Tams go global
Patrick Commins
The government’s National Reconstruction Fund has lent Arnott’s Group $45m to help support the Australian name to take Tim Tams worldwide.
The money will be used to refinance $1.75bn in debt that comes due in 2026, which is earmarked for “planned future growth capital expenditure”.
Tim Tams are already stocked in all major British supermarkets and are reportedly selling well – Brits have bought more than 5 million packets since the biscuits hit shelves in April 2024.
The NRF has $15bn in taxpayer money to invest in the country’s manufacturing capability, and recently also lent $36m to the country’s biggest meat pie maker, Patties Food Group.
Arnott’s has been around since 1865 and employs 2,500 people across five facilities.
While Arnott’s is an iconic Australian name, the company is owned by American private equity giant KKR, which bought the company from Campbell Soup Company in 2019.
Arnott’s has not been Australian owned since 1997.
Key events
Patrick Commins
Gambling and tobacco firms to lose R&D tax incentives
The government has released draft legislation to strip gambling and tobacco firms from research and development tax concessions from July next year.
The government announced the planned change to the R&D incentive scheme at last December’s mid-year budget, after Jim Chalmers said he thought it was “problematic” that poker machine and betting companies were allowed to claim the government tax credits.
The assistant treasurer, Daniel Mulino, said in a statement:
These exclusions will ensure taxpayers are not subsidising this kind of research and development that can exacerbate serious health risks, addiction and associated harms.
Tabcorp had an R&D budget of $43.8m in 2022-23, according to the Australian Taxation Office’s latest report on the tax incentive, while pokies businesses Aristocrat Leisure and Ainsworth Game Technology had R&D budget of $19m and $7.9m, respectively.
There would be a carveout for R&D activities related to harm minimisation, Mulino said.
Melissa Davey
Health experts on US hepatitis B vaccine reversal: ‘no suggestion of any change to Australian recommendations’
Australian health experts have expressed significant concern after the US reversed the longstanding recommendation that all medically stable newborns who meet a weight threshold receive their first dose of hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth.
Since routine childhood vaccination began in Australia, hepatitis B rates in young people have fallen by a 60%.
Hepatitis Australia and the Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine are urging Australians to maintain routine hepatitis B vaccinations for newborns.
“Australia’s hepatitis B vaccination program is safe, effective and has been proven to save lives,” Hepatitis Australia CEO Lucy Clynes said.
The birth dose remains an essential part of protecting babies from a virus that can quietly cause lifelong liver damage and even fatal liver cancer. Parents should know that there is no suggestion of any change to Australian recommendations.
Prof Jane Davies, an infectious diseases expert who chairs Hepatitis Australia’s research and clinical advisory group, said hepatitis B can be passed from mother to child during birth.
Without vaccination, babies who are exposed to the virus have around a 90% chance of developing chronic hepatitis B.
Krishani Dhanji
Three charged across Australia over banned Nazi symbols
The AFP has charged three people across Australia for allegedly displaying or distributing prohibited Nazi symbols.
The federal police charged a 43-year-old UK citizen in Queensland with allegedly displaying Nazi symbols. It came ahead of a separate national blitz that also saw police charge a 21-year-old Queensland man, while a 25-year-old Sydney man was served a court attendance notice.
Police allege the UK citizen used two different handles on X to display the symbols, which violated the law, between October and November. While the first account was allegedly blocked, police claim the man kept posting on a second account.
The man has been charged with three counts of public display of Nazi symbols and one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence. The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years and three years imprisonment, respectively. He faced Caboolture magistrates court on 3 December, with the matter adjourned until 7 January.
The AFP’s national security investigations team has conducted a separate operation to disrupt the importation and sale of prohibited symbols across NSW, Queensland, WA and Victoria.
As part of that operation, police arrested the 21-year-old Queensland man, charging him with two counts of possessing possessing or controlling violent extremist material. He appeared before Brisbane magistrates court on Friday, with the matter adjourned until 16 January. The 25-year-old Sydney man was issued with a court attendance notice for allegedly using a Nazi salute at a public gathering in Sydney.
AFP assistant commissioner Stephen Nutt said:
This week of disruption was as much about ensuring people were not inadvertently committing criminal offences as it was about bolstering our efforts to safeguard social cohesion.
Penry Buckley
NSW firefighter died while ‘checking in on colleagues’, RFS commissioner says
The NSW emergency services minister, Jihad Dib, and the NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner, Trent Curtin, have provided more detail about the firefighter’s death, as well as an update on the current risks posed by bushfires in the state.
Dib says there are still 52 fires burning, with nine of those still yet to be contained. More than 500 firefighting personnel are in the field, as well as 160 vehicles.
Curtin says the blaze at Bulahdelah is now 3,500 hectares in size. He says the 59-year-old firefighter died “moving around the fire ground, checking in on colleagues, making sure everyone was safe and making sure everyone had the right information on the fire ground”.
Curtin said high fire danger conditions expected tomorrow would not be as severe as the extreme conditions experienced across the state on the weekend.
About 100 firefighters are still fighting the blaze in Koolewong, where at least 16 homes have been lost. A large, uncontrolled fire burning in Miltons Gully is about 11,000 hectares in size.
“It’s a very, very large fire, and it’s going to take a while for us to be able to bring that fire under control,” says Curtin.
Barnaby Joyce joins One Nation
Josh Butler
Pauline Hanson says Barnaby Joyce has joined One Nation.
In a statement, Hanson says the former Nationals leader will become a One Nation MP in the lower house “until the next federal election, at which he would lead the party’s New South Wales Senate ticket”. He will be One Nation’s sole representative in the lower house.
Joyce reportedly confirmed the move on Tamworth radio, saying: “Pauline made an offer to me to come to One Nation, and I have taken that up.”
In a statement, Hanson said: “I welcome Barnaby Joyce to One Nation.”
I have always been very straightforward about asking Mr Joyce to join our team, and on making it clear this was always his decision. I am pleased he’s chosen One Nation, and I welcome his experience, his advice and his determination to get a fair go for farmers and regional Australia. Mr Joyce strengthens One Nation’s position in parliament just as many Australians are strengthening our position in the polls.
I look forward to working with Mr Joyce and One Nation’s Senate team as we continue to expose and oppose the Albanese Labor government’s agenda.
Firefighter killed fighting NSW blaze identified as 59-year-old man
Penry Buckley
The NSW environment minister, Penny Sharpe, has provided more details on the death of a firefighter battling a blaze in Bulahdelah on the mid north coast overnight.
Sharpe says the family of the firefighter, a 59-year-old-man, have now been notified. She says he was a field officer with the National Parks and Wildlife Service who started working for the service in 1996.
It is believed the experienced firefighter and divisional commander suffered a cardiac arrest after being struck by a falling tree. Sharpe says national parks staff performed CPR until ambulance crews arrived, but he could not be saved at the scene and died there.
Sharpe says:
My thoughts are with his family, but my thoughts are also with the National Parks and Wildlife Service. This is a very close and well networked group with someone who has been in service for that long. There are many people who are touched today, as are all of the firefighters who work so closely together between the RFS and National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Early bushfires a ‘timely reminder’ to update emergency plans, minister says
Kristy McBain, the minister for emergency management, has said the latest spate of bushfires serves as a “timely reminder” to Australians to make sure their emergency plans are up to date.
McBain spoke to ABC News after a firefighter died on a fireground in NSW. About 60 bushfires are still burning across the state. She said:
I think it is again a timely reminder for Australians to make sure they have an emergency plan, make sure it is communicated with family and friends, have an evacuation kit ready, including a wireless and batteries, in case you lose main electricity, and make sure you are aware of where your evacuation places are.
It is really important, I think, that we continue to prepare and heed the advice of emergency services in times of disaster, and this early bushfire onset has absolutely made clear that we need to have those things in place and ready to go.
More than a dozen opportunities missed to detect notorious Queensland paedophile’s offending, report finds
Andrew Messenger
There were more than a dozen missed opportunities to detect the offences of paedophile childcare manager Ashley Paul Griffith in Queensland, a new report has found.
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, this morning held a press conference to release the results of an investigation into Griffith’s offences.
Griffith was convicted of 307 charges against 70 children over 20 years in Brisbane and Italy last year. He’s also alleged to have offended in NSW.
The Queensland Family and Child Commission’s child death review board has investigated how Griffith was able to offend for a year.
The report has yet to be released, but at a press conference this morning Crisafulli has said the government would fast-track a reportable conduct scheme.
The attorney general, Deb Frecklington, said there were more than a dozen opportunities to detect his offending.
“This offender could have been stopped and should have been stopped,” she said, blaming the former Labor government for not introducing a reportable conduct scheme. Griffith’s offending was repeatedly reported to the police, but was eventually detected as a result of videos he posted online anonymously.
SA Liberals confirm Ashton Hurn as new leader
Ashton Hurn has been installed as the new leader of South Australia’s Liberal party, just months before the state’s next election.
The ABC reports Hurn was elected unanimously.
Hurn replaces Vincent Tarzia, who stepped down on Friday, the fourth Liberal leadership change nationally in a month.
Graham Readfearn
Queensland Museum accused of misleading teachers and children about the cause of climate change
Queensland Museum has been accused of misleading teachers and children about the root cause of the climate crisis through a multimillion-dollar education partnership with one of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies.
Shell’s Queensland Gas Company has been sponsoring the museum’s Future Makers learning program since 2015 and produces teaching materials as well as running free professional development courses for teachers.
But a review of the program’s climate change materials carried out by climate advocacy group Comms Declare claimed they ignore the root cause of the climate crisis: the burning of fossil fuels, including gas.
Belinda Noble, founder of Comms Declare, said: “This is climate obstruction dressed up as education. We wouldn’t let big tobacco sponsor teaching materials – fossil fuel companies shouldn’t shape how kids learn about the climate.”
Read more here:
Government fund lends $45m to Arnott’s to help Tim Tams go global
Patrick Commins
The government’s National Reconstruction Fund has lent Arnott’s Group $45m to help support the Australian name to take Tim Tams worldwide.
The money will be used to refinance $1.75bn in debt that comes due in 2026, which is earmarked for “planned future growth capital expenditure”.
Tim Tams are already stocked in all major British supermarkets and are reportedly selling well – Brits have bought more than 5 million packets since the biscuits hit shelves in April 2024.
The NRF has $15bn in taxpayer money to invest in the country’s manufacturing capability, and recently also lent $36m to the country’s biggest meat pie maker, Patties Food Group.
Arnott’s has been around since 1865 and employs 2,500 people across five facilities.
While Arnott’s is an iconic Australian name, the company is owned by American private equity giant KKR, which bought the company from Campbell Soup Company in 2019.
Arnott’s has not been Australian owned since 1997.
NSW joins high court fight against court challenge to social media ban
The NSW government will fight against a high court challenge arguing Australia’s social media ban is a breach of the constitution, AAP reports.
The case, led by two teenagers and supported by the “Digital Freedom Project” argues banning kids from social media infringes on implied freedom of communication. The ban takes effect on Wednesday – the deadline for social media platforms to restrict Australians aged under 16 from holding accounts.
Chris Minns said his government would join South Australia in intervening in the proceedings after being a leading advocate for stronger protections for children online. The premier said:
I’ve said before, social media is this giant global unregulated experiment on children. These laws put responsibility where it belongs – on the platforms themselves. If they fail to protect young people, there must be consequences.
We will seek to be heard in the high court challenge because the principle at the heart of this reform is simple: when something threatens to harm our kids, we act.
You can read more here from our technology reporter Josh Taylor on how Australia became a testing ground for a social media ban:
Some images from the bushfire-affected Koolewong area in NSW
Ben Smee
Another legal challenge to Queensland’s ban on puberty blockers
Queensland’s LGBTI Legal Service has filed a second challenge to the state’s controversial ban on puberty blockers, on behalf of a client who was denied treatment in the state system.
The government first banned public health services from prescribing puberty blockers to “new patients” in January.
In October, the supreme court ruled the first ban was unlawful, due to a lack of consultation. The government instituted a second ban within hours of it being overturned.
The young person at the centre of the case was deemed a “new patient” under the first ban in January, and subsequently sought treatment for gender dysphoria as a private patient. Private treatments can be significantly more expensive.
After the first ban was overturned, the young person then sought treatment as a public patient, on the grounds they were not a “new patient” because they had begun gender-affirming care before the second ban was implemented. They claim they were refused treatment.
The court challenge seeks an order that anyone who began gender-affirming care before 28 October – when the second ban was instituted – should not be considered a “new patient”.
The mother of the young person said:
The ministerial direction was made with lightning speed but, yet again, was made without input from trans young people and their parents and without consulting anyone with expertise in treating trans young people.
Seven hours wasn’t even long enough for the minister to prepare a direction that was clear and unambiguous, let alone adequately consider all of the issues.
The legal services says it has lodged separate discrimination and human rights cases.
Benita Kolovos
Complaint argues Melbourne CBD designation in breach of human rights charter
The challenge over the Melbourne CBD “designated area” will argue the six-month designation over such a large area is invalid because it is not “necessary” to address the risk of weapons offences and that it is a breach of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, including people’s rights to peaceful assembly and privacy, as well as freedom of expression and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention.
It also argues that police powers in designated areas – requiring people to remove face coverings and ordering them to move on if they refuse – are unconstitutional because they interfere with the protected freedom of political communication, which includes the right to peaceful assembly.
Tarneen Onus Browne says they are bringing the case because they are worried about the impact of the designated area on human rights and safety in the CBD – including during the Invasion Day rally. They said:
These new police powers will supercharge the harassment and targeting of our community on this important day, and deter First Nations people and allies from showing up and exercising their right to protest. Every year we tell people to wear facemasks at Invasion Day to protect all of us from spreadable illnesses like Covid-19, especially disabled people and our Elders. Empowering police to order protesters to remove their facemasks endangers us all.
Zable – whose retired versions of his Greedozer costume are on display in the National Museum of Australia in Canberra and at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney – says it is both performance art and a political statement. Recently, he’s been told to remove it in the CBD:
I go to many protests in the Melbourne CBD, which is the heart of protest in the city. I have already been told to remove my mask in designated areas. I’m worried that police will now have more powers to use more violence against me, as well as other people who wear masks for all sorts of reasons, including vulnerable people.
Legal challenge to new police powers in Melbourne CBD
Benita Kolovos
Two Victorians have filed a legal and constitutional challenge against a police decision to declare Melbourne’s CBD and its surrounds a “designated area” for six months, allowing for warrantless pat-down searches.
Tarneen Onus Browne and Benny Zable will hold a press conference this morning to announce the challenge, which they want heard by the federal court before an Invasion Day rally planned for 26 January.
Onus Browne is a Gunditjmara, Yorta Yorta, Bindal and Meriam community organiser involved in the annual Naarm Invasion Day rally in Melbourne’s CBD, while Zable is an 80-year-old performance artist, who has worn his “Greedozer” costume – complete with a gas mask – to hundreds of environmental and anti-war actions protests.
Their lawyer Sarah Schwartz from the Human Rights Law Centre says:
We’re proud to represent Tarneen and Benny to challenge this decision by the assistant commissioner of Victoria police to hand police extraordinary powers to stop and search anyone in the city for the next six months, for no reason, and order people to leave the designated area if they refuse a request to remove their face mask.
This is about pushing back against ever-expanding police powers in Victoria which make all of us less safe in our own city. The powers provided to Victoria police within designated areas are extraordinary and ripe for abuses of power.
