—– WRITING INSTRUCTIONS — VOICE & PERSONA (apply ALL of these to the article you write; they are guidance for HOW to write, they are NOT article content — never copy, quote, restate, or output any of this text, its headers, or the words “MODE”/”DIRECTIVE”) —–
NEWSROOM MODE — File like a working newsroom reporter. Inverted pyramid: the most important VERIFIED fact in the first sentence, then descending importance. Attribute every claim to a source. No first person, no opinion stated as fact, no editorializing adjectives (“stunning”, “shocking”) unless a source uses them. Deadline-clean: tight sentences, active voice, concrete nouns and verbs.
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[gpt3]
You are Samantha Carter, Chief Editor of Newsy-Today.com.
Context:
You are a senior newsroom editor with over 20 years of experience in national and international reporting. Your writing is authoritative, clear, and human. You explain significance, consequences, and context — while remaining strictly faithful to verified facts.
Your task:
Rewrite and transform the content provided in
Opposition ‘pining for a time that has never existed’: Albanese
It feels like every answer from the government today is going to include a swipe at the opposition leader over his language on monoculturalism.
Nationals MP Sam Birrell asks the prime minister if he will rule out agreeing to the Greens demand to abolish the diesel fuel rebate, after his “dangerous deal” with the minor party on the tax changes.
Anthony Albanese repeats previous lines, saying that he finds it strange the opposition say the legislation “is so terrible that they had to rule out any support for it before they’d even seen it”.
Albanese then points to Taylor and calls him the “chief yapper”.
My job isn’t to give advice to this bloke, but my advice is how about you stand up to One Nation on something? How about you prepare to follow this bloke’s leadership and not bend the knee when asked questions like, “Do you support monoculturalism for Australia?” Not a complex question, because we’ve never been a monoculture …
This is pining for a time that has never existed in this country.
At the end of the answer, Liberal frontbencher Tony Pasin gets the boot from the speaker for interjecting too many times.
Key events
Tom McIlroy
Surge in calls for help from kids
Counselling service Kids Helpline has recorded a more than threefold increase in calls for help since 2018, with a new report revealing nearly 130,000 contacts received last year alone.
The organisation’s latest impact report shows staff help about 350 callers each day, with 36% of interventions related to suicide attempts, 34% to child abuse and 8% to mental illness escalation.
Kids Helpline counsellors also undertook 5,190 duty of care interventions last year.
“50 per cent of our contacts in 2025 came via webchat. This is the first time a contact
method has surpassed phone in our 35-year history,” yourtown chief executive Tracy Adams said.
“This shift highlights how young people are choosing to communicate and what they are comfortable with. For many, typing feels safer than speaking, particularly when
discussing sensitive issues, when privacy is limited, or when they’re reaching out late at
night.”
Kids Helpline is calling for increased funding from the federal and state governments, including to boost early intervention tools and better support the growing numbers in crisis interventions.
Australia’s biggest class action settlement approved
Australia’s biggest class action settlement in history will be paid out to victims of the government’s robodebt scheme after a lengthy court approval process, AAP reports.
More than 450,000 people who were affected by the federal government’s unlawful debt collection method will receive $475 million in compensation between them.
The Robodebt system was designed to fix overpayment of social security benefits, but it resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being wrongly accused of owing the government money between 2015 and 2019.
Some of Australia’s most vulnerable people entered into extreme debt, went without food or even died by suicide as a result. The bungled program has cost the government more than $2.4 billion following multiple class actions.
Federal Court Justice Jonathan Beach ruled on Tuesday that an additional settlement of $548.5 million, including the approved compensation figure, was fair and reasonable.
Justice Beach thanked victims who had been part of various class actions since 2019, particularly Jenny Miller and Kath Madgwick who lost their sons after they were issued with robodebt notices.
Ima Caldwell
Queensland man charged over alleged threats targeted at federal parliamentarian
A 33-year-old Queensland man has been charged with allegedly sending offensive emails to a federal parliamentarian.
The AFP National Security Investigations (NSI) team began inquiries in April, after the electoral office of a federal parliamentarian reported receiving offensive and threatening emails and voice messages.
Police linked the man to the alleged threatening behaviour and executed a search warrant at a Gympie home on Monday. The man was arrested and charged with six counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence, which carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
The man is scheduled to appear in Gympie Magistrates Court on 3 August.
Christopher Knaus
WA premier backs BHP’s decarbonisation efforts after revelations of delays and abandoning of emissions reduction projects
The Western Australian premier, Roger Cook, says his government is “fully behind” BHP’s decarbonisation efforts just weeks after revelations it had abandoned or delayed key emissions reductions projects.
A cache of internal documents, leaked to Guardian Australia and the ABC, show that BHP has delayed vast renewable projects, pushed back the rollout of electric trucks and scrapped a plant that could have vast volumes of steelmaking emissions, casting doubt on its commitments to hit net zero by 2050. The vast leak of documents, dubbed the BHP Files, prompted experts to warn that the mining giant was “fundamentally putting Australia’s emissions targets at risk”.
On Tuesday, Cook helped promote BHP and Rio Tinto’s joint trial of battery-electric trucks in the Pilbara. BHP announced its trial of two battery-electric trucks was making “meaningful progress”.
Both Cook and the petroleum minister, David Michael, appeared alongside BHP executives for the event.
Cook said:
I want Western Australia’s economy to remain the strongest in the nation, which is why my government is fully behind BHP and Rio Tinto’s efforts to decarbonise and help make WA a renewable energy powerhouse.
Thanks to Caterpillar, these electric trucks will help deliver my government’s vision of reducing emissions in the Pilbara so this region can continue keeping both the WA and national economy strong.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, says the government has “more work to do” to pass its planned overhaul of the national disability insurance scheme.
The Greens and Labor secured a deal today to pass the federal government’s negative gearing and capital gains tax changes. The deal will delay and tweak Labor’s planned overhaul of the national disability insurance scheme.
Speaking to the ABC, Gallagher said:
We’ve agreed to have an extension to the current [NDIS] inquiry. We know there’s a lot of interest in these changes. It gives us the opportunity to talk those through further…. particularly with the disability community.
We think there is a lot of support for these changes across the country… people understand that a program like that cannot keep growing at the speed with which it’s growing.
Farley asked about reports Hanson ‘had to have a conversation’ on flags
Speaking to the ABC earlier, the One Nation MP David Farley was asked about reports the party’s leader, Pauline Hanson, “had to have a conversation” with her new colleague after he appeared to defy her policies on immigration and flying Indigenous flags.
After the Farrer byelection last month, the Border Mail reported Farley would display three flags: the Australian, the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander flags. But Hanson has said the One Nation policy is to fly only the Australian flag.
Farley told the ABC he doesn’t have any flags in his electorate office. But he added someone was trying to install a State of Origin flag:
I’ve got no flags in my office.
Farley said his grandfather fought under the Australian flag. He added:
What does a flag do, one flag do? It unites a nation.
We will at a time be called upon to contribute, in an uncomfortable way, ultimately, to defend our neighbour or defend ourselves and we’ll fight under one flag. We will defend ourselves under one flag. And we’ve got to be real about that.
Larissa Waters says the delay to Labor’s planned overhaul of the national disability insurance scheme will be “meaningful” for participants:
That’s eight more weeks of support that people will be able to have, to have a shower, to leave the house, to get to work, to have some dignity and freedom. That’s really meaningful for people.
Waters says the Greens will use the delay to continue to fight for the proposed bill to be dumped:
I have to have hope that with eight more weeks of an inquiry, which the Greens have now secured, hearing from the disability community, it’s going to be a brave government and opposition that continues to ignore the evidence of real harm that this bill will do to people, and if they do so, well, let it be on their heads.
‘The job is not done’ on housing, Greens leader says
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, is speaking to the ABC after her party reached a deal with Labor to pass the federal government’s negative gearing and capital gains tax changes.
The deal means there will be a delay and tweak of Labor’s planned overhaul of the national disability insurance scheme.
Waters says the tax changes are a “small step forward” to tackle inequality in the housing market:
We’ve announced today that we will support it, but the job is not done. The housing crisis is still real. The government did absolutely nothing for renters, and it’s baked in this inequality.
One Nation MP pressed on what it means to ‘act Australian’
The One Nation MP David Farley says his party’s position on a “monocultural society” means “you’re an Australian first” and “act Australian”.
Last week, the party’s leader, Pauline Hanson, declared that Australia cannot be multicultural and must exist as a “monocultural society”.
Speaking to the ABC, Farley was pressed on what it meant to “act Australian”. He said Australia was a “society of a fair go”:
We’re a society that doesn’t like being ripped off … it’s Australia that builds its own future in an isolated part of the world.
It’s about Australia first, and that’s why they’re here. They wanted a better life … we’re generous enough to give a better life.
Penry Buckley
NSW opposition: ‘This budget isn’t boring. This budget is bad’
The NSW opposition says the Minns government’s budget shows the state is entering a “per capita recession” with population growth expected to exceed economic growth in the next year.
The budget has forecast economic growth in the state to be 1% in 2026-27, down from its December prediction of 2.5%, avoiding recession, but the opposition says forecast annual population growth at 1.1% mitigates this.
The opposition leader, Kellie Sloane, has endorsed cost-of-living measures including reducing the road toll cap from $60 to $50, and cutting vehicle registration by $100, which the opposition had itself called for itself ahead of the election.
At a press conference this afternoon, Sloane said the government’s measures, which would last for 12 months, do not go far enough:
It can’t just be temporary. There has to be hope for the community. Hope is going to be driven by a stronger economy, and there is no plan for a stronger economy.
The shadow treasurer, Scott Farlow, added: “This budget isn’t boring. This budget is bad.”
Farlow said the budget does not have a “growth plan” and failed to provide tax relief for businesses, with the budget forecasting record earnings from payroll tax over the next four years.
Penry Buckley
NSW budget a ‘lost opportunity for housing supply’
Turning to the NSW state budget, there’s been reaction rolling in after it was handed down by the treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, this afternoon.
Property industry lobby group Urban Taskforce Australia, says the budget, which has forecast $8bn less in projected stamp duty and land tax revenue over four years but contains nothing like last year’s $1bn pre-sale finance guarantee to help developers secure loans, was a “lost opportunity for housing development”.
It said:
We can only hope that the NSW government is keeping its powder dry for pre-election announcements, because this budget has very little by way of new support for new housing supply.
The Committee for Sydney CEO, Eamon Waterford, who has praised cost-of-living measures and commitments to health and schooling, described this year’s offering as “a fairness budget but without a growth story”, saying it had done nothing to address the stagnation of household income.
But some have praised other landmark commitments, including $184m in additional funding for frontline family and domestic violence services. The Australian Services Union, which represents domestic violence workers, said the “budget boost for workers on the frontline of the state’s domestic violence crisis will make a difference”.
Graham Readfearn
Sydney’s record-breaking run of June days above 20C has finally ended
Sydney’s record-breaking run of consecutive June days above 20C has finally ended, easily breaking the previous mark of nine days that had stood since 1919.
Sunday marked the 15th day in a row where temperatures had gone above 20C but, on Monday, the mercury only hit 19.3C, the Bureau of Meteorology’s official Sydney record shows.
Temperature measurements have been taken at Sydney’s Observatory Hill since 1859. The average daily maximum over that span of 167 years is 17C.
What caused the run? The bureau has said slow-moving high pressure systems over New South Wales had kept the usual winter cold fronts at bay.
When we first reported on the record last Tuesday, one Sydney-based climate scientist said something else was likely contributing to the record. Any guesses?
Read more here:
Krishani Dhanji
Thank you all so much for joining me on the blog today, can’t say it wasn’t a huge day in politics!
I’ll leave you now with the excellent Adeshola Ore, and see you bright and early here tomorrow.
into a fully original NEWS ARTICLE for the News category on Newsy-Today.com.
Your article must address:
• What happened (based strictly on the source)
• Why it matters (context, implications, and significance derived from the source)
• What may happen next (scenario-based analysis only, never new facts)
———————————
NON-NEGOTIABLE FACT RULES
———————————
• Use ONLY facts, names, places, quotes, and numbers explicitly present in
Opposition ‘pining for a time that has never existed’: Albanese
It feels like every answer from the government today is going to include a swipe at the opposition leader over his language on monoculturalism.
Nationals MP Sam Birrell asks the prime minister if he will rule out agreeing to the Greens demand to abolish the diesel fuel rebate, after his “dangerous deal” with the minor party on the tax changes.
Anthony Albanese repeats previous lines, saying that he finds it strange the opposition say the legislation “is so terrible that they had to rule out any support for it before they’d even seen it”.
Albanese then points to Taylor and calls him the “chief yapper”.
My job isn’t to give advice to this bloke, but my advice is how about you stand up to One Nation on something? How about you prepare to follow this bloke’s leadership and not bend the knee when asked questions like, “Do you support monoculturalism for Australia?” Not a complex question, because we’ve never been a monoculture …
This is pining for a time that has never existed in this country.
At the end of the answer, Liberal frontbencher Tony Pasin gets the boot from the speaker for interjecting too many times.
Key events
Tom McIlroy
Surge in calls for help from kids
Counselling service Kids Helpline has recorded a more than threefold increase in calls for help since 2018, with a new report revealing nearly 130,000 contacts received last year alone.
The organisation’s latest impact report shows staff help about 350 callers each day, with 36% of interventions related to suicide attempts, 34% to child abuse and 8% to mental illness escalation.
Kids Helpline counsellors also undertook 5,190 duty of care interventions last year.
“50 per cent of our contacts in 2025 came via webchat. This is the first time a contact
method has surpassed phone in our 35-year history,” yourtown chief executive Tracy Adams said.
“This shift highlights how young people are choosing to communicate and what they are comfortable with. For many, typing feels safer than speaking, particularly when
discussing sensitive issues, when privacy is limited, or when they’re reaching out late at
night.”
Kids Helpline is calling for increased funding from the federal and state governments, including to boost early intervention tools and better support the growing numbers in crisis interventions.
Australia’s biggest class action settlement approved
Australia’s biggest class action settlement in history will be paid out to victims of the government’s robodebt scheme after a lengthy court approval process, AAP reports.
More than 450,000 people who were affected by the federal government’s unlawful debt collection method will receive $475 million in compensation between them.
The Robodebt system was designed to fix overpayment of social security benefits, but it resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being wrongly accused of owing the government money between 2015 and 2019.
Some of Australia’s most vulnerable people entered into extreme debt, went without food or even died by suicide as a result. The bungled program has cost the government more than $2.4 billion following multiple class actions.
Federal Court Justice Jonathan Beach ruled on Tuesday that an additional settlement of $548.5 million, including the approved compensation figure, was fair and reasonable.
Justice Beach thanked victims who had been part of various class actions since 2019, particularly Jenny Miller and Kath Madgwick who lost their sons after they were issued with robodebt notices.
Ima Caldwell
Queensland man charged over alleged threats targeted at federal parliamentarian
A 33-year-old Queensland man has been charged with allegedly sending offensive emails to a federal parliamentarian.
The AFP National Security Investigations (NSI) team began inquiries in April, after the electoral office of a federal parliamentarian reported receiving offensive and threatening emails and voice messages.
Police linked the man to the alleged threatening behaviour and executed a search warrant at a Gympie home on Monday. The man was arrested and charged with six counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence, which carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
The man is scheduled to appear in Gympie Magistrates Court on 3 August.
Christopher Knaus
WA premier backs BHP’s decarbonisation efforts after revelations of delays and abandoning of emissions reduction projects
The Western Australian premier, Roger Cook, says his government is “fully behind” BHP’s decarbonisation efforts just weeks after revelations it had abandoned or delayed key emissions reductions projects.
A cache of internal documents, leaked to Guardian Australia and the ABC, show that BHP has delayed vast renewable projects, pushed back the rollout of electric trucks and scrapped a plant that could have vast volumes of steelmaking emissions, casting doubt on its commitments to hit net zero by 2050. The vast leak of documents, dubbed the BHP Files, prompted experts to warn that the mining giant was “fundamentally putting Australia’s emissions targets at risk”.
On Tuesday, Cook helped promote BHP and Rio Tinto’s joint trial of battery-electric trucks in the Pilbara. BHP announced its trial of two battery-electric trucks was making “meaningful progress”.
Both Cook and the petroleum minister, David Michael, appeared alongside BHP executives for the event.
Cook said:
I want Western Australia’s economy to remain the strongest in the nation, which is why my government is fully behind BHP and Rio Tinto’s efforts to decarbonise and help make WA a renewable energy powerhouse.
Thanks to Caterpillar, these electric trucks will help deliver my government’s vision of reducing emissions in the Pilbara so this region can continue keeping both the WA and national economy strong.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, says the government has “more work to do” to pass its planned overhaul of the national disability insurance scheme.
The Greens and Labor secured a deal today to pass the federal government’s negative gearing and capital gains tax changes. The deal will delay and tweak Labor’s planned overhaul of the national disability insurance scheme.
Speaking to the ABC, Gallagher said:
We’ve agreed to have an extension to the current [NDIS] inquiry. We know there’s a lot of interest in these changes. It gives us the opportunity to talk those through further…. particularly with the disability community.
We think there is a lot of support for these changes across the country… people understand that a program like that cannot keep growing at the speed with which it’s growing.
Farley asked about reports Hanson ‘had to have a conversation’ on flags
Speaking to the ABC earlier, the One Nation MP David Farley was asked about reports the party’s leader, Pauline Hanson, “had to have a conversation” with her new colleague after he appeared to defy her policies on immigration and flying Indigenous flags.
After the Farrer byelection last month, the Border Mail reported Farley would display three flags: the Australian, the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander flags. But Hanson has said the One Nation policy is to fly only the Australian flag.
Farley told the ABC he doesn’t have any flags in his electorate office. But he added someone was trying to install a State of Origin flag:
I’ve got no flags in my office.
Farley said his grandfather fought under the Australian flag. He added:
What does a flag do, one flag do? It unites a nation.
We will at a time be called upon to contribute, in an uncomfortable way, ultimately, to defend our neighbour or defend ourselves and we’ll fight under one flag. We will defend ourselves under one flag. And we’ve got to be real about that.
Larissa Waters says the delay to Labor’s planned overhaul of the national disability insurance scheme will be “meaningful” for participants:
That’s eight more weeks of support that people will be able to have, to have a shower, to leave the house, to get to work, to have some dignity and freedom. That’s really meaningful for people.
Waters says the Greens will use the delay to continue to fight for the proposed bill to be dumped:
I have to have hope that with eight more weeks of an inquiry, which the Greens have now secured, hearing from the disability community, it’s going to be a brave government and opposition that continues to ignore the evidence of real harm that this bill will do to people, and if they do so, well, let it be on their heads.
‘The job is not done’ on housing, Greens leader says
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, is speaking to the ABC after her party reached a deal with Labor to pass the federal government’s negative gearing and capital gains tax changes.
The deal means there will be a delay and tweak of Labor’s planned overhaul of the national disability insurance scheme.
Waters says the tax changes are a “small step forward” to tackle inequality in the housing market:
We’ve announced today that we will support it, but the job is not done. The housing crisis is still real. The government did absolutely nothing for renters, and it’s baked in this inequality.
One Nation MP pressed on what it means to ‘act Australian’
The One Nation MP David Farley says his party’s position on a “monocultural society” means “you’re an Australian first” and “act Australian”.
Last week, the party’s leader, Pauline Hanson, declared that Australia cannot be multicultural and must exist as a “monocultural society”.
Speaking to the ABC, Farley was pressed on what it meant to “act Australian”. He said Australia was a “society of a fair go”:
We’re a society that doesn’t like being ripped off … it’s Australia that builds its own future in an isolated part of the world.
It’s about Australia first, and that’s why they’re here. They wanted a better life … we’re generous enough to give a better life.
Penry Buckley
NSW opposition: ‘This budget isn’t boring. This budget is bad’
The NSW opposition says the Minns government’s budget shows the state is entering a “per capita recession” with population growth expected to exceed economic growth in the next year.
The budget has forecast economic growth in the state to be 1% in 2026-27, down from its December prediction of 2.5%, avoiding recession, but the opposition says forecast annual population growth at 1.1% mitigates this.
The opposition leader, Kellie Sloane, has endorsed cost-of-living measures including reducing the road toll cap from $60 to $50, and cutting vehicle registration by $100, which the opposition had itself called for itself ahead of the election.
At a press conference this afternoon, Sloane said the government’s measures, which would last for 12 months, do not go far enough:
It can’t just be temporary. There has to be hope for the community. Hope is going to be driven by a stronger economy, and there is no plan for a stronger economy.
The shadow treasurer, Scott Farlow, added: “This budget isn’t boring. This budget is bad.”
Farlow said the budget does not have a “growth plan” and failed to provide tax relief for businesses, with the budget forecasting record earnings from payroll tax over the next four years.
Penry Buckley
NSW budget a ‘lost opportunity for housing supply’
Turning to the NSW state budget, there’s been reaction rolling in after it was handed down by the treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, this afternoon.
Property industry lobby group Urban Taskforce Australia, says the budget, which has forecast $8bn less in projected stamp duty and land tax revenue over four years but contains nothing like last year’s $1bn pre-sale finance guarantee to help developers secure loans, was a “lost opportunity for housing development”.
It said:
We can only hope that the NSW government is keeping its powder dry for pre-election announcements, because this budget has very little by way of new support for new housing supply.
The Committee for Sydney CEO, Eamon Waterford, who has praised cost-of-living measures and commitments to health and schooling, described this year’s offering as “a fairness budget but without a growth story”, saying it had done nothing to address the stagnation of household income.
But some have praised other landmark commitments, including $184m in additional funding for frontline family and domestic violence services. The Australian Services Union, which represents domestic violence workers, said the “budget boost for workers on the frontline of the state’s domestic violence crisis will make a difference”.
Graham Readfearn
Sydney’s record-breaking run of June days above 20C has finally ended
Sydney’s record-breaking run of consecutive June days above 20C has finally ended, easily breaking the previous mark of nine days that had stood since 1919.
Sunday marked the 15th day in a row where temperatures had gone above 20C but, on Monday, the mercury only hit 19.3C, the Bureau of Meteorology’s official Sydney record shows.
Temperature measurements have been taken at Sydney’s Observatory Hill since 1859. The average daily maximum over that span of 167 years is 17C.
What caused the run? The bureau has said slow-moving high pressure systems over New South Wales had kept the usual winter cold fronts at bay.
When we first reported on the record last Tuesday, one Sydney-based climate scientist said something else was likely contributing to the record. Any guesses?
Read more here:
Krishani Dhanji
Thank you all so much for joining me on the blog today, can’t say it wasn’t a huge day in politics!
I’ll leave you now with the excellent Adeshola Ore, and see you bright and early here tomorrow.
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