News and politics live recap: AFP boss speaks as Russian-Australian man charged with foreign interference

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Vasyl Myroshnychenko, Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia, has responded to news the Australian Federal Police has charged a Russian-born Australian citizen with foreign interference, and said that he was not surprised by the case.

Speaking to News24, Mr Myroshnychenko said he welcomed working with the AFP.

“It’s important for this case to be properly investigated but again what we are seeing – it’s war and Russia has been waging this war for years,” he said.

He said the broader question was what Russian activity in Australia might mean for national security.

“What’s most important to see what Russians are doing in Australia overall and their activities … and how that could be a threat to Australian security,” he said.

“In this particular case, we don’t see any threat to Australian security … but you never know who else might be operating on the ground here and what kind of information is being collected.”

A powerbroking schools boss has been sacked after facing an inquiry investigating allegations he channelled cash to a religious-right state Liberal faction.

The sacking comes days after then-chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW Dallas McInerney gave evidence over three days at a NSW anti-corruption inquiry.

The probe is examining allegations that he potentially broke NSW donation laws by directing money to a right-wing, religious faction of the NSW Liberal party.

Mr McInerney told the commission he had wiped his phone and iPad before his final day of giving evidence, doing so after finding his bank account had been blocked and his ApplePay had been rejected.

In a statement on Friday, the Catholic Schools NSW board said it had lost confidence in Mr McInerney’s ability to lead the organisation.

The matters at the centre of the inquiry were of deep concern to the organisation and its stakeholders, they said, despite the fact the probe heard it was not responsible for or aware of the alleged conduct.

Read the full story.

Australia’s landlords will simply have to put up their rents if they can’t negatively gear their losses from July next year, leaving tenants worse off as more of them compete for fewer available places to live.

National Australia Bank and real estate group Ray White have this week both modelled the prospect of rents rising by 30 per cent to compensate for the loss of tax benefits.

Without being able to claim rental losses against their taxable income, rental yields — or a landlord’s annual rental income as a proportion of the property price — would have to rise.

Property investors who bought their home to rent out before the May 12 Budget will continue to get access to negative gearing under Labor’s grandfathering provisions.

But those who exchanged an existing house or unit after that date won’t be able to offset rental losses on their annual tax return when negative gearing is restricted to brand new builds from July next year.

With fewer investors entering the property market as Australia’s population continued to increase, Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said tenants would simply end up paying higher rent, based on supply and demand rather than the greediness of landlords.

“It’s not so much that landlords will increase rent, the issue is that we are going to see fewer rental properties coming to market,” she told The Nightly.

“When we see fewer rental properties coming to market, it means the availability of rental properties will fall and in markets where we’re still seeing strong population growth, that becomes then very competitive for renters to be able to get properties.”

​Read more. ​

Politics is governed by the iron laws of arithmetic. Electoral mathematics allows you to make sense of even the thorniest public policy issue.

Where business journalists “follow the money” to find the story, political hacks wanting to get the scoop should “follow the numbers” because that’s exactly what politicians do when deciding a course of action.

Every policy that’s on the whiteboard is scrutinised through three lenses before a decision is made: how many votes will it win; how many votes will it lose; and which part of the country will those votes be won or lost in.

Last week’s release of the Productivity Commission’s review of the GST is forcing the Labor Party to do a monumental amount of adding and subtracting. It desperately wants to adjust the distribution to the detriment of WA.

The problem is not that “generous” 75¢ floor payment; it’s the no-worse-off rule that requires Canberra to ensure the other States get the amount of GST they ordinarily would have if the floor wasn’t there.

Those top-up payments are sapping the Treasury coffers, with little political upside for the Albanese Government.

Despite his public utterances to the contrary, Albanese is desperate to tinker with the distribution.

​Read more. ​

Ms Barrett was asked about the broader geopolitical context surrounding the case during a press conference on Friday, including whether the investigation began following information from Ukraine.

She declined to comment on whether Ukrainian authorities had prompted the investigation.

Ms Barrett was also questioned about whether the AFP would have pursued charges if the circumstances had been reversed, with the accused instead alleged to have supplied information to Ukraine, an Australian ally, about Russia.

“We target criminal offending, not countries,” she said.

“Our job is ensuring that Australia does not become a safe haven for people who think they can conduct foreign interference on our shores.”

“This is about sending a message.”

The comments came after the AFP charged the 27-year-old Victorian man with attempting to engage in intentional foreign interference.

He is accused of travelling to Russia in late 2024 for military-style training before joining Ukraine’s armed forces in 2025, where police allege he collected information about Ukrainian personnel and passed it to people he believed were Russian intelligence operatives.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett has fronted the media following the arrest of a Russian-Australian man accused of attempting to engage in foreign interference.

Ms Barrett stressed there was no threat to Australia as a result of the alleged offending, and said there had never been a threat to Australia.

“There is nothing to suggest he received any military training in Australia,” she said.

She said there was also no risk the 27-year-old could work for an Australian government agency in a way that would pose a threat to Australia.

The Victorian man was arrested in Brisbane on Thursday and is accused of travelling to Russia in late 2024, where he allegedly undertook military-style training.

Police allege he then travelled to Ukraine in 2025, joined the Ukrainian armed forces and provided information about Ukrainian military personnel to people he believed were Russian intelligence operatives.

Ms Barrett said the investigation began in June and involved alleged offending both in Australia and overseas.

She said police were continuing to examine electronic devices and other items seized during the arrest, with further charges possible.

The man is due to face Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday.

Bank details, ID documents, and government concession numbers are among the highly sensitive information exposed in the Origin Energy hack that impacted about 900,000 customers.

Up to 15,000 people had numbers associated with government concessions or schemes taken in the July 2 data breach.

Sixty had their full bank account numbers stolen and another 100 had information from identifying documents taken.

Origin initially said customers’ affected data may include their name, address, dates of birth, phone numbers, and account information, along with the last four digits of a credit card or last three digits of a bank account.

Incomplete credit card or bank account information cannot be used to make purchases or access accounts.

Earlier this week, it was revealed authorities traced the Origin Energy cyber hack to a Manila call centre.

Read more.

Australian Federal Police have charged a Russian-Australian man with foreign interference following his arrest in Brisbane on Thursday.

In a statement, the AFP says the 27-year-old Victorian resident was arrested at Sumner in Queensland and charged with “attempting to engage in intentional foreign interference”.

He is scheduled to appear at Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday and the AFP is expected to give an update on the case in Canberra this afternoon.

Pauline Hanson has hit back at Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie after he described One Nation’s campaign against him in his West Australian seat of Canning as “dirty and nasty”.

Mr Hastie, whose home and electorate office have been identified for security upgrades following threats against him and his staff, said he remained confident he could withstand the challenge.

“Will it be a tough fight? Absolutely. Is it dirty and nasty? Yes, it is … I think the way things have been done online over the last couple of months, I think it’s pretty obvious,” he told Radio National.

Senator Hanson responded through the latest instalment of her satirical Please Explain animated series, claiming Anthony Albanese had convinced Mr Hastie that One Nation was behind abuse in his online “comment section”.

Meanwhile, the One Nation leader is searching for a new press secretary, conceding the role “won’t pay what it would in a major party or a big company” but promising applicants “real responsibility from day one”