Anna Funder says her work hoovered up and ‘broken down for parts’ by big tech
A collection of writers and creatives are in Parliament House today, lobbying the government to not change copyright laws that would allow tech to use Australian creative material to build AI models with little to no compensation.
While the government had previously ruled out copyright exemptions for companies to train AI models, Guardian Australia was last month told competing cabinet submissions about the plan are in train – to establish new exemptions from copyright rules, in exchange for greater investment in Australian hosted datacentres or a possible licensing extension to cover AI model developments.
Anna Funder, an Australian author, tells a press conference that today, she’s “standing here before you today really as a victim of crime”:
My books that I’ve lived off for 30 years, have all been hoovered up in many editions, in many countries, in many languages by big tech, broken down for parts and used for them to make money.
If I look back on my career, which I’m old enough to do now, I feel like I’ve been building slowly and painstakingly with a massive mortgage, a block of flats. Each book is a flat and I rent it out and the money that I get is royalties. These big tech bros have moved into my flats, kicked me out and are charging rent for my work.
Key events
Senate gets a little messier, Labor loses another critical vote
There was a further bit of mess a moment ago in the Senate, because the government again lost a vote on its pharmaceutical prescription bill.
The government had already lost two votes with the Greens and Coalition teaming up to make amendments for the second reading of the bill.
Then on the bill itself, the two parties supported an amendment by Jacqui Lambie, to allow eligible podiatrist prescribers to prescribe certain medications on the PBS.
It means the amended bill will go back to the House for a vote.
But Guardian Australia understands the government won’t be supporting that amended bill, which means it’ll be punted right back to the Senate, which creates a little extra drama.
Josh Taylor
Australians to regain access to Anthropic’s latest AI models
Australian businesses and the government are set to regain access to the latest Anthropic AI models after the Donald Trump administration lifted export controls on Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5, the company has said.
In early June, the company received an export control directive from the Trump administration ordering Anthropic to suspend foreign national access to its frontier models, citing national security concerns.
Anthropic said at the time that its understanding of the government’s concerns was that there was a method of bypassing the safeguards in the AI model. Safeguards are in place to reduce the chance of the AI being misused for things like cybersecurity.
As a result, Anthropic suspended all user access to the models, not just those outside the US.
In a post on X, Anthropic said it would begin restoring access from tomorrow US-time, after the export controls were lifted.
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Government loses votes in the Senate over pharmaceutical prescription bill
The Greens and Coalition have teamed up to pass amendments over the second reading of the government’s bill which would enable nurse prescribers to prescribe certain pharmaceutical benefits under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
What exactly does this mean? Great question.
When the government introduces a bill, there’s then a vote to bring on a second reading of it, which is essentially the time where debate on that legislation takes place. The third reading is the passing of the bill through which ever House it’s in.
In the Senate right now, the government is losing votes because the Greens and Coalition are teaming up to add amendments to the vote for the second reading.
This doesn’t mean that the bill won’t pass, but it delays the bill, notes the displeasure of the two other parties over certain aspects of the bill and all round puts pressure on the government.
The Greens moved an amendment that calls on the government to “as soon as practicable, allow endorsed podiatrists and podiatric surgeons to access PBS benefits when prescribing medicines”, because they are currently “the only professions in Australia who can gain endorsement to prescribe medicines but are not able to access PBS benefits for those prescriptions”.
And the Coalition amendment calls on the government to provide a comprehensive response to the 18 recommendations in the “Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce Scope of Practice review” as a matter of priority, which was handed to the government 18 months ago. That review was about removing barriers stopping health professionals in primary healthcare working to their full scope of practice.
Anna Funder says her work hoovered up and ‘broken down for parts’ by big tech
A collection of writers and creatives are in Parliament House today, lobbying the government to not change copyright laws that would allow tech to use Australian creative material to build AI models with little to no compensation.
While the government had previously ruled out copyright exemptions for companies to train AI models, Guardian Australia was last month told competing cabinet submissions about the plan are in train – to establish new exemptions from copyright rules, in exchange for greater investment in Australian hosted datacentres or a possible licensing extension to cover AI model developments.
Anna Funder, an Australian author, tells a press conference that today, she’s “standing here before you today really as a victim of crime”:
My books that I’ve lived off for 30 years, have all been hoovered up in many editions, in many countries, in many languages by big tech, broken down for parts and used for them to make money.
If I look back on my career, which I’m old enough to do now, I feel like I’ve been building slowly and painstakingly with a massive mortgage, a block of flats. Each book is a flat and I rent it out and the money that I get is royalties. These big tech bros have moved into my flats, kicked me out and are charging rent for my work.
Another day, another politician with a baby photo
For loyal readers of the blog, you’ll know I’m quite the cynic when it comes to pollies taking photos with babies (and never missing an opportunity to do so).
Today the prime minister, Anthony Albanese and social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, are using their 1 July changes to wages and paid parental leave to get some babies in Parliament for a little photo op.
Job ready graduates failures ‘squarely belongs to Labor’, Faruqi says
Over in the Senate this morning, debate is under way on the Greens’ bill to scrap the controversial job ready graduates (JRG) scheme.
Everyone has agreed it’s a policy failure, and the Australian tertiary education commission has said that it will make recommendations to government to fix the system – but likely only in the second half of next year.
This bill won’t go anywhere because the government won’t support it, but it gives the Greens and opportunity once again to rail against it.
Mehreen Faruqi, the Greens’ higher education spokesperson, who introduced the bill, says:
It is really difficult to overstate just how widely JRG has been condemned as a flawed and failed policy. In the Senate inquiry into this bill recently. It was called one of the worst five policy mistakes made by the commonwealth this century.
The present reality is that JRG belongs to Labor, squarely belongs to Labor. They should have scrapped it the minute they came into government, yet they still haven’t done it.
The quiet tragedy of JRG is not just the students and graduates crushed by debt. It is the people who will never enrol at all.
Independent senator David Pocock says he doesn’t support all the reforms in the bill but agrees JRG needs urgent reform. He tells the Senate:
PBO [Parliamentary Budget Office] modelling I commissioned in 2025 found JRG has jacked up student debt by $10.26bn. New research from Universities Australia shows since 2021, the cost of maintaining a basic student standard of living has increased by 29%, well above economy wide inflation.
Post-grad international student visa fees more than double in four months
International students wanting to study a post grad degree in Australia will now have to pay $5,750 for a visa, a rise of 25%, and the second in just four months.
At the beginning this year, the visa fee was just $2,300: by March, it had more than doubled to $4,600.
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (Capa), the national peak body representing about 570,000 postgraduate students, warned the rises will deter the graduates Australia had already trained and weaken the skilled migration pipeline.
Capa’s national president, Jesse Gardner-Russell, said the increases, delivered without warning, “[tell] the best graduates that Australia is an unpredictable place to build a future”.
International students are not just another resource to be mined, their value extracted and then shipped offshore, like iron ore. They are a critical component of Australia’s global soft-power and part of our multicultural community.
Sydney council drops proposal to introduce parking meters to popular beaches
Penry Buckley
Randwick council has voted to drop a controversial proposal to introduce parking metres at popular beaches such as Coogee, Clovelly and Maroubra.
While Sydney’s northern beaches in the Waverley and Mosman LGAs charge for parking with permit schemes available for locals, parking at Randwick’s beaches has remained free. The Labor-led council had proposed that parking revenue could contribute towards the $23.5m annual maintenance cost for beaches.
Last night, councillors voted 10 to five in favour of dropping the plan entirely, even after the council formulated a watered-down version of the plan to introduce charges of up to $5.70 an hour in summer – less than the $11.60 an hour charged at Bondi, and $10.00 at most of the northern beaches.
It would have reduced the number of metered spaces from 3,300 to 1,400 but campaign groups warned of “meter creep” once the principle of free parking was walked back.
The original proposal, first flagged in February, sparked fierce community opposition with more than 12,000 people providing feedback during a six-week public consultation – the largest community engagement process ever conducted by council.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland begins trialling ‘antisocial’ laws cracking down on homeless people
Queensland has started a trial of new laws giving police the power to ban people from designated precincts, which advocates are concerned could be used against the homeless.
The bans last for up to three months, and also give the police the right to demand identification from a person who has not committed an offence.
The first precinct is in Maryborough, in Brisbane’s north. The premier, David Crisafulli, has repeatedly talked about the need to evict a group of “antisocial” people from the town’s CBD. The premier said yesterday:
We are going to put all of the resources necessary to return safety to a beautiful town that’s been held in ransomed by a group of some of the worst in society.
I’ve seen the images, I’ve been there firsthand, and you can’t have a proud community like that held to ransom by group of people who are just a revolving door going round and round and round, that’s why we made the change.
Several homeless and human rights groups made submissions during the legislation’s brief parliamentary inquiry, warning that the laws would disproportionately affect homeless people and other vulnerable groups.
The Q Shelter chief executive, Fiona Caniglia, told the bill’s parliamentary committee that “homeless people sometimes have no option but to be in public space”.
Maryborough police said on Wednesday that the trial had got begun that morning. Officers will issue 24-hour move-on directions to “offenders” engaging in disorderly, offensive, threatening or violent behaviour, and repeat or serious “offenders” can also be issued banning notices of up to three months, they said.
Use of the powers does not require a person to break any law.
Jordyn Beazley
NSW firearms reforms take effect
The second phase of the Minns government’s firearm reforms take effect today, including reducing firearm licence terms from five years to two.
The changes are a response to the December Bondi beach terror attack in which 15 people were killed. The reforms were passed as part of the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2025.
Today’s changes include:
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New firearm licences will now last two years, reduced from five;
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Identity verification when applying for a licence is now mandatory
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A firearm Permit to Acquire will only be issued after a person can prove they meet safety storage requirements, and only if the commissioner of police is satisfied the person has never been investigated for terrorism-related offences.
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Decision making functions will be streamlined, including via a $42.8m investments towards additional staff and system upgrades for the NSW Gun Registry.
The state police and counter-terrorism minister, Yasmin Catley, said:
First and foremost, these changes are about public safety. Owning a firearm is a privilege, not a right.
The Minns Labor government acted decisively after 15 people were killed at Bondi. We’re increasing oversight, reducing risk and will ultimately reduce the number of firearms in the community.
Albanese backs Treasury modelling despite falling house prices
The prime minister has backed the Treasury department’s modelling that house prices will continue to grow, but 2% slower, and said it’s “great news” that first home buyers would have rocked up to auctions over the weekend and not been competing with a bunch of investors.
Just a recap: data from Cotality showed the biggest drop in prices in three years, with prices in Sydney falling 1.2% and in Melbourne 1% in the month of June.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast a little earlier, Anthony Albanese said the Treasury forecasts were still accurate.
Treasury forecasts aren’t week by week, they’re serious forecasts done based upon modelling and a range of other economic modelling, showing exactly the same thing,” he said.
As a result of these changes, there’ll be increases in the value of houses. It’ll be slightly less [than] 2%, to be precise, than it would have been otherwise.
Greens push for digital duty of care legislation
Sarah Hanson-Young says the government should be implementing the promised digital duty of care bill now, over the social media ban for under-16s which she says was a “design failure right from the beginning”.
The Greens senator says the ban doesn’t require social media platforms to make their online spaces safer for kids and that the algorithms need to be cracked down on.
She says Josh Burns, who yesterday detailed the antisemitic abuse targeting him and his partner, is right in that social media is pushing people to hate based on race, religion and bigotry, and that should be stopped.
You know what works? You know what funnels that? What makes that happen? Is these nasty algorithms. That is what churns these social media company’s profits. It is their business model. So if you want to hit them where it hurts, if you want to make these places safer for everybody, you’ve got to tackle them.
‘A chance for the Coalition to actually stand for something’: Greens consider teaming up to push Labor on gambling reforms
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the government’s gambling reforms don’t go nearly far enough, and confirms her party has been talking with the Coalition to potentially team up to force stronger action from Labor.
She tells ABC RN Breakfast the government’s legislation fails to ban online gambling advertising, which is what the report led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy recommended, doesn’t deliver a national regulator, and doesn’t address gambling inducements.
They’re [the Coalition] at least saying that this doesn’t go far enough and that’s better than what Labor’s putting on the table. But this is a chance for the Coalition to actually stand for something.
The way young people are targeted through this advertising is insidious and we need to stop that. But you know what else hurts young people and children is when their mum or dad is addicted to gambling, when the whole family falls apart, when no one has any money to put food on the table or to pay for the school fees or that next school excursion. And families are being torn apart because of gambling addiction and advertising of this harmful product just needs to stop.
The Greens have said they’ll push for the legislation to be examined by a Senate inquiry – but that doesn’t necessarily stop the government being able to pass the bill before it, if it gets the support of the Coalition.
Coalition to push to ‘get the balance right’ on gambling legislation
The Coalition is in the negotiation hot seat with the government to pass Labor’s gambling reforms, but they haven’t said they’ll give it the green light yet.
Peter Dutton, the former Liberal leader, had drawn up online gambling policy last term promising to ban sports betting advertising during the broadcasting of games – one hour before and one hour after.
It’s stronger than what the government’s proposal, which will only cap online gambling ads to three an hour on broadcast television between 6am and 8:30pm.
We know there are some in the Liberal party who want to push the government much further, including Liberal MP Simon Kennedy.
Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan, speaking to RN Breakfast this morning, says the Coalition is still in talks with the government and are keen to tighten the legislation a little.
We want to work with the government to make sure that we get this right. There is a feeling that there are some changes that need to be made to tighten it, especially when it comes around children being able to view television ad-free when it comes to gambling advertising … Sarah Henderson is right across this issue, and we’ll be working to make sure that we absolutely get the balance right.
We don’t want kids exposed to advertising when they’re going to sit down and watch Friday Night Footy match. And that’s what we’re working to make sure that we can achieve.