Bus driver behind deadly Hunter Valley crash loses appeal to reduce jail term
The driver responsible for one of Australia’s deadliest bus crashes lost his bid to reduce his jail sentence over a horrific mass fatality crash, AAP reports.
Brett Andrew Button, 60, was handed a decades-long sentence for causing a crash that killed 10 mostly young wedding guests and injured another 25 in June 2023.
He was driving too fast and under the influence of the opioid painkiller Tramadol before his bus tipped at a roundabout in Greta in the NSW Hunter Valley.
Button appealed the length of his 32-year sentence, with his lawyer arguing some of the 35 criminal charges he pleaded guilty to had been double-counted.
The NSW court of criminal appeal dismissed his appeal on Friday, leaving in place the full term and 24-year non-parole period.
Button’s lawyer had argued the sentence was disproportionate to the crime.
Key events
Jessica O’Bryan
Seismic impact levels reveal ‘interesting’ crowd dynamics of AC/DC fans
While AC/DC fans spent Wednesday rocking out at Melbourne’s MCG, they made only one fifth of the seismic impact of Taylor Swift’s fans.
The Seismology Research Centre in Melbourne measured the seismic level of the rock concert through frequencies of crowd motion and music, finding levels were “about 5 times smaller” than from Taylor Swift’s concerts last year.
The centre’s chief scientist, Adam Pascale, said it is “quite interesting” to see how crowd dynamics affect what they record.
If everyone’s sort of jumping in unison, that tends to amplify the signal so we can pick that up better. We saw that with Taylor Swift’s concert. I think everyone (there) was probably dancing more in unison than the guys that rock out at the AC/DC concert.
Following an “international movement of seismologists” recording Taylor Swift concerts last year, Pascale said the centre now has a seismograph essentially “dedicated to recording concerts”.
Although seismographs can pick up vibrations from concerts, Pascale said the centre is unable to assign a magnitude to the levels because they are far less than the seismic levels of an earthquake.
Victorian fire authority issues warning after series of haystack fires
Victoria’s Country Fire Authority (CFA) has issued a warning to farmers to take extra care to help prevent haystack fires after a spate of blazes where thousands of bales were lost.
The CFA said hay season was in “full swing” across the state. The agency pointed to a large fire on 9 November when a hay shed caught fire, resulting in the loss of about 1,000 bales. The bales can burn for days and cause major smoke in the area.
Between 30 June 2024 and 1 July 2025 the CFA responded to 73 haystack and shed fires in regional areas, which can be caused by spontaneous combustion when hay is baled with too much moisture.
Jason Heffernan, the chief officer with the CFA, said:
Farmers who have decided to carry on with hay production need to be extra vigilant this year to make sure conditions are right for making hay and for the future storage and transport of the product as well.
Hay fires are a real threat to properties and stock in farmland areas. Whether you’re a seasoned hay grower or switching to hay this year, it’s important to take care of your hay and crops this fire season.
Adeshola Ore
Victoria to crack down on violence against retail workers with jail terms of up to five years
Customers who assault or threaten retail and hospitality workers in Victoria will face prison sentences of up to five years, under proposed tougher penalties to be introduced by the Allan government on Friday.
The crackdown will also apply to workers in fast food or transport, according to reports on Friday. The proposed legislation is the latest in a suite of crime crackdowns announced this week, in a bid to reduce community concern ahead of next year’s state election.
Speaking to the ABC, Allan said abuse and threats against retail workers was happening “far too often”:
Everyone knows the difference between a customer from hell and a customer who harms.
We will stand with retail workers but also other workers in those customer-facing roles to strengthen the protections for them with stronger jail terms and consequences for people who threaten, abuse retail workers.
Read more here:
Luca Ittimani
Commonwealth Bank CEO has security guard accept Shonky award on his behalf
Commonwealth Bank’s chief executive declined a tongue-in-cheek awards ceremony invitation from consumer group Choice this morning, with a security guard accepting the award on his behalf.
The bank last week became Australia’s most awarded business in Choice’s annual Shonky prizes, notching up another win after charging low-income customers a collective $270m in unfair fees.
CBA has declined to repay all the fees, with a spokesperson last week saying it had paused fees or made goodwill adjustments for some eligible customers.
Choice last week invited the CEO, Matt Comyn, to accept a trophy and a petition signed by more than 27,141 Australians who wanted the bank to refund the fees.
Comyn was a no-show when Choice’s head of policy, Morgan Campbell, turned up this morning with colleagues to present the trophy and petition. Campbell told Guardian Australia: “When I went into the building to deliver it, a very friendly security guard intercepted me and said he had been asked to collect the trophy on behalf of Matt Comyn.”
Perhaps the CEO was distracted by the $28bn drop in the bank’s market value this week, now sitting under $264bn, after disappointing shareholders with a $2.6bn profit for the three months to September. Handing down the result on Monday, Comyn said:
Many Australians have found the past four years challenging, particularly dealing with cost-of-living pressures … We remain focused on our strategy to build a brighter future for all.
Read more about CBA’s prize-winning performance here:
Caitlin Cassidy
At least 30,000 graduates lose qualifications in Australia’s vocational education crackdown
At least 30,000 people have lost their qualifications in the past year as the regulator cracks down on Australia’s shonky vocational education and training providers.
Since late 2024, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has cancelled the registrations of 11 training organisations and voided diplomas, certificates and statements of attainment that providers had issued.
Affected graduates had completed courses including early childhood, aged care to community services, disability, first aid and building and construction, with courses costing as much as $20,000.
ASQA also deregistered an additional four providers, however graduates have not yet been notified that their qualifications were cancelled, the regulator said on Thursday.
More than 144 providers remained under investigation by ASQA’s enforcement team over “serious matters”, the regulator said.
Read more here:
Australian economy an ‘island of security’, treasurer says
The nation’s economy is an “island of security”, says the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, despite less certainty about interest rate cuts among economists after stronger-than-expected jobs data, AAP reports.
Chalmers hailed low unemployment in a speech to investors in Sydney, saying 1.2 million jobs had been created since Labor won office in May 2022.
Rattling off a list of economic achievements, he said about 80% of employment growth since then had been in the private sector.
Participation above two-thirds of the available workforce.
Real wages growing at their strongest rate in five years. Inflation around a third of its peak.
Australia is an island of security, stability and reliability in a sea of uncertainty and risk.
But the strong jobs data has more forecasters convinced the Reserve Bank’s easing cycle is over.
NAB on Thursday became the latest big bank to abandon its call for a rate cut in 2026, after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported employment jumping in October by a larger-than-expected 42,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate fell from 4.5% to 4.3%, also wrong-footing economists who had predicted the rate to edge down to 4.4%.
On top of a still-tight jobs market, underlying inflation is on track to print above the Reserve Bank’s 2-3% target band for the next six months, activity is accelerating and the economy is showing signs of being at full capacity, NAB economists say.
Caitlin Cassidy
Public schools in Victoria and NSW remain open after asbestos risk
No public schools in New South Wales or Victoria have been closed as a result of a product recall of coloured sand products by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for potentially containing asbestos.
Fifteen schools and seven preschools in Canberra fully shut their doors on Friday after discovering the product on campuses, while a further five were partially closed while remediation and investigations took place. About 10am this morning, Mancel College, a special school in Brisbane, also confirmed it would be closed for the day.
A spokesperson for the NSW education department said no public schools had been closed after the recall but, as a precaution, a safety alert had been sent to all NSW public schools to “immediately and safely remove these sand products if they have them”.
The health, safety and wellbeing of students, staff and the school community is the department’s highest priority.
A spokesperson for Victoria’s education department said advice from the department of health and the ACCC was that “the health risk from use of these products is low”.
As such, there is no indication of a need to close schools or early childhood services at this time. We are working swiftly to identify any schools and early childhood services that may be using the recalled products and will then support them to follow the remediation advice from relevant authorities.
Josh Butler
What gifts has Albanese received lately?
Anthony Albanese declared receiving a desk set and stationery as a gift from Donald Trump, alongside a number of other items from world leaders, as well as free tickets to Oasis.
The prime minister’s latest update to his register of parliamentary interests included a painting from the prime minister of Singapore; from the president of the United Arab Emirates, a number of gifts including “boxes of honey and dried dates”, an “Artisanal Emirati Spherical Box”, and a jewellery box; and from Trump, a “Desk Set with Stationery”.
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet told Guardian Australia last month that Trump gifted the prime minister, via protocol, a White House desk set with stationery – but provided no more details. During his trip to Washington in October, Albanese indicated in a press conference that he didn’t know what Trump had given him yet, claiming: “I’ll probably get whatever has come to us in about three years and six months after it goes through all the security things and PM&C, all of that”.
His disclosure of the gift came three weeks after the Trump visit.
The disclosed gifts were all surrendered to government departments and not personally taken by Albanese himself, according to the register. Trump’s desk has been “displayed in Commonwealth/Parliamentary Office”, the disclosure states, while the ornamental boxes from the UAE have been donated and displayed in Australia’s embassy in Abu Dhabi.
Albanese also declared receiving a “friendship bracelet from Florence”, a student who visited his office recently to talk about the under 16s social media ban. The PM additionally declared receiving tickets to Oasis’ Sydney concert from Venues NSW, after he was spotted in a corporate box at the stadium show alongside other VIPs.
Bus driver behind deadly Hunter Valley crash loses appeal to reduce jail term
The driver responsible for one of Australia’s deadliest bus crashes lost his bid to reduce his jail sentence over a horrific mass fatality crash, AAP reports.
Brett Andrew Button, 60, was handed a decades-long sentence for causing a crash that killed 10 mostly young wedding guests and injured another 25 in June 2023.
He was driving too fast and under the influence of the opioid painkiller Tramadol before his bus tipped at a roundabout in Greta in the NSW Hunter Valley.
Button appealed the length of his 32-year sentence, with his lawyer arguing some of the 35 criminal charges he pleaded guilty to had been double-counted.
The NSW court of criminal appeal dismissed his appeal on Friday, leaving in place the full term and 24-year non-parole period.
Button’s lawyer had argued the sentence was disproportionate to the crime.
ASX falls sharply after Wall Street sell-off
Jonathan Barrett
Australian shares opened sharply lower this morning, after Wall Street sold off technology stocks overnight.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell more than 1.5% in early trading to 8,620 points, and is now down about 4% from its record highs hit last month, representing about $140bn in market losses.
There was no obvious trigger for the steep sell off in the US overnight aside from lingering concerns the hot run by stocks tied to the AI boom may have gone too far.
The tech-heavy US Nasdaq closed down 2.3%.
US traders are also no longer confident the Federal Reserve will deliver an anticipated cut in December amid rising inflation concerns; the same dynamic that has dimmed hopes for further rate cuts in Australia.
Some of Australia’s tech stocks have been heavily sold off in recent days, with shares in location-sharing app Life360 down by almost 30% over the past month.
Australia’s biggest listed company, Commonwealth Bank, is down more than 10% over the past five trading sessions.
Brisbane special school closes over potential asbestos contamination
Caitlin Cassidy
A special school in Brisbane has shut with “immediate effect” after a product recalled by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for potentially containing asbestos was discovered on campus.
In a post to Facebook about 10am on Friday, the head of Mancel College, Craig Duncan, said the campus would be closed for the day after reviewing the ACCC’s guidance of the coloured sand, used in sensory play activities.
Fifteen schools and three preschools in Canberra fully shut their doors on Friday after discovering the product, while a further five were partially closed while remediation and investigations took place.
Duncan said Mancel College had some of the product on-site at its junior and senior school:
While the advice is low risk and there are only minor traces, we are acting with an abundance of caution. We are therefore advising parents that with immediate effect we are closing the entire college today. You are requested to make arrangements to collect your child this morning.
In the interim, we have followed the published guidelines and quarantined the products. Students currently on site will be kept away from any impacted area until collected by parents. We apologise for this inconvenience, but we will always act in the best interests of the students.
Lisa Cox
Graeme Samuel says native forest logging exemption in environment laws should end
Former competition watchdog chair Graeme Samuel, who has appeared before a Senate committee examining proposed environmental law reforms, has criticised the loophole that effectively exempts native forest logging covered by a regional forest agreement from national environment laws. The loophole has been retained in the bills currently before the parliament.
Samuel said:
I hate the RFA exemption. It shouldn’t be there.
Samuel told the committee the exemption should be removed but if the government was to retain it then the agreements “should be governed by a very tough national environmental standard”.
Samuel also emphasised the importance of the laws being underpinned by “clear and granular” national environmental standards. The government has so far released two draft standards with more “under development”.
Asked about concerns about “vague” elements of the bill or language that appeared to allow too much ministerial discretion in decisions about whether or not developments go ahead, Samuel said that was intended to be “overcome” by national environmental standards.