Members of the Australian screen industry have been shocked to learn one of the nation’s most successful and prolific production companies, Matchbox Pictures – and its subsidiary Tony Ayres Productions – will shut their doors this week.
Matchbox was closed by its parent company, Universal International Studios, and the closure has resulted in the loss of 30 full-time equivalent positions.
The reasons cited by Universal are vague. According to a media release, “extensive evaluation of the business and the broader production landscape” influenced the decision. The global production arm of NBCUniversal has said it will take on new business and talent on a case-by-case basis from here on.
This is crushing news for the local screen industry, which finds itself increasingly beholden to decisions made by overseas corporations.
18 years in the making
Matchbox Pictures was founded in 2008 by screen industry stalwarts Tony Ayres, Penny Chapman, Helen Bowden, Michael McMahon and Helen Panckhurst.
Together, they have made some of Australia’s most iconic television series including The Slap (2011). This series changed how the world perceived Australian drama, as an innovative, gritty morality play remade in the United States.
The Matchbox team was also responsible for other critically acclaimed and AACTA Award winning projects, such as Secret City (2016–19), Stateless (2020) and Glitch (2015–19), among others.
More recently, they gave us The Survivors (2025), the best performing local TV drama on Netflix in 2025.
[embedded content]
As one of the bigger employers of local talent and crew, one might ask how this happened.
Acquisition by Universal
In 2011, Matchbox sold a majority stake to NBCUniversal. At the time it seemed like a shrewd move. It meant the company, which is headquartered in Sydney with offices in Melbourne and Singapore, would get better access to international markets, stronger global distribution channels, and the ability to upscale productions.
However, it also meant Matchbox was subject to global winds of change, rather than local breezes. And the wind is blowing. Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, is in downturn, reporting a significant revenue decline and job cuts in 2025. This means they’re probably eager to lighten the load.
Another reason is the changing nature of streaming content regulation in Australia. The Labor government’s move last year towards regulating local content quotas for media giants such as Netflix was a big win for advocates.
But it also introduces uncertainty, which means international companies may choose to withdraw from the region instead of investing in Australian content.
There is no law requiring overseas content providers to maintain a presence in Australia. Although Universal has said it will continue to do business here, the new environment arguably makes maintaining a fully-staffed production arm less attractive.
The Matchbox closure is the first clear example of this.
So, where does the recent closure leave the local industry? For one thing, we’re likely to see reduced capacity to nurture in-depth, large-scale local productions.
It also makes the future uncertain for up-and-coming practitioners, especially those from diverse backgrounds, which Matchbox was well-known for championing. The shutdown means the loss of salaried jobs and a consistent commissioning pipeline.
Matchbox was also a steady source of contract work for freelancers – whose situation is now even more precarious.
It’s possible the closure will lead to more opportunities for mid-size producers pitching their projects to broadcasters, studios and streaming platforms – especially with the introduction of new streaming quotas for local content.
There are some left in Australia that may step in to fill the gap: Hoodlum Entertainment, CJZ, Curio Pictures, Endemol Shine Australia, See-Saw Film, Beyond International and Goalpost Pictures spring to mind.
Then again, some of these are also owned by overseas interests. It’s a “watch this space” situation.
Wellington Water said over the past 24 hours, the short 5-metre pipe close to the shoreline had not been spewing raw sewage, and the long outfall pipe was being used instead.
On 4 February the plant failed – sending millions of litres of raw sewage into Cook Strait every day.
This map shows the Moa Point sewage spill along Wellington’s south coast. The pipeline network is shown in red, including the 5-metre and 1.8-kilometre long outfall pipes discharging to the ocean.Supplied, CC BY-NC-ND
In an update on Thursday, Wellington Water said due to heavy rain this past Monday, bacteria levels around the plant’s short outfall pipe and southern coast beaches had increased.
“Public health advice remains the same: it is strongly recommended for the public stay out of the water on the South coast of Wellington. Do not collect kai moana,” it said.
It said it hadn’t found any structural issues with the long outfall pipe – such as a blockage – which was restricting flow through the pipe.
Wellington Water said it was trying to increase the volume of sewage that could be pumped to the long pipe – because after its equipment failure – it can’t cope in wet weather.
It expected construction work on a large air vent on the outfall pipe to begin this weekend, with the aim this will help improve the flow through the long pipe.
“Workers are onsite at Moa Point, continuing to assess the damage, working to manage odour, and manage network flows.
“As part of the damage assessment, experts are being flown in from Sydney to assist.”
Wellington Water also warned residents about a stink coming from the plant since it failed.
It said crews were clearing wastewater and sludge from the plant as quickly as possible, and it expected that to be done by early March.
“Odour monitors are being installed to measure the impact at sites surrounding the plant. We have one unit available and will confirm when this is in place.”
Meanwhile, the water operator had warned residents living near the southern landfill of an increased bad smell on Thursday, as it carried out unplanned work at the Carey’s Gully sludge dewatering plant.
“Carey’s Gully usually manages the sludge from the Moa Point Wastewater Treatment Plant,” it said.
“Because the plant is currently closed, the sludge tanks at Carey’s Gully are not being used and so the unplanned maintenance involves draining these tanks.”
The work should be completed by the end of Thursday, it said.
Being prepared almost certainly saved a rock fisherman’s life at Piha.
Police were contacted at 7.43am on Wednesday by a fisherman advising one of his companions had fallen into water at The Gap.
Acting Senior Sergeant Mark Jamieson says the Police Maritime Unit took over incident control of the water rescue.
“The Police Eagle helicopter deployed over South Piha, and soon caught sight of the fisherman, and the crew could see he was well prepared,” he says.
“He had been fishing with a lifejacket on, and another fisherman had thrown an emergency life ring out to him.”
Meanwhile, Police Maritime Unit had called out Surf Life Saving NZ at Piha.
Acting Senior Sergeant Jamieson says Eagle kept watch from above while an IRB was heading to the location.
“Although he was struggling in the current, the devices were doing a good job at keeping him afloat while help was on the way.”
The man was soon uplifted and brought back to shore.
First responders are praising the event, as the fisherman walked away safe and well.
“Time and time again we have seen these stories end in a tragedy, and these rescue responses turn into recovery missions,” acting Senior Sergeant Jamieson says.
“This is a story where things were done correctly; the man was prepared and wearing a lifejacket and there were people equipped with a phone so that they could call for help.”
Acting Senior Sergeant Jamieson acknowledges the various resources involved.
“There was good collaboration between Northern Emergency Communication and Dispatch, Police Maritime Unit, the Police Eagle helicopter and Surf Life Saving NZ which brought about a prompt rescue.”
Surf Life Saving New Zealand GM – Northern Region, Zac Franich says the outcome highlights the importance of wearing the appropriate safety equipment when rock fishing, particularly a life jacket.
“This is a really positive outcome, and the fact the fisherman was wearing a lifejacket made a critical difference,” he says.
“When people are swept into the water while rock fishing, conditions can change very quickly. A lifejacket helps keep you afloat, conserves energy and buys crucial time for rescuers to reach you. Were it not for the lifejacket, we could very easily have been reporting on a fatal drowning.”
In September last year a stash of more than 200 papers were found in a locked cupboard within a mayoral desk that was bought from Wellington’s Tip Shop.123RF
Confidential documents discovered in a former Wellington mayoral desk sold to a member of the public should have been destroyed, a review has found.
It’s also revealed the desk was checked three times before its sale.
In September last year a stash of more than 200 papers were found in a locked cupboard within the desk bought from the Tip Shop, a second-hand store at the city’s landfill.
Furniture from the Wellington Town Hall was sold there during the building’s redevelopment.
The council has been investigating how the items were sold, and why confidential documents were not removed from them.
The documents were dated between 1988 and 2004, during which time Sir James Belich, Dame Fran Wilde, Mark Blumsky and Dame Kerry Prendergast were mayor.
When the papers were discovered, Dame Kerry said they were “potentially incredibly damaging”.
The agenda for next week’s Audit and Risk committee meeting show the “desk privacy incident” will be discussed.
The council carried out an internal review and also commissioned Grant Thornton to carry out a review, the agenda shows.
The Grant Thornton review found the storage of the documents – which included personal information like names and email addresses – did not follow council policy.
It said a number should have been destroyed, and others should have been destroyed after seven years, while two should have been archived.
“From an interview with an ex-Mayor, we understand the documents were created and deliberately stored outside of the WCC filing system as they were considered confidential to the Mayor, due to the nature of the documentation, reflecting the Mayor’s responsibilities regarding the Council Chief Executive and elected members.”
It was unclear whether the council knew about the documents, but mayoral staff would have, it said.
The desk had been checked for documents three times as it was moved from place to place – once in 2013 and twice in 2025.
The last inspection was at the Tip Shop, where “all drawers were found to be empty, and the item was cleared for removal and sale”.
The review said there was no evidence to consider whether the locked cupboard was not noticed, or if it was noticed but not checked.
“While WCC were unaware of the documentation in the locked cupboard in the desk, there were three opportunities for the
cupboard to be identified, opened and the documents retrieved,” the report said.
“The disposal processes do not appear to be consistent with the requirements of the Council Privacy Policy to ensure ‘everything reasonably within the power of the agency is done’.”
Elected members were not bound by council policies but the council could do better by giving greater support around record-keeping, it said.
The council’s “key challenge” was increasing the awareness of risk and the importance of following policies among staff, it said.
It recommended the council establish an asset disposal policy, strengthens its procedures, improves information management training, and enhance “relocation controls”.
The council’s internal review found it breached two privacy principles: storage and security, and retention.
It accepted both reviews’ findings and has since updated Tip Shop’s operating procedures, commissioned a formal asset disposal policy, strengthened its relocation and furniture checking processes, and enhanced “elected member transition processes to support the return of confidential physical documentation”.
It’s also considering mandatory information management training, and has checked remaining furniture in storage to ensure no more documents were “overlooked”.
In this living zebrafish larva, the lymphatic vessels are fluorescently labelled red, while blood vessels are green, allowing scientists to visualise vessel growth.SUPPLIED
The larva of a stripey fish could be the key to preventing a chronic and painful swelling condition that’s a common side effect of some breast cancer treatment.
The condition could be congenital or caused by an injury, but it mostly occurred as an unintended consequence following breast-cancer treatment.
Auckland University scientists discovered a molecule in zebrafish larva that offered hope of eventually treating or preventing the condition.
Lead researcher Dr Jonathan Astin, told Checkpoint, the larva of zebrafish were often used to answer scientific questions as the larva was almost completely transparent, making it easy to fluorescently label any organ system.
Astin said the way a human embryo developed was initially almost identical to a fish embryo – so the hope was what was discovered using zebrafish could be directly translated into understanding human development and disease.
In Astin’s lab, the lympahtics of the fish were tagged to help understand how lymphatics form and how lymphatic diseases could be treated.
The scientists discovered a growth-promoting molecule, known as ‘insulin-like growth factor’, or IGF, accelerated the growth of lymphatic vessels in zebrafish, so it had the potential to repair damaged vessels.
“What we’ve done subsequently is grown human lymphatics in a dish and put this human IGF on and that has been able to stimulate human lymphatic growth,” Astin said.
“Finding the molecule in fish allowed us to identify it might be therapeutic and find the human version.”
Astin said lymphoedema was often seen in breast cancer patients, with some estimates that around 20 percent of patients who had lymph nodes removed as part of breast cancer treatment having lymphoedema develop in one of their arms.
The condition was very difficult to cure once a person had it, Aston said, because the fluid build up caused tissue damage which could be hard to reverse, but the hope was it could be prevented.
“The plan would really be prevent it form occurring in the first place, so we hope by identifying this new IGF, it may be part of a treatment cocktail where we might be able to provide these lymphatic stimulating growth factors to patients who have lymph nodes removed in order to prevent the onset or the incidents of lymphoedema.”
Any possible treatment would still be many years off, Astin said, as work was still being done to understand whether it could stimulate repair and the it would need to be tested for safety.
“But this is the first new lymphatic growth factor we’ve identified in many years.”
A pack of roaming dogs in bush near Paihia in the Bay of Islands.RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Further calls have been made for more to be done about dangerous dogs, in the wake of Tuesday’s fatal dog attack in Northland.
Mihiata Te Rore, 62, was killed by a pack of three dogs at a property in the small town of Kaihu on Tuesday. She was the third person to be killed by dogs in the region in four years, and fourth nationwide.
It has prompted calls for change from as high up as the prime minister, meanwhile RNZ has been contacted by multiple dog attack victims who have shared their frustration at what they say is a lack of action by authorities.
But multiple organisations have been calling for a change at a policy level, including the SPCA, which said the Dog Control Act was “hopelessly out of date”.
Whangārei man Jade Campbell was among the dog attack victims calling for more to be done.
“They stick their head through the hedge and bark at us, and they’ve frightened the missus off the bottom of the section with the boy, the boy’s only two years old,” he said.
“They’re aggressive, they’ve come over and killed our cat.”
He said the council hadn’t done anything in response.
Campbell believed owners should have the legal right to destroy a dog if it roamed onto their property.
“A bite and a couple of shakes will kill a young child easily, so the law basically says I have to wait until the dog kills my son before I can kill the dog.”
Under New Zealand law, it was only legal to kill a dog if it was actively attacking a person or animals.
Whangārei District Council’s manager of health and bylaws Reiner Mussle said they investigated every complaint they received, including Campbell’s case.
“Unfortunately, the cat was found in a decomposed state and there was insufficient evidence available to determine how it died or to establish that a dog was responsible,” he said.
“While historic dog footprints were identified on the complainant’s property, these indicated that dogs had been present in the area at some point in the past, but there was nothing directly linking those footprints to the death of the cat.”
Mussle said they were actively monitoring the issue of non-secured dogs in the wider area, and taking action where required.
But the issue is not just in Northland.
More than 200 children aged under 15 and nearly 3000 adults were attacked by dogs in Auckland between July 2024 and June 2025.
Papatoetoe resident Krish had been chased through the street by roaming dogs. His cat had also been killed.
He said more needed to be done.
“It’s been a pretty devastating loss for our family, so I’m trying to make it my mission over the next few weeks to actually get something done about it,” he said.
Krish had engaged lawyers about his case, and wanted to speak to his local MP about boosting enforcement for unruly dogs.
“If you have an off-leash dog, there needs to be more punishment for it, almost like an instant impound or severe fines, or just no off-leash dogs almost,” he said.
“And then possibly looking into banning dangerous dog breeds or unleashed dogs.”
Police said the dogs involved in the Kaihu attack were with Animal Control and would be destroyed.
Former Gisborne deputy mayor Josh Wharehinga has been appointed as the new president of Boxing New Zealand as the sport grapples with complaints about its head coach.
The Sport Integrity Commission has been investigating Boxing NZ and its head coach Billy Meehan.
Cathy Meehan, who is the wife of Billy Meehan, recently stepped down from her role as president of the organisation.
Commonwealth Games medalist Tasmyn Benny said Meehan killed her passion for the sport.
Described as a ‘boys club’ rife with verbal abuse, sexually inappropriate behaviour and misogyny, Benny said she was made to feel powerless and without a voice in the environment.
“You can’t really go to Boxing New Zealand because it’s all made of his family and friends. They’re all in the same circle,” she told RNZ.
After winning bronze at the Commonwealth Games in 2018, Benny said she noticed a shift at the organisation.
“All the management and coaching changed for New Zealand boxing and that’s when everything went downhill. Billy was in charge the whole time.”
Meehan has not responded to the allegations. The Integrity Commission has defended the delay in a resolution.
Billy Meehan.Supplied/ NZ Boxing
Wharehinga served four terms on Gisborne’s council – two as deputy mayor – before stepping away from local government earlier this year to concentrate on his business interests and reinvigorating boxing in Tai Rāwhiti.
The respected referee and judge thanked his colleagues on the Boxing New Zealand executive for “entrusting me with this important responsibility,” Wharehinga said.
“The first thing I’d like to do as incoming president is pay tribute to Cathy for her tireless, selfless service to boxing in Aotearoa. Cathy is a tremendous kaitiaki of the sport and will continue to be an important contributor to our future success.
“I’m incredibly passionate about boxing. It has been a huge part of my life so to be appointed to this role at an important time for the sport is a huge honour,” he said.
Local businessman and Otago Boxing Association member Bryan Usher has been appointed vice president, replacing Mark Fuller.
The Government has introduced legislation to Parliament to establish the new Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT), a key step in delivering its ambitious reform agenda across housing, transport, urban development and the environment.
The Environment (Disestablishment of the Ministry for the Environment) Amendment Bill paves the way for the Ministry for the Environment to integrate into MCERT alongside the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, the Ministry of Transport, and the local government functions of the Department of Internal Affairs.
“The new agency will be at the heart of tackling some of New Zealand’s greatest economic and environmental challenges, from housing affordability and our infrastructure deficit to climate adaptation,” RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop says.
“The Ministry for the Environment is the only agency forming MCERT that was established by statute. That means it is the only Ministry that requires legislative change to enable the new department to be created, and we are moving swiftly to make that happen.”
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says the amendment to the Environment Act will formally disestablish the Ministry for the Environment and transfer its statutory responsibilities to the Secretary for the Environment.
“MCERT will administer the Environment Act, with its chief executive fulfilling the role of Secretary for the Environment, ensuring a seamless transition and continuity of environmental oversight.
“Environmental functions remain a core part of the new Ministry’s work. Bringing related portfolios together in one department will provide integrated, practical advice that both protects our environment and lifts prosperity for communities across New Zealand.”
MCERT is set to be established from 1 April 2026 and become operational from 1 July 2026. A chief executive for the new agency will be appointed in the coming months.
19 February 2026 – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will increase the number of scheduled monetary policy decisions from 7 to 8 per year, starting in 2027.
The Monetary Policy Committee has discussed the upcoming increase in the frequency of Consumers Price Index (CPI) data releases. From next year, CPI data is set to be published on a monthly basis, rather than quarterly. Due to this, the Committee believes it is appropriate to move to 8 scheduled decisions.
To accommodate an 8 decision schedule, the previously announced February 2027 decision date has been moved a week earlier.
While we have set dates out to February 2028, the Monetary Policy Committee can make unscheduled decisions at any time, should financial or economic conditions warrant it, and have done so in the past.
Our Financial Stability Reports will continue to be released twice a year, in May and November.
Monetary policy and OCR dates
DateAnnouncement 2026 8 April Monetary Policy Review and OCR 27 May Monetary Policy Statement and OCR 8 July Monetary Policy Review and OCR 2 September Monetary Policy Statement and OCR 28 October Monetary Policy Review and OCR 9 December Monetary Policy Statement and OCR 2027 10 FebruaryMonetary Policy Review and OCR 17 MarchMonetary Policy Statement and OCR 5 May Monetary Policy Review and OCR 16 JuneMonetary Policy Statement and OCR 4 AugustMonetary Policy Review and OCR 15 SeptemberMonetary Policy Statement and OCR 27 October Monetary Policy Review and OCR 8 DecemberMonetary Policy Statement and OCR 2028 9 FebruaryMonetary Policy Review and OCR
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria O’Sullivan, Associate Professor of Law, Member of Deakin Cyber and the Centre for Law as Protection, Deakin University, Deakin University
In the wake of the Bondi terror attack, multiple state governments have passed laws to restrict mass protests. Most notably, the New South Wales government introduced controversial legislation giving police the power to restrict public protests for up to 90 days after a terrorist incident.
This unprecedented restriction was tested when thousands took to the streets to protest against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
The protest was followed by widespread allegations of police brutality. These are currently being investigated by the state’s police watchdog.
The organisers of the protest are also challenging the constitutional validity of the laws in the NSW Court of Appeal.
This latest round of law reform follows long-running concerns about whether the right to protest in Australia is under threat. Two years ago, the Human Rights Law Centre found “protest is in peril”. Little has changed since.
So, what do these state laws do, and how might they affect people’s democratic right to protest? How can lawmakers strike the right balance between human rights and the protection of public safety?
States tightening anti-protest laws
The right to protest has been restricted in many of Australia’s states and territories over recent years through increased fines and sentences for acts such as traffic obstruction.
These laws have been further tightened in the past year.
In NSW, the government passed legislation in December 2025 to allow the police to make a “Public Assembly Restriction Declaration”, following a terrorist attack.
As the name suggests, such a declaration means specific areas are restricted places for protest. If the police make this declaration, it grants them additional powers to:
move people on
close specific locations
search people inside a designated area
and issue orders to prevent disruption or risks to public safety.
A number of these declarations were made by NSW Police during the protests against Isaac Herzog’s visit.
The declarations have now lapsed, so they’re no longer in operation. However, the legislation allowing police to make them remains in force.
What about in other states?
In Queensland, draft legislation is currently before parliament. It will, among other things, allow the Queensland government to ban certain protest slogans.
If passed, it will be an offence to publicly use a prohibited expression in a way that “might reasonably be expected to cause a member of the public to feel menaced, harassed or offended”. This offence carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.
Under this legislation, the government has announced they intend to ban two phrases: “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada”.
[embedded content]
In Western Australia, the government has introduced a bill allowing police to refuse a protest permit if they believe the protest is likely to promote hate based on factors such as religion, race, disability, gender, sexuality or ethnicity.
While various protest restrictions have existed for some time, the recent use of police “declarations” is concerning. They may lead to disproportionate use of force or discriminatory policing practices.
Some of the new hate speech offences are also problematic as they exclusively restrict protest slogans used by some pro-Palestinian protesters. These laws can therefore be seen as targeting particular political causes.
Protesters pushing back
A number of challenges to government restrictions have been lodged with varying success in recent months.
In Victoria, protesters challenged a “designated area” declaration prior to the 2026 Invasion Day rallies. The Federal Court found in favour of the protesters, dismissing the declaration as unlawful.
The declaration gave police the power to search a person or vehicle without a warrant and to direct a person to leave the designated area if they refused to remove a face covering when requested to do so.
Invasion Day marches in Melbourne weren’t affected by police ‘stop and search’ powers after a successful court challenge by protesters.Jay Kogler/AAP
The court found the declaration unlawful for a number of reasons. First, the assistant police commissioner did not apply the correct legal criteria and did not satisfy key requirements under the relevant legislation. This meant there was a legal error in the way the decision was made.
Second, the assistant commissioner failed to give proper consideration to the right to privacy under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights.
In NSW, the Palestine Action Group recently tried to overturn a government declaration that Israeli President Herzog’s visit would qualify as a “major event” under the Major Events Act.
That declaration was significant because it granted police many of the additional powers outlined above.
That challenge, which had to be brought to court at short notice, did not succeed.
What can we do?
While governments in Australia are correct to address the perils of hate speech and consider public safety, there is a real concern that current legislation is weighted too heavily on the side of protest restriction.
One way lawmakers can strike a balance between the right to protest and other considerations is to adopt a human rights charter. This would include a formal process for considering the right to protest (and other rights).
Importantly, this should also enforce an obligation on police to consider the right to protest when making decisions (as occurs in Victoria under its state charter).
There have also been calls for a federal human rights act, as well as the introduction of human rights charters in states and territories that do not have one.
Combined, this would enshrine important legal recognition of our right to protest, which is fundamental to the functioning of a healthy Australian democracy.
You might have heard the common claim that electric cars aren’t really green – that their lithium-ion batteries rely on “blood” minerals such as cobalt, mined in terrible conditions.
The critique had some truth to it. But this claim is no longer accurate. Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have been shifting away from cobalt because it’s expensive, toxic and ethically fraught.
What’s replacing it? Cheaper lithium-ion battery chemistries based on lithium iron phosphate (LFP), which avoid cobalt entirely. If you remember high-school chemistry, you’ll remember batteries have an anode and a cathode. The anode is nearly always graphite. But the cathode can be made from many different minerals and compounds.
This means battery makers have a great deal of choice over which minerals to include. There’s huge innovation taking place in batteries, as the market grows and diversifies across vehicles and energy storage. Even cheaper chemistries are emerging based around salt (sodium-ion), while high-performance solid state batteries are coming close to reality.
For years, cobalt has been a mainstay in cathodes due to its useful properties, including how much energy it can help store.
When the first commercial lithium-ion batteries arrived in the 1990s, the chemistry relied on cobalt (lithium cobalt oxide). Over time, lithium nickel mangananese cobalt (NMC) oxide and lithium nickel cobalt aluminium (NCA) oxide came to dominate the market, as their high energy density made them ideally suited for portable electronics.
As demand for lithium-ion batteries accelerated, sourcing cobalt began to be a problem. Three quarters of mined cobalt comes from one country: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has half the world’s reserves. Australia is second, with 20%.
Cobalt is toxic. In the DRC, many people risk their health in small mines under conditions often described as slave-like. Illegal and legal mines can do huge environmental damage.
This and other issues led researchers to begin working on reducing or cutting cobalt out altogether. This led to low-cobalt chemistries, in which most of the cobalt was swapped for nickel, manganese or aluminium. To date, it’s been difficult to remove cobalt entirely, given how much of a boost it gives to battery capacity and stability.
In parallel, US researchers found the mineral olivine – made of lithium, iron and phosphate (LFP) – was a good candidate for battery cathodes. This discovery gave rise to cobalt-free LFP batteries. LFP chemistry is cheap, non-toxic and safe, though slightly less energy-dense.
These batteries have had a meteoric rise. Last year, 50% of all EV batteries and more than 90% of stationary home and grid batteries used this chemistry.
Given world-leading battery makers now rely heavily on this chemistry, it’s likely LFP batteries will dominate the market for EV and stationary storage applications in the near term.
Many people work as creseurs – small scale miners – in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, risking their lives to extract cobalt, copper and gold.Fairphone, CC BY-NC-ND
Many next-generation batteries nearing the market are being developed for specific jobs – such as powering drones – or to outcompete current technology. Here are four new types to watch:
Sodium-ion: The world’s biggest battery maker, CATL, and other manufacturers are exploring an entirely different chemistry – sodium-ion – in a bid to eventually replace lithium-ion batteries as home or grid batteries. Sodium-ion batteries are typically heavier and less energy-dense than lithium-ion, so they wouldn’t work well in vehicles. But the chemistry has real promise for stationary energy storage.
Lithium-sulfur: These batteries rely on lithium and sulfur or sulfur-carbon composites. They can currently store four to five times more energy than traditional lithium-ion batteries, making them particularly useful for drones and other technologies where maximum power is needed. The challenge is giving them longevity, as the reactions in these batteries are harder to reverse. That means these batteries are harder to recharge many times at present. Several Australian companies are active in this space.
Solid state: Until now, lithium-ion batteries have relied on a liquid electrolyte as the medium for ions to shuttle between anode and cathode. Solid state batteries do away with the liquid, making them inherently safer. They could potentially lead to a drastic boost to energy storage. They’re not mainstream yet because it’s still tricky to get them to work at room temperature without using high pressure. If engineers figure this out, an EV using solid state batteries might travel 1,000km on a single charge.
Flow batteries: In the 1980s, Australian engineers at UNSW invented the vanadium redox flow battery. A cross between a conventional battery and a fuel cell, these typically larger batteries can feed power back to the grid for 12 hours or more, much longer than current lithium-ion battery systems.
These batteries are likely to be useful in renewable-heavy power grids. Lithium and sodium-ion batteries could provide shorter bursts of power to the grid, while flow batteries could kick in for longer periods.
So do we still need cobalt?
These developments are promising. But they don’t mean an end to cobalt entirely. Smaller amounts of cobalt will still be in the lithium-ion batteries in portable devices and EVs for the foreseeable future.
What we are likely to see is more recycled cobalt coming into the mix, as governments accelerate recycling of lithium-ion batteries and promote recycled minerals to be used in new batteries. Over time, the role of “blood cobalt” could disappear.
There is a growing number of “serious incidents” in Australian early childhood services, including day cares.
A serious incident is one that seriously compromises the health, safety or wellbeing of a child. There were 160 such incidents per 100 services in 2024–25. This is up from 148 and 139 in the previous two years.
These figures follow explosive revelations of safety issues and abuse in the sector.
In response, there are several new national child safety measures. These include banning personal phones in early childhood services, improving recruitment, and making sure parents can see a service’s compliance history.
Ratios are presented as a simple numerical safeguard to ensure enough qualified educators are present and working directly with children.
These can differ between states and territories, the type of service and the age of the children. However, for children aged under 24 months at daycare, there needs to be one educator for every four children. As children get older, the ratios change. For example, in New South Wales for children over 36 months, it is 1:10.
Tammy Williams’ recent PhD research interviewed 16 early childhood educators about their workplaces, which were a mix of for-profit services. Some were small, standalone services; others were part of large corporate chains.
They reported how ratios operate in practice can be very different from how they look on paper. This raises serious questions about how safe the system really is.
‘Under-the-roof’ ratios
The “under-the-roof” ratio is a common term in early learning services. Some services use this to calculate ratios based on the total number of children and educators across the building, rather than within each child’s regular room.
For example, an educator might have 12 children in their room instead of the regulated 1:10. But the room next door might have just eight, so on average, the ratio is met in theory. In the PhD study, one educator said:
There are times when you have two or three children over in your room, but they fit in another room, which I don’t understand. It puts so much more stress on the people in that room. I don’t even get why that is allowed.
Or educators might still be counted if they are having a break. This can be permitted in certain situations under some state regulations if the break is short and the educator is still in the same service as the children.
But media reports suggest this is overused by some services. Staff may also be counted when they are working in the office, or cleaning elsewhere in the service. Other staff, such as chefs and might also be included in the official count, even though this isn’t permitted.
As another educator noted:
Ratios, half the time, are not right […]
What are the rules?
Despite its widespread use, the term “under the roof” does not appear in the national laws or regulations. They clearly state staff counted in the ratios must be “working directly” with the children, and they must be “educators”.
So there is a mismatch between the law and how it is applied in practice. Regulators are increasing their inspections – including more unannounced visits. But regulators are also understaffed and services can go years between inspections. For planned inspections, services can “put on an act”, as one educator described.
‘There is a lot of stress’
When educators are stretched, this obviously limits their ability to provide safe, high quality education and care. In the PhD study, one educator also described how not having enough staff can lead to stress, which can flow on to the children.
I feel there is a lot of stress and […] they’re going to pick up on that and they’re going to feel it as well. I feel they miss out on things because there’s so much stuff that educators need to do.
If educators are too busy, it can also interfere with children’s relationships with educators and disrupt their daily routines and sense of security.
Despite Australia needing another 21,000 educators, educators constantly report wanting to leave, because of burnout and workplace conditions. As one interviewee explained:
The people who are passionate about being here are very, very passionate and they’re getting tired. They’re looking at moving into retail positions and cleaning positions.
What happens now?
Some flexibility when using ratios helps services adapt to unexpected day-to-day changes such as sick leave. However, the research suggests some services are using loopholes as a standard way of operating, rather than for emergencies. This leaves children at risk, without adequate supervision.
Increase staffing ratios to accommodate daily realities. These include child illness, breaks, hygiene and additional educational needs. The Productivity Commission has suggested 1:3 for babies, and we recommend 1:4 for toddlers and 1:8 for ages three to five. There also needs to be a “floater” – an educator who covers breaks and staff shortages.
Create funded cleaning and administrative positions. This would improve educators’ status and job satisfacton, allowing them to use their training to educate and care for children.
Tighten the rules. Make sure staffing rules reflect the rooms in which children belong, including only those staff actively working with the children.
Policymakers and the community rightly expect services to strengthen safety. But unchanged ratios leave educators responsible for delivering more under the same minimum staffing rules. This can lead to educator burnout and attrition. Educators need real support to ensure they are in turn, supporting children and families.
Thames Coromandel District Council is urgently asking people not to swim, fish or collect shellfish in the area around where the stream discharges until further notice.Supplied / Thames Coromandel District Council
Thames Coromandel District Council says a sinkhole has formed near the Onemana Wastewater Treatment Plant.
In a post online the council says it suspects treated wastewater may have entered a local wetland, potentially entering a stream that flows to the beach.
It says the sinkhole is on private property near the wastewater treatment plant’s subsurface irrigation field.
Onemana is a coastal community on the Coromandel Peninsula, north of Whangamata.
“As a proactive step, we are erecting signage by the Onemana Drive Carpark advising people not to swim, fish or collect shellfish in the area around where the stream discharges until further notice,” it said.
The council said it was turning off the irrigation disposal that is closest to the sinkhole, carrying out water sampling and would monitor the site to ensure no further deterioration or land movement.
This plan will decimate hotels across South Australia, wiping out many of the 26,000 jobs it directly creates.
Australian Hotels Association (South Australia) chief executive Ian Horne, quoted in The Guardian, February 21, 2018
… a majority of pub employees (over 26,000 in SA!) will likely lose their jobs.
Letter signed by the McCallum family, owners of The Lonsdale Hotel, February-March, 2018
SA Best leader Nick Xenophon has said that if his party wins the balance of power in this Saturday’s South Australian state election, poker machine reform would be “a key issue in any negotiations” about the formation of the next government.
Among other reforms, Xenophon has proposed a reduction in the number of poker machines in some pubs by 50% over five years, and the introduction of a $1 maximum bet per spin for machines in all venues other than the Adelaide casino.
The South Australian branch of the Australian Hotels Association (AHA SA), led by chief executive Ian Horne, says the SA Best policy would “decimate hotels across South Australia, wiping out many of the 26,000 jobs it directly creates”.
A letter signed and shared by the owners of one Adelaide hotel went further, saying “a majority” of 26,000 South Australian pub employees would “likely lose their jobs”.
Is that right?
Checking the source
In response to a request for sources to support the claim made in the Lonsdale Hotel letter, Keith McCallum referred The Conversation to the AHA SA.
A spokesperson for the AHA SA pointed The Conversation to a February 2018 newsletter from Ferrier Hodgson Adelaide partner David Kidman, and the ‘No Way Nick’ website, authorised by AHA SA chief executive Ian Horne.
The Conversation asked the AHA spokesperson to quantify what the association meant by “many” jobs, but did not receive a response to that question.
Verdict
The claim made by Australian Hotels Association of South Australia that proposed poker machine reforms would wipe out “many of the 26,000 jobs” in the South Australian hotel industry appears to be grossly exaggerated.
The Australian Hotels Association did not provide modelling or evidence to show how “many” jobs might be affected.
The number of gaming related jobs in South Australian hotels in 2015 was around 3,000. In the same year, less than 20% of the South Australian hotel industry’s revenue came from gaming.
The reforms proposed by SA Best aim to reduce the number of poker machines in some hotels, and reduce maximum bet limits, rather than removing the machines entirely.
Based on these factors, the Australian Hotels Association claim greatly overstates potential job losses.
In addition, at least some of the money not spent on poker machines would be spent on other recreational activities.
This means that potential job losses due to poker machine reforms may be partially offset by increases in employment elsewhere in the economy – or even within the same hotels.
What changes is SA Best proposing?
Among a suite of reforms, the SA Best party wants to reduce the number of poker machines in pubs with 10 or more machines by 10% each year over the next five years. This reduction wouldn’t apply to not-for-profit community clubs or the Adelaide Casino.
SA Best is also proposing the introduction of a $1 maximum bet per spin and a maximum win of $500 for machines in pubs and and not-for-profit community clubs.
SA Best leader Nick Xenophon said these reforms would reduce the number of poker machines in South Australia from around 12,000 to around 8,000, and reduce potential personal losses on pokies in pubs and community clubs from around $1,200 an hour to around $120 per hour.
The policy includes a poker machine buyback scheme, a “jobs fund” to assist affected employees, and the possibility of compensation for smaller poker machine operators.
Would ‘many of 26,000 jobs’ be wiped out?
First of all, let’s look at how many people work in the hotel industry in South Australia, and how many of those jobs are related to gaming.
This information is not available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
However, in January 2016, the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies published a report that examined the economic contribution of the hotel industry in South Australia.
The report was commissioned by the AHA SA, but it adopts a sound statistical approach to measuring employment in the hotel sector.
According to that report, a total of 26,250 staff were employed in hotels in South Australia in 2015. Of those, 3,048 were classified as gaming staff (or 11.6% of total employment).
Of the 26,250 people employed across the industry, the majority were casual staff (rather than permanent or part-time staff).
The SA Best proposal is to reduce poker machine numbers and maximum bets in some venues, as opposed to removing pokies entirely. So it’s clear that not all 3,000 gaming staff would be at risk.
However, the AHA SA is arguing that reduced revenue from pokies would threaten other jobs.
According to the same report, in 2015, 17% of the South Australian hotel industry’s annual revenue came from gaming. Around 80% of revenue came from liquor sales, food and beverage sales and accommodation.
So even in light of reduced gaming revenue, assertions that “many” or “the majority” of 26,000 pub employees would be affected appear to be unsubstantiated.
Jobs may be shifted elsewhere
To understand what might happen if Xenophon’s proposed reforms were introduced, we need to take two factors into account.
On the one hand, if less money is spent on poker machines, then the number of hours requested to service gaming activities decreases. This could result in less demand for labour, and hence a potential reduction in the number of those roles.
On the other hand, money not spent on gaming could be redirected to other recreational activities – like going to cafes, restaurants and cinemas – or to the retail sector. This would mean that new jobs would be created in other parts of the economy.
Spending diverted to food and beverage sales and other forms of entertainment could also see new jobs created within the same venues.
Another report conducted in 2006 by the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies, commissioned by the South Australian Independent Gambling Authority, found that following the introduction of electronic gaming machines in South Australia, employment in hotels did increase.
However, most of this increase came at the expense of other businesses, like cafes and restaurants. This shows that there is a strong substitution effect in employment between gaming activities and other recreational activities.
Having been published in 2006, the exact numbers in the report are dated. But the qualitative argument is unlikely to have changed. This conclusion is also supported by more recent studies.
In summary, while some of the 3,000 gaming-related jobs in the hotel industry may be lost as a result of the proposed poker machine reforms, claims that “many” or “the majority” of 26,000 jobs would be lost are grossly exaggerated, and not supported by available evidence or existing research. – Fabrizio Carmignani
Blind review
I agree with the conclusions of this FactCheck.
The assertions that “a majority” or “many” of the 26,000 jobs in the South Australian hotel industry would be lost if the proposals put forward by SA Best were to be implemented are gross exaggerations.
They might not be quite as gross an exaggeration as the analogous assertions made in Tasmania during that state’s recent election campaign, but they are an exaggeration, nonetheless. – Saul Eslake
The Conversation is fact-checking the South Australian election. If you see a ‘fact’ you’d like checked, let us know by sending a note via email, Twitter or Facebook.
The Conversation FactCheck is accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network.
The Conversation’s FactCheck unit was the first fact-checking team in Australia and one of the first worldwide to be accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network, an alliance of fact-checkers hosted at the Poynter Institute in the US. Read more here.
Have you seen a “fact” worth checking? The Conversation’s FactCheck asks academic experts to test claims and see how true they are. We then ask a second academic to review an anonymous copy of the article. You can request a check at checkit@theconversation.edu.au. Please include the statement you would like us to check, the date it was made, and a link or a photo if possible.
The New Zealand Transport Agency’s decision to extend the Waikato-Auckland passenger rail service Te Huia is welcomed, Rail Minister Winston Peters says.
“Te Huia came into existence because we funded KiwiRail to refurbish the carriages and build a dedicated mechanical depot in Hamilton,” Mr Peters says.
“The five-year trial service was negatively impacted by the Covid-19 Auckland shutdowns in its first year, so a one-year extension is pragmatic and means a fair assessment can be given.
“This Waikato Regional Council’s service has received strong patronage, developed into a weekday commuter and weekend city connector, and has 98 percent customer satisfaction rates which are a credit to operator KiwiRail’s crews.
“We are pleased to see the service will continue,” Mr Peters says.
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 19 February 2026 – GLM-5, newly released as open source, signals a broader shift in artificial intelligence. Large language models are moving beyond generating code snippets or interface prototypes toward building complete systems and carrying out complex, end-to-end tasks. The change marks a transition from so-called “vibe coding” to what researchers increasingly describe as agentic engineering.
LLM Performance Evaluation: Agentic, Reasoning and Coding
Built for this new phase, GLM-5 ranks among the strongest open-source models for coding and autonomous task execution. In practical programming settings, its performance approaches that of Claude Opus 4.5, particularly in complex system design and long-horizon tasks requiring sustained planning and execution.
The model rests on a new architecture aimed at scaling both capability and efficiency. Its parameter count has expanded from 355bn to 744bn, with active parameters rising from 32bn to 40bn, while pre-training data has grown to 28.5trn tokens. These increases are paired with advances in training methods. A framework called Slime enables asynchronous reinforcement learning at a larger scale, allowing the model to learn continuously from extended interactions and improve post-training efficiency. GLM-5 also introduces DeepSeek Sparse Attention, which maintains long-context performance while cutting deployment costs and improving token efficiency.
Benchmarks suggest strong gains. On SWE-bench-Verified and Terminal Bench 2.0, GLM-5 scores 77.8 and 56.2, respectively, the highest reported results for open-source models, surpassing Gemini 3 Pro in several software-engineering tasks. On Vending Bench 2, which simulates running a vending-machine business over a year, it finishes with a balance of $4,432, leading other open-source models in operational and economic management.
These results highlight the qualities required for agentic engineering: maintaining goals across long horizons, managing resources, and coordinating multi-step processes. As models increasingly assume these capabilities, the frontier of AI appears to be shifting from writing code to delivering functioning systems.
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty was ordered to leave the House during a tense session that included many challenges on the Speaker’s rulings.
Question Time began with Gerry Brownlee indirectly rebuking New Zealand First leader Winston Peters for his remarks towards Green MP Teanau Tuiono on Wednesday, but stopping short of demanding an apology.
The situation meant tensions did not die down in Parliament, leading to McAnulty eventually being thrown out for accusing the Speaker of double standards.
On Wednesday, Peters took issue with a question line by the Green MP, after he referred to the country as Aotearoa in his primary question.
“Why is [the minister] answering a question from someone who comes from Rarotonga to a country called New Zealand…” Peters started, before being interrupted by noise from other MPs in the debating chamber.
At the time, Brownlee said he had not heard Peters’ remark.
Peters then completed his question, asking why somebody from Rarotonga had decided “without any consultation with the New Zealand people” to change the country’s name.
In response, Brownlee said that was not an acceptable question, and it would be the last time those sorts of questions were directed “so personally” to other members.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee.VNP / Phil Smith
Tuiono has both Māori and Cook Islands Māori heritage but was born in New Zealand.
On Thursday, Brownlee stood ahead of Question Time to rule on Wednesday’s incident, and said it was “highly disorderly” to question an elected member’s rights and privileges.
“Members who engage in such comment can expect to be ejected from the House. Such comments are not only disrespectful to the member concerned, but also to this House, and also disrespectful to the electors in the electoral process that allows members to sit in this House.”
While Brownlee said he undertook his review to Peters’ question, he did not refer to Peters directly in his ruling.
On Thursday, he again pointed members to that ruling.
“I would encourage members unfamiliar with it to become familiar with it. Further questioning of the ruling will be considered highly disorderly, with the usual consequences.”
In a lengthy back-and-forth, Labour MPs took issue with Brownlee’s decision not to take further action against Peters, particularly as he had said members who made such comments could be ejected.
Shadow Leader of the House Kieran McAnulty said at the very least, Peters should have been made to withdraw and apologise.
“In August last year, you required Chlöe Swarbrick to withdraw and apologise for comments that were made on the day prior. Now, at the time we expressed concern about that, because we felt in doing so, that was setting a precedent,” McAnulty said.
“But nevertheless, here we are again in a situation where you are saying that you are unable to require a member to withdraw and apologise for something that happened yesterday.”
McAnulty said it ran the risk of applying different standards to some but not others, a point Brownlee accepted, and said he would avoid in the future.
Labour MP Willie Jackson said he took “personal offence” to Peters’ comments, to which Brownlee asked why he did not raise that at the time.
Swarbrick also encouraged the Speaker to apply the same consistency, “lest you be accused of double standards”, a comment Brownlee said was “borderline trifling” with the chair.
Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March pursued a different line of questioning, relating to Peters’ assertion that Tuiono was from Rarotonga.
“Unless the former deputy prime minister was deliberately trying to mislead the House, I think a correction should be an order, because there was a factually incorrect statement being made about where he was born.”
Brownlee said Menéndez March was making a suggestion there had been a breach of privilege, and there were processes for dealing with that.
Eventually, Brownlee called the matter to a close, and Question Time began, but the matter was not settled for the opposition.
After Brownlee chastised Jackson for repeated interruptions, McAnulty raised a further point of order.
“It’s quite clear that Willie Jackson is on a warning that if he interrupts you again he’ll be sent out,” McAnulty began.
“No it’s not,” Brownlee said.
“OK, so he can carry on?” replied McAnulty, to which Brownlee warned him he would be trifling with the chair if he carried on.
“I’m concerned that just by that statement it’s quite clear that you’re saying that if I trifle with you again that I will leave, but you won’t even require someone making a racist comment to withdraw and apologise,” McAnulty said.
He was then ordered to leave the House.
Speaking on the tiles shortly afterwards, McAnulty repeated his belief the Speaker was applying double standards.
“Winston Peters is able to trifle with him, undermine him, make racist comments, make questionable comments, certainly unparliamentary comments and actions in the House, and there is no action against that,” he said.
“We challenged the Speaker today in a respectful and highly appropriate way, and yet I’m the one that gets kicked out. Proving my point, to be fair.”
He reiterated that Labour had lost confidence in the Speaker following his ruling there was no private benefit in an amendment paper that listed projects under the Fast Track bill.
Peters insisted Swarbrick’s situation was different, as she had been told to apologise and would not, and then when she came back the next day again refused to apologise.
“[McAnulty] was raising the parallel circumstance, which were not parallel,” he said.
Peters said he was not sorry for his comments towards Tuiono.
“You’re saying that we can change the name of the country without asking the New Zealand people? That’s fascist. That’s antidemocratic.”
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
One Nation is just two points behind Labor in a Victorian state DemosAU poll, with the election in November. A federal Resolve poll has One Nation and the Coalition tied at 23% each with Labor well ahead.
The Victorian state election is in late November. A DemosAU and Premier National poll, conducted February 1–10 from a sample of 1,274, gave the Coalition 29% of the primary vote (down eight since an October DemosAU poll), Labor 23% (down three), One Nation 21% (not previously asked for), the Greens 15% (steady) and all Others 12% (down ten).
The Coalition led Labor by 53–47 after preferences, a two-point gain for the Coalition. Even if Labor fell below One Nation on primary votes, Greens preferences would boost them back ahead of One Nation.
On this poll’s results, the Coalition would be likely to win a majority of the 88 lower house seats against Labor, but One Nation would win some seats that would otherwise go to the Coalition. The result could be a Coalition government dependent on One Nation support.
Labor Premier Jacinta Allan was at net -37 favourable, with 53% giving her a negative rating and 16% positive. Liberal leader Jess Wilson was at net +3 (27% positive, 24% negative). Wilson led Allan as preferred premier by 40–31 (former Liberal leader Brad Battin had led by 40–32 in October).
Crime was rated the most important issue by 30%, followed by cost of living on 29% and housing affordability on 12%.
By the November election, Labor will have governed Victoria for the last 12 years and 23 of the last 27. An “it’s time” factor may explain some of Labor’s bad polling.
Upper house voting intentions were 28% Coalition (down two since October), 20% One Nation (up nine), 19% Labor (down two), 14% Greens (steady), 5% Legalise Cannabis (up three) and 4% Animal Justice (up one).
All 40 upper house seats will be up for election in November using eight five-member electorates by proportional representation with preferences. The Coalition and One Nation would be favoured to win a combined majority.
Also in Victoria, a byelection will be needed in Nepean after Liberal MP Sam Groth resigned. At the 2022 state election, Groth defeated Labor in Nepean by 56.4–43.6, from primary votes of 48.1% Groth, 32.6% Labor and 8.8% Greens.
Federal Liberal leadership change and Resolve poll
Last Friday Angus Taylor was elected new federal Liberal leader, defeating former leader Sussan Ley in a spill of Liberal MPs and senators by 34–17. Ley has said she will resign from parliament, setting up a byelection in her seat of Farrer.
At the 2025 federal election, Ley defeated independent Michelle Milthorpe in Farrer by 56.2–43.8. The Liberal vs Labor two-party vote in Farrer was 62.9–37.1 to Ley. Primary votes were 43.4% Ley, 20.0% Milthorpe, 15.1% Labor, 6.6% One Nation and 4.9% Greens. The Nationals are likely to contest the byelection, so the main contenders are One Nation, Milthorpe, the Liberals and the Nationals.
A national Resolve poll for Nine newspapers was conducted February 8–14 (in the days before and after the Liberal spill) from a sample of 1,800. It has been broken into a post-spill and pre-spill sample. The post-spill sample included pre-spill polling that asked how respondents would vote if Taylor replaced Ley.
A post-spill poll put the Coalition, under new leader Angus Taylor, tied with One Nation.FLAVIO BRANCALEONE/AAP
The post-spill sample gave Labor 32% of the primary vote (up two since the January Resolve poll), the Coalition 23% (down five), One Nation 23% (up five), the Greens 11% (up one), independents 6% (down one) and others 5% (down two). In the pre-spill sample, One Nation had led the Coalition by 25–20 with other parties’ support similar.
No two-party estimate was given, but applying 2025 election flows to the post-spill sample gives Labor nearly a 54–46 lead over the Coalition, a three-point gain for Labor since January.
Anthony Albanese’s net approval improved two points since January to -20, with 55% rating him poor and 35% good. In her final poll as Liberal leader, Ley’s net approval slumped 15 points to -23. Albanese led Ley as preferred PM by 38–22 (33–29 in January).
Pauline Hanson’s net likeability was +7, Liberal Andrew Hastie’s was +4, Taylor’s was +3, Nationals leader David Littleproud’s was -8 and Labor Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s was -8. On issues, 45% rated cost of living most important, with 10% for immigration.
The Liberals led Labor by 24–23 on keeping the cost of living low (29–26 in January). On economic management, there was a 26–26 tie (31–26 to the Liberals previously).
Pre-spill Morgan poll has Labor gaining
A national Morgan poll, conducted February 9–13 (before the Liberal spill) from a sample of 1,216, gave Labor 30.5% of the primary vote (up two since the February 2–8 Morgan poll), One Nation 25% (up 0.5), the Coalition 20% (down 2.5), the Greens 13% (down 0.5) and all Others 11.5% (up 0.5).
Labor led the Coalition by a blowout 58.5–41.5 on respondent preferences, a five-point gain for Labor. On 2025 election flows, Labor led by 55–45, a two-point gain for Labor. No Labor vs One Nation two-party estimate was reported.
Tasmanian DemosAU poll has Liberals down
A Tasmanian state DemosAU poll, conducted January 27 to February 12 from a sample of 1,071, gave the Liberals 35% of the primary vote (down six since an October DemosAU poll), Labor 23% (down one), independents 17% (up three), the Greens 15% (steady), the Shooters 4% (up two) and others 6% (up two). One Nation was not asked for as it is not yet a registered party in Tasmania.
Tasmania uses a proportional system so a two-party estimate is not applicable. Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s net approval slid three points to +2, while Labor leader Josh Willie’s net approval was down two points to -7. Rockliff led Willie as preferred premier by 43–32 (46–34 previously).
Other politicians listed were Liberal Treasurer Eric Abetz (-21 net approval), former Labor leader Dean Winter (-23) and Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff (-21). Winter’s net approval jumped ten points since October.
Upcoming UK byelection and US special elections
I wrote for The Poll Bludger last Thursday about a February 26 United Kingdom parliamentary byelection in a safe Labour seat and three United States federal special elections for the House of Representatives that will occur by August. Democrats are attempting to gerrymander Virginia’s 11 House districts for a 10–1 Democratic split.
