Key events
Josh Butler
More on the bomb threat at the prime minister’s home in Canberra
Prime minister Anthony Albanese was evacuated from his home in Canberra, The Lodge, after a bomb threat on Tuesday night.
Following an extensive search, which saw Albanese moved to a secure location, the Australian Federal Police said “nothing suspicious was located” and that there was “no current threat to the community or public safety.”
The AFP said early Wednesday morning there were no updates on the incident. Albanese’s office referred enquiries to the AFP.
Albanese is scheduled to make a speech at an infrastructure forum in Victoria on Wednesday.
In a post on social media, the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, said he was pleased to hear Albanese was safe after the threat.
“Threats against any parliamentarian are utterly abhorrent, especially in a country built on expressing our differences through debate,” he wrote on X.
We’ll bring you more through the day.
Good morning, Nick Visser here to pick up the blog. Let’s see what Wednesday holds.
Australian climate pollution down 1.9% as renewables boom
Adam Morton
Australia’s climate pollution was down 1.9% across the year to September 2025 as renewable energy reached record levels and the burning and venting of gas dropped.
The latest quarterly greenhouse gas inventory found annual emissions were 444.3m tonnes, down from 452.8m a year earlier. This is 27.4% less than in 2005.
The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, said this placed the country on track to meet its legislated 2030 target – a 43% cut – “if we stay the course and continue to lift our efforts”.
That picture is complicated by adjustments to earlier emissions estimates. Despite the annual fall, the report says Australia is further away from the 2030 goal than it was in the last report, covering the year to June 2025. Then, emissions were estimated to be 28.5% less than in 2005.
But Bowen said there was evidence emissions were coming down in several areas. Changes included:
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A 3.1% fall in pollution from electricity grids, mainly due to renewables displacing coal.
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A 3.8% drop in fugitive emissions from fossil fuel operations. Less gas was vented into the atmosphere, more CO2 was captured and stored, and underground coal mining production dipped.
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A 1.7% fall in emissions from fossil fuel use in manufacturing, mining and buildings, in part due to people using less gas in their homes.
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After years of increases, a 0.4% drop in transport pollution as petrol consumption fell. It coincided with more people driving electric and hybrid cars.
Nearly half of universities have spent most of the last five years in deficit, report finds
Natasha May
Australia’s universities are operating on increasingly thin margins, a new report from Universities Australia reveals.
The report, titled Critical challenges in Australia’s university sector: securing a sustainable future, found over 40% of universities have spent most of the past five years in deficit.
The average funding per commonwealth supported student place has fallen by 6% in real terms since 2017, the report found. It said research is also at risk as universities increasingly have to fund it themselves as investment in research and development has fallen to a 20-year low (1.7% of GDP).
Universities Australia’s chair, Prof Carolyn Evans, said:
Our universities are not just economic engines – they are places where people build their futures, where talent is nurtured and where opportunity is expanded for the next generation.
However, chief executive officer Luke Sheehy said the report was a reality check.
There’s a myth that universities are awash with money. The numbers tell a very different story. You can’t ask universities to educate more students, deliver more research and drive productivity while steadily reducing funding per student. At some point, the maths catches up.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will take over.
The big story this morning is the bomb threat that forced Anthony Albanese to be evacuated from The Lodge at around 6pm last night. He returned three hours later after a search of the residence was completed. We’ll have the latest from Canberra.
And elsewhere, Australia’s universities are operating on increasingly thin margins, according to a new report which found over 40% of universities have spent most of the past five years in deficit. More coming up.