John Lawrence Smart charged with being armed in a way that may cause fear but Perth lawyer expresses concern for mental health

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A man accused of making threats while armed with “improvised nunchucks” at a Western Australian MP’s electorate office could have been holding a musical instrument, not a weapon, a court has been told.

John Lawrence Smart appeared on Thursday in the WA magistrates court where his lawyer expressed concern for his mental health. He was not required to enter a plea.

Assessment finds global heating is endangering 96% of coral reefs across 80 countries – a figure scientists say should serve as a ‘wake-up call’

• Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here

Almost every shallow-water coral reef on the planet, including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, faces a high risk of ecosystem collapse before 2075 because of global heating, according to an assessment by United Nations nature advisers.

About 24% of the planet’s reefs across more than 80 countries are already critically endangered, the assessment said, but when the expected impacts of global heating were added this rose to 96%.

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter

Treasury is revising all the numbers for the mid-year update as economists warn of a difficult six months ahead

• Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast

Jim Chalmers has revealed December’s mid-year budget update will project weaker growth and higher unemployment, as economists warn of a difficult six months ahead for the Australian economy.

Two days after a senior Reserve Bank official foreshadowed the potential for another interest rate hike in under two weeks’ time, the treasurer in a speech on Friday morning will say “higher inflation is putting people under pressure, tighter monetary policy is weighing on domestic activity, and we can see that in the softening of the labour market”.

New projections by the Snowy Hydro company show tunnelling work is now 65% finished, but the completion date has been pushed back to 2029

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The cost of Snowy Hydro 2.0 has blown out to as much as $25bn, with a major reassessment finding the long-delayed renewable energy project will not be completed until the end of the decade.

First touted by the Turnbull government in 2017 with a price tag of $2bn, the cost of the project in the Kosciuszko national park has increased dramatically over time. In 2023 it was revised to almost $13bn, with construction due to completed by the end of 2028.

CCTV footage shows the police officer buying fast food, attending hospital, and visiting three separate Bunnings stores in the days after the alleged murder

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Beau Lamarre-Condon ordered food from a McDonald’s drive-thru in a van allegedly used to dispose of two bodies, footage released by the court has shown.

Lamarre-Condon, 31, is accused of fatally shooting Sydney couple, Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024.

Accommodation platform acts after long-standing guest complaints over doing dishes, taking out rubbish and stripping beds

Airbnb hosts will no longer be able to ask guests to strip beds or wash dishes under the accommodation platform’s new rules.

The changes, which apply to Airbnb reservations covered by the platform’s global policy, including bookings in Australia, will come into effect on 20 November and limit chores imposed on guests.

Antiques store owner, 74, pleads guilty to 13 charges after regulator uncovers hundreds of animals at his home and shop

• Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast

The white-walled room packed with magpies, galahs and sulphur-crested cockatoos, foxes and possums is eerily quiet. As a video pans across shelves filled with these and many other species, there is no flapping or squawking or hissing; the animals are frozen and silent.

They are among the more than 700 native animals that were found illegally taxidermied and frozen that were seized from the property of a Victorian antiques store owner last year.

Perth man charged with ‘being armed in a way that may cause fear’ – days after Helen Haines was allegedly attacked with 4WD outside her Victorian office

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A man has been charged after allegedly threatening staff and wielding nunchucks at the electoral office of the Western Australian local government minister, Hannah Beazley.

The Perth incident came days after the federal independent MP Helen Haines was hospitalised with severe injuries following an alleged attack outside her electorate office in Wangaratta in Victoria on Monday.

Swimming banned at Maroubra and Coogee while council prioritises ‘culturally respectful’ approach to remains

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A whale carcass has forced the closure of two busy swimming and surfing spots after washing up between Coogee and Maroubra beaches in Sydney – but there are no plans to remove it.

The whale’s heavily decomposed body was found on Thursday morning at Lurline Bay, a rocky cove surrounded by cliffs in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Former reality star and wellness influencer stands accused of choking and assaulting wife at Noosa in Queensland

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Former reality television star Sam Wood will go to the Queensland supreme court seeking release from custody, more than two weeks after he was denied bail over allegations he choked and assaulted his wife.

Wood, a 46-year-old wellness influencer from Melbourne, was arrested at Noosa on 4 October on domestic violence allegations.

House prices in Sydney are at a two-year low after falling 4.7% in the September quarter to $1.66m, according to Domain report

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

House prices are falling across every capital city for the first time in 15 years and the second time on record, according to figures from Domain’s September Quarter 2026 House Price report.

House prices in Sydney are at a two-year low after falling 4.7% in the September quarter, to $1.66m.

The south-west metro extension will open on Friday 30 October, more than two years after the former T3 heavy rail line closed

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A long-awaited extension to Sydney’s metro line will open next week, bringing an end to more than two years of replacement buses for residents in the city’s south-west.

In a video shared on Instagram on Thursday morning, the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, announced that the south-west metro extension would open on Friday 30 October. In a statement, the government said the first service would commence at 4.31am.

Australia-first laws provide a third legal option other than burial and cremation for the treatment of bodies

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Several New South Wales MPs say they want their own bodies turned into “human compost” after Australian-first laws were passed allowing the unusual practice.

The laws, passed on Wednesday, provide a third legal option other than burial and cremation for the treatment of bodies.

Home and office safety a common concern in Australian federal police and Asio safety briefings with politicians following alleged attack on MP Helen Haines

• Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast

Security agencies will review safety precautions for MPs’ homes and offices after numerous federal politicians told police and Asio in safety briefings that they were worried about widening threats after the alleged attack on Helen Haines.

The Labor government and politicians across the parliament are still considering how they will respond when they return to Canberra next week, with ideas being floated including a new committee on MPs’ safety, greater resources for police, and motions of condolence for Haines, who lost both her legs after Monday’s incident. Renewed calls from the crossbench for reforms to question time and the tone of debate in parliament are unlikely to be taken up by the major parties.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here

Peak body for immunologists changes guidelines as evidence shows up to 90% of those reporting allergy don’t have one

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The majority of Australians who report a penicillin allergy are not truly allergic, prompting the peak body for immunologists to change its guidelines in a bid to reduce hospital stays and tackle antimicrobial resistance.

Penicillin, one of the most commonly prescribed antibiotics in Australia, was thought to cause allergies in 10% of Australians, or about 2.8 million people.

Independent senator’s goals ‘much bigger’ than prime ministership, he reveals in first speech to National Press Club

• Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast

He’s six foot tall and full of muscle, but David Pocock’s real strength is often sounding like the most sensible, commonsense voice in the room.

At his first speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday, he said he wasn’t launching a bid for prime minister – no matter how much some people might like the softly spoken senator to have more say in federal politics.

A 25% tax on gas exports, which he said could fund anything from boosting welfare to health reforms and aged care.

A 5% levy on datacentres to capture more benefits from the AI boom.

Transparency reforms to shine a light on lobbyists, secret meetings with politicians and vested interests.

Haines is in stable condition. Surgeons tried to save her right leg but both have now been amputated due to injuries

• Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast

The independent MP Helen Haines has lost both legs but remains in a stable condition, two days after an alleged targeted attack near her electorate office in north-east Victoria.

Haines, the federal MP for Indi, had been in a critical but stable condition after she was struck by a car in Wangaratta on Monday afternoon. Surgeons were trying to save her right leg on Tuesday, but both legs had to be amputated due to the seriousness of her injuries.

Children as young as 12 among dozens subject to federal police operations since 2020, parliamentary inquiry hears

• Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia is facing a “tsunami” of youth crime as artificial intelligence accelerates the pace and scale of radicalisation, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.

The Australian federal police acting deputy commissioner Sandra Booth told the hearing on Wednesday that, while radicalisation had traditionally taken years or months, that process could now happen within days.

NextDC tells investors plans to double the size of its west Melbourne datacentre have hit obstacle after community objects to 22 metres-high power poles

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia’s largest datacentre operator has been forced to delay the controversial expansion of its M3 site in Melbourne’s west amid a pause in construction of new 22m power poles following community protest.

On Wednesday, NextDC told the Australian Stock Exchange that delays to electricity provider Jemena’s upgrade of the power poles – essential to delivering the increased electricity required by the expanded West Footscray site – would mean the expansion would be pushed back to the 2027/2028 financial year.

Friend of accused double murderer tells supreme court that van had lemony smell and blue tarp in back before Bunnings stop

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Beau Lamarre-Condon played Taylor Swift’s song No Body, No Crime while attempting to dispose of two corpses, a court has heard.

The NSW supreme court has been told he was driving to Bungonia with a friend when the song was played in the van.