Record year for EV sales with Tesla and BYD dominating and more charging points
Graham Readfearn
It’s been another year of bumper growth for electric vehicles sales with 12% of all new car sales being electric or plug-in hybrid and Tesla and BYD dominating the charts.
The Electric Vehicle Council has released its annual State of EVs report that says there are now 410,000 EVs on the road – but that’s still only 2% of all the cars out there.
Sales in the first half of this year were up 24% compared with the same period last year with 72,758 electric or hybrids sold – a record high – and market share hitting 16% for the first time in June.
The top-selling EV by a whisker was the Tesla Model Y, with 10,431 models sold. That’s only seven more than the BYD Seal 6 – the big plug-in hybrid ute from the Chinese carmaker.
The number of charging locations and the number of plugs were both up 20%.
The council said the government’s new vehicle efficiency standards was delivering more choice with 153 models of electric or plug-in hybrid now available – 30 more than last year.
Key events
Benita Kolovos
Terminally ill Victorians will be able to access voluntary assisted dying earlier under changes to the state’s once nation-leading legislation to be introduced to parliament today.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, and the health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, are holding a press conference to announce the changes to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act, which include expanding the eligible timeframe for all terminal diagnoses from six to 12 months.
A ‘gag clause’ that stopped doctors from initiating conversations about voluntary assisted dying with patients will also be lifted, as will the legislation’s ban on non-Australian citizens and non-permanent residents from accessing the scheme.
The changes follow an independent review of Victoria’s assisted dying laws released in February. The review found Victoria, which was the first state in Australia to pass VAD laws in 2017, had become a “more conservative model” when compared to other states that followed.
Allan say:
We’ve looked carefully at what’s going on in other states and understood. There were areas of improvements that can – and in the view of the minister and I – must be made. These are sensible, practical changes that give people compassionate and clarity as to how they can access voluntary assisted dying here in Victoria. It does bring our system in line with operations in the rest of the country.
Parramatta council sacks CEO
The City of Parramatta has announced it will “part ways” with its chief executive, Gail Connolly, “effective immediately”.
In a statement today, the council announced it voted to depose Connolly at its council meeting last night.
The City of Parramatta lord mayor, Martin Zaiter, said:
Since joining in March 2023, Ms Connolly PSM has led the delivery of a number of significant projects and initiatives for the City of Parramatta.
I would like to assure our community and ratepayers that our Councillors, executive team and staff remain committed to delivering on our services and commitments and making the City of Parramatta the best place to live work and play.
Executive director of city services and projects, George Bounassif, will take on the role of acting chief executive during the recruitment process.
Prodded by a reporter, Wells acknowledges that perhaps “grateful” is not the best word to describe how kids feel about these laws.
She said:
I think the gratitude is this law applies to everybody and everybody will face the same cultural expectations kids are not online at a social media accounts between the ages of 13-16. The sense everyone will be facing a new world and everybody will have to talk to each other face-to-face as they used it was also a good thing whereas you also ask those thinkers they will be able to tell you about harms that they or their friend has experienced online as well.
Communications minister announces ad campaign for under-16s social media ban
The communications minister, Anika Wells, has been speaking to the media in Melbourne, announcing a national advertising campaign for the government’s social media ban for teens.
That ban will come into effect on 10 December on platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X and YouTube. The campaign will feature on billboards near schools, on TV, online and on social media.
Of that, Wells said:
[Kids] will see [the campaign] on TV, online, ironically on social media because until December 10 it is legal for kids to be on social media. If that is where they are, that is where we need to talk to them about what this means and why we are doing it.
Wells continued:
The vast majority of students I speak to are happy and grateful for these laws are coming in. That’s not the case for everybody. We are particularly attuned to the fact that people who are 13, 14, 15 are having something taken away, rather than kids who are under 13 who will just meet the new law as it exists.
Also for kids who are 16 or over who may be suffering harm online but won’t actually have their account taken away, we are cognisant of that and are working through that and occasions like today are opportunities to ask kids, particularly those aged between 13 and 16, if there is anything we have not considered that we should be considering and anything that we might not be doing that we should be doing.
Matilda Boseley sports homemade pelican outfit to talk bird of the year on ABC
Guardian Australia’s Matilda Boseley and her incredible homemade pelican costume made an appearance on ABC TV News Breakfast this morning to talk about the final day of voting for bird of the year. If you’ve never seen a pelican in mourning, you can rectify that now:
Did I mention it was the final day of voting for bird of the year? Go and vote! May the best bird (the tawny frogmouth, ahem) win!
Venezuelan embassy in Australia to close
Venezuela will close its embassy in Australia, along with its embassy in Norway, and open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe as part of a restructure of its foreign service, Reuters reports.
The restructure comes after weeks of growing tensions with the US. The closures are part of a “strategic re-assignation of resources”, Venezuela’s government said in a statement, setting up new embassies in “two sister nations, strategic allies in the anti-colonial fight and in the resistance against hegemonic pressures.”
Consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, with details to be shared in coming days, the statement said.
The announcement occurred just days after the Nobel committee in Oslo announced that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado had won the 2025 Nobel peace prize for fighting for democracy in the South American country. Machado dedicated the prize to the US president, Donald Trump.
Venezuela has called on the United Nations for support over several deadly US military strikes on vessels off its Caribbean coast, which Washington alleges were carrying drugs. Some US allies on the UN security council called for de-escalation and dialogue.
Venezuela has said it is in a situation where it is rational to expect an armed attack against the country in the short-term, and President Nicolas Maduro has alleged the US is seeking a change in government.
Washington has not responded to this accusation, but has called Venezuela’s socialist leader the illegitimate head of a narco-state. The US also has announced a new counter-narcotics taskforce in its Southern Command, a military branch that oversees Latin America.
Read more on the closure of the embassy in Norway:
Australian ETF industry surges past $300bn milestone
Australia’s exchange traded fund industry has surged past $300bn in funds under management, a new record in a year full of them, AAP reports.
Australia’s ETF industry had $309.3bn in funds under management at the end of September, up $9.9bn, or 3.3%, from a month ago, Australian ETF issuer Betashares said in a report.
The Australian ETF industry has grown by $63bn since the start of the year, thanks to investment growth and $37bn in net inflows, Betashares said.
Betashares is now predicting the Australian industry could hit $320bn by year-end and $500bn by the end of 2028 – two years ahead of its previous forecast.
Betashares chief executive Alex Vynokur said:
We’re witnessing a structural shift in how Australians invest, with ETFs increasingly becoming the vehicle of choice for building diversified portfolios.
ETFs are financial instruments that trade like shares on stock exchanges like the ASX, but offer exposure to a basket of underlying assets such as stock market indexes, commodities, cryptocurrencies or investment themes.
Vynokur said investors and financial advisers were embracing them because of their ease of access, transparency and cost-effectiveness.
Adrian Neiron, chief executive and managing director of VanEck Asia Pacific, said Australia’s ETF industry was scaling at pace:
It took 21 years to reach the first $100bn in assets, a further three years to reach $200bn, and only 15 months to reach $300bn.
VanEck predicts that the industry will grow at a 20 per cent compound annual growth for the next five years, surpassing $750bn by 2030.
A Vanguard ETF that invests in 1,320 of the largest companies around the globe received the most inflows in September, at $257.2m, VanEck said.
Close behind, with $246.4m in net flows, was an iShares ETF that tracks the US S&P500 index.
Despite their strong growth, Betashares said that ETFs still represent around only 6% of the broader managed fund industry in Australia, so there was significant headroom for further adoption.
Record year for EV sales with Tesla and BYD dominating and more charging points
Graham Readfearn
It’s been another year of bumper growth for electric vehicles sales with 12% of all new car sales being electric or plug-in hybrid and Tesla and BYD dominating the charts.
The Electric Vehicle Council has released its annual State of EVs report that says there are now 410,000 EVs on the road – but that’s still only 2% of all the cars out there.
Sales in the first half of this year were up 24% compared with the same period last year with 72,758 electric or hybrids sold – a record high – and market share hitting 16% for the first time in June.
The top-selling EV by a whisker was the Tesla Model Y, with 10,431 models sold. That’s only seven more than the BYD Seal 6 – the big plug-in hybrid ute from the Chinese carmaker.
The number of charging locations and the number of plugs were both up 20%.
The council said the government’s new vehicle efficiency standards was delivering more choice with 153 models of electric or plug-in hybrid now available – 30 more than last year.
Search resumes for hiker missing in Tasmanian wilderness
A large-scale search has resumed in Tasmania’s Mount Field national park this morning for a 30-year-old solo walker, Daryl Fong, who has been missing for more than 48 hours.
According to police, the Tasmanian man was day-hiking in the Mt Field area over the weekend, but his last known contact was about 3am on Sunday when he texted a friend, advising that he intended to seek shelter and camp in the park overnight.
He was known to have some experience in the outdoors and may have had some suitable equipment and clothing, but the area was subject to freezing temperatures and snow depth up to 1m in some places.
Police were notified on Monday afternoon that Fong had not returned. A helicopter search crew was deployed to the area at 4pm, but was not able to locate him.
Four Tasmania police search and rescue officers and an Ambulance Tasmania wilderness paramedic were deployed to the park late yesterday, with additional teams of police and SES search and rescue personnel and wilderness paramedics deployed this morning. The rescue helicopter will also be in the area today.
Man arrested in Melbourne CBD after alleged carjackings
Police have said they have arrested a male in Melbourne’s CBD this morning following alleged carjackings in Tarneit and North Melbourne.
The male, who was allegedly armed with a firearm, was taken into custody to be interviewed. We expect police to provide more information on this incident soon.
What Pocock’s ban from parliament’s sport club says about lobbying – Full Story podcast
Last week, independent senator and former elite athlete David Pocock was banned from the parliament’s social sports club after raising concerns about its association with gambling lobbyists.
Senior reporter Henry Belot speaks to Reged Ahmad about how he broke the story and what the saga says about how lobbyists access politicians.
‘We will not walk away’: Uluru dialogue leaders reflect on two-year anniversary of failed voice referendum
Tom McIlroy
The architects of the voice to parliament referendum say the two-year anniversary of the failed vote is a reminder that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders still lack meaningful engagement with the Australian government.
Uluru dialogue leaders Megan Davis and Pat Anderson have reflected on the vote, held on 14 October 2023. They said:
While the result was devastating for many Australians, and especially for our communities who overwhelmingly voted Yes, it does not end the journey.
This movement for constitutional recognition now involves 6.2 million Australians in 151 electorates across all parties. 6.2 million Australians have joined the movement, and that invitation still stands for all Aussies.
They said little has changed two years on:
First Nations people still have no voice, and this manifests in the relentless and unyielding gap in disadvantage.
The Closing the Gap statistics are not improving, and the data lag makes it difficult to assess.
The Federal government works through a complex array of Indigenous incorporated entities reliant on taxpayer funds. This has softened the critique, and the situation has become more bureaucratic and more Canberra-driven, despite the devolution of responsibility to the states and territories.
Anderson and Davis say they remain steadfast in their commitment to improving the situation for Indigenous communities.
The Voice Referendum may have been lost, but political loss is a normal feature of the political process.
The future is ours to shape. We will not walk away.
Murray Watt backs tawny frogmouth as bird of the year as poll enter home stretch
Importantly, Murray Watt was asked who he is voting for in Guardian Australia’s 2025 bird of the year poll.
Keen beans who’ve paid attention to our social media videos will already know the answer to this question, but for those who don’t, Watt said:
I’ve cast my vote in this, probably the most important vote I’ll ever cast and I went with the tawny frogmouth. It’s been the runner-up a couple of times and I like an underdog. The Guardian asked me to record a sound of me making the noise of some of the birds and I figured that was easier to do than some of the other choices.
Also – it’s the final day of voting! Tallies are no longer visible, because we’re down to the final 10 birds. The bird with the most votes when the poll closes at 6am on Wednesday will be crowned bird of the year 2025. The winner will be announced on Thursday 16 October.
Vote here!
Response plan for SA algal bloom to be announced today
The environment minister, Murray Watt, has been speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning from Adelaide, where he and the South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, will launch the full summer plan to tackle the algal bloom.
The plan is jointly funded between the federal and state governments to a total of $102.5m in addition to the more than $30m support that has been provided by both governments to date.
Watt said:
I actually attended a community forum in Aldinga, which is 45 minutes to an hour south of Adelaide last night, to hear directly from community members. People are obviously worried about what is going to be happening through the summer. They’re looking to governments to support them and that’s what we’re doing and also people are looking for really clear information and facts.
Unfortunately, there is some information being put out there about what the causes of this are, what the likely impacts are, so it’s an important opportunity to provide those facts but … I mean the scientists are telling us that we can’t predict how long this event will go on. It’s pleasing to see that particularly outside of Adelaide, places like Kangaroo Island and elsewhere the bloom has effectively disappeared. It certainly has had an impact on the marine environment, but it’s not impacting on people’s daily lives, which is terrific.
There is still an impact on the metropolitan beaches here in Adelaide and whether it be here or in Australia or when we’ve seen these things overseas, no one can predict with certainty how long they’ll be around, which is exactly why governments need to continue providing the support in the way that we are.
Body found after house fire in northern NSW
A body has been found after a house fire on the NSW north coast this morning.
Police said emergency services were called to a two-level home on fire in Bellingen shortly after 5.10am on Tuesday.
A woman was able to escape the house, but a second resident was unaccounted for.
Firefighters put out the blaze after half an hour and a body – believed to be that of the missing person – was found when the building was searched.
Police have established a crime scene and inquiries are under way to formally identify the body and determine how the fire started.
Marles says watered down super tax changes represent ‘better way’ of achieving goals
Back to Richard Marles on Channel Nine:
The acting PM asked about the watered-down superannuation tax changes announced yesterday, and rejected characterisation of the announcement as a backdown in response to criticism of the original plan.
Superannuation was always intended to be a source of retirement income. It wasn’t meant to be its own specific investment …
But we’ve listened to feedback over the course of the election, during of course, since the roundtable. And what we’ve got here is a better way of achieving the outcome that we were trying to from the very beginning.
Coalition says changes a ‘victory’ for everyday Australians
Ted O’Brien, the shadow treasurer, described the major changes to the super tax plan as a “a victory” for “those everyday Australians who were otherwise going to be taxed unfairly by the government”.
He told RN Breakfast this morning: “It is first and foremost a victory for them”.
O’Brien said that under the government’s initial indexation plan, “millions of Australians” would be “caught in Labor’s tax trap”:
It just meant that over time, as people earn more money … what sounds like a really big balance in super today, well, fast forward 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, well, those balances actually become the norm.”
O’Brien said the Coalition’s economic policies were still under review, but would not be drawn on whether its policy would include changes to indexation.
