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Key events

Krishani Dhanji

Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.

After a dramatic night of Senate estimates (see earlier posts), we have another busy day of public servant grilling and parliamentary sitting.

It’s going to be a busy one so let’s get stuck in!

Nacc boss subject of second complaint investigation

Tom McIlroy

Outgoing National Anti-corruption Commission boss Paul Brereton is the subject of a second investigation by the organisation’s inspector.

At Senate estimates hearings last night, inspector Gail Furness revealed she had begun a second investigation into Brereton, who is due to retire from the role on 6 July.

“On 14 April, 2026 I commenced a complaint investigation into a complaint I had received about the conduct of the commissioner,” Furness said.

“I commenced that investigation after I had received the commissioner’s response to the complaint. On 28 April, 2026 I provided the commissioner with a copy of my draft complaint investigation report.

“I’m currently awaiting the commissioner’s submissions in response to my draft complaint investigation report.”

Furness announced in February she would again investigate the watchdog for maladministration over defence-related referrals by Brereton.

The author of the Afghanistan war crimes inquiry, he continued consulting for the inspector-general of the defence force after taking up the Nacc role in 2023 without the federal government’s knowledge.

Furness said the complaint had been made some months earlier and the complaint was not related to the first investigation.

Universities grappling with ‘class size explosion’, new report suggests

Caitlin Cassidy

University class sizes have surged since before the pandemic and student learning is in decline, a new report suggests.

The report, released today by the National Tertiary Education Union (Nteu), surveyed more than 4,000 university staff across the nation.

It found the proportion of tutorials with 30 or more students had more than doubled since 2019, from 12% to 27%. The optimal range is considered to be between 10 and 19, but the report found just 9% of tutorials were meeting that standard.

More than eight in 10 staff surveyed said their ability to support students individually had been compromised, with just 1.7% reporting an improvement in student outcomes since 2019.

The president of the Nteu, Dr Alison Barnes, said “class size explosion is being felt at campuses nationwide”.

The real-life consequences are unmanageable workloads with students ultimately paying the price. Students aren’t getting the attention they need and their education suffers. This could have a dangerous ripple effect that we feel for generations.

Australia typically performs poorly internationally for its faculty to student ratio, with no Australian university scoring in the top 300 according to the QS World University Rankings. Its universities record an average score of 12.5/100 on QS’s ‘learning experience’ indicator, well below the global average of 28.1.

Reacting to the Quad meeting, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that cooperation “should not be directed against any third party”, AFP reports.

“We also do not support exclusive cliques or bloc confrontations,” she told reporters.

The Quad ministers said in a joint statement they were “seriously concerned” about the South China Sea and East China Sea and opposed “destabilising or unilateral actions” – a clear reference to Beijing.

The ‘Quad’ group of countries – Australia, the United States, India and Japan –have announced a new initiative to build surveillance capabilities and critical minerals cooperation, Agence France Presse reports.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio took part in the meeting in New Delhi, and said the Quad comprised countries “who share strong values – strong, vibrant democracies” and have “many aligned interests”.

The Quad said in a joint statement members would together mobilise US$20 billion in government and private money to strengthen critical mineral supply chains, including by identifying projects in the four countries.

They would also work together on two maritime initiatives – one that combines their surveillance capabilities, and another that will provide enhanced real-time information to commercial traffic at sea.

Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the Quad was cooperating on assisting port development in Fiji – a key island nation in the South Pacific, where China has made a concerted push for greater influence.

“We recognise our obligation – our responsibility – to provide real choices, particularly as strategic circumstances in our region are deteriorating,” Wong said.

The Quad in a statement also set a goal of connecting South Pacific islands through undersea cables by the end of the year, integrating them economically to the four democracies rather than China.

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.

It was a busy night at Senate estimates with the National Anti-corruption Commission inspector announcing that she has launched a second investigation into the outgoing boss Paul Brereton. Gail Furness’s announcement came after Brereton hit back at suggestions he had contributed to the major suffering of robodebt victims. More on that coming up.

In addition, it was revealed at estimates that the Australian federal police and the federal government’s special investigator for war crimes allegations have asked the Nacc to investigate media leaks about the arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith. More details to follow.

Overseas, there’s been a meeting of the Quad countries in New Delhi attended by Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong. They announced a deal for new cooperation on surveillance and a new port for Fiji, in a move to counter China’s influence that Beijing has not taken well. More on this soon.