Australia investigating reports of human rights activist detained in Vietnam – as it happened

NEW YORK, 30 SEPTEMBER 2026 —

The Reserve Bank has lifted its key interest rate to 4.6% , its highest level since 2011, from 4.35%. The RBA’s rate-setting board, in its statement accompanying its decision today, has warned its fears about inflation are coming to fruition and it is ready to lift interest rates again.

OpenAI’s chief strategy officer will fly to Australia from the US next week to appear before a joint select committee on artificial intelligence. New South Wales police have arrested a man over the suspicious deaths of two men in the state’s north who were found dead at the same property. A small number of bogong moths have arrived at Parliament House in Canberra, the first sightings amid an apparent resurgence of the endangered native insect.

Thanks for sticking around, we’ll see you tomorrow morning to do it all over again. Australian officials are making “urgent” inquiries with Vietnamese authorities to confirm the detention of a democracy campaigner. Vietnamese Australian Tran Hiep , 50, has not been in contact with his family since 18 September, following a short trip to Cambodia to meet with human rights activists.

A spokesman for the foreign affairs department said it had made “urgent inquiries with Vietnamese authorities to confirm reports that an Australian citizen has been detained”. double quotation mark We are providing consular assistance to the Australian’s family. In a statement, the Vietnamese government said it had arrested Hiep and two others entering the country from the Cambodian border.

Mehreen Faruqi and Nick McKim have issued a statement about their joint ticket for the Greens leadership. They said. double quotation mark To meet the moment, the Greens need to grow. We need to take the fight to Labor and a broken economic system that rips off young people, keeps working people drowning in bills and wreaks havoc on nature and climate.

“As the far-right gains strength, we think we are the right people to resist, and to grow our movement alongside our colleagues, members and supporters. Our politics are unapologetically bold and we want to lead with hope over hate and people over profit. NSW senator and current Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi will run for the party leadership this week, on a joint ticket with Tasmanian senator Nick McKim .

Faruqi is the second declared candidate, after Sarah Hanson-Young said on Tuesday she would contest the leadership. The race has been sparked by Larissa Waters ’ shock resignation on Monday night due to health concerns. A decision is expected in the next 48 hours, with Greens members set to congregate at a two-day party retreat in Sydney.

Faruqi has been in federal parliament since 2018 and holds portfolios including university education, international aid and animal welfare. McKim, who would become deputy leader, holds the party’s treasury portfolio. The Greens party co-founder Bob Brown says Larissa Waters can “feel very proud” of her time as party leader after stepping down due to ill health. Waters quit the top job after 16 months as she manages a worsening chronic kidney condition.

Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Brown said: double quotation mark The last couple of months have shown the highest poll ratings for the Greens in history. Up there averaging 13%, 14%, [sometimes] hitting 16%. So … the Larissa team, and Larissa herself, can feel very proud about that as she leaves and hopefully gets very better, very much better from the health problems she’s had.

Brown said he felt “very confident” about whoever the party chose as its next leader. double quotation mark It’s a team that’s going places. The Greens party room will make the decision tomorrow. I’ll leave that to them. What I can say is it now has a depth of talent for leadership. There are three or four people in there who would make excellent leaders.

They know each other’s qualities, and the public can be sure they’ll come up with the right answer. A man has been arrested after two men were found dead at a home in Gurranang, about 25km north of Grafton, two weeks apart. Police were called to the house on 13 September where they found the body of a 79-year-old man inside.

On 28 September, police went to the same location as part of their investigation, and while there they found the body of another man inside a shed. The second man is believed to be aged 59. Today, police arrested a 32-year-old man at a hospital in Grafton. He was taken to the Grafton police station and the investigation is ongoing.

The former Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has called for the party’s membership to get a vote on its next parliamentary leader. Defeated at last year’s election, the former Griffith MP is now the head of the party thinktank The Green Institute. In an open letter, he called a members’ vote “a radical idea”.

A plebiscite in 2020 saw 62% of Greens members support “one-member, one-vote” for the election of the leader, but the move fell short of a required two-thirds majority. double quotation mark People often ask how to recreate the political success and energy of UK Greens leader, Zack Polanksi or New York Mayor, Zohran Mamdani. The recipe for their success doesn’t just lie in their policies, rhetoric or even organising strategy.

It lies in the process by which they won their elections. In both instances they were elected by direct member elections.