Guardian Australia

One in four humanities students will take more than 25 years to fully repay their student loans because of Morrison government changes to university fees, newly public Treasury modelling reveals.

The job-ready graduates program, introduced in 2021 under the former prime minister Scott Morrison, will also leave almost two-thirds of humanities and creative arts students saddled with debts exceeding $50,000.

Treasury also found median repayment times for creative arts graduates increasing from 14 to 17 years because of the scheme – which critics point out has been in place longer under Labor than under the last Coalition government.

The scheme was introduced to incentivise students to take degrees such as science, nursing, education and IT, and disincentivise humanities, law and creative arts degrees by significantly increasing fees.

📷: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Reporting by Krishani Dhanji. Read the full story. 🔗👉 www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/may/04/hec…

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Guardian Australia

The Reserve Bank has delivered a third straight interest rate hike, as it seeks to head off the inflationary threat from higher fuel prices linked to the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran.

A week out from what the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is simultaneously calling his most ambitious and responsible budget yet, the widely anticipated decision to increase the cash rate to 4.35% from 4.1% comes amid growing worries about the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict.

The RBA’s board hiked rates on Tuesday for a third consecutive meeting, after increases in February and March. Rates are now back where they were at the start of 2025, with each of that year’s three rate cuts now unwound.

Tuesday’s hike was widely expected, picked by most economists surveyed by Bloomberg. But financial markets had not fully priced in an increase, with some thinking the RBA might wait and see what the federal government does with its budget next week.

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Guardian Australia

Event chairs Nicole Kidman, Beyoncé, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour had guests dress to the theme ‘fashion is art’, at the event controversially funded by new honorary chairs Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos.

See more red carpet looks. ✨ 🔗 👉 www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2026/may/05/me…

1. Katy Perry arrives for the 2026 Met Gala underneath a mask. The internet is describing her Stella McCartney look as ‘giving fencing astronaut’. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

2. Anna Wintour, the global chief content officer of Condé Nast, and the woman behind the gala, wears an eau de nil feathered cape, clutching a small box of mineral water as an accessory. Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

3. Beyoncé sweeps in with a feathered train that takes five people to carry, and occupies a full tier of the Met’s steps. The cloak, and the crystal-encrusted skeleton gown beneath it, are designed by longtime collaborator Olivier Rousteing. Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

4. Creator Emma Chamberlain is the first to step on to the green carpet, in a custom watercolour Mugler gown that that looks like it’s melting into the ground. The dress is inspired by the maison’s 1997 La Chimère ensemble. Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

5. Doechii attends the 2026 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 4 May in New York City. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

6. Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storrie makes his Met Gala debut in a spotted Saint Laurent halter top. Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

7. Hunter Schafer’s deconstructed Prada tea dress is a nod to Gustav Klimt’s Mäda Primavesi, which sits in the Met’s collection. It’s a bit Cinderella, a bit Parisian flea market and a great look. Photograph: Matt Crossick/PA

8. Kylie Jenner has lost her eyebrows and gained a prominent pair of sculpted nipples in a surreal Schiaparelli gown with a pearl encrusted train. Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

9. Event chair Nicole Kidman, who has been on a Chanel contract for more than 20 years, wears a sequinned blood red gown with a puffs of feathers on its peplum and cuffs. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

10. Ready for a tongue twister? Sabrina Carpenter is wearing a Dior dress made of film, from the film Sabrina. Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

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1 day ago | [YT] | 39

Guardian Australia

Astronomers have discovered 27 new potential planets that orbit two stars, like the fictional desert planet Tatooine from the Star Wars universe.

To date, only about 18 circumbinary planets – which orbit around two stars – had been identified in the universe. More than 6,000 planets have been discovered that orbit single stars, like Earth does around the sun.

In a timely publication for 4 May, also known as Star Wars Day, scientists have identified nearly 30 more candidate planets, whose distances range from 650 to 18,000 light years away from Earth.

Reporting by Donna Lu. Read the full story. 🔗👉 www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/04/scientists…

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Guardian Australia

Sydney’s Jewish community told police of a “high” threat of an attack at December’s Chanukah by the Sea festival at Bondi beach, but New South Wales police appeared not to have completed a comprehensive risk assessment for the event, an interim royal commission report has found.

The interim report of the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion, established in the wake of December’s terror attack, found no gap in current laws that could have prevented the shooting. But it did call for greater coordination of policing at Jewish festivals and events.

The report, handed down by commissioner Virginia Bell on Thursday, also warned that the current war being waged against Iran by the United States and Israel “is likely to have increased the risk of attacks directed at the Australian Jewish community”.

Reporting by Ben Doherty, Josh Butler and Nino Bucci. Full story. 🔗👉 www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/30/bon…

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5 days ago | [YT] | 59

Guardian Australia

A portrait of actor Jacob Collins by Sean Layh has won the favour of Art Gallery of NSW staff, who awarded it the Packing Room prize on Thursday, ahead of the Archibald prize’s main announcement on 8 May.

Layh is a self-taught painter, who said winning the prize for his work – an oil painting titled The tragicall historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke – was “one of the great honours of my professional life”.

Based in Melbourne, he said much of his technical skill was forged through visiting the National Gallery Victoria’s permanent collection.

Read the full story. 🔗👉 www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/apr/30/archi…

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Guardian Australia

Inflation jumped to 4.6% in the year to March, from 3.7% the month before, in what the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, warned was the start of an Iran war-linked fuel shock that will ripple through the economy over coming months.

With consumer prices now growing at their fastest pace in two-and-a-half years, financial markets are betting the Reserve Bank will hike interest rates for a third straight meeting next Tuesday as officials struggle to manage the nightmare scenario of containing inflation even as growth is expected to slow sharply.

The treasurer ahead of next month’s budget said “inflation is likely to peak higher than this”, even as he reassured Australians that the economy was well placed to navigate the fallout from the war.

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6 days ago | [YT] | 31

Guardian Australia

Large parts of south-east Australia look set for drier and hotter conditions over the next three months as a potential El Niño weather phenomenon takes shape in the Pacific Ocean.

Much of Queensland and New South Wales are forecast to have lower than usual rainfall in May, June and July, with almost the entire country likely to experience hotter than average maximum temperatures.

The World Meteorological Organization said last week there was an increasing chance of an El Niño developing in the Pacific – a phenomenon that historically has increased the chances of hotter and drier conditions for Australia’s east.

📷: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Reporting by Graham Readfearn. Read the full story. 🔗👉 www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/27/wea…

1 week ago | [YT] | 31

Guardian Australia

McDonald’s is poised to open a 24/7 takeaway outlet on a Melbourne street once dubbed the “world’s coolest” after the fast food giant won its legal challenge against the local council’s attempt to block the new restaurant.

Victoria’s civil and administrative tribunal (Vcat) has upheld McDonald’s application for a review of Darebin city council’s decision to reject its application to turn 323 High Street in Northcote into one of its stores.

Darebin councillors voted six to three at a planning meeting in November last year to reject the application for minor works that would have transformed the dilapidated building into a McDonald’s convenience restaurant.

📷: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Reporting by Catie McLeod. Read the full story. 🔗👉 www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/27/mcd…

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Guardian Australia

Winning and shortlisted works move seamlessly between documentary and invention. Across these images, tender couples hold each other close, people reclaim their identities from the burden of colonial memories and the harsh realities of the war in Ukraine come sharply into focus.

1. Bin and Yuting in their Room, Finalist. Photographer: Kaishui Yikai Liu

2. Loving in Danger, Single winner first place. Photographer: Asafe Ghalib

3. Yuma, Single winner second place. Photographer: James Clifford Kent

4. The Costs of War in Ukraine, Single winner third place. Photographer: Jelle Krings

5. Teresa and Her Possums, Finalist. Photographer: Christiaan Lopez-Miro

6. The Boys. The Napolitano, Finalist. Photographer: Doron Gild

7. Jacqueline and Philippe, Finalist. Photographer: Michiru Nakayama

8. Trust, Finalist. Photographer: Liana Koll

9. Tracing the cold vein, Jurors’ pick. Photographer: Will Warasila

10. Russia at dusk, Jurors’ pick. Photographer: Dmitry Ersler

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