What we learned, Friday 20 February
Luca Ittimani
Thanks for staying with our live coverage of today’s breaking news. We’ll wrap the blog there. Have a good weekend. Here were the day’s top stories:
Key events
Sky News rebrands as News24
Sky News Australia has announced that it will become News24 later this year after losing the rights to its current name.
The News Corp platform has been forced to rebrand as it loses the rights to the name Sky News in December when a 10-year deal with UK Sky News expires. The company had been waiting for regulatory approval after requesting trademarks on six different brand names.
On Friday, the day after the station’s 30th anniversary of operations, the rebrand was revealed in a statement from its chief executive, Paul Whittaker. Whittaker said:
Forged from decades of journalistic excellence, News24 is not simply a new name — it is a statement of intent for the future of trusted, fearless storytelling. …
By adopting the “News” script, News24 creates a visible connection to a century of journalistic excellence established by Sir Keith and Rupert Murdoch … While our name is changing, our brand of news isn’t.
Whittaker said the network had also unveiled its new “state-of-the-art” broadcast headquarters at News Corp Australia’s Sydney HQ, at a launch attended by Anthony Albanese and Chris Minns.
The broadcaster would later this year launch a “refreshed” on-air look and a new website and app, titled News24.com.au, Whittaker said.
Whittaker’s statement did not mention that ABC News, the public broadcaster’s 24-hour channel and Sky’s main competitor, was launched as News 24. He also did not address the more esoteric online outlet 24 News Australia, which a few months ago began covering Australian news in Malayalam, the language spoken in the south Indian state Kerala.
Sky was careful to prevent the rebrand from leaking, as you can read here:
What we learned, Friday 20 February
Luca Ittimani
Thanks for staying with our live coverage of today’s breaking news. We’ll wrap the blog there. Have a good weekend. Here were the day’s top stories:
Why no republic referendum after Andrew’s arrest?
A Labor minister has said the former prince Andrew’s arrest will not prompt a referendum on a republic because the government is focused on Australians’ other priorities.
Anthony Albanese ruled out a new referendum today, speaking exclusively to Guardian Australia. Read the full story here or listen to the podcast, linked earlier in this blog:
Albanese’s defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, has shed more light on the government’s reasoning for ruling out a referendum. He told the ABC
Our priority is on the priorities of the Australian people …
I am a proud republican. I come from an Irish Catholic background. I voted yes to republic in 1998, but when I am at street stalls in my electorate of Shortland, that’s not what people are focused on.
They are focused on investment in healthcare, support for cost of living, defence future and investing in manufacturing. So I think that’s what we’re going to focus on: listening to the people and acting on their priorities.
Barnaby Joyce says he’s not aware of crime reports after Hanson comments
Sarah Basford Canales
Barnaby Joyce has appeared to distance himself from his party leader, Pauline Hanson, who has been criticised for refusing to back down from inflammatory comments made about Muslims within Australia.
On Sky News on Monday night, Hanson discussed the thwarted attempts by Australian women and children stuck in Syria to return home. She accused the group of hating westerners, saying: “You say, ‘Well, there’s good Muslims out there.’ How can you tell me there are good Muslims?” she said.
On ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today, host Patricia Karvelas asked the former Nationals MP whether he agreed that there are plenty of good Muslim people.
Joyce responded:
Of course I think there are Muslims who are very good people.
Joyce said he was not aware that the Australian federal police had “received reports of a crime” relating to the comments.
Guardian Australia reported on Friday afternoon the federal police were aware of the comments but did not say whether they had begun a criminal investigation, only that they would have more to say “at an appropriate time”.
You can read more here:
Listen now: PM on ex-prince Andrew – Australian Politics podcast
As we reported earlier, Anthony Albanese has said the ex-prince Andrew has had an extraordinary fall from grace but that won’t prompt another referendum on a republic.
You can now listen to Albanese’s full comments on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Pauline Hanson, and Syrian camp detainees on the Australian Politics podcast, speaking to Guardian Australia’s political editor Tom McIlroy.
Listen here:
Prisoner released two months early due to misread court documents
Police have urged a Northern Territory prisoner to turn himself in after he was mistakenly released two months early when corrections staff misread court documents.
The 52-year-old, Clinton Daylight, was mistakenly released on Wednesday due to “incorrect interpretation of a notice of suspended sentence”, according to police’s preliminary investigations.
Daylight was last seen at the Darwin Bus Exchange at 4:30pm that afternoon, police said. Department of corrections staff noticed and reported the mistake on Thursday afternoon. A police statement said:
The error was identified during routine warrant reconciliation processes, and immediate steps were taken once it was detected. A full internal review is underway to determine how this occurred.
Police have advised the public not to approach him if he is seen. Officers and corrections staff are searching for Clinton, police said, adding:
He is urged to return himself into custody as soon as possible.
Government still considering Trump’s invitation to Gaza board
Pat Conroy, the minister for defence industry, has said the govenrment is still considering Donald Trump’s invitation to a board of peace for Gaza.
Overnight at a Board of Peace event, Trump said some countries – namely Nato allies – were “playing a little cute” by deciding to not join the Trump-led board.
Australia has not yet accepted Trump’s invitation to join the board. Conroy has told the ABC:
We are still considering the offer from President Trump, and when there’s a decision made, we will let people know.
Asked why Australia had delayed making a decision, Conroy pushed back.
I would reject the assertion of the timeliness of that. We’re going through in a reasonable way as you would expect a mature adult government to do that, that is what the citizens of Australia want us to do, that is why they returned us.
Trump has also said the US government expects the chance of a nuclear deal with Iran will be clear within “probably 10 days”. News outlets have simultaneously reported the US military is readying for strikes on Iran.
Conroy did not express concern over the prospect of a US strike, saying the government was watching the negotiations between the US and Iran.
What alarms me is the world getting more nuclear weapons so we urged the parties to preserve this issue peacefully and our desires and negotiations are as full and then have no further nuclear proliferation.
QBE insurer profit bump hides climate risks, says super fund
An ethical super fund has claimed QBE’s surging profits and $2.5bn rise in market value relies on a “false sense of security” about climate risk.
QBE today saw its market value surge 8%, adding $2.5bn to reach a $32.7bn valuation. It released its results for calendar year 2025, showing profits surged to $2.1bn, from less than $1.8bn in 2024.
The Australian-based global insurer’s premiums rose more 7% overall, or 8% after stripping out areas it no longer insures, on a gross written measure.
Australian Ethical, a super fund and major investor, has called for QBE to overhaul its coverage policies, amid criticism the insurer can underwrite fossil fuel projects without restriction.
QBE’s annual report today did not specifically address those concerns, though it did identify climate change as a top risk. A QBE spokesperson last year said the insurer regularly assessed material risks including global heating.
Australian Ethical’s Amanda Richman warned last year that QBE “was not joining the dots” between support for fossil fuel projects and the need to reduce climate risks. Richman said today:
What investors care about and what we need to know is the impact of climate change on QBE’s headline growth and profit margins. They still have not disclosed this.
They’ve reported strong profits now, but are giving investors a false sense of security because a lot of it comes from exiting markets highly exposed to climate risk, which is a sign that climate risk is already restraining growth.
Read about the context here:
Measles warnings grow in Melbourne
More sites around Melbourne have been exposed to measles, the Victoria’s chief health officer has warned.
Victoria has counted 49 measles public exposure incidents across 39 sites in the last month. The chief health officer has identified seven this week alone:
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On Monday, Craigieburn’s medical and dental centre.
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On Monday and Tuesday, Clyde North’s Myhealth medical centre
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On Wednesday, Jetstar Flight JQ505 from Sydney to Melbourne, then Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport’s terminal 4.
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On Wednesday, Casey hospital’s paediatric emergency department in Berwick.
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On Wednesday, Carnegie’s urgent care clinic at Carnegie Central medical clinic.
The full list of sites and incidents can be found here.
Anyone who has visited an exposure site during the dates and times specified on the list should monitor for symptoms of measles, the health officer said.
A global increase in measles cases has spread to Australia through international and interstate travel. Read more about why cases are rising and what you can do here:
Sarah Basford Canales
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price addresses Advance’s $355-a-ticket conference
Rightwing lobby group Advance is hosting a conference today in Sydney where it’s invited a host of talking heads for the very non-elite price of $355 per person for the day ($660 if you want to spend your Saturday there too).
So far, punters have heard from the recently elevated shadow skills minister, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (who was once officially Advance’s ambassador) and some financial backers, but the former prime minister Tony Abbott is due to deliver his sermon on ending “mass immigration across the Anglosphere” shortly. Other politicians expected to speak over the two days include firebrand South Australian senator Alex Antic, and Victorian MP Moira Deeming.
Coincidentally, the conference’s platform is centring on two issues dominating debate among the federal Liberals – ending so-called “mass” immigration and stopping net zero.
There’s no stream of the talkfest, so if you’re interested in staying across the event, you’ll just have to trust the lobby group’s social media posts.
Andrew Messenger
Monarchist League says Andrew arrest won’t spark second Republic referendum
Australian Monarchist League spokesperson Alexander Voltz says the arrest of ex-prince Andrew won’t spark a second republic referendum.
Voltz said:
I don’t think so. I think this will blow over. And, you know, I also think more broadly, people will see Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor being arrested, and I don’t know if their first thought will be about monarchy and republic. I think their first thought will be about the Epstein files.
Asked if the arrest of the prince for misconduct in public office would discredit the monarchy, he said Andrew was no longer a working royal. He said blaming the rest of the royal family for Andrew’s alleged behaviour was “guilt by association”.
He said the issue is likely to become more salient, but that it won’t shift public opinion away from the monarchy.
I think that they will be able to draw a distinction between a personal scandal and then the actual technical operation of constitutional monarchy in this country.
Amanda Meade
AFR and The Age to stop print distribution in Tasmania
The Australian Financial Review and The Age will no longer be printed and distributed in Tasmania, Nine Entertainment has confirmed.
The decision means the national financial daily will soon be unavailable in two states, following a 2024 decision to stop printing in Western Australia.
“As our publishing digital-first strategy strengthens and our products become more sophisticated, Tasmanian readers are increasingly transitioning to The Age and The Australian Financial Review via our digital platforms,” a spokesperson for Nine told Guardian Australia.
Nine has absolutely no plans to stop printing and distributing in other locations.
Nine says more than 90% of subscribers in Tasmania now access digitally and the cost of production and distribution is no longer sustainable.
The Age and the AFR briefly published articles online earlier this week announcing the decision, but later killed the stories.
It’s the second time Nine has considered saving printing costs in the Apple Isle, but this time the decision has stuck. In 2022, the publisher said rising paper costs was behind the decision to stop printing in Tasmania, but the decision was reversed after an outcry from newsagents.
Newsagents said they will lose about $2,000 a month without paper copies of the newspapers to sell. Nine’s spokesperson said:
We are confident this decision will have minimal impact on local newsagents, with Nine’s printed mastheads contributing just a small fraction of our Tasmanian reach.
Luca Ittimani
Thanks Nick Visser for keeping us up to date this week. I’ll be with you for the rest of today’s live news.
Nick Visser
That’s all from me, Luca Ittimani will guide you into the weekend. Take care, and thanks for sticking with us.
Lisa Cox
Offshore gas field in WA could lead to mass coral deaths, analysis suggests
Analysis by a leading climate scientist suggests opening up a contentious WA offshore gas field could lead to the death of almost 30m coral colonies on the Great Barrier Reef due to its impact on global heating.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is calling for the government to consider this as it assesses whether Woodside’s Browse development should go ahead.
The environment group has written to the minister requesting he review the scope of the project’s assessment to factor in the analysis prepared by Prof Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick from the Australian National University.
At present, federal assessment of the Browse project is limited to local impacts, including the threat to endangered pygmy blue whales and dusky sea snakes at nearby Scott Reef.
The ACF chief executive, Adam Bandt, said:
This new information could be a gamechanger.
We believe Minister [Murray] Watt should widen his assessment of Woodside’s Browse proposal to take account of the project’s impact on the Great Barrier Reef – a world heritage site and ‘matter of national environmental significance’.
