Senators David Shoebridge and Steph Hodgins-Ma have confirmed they will stand for the Greens' leadership contest. In a joint statement posted on Shoebridge's Instagram profile, they announced they would form a 'fresh leadership team'.
In a statement, they said they were not seeking to reform the Labor Party, but to replace it. 'We are not seeking to reform the Labor Party, but to replace it,' the statement read. The candidates said the answer to the rise of One Nation and the far right was to give people hope and improve their lives through genuine economic and ecological security.
Shoebridge and Hodg-Ma highlighted specific priorities in their campaign: 'school meals for children', 'no new coal and gas projects' and 'stopping the wave of American billionaires and their vampire AI data centres'. They also said the Greens must become 'a mass movement'.
They expressed support for the idea proposed by former MP Max Chnder-Ma that ordinary party members, not just the parliamentary wing, should have the right to vote for the leader. They added that they would 'work with the party on this'.
In a separate development, the University of Melbourne was the top-ranked Australian university on this year's Times Higher Education ranking, taking 34th place. The University of Sydney is in 51st place, Monash University in 61st, the University of Queensland in 73rd, UNSW Sydney in 75th, and the Australian National University in 77th place.
The Times Higher Education ranking assesses the teaching environment, research, contribution to industry and innovation, and international perspective. According to the ranking, Australia has deviated from the broader trend of declining Western universities and remains 'relatively stable'. Australia's overall score, however, has fallen slightly due to weaker research productivity, the ratio of doctoral students to teaching staff, the student-to-teacher ratio, and research strength. Improvements were recorded in research and institutional revenue, as well as in citation reputation and impact. The University of Oxford took first place for the eleventh year running.
Abigail Bradshaw, chief executive of the Australian Signal Directorate, said that Australia is indebted to artificial intelligence companies that allow access to sophisticated models, but added that the partnerships work 'in both directions'. Appearing on RN Breakfast after OpenAI breached the security of the government's Medicare portal, Bradshaw said that Australia could offer 'unique insights' to the tech giants. She highlighted that OpenAI had agreed to share preliminary findings, that it had taken a significant step by slowing the release of the next model to ensure safety measures were in place, and that it had offered practical support. Engagement with OpenAI, Anthropic and others has been ongoing for the past six months, she added.
Meanwhile, swarms of bogong moths have begun their annual migration, travelling up to 1,000 kilometres from their home ranges across the country to a small number of cool caves in the Australian Alps. Submissions to the Moth Tracker citizen science program have already exceeded the total for 2025, according to Zo Victoria, which runs the platform. Sightings of the endangered bogong moth have increased over the past two years.
The line-up for the Laneway Festival has been announced. Headlined by Fontaines D.C. alongside Hayley Williams, frontwoman of Paramore. The list also includes Slayyyter and Adela, who join Kim Petras and Muni, while Ninjirachi, Ecca Vandal and Swapmeet are also on the bill.
