Australia news live: Albanese joined world leaders on phone call to discuss Ukraine; Qantas faces hefty fine over outsourcing

<p>Follow today’s news live</p><ul><li><p>Get our <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl">breaking news email</a>, <a href="https://app.adjust.com/w4u7jx3">free app</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl">daily news podcast</a></p></li></ul><p><strong>Shadow education minister says childcare safety reforms should come more quickly</strong></p><p><strong>Jonno Duniam</strong>, the shadow minister for education, said governments on both sides of the spectrum had failed for years to institute reforms on the childcare sector, issuing calls for the Labor government and states to act quickly to make such changes.</p><p>Both governments of all persuasions have dropped the ball. The government I was a part of dropped the ball. We should have acted on that at the time. The fact that we didn’t and the fact that we are now hearing these stories means we failed. But regardless of who was in power and who didn’t do what, here we are today and we need to act.</p><p>With the resources of eight states and territories and the commonwealth combined, I would be absolutely stunned if we could not get this thing off the ground in the next few weeks. So I hope that things do speed up. I hope that the end result is a national system.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/aug/18/politics-ebikes-qantas-lambie-gaza-palestine-danielle-wood-productivity-tax-reform-roundtable-anthony-albanese-jim-chalmers-ntwnfb">Continue reading...</a>