Australia news live: News Corp considers selling Foxtel; Marles rejects Keating’s claim Australia ‘hanging out of the Americans’ backside’ on Aukus

Key events

Most teachers want to quit school before retirement

Most public school teachers don’t see a future in the profession, AAP reports, with seven in 10 revealing they don’t think they’ll stay in the job until retirement.

Mid-career professionals were most likely to be uncertain about staying or planning to quit, according to a survey of 8000 public school teachers, principals and other education support staff who are members of the Australian Education Union.

Excessive workloads are the top concerns on educators’ minds, with teachers working an average of 12.4 hours of unpaid overtime per week.

More than 80% are unhappy about their salary, which the research paper highlighted does not increase over time like in other comparable professions. Many also noted a concern with student behavior, including violence.

The majority of education staff don’t see their jobs as long-term propositions, according to the survey. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

AEU Victoria president Meredith Peace said educators were “bogged down” with admin.

Without significant and urgent action to retain current staff, the teacher workforce shortage crisis impacting Victorian public schools will get worse.

They report not having the time for doing their key work, including working directly with students, collaborating on teaching and learning, supporting colleagues and planning curriculum.

Andrew Messenger

Gold Coast pill testing clinic detects toxic cutting agent in cocaine

Queensland’s pill testing clinics issued a public warning today after detecting a banned cutting agent that causes cancer in cocaine on the Gold Coast.

Phenacetin was an ingredient in Bex powders and Vicks until it was found to cause kidney damage and cancer. CheQpoint, which operates a drug testing clinic on the Gold Coast, said it detected Phenacetin in two recently-tested samples.

Cameron FrancisCEO of the Loop Australia, said it highlighted the importance of drug testing.

Our Gold Coast service has been open for just over a month, and we’ve already detected this harmful chemical. It’s important that people who use unregulated drugs get their drugs checked at our free, confidential service.

This comes as Queensland is set to operate a drug testing clinic during Schoolies for the first time this year:

Phenacetin was banned in pharmaceuticals in 1983 but is still often used to cut cocaine. Users are more likely to experience immediate adverse effects like an abnormal heartbeat or chest pain and hallucinations if it is used to dilute the drug. It’s also toxic and can cause shortness of breath, fatigue, and cyanosis (a bluish discoloration of the skin).

Jonathan Barrett

News Corp offsets revenue fall in news business

News Corp has recorded a jump in full-year revenue, driven by robust results delivered by its business-focused Dow Jones unit, book publishing arm and Australian real estate portal, which helped offset weakness in its news division.

The Rupert Murdoch-backed conglomerate reported $US10.1bn ($15.3bn) in full year revenue, up 2% from the previous year. Its net profit also bounced back.

There were mixed results among the various divisions of the US-listed company, which owns mastheads in the US, UK and Australia, along with book publishers, subscription television and real estate advertising assets.

News Corp has recently cut jobs in Australia. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Earnings from its news media division plunged 23% over the year, which was weighed down by weaker revenues generated in its Australian business, where circulation and subscription income fell.

The trading period, marked by high inflation, has proven difficult for publishers around the world, due to subdued demand from advertisers and subscribers.

News Corp has recently cut jobs in Australia, where it publishes news titles including The Australian, Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun.

Marles says Australia not making additional commitments under new Aukus deal

Making the rounds this morning, deputy PM Richard Marles He also spoke with ABC News Breakfast about the new Aukus agreement.

He was asked about comments from US president Joe Bidenwho referred to additional political commitments from Australia – what are these commitments?

Marles said the agreement “provide(s) the underpinning of what we’ve already agreed” – and suggested there were no further commitments.

The substance of this agreement has been public for more than a year, but this is a critical step in this journey, because this is the legal (and) foundational underpinning at a treaty level of what we agreed last year.

‘Critical step’: Richard Marles. Photograph: Kevin Mohatt/Reuters

Marles reiterated his earlier comments that there was “no chance” Australia would take foreign nuclear waste under Aukus.

We are responsible for our nuclear waste. We made that clear in March of last year and there’s a process under way with that. The first moment that we need to dispose of our own nuclear reactors will be in the 2050s, so we have time to get that right. But that’s the only nuclear waste that we will be disposing of.

News Corp considers offers for Foxtel

Jonathan Barrett

The Rupert Murdoch-backed media conglomerate News Corp will consider offers for its pay television platform Foxtel, which includes the Kayo and Binge streaming services.

Chief executive Robert Thomson said in a company earnings release that potential buyers had emerged while News Corp was reviewing its portfolio of assets.

That review has recently coincided with third-party interest in a potential transaction involving the Foxtel Group, which has been positively transformed in recent years.

We are evaluating options for the business with our advisers in light of that external interest.

The number of paid subscribers has been increasing for the Binge streaming service and sports-focused Kayo, while audience numbers have been falling for its Foxtel Now platform.

News Corp owns a majority share of the Foxtel Group, alongside minority holder Telstra.

Fog on Adelaide roads prompts driving weather alert

A road weather alert has been issued for Adelaide amid foggy conditions.

The Bureau of Meteorology Says reduced visibility in fog would make road conditions dangerous this morning in the Adelaide area, warning motorists to:

Insurance prices blowing away cyclone-prone communities

Insurers aren’t doing enough to support cyclone-stricken regions of north Queensland as climate change intensifies the impact of natural disasters, a Senate inquiry will hear today.

Ace AAP reports, property owners in Queensland’s cyclone region are paying up to 12 times more on insurance premiums than those near the southern border, according to a submission by the North Queensland Strata Action Group.

The Senate inquiry will meet for a second day in Brisbane to hear evidence from Strata Action and Suncorp, as well as local governments and climate advocacy organisations.

Insurance prices have more than tripled since 2022 and, as the cost-of-living crisis gets worse, residents are struggling to keep up.

Property owners in Queensland’s cyclone zone are paying 12 times more for insurance than near NSW. Photograph: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

The federal government has made major investments into disaster mitigation in the region but residents are still being denied coverage based on risk, the Queensland Local Government Association said in its submission.

The prices are set for the entire region, which means residents are paying more for risks that might not even affect their community.

The committee is due to report to the Senate on November 19.

Marles on Solomon Islands request to fund thousands of police

Wrapping up the interview, Richard Marles was asked about a request from the Solomon Islands prime minister, Jeremiah Manele, for Australia to fund the salaries of more than 3,000 police over the next decade.

Marles said he wouldn’t go into the specifics, but “doing more cooperation on policing is certainly something that we are interested in doing.”

We are looking for ways in which we can contribute more to Solomon Islands national security, and that very much includes its policing activities.

It is definitely a key challenge that Solomon Islands faces, and one of the key asks that they’ve had in a dialogue that we’ve had with them…

I think that Australians absolutely understand that we need to be placing a focus on the Pacific, and greater engagement with the Pacific is, in fact, the most cost-effective thing we can do in terms of the promotion of our own national security.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele and Anthony Albanese at Parliament House in Canberra in June. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Marles says Paul Keating entitled to his views and defends Australia’s role in Aukus

Richard Marles was asked about comments last night from former PM Paul Keatingwho said Aukus risked handing military control of the country to Washington and Australia risked becoming the “51st state of the United States.”

Paul Keating says Australia doesn’t need to be ‘hanging out of the Americans’ backside’. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Marles said Keating was entitled to his views but that Australia was facing “the most complex strategic circumstances that we’ve had to deal with since the end of the second world war.”

In assessing that, what is clear to us is that our strategic objective lies in the maintenance of that rules based order, given that freedom of navigation on the high seas – as an example – is utterly fundamental to Australia’s national prosperity and national security, when we see a much greater proportion of our national income derived from trade … What we are doing is seeking to protect that.

What we are doing is seeking to make our contribution to the collective security of the region in which we live, and that is the Indo-Pacific, and what that requires is an ability for us to engage in much greater protection. And that is why we are pursuing the capability of a long-range capable submarine. That’s why we are pursuing the capabilities of longer range strike missiles, why we’re looking at having a much more mobile army.

Marles says no chance Australia would take foreign nuclear waste under Aukus

The deputy prime minister, Richard Marlesis on ABC RN this morning to discuss the new Aukus agreement signed with the US and UK.

Daniel Hurst had all the details on this earlier in the blog, here, in case you missed it.

Marles labeled the agreement a “foundational document,” providing the “legal underpinning of what we agreed with the US and the UK under the banner of Aukus in March of last year.”

Richard Marles with foreign minister Penny Wong and US secretary of state Antony Blinken in Maryland this week. Photograph: Drew Angerer/AFP/Getty Images

Asked whether there is any legislative assurance that nuclear waste won’t end up in Australia, Marles responded:

Nuclear waste won’t end up in Australia, other than the waste that is generated by Australia … So be completely clear, there’s no circumstance in which we would be taking waste from any other country…

We’re not going to be in a position of needing to dispose of any of those reactors until the early 2050s. What this agreement does, though, is provide for the legal underpinning of what we agreed to in March of last year, and we will see a nuclear reactor embedded in the Virginia-class submarines that we procure.

We will be seeing new co-reactors coming from Rolls-Royce, which will form part of the submarines that we build in Australia. In order to actually enable that, it requires a treaty and treaty-level agreement between our countries, and that’s what we’ve now signed.

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Australia news live: News Corp considers selling Foxtel; Marles rejects Keating’s claim Australia ‘hanging out of the Americans’ backside’ on Aukus | Australia news

Most teachers want to quit school before retirement

News Corp considers offers for Foxtel

Marles says no chance Australia would take foreign nuclear waste under Aukus