CANBERRA, ACT, May 19 -- Australian Federal Police issued the following media release: A Vietnamese national tracked down in Sydney by the AFP's Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team (FAST) has been extradited from Australia to face charges in Vietnam of appropriating property by swindling. Marking the first extradition from Australia to Vietnam, the AFP handed the woman, 67, over to the custody of officers from the Ministry of Public Security on Friday (15 May, 2026) for escort on a flight to Vie...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 19 -- The Treasurer of Australia issued the following media release: The Albanese Government is further reforming Australia's foreign investment framework to make it work better for investors, our economy, and our national interest. This second round of foreign investment reforms is all about making more improvements so the regime is much stronger where risks are high and much faster where risks are low. It builds on our first round of reforms in 2024. These reforms will i...
SYDNEY, May 19 -- Australian Prudential Regulation Authority issued the following media release: The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has disqualified the former chair of Xinja Bank Limited (Xinja), Lindley Edwards, from being an accountable person of any authorised deposit-taking institution1 under the Financial Accountability Regime (FAR). Ms Edwards is disqualified for a period of six years for failing to comply with her accountability obligations as an accountable person o...
SYDNEY, May 19 -- Australian Prudential Regulation Authority issued the following media release: The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released a consultation on a proposal to replace the non-confidentiality determination that supports publication of aggregated statistics from the National Claims and Policies Database (NCPD). The proposal also details a refreshed publication format. Written submissions regarding the proposals should be submitted by 16 June 2026. The consul...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 19 -- The Treasurer of Australia issued the following transcript: Note Subjects: 2026 Budget, free access to mandatory standards for tradies, tax reform, alcohol excise Jim Chalmers: A really big thank you to James and his colleagues here at BM Sydney Materials for welcoming us here in Cabramatta. We're here with Anne Stanley and Tu Le, 2 wonderful Labor people and supporters of small business and the housing industry in this wonderful part of suburban Sydney. The Budget ...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 19 -- The Prime Minister of Australia issued the following media release: PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: It is wonderful to have the Prime Minister here in the electorate of Perth in the great state of Western Australia, and to be accompanied by Premier Roger Cook. We delivered our Budget one week ago, and one of the big focuses of that budget was housing, making sure more Australians have a place to call home. But it wasn't the first time our budge...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 19 -- The Prime Minister of Australia issued the following media release: After discussions between Australia and China, including between the Prime Minister and China's Premier Li, the Albanese Labor Government has helped to secure three shipments of jet fuel, totaling more than 600,000 barrels or about 100 million litres. The Government has also helped to secure another 38,500 tonnes of agricultural grade urea from Brunei, for Australian farmers, producers, and our agricul...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 18 -- Australian Federal Police issued the following media release: A Victorian man was sentenced by the Melbourne County Court on 14 May, 2026, after pleading guilty to stealing mobile phone numbers from unsuspecting victims of identity theft. The Lynbrook man, 35, was sentenced to two years and two months' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 12 months. He had previously pleaded guilty to: * Nine counts of cause unauthorised access, modification or impairment of d...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 18 -- Australian Federal Police issued the following media release: Editor's note: An image from the search warrant is available on Hightail. A Far North Queensland man is expected to appear in Innisfail Magistrates Court today (18 May, 2026) charged with 34 online child abuse offences. In 2024, the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) received information relating to an Australian resident allegedly in contact with a known online child abuse fac...
CANBERRA, ACT, May 18 -- Australian Federal Police issued the following media release: AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett Seventeen tonnes of illicit drugs, mostly cocaine, has been seized by local and international law enforcement in the Pacific since January. That equates to about three tonnes of illicit drugs seized every month since the start of this year. For the entire year in 2025, the total seizure of illicit drugs in the Pacific region was about 4.6 tonnes. The increase is partly becau...