Intergenerational Report warning: productivity or decades of deficits Treasury’s latest Intergenerational Report paints a stark long-run picture: an ageing population and slower growth mean higher debt, persistent deficits and a heavier tax burden unless productivity lifts materially. The political fight is already on, with debate over whether the government’s assumptions (including AI-driven gains) are realistic, and what policy choices—tax, migration and spending—will be needed to protect living standards. Covered by: The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Australian Financial Review, Australian Financial Review, Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Australian Financial Review, Australian Financial Review, The Australian. “I’m no fraud”: Albanese’s NYC award meets voter backlash at home Anthony Albanese is defending his decision to accept a “global citizen” award in New York as polling shows Labor’s support sliding, turning an

Clarity Global has just launched a second AI product, and reports other agencies are so impressed they’ve been asking to white label it. Surfacd Reputation Intelligence, which Clarity Global chief executive Rachel Gilley was in Sydney to discuss last week, extends the group's AI visibility platform from presence into perception.  Surfacd, the original product launched earlier this year, tracked whether a brand surfaces across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, as well as how it performs against named competitors. The new tool tracks sentiment and the prompts and citations generating them. "This is actually looking at sentiments and tracking how a brand is perceived," Gilley said. "What are the narratives that are being pulled? Are they negative? Are they positive?" Her example is a large professional services firm running a trust campaign and wanting to know whether it has landed. "Is that wh

The ABC’s contact with new National News Director Simon Robinson goes all the way back to February, The Australian’s Media Diary has revealed.  Media Diary’s Steve Jackson wrote yesterday that the ABC reportedly made its initial approach to Robinson on February 26th – three months before then National News Director Justin Stevens announced his departure from the public broadcaster.  Jackson later wrote that a formal interview between the ABC and Robinson took place in London on March 23, before him being offered the job on May 20th – six days before Stevens resignation announcement.  But on the same day (May 26th), Stevens announced his resignation from the  ABC; Robinson accepted the role at the ABC, with it made public two days later on May 28.  It comes as Robinson began the National News Director role at the national broadcaster last week. He’s already being quizzed on potential job cuts for the news division at th

Sling and Stone, Urbaine and Agent99 took out the Agency Awards at last week’s Golden Campaign Awards, while One LION won Corporate Team of the Year, TasWater was awarded Government Team of the Year and Alice and Clare Collins were NFP Team of the Year. The mother and daughter team were the night’s big winners, with Alice Collins also winning NFP Professional of the Year, Clare Collins taking Silver for NFP Leader of the Year and their Asbestos Awareness Month campaign winning Gold for NFP Campaign. National Leader of the Year was Dane Moores of SSI, while Bumpp and the Shepherd Centre took home the National Campaign of the Year. Campaign Awards CHANGE COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGN GOLD: Your Service Matters: Introducing the SA Portable Long Service Leave Scheme – Community Services – Hughes BRONZE: Let's Go Green Ipswich! – The LKB Agency COMMUNITY RELATIONS AND ENGAGEMENT CAMPAIGN GOLD: Transforming PFAS communication with Indigenous communities

Alex Zaharov-Reutt is fronting a new tech TV show, The Byte Back, aimed at consumers, with the host speaking to a range of guests about the latest business, consumer and enterprise topics. "I'm trying to appeal to everybody," Zaharov-Reutt told Influencing. "We're doing deep dives where we can, but then asking guests to explain certain jargon they've used, because the audience might not understand." The show is a weekly one-hour live broadcast on UK-based UK Live across the weekend, with two episodes published so far. Guests on those episodes have included AI keynote speaker Dan Södergren, Red Oxygen's Brett Levy, O Marketing founder Rose Ross and Telsyte's Foad Fadaghi. Zaharov-Reutt said the opportunity came together only recently. “About a month and a half ago, I got a message from the producer of one of the shows that no longer exists on the TNT Network, and she said, 'I'm part of this Mike Graham network. And we'd love to invite you on and talk about AI, robots and tec

NSW domestic violence killings put safety failures back in the spotlight A string of alleged domestic-violence-related killings across NSW — including a decapitation case near Tenterfield — has triggered renewed political pressure for tougher prevention, policing and victim-support measures. The scale and speed of the incidents has sharpened scrutiny of how quickly authorities can intervene when risk escalates, and whether current settings are deterring repeat violence. Covered by: Daily Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald. Blue Mountains stabbing shocks NSW amid broader weekend violence A preschool-aged child has been killed and two other young children and a woman critically injured in a stabbing in the Blue Mountains, a case that has reverberated nationally because of its brutality and the ages of the victims. The report situates the attack within a wider weekend spike in domestic-violence-linked deaths, intensifying calls for earlier intervention and better protection for famil

  Uttar Pradesh Police have registered a case against journalist Nikhat Ali and five other social media users over posts they allege misrepresented an Allahabad High Court hearing involving a Hindu man who converted to Islam and a subsequent dispute with his family. The FIR was filed on September 16 at Kotwali Shamli police station. It names Ali's X account, @INikhatAli, along with accounts identified as Karishma Aziz, The Muslim, Wasim Akram Tyagi, Syed Kaif Hasan and Nadeem Saifi. Police invoked Section 353(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which concerns the circulation of information alleged to cause public alarm or affect public tranquillity. According to the FIR, the accused claimed that the Allahabad High Court had reprimanded Shamli Police during proceedings involving 31-year-old Ayush Malik, a characterisation police say distorted the proceedings. The FIR does not reproduce the specific posts attributed to Ali or the other named accounts; it records police's own interpr