The Treaty aims to expand and modernise Australia and Papua New Guinea’s security and defence ties through creating mutual defence and consultation obligations, allowing for the conduct of Defence Cooperation Activities in each other’s territory, and providing frameworks to govern visiting forces.
The committee will examine how the Treaty will impact the security, defence and domestic circumstances of both countries.
Committee Chair, Lisa Chesters MP, said, "Australia and Papua New Guinea share deep historical and cultural ties, and also a strong defence partnership. As our closest neighbour, Australia’s relationship with Papua New Guinea is one of our most important.
‘The committee is interested in whether the Treaty contributes to Australia’s national interests and security, including how the Treaty could enhance our role as a trusted partner of the Pacific."
The committee will hear evidence from the Department of Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade at the public hearing.
Public hearing details
Date: Monday, 23 March 2026 Time: 11am - 1pm AEDT (approximately) Location: Committee Room 2R1, Parliament House Canberra
THE Essential Services Commission has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria against energy retailer Engie.
Engie is the fifth largest energy retailer in the state, with 180,000 electricity and 155,000 gas residential customers in Victoria.
The commission has alleged that between January 23, 2024, and November 14, 2024, Engie broke Victorian energy laws by:
failing to assist customers experiencing financial difficulties;
failing to provide family violence protections;
failing to follow rules designed to prevent bill shock;
collecting debts from customers receiving financial difficulty assistance.
The customers identified in court documents include pensioners, a family violence victim-survivor, a single parent and a carer.
Each of the customers sought help from Engie due to financial hardship. The commission alleged that Engie’s failure to provide these customers with timely or adequate assistance as legally required, caused them significant harm.
The commission is seeking civil penalties and other remedies including declarations, contravention orders and adverse publicity orders.
The commission established a taskforce to investigate Engie after receiving a referral from the Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria (EWOV), last year. EWOV had received an influx of complaints about Engie, and its data showed Engie had become the state's most complained about energy retailer.
The work of the taskforce is ongoing, and the commission will consider further enforcement measures based on its findings.
Essential Services Commission chairperson and commissioner, Gerard Brody said, “After conducting a detailed investigation, we allege Engie failed to adequately assist some of its most vulnerable customers when they sought help with paying their bills.
“This is the third enforcement action the commission has taken against Engie in the past 18 months. We fined them $1.7 million in September 2024, $1.2 million last November, and we believe these latest allegations warrant the court’s attention,” Mr Brody said.
“Energy retailers in Victoria have a responsibility to assist customers struggling to pay their bills. We consider Engie’s failures are serious, which is why we’re taking Engie to the Supreme Court of Victoria," he said.
“The commission continues to focus on ensuring consumers experiencing vulnerability are given fair access to essential services. These customers are often doing everything they can to keep their head above water, so when support fails them the effects can be outsized and ongoing.”
According to the commission, in November 2025, Engie paid more than $1.2 million for allegedly failing to respond to customer complaints about billing issues in a timely manner. One customer waited over a year to have their bill reviewed.
Engie also paid almost $1.7 million in September 2024 for alleged family violence and performance reporting failures. The family violence failures impacted 65 customers over a period of four years.
THE Electoral Matters Committee will be conducting public hearings in Hobart and Devonport as part of its inquiry into the 2025 Federal Election.
Committee Chair, Jerome Laxale MP said, "Australian polling booths are the envy of the world as welcoming places of civic participation and good-natured competition. Yet for many voters and campaigners, the 2025 election was one of the most unpleasant and confronting in their memory.
"During this inquiry, the committee has taken the time to listen to ordinary Australians make statements about their experiences at the 2025 Federal Election. These valuable experiences will contribute to the committee’s work of restoring the overwhelmingly positive experience Australians have when voting," Mr Laxale said.
The committee will be holding hearings in Hobart on April 28 this year and in Devonport on April 29.
To register interest in making a five-minute statement at upcoming hearings, contact the Committee Secretariat at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
‘The committee is also expected to take evidence on Tasmania’s approach to administering polling booths at state elections, and the views of Tasmanians on expanding the size of the Australian Parliament," Mr Laxale said..
Further information on the 2025 election inquiry can be found at the inquiry webpage. Committee details can be found at the Committee’s webpage.
Date: Wednesday, 29 April 2026. Location: paranaple Convention Centre, 137 Rooke Street, Devonport.
Programs for these upcoming hearings will be advertised on the committee’s public hearings webpage as they are finalised. The hearing will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live.
The hearing will bring together experts from the humanities and social sciences, language education, and international relations to explore how the Australian education system builds our understanding of and capability to engage with Asia.
Committee Chair Tim Watts MP said, “Australia’s future in our region depends on our ability to understand it deeply and engage with it confidently.
“Humanities and language teaching experts who specialise in Asia understand the importance of interpreting the cultural, social, and historical forces shaping our region’s future, and they play an important role in building our next generation of Asia-capable Australians," Mr Watts said.
“We know our workforce needs a far broader set of skills to navigate the strategic and economic shifts taking place across the region.”
The hearing will form part of the committee’s comprehensive picture of how the education system can drive the development of Asia capability. The committee will identify practical, long‑term measures which can ensure the education system plays a central role in preparing Australians for the opportunities and challenges of a rapidly changing region.
THOUSANDS of casual academics are owed millions of dollars in backpay after a critical intervention from the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) led to a landmark court decision.
The Full Federal Court has overturned a decision from last year, which found that award-covered casual academics could be required to perform effectively unlimited marking as part of the 'rolled-up' hourly rate they receive for lecture and tutorial delivery.
The appeal judgment confirmed universities cannot use casual lecture and tutorial pay rates as a bottomless pit for unlimited unpaid marking work.
The NTEU successfully intervened in the appeal between the Fair Work Ombudsman and Torrens University, with the Full Court adopting the NTEU's interpretation of "associated working time" under the Higher Education Industry – Academic Staff Award.
The Court found the lecture rate compensates a casual academic for one hour of delivery and a limited body of associated work, mainly preparation, and potentially things like marking an assessment administered during the lecture itself.
Ordinary marking of student assessments not undertaken during a lecture or tutorial is a separate activity that must be paid at the separate marking rate.
The ruling also clarifies that how much 'associated working time' a casual academic actually works is a matter for the employee to determine, rather than being something the employer can direct.
NTEU general secretary, Damien Cahill welcomed the decision as a historic win for casual workers across the sector.
"This is a massive victory for the tens of thousands of casual academics who are victims of wage theft from doing hours of unpaid work," Dr Cahill said.
"The NTEU has consistently argued lecture and tutorial rates are not a blank cheque for universities to pile on unlimited unpaid work. Marking is separate work that must be paid separately.
"Last year's decision threatened to unravel a decade of progress on tackling wage theft in our universities. This ruling slams that door shut.
"This decision puts vice-chancellors on notice: the days of treating casual staff as an endless source of free labour are over."
Counsel for Torrens University conceded at trial that, on the correct interpretation of the Award that has now been confirmed by the Court, the university has systematically underpaid all of its casual staff, estimated at more than 1,000 people. Long serving casual staff are owed thousands in backpay.
NTEU Victoria division secretary Sarah Roberts said the decision would make a real difference to thousands of lives.
"Universities have been getting away with this for years -- expecting casual academics to mark stacks of assessments for effectively nothing, buried in a rolled-up hourly rate that was never designed to cover it," Ms Roberts said.
"We already won a landmark case against Monash University last year on unpaid consultation time. This decision builds directly on that.
“Universities should be in no doubt: the law is clear and strengthens our resolve to stop rampant wage theft.”
The Full Court's decision follows the NTEU's successful case against Monash University last year, which found that Monash could not direct casual academics to perform scheduled student consultation as part of assumed 'associated work' linked to a rolled-up casual tutorial rate.
Together, the two decisions confirm rolled-up casual rates are not a substitute for payment for additional work.
Nationally, underpayments across the sector exceed $284 million and universities have made provisions for a further $168 million taking the total beyond $450 million.
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