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Aussie News Tonight, Cairns City (2025)

20/12/2025

WHO’S SAFE OUT THERE? Uber Driver Bashed for Using Mystro in Brisbane

By Aussie News Tonight

Last night in Brisbane, an Uber driver named Baljeet was assaulted while simply trying to do his job.

Baljeet was parked on Marshall Street when he received a trip request through the Uber app. Like many drivers trying to survive in an increasingly brutal gig economy, he checked the job using Mystro — a third-party driver tool commonly used to assess trip value, distance, and earnings.
He quickly realised the trip was extremely short and financially unviable. When he attempted to cancel, it was already too late.

The passenger group had spotted his vehicle and registration. According to Baljeet, they blocked his car from leaving. When he lowered his window to ask them to move so he could drive away, he was physically assaulted. Police were called to the scene.

As if the violence itself wasn’t enough, the situation reportedly escalated further when one of the passengers allegedly threatened to report him to Uber and try to have him removed from the platform, accusing him of “wasting their time.”

This is the reality drivers are facing.

Working Smarter Has Become Dangerous
Apps like Mystro exist for one reason: survival.

Uber and taxi drivers are being squeezed from every direction — rising fuel prices, insurance costs, vehicle maintenance, platform commissions, algorithmic penalties, and shrinking per-kilometre earnings. Many drivers report that short trips can leave them operating at a loss, especially after wait times and fuel usage.
Trying to filter or avoid those trips is not greed. It’s self-preservation.
Yet increasingly, drivers are being punished socially, financially, and now physically for attempting to protect their livelihoods.

Taxi Drivers Aren’t Immune Either
This is not just an Uber problem.
Taxi drivers across Australia report similar issues:

• Aggressive passengers
• Fare disputes
• Abuse over cancellations or routes
• Threats to report drivers
• Increasing violence, especially at night

When Violence Becomes “Part of the Job”
No one signs up for assault when they sign up to drive.
Yet drivers are now expected to:
Absorb abuse
Accept unsafe situations
Risk deactivation if they speak up
And keep driving, because missing a shift can mean missing rent
What happened to Baljeet should alarm everyone — not just drivers.
If a worker can be assaulted for declining a low-value job, what does that say about the safety of gig workers in Australia right now?

A Warning to Drivers
This incident is a stark reminder:
No trip is worth your safety.
No rating is worth your life.
If something feels off — leave.
If you’re blocked — call for help.
If you’re threatened — report it.
And to regulators, platforms, and policymakers:
Drivers cannot keep absorbing the cost of a broken system.

Final Word
Baljeet went to work to earn an honest living.
He ended the night assaulted, shaken, and at risk of losing his income — for trying to work smarter.
That should never be acceptable.
Stay alert out there.

Editorial & Visual Disclaimer
This article is published in the public interest. All visuals used are original, illustrative, or licensed and do not depict the actual individuals involved unless explicitly stated. No allegations herein constitute a finding of guilt. Individuals mentioned are presumed innocent unless proven otherwise. This report reflects accounts provided to Aussie News Tonight at the time of publication.

18/12/2025

A Message from Shane Knuth

MY LETTER TO DAVID CRISAFULLI MP PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND:

Dear Premier,

Re: Standing Firm Against Federal Inaction on Anti-Semitism and the Unjust Targeting of Law-Abiding Firearm Owners
I write to thank you for your stance against the evil scourge of anti-Semitism.

Through inaction and weak leadership, the Albanese Government has allowed hatred to fester and emboldened those who seek to divide Australians along religious and cultural lines.
While the Jewish community mourned this tragic day in our nation’s history, the Prime Minister instead chose to deflect blame and play politics by targeting law-abiding firearm owners.
People who have nothing whatsoever to do with hatred, extremism or anti-Semitism.

Premier, as you are aware, Queensland already has some of the strictest firearm laws in the world.

Punishing responsible, licensed firearm owners will not stop the disgusting rise of anti-Semitism.

I urge you to not get caught up in the Albanese Governments rhetoric on gun laws but instead call on him to target those who come to Australia to spread hatred, those who burn our flag, and those who promote anti-Semitism and NOT everyday Australians who obey the law and love this country.

The KAP and the majority of regional Queenslanders will not support any changes to Queensland’s firearm laws that unfairly punish law-abiding citizens.

Instead, we will continue to advocate for real action against hate, extremism and anti-Semitism wherever it appears.
We ask you to also do the same.

- Shane Knuth MP

16/12/2025

One Nation Senator Accuses Albanese Government of Failing to Confront Terrorism After Bondi Attack

A One Nation senator has issued a strongly worded press release accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Labor Government of failing to show leadership following the recent mass casualty attack at Bondi.

In the statement, the senator asserted that the attack was an act of radical Islamic terrorism and criticised the Prime Minister for what they described as an unwillingness to openly name and condemn the ideology they believe motivated the violence.

The press release rejected characterisations of the perpetrators as troubled or isolated individuals, instead claiming they were driven by extremist beliefs. The senator alleged that an Islamic State flag was left behind at the scene and stated that the attack resulted in 15 deaths and injuries to more than 40 people. These claims were presented by One Nation as established facts, although authorities have not publicly confirmed all details referenced in the statement at the time of writing.

The senator argued that Australians are being failed by what they described as political hesitation and appeasement, calling for swift and forceful government action rather than restraint or caution in public language.

Among the measures proposed were the detention of anyone who sympathises with radical Islamic terrorism, the deportation of non citizens, and the removal of Australian citizenship from dual nationals who support extremist causes. The statement further called for radical Islamic ideology to be eradicated from suburbs, schools, and public spaces.

The press release concluded by declaring that if the Albanese Government is unwilling to take such actions, it is unfit to govern.

The Prime Minister and federal authorities have not directly responded to the specific claims raised in the One Nation statement. Ongoing investigations into the Bondi attack remain under the authority of law enforcement and security agencies.

15/12/2025

A Life on the Tracks: Mal Leyland and Wheels Across a Wilderness

Few Australians have shaped our understanding of remote travel like Mal Leyland. From the earliest days of four wheel drive exploration, Mal helped open up the outback not just as a destination, but as a story worth telling.

In this interview, Mal reflects on his extraordinary adventures across Australia, including the landmark 1966 expedition made with his late brother Mike Leyland, later immortalised in Wheels Across a Wilderness. At a time when maps were unreliable and tracks barely existed, their journey captured the spirit of exploration and resilience that still defines Australian outback travel today.

Now, nearly sixty years on, that legacy is preparing to come full circle.

In May 2026, Carmen Leyland, alongside her husband Jon and special guest Mal Leyland health permitting, will retrace the original 1966 route. The journey is both a tribute and a continuation, honouring the courage, curiosity, and determination that first carried two brothers across some of the most unforgiving terrain on earth.

This interview offers rare insight into the man behind the legend, the realities of early outback exploration, and the enduring pull of the open track. It is not just a story of roads travelled, but of a life lived with purpose, grit, and a deep respect for the Australian wilderness.

Watch the interview below.

15/12/2025

Why Is the Government Pushing Harder Gun Laws When Australia Is Already One of the Most Restricted Nations on Earth

Australia already has some of the strictest civilian firearm controls in the democratic world. Licensing is mandatory. Fi****ms are registered. Storage is regulated. Categories of weapons are restricted or banned outright. Background checks are exhaustive. Police retain broad discretionary powers to suspend or revoke licences under the “fit and proper person” test.

Yet in the aftermath of the Bondi attack, the federal government is again signalling tighter gun controls.

The question Australians should be asking is not whether violence is unacceptable. It always is.

The real question is why gun control is being revisited at all when the circumstances of Bondi bear little resemblance to the event that reshaped Australia’s firearm laws in 1996.

To understand the current push, it is necessary to compare Bondi with Port Arthur.

Port Arthur and the justification for sweeping reform

The Port Arthur massacre was a singular national trauma. A lone gunman legally acquired semi automatic fi****ms and used them to murder 35 people. At the time, firearm laws were inconsistent across states. Some weapons were easy to obtain. Licensing standards varied widely.

The political response was the National Fi****ms Agreement.

The logic was clear and direct. Restrict access to high capacity rapid fire weapons. Standardise licensing. Reduce the overall number of fi****ms in circulation through compulsory buybacks.

Whether one agrees with the outcome or not, the causal link was straightforward. Legal access to particular fi****ms was identified as a central factor in the scale of the massacre.

Bondi is fundamentally different

Bondi was not a failure of firearm regulation.

It was a failure of intelligence, monitoring, and intervention.

Authorities have already acknowledged that at least one individual connected to the attack was known to security agencies. Explosive devices were also allegedly located. This was not an opportunistic act enabled by loose gun laws. It was an ideologically driven attack where violence was the objective, with or without fi****ms.

Removing lawfully owned guns from licensed Australians would not have stopped Bondi.

No farmer, sporting shooter, or rural firearm owner was involved.

No loophole in licensing was exploited by an unknown offender.

The problem was not access to guns. The problem was failure to act on known risks.

So why return to gun control now

When governments face public fear, they look for visible levers of action.

Intelligence failures are complex. They involve classified processes, competing agencies, legal thresholds, and uncomfortable questions about why warnings were missed. These issues are slow to investigate and politically dangerous to confront.

Gun control, by contrast, is immediate, symbolic, and familiar.

It creates the appearance of decisive action without forcing a reckoning with intelligence breakdowns, border screening failures, or radicalisation pathways.

It also shifts responsibility away from institutions and toward an inanimate object.

The power play beneath the surface

This push is not about safety alone. It is about narrative control.

By framing violence as a gun problem rather than a systems failure problem, governments can present themselves as protectors rather than participants in the failure.

It also marginalises a politically easy target. Law abiding firearm owners are a minority, geographically dispersed, and culturally distinct from inner city electorates. Tightening controls on them carries little electoral cost while producing strong messaging value.

This is governance by optics, not evidence.

The danger of repeating the wrong lesson

Port Arthur justified firearm reform because firearm access was the primary enabler of mass murder.

Bondi demands a different response.

It demands hard questions about watch lists, intelligence sharing, surveillance thresholds, and intervention powers. It demands scrutiny of how individuals assessed as high risk were allowed to progress unchecked. It demands transparency about where the system failed and why.

Using Bondi to justify further civilian disarmament is not only intellectually dishonest. It risks distracting from the very failures that made the attack possible.

Australia already has strict gun laws.

What it lacks is accountability when institutions fail to use the powers they already possess.

Until that is addressed, tightening gun control further is not prevention. It is deflection.

Editorial and Legal Disclaimer

This article is published by Aussie News Tonight for public interest commentary, analysis, and discussion. It represents journalistic opinion and interpretation based on publicly reported events and policy positions at the time of publication.

All factual references are derived from mainstream reporting, official statements, and historical records. The article does not allege criminal conduct beyond matters already reported by authorities and does not assert guilt where investigations remain ongoing.

Aussie News Tonight does not encourage harm, discrimination, or hostility toward any individual or group. The views expressed are intended to contribute to democratic debate and accountability, not to inflame or mislead.

All visuals associated with this article, where used, are original or properly licensed and are not intended to be defamatory. Any resemblance to real persons outside the context of public reporting is coincidental.

10/12/2025

Teens spam Albo TikTok as protest against under 16 social media ban

Australia’s world first under 16 social media ban has barely landed and teenagers are already testing its limits in the most 2025 way possible. Not with marches outside Parliament, but with a scrolling wall of comments on the Prime Minister’s own TikTok.

Within hours of the restrictions taking effect on December 10, teens claiming to be under 16 began flooding Anthony Albanese’s TikTok account with the repeated message “still here Albo.” The comment storm appears aimed at proving the ban is not working in practice and that young users are still finding ways to stay on platforms.

What the ban does and why teens are pushing back

The new law requires age restricted platforms to take reasonable steps to stop Australians under 16 from creating or keeping accounts. The responsibility sits with companies, not families, and penalties for non compliance are heavy. Major platforms affected include TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, X, YouTube and others.

The government’s argument is simple. Fewer teens online means reduced exposure to harms such as bullying, grooming, addictive algorithms, and mental health pressure. Albanese has framed the move as giving kids a childhood and parents peace of mind.

Teenagers, however, are responding with a mix of humour, resentment, and technical defiance. Some are posting farewell memes. Others are swapping tips on loopholes and age workarounds. The “still here Albo” pile on is the loudest early signal that compliance and enforcement will be messy.

Why this matters beyond the laughs

The spam protest is funny on the surface, but it also highlights the real pressure points of the ban.

First, age verification can be dodged if users lie about their birthday or use alternative sign ups. Regulators have already acknowledged that some underage accounts will slip through early and be removed over time as systems tighten.

Second, bans do not erase demand. They often shift it. Critics worry teens will migrate to smaller, less regulated apps or private group spaces where safety frameworks are weaker. Child welfare groups have argued that improving platform safety might be more effective than delaying access alone.

Third, the protest shows teens want a voice in decisions that directly shape their social and emotional world. Even when their language is a two word meme, the message is political. We are here, we see you, and we will not vanish quietly.

Aussie News Tonight media note

We are publishing this story alongside an original comedy protest music video that captures the tone of the backlash. The video uses satire to reflect how teens are treating the ban. Not as a shutdown, but as a challenge to be questioned in public, loudly, and with humour. The song’s hook “still here Albo” mirrors the live TikTok protest and frames it as youth speech, not youth silence.

What happens next

The coming weeks will test whether platforms can genuinely enforce the restrictions and whether government regulators will expand coverage or tighten loopholes. For now, the teens have opened the new era with a digital sit in on the PM’s own feed.

And the comment section is still singing.

Editorial and legal disclaimer

This article is factual reporting with satirical context. It does not encourage unlawful behaviour. Any references to minors are general and based on publicly reported trends, without identifying individuals. Opinions are presented as commentary only.

09/12/2025

If To***co Tax Discourages Smoking, Is Income Tax Discouraging Working?

There is a certain kind of late night wisdom that hits harder than a servo pie at 2am. The meme doing the rounds asks a simple question that sounds like a pub joke, but pokes a real nerve in modern Australia.

If to***co tax is meant to discourage smoking, is income tax meant to discourage working?

You can almost hear the collective spit take across the country. Tradies on smoko. Nurses on double shift. Small business owners staring at their BAS and wondering if they should just take up interpretive dance instead.

The joke lands because the maths of everyday life is getting brutal. Ci******es cost a fortune because the government wants fewer people smoking. Fair enough. Public health, hospital costs, all that. But when people look at their payslip and see a chunk vanish before they even touch it, the brain does a very human thing.

It connects dots. It forms a story. It mutters, hang on, what is this meant to change in me?

The Busy Aussie Brain and the Payslip Punch

Let us be honest. Most Australians do not sit around thinking in economic theory. They think in rent, groceries, fuel, school shoes, and that one bill that always shows up when you are already wobbling.

So when the tax bite feels bigger than the reward bite, motivation drops. Not because people are lazy. Because the system is exhausting.

You work extra hours. You pick up a weekend shift. You do the overtime. Then you discover you have jumped into a higher bracket, or lost a benefit, or copped a new levy you did not even know existed.

Suddenly you are asking the same thing the meme asks, only with less laughing and more tired blinking.

Is the system quietly telling me not to push too hard?

The Punchline is Real, Even if the Meme is a Laugh

Here is the grounded bit behind the cheekiness.

Income tax is not designed to discourage work. It is designed to fund the stuff we all rely on. Hospitals. Roads. Schools. Firefighters. Disability support. The list is long, and most of it matters.

But design and lived experience are not always the same thing.

A tax system can have good intentions and still feel like a wet blanket when wages are flat and costs are sprinting. It can be built for fairness and still produce moments where people think, why would I bother doing more if the payoff barely moves.

That is not a moral failure of workers. That is a policy signal worth listening to.

What This Meme Really Exposes

The meme is funny because it is a mirror. It reflects a growing frustration that Australians are being asked to do more, cope more, hustle more, but keep less.

It also exposes a deeper truth.

People tolerate taxation when they feel the deal is fair and the returns are visible.

They start making memes when they feel squeezed and unheard.

The meme is not an economic argument. It is an emotional temperature check. It says, hey, something feels off here.

And in 2025 Australia, a lot of people feel that.

The Aussie News Tonight Take

This is not a call to scrap income tax. It is a call to stop pretending that incentives and morale are separate things.

If we want a country where effort is rewarded, work is sustainable, and people feel proud to contribute, then the system cannot keep leaning on the same backs while rents, food, and power bills keep climbing.

So yes, laugh at the meme.

Then maybe ask why it hit so close to home.

Because when jokes start sounding like policy reviews, the public is telling you something.

Visual and editorial disclaimer: All visuals used by Aussie News Tonight are original, licensed, or used under fair dealing for public interest commentary. They are presented in a non defamatory context, with care taken to ensure accuracy and ethical framing.

09/12/2025

I’m excited to announce that for the very first time ever, Aussie News Tonight has done an actual face to face interview.

Within the next few days, you will find an exclusive interview on Aussie News Tonight with Mal Leyland, one of the surviving Leyland Brothers. The interview is around 20 minutes long and covers a wide range of topics and information.

08/12/2025

Aussie News Tonight Commentary
Australia Was Born a Prison. Have We Ever Really Left It?

Australia likes to tell itself a story of distance. Distance from Britain, distance from the chains, distance from the brutality of the First Fleet. Two and a bit centuries on, we wrap ourselves in the flag and talk about a young nation that grew up, moved on, and became something clean and democratic.

But history is not a switch you flick. It is a track you inherit.

The colony of New South Wales was established in 1788 as a British penal settlement. It was built to warehouse convicts and secure imperial control in the Pacific. The First Fleet arrived with hundreds of prisoners under military rule, not consent, and the early legal system was designed around command, punishment, and obedience.

That origin matters because foundations shape ceilings. When a country begins as a carceral project, the instincts of control do not vanish just because we rename the buildings. They evolve.

A Government That Grew Out of Empire

Australia did not start as a democracy. It started as a military outpost. Political rights were introduced gradually, not granted all at once, and always within British constitutional boundaries. The colonies moved toward representative and responsible government through the mid 1800s, and even then voting was restricted by property, gender, and race.

Federation in 1901 created a new nation on paper, but the structure was still deeply British in design and spirit. Westminster parliaments, Crown authority, and a constitution that preserved elite continuity more than it reset power.

So the question is not whether Australia changed. It did. The question is who got to shape that change.

The Same Class, New Suits

Your argument is blunt but worth sitting with. The sons and daughters of yesterday still run today.

Not as a literal bloodline conspiracy. History is messier than that. But as a pattern.

Colonial Australia was governed by administrators, wealthy landholders, and networks loyal to empire. Over time, those networks became institutions. Legal systems, property regimes, party machines, bureaucracy, policing culture, and media gatekeeping. The names on the door changed. The logic inside often did not.

Look at what early Australia protected. Land ownership. Social hierarchy. Order over dissent. Those priorities did not disappear with Federation. They were absorbed into the modern state.

When people say, "That was 200 years ago," they are missing how power reproduces itself. Not by keeping the same faces forever, but by keeping the same rules that reliably produce the same kinds of faces.

Why This Matters Right Now

Australia is facing arguments that should be impossible in a fully matured democracy.
How much protest is acceptable before the state cracks down harder.
Who gets to own land, data, housing, water, and even influence.
Why systems keep failing the same communities over and over, while protecting the same interests.

These are not random glitches. They make sense when you remember what the colony was built to do. A prison settlement is designed to manage bodies, manage movement, and reward compliance. A nation born under that logic will always have to consciously fight its own reflexes.

That fight is not automatic. It requires honesty about origin.

The Point Being Made

This is not nostalgia for a darker past. It is a warning about the present.

Australia did not begin as a free society that stumbled. It began as an enforced society that slowly negotiated its freedom. That gap between origin and aspiration is still visible today.

If we want a country that truly belongs to its people, then we have to stop pretending the past is dead. We have to admit the colony never simply ended. It transformed into a state, and the state still carries some of the colony’s DNA.

That is not a reason to give up. It is a reason to wake up.

Editorial Note

This commentary reflects a perspective grounded in historical record and political analysis. It does not allege a literal unbroken personal identity of rulers, but argues that institutional power and class continuity have persisted from colonial foundations into modern governance.

Full Legal and Editorial Disclaimer

This article is published by Aussie News Tonight for public interest journalism and commentary. It is based on documented historical context and clearly marked opinion. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, readers should understand that commentary involves interpretation of events and systems, not definitive claims about individual intent. This piece is not legal advice. No individual is accused of wrongdoing. Any references are to public institutions and historical patterns. If any factual error is identified, Aussie News Tonight welcomes correction requests with supporting evidence and will review promptly in line with editorial standards.

08/12/2025

A good start, but the line is still broken

Far North Queensland’s outback tourist train, the Savannahlander, is edging closer to a partial comeback after a key rail bridge at Copperfield Gorge near Einasleigh secured repair funding.

Queensland Rail has committed about $500,000 in disaster recovery works to repair the flood damaged Copperfield Gorge trestle bridge and nearby structures. The bridge damage has blocked the train from completing its historic Cairns to Forsayth run.

The repair should allow the Savannahlander to cross the Copperfield River again for the first trip of the 2026 season, restoring access to communities along the Gulf Savannah route and reviving a major tourism lifeline for towns like Einasleigh.

Robbie Katter says bridge fix is only step one

In a public statement this week, Katter’s Australian Party MP Robbie Katter welcomed the bridge repair but warned that the Queensland Government still has no credible long term plan to restore the full Cairns to Forsayth rail corridor.

Katter argues the government is relying on what he calls an inflated estimate of $300 million over 10 years to avoid rebuilding the full line. He says workers with decades of experience on the route dispute that figure and believe the costing is exaggerated.

This claim sits inside a wider political dispute. Earlier this year, Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg cited a repair cost closer to $152 million, still a major investment but far below the $300 million figure Katter is attacking.

Petition pressure and local backing

Katter and Hill MP Shane Knuth have pushed the issue for more than a year through parliamentary questions, direct ministerial lobbying, and collaboration with tourism and local government groups including Gulf Savannah Development and Etheridge Shire Council.

Their campaign has also gathered clear public support. A Queensland Parliament petition calling for full restoration of the Savannahlander line has attracted thousands of signatures, with supporters arguing the train is essential to regional jobs and visitor flow.

Community organisers say the service is not a novelty. It brings steady tourism into towns that have few other economic anchors, supporting accommodation, pubs, roadhouses, guides, and tour operators across the Gulf Savannah.

What the Savannahlander means to the north

The Savannahlander is one of Australia’s last multi day outback rail experiences, running weekly from Cairns over the Kuranda Range and west across Savannah Way country to Forsayth. It has historically carried thousands of visitors a year into the interior, delivering direct spend into small communities.

Since late 2023, bridge failures and track damage have forced the service to stop short of Forsayth, leaving the full route in limbo. Operators and councils have repeatedly called for a clear 10 year commitment from Queensland Rail and the state government to secure the train’s future.

The core question now

The Copperfield Bridge works are real progress. They show that sustained public and political pressure can shake loose funding for regional infrastructure.

But Katter’s point lands on the bigger problem. A repaired bridge does not equal a restored line.

The unresolved issue is whether Queensland will fund the full corridor back to reliable long term standard, or allow the route to shrink into a shorter, less viable service over time.

For the communities of the Gulf and the operators who have kept this train alive through floods, fires, and bureaucratic drift, the next move is not about one bridge. It is about whether the state is willing to lock in the Savannahlander as a permanent part of northern Queensland’s tourism economy.

Editorial and legal disclaimer

Photo Credit: Robbie Katter:

Aussie News Tonight reports matters of public interest using best efforts to verify claims through documents, on the record statements, and reputable sources. This article attributes contested views to their speakers and does not present opinion as fact. Readers should understand that government policy, infrastructure costings, and project timelines can change after publication.

All visuals used by Aussie News Tonight are original, licensed, or used under fair dealing for news and public interest commentary. They are not intended to defame any person or organisation. If any party believes material is inaccurate or unfair, they are invited to request correction or provide a right of reply. This report is not legal advice.

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