Australia news LIVE: Hockey says corruption flourishing Washington, Israelis mourn October 7 attacks

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news for Thursday, October 8. Here’s what is making headlines today.

Assistant Technology Minister Andrew Charlton has said there is “no reason” for businesses to raise prices because of the government’s credit card surcharge ban, saying the full breadth of the reform is not being discussed.

Charlton said the government had moved to ban surcharges, which he said provided “transparency” for consumers at the check-out counter. However, he said the “less reported” aspect of the reform was the reduction of interchange fees from about 0.8 per cent to 0.3 per cent, which he said “means that card payments are cheaper for businesses to process”.

“There’s no reason, as a result of this reform, that consumers should be paying more when they tap their card for a coffee. The price they pay, because the cost to the business has gone down, there’s no reason why that should be greater than what they were paying before in terms of the price and the surcharge,” Charlton told ABC radio this morning.

“Overall this is a reduction in costs for businesses, and that should be good for businesses and good for consumers.”

The government has faced backlash from One Nation, the Coalition and the business community for the move, including through a social media campaign in which videos have been published accusing the government of inflating the cost of goods through the surcharge ban.

Industry Minister Tim Ayres said a major coal mine expansion declared invalid by the High Court was “squarely a NSW decision” with no impact on Australian coal and gas projects.

“This is a decision that’s absolutely confined to a particular set of circumstances in NSW,” he told News Breakfast.

The court ruled that planning authorities were required to consider the emissions caused by burning fossil fuels overseas when approving projects.

Legal and industry experts warned the decision would ripple across the sector, potentially exposing recent coal mine approvals to judicial review and opening a “Pandora’s box” of questions about how Australia accounts for the climate impact of its fossil fuel exports.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has defended the government’s credit charge surcharge ban, following an outcry from business groups over the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) decision to scrap credit cards as a payment method.

“We have a simple principle, and that is that you should not be charged to use your own money, and that’s a good thing for Australians,” she told Today this morning, but said the government had “real concerns” about the ATO’s proposal.

“Small businesses across the country really struggle to manage their cash flow … and using credit cards to pay tax bill is a way that a lot of people are just managing that issue.”

She said the surcharge changes were still working through the system and were “going to take a little bit of time and finessing”.

Russian missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and a dozen other Ukrainian regions overnight killed at least 25 civilians and wounded about 100, Ukrainian officials said.

Five children were killed when a Russian missile struck an apartment building, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Zelensky had warned the previous day that intelligence services had concluded that Russia was building up for a “massive” strike.

Although Ukraine knew about the looming attack, which coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 74th birthday, it couldn’t repel it completely.

Joe Hockey, Australia’s former US ambassador, has said there was “no doubt” that corruption had been allowed to “flourish” in Washington DC.

“It’s a very grey line here in Washington DC between proper government processes and corruption,” Hockey told 7:30 last night.

He said corruption had become more apparent over recent years.

“It’s well known that the various parts of the US government are very forward-leaning in their partnerships with the private sector, and as long as that’s transparent, it’s fine.

In the Gaza Strip, devastated by three years of Israeli bombardment, Palestinians sheltering among the ruins of destroyed cities recalled life before a war that displaced nearly the entire population and tore apart families.

Israel’s bombardment and ground operations in Gaza after the October 7 attack have killed more than 74,000 people, including at least 1400 killed in the past year since a US-brokered ceasefire, which halted major fighting but has failed to stop Israeli attacks or secure the disarmament of Hamas.

The anniversary is the first since the October 10, 2025, ceasefire deal, which has left Israel in control of around two-thirds of Gaza, where it has demolished remaining buildings and ordered residents out.

Hamas controls the remaining third of the territory, a narrow strip on the coast where the 2 million population mostly live in makeshift tents and bombed-out buildings.

Israelis gathered in silence on Wednesday in a kibbutz near the Gaza border that was overrun by Hamas militants on October 7 three years ago, mourning victims of attacks that set off Israel’s assault in Gaza and plunged the Middle East into war.

The attacks of October 7, 2023, were the deadliest day in Israel’s history. Militants led by Hamas killed 1200 people and took 251 hostages, a cross-border incursion that traumatised Israelis who have demanded government accountability.

In Kfar Aza, where Hamas militants killed dozens of Israelis before taking 19 hostages back into Gaza, residents held a vigil for those killed, standing in silence as a trumpet played a solemn bugle call. A resident read out a roll call of the dead.

Zion Regev, a community leader in the kibbutz, said most residents remain displaced and have yet to return, the trauma of October 7 continuing to shape their lives.