Key events
Josh Taylor
Apps not named in social media ban top downloads on Apple app store charts
As Australians are waking up this morning with the under 16s social media ban now in effect, apps that have not been named in the initial 10 platforms included in the ban have topped the Apple app store free apps charts.
Those are Lemon8, Yope, and Coverstar. As my colleague, Matilda Boseley reported last week, teens were going to these apps in preparation for their accounts on the other sites being shut down.
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said on the Full Story podcast that she was mindful teens may migrate to other platforms, and more could be expected to comply in the future. Yope and Lemon8 were among those she had been in communications with.
The platforms themselves ultimately need to determine whether they will comply, which is why we saw Bluesky roll out age assurance in Australia yesterday despite not initially being one in the focus of eSafety.
There was a slight uptick in searches for “VPN” on Google trends in Australia as people may be trying to look for ways around age assurance on the platforms using virtual private networks. The government has said the platforms will be expected to try to prevent people circumventing the ban, but has acknowledged it won’t be perfect.
Inman Grant says ban will have ‘teething issues’ but ‘our kids will be all right’
Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety commissioner, said today is an “absolutely momentous day” as the social media ban for under-16s goes into effect.
She told ABC News while there were certainly be teething issues as tech companies rein in the ability for young people to access their services, over time, she expects platforms to continue to innovate to keep kids off their devices with the world-first ban.
Inman Grant said:
Of course there will be teething issues and kids are ingenuitous, they will be finding ways around it. But the way that we are looking at compliance and enforcement is around systemic failures and I 100% believe that these companies have the technical capability to achieve this and they may have come into this kicking and screaming but now it is time for them to show us their stuff.
I don’t think everything is going to magically disappear overnight but we have corrected for that in our regulatory guidance.
Inman Grant went on to say that “we as parents need to make sure that we’re preparing our kids for the summer holidays to fill their time, kind of like we used to play, riding the bike and reading the books and playing the board games and going to the beach”.
Our kids will be all right.
Toddler dies in NSW after being hit by ute near Port Stephens
A toddler has died in NSW after being hit by a car on Tuesday night.
NSW police said emergency services were called to a suburban home after reports of the accident. Officers arrived to find a very young girl had been hit by a ute on the property.
The toddler was treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to a local hospital in critical condition, where she later died.
The driver was uninjured and taken to the hospital for mandatory testing. No charges have been laid.
Police will continue to investigate the cause of the accident.
Good morning, Nick Visser here to take over the blog. Let’s get to it.
And Josh Taylor has interviewed Inman Grant for today’s episode of the Full Story podcast, which you can listen to here:
Daisy Dumas has written an excellent profile of the “tough” and “courageous” eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, who has made the ban happen.
Read it here:
Natasha May
NSW health minister says bed block has ‘serious consequences’
Ryan Park said the surge in bed block was “simply not sustainable”.
“Commonwealth bed block has serious consequences for our state hospitals – from wards, to surgeries that can’t be conducted, to people waiting for beds in the ED. Imagine if Westmead and Mount Druitt hospitals were ripped out from our health system, that’s what commonwealth bed block is doing to NSW right now.”
The release of the data comes at the same time as the latest NSW Bureau of Health Information (BHI) quarterly report for July to September 2025.
Park lauded healthcare workers for improvements in the number of patients being seen on time who are triaged as requiring care within ten minutes (like those suffering from chest pain, difficulty breathing and severe fractures) in emergency departments, particularly in Western Sydney where wait times have been particularly problematic.
He cited Bankstown hospital where on time performance for these patients has risen from 31.6% last year to 47.4% this year, Blacktown from 22.4% to 35.2%, Liverpool from 33.6% to 61.9%, and Campbelltown from 11.8% to 30.1%.
Bed block surges by more than 50% in NSW hospitals, minister says
Natasha May
Bed block in NSW hospitals has surged by more than 50% in the last year, according to data released by the state government.
It comes as states and territories across the country have raised the issue as a central part of their argument to get more funding for hospitals from the commonwealth, with bed block primarily caused by patients unable to get alternative accommodation in aged care and supported disability accommodation which are federal responsibilities.
They remain in a stalemate over the public hospital funding agreement, with health ministers at all levels to meet on Friday.
The number of patients exceeding their estimated date of discharge in NSW public hospitals because they are waiting to access a commonwealth aged care or National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) placement increased from 747 patients to 1,151 in the year to 30 September 2025.
This is according to data the NSW health minister, Ryan Park, has today released. Of those patients, the growth in patients needing the aged care beds was most significant rising from 443 to 829 in the year period, while demand for NDIS supported accommodation rose more modestly from 304 to 322.
Park also released a breakdown of the growth in bed block in the largest and busiest hospitals in the state (known as level five and six hospitals).
Westmead hospital had the highest number – 60 – of those patients exceeding their date of discharge as at September 2025, followed by Wyong in the central coast with 48.
The greatest percentage increase in these patients in a year’s period was seen at Calvary Mater Newcastle jumping 600% from six patients in September 2024 to 42 patients a year later, followed by a 500% increase at St George hospital in south-west Sydney rising from five to 30 patients.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.
The eyes of the world are on Australia this morning after the long-awaited social media ban for under-16s came into force overnight. More details coming up.
Bed block in New South Wales hospitals has surged by more than 50% in the last year, according to data released by the state government. The federal government is deadlocked with states about extra health funding ahead of a meeting between the parties this Friday. More to come.
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