Morning Mail: surge in bulk-billing by GPs; Deloitte under pressure over error-filled WA report; and anger over Neighbours’ AI recut

Good morning. We lead on new data revealing that almost two-thirds of Australians are now bulk-billed for all their GP care, after the government introduced financial incentives for doctors and practices.

WA’s government wants its money back after a report by consultancy firm Deloitte was found to contain errors, including AI hallucinations and hundreds of millions of dollars in cost discrepancies.

We head deep into the outback where one town is – again – trying to give land away in a bid to boost its population. And Neighbours actors are up in arms over a new AI-driven adaptation of the beloved soap.

Australia

• ‘Extremely disappointed’ | The WA government is seeking an “expedited” cost recovery from Deloitte over errors in a report, including AI-hallucinated references and massive cost discrepancies.

• Exclusive | New data shows the proportion of GPs bulk-billing all of their patients has more than doubled in a year, after the government introduced financial incentives for doctors and practices.

• The Agenda | Federal parliament will commence on Monday with speeches paying tribute to Helen Haines. It should be a unifying, bipartisan moment for an increasingly febrile political bubble, Josh Butler writes.

• Koala crisis | Researchers claim a published study over-inflates the efficacy of a vaccine intended to help save koalas from deadly chlamydia. But the regulator is standing by its decision to approve it.

• Weather warning | Large parts of eastern Australia were put on alert by the Bureau of Meteorology for severe thunderstorms late on Sunday – with more potential storms and flood risk in store.

World

• Brazil votes | Brazilians are going to the polls in a runoff in which the leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is attempting an unprecedented comeback against far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Follow the latest results.

• Gaza crisis | As Israel prepares to vote, Palestinians already suffering a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza are fearing the worst from an election outcome that could shape their future; thousands rally against Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv ahead of Israeli elections.

• ‘I’m here. With you.’ | The Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, has announced she has returned to Venezuela almost a year after she left to receive the Nobel peace prize.

• Exclusive | Signs suggest Thomas Markle Sr being a “possible sex offender of the grossest kind”, the Philippines’ interior minister has told the Guardian, as forensic analysis of found images continues.

• France protests | Hundreds of thousands marched in cities across France in largely peaceful protests to support schoolchildren’s demands for more teachers and repairs to dilapidated buildings.

• Space contracts | The US military has given Elon Musk’s SpaceX access to restricted space tracking data, raising new questions about the Trump administration’s relations with its controversial donor.

Full Story

Israel votes: Netanyahu’s future on the line

Israeli citizens are about to vote in what’s being seen as elections that are almost existential when it comes to the future identity of the country. Since the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed, and the resulting war in Gaza that a UN commission of inquiry has described as a genocide, some say the country’s politics have shifted profoundly to the right. Emma Graham-Harrison tells Reged Ahmad why this is Israel’s most consequential election in history.

In-depth

Australia is in the grips of a housing crisis, but in the heart of the outback, the opal town of Quilpie – nearly 1,000km west of Brisbane – is looking to expand its tiny population of just over 500 people by giving away land. The local council is giving away 62 new residential lots along with a $20,000 grant for those who build a home. But this is not the council’s first attempt at jump-starting its housing market.

Not the news

The soap opera Neighbours is being recut with AI into a microdrama – focusing on Margot Robbie’s character, Donna Freedman – designed to be watched on phones. It has sparked a debate over the wider implications of television archives being mined for new content. The format may be breaking new ground, but one former Neighbours star has labelled it “unbelievably invasive, morally and legally wrong”.

Sport

• Rugby league | Australia survive almighty Fiji scare to stay unbeaten at Rugby League World Cup.

• Football | Michael Carrick on the brink after Manchester United are humiliated by Bournemouth; Bruno Fernandes gamble leaves Carrick to carry the can for United’s institutional failures, Will Unwin writes; Alexander Isak applies finishing touch as Liverpool bring Brighton’s winning run to an end; Barcelona v Real Madrid: follow the latest in the El Clásico.

• Motorsport | Follow the latest in the US F1 Grand Prix in Austin. An inglorious end as rain cancels final MotoGP race at Phillip Island in setback for Marc Márquez.

• Cricket | England left stunned after Shadab Khan’s miraculous century delivers one-wicket ODI win for Pakistan.

• Netball | Australia crumble under pressure to seal Constellation Cup capitulation to New Zealand.

Experts are warning that a dramatic increase in homicides in Victoria by people with psychosis is the result of catastrophic failings in the mental health system, ABC News reports. An Adelaide residents’ association has launched a “legal fighting fund” to pursue court action against the state government’s $96m MotoGP park lands circuit, the Advertiser reports. Polling reveals voters’ desire for local AI safeguards as concerns mount over the impacts of the multibillion-dollar datacentre building boom, the Age reports. A second Tasmanian man this month has died waiting for an ambulance after staff shortages left the nearest station unstaffed, the Hobart Mercury reports.

What’s happening today

• Travel | The first international flight is due to land at the new Western Sydney International airport today.

• NSW | The Beau Lamarre-Condon murder trial continues in Sydney.

• NSW | A trial is expected to begin in Sydney for a man charged with murdering Denise Govendir in 1998.

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Brain teaser

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