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Good morning. Australia is rolling out a new Australia Travel Declaration, letting eligible travellers fill in their arrival details and biosecurity declaration via the Qantas app up to 72 hours before landing and just flash a QR code instead of the yellow paper card.

It's currently limited to select Qantas flights into Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with a nationwide expansion planned over the next 12-18 months backed by $56.1 million in funding.

Paper cards stick around as a backup though, which is handy, because this is technically Australia's third attempt at killing the orange slip since 2016, so maybe don't forget to carry a pen around.

All the headlines and more below…

OPENAI'S FIRST HARDWARE PRODUCT IS A SCREENLESS SMART SPEAKER THAT CONTROLS HOMES AND ACCESSES CHATGPT.

OpenAI's first consumer device will be a mobile, screen-free smart speaker designed as an AI companion for the home. The product is still in development and will control smart-home appliances, play media, answer questions, respond to messages and tap into ChatGPT's full capabilities.

Apple sued OpenAI last week, accusing the company of stealing trade secrets. OpenAI maintains the device differs significantly from anything Apple currently sells and is unlikely to violate the iPhone maker's trade secrets. No release date has been announced.

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

• Australia has extended its AML and CTF laws to accountants, lawyers and real estate agents from July 1, significantly expanding regulation while debate over effectiveness continues. LINK

• Coles has launched a national "pay with points" Flybuys scheme that lets members redeem up to 20,000 points for a $100 in-store discount, challenging Woolworths' Everyday Rewards. LINK

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers' budget has forecast a surplus in 2034-35 that hinges on 41,200 public service job cuts and other highly optimistic spending restraint assumptions. LINK

• SBS attracted more than 17 million Australians to its FIFA World Cup coverage over the first 100 matches after paying US$30M for rights to air all 104 games free. LINK

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called for Australia's $4.5T superannuation pool to be leveraged as a national asset, while Westpac chief executive Anthony Miller has warned against government-directed investment strategies. LINK

• Australian superannuation funds are increasing allocations to high-yield bonds and private credit to support ageing members' returns, as some leaders warn they may lack skills for severe downturns. LINK

ALBANESE TO FORCE AI FIRMS INTO MANDATORY COPYRIGHT RULES NEXT YEAR.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will introduce mandatory AI standards to parliament in 2026, with a central focus on preventing tech companies from training models on Australian creative work without permission. He described anything less than artists maintaining control as "theft."

The announcement follows heavy lobbying from tech firms seeking a text and data mining exemption in Australian copyright law, which would allow AI models to scrape copyrighted material without consent. Copyright holders including artists, musicians, writers and media companies have opposed the carve-out.

Albanese said the government would establish a "clear, consistent and mandatory" national standard while avoiding legislation that attempts to cover "every possible eventuality" to prevent deterring investment.

COMPANY NEWS

• Spotify has removed 75M spam tracks as it faces an industrial-scale surge of AI-generated music clogging its 100,000-daily-song uploads while paying US$11B to artists. LINK

• JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs have reported record-beating Q2 profits totalling US$43B as trading revenue, higher investment banking fees and a US$4.6B Visa gain boosted results. LINK

• CommSec is planning to market more US IPOs to its nearly 3M clients after leading SpaceX’s US$75B June listing, which drew a record 28,000 applications. LINK

• Telstra is facing a Senate inquiry and multiple investigations over a nationwide outage that cut Triple Zero access and key services, with regulator ACMA threatening ACCAN over critical research. LINK

• KPMG has faced scathing criticism at a parliamentary hearing over serious whistleblower complaints as it prepares to cut hundreds of jobs and reduce partner pay by up to 20%. LINK

• Qantas is preparing for its inaugural Project Sunrise Sydney to London flights in October 2027 as Airbus tests the new A350-1000ULR, including a 17,000km Toulouse to Melbourne trial. LINK

• Macquarie Bank is targeting a larger share of the $320B term deposit market as it applies its simple, no-conditions savings model to grow beyond its current $4B in term deposits. LINK

• 26 current and former Meta employees have sued the company in US federal court, alleging its Metamate AI unlawfully targeted staff on recent pregnancy, medical or family leave during a May cull. LINK

• Apple has launched a blockbuster legal action against OpenAI and two former employees, alleging they took its confidential knowledge as court filings reveal clumsy internal processes and security gaps. LINK

• OpenAI reported that ChatGPT experienced a partial outage with elevated errors from 9:57am AEST on Wednesday, confirming services have now fully recovered after 40 minutes. LINK

• Netflix is facing investor pressure to outline a convincing growth strategy as it reports Q2 results, after losing over a fifth of its value and seeing user engagement falter. LINK

• Resmed has decided to sell its MatrixPartners business, which generates US$200M in annual revenue and US$55M in 2025-26 earnings, after buying it for US$750M in 2018. LINK

• Tabcorp secured approval from Racing NSW to proceed with a national tote that could launch next month, while granting NSW regulators editorial control and expanded commercial rights. LINK

2026 AUSCORP SALARY SURVEY

Since late 2022, your employer can no longer stop you discussing your pay. But most people still have no idea what the person next to them earns. We're trying to fix that.

This is our biggest survey yet and the more people who contribute, the harder it gets for anyone to be underpaid without knowing it. Anonymous, takes 2 minutes, and the results go straight back to the community.

TOGETHER WITH

School holidays don't have to mean parents taking leave or scrambling for childcare. KidsCo. brings fully run holiday programs into workplaces, with qualified teachers, activities and supervision included.

CHART OF THE DAY

The world’s megacities

ONE MORE SCROLL

Editor’s Pick: 'Climate Free Fall': Why the biggest risk to our economies is yet to be recognised.

Draft Pick: Spain beats France 2-0 and advances to World Cup Final.

Doctor’s Pick: 1 in 4 adults has metabolic syndrome and it may be ageing their brains.

TRIVIA

Rank the five bands in terms of their monthly listeners:

Five, Spice Girls, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Hanson.

Answer below

OUR SOCIALS

ANSWER

1. Backstreet Boys
2. NSYNC
3. Spice Girls
4. Hanson
5. Five

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