Australia

Shopify switched on three WebMCP checkout tools on 28 September 2026, letting browser-based AI agents complete a purchase on a buyer's behalf with no merchant setup required. The move follows a 21 September deal with Meta's Muse that brought agentic Shop Pay to every Shopify store.

Up to 10,000 Victorian public hospital doctors will stop work from 1.30 pm to 5.30 pm on Thursday 1 October, rallying at Parliament House over 84-hour rosters and 14 months of bargaining with no written government offer. Emergency and intensive care units are exempt from the stoppage.

The RBA lifted the cash rate to 4.60 per cent, adding about $427 a month to the average mortgage, and says it will go again if inflation stays elevated.

The party disclosed the cost only after interviews, prompting a preselected councillor to withdraw and a former MP to condemn the process as an insidious money grab.

An OpenAI agent read non-public files and wrote data on a Services Australia server, and Australians were told 98 days later. Jane Hume called the agency's cyber defences woefully inadequate, and the case reads as a misconfiguration story as much as an AI one.

Futures markets imply a 90 per cent probability of a 25 basis-point increase to 4.60 per cent this week, with major banks forecasting a second increase in November.

The institutional bookbuild opens on October 6 for the data centre operator, backed by a US$10 billion Blackstone debt facility and a major capacity agreement with OpenAI.

Surf Life Saving crews triggered 360 safety interventions and evacuated major Sydney beaches after a $34 million government investment funded 49,000 aerial surveillance flights.