A personal view of Australian and International Politics

Wednesday, 15 July 2026

Anthony Albanese maps out AI future with new national framework.

Extract from ABC News

By chief digital political correspondent Clare Armstrong

Topic:Federal Government

6 hours ago

A man wearing a suit with a coat, a red tie and glasses. — Anthony Albanese will announce a new office to coordinate new Australian standards. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore.)

In short:

Labor will develop a national framework to bring together its response to artificial intelligence as it seeks to address the technology's growing economic and social impacts.

The proposal comes amid debates over copyright, jobs and data centres, with states taking increasingly different approaches to approving the infrastructure needed to power AI.

What's next?

The prime minister will outline his vision for Australia's approach to AI in a speech in Sydney today.

Australia will seek to harness the benefits of artificial intelligence without losing control of it by tackling challenges such as data centres, copyright, and jobs through a new national framework.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will use a speech in Sydney on Wednesday to declare the end of the federal government's "issue-by-issue" approach to AI and outline his plan to make the technology work in the nation's interest.

Amid community anxiety about data centre developments, workplace automation, copyright protections for artists and the use of AI in defence, Mr Albanese wants to reassure Australians he is focused on their concerns.

Mr Albanese will announce the establishment of an Office of AI to operate within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and coordinate the design of new "Australian Standards" for the technology, according to a short preview of his speech provided ahead of the address.

The approach of states and territories in attracting and approving data centres needed to power AI has been particularly fragmented, with the prime minister now signalling a greater role for his government to bring that patchwork together.

Mr Albanese will say "every country on earth" is grappling with the challenges posed by AI, and claim Australia as being the "first" to bring those issues into a "single, national framework".

"Getting this right will enhance our appeal to international investors by delivering greater clarity and speed for approvals and a streamlined process for verifying compliance," he will say.

"It also imposes an important discipline on government."

New AI office will 'bring together' government work

Mr Albanese will argue AI "touches on the work of every minister and department", and it was therefore "only natural" that until now the government's response had been "issue-by-issue" and "sector by sector".

"But just as government developed coordinated approaches for other significant technologies: from civil aviation in the 1920s to genetics in the 1990s, we must do this with AI as well," he will say.

Piles of rocky dirt foregounds a construction site with yellow machinery in a valley dotted with homes. — An AI data centre under construction in St Leonards, Tasmania. (ABC News: Morgan Timms)

Mr Albanese wants his new AI office to "bring together" work already underway across the government.

Examples include the cooperation with states and territories on expectations around data centres, defence and national security, copyright protections, and the impact of AI in schools and on workers.

Copyright clarity unlikely for now

The prime minister is not expected to unveil any dramatic shift in the federal government's position on copyright law, despite widespread reports that tech giant Anthropic has made its offer of using Australia as a training ground for its AI model Claude contingent on the issue.

Anthropic is reportedly seeking to make Australia its second-largest base for training behind the US, but does not want to go through existing laws to negotiate and pay for access to copyright material like music and books.

The establishment of a single creative fund to distribute compensation to rights holders in exchange for an exemption has been floated as an alternative.

But Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has consistently said Australia has no plans to provide AI companies with what is known as a text and data mining exemption for copyright.

States have gone their own way on data centres so far

States have taken different approaches in what was once a race for data centre development, with some jurisdictions launching dedicated fast-track options to attract investment.

NSW has classified large data centres as "state significant development", while Victoria commonly channels major proposals through an assessment process approved by the planning minister.

South Australia released a dedicated data centre strategy in June that linked government support to properly coordinated energy supply and sustainable water use.

Meanwhile, Western Australia does not offer a special category for data centres, but there are state-based pathways for projects deemed high-value.

Planning approvals in Queensland, the ACT, Tasmania and the Northern Territory are generally through normal local channels, with some options for larger projects to access streamlined approvals processes.

But as public backlash to data centres emerged, the competition between states started to evolve from a race to attract any investment to a focus on securing the right projects.

This includes those that have broader economic benefits, while also managing the impacts on energy, water and surrounding communities.

Batteries 'cheaper' than gas plants as data centres fuel turbine costs.

Extract from ABC News

By energy reporter Daniel Mercer and climate editor Tim Leslie

Topic:Energy Industry

28 minutes ago

Flames belch form two tall metal industrial chimneys. — Gas has long been the traditional peaking fuel in Australia, but times are changing. (ABC News: Chris Lewis)

In short:

Australia's top science agency has found batteries are now cheaper at supplying peak demand for power than gas.

The CSIRO's annual GenCost report notes insatiable demand for gas-fired power from US data centres is driving up turbine costs.

At the same time, the agency says battery costs are falling, thanks largely to increasing Chinese production.

Runaway demand for turbines from data centres in the US is making new gas-fired power uncompetitive with batteries in the evening peak for the first time, a report has found.

Australia's top science agency, the CSIRO, said batteries were helping to lower high evening prices for electricity as the costs of the technology fell and significant extra capacity was added.

At the same time, the CSIRO said the costs of gas-fired power were rising as insatiable demand for power from data centres caused a shortage of the giant turbines at the heart of gas plants.

Data centres are enormous farms of servers that are being used to power the boom in artificial intelligence.

While the centres are springing up all over the world, in no country has their arrival been as pronounced as the US, where the Department of Energy forecasts they will consume 6.7 to 12 per cent of electricity by 2028.

Paul Graham, the agency's chief energy economist, said the extraordinary growth of data centres, and their consequent need for gas-fired power, was flowing all the way through to Australia.

Mr Graham leads the CSIRO's GenCost project, a collaboration with the Australian Energy Market Operator that assesses the cost of building new generation and storage technologies.

"As battery costs continue to fall and gas technology costs rise, batteries are increasingly becoming the preferred flexible generation technology in the near term," Mr Graham said.

"However, GenCost modelling finds gas technologies will still play a limited but important role in helping firm the electricity system, contributing around 3 to 7 per cent of generation by 2050."

'If data centres were a country…'

The dimly lit inside of a large warehouse looking down at rows of server racks. — Data centres are massive farms of servers used for things such as artificial intelligence. (Supplied: Google)

The findings from the CSIRO follow a major report from the International Energy Agency last year which noted data centres were up-ending the planning for grids worldwide.

Global energy consultancy Lazard, meanwhile, issued similar findings yesterday, saying demand from data mining was pushing up power prices for all technologies.

In its report, titled Energy and AI, the IEA, a club of mostly rich nations, said data centres had been driving up the cost of turbines for years.

"If data centres were a country," the agency noted, "they would be the second-largest destination for gas turbines ordered" in the 12 months to the first quarter of 2026.

"Data centre electricity consumption is set to more than double to around 945 [terawatt hours] by 2030," the IEA wrote in its report.

"This is slightly more than Japan's total electricity consumption today."

The CSIRO said turbine costs would continue to rise before stabilising later this decade.

Drone view of a suburb with lots of solar on the houses' roofs. — The rise and rise of rooftop solar is reshaping Australia's grids. (ABC News: Daniel Mercer)

By that stage, the agency said, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar would be meeting an ever-greater share of Australia's electricity demand.

The organisation said while some conventional technologies such as black coal plants could be broadly competitive if carbon costs were excluded, it argued they were "not suitable for deployment".

Among the reasons, the CSIRO said, were political objectives to achieve "net zero" by 2050.

More pointedly, however, the agency said there were no serious proposals to develop any coal plants in Australia by the end of the decade.

"Solar PV and onshore wind are almost exclusively the only generation technologies sufficiently advanced in the development pipeline to be deployed before 2030," it said in the report.

"Their deployment is being supported by existing flexible gas and coal together with new battery, pumped hydro and transmission capacity."

Long-term outlook is renewable: CSIRO

The smoke stacks of the Bayswater power station. — Coal still provides much of Australia's power, but there are few plans for more. (Supplied: AGL)

According to the CSIRO, average prices in the national electricity market spanning the country's eastern seaboard had fallen from historic highs of $189 a megawatt hour in 2022 to $104 a megawatt hour in 2025.

It said generation costs could fall further still "to between $80 and $90/MWh by 2030" as more generation and storage capacity was added to the grid.

Average wholesale spot prices in the national market, according to AEMO data, were typically much lower before 2017, when there was more relatively low-cost coal and cheaper gas.

In any case, the CSIRO noted generation costs typically made up about a third of the retail costs paid by consumers for electricity.

High-voltage transmission lines accounted for about seven per cent of bills, low-voltage distribution lines made up 34 per cent, while the rest comprised metering, retail and government costs.

Longer-term, the agency said solar and wind power would by 2050 supply as much as 93 per cent of Australia's electricity needs.

The remainder, it said, would come from a mix of hydropower, storage, transmission between states and "either gas or hydrogen or a combination of both".

Solar thermal plants, which differ from photovoltaic solar panels, could be competitive, the CSIRO said, but they would be hampered by a need to be built further from cities to tap better solar resources.

Mr Graham said the energy market might be a goliath, but it was also dynamic and subject to change.

"Each year GenCost, with the help of stakeholders, seeks to understand how electricity technology markets are changing," Mr Graham said.

"The impacts of the Iran war and data centre demand for gas turbines are currently the strongest drivers of uncertainty."

a silhouette of a gas plant with its smoke stack against a sunset — Gas plants are being eclipsed by cheaper batteries in the evening peak. (ABC News: Daniel Mercer)

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Actor Sam Neill, star of Jurassic Park, dies.

Extract from ABC News

Topic:Celebrities

16 hours ago

Sam Neill dies aged 78.

In short:

Actor Sam Neill, known for his performances in films such as My Brilliant Career, Jurassic Park, The Piano and The Dish, has died aged 78.

A statement on his social media account says he died in Sydney "surrounded by his family" and that he "remained cancer free".

Tributes are flowing for Neill, remembering him as a great of the film and television industries.

Actor Sam Neill, who starred in My Brilliant Career and Jurassic Park, has died aged 78.

A post made to his social media account on Monday afternoon said he had died in Sydney "surrounded by his family".

"The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free," the statement, posted to Instagram, said.

head shot Neill smiling. — Sam Neill has died. (ABC News: Greg Nelson)

Neill first rose to fame in the 1977 film Sleeping Dogs, before going on to star in My Brilliant Career, Jurassic Park, The Piano, The Dish and Possession among other films.

He was one of a host of actors and directors who achieved international fame after an explosion of Australian films that began in the late 1970s — a list that includes Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, Jane Campion, Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong.

In 2023, Neill revealed he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in early 2022.

He entered remission later that year after a rare anti-cancer drug worked, but needed ongoing infusion treatment.

He announced in April he was cancer-free.

The actor was also knighted in 2022, becoming Sir Sam Neill.

"I said I didn't want the title for 10 or 12 years," he said in 2023.

"Then when I thought I was dying a couple of years ago I thought, 'Oh bugger it, I may as well go out with the title,' so I changed my mind."

Sam Neill revealed his cancer diagnosis in 2023, about a year after he entered remission. (Australian Story: Erin Semmler)

Tributes flow for 'one of the greats'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today said Neill "earned a special place in Australian hearts".

"Wry and dry, thoughtful and laconic, Sam fought illness with the same dignity, humour and conviction that gave strength to his every performance," he said in a statement on X.

"He will be much mourned and long remembered. May he rest in peace."

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also released a tribute to Neill on Monday, describing him as one of the country's "greatest cultural exports".

"Sir Sam Neill was one of the greats. He started out when there was barely a film industry in this country to speak of," he said in a statement posted on X.

"For more than fifty years he took New Zealand stories to the world and his talents helped make our film industry into what it is today.

"His work will be watched and loved long after all of us. Our thoughts are with his family and friends tonight. Rest in Peace."

Black and white image smiling Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neill — Sam Neill with Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern at the Jurassic Park premiere in Washington DC in 1993. (Getty: Guy DeLort/WWD/Penske Media)

Magda Szubanski also posted an emotional tribute to the actor online.

"I've just heard the news about Sam and, like everyone else, I'm absolutely shocked and devastated," she said.

"When I spoke to him not long ago, he was cancer-free and really happy and excited about life.

"This is just devastating and he's just a one-off, such a talented, classy, beautiful, wry, warm human being. [A] really lovely man, and I'm just very sad for all who loved him and there are so many of us.

"God bless you Sam, I miss you very much."

The ABC's Laura Tingle, who previously had a relationship with Neill, described him as the "greatest theatrical creation" of himself.

"If you look back at the body of work he's done over such a long career, it really is staggering," she said.

She remembered him as "very funny and [someone who] could be very perceptive of people".

"The joy he got out of life is a quality, it's not just something that you do, it's something that you are," she said.

The actor was also well-remembered by his industry colleagues.

Adam Ross from the Australian Film Critics Association said Neill was one of the most "personable and likeable" stars in the history of cinema.

"It's not an accident, his success. An extraordinarily versatile performer but when he did the thing he did, which is be a sensible and relatable person, you couldn't take your eyes off him," he said.

"What he did with [Jurassic Park] bucked against Hollywood casting at that point in time — he offered a version of masculinity that was so personable and protective."

A black-and-white photo of a man and a woman in a film still. — Sam Neill with Nicole Kidman on the set of Dead Calm in 1989. (Getty Images: Michael Ochs)

The Screen Producers Australia organisation's tribute described Neill as "one of the screen industry's most respected and enduring talents".

"His contribution to Australian storytelling and to our screen culture is immeasurable, and his legacy will continue to inspire audiences and the industry for generations to come," CEO Matthew Deaner said.

A star-studded screen career

Neill's range as an actor was remarkable, playing opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the Alan Ayckbourn comedy Sweet Revenge to chopping off Holly Hunter's finger in The Piano to poking his own eyes out in the sci-fi horror Event Horizon.

Sam Neill mid-speech with his right index finger raised, in front of a blue backdrop while wearing a black blazer. — Neill at the 57th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin in 2007. (Reuters: Hannibal Hanschke)

The actor first came to the attention of international audiences in Armstrong's 1979 film My Brilliant Career, which also introduced Judy Davis.

He later appeared in Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm, a classy thriller set at sea and co-starring the then-relatively unknown Nicole Kidman.

Neill twice co-starred with Meryl Streep, in Australian director Fred Schepisi's Plenty and — again for Schepisi — in A Cry in the Dark, a film about the sensationalised aftermath of a dingo killing a baby in the Australian Outback.

A young Meryl Streep and Sam Neill in formal wear waving, surrounded by a group of suited men. — Sam Neill with Meryl Streep at the Cannes Film Festival in France in 1989. (Reuters: Remy Le Morvan/File)

He earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the 1998 mini-series Merlin and another as narrator of 2017's Wild New Zealand.

He perhaps achieved his highest level of fame in Jurassic Park, playing palaeontologist Alan Grant, who is summoned to an island off Costa Rica where a theme park has been built to house herds of cloned dinosaurs.

He co-starred alongside Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough in the Steven Spielberg directed hit.

Sam Neill in a dark suit smiling next to Susan Sarandon in black sunglasses and a jacket, and Rainn Wilson. — Sam Neill with Susan Sarandon and Rainn Wilson at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019. (Reuters: Mario Anzuoni)

His character was thoughtful and reasonable, a scientist who warned the mastermind of the theme park before the chaos: "Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?"

Grant survived the harrowing events when the creatures get loose, but didn't return for The Lost World: Jurassic Park II in 1997. He came back for the third episode in 2001 and Jurassic World: Dominion in 2022.

"It's probably a little late to learn these things, but I finally feel I've worked out how to be an action hero," he told the Daily News of New York in 2001.

A love for wine and the land

Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, Neill emigrated to New Zealand at the age of seven. His family settled in Dunedin on the South Island and he was sent to boarding school in Christchurch.

After college, he took the lead in Sleeping Dogs in 1977 — the first feature made in New Zealand in more than a decade.

Neill was also a vintner and under his Two Paddocks brand, he produced pinot noir and riesling wines from his winery in the Central Otago region of New Zealand's South Island.

On social media, he often posted images of his farm animals, many of them affectionately named after celebrities and friends, like Laura Dern the chicken, Kylie Minogue the duck and Helena Bonham Carter the cow.

His memoir Did I Ever Tell You This? came out in March 2023 and he was awarded a knighthood in recognition of his "outstanding contribution to film" — a title approved by the late Queen Elizabeth II.

"I can't pretend that the last year hasn't had its dark moments," Neill told The Guardian in 2023, referring to his cancer diagnosis and treatment.

"But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends."

Australian Story will pay tribute to Sam Neill and his Brilliant Careers tonight, July 13.

ABC/AP

From Jurassic Park to The Piano, here are Sam Neill's best roles.

Extract from ABC News

13 hours ago

Sam Neill and three actors in front of the Dish — The Dish featured the likes of Sam Neill (centre) and detailed the role the Parkes Observatory played in the moon landing. (Supplied: Working Dog Productions)

The finest of the Kiwis we called our own (though actually Northern Irish), Sam Neill was embraced wholeheartedly by Australian cinephiles as a man of endless charm and dashing good looks. And what a career, including everything from a First Nations-led Western to a sci-fi epic via dinosaurs!

Deeply saddened by his untimely passing, we took a look back at some of Neill's film career highlights, many of which will surely become comfort viewing in the days to come.

My Brilliant Career

ABC iview

Black and white photo of Davis and Neill in scene from film looking lovingly at each other. — Sam Neill and Judy Davis in the 1979 film My Brilliant Career. (Supplied)

Neill's big breakthrough came with director Gillian Armstrong's Oscar-nominated 1979 adaptation of Miles Franklin's fantastically feminist 1901 novel.

Casting him as the kind-hearted-but-a-bit-brash Harry Beecham, he was hopelessly devoted to Judy Davis's Sybylla Melvyn, who only has eyes for her words as a wise writer-to-be. Their electric chemistry proved, without a doubt, that Neill had leading-man chops.

Possession

Available to rent online

Film still of a young Sam Neill looking pensive, behind him an odd looking man and a gloomy sky — Sam Neill plays Mark in 1981's Possession. (Supplied: IMDB)

Polish director Andrzej Żuławski cast Neill alongside French superstar Isabelle Adjani as an estranged couple, Anna and Mark, in this startling, Palme d'Or-nominated psychological horror from 1981.

Set in West Berlin and unflinchingly depicting domestic violence, it also goes all-in on a particularly graphic demonic possession by a tentacled beast straight out of HP Lovecraft's nightmares. Magnificently unnerving, it's A LOT.

Jurassic Park

Netflix

Bigger than a T-Rex, the box office bonanza that followed Steven Spielberg splicing the DNA of Michael Crichton's novel into pure cinematic gold in 1993 ensured everyone in the world knew Neill's name and believed that dinosaurs could stalk the Earth once more.

He played grumpy palaeontologist Alan Grant to Laura Dern's Ellie Sattler and even managed to hold his own with the outsized presence of Jeff Goldblum while the reanimated monsters ran riot across Isla Nublar.

The Piano

Available to rent online

a windswept man on the beach in an old fashioned suit — Sam Neill in The Piano. (Supplied)

Neill joined forces with fellow claimed-by-Australia New Zealander Jane Campion for this 1993 sweeping historical drama set across the ditch during the 1800s.

He plays colonist Alisdair Stewart, to whom Holly Hunter's mute Scotswoman Ada McGrath is promised, only for her to fall for Harvey Keitel's piano-playing retired sailor George Baines. It won three Oscars and the Palme d'Or — shared with Kaige Chen's Farewell My Concubine — the first time a woman director won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

SBS On Demand

Sam Neill in an akubra hat leans down towards a young Julian Dennison, they are in the bush — Julian Dennison and Sam Neil in Hunt for the Wilderpeople. (Supplied)

Neill's gift for wry comic timing and innate ability to convey the human kindness lurking beneath the gruff exterior of otherwise curmudgeonly types made him the perfect person for this film.

He plays foster father Hec to breakout star Julian Dennison's lovable rogue Ricky Baker in this sweet Taika Waititi misadventure from 2016. When they go on the run together after a tragedy, you just know you're going to feel all the feels.

Sweet Country

ABC iview

The four actors stand in tattered period clothing, one of them in chains, on a red dirt road in front of a corrugated iron shed. — Bryan Brown, Hamilton Morris, Natassia Gorey Furber and Sam Neill in Sweet Country. (Supplied: Bunya Productions)

Loosely based on a true story, director Warwick Thornton's (Samson and Delilah) searing indictment on colonial violence shares much in common with the American tradition of the Western, but as told from a First Nations perspective.

Hamilton Morris and Natassia Gorey Furber are excellent as the husband and wife, Sam and Lizzie, who are terrorised by Ewen Leslie's real bad man, Harry. Neill plays Harry's neighbour, preacher Fred Smith, who is powerless to save them in this unforgettable film that won the Special Jury Prize at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.

Death in Brunswick

ABC iview

a man stares forwards, holding a knife by the handle and the blade — Sam Neill in Death in Brunswick. (Supplied)

Playing out in the inner-northern Melbourne suburb that lends the film its name, this darkly comic 1990 adaptation of the Boyd Oxlade novel stars Neill as Carl, a chef who falls for Sophie (Zoe Carides), the Greek Australian daughter of dubious club owner Yanni (Nicholas Papademetriou).

His wandering heart leads to a whole lot of trouble when he accidentally kills a colleague and goes to great lengths to cover up his involvement (quite literally, in an already occupied grave).

Dead Calm

ABC iview

Movie poster of a boat on the sea with Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill and Billy Zane's faces floating above — Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill and Billy Zane in Dead Calm. (ABC iview)

In a dream-team pairing, Neill plays stoic navy officer John to a young Nicole Kidman's desolate Rae, a grieving couple strained by the devastating loss of their young son in a car accident.

Deciding to set sail to get away from it all, their R&R is crashed by Billy Zane's murderous soul, Hughie, lost at sea in more ways than one in this gripping 1989 thriller directed by the inimitable Phillip Noyce. You'll forget to breathe as it all kicks off below deck.

Rams

Stan

This 2020 remake of Icelandic filmmaker Grímur Hákonarson's 2015 hit has been relocated to Mount Barker in remote Western Australia, now directed by Last Cab to Darwin's Jeremy Sims.

Neill plays Colin, a spiky but decent man, who is knee-deep in a 40-year feud with his fellow sheep farming brother Les (The Castle's Michael Caton). The pair are forced to bury the hatchet when an outbreak of Ovine Johne's disease threatens their flocks.

The Dish

Stan

Speaking of sheep farms, that's the setting for Utopia star and writer Rob Sitch's 2000 comedy. Set in the small town of Parkes in the Central West region of New South Wales, it's also the location of the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope — aka 'The Dish' — which helped support the broadcast of the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing in this true story.

Neill plays the boffin in charge of this momentous mission. A feel-good adventure movie that mainlines community spirit and the can-do attitude of have-a-go heroes.

Event Horizon

Available to rent online

Space, the final frontier, is front and centre in this 1997 sci-fi epic helmed by director Paul WS Anderson, which was hacked to pieces by the studio and, perhaps unfairly, maligned by critics at the time. It's an enjoyably gory, twisty-turny action movie with an enviable cast that includes Laurence Fishburne, Joely Richardson and Jason Isaacs.

Neill plays Dr William Weir, the mysterious designer of the missing titular ship the crew of the Lewis and Clark are tasked with retrieving, after it reappears next to Neptune seven years after disappearing. All hell breaks loose when they board. In a nice touch, Weir, an Australian in 2047, wears a badge on his uniform that depicts the Aboriginal flag in place of the Union Jack, at Neill's behest.

The Fox

Coming to cinemas in 2026

Jai Courtney stands in the dark with a torch next to an animated fox — Sam Neill played a foul-mouthed magpie alongside Jai Courtney and Olivia Colman in The Fox. (Supplied: Nixco)

What could be more fitting, for as roguishly charming an actor as Sam Neill, than lending his dulcet vocals to an outrageously sweary, but inarguably very funny, magpie in his final feature credit released to date, The Fox? Dario Russo's dark fable casts Jai Courtney as the dubious Nick, the fiancé of Emily Browning's increasingly uninterested Kori.

But when he is made an Obsession-like promise by a sneaky fox (voiced by Olivia Colman) that Kori will adore him if only he throws her down a mysterious hole in the forest, Nick rightly cops a torrent of boisterous backchat from Neill's cheeky feathered chappy. Fly high, legend.

Sam Neill on TV

The Assembly. Guest Sam Neill. Ep 1. Image courtesy of ABC.6559 — Sam Neill was grilled by a group of autistic journalism students on The Assembly.

While Neill made his biggest impact on the silver screen, he spent plenty of time on Australian (and international) television, too — whether in character or as himself. You can find some of the most notable appearances on:

Merlin — Prime

The Simpsons (s5 ep11) — Disney+

Australian Story — ABC iview

Peaky Blinders — Netflix

Fisk — ABC iview

The Twelve — Binge/Foxtel

Apples Never Fall — Binge/Foxtel

The Assembly — ABC iview