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A fourth child in the space of two days has been airlifted to hospital from K’gari (Fraser Island) with suspected Irukandji jellyfish stings.
The RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter airlifted the young boy from the island after he was stung on the upper leg just after 2.30pm on Wednesday.
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Two teenagers are dead and a man has been hospitalised after a crash in South Australia’s mid-north.
Emergency services were called to the Augusta Highway at Lochiel at 7.30pm on Tuesday after a northbound car left the road and crashed into a tree.
Continue reading...‘We’re going to succeed with the referendum,’ Noel Pearson tells crowd ahead of 2023 vote
Linda Burney has rejected as “rubbish” suggestions that Labor has not released enough detail about the Indigenous voice to parliament, as the Liberals continue to call for a free vote in the referendum.
The Indigenous Australians minister and Anthony Albanese both gave major speeches at the Woodford folk festival on Wednesday, countering claims from the Liberal National Coalition that the body would not help improve outcomes for First Nations people.
Continue reading...Surveillance Australia handed six-year extension just three months after auditor general found home affairs’ management of contract ‘not effective’
The home affairs department must hand over a list of all expiring contracts due for renewal after it extended a contract for civil maritime surveillance for six years, just months after a critical report found it had paid for flight time when no planes were in the air.
The auditor general in October 2021 found the department’s management of the contract with Surveillance Australia was “not effective” and “as a result, while surveillance services have been provided, the quantum and range of those services has fallen short of the contractual requirements”.
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Continue reading...Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal government has no real idea about agricultural chemicals’ impact on environment
Serious shortfalls in Australia’s monitoring of pesticide residues in food, particularly food destined for the domestic market, were identified by the federal agriculture department nearly a decade ago, documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal.
Bureaucrats in the department expressed concern about Australia’s food monitoring as early as 2014, the documents, obtained under freedom of information laws, show.
Continue reading...The PM, an election winner in 2022, starts his festive address noting Christmas is ‘such a special time of year’
When George V decided to broadcast a Christmas message to his British subjects in 1932 he started a tradition that leaders across the world continue to embrace. Some more successfully than others.
The recipe for the Christmas message is fairly simple – one part reflection on challenges from the past year, one part acknowledgment of current events and one part hopeful throw forward (with a dash of unity).
Continue reading...Qantas has apologised to passengers and thanked them for their patience after a Singapore to London flight was forced to land at Baku airport – This blog is now closed
Job agencies join calls to scrap elements of ParentsNext program
Job agencies running the contentious ParentsNext program have called on the Albanese government to scrap compliance from the scheme, with one suggesting the current system is “morally questionable”.
Continue reading...Human Rights Commission says aspects of ParentsNext program have the ‘effect of penalising parents, overwhelmingly mothers’
Job agencies running the contentious ParentsNext program have called on the Albanese government to scrap compliance from the scheme, with one suggesting the current system is “morally questionable”.
In submissions to a parliamentary inquiry looking at the employment services system, the Human Rights Commission has also argued stopping social security payments under the program was “contrary to Australia’s human rights obligations”.
Continue reading...Former Liberal MP says problem was party ran a presidential campaign around ‘one of most unpopular leaders in Australian history’
Liberals have hit back at their party’s election review, calling it a “whitewash” designed to shift blame on to defeated MPs in order to downplay the unpopularity of Scott Morrison.
Despite the review acknowledging that the choice between Morrison and Anthony Albanese was “the most influential driver of voting intention”, critics have taken aim at a controversial finding that “some (not all) local members did not maximise the advantages of incumbency”.
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Wieambilla siege victim Alan Dare to be awarded police bravery medal
An innocent man killed during a violent encounter at a rural Queensland property will be awarded the Queensland Police Bravery Medal.
Well, I think matters about Scott Morrison’s future are best addressed to him.
The review did sign that Scott was personally unpopular and they’ve been very, very effectively demonised in an intense, aggressive and continuing campaign by the Labor party and by the broader green left campaigning apparatus.
Continue reading...Exporters optimistic as Penny Wong raises trade with her Chinese counterpart but many are also wary of being ‘burned again’ by volatile diplomatic relations
Australia’s lobster industry is cautiously optimistic that China could soon remove trade restrictions, but exporters are wary of being “burned again” by sanctions and volatile diplomatic relations.
Many businesses have been paying close attention to foreign affairs minister Penny Wong’s trip to China this week – the first by an Australian minister in three years – where she discussed “trade blockages” with her counterparts.
Continue reading...South Australian SES revises dates for expected peak flows with Renmark and Berri expected to peak today; nurses at two major private hospitals in Sydney to walk off the job at 1pm
Private hospitals nurses to walk off the job for first time in decades
Staying in NSW, nurses at two major private Sydney hospitals will walk off the job later today.
The Australian market regulator and the cap price that people pay for electricity will make their announcement in February about what bills people will pay for next year. And we expect that the move will feed directly through to that and see downward pressure of up to $243 on electricity bills of what it was previously going to be.
How much of a philosophical jump was it for you as a Liberal, to intervene in the market in this way and cap the prices?
Well, it wasn’t a jump at all to stand by people following the illegal war in Ukraine, which is pushing up electricity bills. The government is there to protect the people – not the other way around.
And that’s exactly what we did. We looked at a range of measures to support people to deal with these high electricity prices. And this is the one that the commonwealth government asked us to do and, obviously, our No 1 priority is standing by the people of New South Wales using our balance sheet to support families and businesses. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.
Continue reading...Leading campaigner Tim Costello ‘laughed out loud in disbelief’ at peak body claim existing restrictions ‘had the balance right’
Gambling reform advocates and those harmed by online betting say it is “dangerous and deluded” for Australia’s biggest sporting codes to oppose greater regulation.
Support for tougher restrictions is growing, with Allegra Spender, a federal independent MP, the latest politician to voice concerns about young people being exposed to gambling via advertising.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Albanese government flags it will seek leave to appeal in high court
A “bizarre” immigration case that featured a photo of a signed ministerial brief next to a steering wheel could be on its way to the high court.
The photograph contributed to a finding that the then immigration minister, Alex Hawke, rushed a visa cancellation decision.
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Long delays on M7 at Prestons in Sydney
Traffic is banked up on the M7 in Sydney. Chanel 7 is reporting that a truck crash has caused the long delays.
They’re sharing their emotions and their grief because they believe this should never have happened.
It’s really important for us to have that public support. It inspires us to continue to do our job.
They’ve also lost two colleagues … so they are hurting incredibly.
A lot of work to be done to assist them as we move into the future because the pain will never go away.
Continue reading...Former PM praised as ‘the best China analyst by far’ by leading US national security council figure
Experts have predicted Kevin Rudd will be “well received by Washington and highly active in policy circles” as Australia’s ambassador to the US, though the nomination has triggered criticism from some Coalition MPs.
Andrew Wallace, a Liberal party MP said the appointment could go down in history as “a foreign policy disaster for Australia with its most important ally” if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, as Rudd called him “the most destructive president in history”.
Continue reading...Senator David Shoebridge hopes to ‘rebalance the scales of justice’ after states crack down on activists
A series of harsh state-based laws cracking down on climate activists could be overridden by a federal “right to protest” bill being pushed by the Greens.
After the jailing of climate activist Deanna “Violet” Coco in New South Wales this month, the party says the commonwealth has the power to overturn the series of state laws passed in recent years that experts say curtailed the right to protest in Australia.
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Crossbench say Australia needs to ‘get cracking’ on Cop15 commitments
More reactions are coming in after the close of the biodiversity Cop15 – which leading scientists have called “vastly more important” than the Cop27 climate meeting, because it decides the “fate of the living world”.
We need to get cracking on implementation to deliver on commitments.
Continue reading...Review recommends setting a target for greater female representation but not a binding quota
The Liberal party should set a target for 50% of candidates and new MPs to be women, according to a review of the Coalition’s 2022 election loss.
Guardian Australia has confirmed the review, which is being finalised this week, will not recommend a binding quota despite highlighting the need to boost female representation as central to modernising the party.
Continue reading...Anthony Albanese told reporters the appointment would be seen within the US as a significant one
Anthony Albanese has appointed the former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd as the next Australian ambassador to the United States.
The prime minister made the announcement in Canberra on Tuesday, confirming months of speculation that Rudd was a frontrunner for Australia’s key diplomatic post in Washington DC.
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