Category Archives: Australian politics

Intimate partner homicide data-tracker unveiled after four SA women killed in one week

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Statistical dashboard with up-to-date figures on victims is ‘crucial’ in helping police and policymakers tackle domestic violence, minister for women says

A new intimate partner homicide dashboard offering more up-to-date figures will soon be available after the deaths of four South Australian women in one week.

The government will introduce the federal statistical dashboard by mid-2024 to provide more timely reporting on intimate partner homicide. The new dashboard will enable police, governments, policymakers and all those who are working to end violence against women and children, to better understand what is happening and when. It will initially provide quarterly updates but is expected to provide more up-to-date figures as the initiative develops.

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Australian warship HMAS Toowoomba sailed through sensitive Taiwan Strait close to China

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Incident comes after maritime altercation between Toowoomba and Chinese warship last week off Japan’s coast that injured navy divers

Taiwan says an Australian warship has sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the sensitive and narrow waterway that separates the democratically governed island from China.

The ship, which it did not name, entered the strait on Thursday and sailed in a southerly direction, the defence ministry said on Friday.

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Australia news live: Bruce Lehrmann back in the witness box as defamation case kicks off third day

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Former Liberal staffer’s defamation trial against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson continues in the federal court. Follow the day’s news live

The minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, has said the government is yet to decide how to best consult with First Nations people after the loss of the Indigenous voice referendum.

Burney was on RN Breakfast earlier and said today’s Closing the Gap meeting, the first since the referendum, would focus on the silver linings from the loss.

What we have seen is a group of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people get involved in the political process.

We had 6 million Australians say yes. And the thing that really excited me about the outcome in places like the Tiwi Islands, where … Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people wanted this change. And those votes are really important.

Education is the most powerful cause for good in this world, that is where you learn.

If you want to protest, do it on the weekend. School is on, we expect them to be there.

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Thalidomide survivors call on Labor to reopen lifetime support program to new applicants

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Lisa McManus says it is ‘ignorant’ to think all those affected by drug are included in 146 people registered to closed scheme

Thalidomide survivors have asked the government to reopen a lifetime support program to new entrants ahead of next week’s national apology.

Survivors left with significant birth defects and other health issues have welcomed the apology but hope the government will use the occasion to pledge more help.

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What’s Dutton’s strategy for picking the NSW Senate spot winner? Back both frontrunners

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Leading moderate Andrew Constance is up against rightwinger Zed Seselja to fill the Liberals’ seat – but a dark horse could spoil the party

The Liberal leader, Peter Dutton, wants to back a winner. Even if it means endorsing two candidates in the New South Wales Senate race.

Dutton has backed the former ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja for the spot that was opened up by Marise Payne’s resignation, with Seselja the hope of the party’s hard right.

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Report critical of big four consultancies was censored by Australian government agency, academic claims

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Peter Carey tells inquiry he was asked by Accounting Standards Board to omit details because partners from PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY sat on the board

A government agency allegedly censored a major study that was critical of the big four consultancy firms because their partners sat on its board, according to the academic who wrote the report.

The allegation, which has been disputed by the agency, was made during a parliamentary inquiry into the ethics and professional standards of the consulting industry. It has led to questions about potential “regulatory capture” and possible undue influence.

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Man found dead after statewide search – as it happened

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Hostage release essential if truce to last, Paterson says

Rewinding to Liberal MP James Paterson’s appearance on RN Breakfast this morning, wheN he said more needs to be done to free the hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza.

We don’t know how many of them are still alive, and their continued release would be essential for any continuing ceasefire because otherwise Israel continues to have a legitimate military objective.

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Former Australian deputy PM Barnaby Joyce says official JFK assassination findings didn’t ‘stack up’

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Coalition MP says he has spent ‘an awful lot of time’ researching topic, and official theory that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone is ‘implausible’

The former deputy prime minister and Coalition frontbencher Barnaby Joyce claims the official narrative of the assassination of US president John F Kennedy 60 years ago “doesn’t stack up”, saying he didn’t believe the findings of the Warren commission that only one shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, was involved and acted alone.

The member for New England said he had devoted “an awful lot of time” to researching the incident, saying his own experience using firearms led him to believe that a rifle shot from the book depository – the official conclusion of the 1964 report into Kennedy’s death – was “implausible”.

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Australia’s 100 wealthiest schools earned almost $4.8bn in 2021, data reveals

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Exclusive: education department figures reveal the private schools received about $767m in government money amid a public schools funding shortfall

Australia’s 100 wealthiest schools had a combined income of $4.8bn in 2021, data reveals, as calls grow for the federal government to urgently address inequity in the education system.

About $767m of that income came from government funding; the rest from fees, private contributions and donations.

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Greens could sink Labor’s gas industry scheme over concerns it supports fossil fuel expansion

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Exclusive: Adam Bandt says party cannot endorse $12 a gigajoule price cap due to exemptions allowing new ‘climate bomb’ gasfields

The Albanese government’s mandatory code for the gas industry could be at risk, with the Greens vowing to disallow the scheme because it supports new gasfields even as the climate crisis worsens.

The Greens will move a disallowance vote in the Senate next Monday, saying the code with its $12 a gigajoule price cap had benefited big gas users. Uncontracted supplies of the fossil fuel had also been diverted to the domestic market.

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Australia news live: Bruce Lehrmann ‘utterly destroyed’ by Ten broadcast, court told

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Former Liberal staffer is seeking ‘substantial’ damages over The Project broadcast, lawyer says. Follow today’s news live

More than 20 people have been arrested and charged following an unauthorised pro-Palestine protest at Port Botany overnight.

According to a statement from NSW police, about 400 people gathered at the protest. Police issued a move-on direction, which they say was not complied with.

The group continued to occupy Foreshore Road, blocking vehicle movement.

That just gives a really clear line drawn that if it’s labour hire, it’s covered, if it’s service contractors, it’s not.

In terms of the conversations with the crossbench, I continue to reach out to the crossbench [and] there’s a series of meetings that continue to happen.

They’ve made a decision that they don’t want to deal with this bill until next year. I would rather we were dealing with it over the next fortnight. We certainly will be dealing with it next week in the House of Representatives.

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Immigration detention: Rohingya refugee NZYQ freed after high court case did not show remorse for raping 10-year-old

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Psychologist noted ‘risk factors’ for possible reoffending including ‘attitudes’ stemming from his own childhood abuse, court documents reveal

The plaintiff who overturned the legality of indefinite immigration detention in the high court was found to be owed protection because he experienced forced labour and his brother was abducted and killed in Myanmar.

Previously unreported details of the stateless Rohingya refugee, known as NZYQ, were contained in court documents published on Tuesday, including that the judge did not find he had shown remorse in relation to his conviction for the rape of a 10-year-old boy, despite pleading guilty. The documents also show a psychologist had noted “risk factors” for possible reoffending including “attitudes” stemming from his own childhood abuse.

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Labor to reconsider mandatory data retention laws for companies in light of major hacks

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New cyber security strategy cites business concerns at having to store large amounts of data for excessive periods of time, increasing breach risk

Following several high-profile data breaches in the past year, the federal government will review laws requiring companies to retain data as part of its new cyber security strategy.

Released on Wednesday, the 2023-30 strategy notes that data is increasingly used for ransom attacks and as a tool for coersion.

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‘Vulnerable’ Pacific countries must get maximum benefit from ‘loss and damage’ fund, Australian climate minister says

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Chris Bowen also says climate disaster fund will need to be bankrolled by broader-than-expected range of countries in speech ahead of Cop28

Australia’s climate minister, Chris Bowen, says Pacific nations and other countries vulnerable to climate catastrophe should be the major beneficiaries of “loss and damage” funding, and a broader range of countries should bankroll the international effort along with the private sector.

Bowen used a speech to a foreign policy thinktank on Tuesday night to signal Australia’s position ahead of Cop28, the looming United Nations-led climate talks, which get under way in the United Arab Emirates later this month.

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BoM provides El Niño update – as it happened

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Birmingham says China ‘doesn’t appear to be acknowledging the facts’

Shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham is speaking with ABC RN and is asked about sonar pulses from a Chinese warship that left one Australian naval diver injured.

The Australian navy and Australian defence force operates always with professionalism, and I’m confident that Australia’s version of events is a credible.

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Labor and Coalition team up to retrospectively authorise ‘unlawful’ use of material gathered by Australian agency

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Bill authorises previous uses of coercive powers, removing legal question mark that had dogged Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission

Labor and the Coalition teamed up to pass a bill retrospectively authorising potentially “unlawful” use of material gathered in special investigations by Australia’s most secretive law enforcement agency.

The bill is the third attempt to cure a long-running legal defect in the powers of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to conduct special investigations and operations.

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‘Respect the facts’: Beijing rejects Australian claims China sonar injured navy divers

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Chinese defense ministry insists its vessel ‘did not conduct any activity that could affect the Australian side’s diving operations’

The Chinese government has accused the federal government of “making trouble” with “rude and irresponsible” claims about the sonar incident that injured Australian navy divers last week.

Beijing overnight rebuffed Canberra’s version of the maritime altercation between two warships off Japan’s coast last Tuesday.

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Rift widens between NSW and federal Labor as Chris Minns demands state’s ‘fair share’

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Ahead of national cabinet, NSW premier waits for answers from Albanese government on protest policing and infrastructure funding

Tensions between the New South Wales and federal Labor governments are rising ahead of the final planned national cabinet of the year, with the state’s premier, Chris Minns, insisting he was not “whingeing” as he demanded more funding for police and infrastructure.

Minns said the federal government had so far failed to respond to his request for help paying the bill for policing the frequent protests sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, or for the “disappointing” infrastructure cuts unveiled last week.

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Australian retail lobby groups refuse to disclose amount of funding from tobacco and vaping industries

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Representatives for convenience and grocery stores tell Senate inquiry details of any funding were commercial in confidence

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Lobby groups representing convenience and grocery stores have refused to tell a Senate inquiry how much they receive in tobacco and vaping industry funding.

The failure to disclose industry funding follows public hearings into the public health (tobacco and other products) bill earlier in November and comes as concerns are raised about one lobby group having a parliamentary access pass.

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Jet trip followed guidelines, minister’s office says – as it happened

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Australians increasingly relying on credit cards as cost-of-living pressures rise

A survey from comparison site Finder has found an increasing number of Australians are turning to credit cards amid the rising cost of living.

Mounting pressure on households is seeing Aussies borrowing money to keep afloat.

Used responsibly, credit cards can be a great tool for earning rewards such as frequent flyer points and building your credit history.

But relying too heavily on them could cause you to go into a debt spiral which can be hard to bounce back from.

It symbolises the balance between utility and respect for the environment, mirroring our approach to space exploration.

It’s time for Australian science to take the next leap all the way up into space, like our roos do back home. Naming the new lunar rover ‘Roo-ver’ will reflect the Aussie spirit as we launch into this new endeavour.

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