Category Archives: Australia news

Footage of guards holding down and putting spit hood on disabled NT prisoner shown at inquest

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Wayne Hunt didn’t receive full medical assessment after seizure in cell and died days later, coroner hears

Confronting footage of a disabled inmate being roughly handled and placed in a spit hood by prison guards after an epileptic seizure has been played at an inquest into his death.

Wayne Hunt struggled and yelled as Northern Territory corrections officers pinned him down, held him tightly by the head and put him in handcuffs and a spit hood, the inquest before coroner Elisabeth Armitage has heard.

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Australia politics live: Greens say secret Nauru deportations ‘not how any democracy should behave’

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Shoebridge accuses Labor of being ‘addicted to secrecy’. Follow today’s news live

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with some of the best overnight stories before Krishani Dhanji takes the controls.

Asio chief Mike Burgess gave a speech at the Lowy Institute in Sydney last night in which he said there were “at least” three countries whose governments were prepared to carry out assassinations on Australian soil. Asked whether it was too alarming, Burgess said that it was “incredibly important” for Australians to understand the dangers the country faced.

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Prisoners spending entire jail term in police cells as Victoria’s justice system buckles

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Prisoners in police cells often have less access to healthcare and less chance of being visited by family and lawyers

In winter this year, a young Aboriginal man with a history of self-harm who had been remanded in custody in Melbourne was told he would be moving cells.

But he was not shifted across the corridor or to another building nearby: he was driven 300km to the police cells in Wodonga.

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Many GPs ‘nervous’ about bulk-billing rollout under new Medicare scheme

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Royal Australian College of General Practitioners says doctors concerned at being ‘100% reliant on government funding decisions’

Every electorate in the country will have a GP practice that bulk bills every patient after the expanded bulk billing incentive came into effect this month, the health minister has said.

The changes mean four out of 10 practices will be fully bulk billing, as the government vows it will bring the number up to nine out of 10 by 2030.

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ANU bought shares in Israeli weapons maker after pledging to stop controversial arms investments

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Exclusive: University says Elbit Systems, whose drones have been used extensively in Gaza, not on any controversial weapons list when shares bought and sold this year

The Australian National University bought $138,000 worth of shares in Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer in March, despite an earlier pledge to not invest in controversial arms companies.

The investments in Elbit Systems were made 12 days after Israel shattered a pause in hostilities with airstrikes that killed more than 400 people in Gaza. At the time, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had warned the renewed military offensive was “only the beginning”.

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Albanese government deports two more men to Nauru in secret, infuriating human rights advocates

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Exclusive: Sources say a Sudanese national and another man were chartered to the former regional processing centre last week, joining one other person

Another two men from the NZYQ-affected cohort have been deported to Nauru in a process human rights advocates say is shrouded in secrecy.

Sources told Guardian Australia a Sudanese national, who was detained in the Yongah Hill centre just outside of Perth, and another man held in a different centre were chartered to Nauru last week.

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RBA holds official interest rate at 3.6% while warning of rising house prices and rents

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Reserve Bank’s decision to leave cash rate on hold was widely expected and major banks predict no interest rates cut until 2026

The Reserve Bank has left the official interest rate on hold, as it warned house prices and rents will rise in 2026 after a surprise rebound in inflation.

The RBA’s monetary policy board on Tuesday kept the cash rate at 3.6%, where it has sat since August. Economists and banks overwhelmingly expected no change.

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Albanese government rejects Bruce Lehrmann’s request for legal funding over corruption watchdog raid on his home

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Former Liberal staffer, who denies allegations he misappropriated secret documents in 2019, indicates to court he fears Christmas raids from Nacc

Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s request for financial assistance has been knocked back after his home was raided by the national anti-corruption watchdog.

Officials from the National Anti-Corruption Commission searched the 30-year-old’s home in June 2024 over allegations he misappropriated secret documents related to French submarines five years earlier.

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Australians still betting big on Melbourne Cup, despite many saying they’re losing interest in race

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But money spent betting on horse racing overall has sharply declined amid cost-of-living pressures and regulation

Australians say they are losing interest in the Melbourne Cup and the animal welfare campaign against it has never wavered, but the amount of money gambled on the race has barely changed since the pandemic.

Wagering turnover on the Melbourne Cup has fallen only slightly from the $221m recorded in 2020 to $214m last year. The five-year average spend, according to Racing Victoria figures, remains $220m.

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Australian scientist who made global name during Covid wins top prime minister’s prize

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Prof Lidia Morawska says recognition of her research comes at a fraught time – an ‘age of anti-science’

When the World Health Organization announced – incorrectly, as became apparent later – in March 2020 that the Covid-19 virus was not airborne, Prof Lidia Morawska knew she had to do something.

A renowned expert in air quality and health, Morawska, of the Queensland University of Technology, began contacting international colleagues. She eventually gathered 239 scientists globally to highlight the risk of airborne transmission of Sars-CoV-2.

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Nearly 90% of jobseekers unable to get long-term work despite millions spent on private job agencies

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Employment department’s annual report shows just 11.7% of jobseekers ended up with jobs lasting at least 26 weeks last year

Australia’s private employment services are failing to get jobseekers into long-term work, despite costing taxpayers millions of dollars each year, department documents show.

Just 11.7% of jobseekers in Australia found long-term employment through a job provider in the latest financial year, according to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ annual report.

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Disabled NT man died naked in cell wearing spit hood and cuffs, inquest told

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Wayne Hunt was kept in detention after a seizure instead of being taken to hospital, coroner hears

An inmate who suffered a seizure was put in handcuffs and a spit hood by prison guards who left him naked in an “at-risk cell” before he died two days later.

At an inquest into his death in Darwin on Monday, Northern Territory corrections and health departments apologised to the family of Wayne Hunt for the way he was treated and told the coroner, Elisabeth Armitage, that procedural changes would be made.

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Australians to get at least three hours a day of free solar power – even if they don’t have solar panels

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Labor announces ‘solar sharer’ program for households in NSW, south-east Queensland and South Australia

Australian households in three states will be promised access to at least three hours a day of free solar power, regardless of whether they have rooftop panels, the federal government has announced.

The “solar sharer” offer will be available to homes with smart meters – which is the majority of homes – in New South Wales, south-east Queensland and South Australia from July next year, with other areas to potentially follow in 2027.

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‘Diabolical’: why Australia’s teacher shortages are among the worst in the world – and who is suffering most

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Regional and disadvantaged schools are bearing the brunt of the crisis, with almost two-thirds of teachers reporting high levels of stress

Mathew Burt has been principal at Broome Senior High School for less than a decade, yet he’s one of the longest-serving school leaders across the Kimberly.

After spending most of his teaching career in Perth, Burt decided to make the tree change north in 2018 with his wife and two children. He said teacher shortages have hit all of Western Australia but, the more regional you go, the worse the crisis gets.

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The Coalition have a better chance of winning by chasing teal voters over One Nation voters

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Opposition faultlines have opened up over net zero and immigration, but the data shows there’s more to gain targeting moderate electorates

Recent moves by prominent Coalition figures Andrew Hastie and Barnaby Joyce have highlighted a major faultline within the Coalition between conservatives who want to scrap net zero and curtail immigration and moderates who believe they need to regain voters in urban seats where there is strong support for action on the climate emergency.

That fault line ominously shook further on Sunday afternoon, with David Littleproud announcing the National party was officially abandoning its commitment to reach net zero by 2050.

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Strap in for a feral lead-up into Christmas in the NSW parliament

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The Minns government has two major pieces of legislation it desperately wants to pass – but to do so it needs to woo some crossbenchers

As the New South Wales parliament draws to a close at the end of November, expect it to be dominated by feral horses, feral pigs and feral politics.

The Minns Labor government has two major pieces of legislation it desperately wants to pass before parliament rises. But it faces obstacles in the upper house where a clutch of minor parties hold the balance of power.

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Australia news live: Nationals set to formalise position after vote to ditch net zero; more rain forecast after storms and hail lash Queensland and northern NSW

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Meanwhile PM says he’d like ‘more cooperation’ between China and US on artificial intelligence. Follow updates live

Watt says Labor doesn’t have a policy to end native forest logging

Asked if he wanted native forest logging to continue (it’s not banned in the legislation, despite the significant negative environmental impact that it has), Watt dodges the question by saying the party doesn’t have a specific policy of ending native forest logging.

What we have said, though, is that we will follow the recommendation from Graeme Samuel to apply national environmental standards to the regional forestry agreements that are used for native forestry, so what that means in practice is that native forestry would need to meet higher environmental standards than are currently required under the legislation. That’s a big step forward in terms of the environmental management of native forestry. But it doesn’t go as far as what the Greens party is seeking in being an all-out ban.

Not in its own right. We haven’t taken the approach of saying that particular projects are altogether banned. Every project will be assessed on its merits whether it be a coal and gas project, whether it be a housing and renewable project, they have all got to demonstrate they’re not having a significant impact on one of the nine matters of national environmental significance under the act.

If a coal or gas development was seeking approval, then it would need to meet the national environmental standards. It would need to avoid and minimise its environmental impacts and offset them to achieve a net gain. So they would be improvements compared to the criteria that apply to a project at the moment. If it was considered to have an unacceptable impact on the environment then it would get knocked back as would a housing development or a renewable project.

We’re not trying to sort of put in particular criteria for particular sectors. What we’re trying to do is put in a balanced package for all sorts of projects, for all industries, that deliver environmental and business gains.

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Man charged with murder after woman’s body found in NSW’s Hunter Valley

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Arrest of 37-year-old after emergency services called to Kearsley home on Friday night

A 37-year-old man faces murder charges after a woman’s body was found with a gunshot wound in the Hunter Valley region on Saturday night.

A sawn-off shotgun and ammunition were allegedly found in the man’s car when New South Wales police took him into custody.

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Centrelink threatening payment suspensions at rate of five a minute, new analysis suggests

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Exclusive: As jobseekers continue to have payments suspended, advocates call for the regime to be stopped until it’s proven to be lawful

Centrelink has been issuing payment suspension notices to jobseekers and those on disability support pensions at a rate of more than five a minute, new analysis suggests, amid concerns over the legality of the troubled system.

In total, government data collated by the Antipoverty Centre shows there were 2,683,605 suspension actions between June 2024 and July 2025.

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Luxury cruise cancelled after 80-year-old left behind on Lizard Island dies alone

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The Coral Adventurer will return to Cairns, as investigations into Suzanne Rees’ death continue

The luxury Coral Adventurer cruise has been cancelled in the wake of the death of passenger Suzanne Rees, who was left on the Great Barrier Reef’s Lizard Island and wasn’t found until the next day.

It will now return to Cairns, as investigations into Rees’ death continue.

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