Bureau of Meteorology says band of severe thunderstorms bearing down on Australia’s east coast
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Destructive winds, giant hail, flash floods and tornadoes could wreak havoc on southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned.
A major band of severe thunderstorms was bearing down on Australia’s east coast on Saturday, senior BoM forecaster Angus Hines said.
Continue reading...The threatened Jillaga Ash (Eucalyptus stenostoma) was spotted 90m down a cliff in Wadbilliga national park, in southern New South Wales
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Two horticulturalists have undertaken a daring abseiling mission to rescue gumnuts from an endangered tree on a 300m cliff face.
Stan Wawrzyczek, a threatened flora ecologist at the Threatened Species Conservancy, spotted an endangered tree, Eucalyptus stenostoma (Jillaga Ash), 90m down the cliff in Wadbilliga national park in southern New South Wales.
Continue reading...Policy position diverging from senior Coalition partner expected to be formalised at Nationals partyroom meeting on Sunday morning
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
The Nationals’ grassroots members have voted to ditch net zero, setting the scene to formally scrap the target at a meeting on Sunday morning.
“We believe in reducing emissions, but not at any cost,” the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, told the party’s federal council on Saturday.
Continue reading...Ofir Birenbaum is suing for defamation after deleted and retracted social media posts by Cairo Takeaway inferred he visited the restaurant with reporters to ‘stir up controversy’
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
A pro-Israel activist who visited a pro-Palestinian Sydney restaurant with News Corp reporters claims he was vilified and subject to an investigation by his employer after the restaurant allegedly implied he attempted to manufacture an “antisemitic incident”.
Ofir Birenbaum went to Cairo Takeaway, a popular restaurant in Sydney’s Newtown, in February wearing a Star of David cap and necklace alongside reporters from the Daily Telegraph. The undercover operation, later revealed to be dubbed internally by the paper as “undercover Jew”, made international headlines after it backfired.
Continue reading...Media regulator condemns ‘deeply concerning’ third-party websites that seek to entice bets from self-declared addicts
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Offshore gambling companies are using third-party websites to entice Australian addicts to resume betting, even after gamblers have placed voluntary restrictions on themselves.
The new trend, targeting those registered with the federal government’s BetStop service, has been condemned as “deeply concerning and opportunistic” by the media regulator, which has begun contacting the websites to “make them aware of Australia’s interactive gambling laws”.
Continue reading...Step towards reconciliation hailed as ‘a historic moment’ with premier Jacinta Allan saying it gives Aboriginal Australians the power to shape policies that affect their lives
The Australian state of Victoria has taken a historic step towards reconciliation, passing the nation’s first formal treaty with Indigenous traditional owners.
After two days of debate, the upper house of Victoria’s parliament passed the statewide treaty bill without amendment by 21 votes to 16, just before 9pm on Thursday.
Continue reading...Sydney researchers commercialising a product they say can cool indoor spaces and will cost little more than standard premium paints
Australian scientists have developed roof coatings that can passively cool surfaces up to 6C below ambient temperature, as well as extract water from the atmosphere, which they say could reduce indoor temperatures during extreme heat events.
Heatwaves are becoming more intense, more frequent and more deadly due to human-caused global heating.
Continue reading...Bruce and Denise Morcombe call on other states to act as LNP passes ‘Daniel’s law’, allowing public naming of some child sexual abusers
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Queensland parliament has passed laws to create the state’s first public register of some child sexual abusers, with the new legislation named in memory of child murder victim Daniel Morcombe.
The move adds momentum to a campaign by Daniel’s parents, Bruce and Denise Morcombe, for a national register. The couple founded the child safety education charity the Daniel Morcombe Foundation after the murder of their 13-year-old son in 2003 by paedophile Brett Peter Cowan.
Continue reading...Ministers say they will reconsider their attendance at the meeting if they get at least 10 minutes each
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
State and territory disability ministers have threatened to boycott an upcoming NDIS meeting with the Albanese government after being given just two minutes to contribute to discussions.
In a joint letter from all jurisdictions sent on Thursday to the health and disability minister, Mark Butler, and the NDIS minister, Jenny McAllister, ministers warned they were “no longer able to confirm” their attendance at the meeting next Friday unless given the opportunity to “meaningfully contribute”.
Continue reading...Labor government loses control of chamber and threatens to strip Coalition members from parliamentary committees
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
In chaotic Senate scenes, Labor has set a 125-year record by keeping question time running for more than three hours, after the government lost control of the chamber and threatened to strip Coalition members from parliamentary committees in a fight over transparency.
Senator David Pocock led a push to dramatically extend question time and force ministers to answer more questions, with the Coalition, Greens and crossbench defying the government to force changes to long-held conventions and rules in the upper house. It was a rare move which Labor minister Murray Watt labelled a “dummy spit”.
Continue reading...US president tells reporters he and Australian PM ‘working on a lot of things together’
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
After waiting a long time to meet Donald Trump, Anthony Albanese has now done so twice in 10 days, as his US counterpart talks up cooperation on rare earths and other issues.
Albanese followed last week’s trip to Washington by sitting next to the US president on Wednesday evening at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit dinner in Gyeongju, South Korea.
Continue reading...Australia’s new privacy laws to be tested as Victorian Liberal MP and wife Brittany Groth sue over Herald Sun articles
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
A News Corp journalist had “not one piece of information” to suggest the deputy Victorian Liberal leader, Sam Groth, began a relationship with his wife when she was underage, the MP’s lawyers have told a court.
In what a federal court judge described as a “test case” for Australia’s new privacy laws, Groth and his wife, Brittany, are suing the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT), reporter Stephen Drill and the Herald Sun’s editor, Sam Weir, over a series of articles published in July.
Continue reading...Hanson’s office cites meetings with industry representatives and a One Nation party executive who later changed his name to Aussie Trump
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Parliament’s expenses watchdog has cleared Pauline Hanson over using taxpayer funds to attend Gina Rinehart’s birthday party, after an eight-month investigation in which Hanson explained she had travelled to Perth to meet a new One Nation MP who later changed his name to “Aussie Trump”.
Hanson’s office told the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (Ipea) she held meetings with Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting over environmental legislation during the March 2024 trip, as well as attending the same birthday party and celebration which former opposition leader Peter Dutton reportedly visited for just an hour.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Parent who successfully challenged previous ban on children being prescribed hormones for gender dysphoria considers new lawsuit
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
The mother of a transgender child who successfully sued to overturn Queensland’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone treatments for children with gender dysphoria says she is “not backing away from the fight” after the government reinstated the ban hours after her supreme court victory.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is considering launching another lawsuit to overturn the health minister’s decision on Tuesday evening to issue a new order preventing patients under 18 and not already on a treatment plan from accessing the drugs in the public system.
Continue reading...‘Wonderful’ for people to see the predators so close and feasting on bait fish at the Gold Coast’s Rainbow Bay, near Snapper Rocks, expert says
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
A shiver of sharks has been spotted feeding close to shore near a popular surfing spot on the Gold Coast on Australia’s east coast.
The large group of predators surprised spectators on the southern end of Rainbow Bay on Tuesday, near the renowned Snapper Rocks surf break.
Continue reading...AFP commissioner Krissy Barrett says online crime networks of young boys and men are targeting vulnerable teen and preteen girls
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Australian federal police will develop an AI tool to decode gen Z and Alpha slang and emojis in an effort to crackdown on sadistic online exploitation and “crimefluencers”.
The AFP commissioner, Krissy Barrett, will use a speech at the National Press Club on Wednesday to warn of the rise of online crime networks of young boys and men who are targeting vulnerable teen and preteen girls.
Continue reading...Developers flock to build ‘affordable’ housing – but are poised to reap benefits while tenants could pay 50% of post-tax income in rent
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
A small block of units on Clovelly Road built in 2021 was granted extra floor space so the developer could add five affordable units, taking the total development to 13. The Sydney units, three minutes’ walk from the beach, with parking and a bus stop outside, are in a highly desirable spot.
But “affordable” they are not.
Continue reading...Between 15 and 80 Binjareb Noongar people were killed in the massacre which was led by the then WA governor, James Stirling
Warning: This article contains historical records that use racist and offensive language, and descriptions of events that will be distressing to some readers. It also contains references to Indigenous Australians who have died
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Almost 200 years ago, a state governor led a massacre of at least 15 Aboriginal people.
On Tuesday, Western Australia’s current governor, Chris Dawson, went to the massacre site, south of Perth, with a different intent.
Continue reading...Queensland checking all 172 schools sitting exam with pupils expected to claim special consideration after studying the wrong Roman emperor
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Year 12 students from at least eight schools in Queensland were taught the wrong topic for their final history exams and authorities are now checking with 172 schools to see if any more were affected.
Students were meant to study Julius Caesar, but the affected pupils instead learned about his nephew Augustus, according to the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority.
Continue reading...The Liberal senator ‘tarnished’ reputation of Central Land Council chief, court hears, but she says there was public interest
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
A Liberal senator accused of defaming the head of a large Aboriginal land council was an evasive witness who made baseless allegations and gave “illogical and self-serving” answers, a court has been told.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been sued by Central Land Council chief executive, Lesley Turner, over an allegedly defamatory media release in July 2024 that claimed there had been a failed no-confidence motion against him.
Continue reading...