Category Archives: Australia news

Dutton accuses Albanese of ‘ducking and weaving’ as PM at odds with ADF timeline of Chinese live-fire drill notification

Posted on by

Opposition leader says Albanese ‘failing to answer basic questions’ as PM claims civilian and military notification happened ‘at around the same time’

Anthony Albanese says Australia received civilian and military notifications about Chinese live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea “at around the same time”, despite the chief of the Australian defence force telling Senate estimates the military notification came an hour after the commercial pilot.

The defence chief also revealed Chinese warships south of Hobart appeared likely to sail through the Great Australian Bight, and could be accompanied by an undetected nuclear submarine.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Extra 220 children may have been wrongly detained as adult people smugglers in Australia, government admits

Posted on by

In 2023 the federal court ordered $27.5m compensation for an initial estimated 220 Indonesian minors wrongly detained – but that number has now doubled

The Australian government has revealed that a further 220 Indonesian children may have been wrongly detained as adult people smugglers, doubling the number initially thought.

Late in 2023 the federal court ordered $27.5m in compensation for an estimated 220 Indonesian children who were wrongly detained as adult people smugglers between 2010 and 2012.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Hastie warns ADF is ‘going to get weaker’ as China tests US allies with ‘gunboat diplomacy’

Posted on by

Shadow defence minister told ABC RN China is testing US allies as Trump ‘resets relationships in Europe’. Follow today’s news live

ABC pays tribute to Antony Green as he announces upcoming election will be his last on-air

Continuing from our last post: the ABC’s director of news, Justin Stevens, has paid tribute to Antony Green as he announces the upcoming election would be his last on-air with the national broadcaster.

For more than three decades he has performed one of the ABC’s most important roles with precision, impartiality, dedication and unprecedented expertise.

He has the ABC’s immense gratitude and respect. I’m sure our audience joins me in thanking him and wishing him well as he prepares for his final federal election broadcast.

It’s time to retire. I turn 65 this coming weekend. I work on a three-year election cycle with federal elections, I won’t be presenting elections in three years’ time when I’m 68, so this will be my last on-camera election for the ABC.

I’ll stay on for a couple of years, handing over work and doing other things, but essentially I’m deciding to retire and work less.

There are 80 or 90 of them, a book on every election since 1990, state and federal … I [also] redesigned computer system. When I first started this, you had to be in the tally room to get the numbers. It was the only way to get data from the Electoral Commission to the ABC computer, so you had to be there. It’s a completely different world now.

Continue reading...

Sydney nurse who allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients in viral video charged

Posted on by

Strike Force Pearl investigators arrested and charged Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 26, but no charges have been laid against her former colleague Ahmed Rashid Nadir

A public hospital nurse who allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients in a viral video posted by an Israeli influencer has been charged with three offences.

Sarah Abu Lebdeh, who worked at Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital, was charged with three offences including threatening violence, using a carriage service to threaten to kill and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.

Continue reading...

ABC election guru Antony Green says it’s ‘time to retire’ as he prepares to leave on-air role

Posted on by

Analyst, who is about to turn 65, said the upcoming federal election would be the last he covers on air

The ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green, has just announced that the upcoming federal election will be his last on-air with the ABC.

Green said on Wednesday morning it was “time to retire”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

‘There’s no better feeling’: TikTok star Go-Jo to represent Australia at Eurovision 2025

Posted on by

Singer of viral hit Mrs Hollywood hopes his milkshakes bring everyone on board at Basel this year when he sings Milkshake Man, an ode to self-confidence

TikTok star Go-Jo will represent Australia at Eurovision in May, the 10th musical act to head represent his country since Australia joined the annual European song contest a decade ago.

Marty Zambotto, a 29-year-old Sydney-based singer-songwriter, went viral in 2023 after he uploaded a clip to TikTok of himself performing his song Mrs Hollywood while busking around Sydney. To date, the song has racked up more than 60m digital streams and 1bn views across all platforms.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

The 2025 Eurovision song contest runs 13 -17 May and will be broadcast on SBS in Australia

Continue reading...

Venice Biennale pavilion could be empty, Creative Australia chief tells senators

Posted on by

Adrian Collette admits decision to drop Khaled Sabsabi risks having nothing on show but he and chair won’t quit

Creative Australia has conceded the Australian Pavilion at next year’s Venice Biennale may remain empty following its decision to rescind the contracts of the artist and curator it chose to represent the country at the prestigious event.

“We will be doing everything we can…to think about how we use what is a public pavilion to mount something of that is worthy in terms of its representation of Australia,” Creative Australia’s chief executive, Adrian Collette, told a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday night.

Continue reading...

Australian citizen detained 32 times at Sydney airport accuses border force of systemic racism

Posted on by

Hubert Igbinoba, who is suing the Australian government, says he is singled out because he is black – a claim the government denies

An Australian citizen detained 32 times at Sydney airport – without allegation or charge – has told the federal circuit court he is stopped and searched almost every time he enters the country because he is black.

Okungbowa Hubert Igbinoba also told a directions hearing on Tuesday that an $80,000 settlement offer from the government was an attempt to silence him.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Woodside doubles profits thanks to record production of oil; funnel-web spider shortage threatens antivenom program

Posted on by

Australia’s largest oil and gas producer has doubled its profits to $5.6bn. Follow today’s news live

Senate estimates will be back under way today, and AAP has flagged a little of what we can expect:

Creative Australia bosses, including the chief executive, Adrian Collette, will front an estimates hearing and it’s expected they’ll be questioned about the selection body’s shock decision to ditch the Venice Biennale team.

Continue reading...

Albanese ‘confident’ US would come to Australia’s defence in event of attack

Posted on by

PM tells Q&A that US relationship is ‘rock solid’ as he fields questions on cost of living, housing and antisemitism

Anthony Albanese says he is confident that the US would defend Australia if it were to come under attack, despite the change in leadership in the US, but that Australia needed to look after its own security and would make its own decisions on foreign policy, including on support for Ukraine.

The comments came on a special edition of the ABC’s Q&A on Monday night, in which the prime minister took questions from members of the public on foreign affairs, the cost of living crisis, housing and social cohesion, in a bid to win over voters ahead of the election being called.

Continue reading...

Cassius Turvey seen holding his bloody head after chase in bushland, court told

Posted on by

A witness describes how she saw three men arm themselves before seeing a 15-year-old boy covered in blood

An Indigenous teenager was spotted holding his bloody head after being chased into bushland by two men with metal poles, a murder trial has been told.

Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after prosecutors say he was chased, knocked to the ground and “deliberately struck to the head” in Perth’s eastern suburbs on 13 October 2022.

Continue reading...

Bold or a ‘capitulation’? Victoria’s premier claims Labor’s reworked building goals are still on target

Posted on by

The final state housing targets have seen a reduction in numbers, but the overall goal of refocusing growth to Melbourne’s inner core remains

Reading the headlines, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Victorian government has capitulated again – this time on its bold housing targets.

But for the well-heeled residents of Brighton and Boorondara – some of whom who had sought to quash any changes amid cries of “shame, premier, shame” – it’s full steam ahead, at least in their suburbs.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Dutton says Coalition will pay to match Labor’s $8.5bn Medicare boost by cutting thousands of public service jobs

Posted on by

Opposition leader claims plan to reduce workforce by nearly all jobs added under Labor would save $6bn annually

Peter Dutton claims the Coalition would pay for a $8.5bn boost to Medicare by cutting thousands of public servant jobs, providing yet another different answer on the Coalition’s as-yet-undefined plans for the public service.

After weeks of contradictory statements from senior shadow ministers about how many positions the Coalition would cull if it wins government, Dutton has now stipulated his plan could save $6bn annually – potentially representing nearly all of the new positions created under Labor.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

‘Extremely capable’ weapons on Chinese warships off Australia’s east coast, NZ government says

Posted on by

New Zealand defence minister Judith Collins says department has ‘never seen a task group of this capability undertaking this sort of work’

New Zealand’s defence minister has warned that Chinese warships located off the east coast of Australia are armed with “extremely capable” weapons that could reach Australia.

The three vessels, known as Taskgroup 107, undertook two live-fire exercises in the seas between Australia and New Zealand last week, causing commercial flights to be diverted in the skies above.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Victoria threatens to strip planning powers from councils that don’t approve more homes; BoM tracks new cyclone in Coral Sea

Posted on by

Allan warns councils that fail to pull weight towards goal of building 2.24m new homes by 2051 that she intends to ‘shake things up’. Follow today’s news live

How will the bulk-billing increase be paid for?

There’s been criticism of the opposition that their support of the $8.5bn package hasn’t come with a plan to pay for it.

We’ve been very clear about the things that we don’t think that the federal government should be investing in. I mean, we’ve done things like, you know, we don’t believe [in] the federal government’s rewiring the nation, as an example, the national reconstruction fund, all of these things we’ve voted against, you know, we believe that public servants in Canberra are not what we need. We actually need frontline services, service workers, like doctors, like nurses which this policy addresses.

We are going to have to expect, unfortunately, a scare campaign. I mean, yesterday, at the launch, the prime minister and [Mark] Butler spent more time talking about Peter Dutton and the Liberal party than they did about themselves. So I think we can expect a scare campaign. But the facts don’t lie. The truth of all of this is quite clear in the statistics – under their watch, the health system in Australia has been significantly diminished.

Continue reading...

Search resumes for man dragged overboard near Newcastle during fishing competition

Posted on by

People on board the boat said a shark was involved in the man being lost overboard, but another fisher disputed the account

A multi-agency search resumed on Monday for a man reported to have been taken by a shark after falling off a boat near Newcastle.

However another game fisherman has denied a shark was involved and said the man was dragged overboard in a freak accident while fishing.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australian defence force officer stripped of security clearance over loyalty to Israel

Posted on by

Asio believed the man, anonymised as HWMW, was at risk of being exploited by the Mossad

An officer in the Australian army has been stripped of his security clearance because Asio believes he is more loyal to Israel than Australia, and at risk of being exploited by the Mossad.

The man told Asio interviewers he did not view Israel as a foreign government and that he would share classified information with the Israel Defense Forces if they asked for it.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australia should repatriate and investigate alleged crimes of Islamic state member found in Syria, experts say

Posted on by

Exclusive: Home Affairs tells the Guardian consular assistance is ‘severely limited’ in Syria, where Mustafa Hajj-Obeid remains in custody

The Australian government should repatriate, monitor and investigate any crimes committed by a member of Islamic State who was wounded in the extremist group’s final battle, according to multiple security and international law experts.

Last week, the Guardian revealed an Australian man whose fate was not publicly known was alive and in custody in a prison in north-eastern Syria, run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Energy giant AGL disputes $25m fine for wrongly taking welfare money from hundreds as ‘excessive’

Posted on by

Exclusive: Court documents obtained by Guardian Australia show appeal argues judge was wrong to decide penalty was needed to ‘provoke’ leadership attention

Energy giant AGL is disputing a “manifestly excessive” $25m fine for using the Centrepay debit system to wrongly take welfare money from hundreds of vulnerable Australians. It argues that a judge should not have used the massive financial penalty to try to “provoke some attention” from the company’s board and executive leadership.

Late last year, the federal court imposed the hefty fine and excoriated AGL for wrongly taking money from 483 welfare recipients via Centrepay, the scandal-plagued, government-run system that allows automatic diversion of social security payments to essential services, like electricity bills and rent.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Telegram fined nearly $1m by Australian watchdog for delay in reporting about terrorism and child abuse material

Posted on by

Telegram took 160 days to provide information, with the delay obstructing online safety scrutineer from doing its job, commissioner says

Encrypted messaging app Telegram has been fined nearly $1m by Australia’s online safety regulator for failing to respond on time to questions about what the company does to tackle terrorism and child abuse material on its platform.

The notice was issued to Telegram, among other companies, in May last year, with a deadline to report back in October on steps taken to address terrorist and violent extremism material, as well as child exploitation material on its platform.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...