Category Archives: Australia news

Perverse incentives leave young Australians locked out of community housing, study finds

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Researchers find providers stand to lose 46% of possible income if they rent to young people compared with those on higher welfare payments

Thousands of young people are missing out on a safe place to live each year because community housing providers get more rent from older adults, research has revealed.

The lead author of the University of New South Wals research, Dr Ryan van den Nouwelant, said providers stood to lose 46% of the possible rental income if they chose a young person over an adult on a higher social security payment.

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Thorpe and Faruqi to ask Senate to investigate alleged racism and sexism in parliament

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Exclusive: Two senators sponsor motion calling for a review of rules covering discriminatory language and behaviour

Lidia Thorpe and Mehreen Faruqi will ask the Senate’s procedure committee to investigate racism and sexism in federal parliament, raising concerns about “white privilege” and how women of colour are treated in politics.

The two senators, former colleagues in the Greens before Thorpe quit the party for the crossbench, have co-sponsored a Senate motion calling for investigation into whether the chamber’s rules should be updated to “eliminate language, behaviour, decision-making, and practices that are sexist, racist or otherwise exclusionary and discriminatory”.

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‘He was wedged like an hourglass’: rescuers describe 20-hour ordeal ending with amputation of rafter’s leg

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Lithuanian tourist pack rafting on Franklin River still fighting for life in Tasmanian hospital

A 69-year-old Lithuanian man has been praised for his “extraordinary resilience” after emergency service workers were forced to amputate his leg during a 20-hour rescue operation in remote south-west Tasmania.

The man, who remained in a critical condition in Royal Hobart hospital on Sunday evening, had been travelling with a group of 11 tourists on a multi-day rafting trip on the remote Franklin River.

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Labor dumps misinformation bill after Senate unites against it

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Communications minister Michelle Rowland will also not unveil any gambling ad ban legislation in the last sitting week of the year

The Albanese government has dumped its controversial mis- and disinformation bill, conceding there is “no pathway” to getting the proposal passed through the Senate.

The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, insisted misinformation and disinformation remained a grave concern for democracy, national security and online safety, but said the government would not proceed with the proposal. It is the second time Labor has pulled the bill, after an initial version also failed to gain support and raised concerns about freedom of speech online.

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Parents of teenagers who died in suspected Laos methanol poisoning hope deaths ‘not in vain’

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Bianca Jones’s father urged Laos government to investigate deaths to the ‘fullest’ and ensure it could not happen again

Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones’s devastated families have pleaded with Laos authorities to get to the bottom of a mass methanol poisoning tragedy.

The Australians, both 19, are among six foreign tourists who have died from a suspected methanol poisoning event in Laos.

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Parents of surviving Bali Nine inmates ‘quietly hopeful’ as minister confirms talks under way to return them to Australia

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Five remaining members would continue to serve sentences upon returning under proposal, trade minister Don Farrell says

The parents of the surviving Bali Nine members are “quietly hopeful” their children will be repatriated to Australia in a deal with the Indonesian government, according to a pastor who has been in close contact with them for 20 years.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, raised their repatriation during a meeting with the Indonesian president, Prabowo Subianto, on the sidelines of the Apec summit in Peru last week. Senior Australian ministers have confirmed negotiations between the two nations are ongoing.

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Spiky blue devils and chocolate lilies: Victorian grassland bursts with wildflowers after ecological ‘reset’

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Careful management including weed control and a burn laid the groundwork for floral abundance in Boorhaman reserve

Thousands of native daisies, aromatic lilies, milkmaids, billy buttons and rare orchids have blossomed in a pocket of north-east Victorian grassland in one of the best wildflower displays in years.

Glen Johnson, an ecologist at Wild Research, said Boorhaman reserve, located north of Wangaratta, was “an amazingly diverse environment from the knees down”.

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Meta is ‘reckless’ in ‘need-to-know situations’, Canada warns Australia as it braces for early bushfire season

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Heritage minister says Facebook made ‘room for misinformation’ after turning news off in 2023 as Australia mulls actions that could lead to Meta doing the same

Twelve months on from Canada’s worst-ever wildfire season unfolding during a news blackout on Facebook, the nation has warned Australia about Meta’s “reckless” behaviour during “need-to-know situations”.

An early start to Australia’s bushfire season is looming for swaths of the country, with large parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory, the south-west of Victoria and south-east corner of South Australia facing higher risk, according to an official assessment in September.

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Laos government ‘profoundly saddened’ by deaths of tourists in Vang Vieng

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Six foreign visitors died earlier this month after suspected methanol poisoning during night out in backpacker hotspot

The Lao government has said it is “profoundly saddened” by the deaths of foreign tourists in Vang Vieng and has promised justice, as tributes were paid to victims of a suspected mass methanol poisoning which has claimed six lives.

Two Danish citizens, two Australians, an American, and a Briton died after becoming ill following a night out in the small riverside town, a popular destination for backpackers.

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Man’s leg amputated in near 20-hour effort to free him from rocks in Tasmania’s Franklin River

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International visitor aged in his 60s fighting for life in hospital after accident on rafting trip on Friday

A man has had his leg amputated and is fighting for life after a complex 20-hour rescue in south-west Tasmania, after he fell into a rock crevice during a rafting trip with friends.

The international visitor, aged in his 60s, was pack rafting along the Franklin River when he slipped and became trapped between rocks in rapids on Friday afternoon, acting assistant police commissioner Doug Oosterloo said.

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Extreme fire danger warnings for Victoria as heatwave sweeps through south-east Australia

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Cool change expected to push through state late on Saturday, bringing intense rain and thunderstorms across the wider region into next week

Extreme fire danger alerts are in place in parts of Victoria, as swathes of south-east Australia continue to swelter through a heatwave sweeping across the region.

However, the weather system driving the warm conditions is expected to bring a cool change by late on Saturday for much of Victoria, before it triggers intense rain and thunderstorms by the end of the weekend and into the middle of next week.

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Burnayi Lurnayi: Bendigo development aims to provide safe homes for Aboriginal women

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Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation says the development will help Indigenous women stay in the increasingly unaffordable regional city

Traditional owners have partnered with community housing providers in central Victoria to build a new housing project aimed at addressing the high rates of homelessness faced by Aboriginal women.

The development, named Burnayi Lurnayi, meaning “young women” in Dja Dja Wurrung language, is being built in the Bendigo suburb of Flora Hill, in a partnership between the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation (Djarra) and community housing organisation YWCA.

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Greens and some independents are biggest winners from Labor’s proposed donation cap, data shows

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Labor and Coalition would have missed out on $4.1m and $4.7m in donations after public funding boost, while the Greens would have been $2.9m better off

The Greens and independent MPs who ran low-cost campaigns have emerged as the biggest winners from Labor’s proposed donation cap and increased public funding of elections, data shows.

According to a Guardian Australia analysis of 2021-22 data, the Greens would have lost just $2.7m in donations if Labor’s proposed $20,000 cap had been law at the time, a sum more than made up for by a $5.6m increase in public funding. In net terms, the Greens would have been $2.9m better off.

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‘Clearly an industry win’: concern over leaked classified document on NSW pokies reform

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Government urged to dismiss recommendations, including unchanged poker machine operating hours

The New South Wales government has been urged to dismiss recommendations from senior members of an independent panel on gambling reform before they are even finalised. These include what has been described as a “ridiculous” call for poker machine operating hours to remain unchanged.

A leaked confidential report by the panel’s executive committee, titled “draft roadmap for gaming reform”, also details how gamblers would still be able to anonymously use poker machines until 2028.

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Second Melbourne teen, Holly Bowles, dies after a suspected methanol poisoning in Laos

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The 19-year-old’s death comes as Vang Vieng’s tourism police says manager and owner of Nana backpacker hostel taken in for questioning

A second Australian teenager, Holly Bowles, has died after suspected methanol poisoning in Laos, it has been confirmed.

The 19-year-old’s death comes just one day after her friend Bianca Jones also died in a Thai hospital. The pair had been travelling through Laos together and fell ill a week ago.

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Katy Perry wins appeal in trademark legal case against Sydney fashion label Katie Perry

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Australian designer says she is devastated and heartbroken by US singer’s successful appeal, adding ‘trademark isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on’

International popstar Katy Perry has had a court win in her long-running trademark battle with an Australian fashion designer over her Katie Perry trademark loungewear.

Sydney designer Katie Jane Taylor, who sells clothes under her birth name Katie Perry , sued the singer in October 2019 because the performer was selling her own merchandise.

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Greens say leaked pokies reform report ‘a huge concern’ – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Heatwave conditions are building over parts of Victoria and New South Wales today.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, much of Victoria will experience heatwave conditions, with maximum temperatures in the mid to high 30s.

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WiseTech’s billionaire founder Richard White cleared of allegations by company review

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Company’s shares sink with revised revenue outlook in wake of former CEO’s high-profile resignation last month

A company-ordered review into Richard White, the embattled billionaire founder of Australian software giant WiseTech, has cleared the former chief executive of bullying and intimidation allegations.

The law firms that reviewed a series of allegations against White, including alleged misuse of company funds, also concluded that their investigations had uncovered “no impropriety”, according to an update presented to shareholders on Friday.

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‘We’ve got a responsibility’: Queensland truth-telling head vows to complete inquiry despite premier’s plan to scrap it

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Commission chair reopens submissions and says report will be finished and tabled in parliament

The head of Queensland’s Indigenous truth-telling and healing commission has vowed to complete the inquiry, defying the government’s plan to eliminate it.

The chairperson, Josh Creamer, restarted the historic inquiry on Friday, 23 days after the new premier, David Crisafulli, ordered it to halt work.

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David Crisafulli promised to set serious KPIs for his ministers. Are they worth the paper they’re printed on?

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Queensland’s new premier vowed to sack cabinet members who didn’t meet public targets. A month in, accountability questions are being raised

David Crisafulli staked his government’s success – and his own future – on meeting targets.

During last month’s election he vowed to resign if crime figures didn’t decline and to sack ministers who couldn’t deliver on key performance indicators (KPIs) set for each portfolio.

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