Category Archives: Australia news

Queensland puberty blocker ban reinstated by health minister hours after supreme court overturned it

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Move comes after parent successfully challenged LNP’s previous ban on new patients under 18 accessing hormone treatments for gender dysphoria

The Queensland health minister has issued a new order banning the prescription of puberty blockers for transgender patients, just hours after the state’s supreme court ruled the government’s first attempt was unlawful.

On Tuesday, Justice Peter Callaghan ruled in favour of a challenge by the parent of a transgender child, judging that the January directive establishing the ban was made improperly and was unlawful.

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Expanded state powers on fossil fuel projects and water ‘betrayal’ of Australians, nature law critics say

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Extracts of planned changes to the EPBC Act prompt ‘anger’ from conservation organisations that fear nature protection will be weakened

State governments could be given expanded powers to make decisions on fossil fuel developments under Labor’s proposed overhaul of environment law, prompting “shock and anger” from community-based conservation organisations that fear nature protection would be weakened.

The Albanese government plans to introduce its planned changes to the national law – the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act – to parliament later this week, and has been briefing interest groups on its plans.

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First person arrives on Nauru triggering Australia’s $2.5bn deal with island nation

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Deal between federal government and Nauru expected to last 30 years and apply to around 350 people released under high court’s NZYQ ruling

Australia has commenced its $2.5bn deal with Nauru to offload more than 350 people from the NZYQ cohort after the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, confirmed the first arrival had landed on the tiny Pacific island last week.

Burke said Nauruan authorities had confirmed the arrival on Friday, as reported by the ABC, triggering the first yearly instalment of $408m.

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Woman arrested after allegedly sabotaging gas supplies at two Sydney hospitals

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NSW police allege 42-year-old ‘cut water and gas mains’ at first hospital in Sutherland before switching off gas mains at nearby facility

A woman has been arrested after allegedly sabotaging gas supplies at two Sydney hospitals.

Sutherland hospital in southern Sydney lost medical gases on Tuesday morning, requiring them to switch to portable oxygen and air as part of their contingency plans, the New South Wales health minister, Ryan Park, said in a statement

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Cobar: two people killed in Endeavour mine explosion in far western NSW

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Woman and man confirmed dead and another woman airlifted to hospital after blast at underground Endeavour mine 600km north-west of Sydney

Two people have been killed by an explosion at an underground mine in the far west of New South Wales.

Police said emergency services were called to the mine on Endeavour Mine Road at Cobar, about 600km north-west of Sydney, at about 3.45am on Tuesday after being told two people had been critically injured in a workplace incident.

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Australia’s largest aluminium smelter Tomago ‘not commercially viable’ and facing closure, says Rio Tinto

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Consultation over future pathway with employees as smelter struggles with high power prices

Rio Tinto says it is contemplating ceasing operations at its New South Wales-based Tomago aluminium smelter at the end of its current electricity supply contract.

The Tomago aluminium smelter, Australia’s largest, had been struggling with high power prices. It had started a consultation process with employees on the potential future of its operations, but was yet to reach a decision and is weighing a possible closure.

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At least 174 racehorses died from racing or training injuries in past 12 months in Australia, report finds

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That’s the highest number recorded by the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses since they began tracking deaths 10 years ago

At least 174 thoroughbred racehorses died at the track or as a result of injuries sustained while racing or training in the past 12 months – the highest number recorded by animal rights activists since they began tracking 10 years ago.

The report from the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) was released on Tuesday, one week ahead of Australia’s most important horse race, the Melbourne Cup.

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Barnaby Joyce’s walkout and endless net zero rehashing? The Nationals are ‘having a normal one’

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The former deputy prime minister staying out of the Nationals party room is the latest sign some in the Coalition are in no rush to finish their ugly airing of grievances

The Nationals are once again, in the words of Chris Bowen, “having a normal one”.

Another Monday, another parliamentary week, another chapter in the seemingly never-ending story of the Coalition putting its fingers in its ears and screaming as they debate whether to ignore global momentum, scientific consensus and pleas from the business community, and seek to relitigate a position on net zero reached four years ago by the Morrison government.

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Hannah McGuire’s mother tells murderer she hopes he suffers ‘most intense pain imaginable’ for life

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Family members of young woman strangled to death by her former boyfriend in her own home have confronted killer Lachlan Young in court

A mother has confronted her daughter’s killer in court, saying she will never forgive him for taking away her vibrant and courageous girl.

Lachlan Young, 23, did not look at Hannah McGuire’s mother, Debbie McGuire, as she read her statement in the Victorian supreme court on Monday.

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The not-so-little Murray cod that could: fish tracked swimming 900km along Australia’s biggest river system

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Fish named after Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus was most recently tracked at a section of the mid-Murray, near Belsar Island

A young Murray cod has swum one of the longest ever recorded journeys for the species, travelling about 900km through the Murray River, its streams and backchannels.

Murray cod, Australia’s largest freshwater fish, grow up to 1.5 metres and can live for half a century. Research by Victoria’s Arthur Rylah Institute has shown the species, listed as vulnerable under federal environment laws, is capable of covering extreme distances.

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Allan says Victoria machete ban is working despite brawl at community sport event

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Police were called to a fight among a large group of men armed with machetes on Saturday evening

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has said the state’s machete ban is working, despite reports of a brawl on Saturday night in Melbourne’s north and the discovery of a teenager with serious injuries nearby.

Police were called to respond to a large group of males, aged in their late teens, fighting with machetes on Saturday evening, Det Sgt Matthew Feben told reporters on Sunday morning.

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A year on as Queensland premier, will David Crisafulli’s small-target strategy prove his undoing?

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The LNP government has a firm stance on only one issue – youth crime – and is looking like it’s in need of an agenda

When David Crisafulli speaks to the Liberal National party faithful, his message tends to become a blunt warning to members and MPs to keep any unsavoury, unelectable tendencies out of sight.

“We don’t exist for culture wars,” the Queensland premier – who marks a year in office on Sunday – told the party’s state council just after the 2024 election.

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Children under 14 are incapable of evil and should be protected from criminal responsibility, NSW review finds

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Review was led by former supreme court judge turned parole authority chair Geoffrey Bellew SC and former NSW police deputy commissioner Jeffrey Loy

A centuries-old legal presumption that children aged between 10 and 14 are not capable of evil should become law, a New South Wales review led by a former supreme court judge and a former senior NSW police figure has recommended.

In NSW, the criminal age of responsibility is 10 but the common law presumption of doli incapax – Latin for “incapable of evil” – can apply up to 14, offering protection for children being prosecuted on the presumption they don’t understand the difference between right and wrong.

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Revealed: some Australians have overpaid their Centrelink debt by more than $20,000

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Exclusive: Services Australia spokesperson says automatic BPay payments and Centrelink being unable to contact customers may be to blame

Approximately 44,000 Australians who have a debt with Centrelink have overpaid it, some by $20,000 or more, Guardian Australia can reveal.

It is the latest in a string of scandals to hit Centrelink after hundreds of thousands of people had their payments illegally cancelled, with several reviews concluding the welfare system is not working legally and the government announcing plans to undertake at least three remediation processes for separate issues – the robodebt class action, income apportionment and overpaid debts.

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Homemade chilli paste products linked to cluster of rat poisoning cases in south-east Queensland

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Queensland Health has issued an alert for people to be aware of the products they warn could still be circulating in the Logan community

Health authorities have identified homemade chilli paste products as the source of a cluster of rat poisoning cases in south-east Queensland.

Five people from the same geographic area presented to hospitals earlier in October with symptoms consistent with being exposed to brodifacoum, the active ingredient in rat poison.

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Australia’s $20m ‘iron fist’ deal with Israel’s largest arms company signed two weeks before UN genocide finding

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Exclusive: Experts criticise federal government’s contract with Elbit Systems as ‘troubling acceptance’ of Israel’s conduct in Gaza

Australia’s $20m purchase of missiles from an Israeli arms company for its “iron fist” weapons system on infantry vehicles has been condemned as “morally questionable” and reflective of a “troubling acceptance” of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

The Australian defence department signed a contract with Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems, on 1 September, two weeks before a UN commission of inquiry found Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Details of the contract were not published on the Australian government’s contract database until last week.

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‘Kill crew’ allegedly sent photo of kidnapped Sydney woman before murdering her, police say

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Police have charged three more men over the death of 45-year-old Thi Kim Tran

Three men have been charged with murder after allegedly taking part in the “kill crew” that murdered a 45-year-old woman from suburban Sydney.

Thi Kim Tran’s body was found bound and gagged in the back of a burnt-out SUV in the city’s south-west on 17 April.

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Women launch class action against ADF alleging widespread sexual violence, misogyny and harassment

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Female members of the military shouldn’t have to fight off their colleagues on a daily basis, lawyer says

Women who allegedly suffered widespread and systemic sexual abuse, harassment, discrimination and victimisation while serving in the Australian defence force are taking part in a class action against the commonwealth.

There are four applicants in the class action, whose names are withheld for legal reasons, but any woman subjected to sexual violence, sexual harassment or discrimination while working in the ADF between 12 November 2003 and 25 May 2025 is eligible to join them.

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Woman tells spycops inquiry of ‘deep mistrust’ of police after relationship with undercover officer

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Ellie, who now lives in Australia, tells policing inquiry she was deceived by officer infiltrating animal rights groups

A woman has told a public inquiry in London that she was left devastated and deeply mistrustful of police after an undercover officer deceived her into an intimate relationship at a young age.

The woman, known only as Ellie, who now lives in Australia and is a dual national, told the undercover policing inquiry on Thursday that she had a year-long relationship with James Thomson while he concealed his real identity from her.

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Trump says Australia will get the Aukus submarines – but the decision won’t be his to make

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If the US navy needs the subs, they cannot be sold to Australia, regardless of how much the president might wish it

Even by the standards of the Trumpian promise, the unvarnished commitment to Australia on US nuclear submarines – “they’re getting them” – is entirely unreliable.

They are not the US president’s boats to give.

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