Category Archives: Australia news

Albanese says Trump call ‘very constructive’ as Dutton calls US president-elect ‘not somebody to be scared of’

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PM fully briefed on ‘potential outcomes’ of US election and says Australia is prepared for Trump’s policies on security, economic and other issues

Australia will advocate for free trade and climate action – despite Donald Trump’s agenda against both – and persist with the Aukus alliance including nuclear submarine acquisition, the Albanese government has indicated.

Under fire from conservative media about his comments in 2017 that Trump “scares the shit” out of him, the prime minster, Anthony Albanese, was asked if he owed an apology to the president-elect.

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ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle to face trial after high court refuses attempt to appeal

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Former tax office employee who spoke publicly about the agency’s pursuit of debts has pleaded not guilty to all charges

A South Australian court’s decision that federal whistleblower protections do not grant immunity for criminal acts committed while gathering evidence will stand, after the high court refused Richard Boyle’s attempt to appeal it.

The decision on Thursday will mean Boyle, a former Australian Taxation Office official, will soon face a criminal trial in Adelaide for 24 offences, including the alleged use of his mobile phone to take photographs of taxpayer information and to covertly record conversations with colleagues.

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William Tyrrell inquest: foster mother tearfully rejects police theory she disposed of body

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Woman questioned in detail about what happened on the morning of 12 September 2014

The foster mother of the missing New South Wales toddler William Tyrrell has tearfully rejected the police theory that she was involved in disposing of the child’s body after his accidental death.

In a recording played at an inquest into William’s disappearance, she emphatically denied she knew where the boy’s body was and what happened to him.

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This article was updated on 7 November 2024 to correct the date of when William Tyrrell went missing.

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Chris Hemsworth criticised over tourism ad promoting Abu Dhabi despite ‘notorious’ human rights violations

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Actor and wife filmed promotional ad in UAE, a country which strives to present itself as tolerant ‘while carrying out repression against dissent’

Australian movie star Chris Hemsworth has been criticised for starring in a slick advertisement promoting Abu Dhabi as a tourism destination in partnership with the United Arab Emirates government, the latest celebrity to use their influence to promote the gulf state.

Hemsworth features in the minute-long ad with his actor and model wife, Elsa Pataky, which they posted on their Instagram accounts on Wednesday. The ad was also shared by the Experience Abu Dhabi Instagram account.

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Australia’s conservatives praise Trump’s ‘self-belief’ as PM welcomes likely US counterpart

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Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison offer congratulations as Adam Bandt criticises ‘dangerous demagogue’ and calls on PM to cancel Aukus

The Australian government is bracing for foreign policy turbulence with Donald Trump’s likely election as US president throwing the defence of Ukraine, Taiwan and combatting the climate crisis into doubt.

Although Kamala Harris is yet to concede defeat in the election, several networks have called the key swing state of Pennsylvania for Trump, and world leaders have moved to acknowledge their new counterpart. The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, released a statement on Wednesday evening local time to congratulate him “on his election victory”.

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Manufacturer of Tasmanian jumping castle in which six children died unclear on how many pegs supplied, court hears

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Operator of company that set up equipment at Devonport school accused of only using four pegs to secure jumping castle instead of eight

Chinese manufacturers of a jumping castle that became airborne, killing six children, have been unable to detail how many pegs are usually supplied with the inflatable equipment.

Chace Harrison, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Zane Mellor, Addison Stewart, Jye Sheehan and Peter Dodt died during end-of-year celebrations in 2021 at Hillcrest primary school in Devonport.

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Tanya Plibersek was rebuked by NSW minister for decision to block $900m goldmine, documents reveal

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Courtney Houssos says proposed mine would create 860 jobs over its 15-year life and inject $67m annually into local economy

The New South Wales resources minister rebuked the federal environment minister over her decision to block the McPhillamys goldmine project and declared Indigenous heritage shouldn’t be protected at the expense of critical minerals investment, new documents have revealed.

Correspondence tabled in federal parliament shows NSW minister, Courtney Houssos, wrote to Tanya Plibersek in August, five days after Plibersek announced she had refused Regis Resources’ mining application because of the proposed location of a tailings dam and its possible impact on Indigenous heritage.

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Bridget McKenzie updates register and apologises after failing to declare 16 flight upgrades

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Shadow transport spokesperson belatedly discloses Qantas and Virgin upgrades after it was revealed she failed to declare offers of better seats

Bridget McKenzie did not declare 16 flight upgrades received over the last nine years, with the Nationals senator apologising and belatedly updating her official register of interests to disclose numerous instances of business class travel which had not been declared as per parliamentary rules.

Two instances were in July and August this year, just a few months before the shadow transport spokesperson claimed to have never been offered a single upgrade on a Qantas flight. Another five upgrades were on personal flights between Australia and New Zealand, including four in 2018 while she was a cabinet minister.

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Heatwave sweeps across large parts of Australia as bushfire threatens Queensland border town

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Weather warnings across multiple states on Wednesday as Dirranbandi residents told to evacuate

A heat warning is in place for large parts of Queensland on Wednesday with temperatures hitting 40C in parts of the state.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a heatwave warning for much of the state, forecasting severe conditions around north-west and inland areas.

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Morrison and Abbott praise Trump – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

There was some seriously colourful language in Senate estimates yesterday, but in this case the media regulator found radio hosts’ words were a step too far. Sarah Martin reports on what the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young described as “revolting, sexist, racist, misogynistic, divisive stuff”:

A “dangerous anti-abortion bill” before the Senate should be withdrawn, if the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, wants credibility on women’s healthcare, the minister for women, Katy Gallagher, says.

It is typical of Peter Dutton to view this purely as a matter of winning or losing votes, rather than any genuine commitment to women’s healthcare.

If Peter Dutton wants any credibility on women’s healthcare, he must immediately ensure Senators [Matt] Canavan and [Alex] Antic withdraw their dangerous anti-abortion bill currently before the Senate.

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2GB’s Ben Fordham pulls out of Liberal event, saying he didn’t realise it was fundraiser for party

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Nine radio star says he speaks to political organisations, Scouts, charities and preschools but draws the line at political promotion

Nine’s 2GB radio host Ben Fordham has pulled out of a Liberal party fundraiser in Kirribilli, saying he did not realise the event was raising money for the political party when he accepted the invitation to speak.

“Kirribilli Branch is honoured to be joined by Ben Fordham, Sydney’s No.1 radio presenter,” the invitation said. “Ben will provide a review of the major stories he has uncovered and covered this year and the very important election year on the horizon.”

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‘Deplorable’: nurse slammed therapy doll dementia patient believed was real baby on table, NSW tribunal hears

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Sudiksha Ahuja found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and her nursing registration cancelled

An aged care nurse who slammed a dementia patient’s therapy doll on a table and laughed at the distressed patient who believed it was a real baby has been found to have been “callous and deplorable”.

Sudiksha Ahuja was found guilty in August of unsatisfactory professional conduct after being prosecuted by the Health Care Complaints Commission before the New South Wales civil and administrative tribunal, the commission said in a statement on Tuesday. On Monday, the commission cancelled Ahuja’s registration as an enrolled nurse.

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Drilling for Sydney to Newcastle high-speed rail begins but Labor accused of uncosted ‘fantasy project’

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Two drill rigs, installed on barges, have started work on the Hawkesbury River at Brooklyn and at Brisbane Water near Gosford

Drill rigs have started boring into rocks and riverbeds to determine the best route for the tunnelling megaproject needed for a high-speed rail line between Sydney and Newcastle, but the fast train’s future is far from certain amid questions about its cost.

Almost three years after Labor came to power on a promise to build the fast train, two drill rigs have begun geotechnical examinations on the Central Coast of New South Wales, the Albanese government announced on Tuesday, as its newly formed High-Speed Rail Association (HSRA) works on a business case for the project’s first stage.

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Employers shortchanged Australian workers a record amount of super last year, tax office says

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The dollar figure of superannuation that went unpaid after recovery efforts rose to $5.2bn from $4.8bn in 2022-23

Australian workers missed out on a record $5.2bn of superannuation that employers failed to pay last financial year, according to the Australian Taxation Office.

The ATO has released the data on the superannuation “gap” in its annual report, which also reveals that $1.4bn is likely to go unpaid because it is owed by insolvent companies.

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Media hysteria around Sofronoff report fuelled ‘mob mentality’, Bruce Lehrmann prosecutor Drumgold says

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Exclusive: Former ACT director of public prosecutions plans to return to NSW bar after painful experience of losing his ‘dream job’

The ACT’s former director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold believes “something went terribly wrong” with the Sofronoff report on Bruce Lehrmann’s prosecution, which resulted in Drumgold losing his “dream job”, a court battle over its findings and a subsequent integrity commission investigation.

Drumgold says media “hysteria” into the report’s findings fuelled a mob mentality against him, in what he described as a “terribly painful process”.

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Australia politics live: Albanese tells caucus Labor will campaign on ‘risk’ of Dutton; Miles returns as Queensland Labor leader

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‘We need to extend the average time people stay in our defence force,’ says Matt Keough

The defence personnel minister, Matt Keough, has also been talking about that retention and renumeration package for defence.

We need to extend the average time people stay in our defence force.

That does mean it had a vulnerability. We’re looking at moving to more of a mesh-type arrangement of satellites, which provides greater resilience, with a more up-to-date technology, and we’ll be able to deliver the technology faster as well.

We are very much confident that we can meet these targets and that’s because we have properly funded them and we have a plan to get there, which is about really improving the terms of service for those who work in our defence forces.

We’re increasing and expanding the bonuses for continuing on in the defence force. We’re continuing the original retention bonus after your initial service obligation for three years and beyond that. There will be another bonus for people who stay in the defence force after that. And that’s really targeting those who are in their seventh, eighth, ninth years of service, which gets to the middle ranks where we’ve got an issue. And we’re also going to grow the active reserves so there are more opportunities for people in the reserve to do full-time or part-time work in the defence force.

This original plan goes back seven or eight years and it was about having two or three satellites above Australia to deliver that capability. Since then, we have seen technologies develop which can shoot satellites out of the sky but we have also seen technologies develop where you have thousands of micro satellites in a more distributed way providing the same effect and we are seeing that with Starlink above Ukraine.

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William Tyrrell inquest: foster mother abused outside court after police allege she may have buried toddler

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Counsel assisting warns ‘fairness is deserved by all’ after inquest hears foster mother may have disposed of three-year-old’s body following accidental death in 2014

The coroner overseeing the inquest into William Tyrrell’s disappearance in 2014 has issued a warning after the toddler’s foster mother was abused outside court.

Counsel assisting Gerard Craddock SC told the deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame that someone had yelled at the foster mother at Lidcombe coroners court on Monday as the inquest resumed for two further weeks of evidence.

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ABC to review editorial policies after investigation finds gunshots ‘inadvertently’ added to Afghanistan footage

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Director of news Justin Stevens apologises for ‘editing errors’ in the video clips

The ABC will review its editorial policies after an independent review found five additional sounds of gunshots were “inadvertently but inaccurately” introduced into footage showing a commando firing from a helicopter.

But the review by the former ABC editorial executive Alan Sunderland said there was no evidence that anyone at Australia’s national broadcaster “deliberately doctored, falsified, manipulated or distorted information, material or evidence in order to mislead audiences”.

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Peter Dutton rules out Coalition abortion policy changes and blasts MPs for stirring debate

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It follows party criticism of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price for condemning later term abortions, though opposition leader did not name names

Peter Dutton has blasted Coalition MPs for fuelling a federal debate on abortion laws, declaring there would be no change to policy if he wins government and they must show more “discipline” on the topic.

Dutton told MPs in his private weekly party-room address on Tuesday morning that the 11th-hour emergence of the issue during the recent Queensland state election campaign may have cost the Liberal National party votes.

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More than 500 new poker machines installed in NSW despite Chris Minns promising to slash numbers

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Total number of machines in state increased from 87,094 in March last year to 87,644 in October

More than 500 new poker machines have been installed since Labor won office in New South Wales last year, despite a campaign pledge to cut their numbers in pubs and clubs.

In January 2023, two months before the state election, the now premier, Chris Minns, declared a Labor government would “reduce the number of poker machines” in NSW.

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