Category Archives: Australia news

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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More than 80,000 at risk of deportation from Australia under Labor bill likened to UK’s failed Rwanda plan

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Bill gives authority to federal government to pay third countries to accept unlawful non-citizens on a removal pathway

More than 80,000 people are susceptible to deportation from Australia to third countries paid to take them under Labor’s new bill which has been likened to the UK’s failed Rwanda deportation plan.

At a Senate inquiry hearing on Thursday, home affairs department officials confirmed that the migration amendment bill could affect far more people than those released from immigration detention by the high court but insisted it did not expand the cohort of those eligible for removal.

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An estimated 75,400 people with no valid visa in the Australian community.

4,452 people on bridging visa E, so they can make “acceptable arrangements to depart Australia”.

986 people in immigration detention.

193 in community detention.

246 on bridging visa R, released as a result of the high court’s NZYQ ruling that indefinite detention is unlawful.

A further 96 people on BVRs that predated that decision.

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Thanasi Kokkinakis and doubles pair inspire Australia to Davis Cup win over USA

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  • Doubles pair Jordan Thompson and Matt Ebden seal victory
  • Italy or Argentina await in semi-final

Inspired captaincy, a nail-biting underdog’s win for Thanasi Kokkinakis and good old-fashioned Australian doubles pedigree has powered Australia into the semi-finals of the Davis Cup in Spain.

Lleyton Hewitt outduelled his USA counterpart Bob Bryan in the key captaincy decisions of their quarter-final tie in Málaga on Thursday as Australia defeated the Americans 2-1 in the battle between the two nations who have won the men’s “World Cup of tennis” more than any other.

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British mining executives held in Mali released after $160m deal to settle tax dispute

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Resolute Mining chief executive Terence Holohan and two other employees had been detained since 9 November

Three British mining executives who had been detained by the government of Mali have been released and are “safe and well”, days after agreeing to pay $160m to settle a tax dispute.

Resolute Mining, an Australian company, said on Thursday its chief executive, Terence Holohan, and two other employees, who had been held in the country since 9 November, have been released.

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New law introduced to block legal challenge to An0m organised crime bust

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People charged after the AFP sting against the encypted app claim the information was not obtained lawfully

The Albanese government will attempt to block legal challenges by people charged after an elaborate Australian Federal Police sting using the encrypted An0m application.

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, introduced laws to prevent any legal challenge to Operation Ironside on Thursday, despite special leave already being granted to the high court for an appeal by people charged in South Australia as a result of the sting.

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Melbourne teen Bianca Jones dies in hospital after methanol poisoning in Laos

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A New Zealand citizen is also ill, while a US citizen has died following a suspected mass poisoning event in the town of Vang Vieng

Melbourne teen Bianca Jones has died from methanol poisoning in a Thai hospital, a week after the Melbourne teen and her best friend fell ill while travelling in neighbouring Laos.

Anthony Albanese confirmed the 19-year-old’s death on Thursday, after her parents travelled to Thailand to be with her.

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NSW government bid to prevent Rising Tide protest in Newcastle harbour invalid, court finds

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Four-day exclusion zone an improper use of Marine Safety Act, judge rules, despite ‘skilful’ submission from transport minister Jo Haylen

The New South Wales supreme court has set aside a Minns government decision to cut off access to Newcastle harbour to try to prevent a four-day climate protest.

The court found the notice was invalid after hearing an urgent application from climate activist organisation Rising Tide on Thursday.

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