Category Archives: Australia news

David Crisafulli backtracks on promise to resign if crime victim numbers do not fall under an LNP government

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Opposition leader adds caveat to campaign vow on eve of Queensland election day as polls tighten

The Queensland Liberal National party leader, David Crisafulli, has walked back his campaign promise to resign if crime victim numbers do not reduce under a government led by him, claiming on Friday that he was referring to per capita rates, and not the overall number of victims.

The qualification, on the eve of the state election, comes as polls suggest the opposition has squandered a huge polling lead at the beginning of the month, and is in now danger of not winning enough seats to form a majority government.

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State-backed loans to go to firms importing critical minerals into UK

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Rachel Reeves to encourage import of raw materials from Commonwealth countries to counter China’s grip on market

Businesses that import critical minerals to the UK will be given access to state-backed loans in a move to counter China’s dominance in the market.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is expected to announce extra government support to encourage the import of critical minerals such as lithium, graphite and cobalt in her budget next week. Companies that bring supplies of critical minerals into the UK will be able to access state-backed loans under the UK export finance mechanism.

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Australians must keep up the fight for abortion rights, Jacinta Allan warns

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Exclusive: Conservative forces pose ‘genuine threats to the protections women have fought for and won’, Victoria’s premier says

Jacinta Allan is warning that the battle for abortion rights must continue as conservative forces pose “real and genuine threats to the protections women have fought for and won” amid “frightening” debate in South Australia and Queensland.

Victoria’s Labor premier made her strongest comments to date on abortion in an interview with Guardian Australia, just days before Queenslanders go to the polls in an election that has become dominated by the issue.

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Dog owners warned about boom in ticks on Australia’s east coast after last year’s hot, wet summer

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Expert reminds owners ‘freeze it, don’t squeeze it’ when it comes to a tick, ideally with a tick-freezing spray from a chemist

Dog owners have been warned about a tick boom unfolding along Australia’s east coast, with some experts predicting an unusually bad season for furry friends.

Veterinary scientist and parasitologist Peter Irwin, an emeritus professor at Murdoch University, said the severity of a tick season was largely determined by the preceding weather, and last summer had been very hot and wet along the east coast”.

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Albanese dismisses Beijing’s claim Australia plagued by ‘systemic racism’ and ‘hate crimes’

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China’s foreign ministry spokesperson accuses Canberra of double standards after Australia’s top diplomat raises human rights concerns

Anthony Albanese has dismissed criticisms by China’s foreign ministry that Australia is plagued by “systemic racism” and “hate crimes” after Australia’s top diplomat raised concerns about rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Lin Jian, accused Australia and other nations who joined the statement of double standards, saying it was “political manipulation under the pretext of human rights”.

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Frederick McCubbin descendant backs WA Museum acquisition of perspex vandalised by climate protesters

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Protective cover on acclaimed artist’s famous painting ‘an effective palette for this radical protest’, great-granddaughter says

A close descendant of the acclaimed artist Frederick McCubbin has come out in support of the Western Australian Museum after it came under fire over an unusual acquisition.

The museum confirmed this week it had acquired the perspex glass protecting one of McCubbin’s most famous paintings, Down on His Luck, from the Art Gallery of Western Australia. The perspex was spray painted with the Woodside logo by protesters in January last year.

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LNP cabinet ministers will be booted to the backbench if they miss key targets. Will it backfire on David Crisafulli?

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Experts warn that setting KPIs could create perverse incentives rather than improving outcomes

If the Liberal National party wins power in Queensland at the weekend’s election as many expect, its cabinet ministers will be assigned targets – and face consequences if they fail to meet the grade.

The opposition leader, David Crisafulli, again confirmed on Thursday that each minister in a government he leads will be issued a public key performance indicator – a “KPI” – contained within their ministerial charter letter.

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Sydney man charged for alleged live online child sexual abuse of young boy in Philippines

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The child’s mother and another woman, aged 22 and 37, were also arrested as part of joint investigation by police in Australia and Manila

A 33-year-old Sydney man has been charged with child sexual abuse offences against a boy living in the Philippines and is facing 10 years in prison.

Australian federal police officers were given information in September about a man in Australia who was allegedly engaging in the live online child sexual abuse of the boy, which was allegedly being facilitated by the child’s mother.

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Albanese rejects China’s claim that Australia plagued by ‘systemic racism’ – as it happened

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The Rail, Tram and Bus Union of NSW (RTBU) conducted a five-minute work stoppage early this morning, which is leading to delays across the network.

Sydney Trains says this has led to minor delays and “larger than normal gaps in services may be experienced”, according to an alert:

Trains stops and platforms may change at short notice and some trains may be cancelled. Extra travel time may be experienced in some cases and you may need to change to continue your trip.

The action was set to happen in select locations across the network to ensure we could ramp up stoppages whenever needed.

The rail agencies continue to bargain in good faith with the Combined Rail Unions for a new enterprise bargaining agreement. Sydney Trains are working to minimise the disruption to commuters as much as possible.

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Sydney restaurateur Alan Yazbek pleads guilty after displaying Nazi symbol at pro-Palestine rally

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Co-owner of Nomad held sign mirroring Israeli flag but with swastika in place of Star of David and the words ‘Stop Nazi Israel’

The prominent Sydney restaurateur Alan Yazbek has pleaded guilty to displaying a Nazi swastika at a pro-Palestine rally.

Yazbek appeared at Downing Centre local court on Thursday where his lawyer said he was pleading guilty to the charge.

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Rise of almost untreatable superbug linked to a common antibiotic

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‘Surprising’ finding by Australian-led study is first recorded instance of one antibiotic causing resistance to another in a different class

The rise of an almost untreatable superbug has been linked to a common antibiotic, an Australian-led study has found.

The study – published in Nature – found that rifaximin, an antibiotic used to treat liver disease, causes resistance to another antibiotic, daptomycin.

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No surgical abortion providers in seven out of 10 Victorian local government areas, report finds

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‘Service deserts’ affect those in high-disadvantage regional districts most, Women’s Health Victoria study says

Seven out of 10 Victorian local government areas have no surgical abortion provider and one in five have no medical abortion provider, a new report shows.

The Realising Access report released on Thursday by the not-for-profit Women’s Health Victoria also found “service deserts” most profoundly affect women in high-disadvantage regional areas. Women in such areas are 300% more likely to seek abortion services later than nine weeks, meaning they require a surgical abortion for which there are even fewer providers.

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Simon Birmingham floats new ‘disorderly conduct’ penalties after Lidia Thorpe’s protest against the king

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Liberal senator says world leaders may avoid visiting Australia unless measures brought in to stop senators protesting outside chamber

The opposition Senate leader has flagged the possibility of new penalties for senators who engage in “disorderly conduct” beyond the chamber itself, after independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s shouted protest at a parliamentary reception for King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Simon Birmingham suggests parliamentary censure is an insufficient response to deter future protests and that new measures could be required. A civil disobedience expert, however, has raised questions as to whether such further measures were necessary or “appropriate”.

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Transgrid under pressure as NSW inquiry examines how failed backup generators left Broken Hill in the dark

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NSW premier Chris Minns says state’s far west let down by privatisation after region’s only working large-scale emergency generator failed

Chris Minns is flying to Broken Hill after a storm left about 20,000 people without power and put pressure on the energy operator Transgrid to explain why it did not have a backup plan to prevent the outage.

The New South Wales premier will meet affected residents on Thursday after announcing an inquiry and declaring a natural disaster to unlock emergency relief funding for the outback town and surrounding communities.

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Parks Australia ordered to pay $200,000 fine for disturbing sacred site in Kakadu national park

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Judge finds ‘reliance of trust’ breached when Parks Australia built walkway near rock art without permission

A landmark case has resulted in Parks Australia having to pay more than $700,000 in fines and compensation after pleading guilty to disturbing a sacred site in Kakadu national park.

Sitting by Gunlom Falls on Wednesday, Judge Elizabeth Morris ordered Parks Australia to pay a $200,000 fine for building a walkway near rock art without permission from the sacred sites watchdog, the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority.

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Coalition’s building standards freeze could see a ‘Grenfell Tower inferno’ in Australia, Labor says

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Peter Dutton’s proposed 10-year freeze to national building codes would be a shame, one industry leader says, ‘given the serious impacts of our changing climate’

The industry minister, Ed Husic, has accused the opposition of condemning Australians to live in “shoddy” homes that could result in a “Grenfell Tower inferno” onshore, after it revealed plans to freeze building standard improvements for a decade if elected.

The proposal has already drawn criticism from housing experts and the independent ACT senator David Pocock, but some industry groups have also distanced themselves from the 10-year freeze to national building codes.

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Thorpe rebuffs Indigenous leaders’ criticism of protest – as it happened

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More on news media bargaining code and funding of media publishers

One of the committee’s key recommendations was a digital platform levy on companies like Meta and Google, which some have described as a tech tax to fund public interest journalism.

So in parts of Europe, for example, there’s a 2% digital services tax. You could look at a public interest journalism levy.

The issue that we have fundamentally here is the … offshoring of the digital platform’s profits, where currently they pay very little tax because they argue that they don’t operate in Australia, even though they’re getting this enormous profit yield of the advertising on their platforms. So that’s another thing that has to be resolved within legislation in order to impose a tax.

But simply imposing a tax and feeding [it] into media organisations … won’t fix the issue if Meta continues to deprecate news content – that is, reduce the exposure of news content to its consumers.

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Senior Coalition women and senator Matt Canavan reject Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s abortion comments

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Shadow Indigenous Australians spokesperson says she ‘cannot agree’ with later term abortions, sparking rebuke from Sussan Ley, Jane Hume and Bridget McKenzie

Senior Coalition women have rebuked Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s comments about abortion, saying the Liberal party had “no interest in unwinding women’s reproductive rights” and saying it was an issue advanced by “fringe” politicians.

Even staunchly “pro-life” colleagues of the senator would not back her comments on Wednesday, with Queensland’s Matt Canavan saying it would not be helpful to discuss abortion in the lead-up to the federal election, and calling to “turn the temperature down” on the debate.

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Selfies, hugs and protests: King Charles’s new approach in spotlight during ‘fast and furious’ royal tour of Australia

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Issue of Aboriginal sovereignty front and centre during head of state’s whirlwind first visit

King Charles and Queen Camilla have left Australia after more than 30 official engagements – and a fair share of controversy – packed into just four full days on the ground.

In the stage-managed whirlwind were churchgoers, bushfire scientists, a violinist, authors, dancers, architects, chefs, surf life savers, schoolchildren, republicans and monarchists – and unscripted discordance as activists took up Aboriginal sovereignty directly with the crown.

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Moira Deeming created ‘extreme’ political problem akin to ‘lobster with a mobster’ incident, defamation trial told

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John Pesutto had to ‘cauterise the damage’ to the Victorian Liberal party caused by MP’s conduct, lawyer argues

John Pesutto’s lawyer has rejected claims the Victorian Liberal leader created a “false narrative” in order to expel Moira Deeming, telling a court he acted to “cauterise the damage” after neo-Nazis gatecrashed a rally the MP helped organise.

Deeming, who now sits on the crossbench after her expulsion from the state parliamentary Liberal party, is suing Pesutto for allegedly falsely portraying her as a Nazi sympathiser after she spoke at the Let Women Speak rally held on 18 March 2023, which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. Pesutto has denied the claim.

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