Category Archives: Australia news

Woman bitten by snake found alive after week-long search in remote Snowy Mountains

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Lovisa Sjoberg hadn’t been seen for almost a fortnight when she was located on Sunday afternoon at Kiandra about 85km south-west of Canberra

A woman missing for more than a week in the Snowy Mountains region has been found alive four days after she was reportedly bitten by a snake.

A search was launched for Lovisa “Kiki” Sjoberg, 48, on Monday 21 October after she was last seen driving a grey SUV in the Kosciuszko national park the previous Tuesday.

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New Queensland premier David Crisafulli vows to legislate ‘adult time for adult crime’ policy by Christmas

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LNP leader plans to ‘get cracking’ in majority government but critics have said locking up more children isn’t the answer

Queensland’s incoming premier, David Crisafulli, and his deputy, Jarrod Bleijie, will be sworn in as an interim cabinet of two so the LNP can “get cracking” with governing, the party’s leader says.

“We’ve got to get to work,” Crisafulli said on Sunday after securing majority government.

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Labor accuses Peter Dutton of trying to ‘force nuclear energy on Queenslanders’

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Nationals MP Keith Pitt claims Coalition would have mandate if it won federal election despite opposition to nuclear power from state’s incoming LNP government

A senior federal Labor minister has accused Peter Dutton of trying to “force nuclear energy on Queenslanders” following the LNP’s state election win after which a Coalition MP claimed the federal party would forge ahead with its power plan.

The federal Nationals MP for Hinkler, Keith Pitt, on Sunday said the Coalition would have a mandate to press ahead with its nuclear policy if Dutton won the next election.

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Crisafulli makes first speech as premier-elect; trucks deliver food aid to western NSW after power outages – as it happened

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The LNP leader again thanked unsuccessful candidates from both sides before declaring he would get to work quickly. This blog has now closed

A look at ‘incredibly expressive and very flirtatious’ Maratus spiders

Australian Maratus spiders, which measure 3-5mm, are known as “peacock spiders” because of the extravagant colourings they display during courtship rituals and combat.

They’re incredibly expressive and very flirtatious. The male wants to get all the attention of the female, like birds of paradise.

That’s not talking about net zero. That’s talking about actual emissions reductions as a total.

So what’s the proposal? Are you intending to wipe out the cattle herd, are you going to reduce traffic by 75%?

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Australia rejects visa application by rightwing US pundit Candace Owens

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Immigration minister Tony Burke says Owens ‘has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction’ ahead of planned November speaking tour

Australia has rejected far-right provocateur Candace Owens’ visa application ahead of a planned national speaking tour, with the immigration minister, Tony Burke, saying she had the “capacity to incite discord”.

The US conservative influencer and podcast host, who has advanced conspiracy theories and antisemitic rhetoric including minimising Nazi medical experiments in concentration camps, will be blocked from coming to Australia after the federal government voiced alarm about her record.

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LNP will need to show Brisbane voters it can be a moderate government if it’s to stay in power

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The party won decisively in the regions but was rejected by the city, which was scared off by the hard-right social views of some candidates

The story of the Queensland election is the story of Mackay and Mansfield.

The voters of Mackay stuck with Labor during the landslide loss to Campbell Newman’s Liberal National party in 2012. They voted for the party in the “Adani election” of 2017, at the nadir of the state’s climate wars.

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David Crisafulli claims LNP victory in Queensland election ending Labor’s decade-long reign

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Outgoing premier Steven Miles concedes he cannot form majority government despite a last-minute vote surge

David Crisafulli has claimed victory for the Liberal National party in the Queensland election after a campaign that focused heavily on a series of hardline crime promises.

The election marks the end of Labor’s decade-long reign in Queensland and is only the second time the Liberal or National parties have won a state poll since 1989.

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David Crisafulli has narrowly won the Queensland election but the real fight has only just begun

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With a very narrow majority to protect, Crisafulli will have no wriggle room to tolerate internal dissent – and that’s already begun

David Crisafulli will almost certainly cobble together enough seats to become Queensland’s new premier. He now looks set to become only the second Liberal or National to win a state election since 1989.

And yet election night doesn’t feel euphoric for the LNP.

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Belimbla Park plane crash: three people killed after mid-air collision in Sydney’s south-west

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NSW police say two crime scenes secured after reports two light planes collided near Oakdale

Three people are dead after two light planes collided in mid-air before crashing in Sydney’s south-west.

NSW police confirmed the fatal crash occurred at about 11.50am on Saturday, at Belimbla Park, near Oakdale.

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Police find vapes worth $8m after being called to Melbourne warehouse robbery

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About 200,000 e-cigarettes found in Box Hill South after officers were told of reported burglary on Thursday

Victorian police called to an early morning break-in this week found something unexpected: about 200,000 illegal vapes worth $8m.

The vapes were found in a warehouse in Melbourne’s outer east after officers responded to reports of a commercial robbery, police said in a statement on Saturday.

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‘It was awful’: Annie’s worst fears came true after she accused her police officer partner of DV

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Since 2017 in NSW, 120 officers have been charged with domestic violence offences. But advocates believe many victims are too scared to report

Annie* was in a relationship with a police officer for more than a decade. During that time, she says, he was manipulative and assaulted her.

When she finally got the courage to report her allegations of domestic violence to the police, a different command to where her partner worked investigated it. But then she realised that some of the officers in that command knew him.

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Albanese government pauses controversial debt recovery method until appeal resolved

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Legality of income apportionment has been under question for years but social services says it is confident system is lawful

The Department of Social Services will pause work on recovering debts using its income calculation method while it awaits the outcome of an appeal against an administrative appeals tribunal (AAT) decision in the federal court.

The legality of income apportionment – where a recipient’s job income is divided over fortnightly periods in order to calculate support payments – has been under question for years.

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Popular Sydney beaches among quarter of NSW swimming spots polluted with faecal matter in past year

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Shelly beach, Bronte, Coogee and Malabar among those rated ‘poor’ as swimmers urged to check water quality online

More than a quarter of New South Wales’ favourite swimming spots have been polluted by faecal matter over the past year including Sydney’s Coogee, Bronte and Malabar beaches.

With the Bureau of Meteorology predicting a wet summer, the government has urged swimmers to check its online water quality monitor for updates after its annual state of the beaches report found 28% of the 218 tracked sites experienced pollution.

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Lidia Thorpe says ‘no issue’ with missing a third of sitting days, citing assault that led to spinal injuries

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Independent senator says her doctor ordered her not to travel, after records reveal she attended just 46.2% of votes since the 2022 election

The independent senator Lidia Thorpe has taken more unexplained days off from parliament this term than any other senator and participated in less than half of all Senate votes in that time, according to official attendance records.

The records show that in the 47th parliament, Thorpe has been absent for 11 days without obtaining leave from the Senate. Permission for leave can be sought before being absent, or afterwards, and is generally granted.

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Former Sydney schoolboy wins $1.2m in damages after bashing by gang of 12 students

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Court finds Fairvale high school failed duty of care in case of 14-year-old boy who was assaulted in 2017

A student subjected to an unprovoked and lengthy bashing by 12 of his classmates has been granted $1.2m in compensation.

The student at Fairvale high school in western Sydney was 14 years old when the other students prevented him boarding a bus on 16 October 2017.

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Proposed powers to exempt NT projects from environmental assessments criticised as ‘terrifying’ and ‘authoritarian’

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The Labor opposition, conservationists and Indigenous groups have expressed shock at the move

The newly elected Northern Territory government wants to grant itself sweeping new powers to exempt major projects from environmental assessments in a move described by conservationists and Indigenous groups as authoritarian and anti-democratic.

A leaked consultation document, seen by Guardian Australia, outlines how a new Territory Coordinator (TC) would have powers to “step in” and take the role of government agencies to make assessments and approvals and could order other agencies to make decisions within a specific timeframe.

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Police find body believed to be that of missing 82-year-old as accused faces court on murder charge

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NSW police charge 67-year-old man with murder of Edwin Dobbin, 82, who disappeared from Leppington in late September

A body believed to be that of a missing man who police allege was murdered and then buried on a semi-rural property on Sydney’s outskirts has been found.

While the body is yet to be formally identified, investigators believe it is that of 82-year-old Edwin Dobbin, who disappeared from his Leppington home in south-west Sydney late last month.

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WiseTech shares surge after CEO stands down – as it happened

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Dutton and Shorten weigh in on Queensland state election

The federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, both spoke with the Today show earlier from Queensland, before the election.

He’s focused on the issues which affect Queenslanders: housing, health, cheaper transport and of course tackling youth crime. So we’ll find out soon enough who’s going to win.

The fact is that it’s time for a change in Queensland and law and order is out of control.

Well, yes, he did. He did three days ago and, despite that, the government’s scare campaign continues.

The scare campaign on a sensitive issue that has been run, quite frankly, crosses the line, and we’re better than that as Queenslanders … There won’t be changes to abortion laws and Queenslanders need to know that.

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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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