Man was teaching at a secondary school for boys when he allegedly targeted the girl – who police say he did not know
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A high school teacher has been accused of grooming a teenage girl and offering money for her to produce sexually explicit material.
Police allege the 29-year-old man targeted a 14-year-old girl not known to him, before she told her parents who alerted authorities.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Labor bill recognising all animals as sentient and raising care requirements won’t be introduced before state election
Warning: This article contains graphic content
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A bulldog trapped on a balcony, forced to live among its own faeces. A corgi kept in similarly squalid conditions, surrendered by its owner after community outrage. A Maltese shih tzu beaten with a metal pole – its attacker spared jail.
These are the kinds of animal cruelty cases the Victorian government promised to target with new laws almost a decade ago. But Guardian Australia can reveal those reforms have been shelved indefinitely.
Continue reading...Iran conflict could see shortages not just in fuel, but fertiliser and fossil fuel resins – used to make milk bottles
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Farmers say Australian consumers could pay more for everyday staples for the next year at least as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran.
But the CEO of dairy farmer cooperative Norco, Michael Hampson, says a six- to 12-month disruption to food supply is likely a best-case scenario, depending on the strait of Hormuz reopening soon and global petrochemical supply chains beginning to stabilise.
Continue reading...Fuel tax cuts also risk adding to inflation by enabling some households with enough income to spend more
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Fuel excise cuts would be a “political Band-aid” that could worsen petrol shortages and add to inflation, economists have warned.
The mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, Tasmania’s state premier and Liberal opposition leaders in New South Wales and Victoria have called for the Albanese government to cut the excise on petrol and diesel.
Continue reading...The Australian Institute of Architects’ judges sought to highlight a gentler approach to urban transformation,’ chair of the awards steering committee says
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Sydney’s Campbelltown has paved paradise and put up a parking lot. And the brave jury at the Australian Urban Design awards has declared it heavenly.
The winners of the 2026 awards, announced on Tuesday at Parliament House in Canberra, suggest the era of the star architect’s singular, sculptural spectacle is being traded, at least this year, for something more pragmatic: an unassuming revolution where the most significant breakthroughs are found in natural, open-mesh ventilation, a splash of colour and a heart of soothing greenery.
Continue reading...David Pocock says a flat 25% export levy on gas producers could redirect ‘wartime profits’ to struggling Australians
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Pressure is mounting on the Albanese government to help households struggling with fuel prices, with working from home and free public transport posited as possible solutions.
Nearly 150,000 New Zealand families will soon receive a weekly cash payment to help them afford petrol, believed to be the world’s first fuel relief package that directly pays citizens since the Israel-US war on Iran began.
Continue reading...From a shop owner in India to a community worker in New South Wales, rising fuel prices are forcing people to ration oil usage
Alagesan, 35, needs liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to run his roadside drink and snack shop in Coimbatore, India, but with the fuel shortage since the US-Israel attacks on Iran, he worries his business could fold.
“I am far away from the Middle East, but my life is affected,” he said. “The gas cylinder is not available because of the war. I don’t know what to do.”
Continue reading...Australian Education Union members to rally outside state parliament in dispute over pay and conditions
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Classes have been halted across Victoria as thousands of striking public school teachers, principals and education support staff prepare to descend on state parliament for a rally over pay and conditions.
According to the Australian Education Union’s Victorian president, Justin Mullaly, up to 500 schools would either be closed or “significantly affected” as a result of the first strike in the state’s public school system in more than 13 years.
Continue reading...Barrister who represented Indigenous Palm Island community says appointing Darren Robinson to the Legal Aid board is a ‘slap in the face to the family of Mulrunji Doomadgee’
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A barrister who acted for Mulrunji Doomadgee’s family says it is “unacceptable” for a former police officer criticised for his conduct in investigating the 2004 death in custody to serve on the Queensland’s Legal Aid board.
Andrew Boe represented Doomadgee’s family and the Palm Island community council at an aborted coronial inquest in 2005 and then in subsequent inquests in 2006 and 2010.
Continue reading...Union says below‑inflation pay rises and insecure work threaten the future of Australia’s public‑interest journalism
ABC journalists will walk off the job on Wednesday for the first time in 20 years, triggering severe disruption to the public broadcaster’s news services for 24 hours.
The protected industrial action involves staff in the journalists’ Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the non-journalists’ Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), which represents staff in technology and control systems.
Continue reading...Energy minister, Chris Bowen, says ‘we’re a long way’ from further action like fuel rationing despite shortages
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Hundreds of service stations across Australia have run out of fuel, with the federal government inking a deal with Singapore, one of the country’s biggest sources of refined petroleum, to keep supplies of diesel and petrol flowing.
Concerns are now broadening to supplies of fertiliser and other chemicals, heaping more pressure on the Albanese government’s leveraging of overseas exports of coal and gas in a bid to handle of the crisis.
Continue reading...Narelle weakens to a tropical low after bringing heavy rain to already-saturated parts of the Northern Territory
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Communities in Australia’s far north were again on flood alert as ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle continued its destructive westward journey on Monday, with forecasts suggesting the system could re-intensify and potentially threaten the Perth region this weekend.
Narelle had weakened to a tropical low system on Monday after bringing heavy rain to already-saturated parts of the Northern Territory over the weekend.
Continue reading...Labor’s Peter Malinauskas secures at least 32 seats while Pauline Hanson’s party outpolls Liberals and could become de facto opposition
One Nation will win at least one South Australian lower house seat, and is leading in a handful of others, as the Liberals consider “sobering lessons” from Saturday’s thumping election loss to Labor.
One Nation’s electoral success came as federal MP Barnaby Joyce downplayed racism and bigotry accusations against the party before likening a ban on migration from Muslim countries to buying cattle “that just don’t work”.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
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Australia not ‘contemplating’ fuel rationing but state and federal governments have powers, Bowen says
State governments also had fuel rationing powers, Chris Bowen said.
When I was a kid … in the 80s in Sydney, I remember petrol rationing was done by state governments – the state governments do have powers there.
Yes, the Commonwealth government, under the fuel emergency act, has powers.
It’s not designed to be invoked lightly. It really has powers primarily around defence and health, in the first instance, to ensure that those key areas are getting diesel that they need, but also other forms of fuel.
I would need to be satisfied that there’s a real shortage and that the powers under that act are useful.
Continue reading...Energy minister says war on Iran creating ‘uncertain environment’ but insists government doing ‘all the preparatory work’
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Six oil ships bound for Australia have been cancelled in recent days but the federal government is not yet considering any drastic measures, the energy minister, Chris Bowen, says.
Bowen said on Sunday that six ships from Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, that had been expected to arrive next month, were cancelled or deferred. The federal government was working to replace the ships, with some already substituted, the minister told ABC TV.
Continue reading...Amid a surge in fuel prices and fear of shortages, SA police chief signals officers might stop investigating ‘drive-offs’ unless service stations install prepaid pumps
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The rusty green fuel trailer hardly looks like it is worth stealing. But some time before 1 March it was hooked up to the back of a vehicle and taken from a property at Huntley, south of Orange, in the New South Wales central tablelands.
It was just another in a series of thefts that police across Australia are keeping a watchful eye on.
Continue reading...Roberts, who was the first Aboriginal person to host a prime-time current affairs program, was diagnosed with a rare type of ovarian cancer seven months ago
Rhoda Roberts, the Bundjalung Widjabul Wiyebal cultural leader and arts devotee, has died at the age of 66.
In a statement made via Instagram, Roberts’s family announced she had died peacefully in hospital on Saturday afternoon, having been diagnosed with a rare type of ovarian cancer seven months ago.
Continue reading...US president claims he ‘always says yes’ to Australia, Japan and South Korea, after saying he didn’t need help from trio of countries earlier this week
Donald Trump says he is “very surprised” Australia has not sent warships to aid in opening the strait of Hormuz as the blockade of the key strategic route for global oil supply continues to affect fuel prices.
“I was very surprised,” the US president said in Washington on Friday when asked what he took issue with regarding Japan, South Korea and Australia.
Continue reading...Jonathan Horn scooped best sports feature prize for a series on AFL, while Chris Hopkins won for pictures of a cancer sufferer caring for her son
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Sports writer Jonathan Horn and photographer Chris Hopkins have won Melbourne Press Club awards for their work for Guardian Australia.
Guardian Australia was recognised with eight nominations in a range of categories in the 31st annual Quill awards, which were presented in Melbourne on Friday night.
Continue reading...Second landfall expected over weekend in NT as Queensland premier says relatively limited damage so far ‘an incredibly good news story’
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Tropical Cyclone Narelle weakened in intensity on Friday evening after barrelling into far north Queensland as one of the state’s fiercest cyclones in living memory – downing trees, ripping off roofs and swelling rivers.
As of 4pm local time, the Bureau of Meteorology downgraded Narelle from a category 3 to category 2 storm, meaning while it was less severe there were still destructive winds near the centre of 100 km/h and wind gusts up to 150 km/h.
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