Category Archives: Australia news

Former Liberal vice-president Teena McQueen dies from illness weeks after defecting to One Nation

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Tony Abbott says he has lost a good friend as NSW opposition leader pays tribute to ‘force of nature’

The former Liberal heavyweight Teena McQueen is being remembered for her contribution to the party despite her defection to One Nation.

McQueen, who served as the federal Liberal party vice-president from 2017 to 2023, died on Wednesday after battling severe sickness.

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Angus Taylor won’t say if he supports multiculturalism

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Treasurer says Coalition playing ‘footsie with the monoculture language’ after Liberal leader sidesteps questions at press conference

Angus Taylor has repeatedly refused to say whether he supports multiculturalism in Australia, sidestepping five questions at a press conference about his views and claiming “there’s all these vague words running around”.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, accused the opposition leader of “playing footsie” with One Nation and Pauline Hanson’s call for a “monoculture” in Australia, as Labor ministers committed to backing multiculturalism.

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Cult leader William Kamm and wife groomed young girl for a decade, Sydney court told

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The 76-year-old allegedly ordered he should have 12 wives to ‘repopulate’ the world. He and his wife deny the charges

The leader of a cult and his wife allegedly groomed a young girl over a decade so she could bear 45 of his children in a post-apocalyptic world.

William Kamm, also known as “Little Pebble”, was the leader of the Order of Saint Charbel, a religious cult run from a property on the New South Wales south coast.

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Brown skuas and giant petrels rarely make landfall. When they were found in WA, scientists feared ‘bad news’ for wildlife

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Experts thought H5N1 bird flu would more likely reach Australia’s north. But an arrival from Antarctica had always been possible

Brown skuas and giant petrels are a common sight offshore in southern Australian waters in the winter months, but they will rarely risk venturing on to land.

So when two of these birds were discovered sick – on beaches a few kilometres apart on Western Australia’s southern coastline – it was a sign something might be wrong.

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AI models that can take down governments and business months away, rare Five Eyes statement warns

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Signal agencies in Australia, the US, the UK, New Zealand and Canada sound alarm after Trump blocks foreign nationals from Anthropic’s Fable AI model

Powerful AI models capable of taking down governments and businesses are mere months away, cyber intelligence agencies for the Five Eyes have warned in a rare joint statement, urging leaders to “act now”.

The surprising public intervention by signals agencies for Australia, the US, the UK, New Zealand and Canada comes after the Trump administration earlier this month decided to block “foreign nationals” from using a much-hyped AI model built by tech company Anthropic, called Fable.

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Teen accused of planning terror attack on Peter Dutton and Brisbane march was making ‘edgy joke’, court told

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Defence barrister claims teenager was a ‘troubled kid’ but crown prosecutor says he was serious when he wrote of copying US domestic terrorists

A teenager accused of preparing a nail bombing campaign was either a “troubled kid” who made edgy jokes or a determined terrorist in waiting, a court has been told.

The teenager, who cannot be named due to his age, spent last week on trial in the Brisbane supreme court after pleading not guilty to one count of acts done in preparation for or planning a terrorist act.

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Almost three tonnes of cocaine found buried under Sydney property in Australia’s biggest ever seizure, police say

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Australian federal police arrested and charged two men after allegedly finding $800m worth of cocaine in ‘bunkers’ under shipping containers

Police claim to have made Australia’s biggest ever cocaine bust after finding $800m worth of the drug buried under false flooring on a semi-rural property.

Two men, aged 21 and 25, allegedly tried to run from police and were arrested on Friday after an operation by Australian federal police, alongside investigators in multiple states.

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Australia news live: arrival of H5N1 bird flu a ‘genuine wildlife emergency’, experts say; fuel excise rebate extended for extra month

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Tram passengers in Melbourne will be able to pay for their trip using a bank card, smartphone or smartwatch from today.

The long awaited expansion of tap-and-go payments follows a staged roll out to the city’s train network and main regional routes. Buses are expected to follow.

From today, you can step off a train and straight on to a tram using the same phone, watch or bank card.

Four in five tap and go trips are already being made with a phone or smartwatch – showing more Victorians are leaving the wallet at home.

The potential for this virus to kill wildlife in significant numbers means it could be particularly catastrophic for threatened species.

We are talking about possible extinctions, alongside severe impacts to common birds like our beloved pelicans and black swans.

This is a genuine wildlife emergency and it must be treated as such with emergency funding to increase efforts to protect wildlife populations.

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Fears doctors criticising Israel may be silenced as health watchdog adopts contested antisemitism definition

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Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency to use International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition for ‘regulatory work’

Australia’s health watchdog has adopted a contested definition of antisemitism to guide its regulatory work.

The move has been welcomed by the nation’s peak Jewish body while the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (Apan) has warned it could silence health professionals from criticising Israel’s human rights record.

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Anthony Albanese says Australia’s first mainland case of deadly H5N1 bird flu ‘concerning’

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Tests taken in Western Australia suggest a second bird was also infected, but there is no evidence poultry or agriculture systems are affected

The deadly H5N1 bird flu strain has arrived on the Australian mainland with test results confirming a migratory seabird found on the Western Australian coast was positive for the disease.

The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, confirmed a brown skua – found unwell last Sunday at Cape Le Grand national park near Esperance in southern WA had died from H5N1.

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St Kilda pier wins peak Victorian architecture award as judges praise playful and ‘deeply civic’ design

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State government project among range of works celebrated for community-centred design that goes beyond utility

The reimagined St Kilda pier has added more accolades to its burgeoning trophy cabinet, taking out some of the top gongs at the 2026 Australian Institute of Architects’ Victorian awards.

The $53m Victorian government project redesigned by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, alongside Site Office Landscape Architecture and AW Maritime, took home the Victorian architecture medal on Friday, the award given to the most outstanding project of the year.

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KPMG leaked confidential Optus information and surveilled whistleblower’s laptop, inquiry hears

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International firm owns up to breach of ethics after staff leaked confidential Optus information while bidding for telco contract

KPMG has admitted to another breach of ethics after its staff leaked Optus’ confidential information to colleagues bidding for an audit contract with Telstra.

The consulting firm’s executives also surveilled a whistleblower’s laptop and dismissed the individual as someone with “workplace grievances”, a parliamentary inquiry heard on Friday.

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Pauline Hanson says she ‘had to have a conversation’ about immigration and the Aboriginal flag with new Farrer MP

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David Farley was told One Nation’s policy was to fly only the Australian flag, party leader tells conference

One Nation’s leader, Pauline Hanson, says she “had to have a conversation” with the new Farrer MP, David Farley, after he appeared to defy her policies on immigration and flying Indigenous flags.

Shortly before winning Farrer in May’s byelection – the first federal lower house seat One Nation has won outright – Farley said Labor’s current immigration intake of 306,000 was “probably not” too much.

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Guardian Australia’s Matilda Boseley among journalists recognised at 2026 Walkley mid-year media prizes

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Boseley won for her high-profile, multiplatform political explainer series, Parliamen-Tea: explaining the chaos of Australian politics

Guardian Australia’s Matilda Boseley’s political explainer series Parliament-Tea was recognised at the 2026 Walkley mid-year media prizes, winning the young journalist award for innovative storytelling.

The high-profile, multiplatform political explainer series, in which Boseley explained machinations in Australian parliament over a cup of tea, engaged a younger generation in national policy debate. The category recognises journalism that breaks standard structural moulds to reach and inform audiences through dynamic digital platforms and creative production formats.

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Inquest into Melbourne influencer’s death following freebirth halted after new phone evidence discovered

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Coroner tells inquiry new material ‘of such significance’ any findings must be postponed so information can be analysed

The closing submissions in an inquest into the death of a woman who gave birth at home with no support from medically trained health workers has been delayed, after new evidence came to light after a forensic analysis of her mobile phone.

Stacey Warnecke, a 30 year-old nutritionist, died on 29 September in Frankston hospital in Melbourne.

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Death of Indigenous teen found on rail tracks with towel under head ‘suspicious’, NSW coroner says

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Police initially ruled Mark Haines’ 1988 death a suicide but coroner says investigation hindered by racism and deeply flawed

The police investigation into the death of Indigenous teenager Mark Haines in northern New South Wales nearly four decades ago was hindered by racism and deeply flawed, a coroner has found.

The body of the Gomeroi teenager was discovered on train tracks outside Tamworth on the morning of 16 January 1988.

A stolen Holden Torana was found crashed nearby.

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Recently single Australian men are seven times more likely to report a suicide attempt, study shows

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Fathers particularly affected, with almost 15% reporting suicidal plans after relationship breakdowns, according to survey of 20,000 men

Men who have recently gone through a breakup are seven times more likely to report a suicide attempt than those who haven’t, a new study shows

The Ten to Men project has followed more than 20,000 Australian men and identified the mental health risks in relationship breakdowns, which can include changes in their contact with their children, in their finances, and in their support network.

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Two children dead after pram hit by car in Sydney despite ‘phenomenal’ bystander efforts to save them

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Police found two children – both aged under five – had been struck by a car in Cabramatta, in the city’s south-west

Two children in a pram have been struck and killed by a car in Sydney’s south-west.

Emergency services were called to the intersection of Joseph and Gilbert streets, Cabramatta at about 3.15pm on Wednesday after reports of a crash, New South Wales police said.

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AFP investigates banner stunt during Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club speech

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Activist group GetUp claims responsibility for incident, saying ‘we thought the occasion deserved some honesty’

The Australian federal police is investigating a protest incident during Pauline Hanson’s speech at the National Press Club after political activist group GetUp claimed responsibility for the stunt.

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the National Press Club said it had referred the incident to police after concluding none of its own staff were involved.

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Birthkeeper hired by woman who died after freebirth tells inquest she was ‘not there to make a birth safer’

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Emily Lal – paid $6,000 to provide freebirth support package to Stacey Warnecke – tells coroner her role was primarily to be a ‘supportive friend’

A birthkeeper hired by a woman who died after giving birth at home has told a coroner that she was “not there to make a birth safer”.

Emily Lal gave evidence on Tuesday at the inquest into the death of 30-year-old Stacey Warnecke, who died on 29 September in Frankston hospital after giving birth at home with her husband and Lal present.

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