Former transport bureaucrat Ibrahim Helmy appeared at an ICAC hearing after allegedly forming corrupt relationships with contractors and colleagues
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Ibrahim Helmy was hiding in a cupboard for the moment he had been warned about.
Police had arrived at the share house where the former transport bureaucrat was laying low, living discreetly with strangers after failing to appear before a major corruption probe.
Continue reading...Prof Christian Downie points to the Business Council of Australia and News Corp newspapers as examples of deliberate obstruction
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Political and media attacks on renewable energy and climate action in Australia in recent months have come “out of the climate obstruction playbook” that has been honed over decades around the world by fossil fuel interests.
Prof Christian Downie, an Australian researcher, says he has studied techniques used by business groups and lobbyists all over the world which are now being seen in Australia.
Continue reading...Researchers in Australia find 16 genetic variants linked to depression in women but only eight in men
Women carry a higher genetic risk of depression, a new study has found.
Claiming to be the largest genetic study to date on sex differences in major depression, the research published Wednesday in Nature Communications has found 16 genetic variants linked to depression in women and eight in men.
Continue reading...Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called environment department bureaucrats ‘weak’ - though later withdrew the remark
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Australian government officials are investigating whether a coal mining company is putting threatened greater gliders and koalas at risk by illegally clearing bushland in central Queensland without approval under federal law.
The revelation came in a fiery Senate estimates hearing in which the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young criticised the Albanese government for not doing more to stop the clearing and described environment department bureaucrats as “weak” – an allegation she later withdrew.
Continue reading...More than 280 delivery workers injured in traffic collisions over past year, suffering everything from broken limbs to lacerations
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At least five posties are injured each week on Australia’s roads, according to data released by Australia Post as the service published video of collisions and urged motorists to “keep an eye out”.
More than 280 posties sustained broken limbs, concussions or serious trauma from third-party road crashes in the past financial year.
Continue reading...‘Australia’s bravest sausage dog’, who was lost in the wild for more than 500 days, now has an ambassadorial role, merchandise and an Australian Story episode
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World-famous dachshund Valerie, who was lost in the wild for more than 500 days, now has merchandise, an ambassadorial role, a public relations representative and a spot on Australian Story.
In November 2023 Valerie’s owners, Georgia Gardner and Josh Fishlock, were visiting Kangaroo Island in South Australia with Valerie in tow. But she escaped from her pen and bolted.
Continue reading...Local community group says whatever the cause ‘kids shouldn’t be in the water’ with dead fish
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Queensland authorities are investigating the deaths of thousands of fish that washed up on a popular Gold Coast beach.
The state environment department said dead baitfish had been observed at The Spit, at the northern end of the Gold Coast since last Wednesday, but no obvious source of pollution had been found.
Continue reading...Victoria’s director of public prosecutions seeking longer prison sentence for mushroom murderer
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The Victorian director of public prosecutions will appeal against the sentence handed down to triple murderer Erin Patterson, arguing it is manifestly inadequate.
On Monday afternoon – the deadline for an appeal – the DPP confirmed in a statement that the appeal had been lodged, after Patterson was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years.
Continue reading...Crews worked through the night to contain a bushfire in the popular camping destination. Follow today’s news live
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The alert for the Moreton Island fire has been downgraded to “advice” level this morning after fire crews worked over the weekend to contain the blaze.
The fire broke out on the island off Queensland’s south-east coast in dense national park near Eastern Beach at 10.30am on Saturday, forcing the evacuation of 20 campers to the western side of the island on the long weekend, AAP reports.
Continue reading...Exclusive: The political foes have set aside decades of animosity to ‘work constructively on gambling reform’ after both describing the NSW government’s actions as insufficient
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Limited action on gambling reform and record levels of harm have prompted “an unholy alliance” between the Greens and the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), which has pledged to rally support for the progressive party’s legislation.
The offer of support came shortly after NSW Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann announced a bill to force the closure of all poker machine venues from 2am to 10am and remove exemptions for more than 650 pubs and clubs that can operate within this period.
Continue reading...Survey finds 57% of respondents agreed government should impose similar sanctions on Israel as those against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine
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Australians are supportive of placing tough sanctions on Israel and its leaders for their role in attacking Gaza, with a new poll finding more than half of voters agree the federal government should extend sanctions placed on Russia to Israel.
The YouGov poll, commissioned by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) and released Monday, shows the majority of Australians want Israel to end its assault on Gaza, with 69% agreeing – 53% “strongly” agreeing – the Netanyahu government’s military campaign should stop. Fourteen per cent disagreed.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed.
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James Paterson says Hastie move to backbench part of Liberals’ ‘debate and contest about ideas’
The sooner the Liberal party can sort out its differences the better but it may take a while after Andrew Hastie’s departure to the back bench, according to one of the rogue MP’s closest colleagues.
But we do have to make sure we go through our processes. We have to make sure we have those debates.
One of the reflections we’ve all had about the last parliamentary term is that there wasn’t enough debate and contest about ideas, that we need to robustly contest policy before we settle on it.
On the back bench, I’ll continue to advocate for things I believe in.
Continue reading...Warm weather follows deluges in more than a dozen places in NSW and Queensland which topped daily records for the month
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Sydney and Brisbane are in for a hot public holiday on Monday, with temperatures set to pass 30C in both capitals.
The warm weather comes after a soaking September on Australia’s east coast smashed monthly rain records across 21 places in Queensland and six in New South Wales following a record-breaking rain in August.
Sydney – sunny, minimum 20C, maximum 31C
Brisbane – sunny, minimum 15C, maximum 32C
Melbourne – shower or two, minimum 12C, maximum 16C
Adelaide – shower or two, minimum 11C, maximum 17C
Canberra – shower or two, minimum 11C, maximum 23C
Perth – sunny, minimum 8C, maximum 21C
Hobart – possible shower, minimum 7C, maximum 14C
Darwin – partly cloudy minimum 25C, maximum 35C
Continue reading...Online bookmaker’s offer, one of a series texted during finals, was valid only if customer took up a suggested same-game multi bet
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Australia’s largest online bookmaker texted customers offering a guaranteed share of $1m in bonus bets if they gambled on the morning of the AFL grand final.
The messages were among a series texted to a Victorian man’s phone by Sportsbet during the AFL finals series in an apparent attempt to entice him to gamble more.
Continue reading...BirdLife WA calls consequences of Alcoa’s proposals to clear 11,000ha of jarrah forest ‘irreversible and catastrophic’ for endangered bird
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The destruction of Western Australia’s northern jarrah forests for bauxite mining will push a threatened black cockatoo “to and beyond the brink of extinction” if governments allowed it to continue, conservationists have warned.
Mark Henryon, a volunteer with Birdlife Western Australia, said there was a clear choice that would decide whether the endangered Baudin’s black cockatoo would survive. “Baudin’s or bauxite – we can’t have both,” he said.
Continue reading...Police are working to identify the women and ask anyone who had seen two women appearing ‘disoriented’ in the area earlier to contact Crime Stoppers
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Emergency services have recovered the bodies of two women who died in “blizzard conditions” in the Victorian high country.
The bodies of the women were found by hikers near a remote hut at Nelse, about 400km north-east of Melbourne, on Friday afternoon. Their deaths are not considered to be suspicious, police said.
Continue reading...Office of public prosecutions says decision has ‘not yet been finalised’, four months after judge referred comments including Kyle Sandilands saying ‘lock that bitch up’
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The Victorian office of public prosecutions has yet to rule out contempt charges in relation to comments made on the Kyle and Jackie O Show about the triple murder trial of Erin Patterson, four months after the co-hosts were criticised by a supreme court judge.
Justice Christopher Beale referred the comments to the office for contempt proceedings in June, after Kyle Sandilands made comments including, “just lock that bitch up” and called the case “not strong for her”.
Continue reading...The state opposition is changing tack in a bid to attract stronger candidates for high stakes seats and avoid an election catastrophe
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When the Victorian Liberal party’s state executive met last Thursday, just days before preselections closed in seats held by four retiring MPs, they looked at the list of candidates before them, underwhelmed.
“The view was, ‘yeah, nah’,” said one Liberal source, who requested anonymity to discuss internal party matters.
Continue reading...The six Australians received no government assistance in their 500km journey from the violent Al-Hawl detention camp to Lebanon
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Two Australian women and four children have escaped a Syrian detention camp and made their own way home to Victoria, as pressure mounts on the Australian government to repatriate its citizens.
The two women and four children – the Guardian is not revealing their names or ages – escaped from the notorious al-Hawl detention camp in north-east Syria, travelling more than 500km to cross the Lebanese border, where they were able to obtain Australian documents in Beirut.
Continue reading...State and territory treasurers who commissioned the report say it shows need for federal government to pay bigger share of public hospital funding
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Up to one in 10 public hospital beds are taken by “stranded” patients awaiting alternative accommodation in aged care and supported disability accommodation, a new report shows – bolstering calls for more federal health funding.
The report on the drivers of public hospital costs was commissioned by state and territory treasurers to inform negotiations on the next national health reform agreement (NHRA) with the commonwealth government.
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