Category Archives: Australia news

John Howard weighs in on stoush between NSW and federal Liberals – as it happened

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Assistant treasurer says Elon Musk post is ‘crackpot stuff’

The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, has said Elon Musk labelling the Australian government as “fascists” is “crackpot stuff”.

And whether it’s the Australian government or any other government around the world, we assert our right to pass laws which will keep Australians safe – safe from scammers, safe from criminals.

And, for the life of me, I can’t see how Elon Musk or anyone else, in the name of free speech, thinks it is OK to have social media platforms publishing scam content, which is robbing Australians of billions of dollars every year. Publishing deepfake material, publishing child pornography. Livestreaming murder scenes. I mean is this what he thinks free speech is all about?

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Federal government approves third runway for Melbourne airport

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Approval requires the establishment of a noise amelioration program for nearby communities

The federal government has approved a third runway for Melbourne airport, with conditions set to share and minimise the effects of aircraft noise on surrounding communities.

The transport minister, Catherine King, announced the go-ahead for the runway construction on Friday, saying it would allow the airport to cater for the demand of a growing city and provide better access for freight and passengers.

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Dementia prescriptions jump 46% in a decade as Australia urged to prepare for ‘full impact’ of disease

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Neuroscientist says rapidly ageing population puts country at forefront of a health crisis

The number of dementia medication prescriptions has jumped by almost 50% in Australia in the past decade as more people seek out therapies that may slow the progression of the disease.

The latest report on dementia from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, released on Friday, revealed that health services for managing dementia have increased to accommodate 411,100 people.

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Anthony Albanese may decide who runs in safe Labor seat as deputy PM and union locked in tussle

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Richard Marles and Bill Shorten’s old union, the Australian Workers’ Union, in stoush to pick candidate for Gorton

The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, is locked in a struggle with Bill Shorten’s old union, the Australian Workers’ Union, to pick the next candidate for the safe Labor seat of Gorton.

Shorten’s seat of Maribyrnong will be contested by the left’s Jo Briskey while Labor’s choice for Gorton is a tussle between the climate crisis and water policy expert Alice Jordan-Baird and the Brimbank mayor, Ranka Rasic.

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Fear for koalas after bushwalker finds fire ant nests near Queensland sanctuary

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Calls for suppression efforts to be extended after at least five nests discovered at Logan in the Daisy Hill koala bushlands

Fire ants have reached protected koala habitat and a koala priority area in south-eastern Queensland, with experts warning of the danger the highly invasive pest poses to native wildlife.

At least five red imported fire ant (Rifa) nests were discovered in Neville Lawrie reserve at Logan, which is part of the Daisy Hill koala bushlands, at the end of August.

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Labor’s stalled environmental agenda under pressure from left and right

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While the Greens remain hopeful of compromise, the PM has indicated he wants a deal struck with the Coalition

Anthony Albanese is rejecting demands from the Greens and some Senate crossbenchers to subject development projects to climate-impact assessments and remove forestry’s effective exemption from environmental protection law, as the government negotiates on stalled legislation with parties to the left and right.

The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, is in talks with the Greens, crossbenchers and the Coalition over legislation to establish an environment protection authority.

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Australian politics live: Labor confirms aged care deal; AEC abolishes Kylea Tink’s electorate; parliamentary standards bill passes Senate

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Helen Haines condemns ‘stitch up’ over Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission bill

Independent MP Helen Haines is furious at what she calls a “stitch up” between Labor and the Coalition that “weakens the transparency of the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission”.

The bill as currently drafted means serious findings could be made about an MP, but they could face no sanction and the public could never know.

I want to see more transparency around this process.

The government made two last-minute changes to its own legislation that would reinforce the major party duopoly, ensuring no member of the crossbench can be deputy chair of the parliamentary standards oversight committee. What a stitch up!”

We’re going to have the same people on the joint select committee as on the privileges committee, meaning the people who are meant to make sure the whole system is working are the same people who are part of it.

I’m really staggered by this, and it isn’t right.

We’re taking a stand against the unchecked greed that’s fuelling the cost-of-living crisis, and we’re urging the parliament to support this critical reform.

Our bill will put an end to corporate price gouging by making it illegal for corporations with substantial market power to charge excessive prices for goods and services.

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Teal independent Kylea Tink considers options after seat abolished by AEC

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North Sydney MP says decision is ‘deeply disappointing’ but has not ruled out running for new local seat or switching to Senate

The teal independent MP Kylea Tink says she is considering her political options after it was confirmed her seat of North Sydney will be abolished by the Australian Electoral Commission.

Tink is not ruling out running for a new local seat or even trying to switch to the Senate at the next election.

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Australians urged to get whooping cough vaccination as infections rise more than tenfold in year

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Health authorities say infants are at greatest risk so pregnant women, parents and others in close contact with babies should be vaccinated

Health authorities across Australia are urging people to get vaccinated as cases of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, continue to surge.

The latest national data shows more than 26,700 cases reported so far in 2024, compared with 2,451 cases for all of 2023. The numbers are being driven by cases in Queensland and NSW.

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Key gambling harm advocate ‘saddened’ by Albanese’s statements on betting ads

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Tim Costello says the prime minister has ‘mindlessly’ followed gambling industry’s attempts to present him as a prohibitionist

Tim Costello has rejected Anthony Albanese’s suggestion he wants gambling banned and accused the prime minister of “mindlessly” repeating industry attack lines to justify a partial gambling ad ban.

On Thursday Costello, the chief advocate of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, said he was “very disappointed” at Albanese. Costello insisted in 30 years of advocacy he has “never been a prohibitionist”.

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‘He burned her beyond all possible recognition’: life sentence sought for Greg Lynn as murdered camper’s daughter addresses court

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Prosecutor says disposal of bodies must be considered when sentencing former Jetstar pilot over Carol Clay’s murder in the Wonnangatta Valley

The daughter of a camper murdered by a former Jetstar pilot in Victoria’s high country says Gregory Lynn “stole” her mother from her, as prosecutors seek a life sentence over the killing.

Lynn, 57, appeared in the Victorian supreme court on Thursday for a pre-sentencing hearing after a jury in June found him guilty of murdering Carol Clay in 2020. He was acquitted of murdering fellow camper Russell Hill.

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Families to launch class action after Hunter Valley bus crash driver jailed for decades

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Legal case targets Transport for NSW for alleged safety failings on road where 10 passengers were killed and company that employed Brett Button

Families who lost loved ones in a deadly New South Wales bus crash say they will launch a class-action lawsuit as the driver responsible was sent to prison for decades.

Brett Button, 59, was sentenced on Wednesday to 32 years in jail, with a non-parole period of 24 years, for killing 10 passengers and injuring 25 who had been celebrating a young couple’s wedding in the Hunter Valley.

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Labor claims Aukus nuclear waste dumping issue just a Greens scare campaign

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Legislation before Australian parliament covers the way the country’s nuclear-powered submarine program will be regulated

The Albanese government has bowed to pressure to close an Aukus loophole, insisting newly revealed changes will ensure Australia will not become a dumping ground for nuclear waste from US and UK submarines.

The Greens argued the government’s latest amendments did not go far enough and it was becoming increasingly clear the Aukus security pact was “sinking”.

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Injuries and arrests in Melbourne as anti-war protesters and police clash in fiery scenes

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Police accuse some protesters of throwing acid and other objects amid criticism of officers’ tactics outside Land Forces weapons expo

Dozens of police and protesters have been injured and 39 people arrested amid a series of confrontations at an anti-war protest in the Melbourne CBD in which pepper spray was deployed and horse faeces was thrown at officers.

Fires broke out while police responded to a rally outside the Land Forces exposition – an international military conference – at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday.

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Man charged after Olympic medals allegedly stolen from ‘Oarsome Foursome’ rower’s car in Melbourne

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Victoria police arrest 47-year-old after alleged theft of Drew Ginn’s medals in Docklands last week

A man has been charged after four Olympic medals – including three gold – belonging to one of the members of Australia’s popular “Oarsome Foursome” rowing team were allegedly stolen from a car in Melbourne.

Victoria police said Drew Ginn’s medals from four consecutive Olympics were in the back of a Land Rover that was parked on Cumberland Street in Docklands when they were allegedly stolen last week.

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Kelly Wilkinson’s murderer takes the stand in trial of workmate accused of aiding in plan to kill

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Brian Earl Johnston, who stabbed and set wife on fire, tells Brisbane court Bradley Bell did not know of murder plot

The man who murdered Kelly Wilkinson has told a jury a workmate accused of aiding him in the crime did not know of his plan to kill.

Convicted murderer Brian Earl Johnston, 37, on Wednesday was called as a witness during the Brisbane supreme court trial of Bradley Bell, who has pleaded not guilty to murder.

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Jacinta Price alleges ‘opportunists’ claiming Indigenous heritage to block resources projects

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Shadow minister for Indigenous Australians says Albanese government ‘turning a blind eye’ to alleged ‘weaponisation’ of identity

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has claimed “opportunists” are making “false claims” to membership of Indigenous groups to scuttle resource projects seeking environmental approval.

The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians made the claim on Wednesday while defending a Coalition plan to designate which Indigenous groups would need to be consulted by project proponents, as revealed by the shadow resources minister, Susan McDonald, at a Minerals Week event.

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Australia politics live: Labor’s hate speech bill will not not criminalise vilification; man who ‘flipped the bird’ in parliament was not signed in by politician

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Dan Tehan outraged over tattered flag after devastating winds

Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan is continuing to moonlight as Australia’s flag hall monitor.

While values are still rising at the national level, albeit at a slowing pace, beneath the headline figure, we’re starting to see some weakness, particularly in Victoria.

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Marsupial of the year heats up as koala and glider take on animal that mates itself to death

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The Project hopes competition will raise big money for underfunded organisations working to protect beloved species

Tense competition is brewing between the greater glider and the koala in Australia’s marsupial of the year vote but there are hopes a silky-tailed species that “mates themselves to death” could win over voters and maybe even save it from heading towards extinction.

Network Ten’s The Project launched the competition in collaboration with organisations and charities that work with or help preserve the habitat of marsupials, many of them endangered, in a bid to raise funds for them.

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Universities say they are being treated like ‘political footballs’ in scathing critique of Labor’s student cap

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Decision to cap international enrolments the most ‘extraordinary intervention’ since 2021 Coalition vetoing of research grants, Universities Australia chair to say

The chair of Universities Australia will accuse both sides of parliament of using the tertiary education sector as a “political plaything” in a scathing critique of Labor’s proposed international student cap.

Speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Prof David Lloyd will call the decision to cap international student enrolments at a maximum of 270,000 the most “extraordinary intervention” by a government into universities since the Morrison government vetoed six Australian Research Council (ARC) grants in 2021.

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