Category Archives: Australia news

Jury hears Nelomie Perera’s screams before alleged murder in front of children

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Dinush Kurera has pleaded not guilty to murder and assaulting his son after wife’s 2022 death in Melbourne home

The screams of a mother’s final moments alive while her estranged husband allegedly hacked her to death in front of their children have been played to a Victorian jury.

“Help me, help me,” Nelomie Perera yelled in a recording captured on her watch, which was played to Melbourne’s supreme court.

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Rex has entered voluntary administration. What happens next to the embattled regional airline?

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Virgin Australia has offered to rebook Rex passengers due to travel on now-grounded capital city flights on an equivalent Virgin service free of charge

There is uncertainty about the future of Rex – Australia’s third-largest airline – after it entered voluntary administration and grounded all of its flights between capital cities.

The Albanese government held crisis talks with Rex on Tuesday and appeared willing to step in to save parts of the airline’s operations.

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Rex airlines enters voluntary administration with all flights between capital cities grounded

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Federal government says Rex ‘will have a future’ with minister suggesting Labor will step in to save troubled company

All Rex flights between capital cities have been grounded and the airline has entered voluntary administration just hours after the Albanese government suggested it would intervene to ensure the nation’s third-largest carrier didn’t collapse.

Late on Tuesday, EY – formerly known as Ernst & Young – announced it had been appointed as administrators of the company, and that the airline’s Boeing 737 operations between capital cities such as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane had been grounded, with Virgin Australia stepping in to offer impacted passengers rebooking “free of charge”.

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Collingwood to fight fresh racism allegations by former head of First Nations strategy

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Calls for reigning AFL premiers to be stripped of points as the club faces fresh racism allegations in court

Collingwood will defend themselves against serious allegations of racism filed in court, insisting the club has acted lawfully.

The AFL has been urged to strip the Magpies of premiership points should explosive claims be proven.

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Damage from catastrophic Victorian floods ‘exacerbated’ by bad decisions and systemic failures, inquiry reveals

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Preparations, emergency warnings and recovery grants found lacking following long-running investigation into 2022 disaster

A major investigation into catastrophic floods reveals confusion about preparations, failures in emergency warnings and clunky access to recovery grants.

Flood waters lashed Victoria in October 2022, displacing thousands of residents and destroying hundreds of homes.

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‘Plan ahead’: thousands of Sydney commuters to face travel chaos as opening of new metro line delayed

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Revised launch date yet to be announced as NSW government awaits go ahead from Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator for new $21.6bn subway line

Thousands of Sydney commuters will have their travel plans thrown into disarray from next week due to a delay to the planned opening of the $21.6bn Metro project.

The transport minister, Jo Haylen, on Tuesday apologised to passengers as she confirmed the government was yet to secure approval from the national rail safety regulator and had not determined a new start date for the metro service.

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Housing approvals fall to lowest level in 12 years despite Labor’s pledge of 1.2m new homes

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Approved dwellings drop 6.5% in June amid high interest rates and building costs as CoreLogic rues ‘dismal result’

New dwelling approvals in Australia have sunk to their lowest in 12 years, as developers battle high interest rates and rising labour and material costs.

For the year to June, 162,892 houses and apartments secured approval, down 8.5% on the previous year and the least since 2011-12, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday.

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Australian universities accused of awarding degrees to students with no grasp of ‘basic’ English

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In the first part of a Guardian series, academics say universities have turned a blind eye to language shortcomings because of the revenue generated from international student fees

International students who cannot speak “basic English” are walking away from Australian universities with prestigious degrees, academics say, a situation one described as “mind-blowing” .

More than a dozen academics and students who spoke to Guardian Australia, most on the condition of anonymity, said the universities’ financial reliance on foreign students over many years had hollowed out academic integrity and threatened the international credibility of the sector.

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Fears NSW renters could be mass-evicted ahead of proposed law change

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Advocates welcome premier Chris Minns’s move to ban no-grounds evictions but worry about renters in the meantime

Rental advocates are warning about mass no-grounds evictions in New South Wales between now and the end of the year unless the state government acts to stop dodgy landlords.

Over the weekend, the state Labor government announced it would introduce legislation to stop no-grounds evictions in September. The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said he hoped it would be passed and come into effect by the start of 2025.

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Couple accused of murdering Amber Haigh gave differing accounts of final car journey with her, court hears

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Robert and Anne Geeves gave inconsistent details to police about their alleged last trip with the 19-year-old

The married couple on trial for murdering Amber Haigh initially gave police investigators differing versions of their alleged final car journey with the teenager.

Haigh was 19 when she vanished without trace from the New South Wales Riverina in June 2002, leaving behind her five-month-old son.

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Guardian Essential poll: Australians more favourable to Trump and less sure about Aukus

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Survey records 15-point surge in support for Republican presidential nominee since November 2020, with 36% now considering him favourably

Australians are feeling less opposed to a Donald Trump presidency than four years ago, and less sure the Aukus agreement will make Australia more secure, the latest Guardian Essential poll shows.

Trump, who recently survived an assassination attempt, has seen a 15-point surge in support since November 2020, with 36% of polled Australians now considering him “favourable”.

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Labor ignored Bonza’s plea for help, as questions linger over what transport officials knew and when

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Exclusive: Documents reveal what transport minister Catherine King was advised to say in public as budget Australian airline headed for collapse

The Albanese government turned down a plea from budget airline Bonza for financial assistance 10 days before it entered voluntary administration and ultimately collapsed, and new documents have questioned what transport department officials knew and when.

Documents obtained by Guardian Australia through freedom of information laws reveal the transport department prepared a brief on Bonza’s financial assistance request for the transport minister, Catherine King, on 20 April. Ten days later the airline’s planes were repossessed and thousands of passengers stranded across the country.

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Rex forced into trading halt amid questions about the airline’s future

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The carrier promises to respond to reports that it has called in turnaround experts as Anthony Albanese says the airline is ‘important’

Turbulence at Rex Airlines appears to be deepening after the carrier requested a trading halt following speculation it would appoint consultants to turnaround its financial woes.

On Monday, the ASX announced it had suspended trade in the airline’s shares after it had requested the move pending an announcement related to a news article published on Saturday, understood to be a report in the Australian that the airline had appointed turnaround experts from Deloitte.

Rex’s request suggested an imminent related announcement, with the halt in place until the commencement of trade on Wednesday.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said an airline running into trouble was a weekly occurrence in the tough, global industry.

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Australia news live: states amass record debt but ratings agency says it is ‘manageable’; scam losses rise again

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S&P Global projects total state and territory debt to hit $600bn by late 2024. Follow the day’s news live

Peter Khalil on new role as special envoy on social cohesion

As Anthony Albanese unveiled changes to his cabinet ministry yesterday, he also announced three special envoys.

The act of forming that united whole, it really is about the relationships that we have with each other within our city, how we work together, common goals we share, what common ground we have, how that society works effectively …

It’s not just about multiculturalism [and] it’s not just about religious background or ethnicity. It’s much broader than that … We [have] our political beliefs, the intergenerational differences, the socioeconomic differences, and that is really important that we find ways and policies to strengthen our ability to form that united whole society, especially when it’s being threatened with fragmentation through many different challenges that we’re facing.

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‘Spot something missing?’: NSW surfer jokes about leg that great white bit off

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Kai McKenzie was critically injured in the attack but on Monday posted a lighthearted photo of himself in hospital flanked by supporters

A young surfer whose leg was severed as he fought off a three-metre shark has joked about the loss of his limb less than a week after the devastating attack.

Kai McKenzie was rushed to hospital along with his leg when he was attacked at the isolated North Shore Beach, near Port Macquarie on the NSW mid-north coast, on Tuesday.

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Ruqia was murdered by the man she was forced to wed. Her mother has now been jailed over the marriage

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Sakina Muhammad Jan to serve at least 12 months in prison in Australia’s first forced marriage conviction

Ruqia Haidari wanted to marry for love.

Instead, she had an arranged marriage at the age of just 15, with the relationship ending in divorce when she was 20.

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PM calls for Barnaby Joyce to be dumped over ‘bullet’ comment aimed at Labor during anti-wind turbine rally

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Nationals MP apologised after telling anti-renewables protesters to ‘load that magazine’ and that the ‘bullet you have is that little piece of paper’

Prime minister Anthony Albanese says Barnaby Joyce should be sacked from shadow cabinet after the National party MP likened ballot papers to “bullets” during a protest against wind turbines.

Speaking to an anti-renewables rally at Lake Illawarra south of Sydney on Sunday, Joyce compared ballot papers to bullets and urged the crowd to “load that magazine” at the voting booth against the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the energy minister, Chris Bowen.

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Widely advertised hormone test unreliable as fertility prediction tool for women, researchers say

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Experts warn women are making ‘significant life changes’ based on the anti-Müllerian hormone test, which they say is not reliable for many of its advertised uses

Accredited fertility clinics are among companies misleading women about a blood test used to indicate fertility, resulting in women potentially making misinformed health decisions, researchers say.

Dr Tessa Copp, from the University of Sydney’s school of public health, says she and her colleagues are concerned by an increasing number of advertisements that overstate what the anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) test is useful for.

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Online gambling in Australia has ‘exponentially increased’, new report warns

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Australians are continuing to gamble at a ‘new normal’ of elevated post-pandemic levels, researchers say

New research shows an increasing number of Australians are gambling online and entering “risky” territory.

The Australian National University’s centre for gambling research found people have continued to gamble at elevated levels, after spiking post-pandemic.

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Wong announces new digital cable centre to limit China’s influence in Indo-Pacific

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The new centre, staffed by Australians, will enable sharing of information and help Pacific island governments regulate important undersea cables

Australia is stepping up its attempts to limit China’s influence in the Pacific, with the establishment of a new “cable connectivity and resilience centre” designed to boost connectivity for Pacific nations.

The foreign Minister, Penny Wong, will announce the centre while in Japan for the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting alongside counterparts from the United States, Japan and India.

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