Category Archives: Australia news

Australia politics live: Julian Assange leaves Belmarsh prison after plea deal and will return to Australia, WikiLeaks says

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WikiLeaks X account has tweeted that ‘Julian Assange is free’. Follow today’s news headlines live

‘It’s just a lazy delay’

Bill Shorten says a further delay of the Senate vote on the NDIS bill won’t actually lead to any changes:

There’s no good reason on God’s green earth to have another eight weeks of review, which isn’t actually eight weeks.

There won’t be a whole lot of new submissions come in, there won’t be some brand new arguments not considered.

I’m horrified after 12 months of reviewing the NDIS and then another six months of discussing the review including [in] the last three a Senate committee having public hearings calling for submissions.

The opposition has used words never ever said before by them.

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‘No one should judge’ WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for accepting deal, Australian MP says

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Labor’s Julian Hill says prime minister Anthony Albanese deserves ‘enormous credit’ for pursuing the resolution of Assange’s case

The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be judged poorly “for accepting a deal to get the hell out of there and come home” in light of his poor health, an Australian MP has said.

Australian politicians have reacted cautiously to reports of a plea deal to end the US pursuit of Assange in connection with the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as diplomatic cables.

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Police investigate possible drug link after four people found dead in Melbourne home

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Cause of death of two men, a woman and a boy in Broadmeadows yet to be determined, police say

Four people have been found dead in a Melbourne home, including a teenage boy.

Victoria police said the bodies of two men, aged 37 and 32, a woman, 42, and a teenage boy, 17, had been found at a Broadmeadows property early on Tuesday.

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Bill Shorten ‘horrified’ after Coalition and Greens team up and propose delay to NDIS bill

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Greens leader Adam Bandt accuses Labor of wanting to make ‘cuts to services’ for disabled people

Bill Shorten has accused the Coalition of a “disingenuous” and “lazy” decision on NDIS reforms, after the opposition proposed to team up with the Greens to delay a bill set to save at least $15m a day.

But the minister for government services’ plea to pass the bill before parliament’s winter break has been rebuffed by the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, who said it was “appalling” Labor wanted to make “cuts to services” to disabled people.

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Set more ambitious climate targets to save Great Barrier Reef, Unesco urges Australia

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Reef escapes being classed ‘in danger’ for now but the government must submit a progress report to World Heritage committee by February

Unesco has urged Australia to set more ambitious climate targets for the Great Barrier Reef in a list of recommendations to preserve its status as a world heritage site.

The report, published in Paris late on Monday, did not recommend the reef be placed on a list of sites “in danger” – a threat that has hung over the reef for years – when the 21-country world heritage committee meets next month.

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‘Very serious’: gas supplies in southern states under pressure, analysts warn

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‘Threat notice’ flags elevated supply risks, as expert warns problems will get worse without urgent addition of more backup resources

Gas supplies in southern states are likely to remain strained the rest of this winter, and the problems will worsen without the urgent addition of more backup resources, analysts including the market operator say.

Those states, particularly Victoria, have drawn down their gas storage as cold weather increased demand. Gas-fired power generation has also been double that expected on some days amid unusually calm periods, and gas production at Victoria’s Longford plant has dropped because of unscheduled maintenance.

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Victoria to trial pill testing as a ‘commonsense way to save lives’, Jacinta Allan says

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Premier announces state will trial pill testing during summer festival season, saying evidence shows it ‘works’

Victoria will trial pill testing this summer, the premier Jacinta Allan has announced, after a spate of drug overdoses at festivals in the first quarter of 2024.

Allan announced via an Instagram post on Monday night that the move was a “simple and commonsense way to save lives”.

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Matt Kean criticised by Coalition MPs after Labor appoints him new chair of Climate Change Authority

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Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan lead criticism of former NSW treasurer while Labor declares him ‘best for the job’

The former New South Wales Liberal treasurer Matt Kean has faced criticism for taking a new job as the new chair of the Climate Change Authority after he was appointed by the Albanese government on Monday.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, revealed the former NSW Liberal treasurer had been chosen for the “important” role on Monday in a surprise cross-party appointment.

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Play it Safe: Sydney Opera House short film wins Grand Prix award at Cannes Lions festival

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Judges say four-minute piece featuring Tim Minchin is ‘a celebration of the creative spirit, of brave ideas and taking huge risks in the face of critics’

A short film celebrating the Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary has won at the Cannes Lions, considered the world’s most prestigious advertising awards.

Satirically titled Play it Safe, the 2023 campaign collected one of two Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions international festival of creativity awards last week.

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Medicinal vapes to be sold over the counter at pharmacies after Labor and Greens reach deal

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Government’s original proposal would have made vapes a prescription-only product but Greens raised concerns about criminalising users and cost of seeing a GP

Plain-packaged vapes will be sold over the counter at pharmacies as a therapeutic tool under amendments to the Albanese government’s crackdown on vaping products.

Greens amendments to the model, which will now allow access to vapes as a medical product without a prescription, also include an eight-month amnesty period after concerns about criminalising users. The legislation is expected to pass parliament with the Greens’ support this week, shortly before the new system comes into effect on 1 July.

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Labor seeks to raise incoming governor general’s salary by more than $214,000

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Albanese government wants bill passed to lift Sam Mostyn’s salary by 43%, in line with estimated average of chief justice of the high court’s salary

The Albanese government is seeking to raise the pay for the incoming governor general, Sam Mostyn, by more than $214,000, saying the change is appropriate because she is not receiving the same sort of additional pensions that previous officeholders have enjoyed.

Mostyn will be sworn into her new office on 1 July. Patrick Gorman, the assistant minister to the prime minister, introduced a bill into federal parliament on Monday morning which would raise the salary for the governor general from $495,000 to $709,017.

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Reports of young men with weapons at Westfield shopping centre in Adelaide sparks lockdown

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South Australia police investigate after reports of two groups of young males fighting in food court area of the Westfield Marion centre

A fight between two groups of teenagers in a food court has sent a major Adelaide shopping centre into lockdown.

South Australia police received reports just before 3pm on Sunday of two groups fighting in the food court area of the Westfield Marion shopping centre in Oaklands Park.

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Labor and Greens strike anti-vaping deal – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

David Pocock also spoke to the ABC about his private member’s bill that would see housing treated as a human right. He said it was needed because:

There’s no overarching national plan and this would legislate that these are the objectives, we want to see housing affordable, we want to reduce homelessness and then it would be up to the government to actually work out – how are we going to do that?

What are the policies that we think will address this?

One of my heroes Desmond Tutu used to say ‘don’t raise your voice, improve your argument’.

It’s pretty tragic the major parties tear the opposition down rather than improving their argument and making their plans stand on their own two feet.

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Supermarkets could face billions in fines for grocery code breaches as Labor commits to reforms

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Government to adopt recommendations of conduct review in full amid consumer and supplier complaints about soaring profits

Labor has promised to legislate massive new fines for breaches of the grocery code of conduct, which would be made mandatory under changes proposed by Craig Emerson’s independent review.

On Monday the Albanese government will announce it is adopting in full the recommendations of Emerson’s report on the code, an interim version of which was released in April amid consumer and supplier complaints about soaring supermarket profits.

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Doctors accuse Nationals of serving interests of tobacco lobby by opposing vaping prohibition

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Exclusive: AMA president says party’s push to regulate vapes like cigarettes is a ‘tax grab’ that shows ‘complete disregard’ for health

The Australian Medical Association has accused David Littleproud and the Nationals of taking the advice of the tobacco lobby over health experts on vaping and accused the junior Coalition party of seeking “to gamble with people’s health”.

Ahead of a crucial vote on the government’s anti-vaping restrictions in parliament this week, the AMA president, Prof Steve Robson, claimed the Nationals’ suggestion of regulating vapes the same way as cigarettes is “a tax grab that shows a complete disregard for the health of Australians”.

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Only 60% of Australians accept ‘climate disruption’ is human-caused, global poll finds

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Exclusive: French survey of 26 countries finds fewer Australians than global average agree that climate change is the greatest health threat facing humanity

Australians are among the most sceptical around the world that “climate disruption” is being caused by humans and that the costs of tackling it will be less than that of its impacts, according to polling across 26 countries.

Just 60% of Australians accept that “climate disruption” is human-caused, a fall of six percentage points from the previous poll 18 months earlier and well behind the global average of 73%, according to the results from French polling company Elabe.

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Social media age restrictions may push children online in secret, Australian eSafety commissioner says

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Minors could also miss crucial support under a potential ban, online safety regulator’s office tells inquiry

Restricting children from social media could risk limiting their access to critical social support and could result in them accessing social media in secret, Australia’s online safety regulator has warned.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, this month said the Coalition would ban under 16s from social media within 100 days should they win the next election. The Albanese government is undertaking a $6.5m trial of age assurance technology and is assessing at what age children should be able to access social media as part of a wide-ranging parliamentary inquiry on social media and Australian society.

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Nuclear confusion: the Coalition’s power plan is becoming less and less clear

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The Peter Dutton-led opposition is seeking a mandate to pursue nuclear energy, but details are in short supply

The Coalition’s nuclear plan is becoming less – not more – clear.

The shadow climate change and energy minister, Ted O’Brien, now says there will be more than one nuclear reactor at each of the Coalition’s seven nominated sites, but he can’t say exactly how many.

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Coalition reveals plan for independent authority to rule on nuclear power plant output

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Ted O’Brien says Labor must respect mandate for nuclear if opposition wins election, but will not say if Coalition will drop policy if Labor reelected

The shadow energy minister, Ted O’Brien, has revealed an independent authority would determine how much nuclear power is produced at each of its seven proposed sites, despite the Coalition claiming it would set the proportion of nuclear in the national energy mix.

On Sunday, O’Brien urged Labor to respect that if the Coalition wins the next election, it arguably has a mandate for nuclear power, but then refused to commit to the opposition dropping the policy if it loses the poll, due by 2025.

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Victoria’s Landcare groups have 60,000 volunteers – but will there be funds to support them?

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The volunteer environment network says lack of money is stifling the growth of local groups despite an increase in interest on the ground

Lyn Heenan’s involvement with Landcare began almost 40 years ago, when her late father, Paul, joined the new movement in the 1980s to get rid of rabbits that had been eating their way through the Pyrenees region in western Victoria.

It was shortly after then conservation minister Joan Kirner had launched the initiative alongside the Victorian Farmers Federation at the tiny locality of Winjallock in 1986.

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