Category Archives: Australia news

NSW man ordered to stop posing as a paramedic and providing health services without qualifications

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Andreas Pantziaros given prohibition order from NSW Health Care Complaints Commission after purporting to be a paramedic

A man who wore a uniform, drove a vehicle closely resembling an ambulance and charged for emergency health services he was not qualified to perform has been deemed a risk to public health and safety.

The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission has handed down a permanent prohibition order against Andreas Pantziaros for offering health services via his company Medic Corp Ambulance.

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Australia news live: Dutton suggests Coalition won’t provide 2030 emissions target before election5; Qld state budget announcement today

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Opposition leader says Coalition will ‘make our announcements in relation to our targets in due course’. Follow today’s news headlines live

Murray Watt says the opposition has “started the new climate wars” after Barnaby Joyce and Keith Pitt, two senior Nationals, called for Australia to pull out of the Paris agreement. You can read more on this from Karen Middleton below:

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Watt said:

We’re back to the same old climate wars in the Coalition. I saw overnight that [Joyce and Pitt] openly called for the Coalition to pull out of the Paris agreement. They’ve spent the last couple of days trying to paper over the cracks in the Coalition, saying that they can withdraw the target without withdrawing from the agreement. Now it’s out there in the open for everyone to see. And you can set your clock by Barnaby Joyce causing new climate wars within the Coalition. It’s seem like we’re back to the bad old days.

We’re on track to get to 42%, which is only 1% short of the 43% target.

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Drowned women were picknicking when freak wave swept them from rocks in Kurnell, Sydney police say

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Pair could not be revived and a third woman is recovering in hospital after tragedy in Kurnell in Sutherland shire

Two women picnicking in Sydney’s south drowned after a freak wave swept them off rocks and out to sea, authorities believe.

A third woman also swept from the rock shelf is recovering in hospital.

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‘He knew he had murdered them’: Greg Lynn covered up campers’ deaths to conceal his crimes, court hears

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Closing arguments begin in trial of former pilot, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill and Carol Clay

The only reasonable explanation for a former Jetstar pilot to cover up the deaths of two elderly campers in the Victorian high country was because “he knew he had murdered them”, the state’s supreme court has heard.

Gregory Stuart Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, at a remote camping site in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.

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Bonza administrators sack airline’s staff ahead of announcement about its future

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Employees voiced frustrations at how the administration process had been conducted, sources say

Bonza appears almost certain to be wound up after the administrators determining the troubled airline’s future terminated its staff.

Guardian Australia understands administrators from the firm Hall Chadwick told staff during a meeting on Tuesday they had been sacked.

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Low-flying drones could disrupt whale migration off Australia’s east coast, experts warn

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In high-density places such as Sydney many drones may hover over an animal at once, amplifying disturbance pressure

As whales migrate up Australia’s east coast in the coming months, drones are hot on their tails. But experts are warning that low-flying drones seeking a viral shot can disrupt the whales’ migration patterns and may even place their mating season at risk.

Grace Russell, a PhD candidate at Southern Cross University who studies marine mammals with drones, said whales had been known to exhibit disturbance behaviours when drones were flown near them at low altitudes.

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Egg farmers say supply not at risk from bird flu after Coles imposes two-carton limit on shoppers

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Supermarket’s restriction applies everywhere except WA as more than 500,000 chickens euthanised due to avian influenza

Egg farmers have rushed to reassure consumers that there is no shortage of eggs after the supermarket chain Coles announced a two-carton limit in response to the avian influenza outbreak in Victoria.

The highly pathogenic H7N3 strain of bird flu has been detected on four farms in western Victoria, and another highly pathogenic strain, H7N9, has been detected at a fifth farm. More than half a million chickens have been euthanised in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.

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Barnaby Joyce and Keith Pitt call on Coalition to abandon Paris agreement as Albanese says Dutton ‘all negativity and no plan’

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Former Nationals leader says ‘aspirations have to take a secondary position to the economic reality’ after Peter Dutton said he would oppose government’s targets

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and Morrison cabinet colleague Keith Pitt have called for the Coalition to abandon the Paris global climate change agreement and related emissions reduction targets, as the prime minister accused opposition leader Peter Dutton of walking away from climate action.

Dutton has said he would oppose the government’s target of a 43% cut to 2005-level emissions by 2030, telling the Australian newspaper there was “no sense in signing up to targets you don’t have any prospect of achieving”.

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Two women dead after being swept off rocks near Kurnell on Sydney coast

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Emergency services called to water after reports three women swept from rocks into ocean in the Sutherland Shire

Two women have died after being swept from the rocks on Sydney’s coast.

Emergency services were called to the scene at about 4.30pm on Monday after reports three women had been swept from the rocks into the ocean near Kurnell in the Sutherland Shire.

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Vivid needs better crowd management, says Chris Minns after bottlenecks cause ‘near-miss incident’

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Crowds attending drone show at Sydney’s winter light festival feared crowd crush and were left feeling trapped and panicked

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has conceded organisers need to “do better” after the crowd at Vivid’s drone show were left feeling trapped and panicked, with one expert describing it as a “near-miss incident”.

The first drone show as part of Sydney’s annual winter light festival drew enormous crowds to Circular Quay, where bottlenecks at the exits left thousands of people trapped and fearing a crowd crush on Saturday night.

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Queensland premier says ‘no update’ on anti-discrimination reforms – as it happened

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Brisbane Christian school issues apology two years after gender contracts

A Pentecostal Christian school has expressed regret for introducing a controversial student gender and sexuality contract two years ago.

We regret any distress or concern which was caused to students, parents and guardians of students or prospective students of the college.

We are working closely with all of our suppliers to ensure eggs remain available for our customers and we are providing support to the industry in responding to the Avian Flu cases in Victoria.

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‘Molly’s death was preventable’: premier says NSW must learn from mistakes after Ticehurst family speaks out

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Chris Minns says review of Molly Ticehurst’s interactions with government agencies will be provided to her family and the public

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has vowed the state will learn from “anything that has gone wrong” in the lead-up to Molly Ticehurst’s “preventable” death after her parents called for changes to a government program they said gave her “false hope” of home safety in the fortnight before she died.

Molly’s parents, Kate and Tony Ticehurst, would be provided with a report detailing the interactions their daughter had with NSW government agencies and service providers, Minns pledged, after they alleged she was promised security upgrades to her home that were not delivered before she died.

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In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

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Statue of King George V beheaded in Melbourne on King’s birthday holiday

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Police called to Kings Domain Monday morning to find head removed and paint thrown at monument

A statue of King George V has been beheaded and covered in red paint in the latest attack on colonial monuments in Victoria.

Police were called to the statue in Melbourne’s Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue just after 9am on Monday.

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More transparency needed on exports to Israel after Greens ‘exploited’ information vacuum, Labor says

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Defence industry minister says ‘social division and damage’ led government to rethink position on releasing information

The Albanese government has conceded it was forced to release more details about defence exports to Israel by a growing awareness that an information vacuum was being “exploited” and allowing misinformation to spread.

The defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, said the “level of social division and damage to our community has caused us to rethink the level of transparency needed”.

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Child protection department preparing for ‘likely transfer’ of powers to Indigenous Victorians under treaty

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Department expects ‘extensive’ changes to result from state government’s negotiations with First Peoples’ Assembly later this year, documents say

The Victorian department responsible for child protection and housing is preparing for a “likely transfer” of powers to First Nations groups as a result of treaties that will soon be negotiated with the government.

The Department of Fairness, Families and Housing (DFFH) is looking for an organisation to provide training to staff to “increase readiness for treaty”, according to tender documents seen by Guardian Australia.

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One in four cases before NSW local courts last year related to domestic violence, data reveals

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Average time taken to finalise domestic family violence matters in local courts balloons to 266 days, as legal services cry out for more funding

A quarter of all matters before local courts in New South Wales last year were related to domestic violence, new data shows, as community legal services warn of a critical lack in funding to help victim-survivors seek justice.

Data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar) showed 26% of matters finalised in local courts in 2023 were related to domestic violence, up from 20% in 2019.

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King’s birthday honours list 2024: from a nun who spent 26 days outside parliament to ‘Australia’s job queen’

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Refugee advocate Sister Jane Keogh, rich lister Sarina Russo, Asio chief Mike Burgess and ex-premiers Dan Andrews and Mark McGowan among award recipients

Two former state premiers, a veteran refugee advocate and one of Australia’s richest women are among the hundreds of Australians to receive awards in this year’s King’s birthday honours.

While there are plenty of notable names sprinkled among the 737 Australians recognised, the governor general, David Hurley, noted that “the vast majority” are those quietly making a huge impact in their communities.

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Outgoing federal Labor MP backs Palestinian-Australian to replace her in Melbourne seat of Calwell

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Maria Vamvakinou announces she will quit politics at next federal poll and throws support behind former adviser Basem Abdo

Veteran Labor MP Maria Vamvakinou has announced she will end her political career at the next federal election and has backed a prominent member of the Palestinian-Australian community to replace her.

Vamvakinou, the member for Calwell in Melbourne’s outer north-west, has told the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, she will step down at the upcoming poll due by the middle of 2025.

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Peter Costello resigns as chairman of Nine Entertainment ‘effective immediately’

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Former federal treasurer stands down days after he was accused of assaulting a News Corp journalist at Canberra airport

Peter Costello has resigned as chairman of Nine Entertainment “effective immediately” days after the former federal treasurer was accused of assaulting a News Corp journalist at Canberra airport.

Costello said in a statement on Sunday evening: “The board has been supportive through the events of the last month and last few days in particular. But going forward, I think they need a new chair to unite them around a fresh vision and someone with the energy to lead to that vision for the next decade.”

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Labor urged to step up pressure on Israel – as it happened

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Coleman denies double standard over deportation direction

Coleman is being interrogated about his actions as immigration minister relating to direction 79, which was cited by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in “a number of cases” to justify allowing those with criminal convictions remain in Australia.

I’m not familiar with the specific examples.

I don’t agree at all. I made it stronger. That’s the decision I made. The decision that Andrew Giles made was, how do we ensure that people who would otherwise go back to New Zealand get to stay in Australia? That was a shameful decision and that’s why he sought to reverse it in direction 110. But he still kept the connection to the Australian community as a primary consideration, which is the whole problem with direction 99 in the first place. These guys have no idea how to manage the immigration system. That’s why we have seen such terrible results.

I’m very comfortable. We have to cut immigration.

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