Category Archives: Australia news

Artwork featuring Christ overlaid with Looney Tunes characters removed by Sydney council after threats of violence

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Online protest claimed the work mocked the Christian religion and Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun called for it to be taken down

A Sydney council has removed a “playful” artwork of Jesus Christ overlaid with Looney Tunes characters after a torrent of online abuse.

Sydney artist Philjames’ work, Jesus Speaks to the Daughters of Jerusalem, was removed from the Blake Art Prize exhibition at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre after fierce criticism was directed at the artist and gallery on Friday, just two days before the eight-week exhibition ended.

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Teenager felt ‘scared and anxious’ before alleged bucks party rape

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Trio of men, including the groom-to-be, are accused of raping three women at Airbnb in Newcastle in 2022. They have pleaded not guilty

Several men who allegedly engaged in group sex with teenage women during a bucks party weekend either knew they did not consent or were reckless to that fact, a jury has been told.

Maurice Hawell, 30, Marius Hawell, 22, and Andrew David, 30, are accused of committing sexual crimes against three teenagers at a rented Newcastle apartment in February 2022.

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Police impose curfew on Alice Springs again after more violence

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As Naidoc week celebrations begin, residents subjected to three-night order after violent assaults, brawl involving 80 people and knife attack

Residents in Alice Springs will be subjected to another curfew after a series of violent assaults, a brawl involving 80 people and a knife attack.

Northern Territory police issued a three-night public social disorder declaration on Monday for parts of the city from 10pm to 6am.

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Half of Australians in the five largest cities live too far from public transport to ditch cars

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Climate Council analysis finds 7 million people living in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide face huge barriers to public transport

One in two residents of Australia’s five largest cities do not live within walking distance of public transport that is frequent enough for them to ditch their reliance on cars, new analysis has found, with lower-income suburbs worse off in all but one city.

The Climate Council analysis has revealed that more than 7 million people living in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide face huge barriers in choosing any transport option besides driving, leaving them with little choice but to consistently spend more money getting to work and moving around in general.

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University of Sydney students and staff blast new ‘draconian’ protest crackdown

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Policy demands three days’ notice for demonstrations and approval for use of megaphones or putting up posters

Academics and students at the University of Sydney have blasted the vice-chancellor for a “draconian” protest crackdown that requires explicit permission for megaphones to be used or posters to be put up on campus.

The policy, quietly introduced last week, demands three days’ notice for demonstrations to be held and approval for putting up “materials, banners or structures” on campus, using megaphones or amplifiers, erecting temporary structures and using cooking equipment.

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Why Guardian Australia is investigating Exclusive Brethren schools

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The sect’s OneSchool Global network has received generous support from Australian taxpayers while tightly controlling students and discouraging tertiary study

In the early 1990s, the Exclusive Brethren – now called the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church – set up its own private schooling system.

Now known as the OneSchool Global network, the Brethren schools have 120 campuses across 20 different countries teaching almost 10,000 children. In Australia, the schools operate across six states with 31 separate campuses serving their followers.

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Sydney house fire: three children dead, father in custody after alleged triple homicide

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Emergency services were called to a home in Lalor Park at 1am on Sunday

Three children are dead and their father is in custody after a house fire in Sydney’s west, in what police are treating as a domestic-related multiple homicide.

Emergency services were called to the home in Lalor Park at 1am on Sunday, which acting Supt Jason Pietruszka said was “engulfed by flames” on arrival.

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Two bodies found on beach at Little Bay in Sydney’s south

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Neither person formally identified as of Sunday afternoon, NSW police said in a statement

Two bodies have been found on a beach in Sydney’s south following a search and rescue operation.

Emergency services began searching Little Bay Beach at about 11.10am on Sunday morning after a member of the public found personal items unattended on the shore, and called police.

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Queensland LNP criticised over ‘cruel’ plan to sentence some youth offenders as adults

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Policy unveiled by leader David Crisafulli on Sunday means those convicted of crimes such as manslaughter and robbery would face regular criminal code

Queensland’s top social services body has criticised a Queensland LNP proposal to sentence many youth criminals as adults, saying it is “cruel”, “populist” and ineffective.

On Sunday, the opposition leader, David Crisafulli, used the party convention to announce the “adult crime, adult time” policy, which he said would act as a deterrence by subjecting children to much longer potential sentences behind bars.

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Australia news live: Albanese calls Starmer to congratulate UK’s new PM on ‘emphatic victory’; de Minaur celebrates ‘lucky’ Wimbledon ride

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Follow the day’s news live

Mehreen Faruqi to appear on Insiders

Deputy Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi will be speaking to ABC Insiders host David Speers this morning.

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Book on Aukus ‘fiasco’ says decision to embrace pact will ‘haunt’ Labor for years

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Andrew Fowler’s book reveals one of Australia’s most important requirements for its submarines was the ability to work alongside the US in South China Sea

One of Australia’s most important requirements for its new submarines is the ability to work alongside the United States in the South China Sea, a new book discloses.

The book by Andrew Fowler, a former investigative journalist for the ABC’s Four Corners and Foreign Correspondent programs, also predicts that Labor’s rush to embrace the Aukus pact “will haunt them for years to come”.

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International students left feeling like ‘cash cows’ after Albanese government raises visa fees

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Surprise increase makes Australian visa application fee among most expensive in the world, as new survey finds rising costs putting prospective students off

International students say the Australian government is making them feel like “cash cows” and sending a clear message they are unwelcome after home affairs more than doubled the price of visa applications overnight.

The non-refundable visa fee rose from $710 to $1,600 without prior warning on Monday, making it one of the most expensive in the world and well in excess of competitors New Zealand (A$343), Canada (A$164), the UK (A$932) and the US (A$277).

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Tesla won’t free up use of its batteries, leaving owners unable to reap full benefits

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Exclusive: Experts say Tesla should be excluded from rebates for disabling function on its batteries in Australia that would let users alter power usage remotely

Australian owners of Tesla batteries could miss out on lucrative revenue streams because the US energy giant restricts the devices’ ability to interact locally with third parties and authorities continue to dither over setting and enforcing standards.

An increasing number of products from air conditioners to hot water heaters and solar panels can be controlled remotely, and consumers can sign deals rewarding them for altering power usage during peak load periods, including supplying electricity to grid.

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Australia facing ‘prolonged’ wet weather as three separate rain bands and storms hit

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Bureau of Meteorology forecasts ‘showery weekend’ across the entire east coast of New South Wales and Queensland

Australia is set for more wet weather in the coming days with three separate rain bands forecast to end the recent south-east cold snap.

Angus Hines, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said it would be a “showery weekend” across the entire east coast of New South Wales and Queensland.

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Woman’s body found at Melbourne waste management facility

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Homicide squad detectives are investigating the death, which is being treated as suspicious

The body of a woman has been found at a waste management facility in Melbourne’s north.

Workers made the grim discovery while moving green waste at the site on Cooper Street in Epping on Wednesday.

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Amber Haigh forced to change locks on flat after alleged killer broke in, court told

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Counsellor tells court she took file notes that Haigh expressed concerns for her own safety and the future safety of her baby

Disappeared teenager Amber Haigh feared losing her baby to the man now accused of her murder, and was forced to change the locks on her apartment when he broke in to steal the infant’s cot, a court has heard.

Haigh was a 19-year-old mother when she vanished from the New South Wales Riverina in July 2002, leaving behind her five-month-old son.

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ACT moves to protect dingoes after genetic study into animals in Namadgi national park

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There’s officially just one classification for ‘wild dogs/dingoes’, which lists them as pests

The Australian Capital Territory has taken steps to recognise dingoes as a distinct species in need of protection after DNA research found a population of up to 400 pure dingoes in Namadgi national park.

But farmers worry the change will hamper their efforts to protect their livestock.

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Fatima Payman’s exit reveals ‘chasm’ between Labor and traditional base over Palestine, party insiders say

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Exclusive: Senator’s resignation disappointing to ‘thousands of rank-and-file ALP and union members and Labor supporters’

Labor’s Friends of Palestine group has warned of “a chasm” between the Albanese government and “huge swathes of the party’s traditional base” as it described Fatima Payman’s resignation as a symptom of a bigger problem.

A day after the first-term senator quit Labor, to remain in the upper house as an independent, pro-Palestine campaigners complained that Payman had been placed “in an untenable position” by the federal leadership team.

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What it means for patients if St Vincent’s and NIB fail to reach a funding deal

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The hospital network says it will walk away from its contract with the private health insurer in three months if a fairer agreement can’t be reached. Has this situation happened before?

The clock is ticking for thousands of patients after Australia’s largest not-for-profit healthcare provider, St Vincent’s, announced it would end its current agreement with health insurer NIB if a fair funding deal could not be reached before 3 October.

The chief executive of NIB, Mark Fitzgibbon, says he hopes negotiations resume, but St Vincent’s maintains the insurer needs to come to the table during the notice period and put forward a proposal that reflects the rising costs of healthcare.

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Abolished cashless debit card still divides, two years after Labor ordered its demise

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Some users reported ‘poor decision making’ and financial coercion while others experienced positive outcomes such as reduced discrimination

The majority of past cashless debit card users have said the ending of the program was a positive step that reduced stigmatisation and discrimination but some reported it led to “poor decision making” and financial coercion once the controversial scheme was abolished, a review has found.

The review by the University of Adelaide found reports of alcohol use and gambling had increased in most of the areas where the card was formerly used. But it noted “no causal statements can be issued” about whether the card’s abolition was to blame, saying other factors, like local trends and the cost-of-living crisis, could be at play.

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