Category Archives: Australia news

NSW government extends life of Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station by two years to 2027

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Deal struck with Origin Energy, owner of 2.88-gigawatt Eraring plant near Lake Macquarie, to limit risk of electricity shortages as renewables come online

Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station will remain operational for at least two more years after the New South Wales government signed a deal with its owner, Origin Energy, in an attempt to limit the risk of electricity shortages until more renewables are built.

The agreement, announced on Thursday, involves NSW taxpayers underwriting the 2.88-gigawatt Eraring plant near Lake Macquarie to keep generating power beyond the scheduled closure date of August 2025 Origin set two years ago.

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News Corp’s Rebekah Brooks joins Lachlan Murdoch in Sydney ahead of major Australian newspaper restructure

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Staff brace for significant cuts as media company prepares to make moves to counter decline of print and slow advertising market

Lachlan Murdoch has been joined in Sydney by the News Corp UK boss, Rebekah Brooks, and global chief, Robert Thomson, ahead of the announcement of a major restructure of the Australian newspapers next week.

Guardian Australia understands Rupert Murdoch’s right-hand man, Thomson, Lachlan and Brooks held meetings in Sydney on Tuesday with News Corp’s local chief, Michael Miller, and others to sign off on the transformation of the company.

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‘Insidious and unsavoury’: how private debt collectors push vulnerable Australians to breaking point

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Victims say they have been subjected to constant phone calls, harassment of friends and family members – and even misleading and false threats

The debt collector’s calls had driven Zach Fakhri to the edge.

It had only been six weeks since the personal trainer received the bill for an ambulance trip, taken after he sustained significant injuries while intervening in a fight between his two dogs.

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Know your rights: what to do if you receive a call from a debt collector

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As the cost-of-living crisis drives more people to financial stress, it helps to understand the rules that cover debt collecting

If you have ever received a call from a private debt collector, perhaps demanding payment for an overdue bill you barely remember, you will know that it can feel daunting and rife with potentially serious consequences.

The best way to protect yourself in such a situation, particularly with the cost-of-living crisis driving more and more Australians to financial stress, is to understand your rights and the rules governing the way debt collectors can behave.

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Use, or threaten to use, violence or physical force against a debtor.

Adopt an aggressive, threatening or intimidating manner.

Use abusive, offensive, obscene or discriminatory language.

Comment on a debtor’s position, physical appearance, intelligence or other characteristics or circumstances.

Embarrass or shame a debtor.

Make disrespectful or demeaning remarks about a debtor’s character or financial situation in life.

Mislead a debtor about the nature or extent of a debt, or the consequences of non-payment.

Pressure a debtor by misleading, harassing, threatening or putting pressure on a debtor’s spouse or partner, or a member of a debtor’s family.

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Inquest hears claim spiritual leaders conspired to mislead police about Jarrad Antonovich’s death after ‘kambo’ ritual

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Antonovich died during a six-day retreat in NSW’s northern rivers after he took a cocktail of alternative ‘medicines’

A group of spiritual leaders at a retreat in the northern rivers conspired to mislead police about the death of a man who had just taken a cocktail of alternative “medicines”, a Bryon Bay courtroom has heard.

The inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich also heard that a Brazilian religious tradition fusing Christianity with Amazonian shamanic practices – including the drinking of hallucinogenic tea ayahuasca – gained increasing sway over an Australian community known as the “Church of Ayahuasca” in the lead-up to that fatal ceremony.

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Charlise Mutten murder trial: alleged killer’s ‘strange’ behaviour before nine-year-old went missing

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Neighbour tells NSW court of conversations with murder accused Justin Stein shortly before schoolgirl disappeared

A man accused of murdering his partner’s daughter told a neighbour he was digging for “treasure” shortly before she went missing, a jury has heard.

“It seemed strange,” the neighbour told a court on Wednesday.

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Greg Lynn trial: Carol Clay ‘did not seem bothered’ her partner Russell Hill was married, court told

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Former Jetstar pilot has pleaded not guilty to murdering Hill and Clay, who court hears were having an affair

Carol Clay “did not seem bothered” her partner, Russell Hill, remained married and “liked the situation”, a Victorian supreme court trial has heard.

Former airline pilot Gregory Stuart Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Hill and Clay in the state’s alpine region in March 2020.

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Dutton won’t rule out a Coalition government quitting ICC – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Chris Bowen says nuclear energy is ‘slow, expensive and risky’

Chris Bowen is also asked about the latest CSIRO report released today, showing electricity from nuclear power in Australia would be at least 50% more expensive than solar and wind.

CSIRO and Aemo have looked at large-scale nuclear for the first time. It finds that that would be far more expensive than renewables, despite claims from the opposition – quite inappropriate attacks on CSIRO and Aemo from the opposition, that they hadn’t counted the cost of transmission. The cost of transmission and storage is counted, and still renewables comes out as the cheapest.

And of course, CSIRO points out that nuclear will be … very slow to build. So nuclear is slow and expensive and is risky when it comes to the reliability of Australia’s energy system.

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Medical cannabis: cross-party committee says Australia needs new roadside impairment test

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Researchers have questioned whether existing drug-driving laws can be relied on as an accurate measure of driver impairment

Greens senator and medicinal cannabis user Peter Whish-Wilson said the federal government had a “duty” to fund research into drug driving impairment levels, as leaders grapple with how to balance existing laws with medicinal THC use.

The joint committee on law enforcement has looked at the “challenges and opportunities” in tackling the nation’s drug problem, identifying the mismatch between medicinal cannabis use and existing drug-driving laws as an issue needing to be addressed.

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Mother of murdered two-year-old shares grief over ‘evil’ act as NSW health minister condemns email to killer’s colleagues

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Email sent to NSW Health staff remembering James Harrison as a ‘wonderful colleague and beloved friend’ labelled ‘unacceptable’

The mother of a two-year-old killed in a suspected murder-suicide by his father has expressed grief at the “evil and cowardly act of violence”, while the New South Wales health minister condemned an email describing the killer as a “wonderful colleague and beloved friend” .

The bodies of 38-year-old James Harrison and his two-year-old son, Rowan, were found three days ago in a unit in East Lismore, after the child’s mother, Sophie Roome, raised concerns after Harrison failed to hand over the child after an access visit. Police suspect the deaths were a murder-suicide.

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New details of Wieambilla police shootings revealed in case of US conspiracy theorist Donald Day Jr

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Premillennialism advocate who has pleaded not guilty to five federal charges in Arizona allegedly posted videos saying family who killed officers were ‘martyrs’

An American man allegedly told the family who fatally shot two Australian police officers he sent his “comfort and assurance” before they died in a gunfight with a tactical response team.

United States prosecutors have unveiled new details about the December 2022 shootings at Wieambilla, west of Brisbane, as part of their case against Arizona man Donald Day Jr.

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‘The place was a mess’: Australians arrive home after evacuation from New Caledonia

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More than 100 Australians and other tourists were airlifted to Brisbane amid deadly riots and unrest in the Pacific nation

More than 100 Australians and other tourists have landed in Brisbane from New Caledonia after the government arranged two repatriation flights due to the worsening security situation in the Pacific island nation.

In a statement on X, foreign minister Penny Wong said 108 Australians and others had arrived back in Australia on Tuesday night on the government assisted-departure flights after riots in the former French territory left six dead and a trail of looted shops, torched cars and road barricades.

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Macron to visit New Caledonia to ‘set up mission’ after deadly riots

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French leader to leave for archipelago on Tuesday night with intention of restoring ‘calm and order’

The French president will travel to the Pacific island of New Caledonia on Tuesday, just over a week after riots erupted in the French overseas territory leaving six dead and hundreds injured.

The unrest over plans for an electoral overhaul has resulted in dozens of shops and businesses being looted and burned, with cars torched and road barricades set up. A state of emergency and curfew remain in place, with army reinforcements.

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Popular car uses 31% more fuel than advertised while other makes fare poorly in Australian efficiency test

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Eight of 21 cars tested underperformed against their marketed efficiency rates, Australian Automobile Association says

Cars driven by Australians are consistently consuming more fuel than their marketed efficiencies, investigations have found, with the latest tranche of “real-world” testing finding one car used 31% more petrol than its advertised rate.

The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) testing – funded by the federal government – found that eight of the 21 cars examined in its latest round of testing consumed more petrol in real road driving conditions compared with the efficiency rates calculated by their manufacturers in laboratories.

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Replicas of weight loss drugs like Ozempic to be banned in Australian crackdown

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Mark Butler says pharmacies selling medication similar to brand-name weight loss drugs increases risk of safety issues

The government will crack down on replicas of Ozempic and other weight loss drugs, closing a loophole that allowed pharmacies to make and sell them to about 20,000 Australians.

Widespread and ongoing shortages of the brand-name drugs from pharmacies – especially for weight loss, as pharmacists prioritise stock for those with diabetes – have left patients turning to compounding pharmacies, which are making their own version of the drugs en masse.

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Claims for psychological injury at work surge in NSW at triple the rate of physical harm

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Exclusive: SafeWork NSW promises to crack down on big businesses who fail to protect the wellbeing of staff

Claims for psychological injury at work are increasing at a rate far outstripping physical injury claims in New South Wales, prompting a warning from the state’s safety watchdog for businesses to expect compliance checks and prosecution if practices don’t improve.

Physical injury claims rose 11% over the four years to mid-2023, while claims of psychological damage jumped 30% over the same period, according to the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (Sira).

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Former debt collector reveals Australian industry’s dark secrets

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Sean Letcher believes the average citizen would be horrified by what really goes on behind the call centre doors

Sean Letcher is a shadow of his former self.

Fifteen long years in the debt collection game, spending his days hounding people for unpaid bills and loans, left him shattered.

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Minister condemns rogue charities tricking elderly Australians into automatic donations

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Andrew Leigh to tell charities sector ‘accept that change is necessary’ to ensure accountability, trust and confidence

Charity fundraisers who trick vulnerable people into making automatically deducted donations are being warned they face a crackdown as part of the federal government’s overhaul of privacy laws.

In a speech to the Fundraising Institute to be delivered on Wednesday, the assistant minister for charities, Andrew Leigh, will tell the not-for-profit sector it must improve its donation solicitation practices because rogue, exploitative operators are undermining public trust in its work.

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Australia news live: Telstra announces 2,800 job cuts; mediation talks in Reynolds and Higgins defamation case

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Liberal senator, and former political staffer expected to attempt again to resolve a pair of high-profile defamation cases. Follow today’s news headlines live

A High Court decision in Britain to allow Julian Assange to appeal his extradition to the US is a “small win” for the WikiLeaks founder but he should be freed now, the union for Australia’s journalists says.

As AAP reports, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance remains concerned there is no certainty an appeal will be successful, which would mean Assange could still be tried for espionage in the US.

Tonight’s decision by the High Court is a small win for Julian Assange and for the cause of media freedom worldwide.

MEAA welcomes the decision of the High Court, but we remain concerned that there is no guarantee of success.

We call on the Australian government to keep up the pressure on the US to drop the charges so Julian Assange can be reunited with his family.

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Australian school students most bullied among comparable English-speaking countries, report finds

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One in six students say they have been made fun of by peers as experts warn classroom disorder is leading to poorer school outcomes

Australian school students are bullied at higher rates than other comparable English speaking countries, a new report has found, with experts warning classroom disorder is leading to poorer school outcomes.

The Australian Council for Educational Research (Acer) on Tuesday released its second report interrogating the latest data from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) test.

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