Category Archives: Australia news

Centrelink mutual obligations: budget changes tipped to prevent 1m jobseeker suspensions a year

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Announcements are ‘good steps’ to reduce harms caused by employment services system but fall short of the overhaul required, advocates say

The Albanese government will relax some of the requirements imposed job seekers as a condition for their income support, with a suite of changes expected to prevent around 1m welfare payment suspensions every year.

Changes to the mutual obligations scheme, contained in the federal budget, will ease the rules that govern when a person’s payments are suspended, meaning job seekers will have a five-day grace period – rather than 48 hours – to account for missing employment services appointments and other activities before their income support is cut off.

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Snakes, donkey heads, a dead cow: the odd things found in recycling – and how they should be disposed of

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Most Australians don’t know what to do with their dead pets, vapes and lightbulbs, a waste survey has found

While Australia may be a pet-loving nation, a majority seem perplexed at what to do when a beloved animal dies.

Survey results commissioned by the waste management company Veolia show 80% of Australians do not know how to dispose of dead pets, with 38% putting them in the bin and 42% not knowing what to do at all.

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Dfat accused of attempting to censor official history of military operations in Timor-Leste

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Exclusive: Bureaucratic process of ‘clearing’ book has dragged on for almost three years with historians arguing obstruction ‘amounts to censorship’

Australia’s foreign affairs department (Dfat) is refusing to approve the publication of an official history of military operations in Timor-Leste until references are removed that could embarrass officials and diplomats, leading to accusations of “censorship”.

The finished manuscript was presented for vetting 30 months ago and Dfat is the only agency of nine in the declassification process not yet largely or wholly satisfied it does not pose a risk to national security, defence or international relations.

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Sydney council reverses ban on same-sex parenting books after fiery meeting

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Cumberland councillors voted 13-2 to revoke the controversial ban amid angry scenes featuring crowds of rival protesters

A controversial ban on same-sex parenting books at libraries in part of western Sydney has been overturned at a marathon late-night meeting after large crowds of protesters clashed outside the council chambers.

Cumberland city councillors voted 13-2 in front of a crowded public gallery on Wednesday night to revoke the ban, two weeks after it was introduced.

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Budget 2024 live updates: reaction and fallout from the Australia federal budget – latest news

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Treasurer grilled on inflation and migration after National Press Club address. Follow today’s news and 2024 federal budget reaction live

Jim Chalmers said the government didn’t create a new system for the energy payments (so everyone gets it) because it is done through the energy retailers, who don’t have people’s income data.

It’s not a cash payment paid directly to you – instead, it is paid through the energy sector, which takes money off your bill. In this case, $75 a quarter.

I don’t see it in political terms. I think primarily the motivation of this budget is to help people who are doing it tough. More help is on the way for people who are doing it tough via the tax system, via their energy bills and with rent assistance and cheaper medicines and in other ways as well. That’s our primary motivation.

Once you go beyond providing this to people on pensions and payments, you have to design a whole new system in order to create a new distinction. We are providing this energy bill relief to every household. We think that’s a good way to help things make things easier. Some of the other measures are more targeted.

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Charlise Mutten murder trial hears weeping mother’s police call to report schoolgirl missing

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Kallista Mutten called triple zero to report daughter missing four days before nine-year-old’s body was found, NSW supreme court hears

Charlise Mutten’s crying mother said she had not seen her daughter for two days when she called police to report her missing several days before the young girl’s body was found.

Justin Laurens Stein, 33, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the schoolgirl on or around 12 January 2022, at Mount Wilson, in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

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ANU warns of potential breaches if pro-Palestinian encampments aren’t dismantled

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Comes after Deakin University similarly requested that student protesters remove camps

The Australian National University has become the second to request pro-Palestine students disband their on-campus encampments, as the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) backed the protesters.

On Wednesday morning, a small group of students attended a meeting with management at the ANU in Canberra, where they said they were advised to disband their camps by Friday or risk breaching the university’s code of conduct.

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William Crowther: controversial statue toppled in Hobart one night before removal decision due

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Controversial monument of a Tasmanian premier who beheaded the body of an Indigenous man damaged and graffitied

A controversial statue of William Crowther has been toppled in Franklin Square, Hobart, after its legs were cut through the night before a decision on its removal.

It was dumped face-down on the ground beside its podium, which was graffitied in red with the word “decolonize” and “what goes around”.

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Future Made in Australia: what’s in the $23bn package meant to create a ‘renewable energy superpower’

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Jim Chalmers’ budget didn’t answer all the questions about what projects will be funded but there is a lot more clarity now

The federal government has been talking up its Future Made in Australia (FMIA) policy in recent months and more detail was revealed in Tuesday night’s budget.

Here’s what we know so far.

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How it began v how it’s going: 2024 budget shows limits of financial forecasting

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Australia’s financials have generally improved compared with forecasts made a year ago but there are threats to the country’s outlook lurking

Financial forecasting is difficult at the best of times, let alone during a period marked by persistent inflation against a backdrop of global economic unease.

But forecasts still provide a framework for governments to build their policy and spending plans around. Australia’s financials have generally improved compared with forecasts made a year ago but there are more than a few threats to the country’s outlook lurking.

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Federal budget 2024 live updates: energy bill rebate and rent assistance boost confirmed ahead of Australian treasurer Jim Chalmers’s budget speech tonight – latest news

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Treasurer will be able to boast back-to-back surpluses when he speaks at 7.30pm tonight. Follow live updates today

Nick McKim said he agrees with EY chief economist, Cherelle Murphy, who says that you can look after people without impacting inflation by taking the money you are spending on people who don’t need it, and redirecting it to people who do. (Therefore it is the same pool of money, but targeted differently.)

McKim:

For example, you could end the massive tax breaks for property investors who own multiple investment properties then put in place a rent freeze and a rent cap, for example.

You could tax billionaires and CEOs on the basis of their wealth and you could use that revenue to raise income support, which would lift a large number of Australians out of the grinding poverty that they experience every day.

No, certainly not. I mean, what the surplus shows is that they’re prioritising their own political benefit over investing in the kind of programs that would provide genuine help to people who are really doing it tough at the moment.

So what you’re going to see in the budget tonight is that having talked up an absolute storm on things like climate change and on things like cost of living, Labor is simply not prepared to take the action necessary to respond to those challenges that the urgency and the scale that is required.

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NSW’s Cadia gold mine confirms groundwater affected by potentially toxic mining waste

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Local campaigners call for testing of nearby waterways but mine owner says potentially affected groundwater unlikely to ‘represent a risk’

A gold mining operation in the New South Wales’ central west has confirmed groundwater has been affected by potentially toxic mining waste.

The most recent Cadia Valley Operations annual review described an increase in arsenic concentrations in two decommissioned monitoring bores in the mining pit at Cadia Hill, attributed to tailings deposition, or discharge at the mine site. Indicators of seepage at the tailings storage facility were also detected.

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‘Not a significant possibility’ Chris Dawson innocent of his wife’s murder, court told

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Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC says judge was correct to convict Dawson who had a ‘possessive’ relationship with a teenager

Chris Dawson’s possessiveness of his teenage babysitter meant his claims of innocence after being convicted of murdering his wife should be rejected, a court has been told.

The 75-year-old is trying to overturn an August 2022 New South Wales supreme court murder verdict by Justice Ian Harrison, who found the ex-teacher killed his wife, Lynette, and disposed of her body in January 1982.

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Charlise Mutten murder trial: nine-year-old was ‘excited’ before fatal Christmas trip with alleged killer, jury told

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Schoolgirl once asked her grandfather if her alleged killer Justin Stein would make a good dad, NSW supreme court hears

Charlise Mutten was fond of her alleged killer and was excited to be spending Christmas with him and her mother before the fatal visit, a trial has been told.

Justin Laurens Stein, 33, is accused of murdering the schoolgirl on or around 12 January 2022 at Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

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Deakin University requests dismantling of pro-Palestine encampment as protesters pledge to stay

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Deputy vice-chancellor says Victorian university wants to ensure ‘safety, security and amenity of all campus users’ but protesters say request is ‘Orwellian’

Deakin University has become the first education institution in Australia to request students dismantle their pro-Palestine encampment, but protestors have vowed they will “not be moved”.

Pro-Palestine camps have spread to universities in every state in Australia after beginning at the University of Sydney almost three weeks ago. Last week, Victoria police wrote to university vice-chancellors requesting greater powers to shut down the encampments, adding that if they were allowed to keep growing there was a “strong likelihood of violence occurring between protest and counter-protest groups”.

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Australia put on La Niña watch by Bureau of Meteorology as Pacific sea surface temperatures cool

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Weather bureau says there is now a 50/50 chance of La Niña forming this year

Australia has been placed on La Niña watch by the Bureau of Meteorology with early signs the climate pattern linked to cooler and wetter conditions across most of the country could form later this year.

The bureau said there was now a 50/50 chance of La Niña forming this year with sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific steadily cooling since December.

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Trial of pilot Greg Lynn set to hear evidence over alleged murders of Victorian campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay

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Lawyers to open their case after Lynn, 57, pleaded not guilty to murdering the pair in March 2020

A jury is expected to begin hearing evidence in the double murder trial of Gregory Stuart Lynn in the Victorian supreme court on Tuesday.

Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill and Carol Clay in the state’s alpine region in March 2020.

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‘Long overdue’: ankle monitors and bail crackdown among NSW government’s proposed domestic violence law reforms

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Changes include reversing presumption of bail for anyone charged with the most serious domestic violence-related offences

Alleged serious domestic violence offenders will find it harder to get bail and will be fitted with ankle monitors if they are released as part of major legal reforms proposed by the New South Wales government.

The premier, Chris Minns, said the changes were “long overdue, targeted and will help keep women and children safer”.

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Australian man says border force made him hand over phone passcode by threatening to keep device indefinitely

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Tech entrepreneur who lives in the US says he has been held up at Sydney airport for hours three times in the past year

Australian Border Force officials forced an Australian-US dual national to hand over his passcodes to his phone by threatening to keep the device indefinitely and then searched it out of his view, the man has alleged.

Chris*, an Australian tech entrepreneur who lives in the US with his wife and children, said he has been held up at Sydney airport for hours three times in the past year during trips to visit his family, including most recently just over a week ago.

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Anglo American rejects new £34bn offer from mining rival BHP

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Australian company says FTSE 100-listed group’s board did not engage with its all-share approach

Anglo American has rejected a second takeover approach by its Australian rival BHP that values the London-listed mining company at £34bn.

BHP said Anglo’s board had not engaged with its offer, which came after an initial £31bn offer was also rejected last month. Anglo rejected the second offer on Monday, BHP said.

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