A snapped keel is believed to have caused the vessel to overturn off Lady Elliot Island near Gladstone, Queensland
One man is dead and two others have been winched to safety after their yacht capsized, triggering a major search and rescue operation off the central Queensland coast.
A snapped keel is believed to have caused the vessel to overturn off Lady Elliot Island near Gladstone early on Sunday.
Continue reading...Wang Wang and Fu Ni have lived at the city’s zoo for 15 years but are due to head home by the end of 2024
Li Qiang has announced a panda swap for Adelaide zoo, a diplomatic move long anticipated but timed to coincide with the first visit of a Chinese premier to Australia since 2017.
Making the announcement at the zoo, Li said two new giant pandas would replace Wang Wang and Fu Ni, who have lived at the zoo for 15 years as the only specimens of their kind in the southern hemisphere.
Continue reading...The current pair, Wang Wang and Fu Ni, will return to China this year. Follow the day’s news headlines
Labor ‘continuing to consult’ on Makarrata commission, Albanese says
Anthony Albanese says he will attend Arnhem Land’s Garma festival in August to “talk about a way forward” on Indigenous policy after the defeat of the voice referendum, keeping open the prospect of setting up a Makarrata commission to advance truth and treaty processes.
Treaty process is undergoing at the various states and that’s appropriate. With regard to Makarrata, we’re continuing to consult on those issues. said.
Indigenous leaders, of course, were very disappointed by the referendum result. I’ll attend Garma once again this year and sit down with people and talk about a way forward.
Continue reading...Comments come after opposition leader claims higher grocery prices are result of Labor ‘not taking into account gas and nuclear’
Penny Wong has warned that ditching 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets would lead to higher electricity prices as Peter Dutton foreshadowed an election campaign fought on energy policy.
The opposition leader told Sky News on Sunday that energy would be a “big difference between the two parties as we head into the next election”, a week after backing away from Australia’s legislated 2030 emissions target of a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels.
Continue reading...Coalition blunders have left countries locked in ‘permanent contest’ over Pacific, minister says
China’s second-most powerful leader has announced that the “twists and turns” in Australia-China relations are over – and invited Australian officials to pick a new pair of pandas for Adelaide’s zoo.
But Penny Wong chose to highlight the tensions that remain in the relationship before a series of talks with Premier Li Qiang, who arrived in Australia on Saturday evening and was met by protesters outside the zoo on Sunday.
Continue reading...‘Fun-loving’ former competitive surfer was well-known on NSW’s northern beaches
Police have charged a man with the murder of Sydney surfer Guy Haymes, days after his family appealed for information about the death of the “fun-loving” northern beaches identity.
Haymes, 59, a former competitive surfer affectionately known as “Creature”, was found with critical head injuries on 27 February, outside a unit complex on Pittwater Road at Manly.
Continue reading...But the government is being urged to move more quickly in outlining policy after failure of voice referendum
Anthony Albanese says he will attend Arnhem Land’s Garma festival in August to “talk about a way forward” on Indigenous policy after the defeat of the voice referendum, keeping open the prospect of setting up a Makarrata commission to advance truth and treaty processes.
But key advocates for the referendum have urged the government to move more quickly in outlining its new agenda, including honouring the prime minister’s election night pledge to implement the Uluru statement from the heart “in full”.
Continue reading...Jacinta Allan reveals Geelong will be set highest target for new homes, with City of Melbourne and Melton second and third
Melbourne’s CBD, the outer suburbs and the regional city of Geelong will shoulder the burden of new housing in Victoria, according to draft council targets set to be released by the state government.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, and planning minister, Sonya Kilkenny, will on Sunday announce their proposed housing targets for local government areas (LGA), which they say could lead to the construction of 2.5m new homes by 2051.
Continue reading...Treasurer Daniel Mookhey foreshadows more money for social and affordable housing while lamenting drop in state’s GST share
Housing will be the centrepiece of the New South Wales budget, with money for social and affordable homes, regional development and essential services to support growth across Sydney.
While the treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, acknowledged there was no quick fix for the crisis, he said he had been listening to experts who called for more homes to help those most in need and stem the brain drain from the state.
Continue reading...Pair of panda diplomats loaned to Adelaide zoo in 2009 are expected to return to China soon
After more than 15 years, the Chinese government is expected to announce that Australia’s imported gentle giants, Fu Ni and Wang Wang, will soon be replaced by a new duo.
Ahead of the Chinese premier Li Qiang’s visit to Adelaide this weekend, speculation has grown about the future of Fu Ni and Wang Wang, with Anthony Albanese remarking that his government is “pro-panda”, and the Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Simon Birmingham, stressing the importance of panda diplomacy “cultural exchange”.
Continue reading...Zone will be 20km off the coast and exclude areas significant for little penguin and for southern right whale migration
The federal government has given the green light to an offshore windfarm zone south of Sydney, making it Australia’s fourth such zone to be declared.
Announcing the project in the Illawarra on Saturday, the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, said the move would bring thousands of new jobs and help “power Australia’s clean energy future”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Last-minute decision comes as Civil Aviation Safety Authority says it is ‘engaging’ with airline on concerns rostering is leaving pilots fatigued
Virgin Australia has made a last-minute decision to delay putting a controversial pilots’ enterprise deal to vote, after outcry about its plan to cut days off and concerns that pilot rostering was nearing unsafe limits.
The decision comes as Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa) officials flagged they were aware of fatigue concerns over Virgin Australia’s pilot rostering after the Guardian revealed internal disquiet on the issue among senior pilots and frustration at what they felt was an inadequate response from management.
Continue reading...EPA refuses to name untreated sites but says all schools and hospitals have been cleaned as it continues criminal investigation into contamination
Dozens of contaminated sites in Sydney are yet to be cleaned up six months after asbestos was first discovered in mulch at a public park, as the New South Wales treasurer urges the environment regulator to “throw the book” at polluters.
The Environment Protection Authority is refusing to name the sites that are yet to be remediated as it continues its criminal investigation into the source of asbestos contamination in recycled garden mulch that was used widely across greater Sydney.
Continue reading...With one-third of drowning victims in Australia born outside the country, advocates say more funding is needed to reach diverse communities
As Supt Joe McNulty explained the circumstances behind the drowning of two women in Sydney, he said they hadn’t come from a “swimming background”.
That meant someone who was not a strong swimmer, or “wasn’t from a culture that taught you to swim early”, he explained.
Continue reading...Move comes after consumer watchdog found banks were using pricing strategies that were highly complex or took advantage of the tendency to set and forget
People will be alerted each time their interest rate moves and when promotional offers expire under a suite of changes aimed at prodding bank customers to snag a better deal.
The federal government plans to act on a number of recommendations from two Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reports that found bank customers could earn and save more if not for barriers stopping them switching to better offers.
Continue reading...Representative from Europe’s biggest economy and key player in global climate talks says deep emissions cuts by 2030 ‘essential’ to limit climate heating to 1.5C
Germany’s climate envoy has dismissed claims the Paris agreement is only about reaching net zero emissions by 2050, warning that deep cuts by 2030 are “essential” and scientific evidence shows “this is the critical decade” to act on global heating.
Australia’s opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has refused to commit to a 2030 emissions reduction target prior to the next national election, prompting claims from Labor, the Greens and independents that the Coalition isn’t serious about acting on the climate crisis.
Continue reading...BoM says south-east can expect cold days and frosty nights with below-average temperatures continuing into the coming week
Wintry conditions across south eastern Australia will continue into the weekend, with rain expected in parts of Victoria, New South Wales, and Western Australia.
Melbourne recovered slightly from a high of only 10.1C on Thursday, its coldest day in five years, reaching a maximum of 13C on Friday. The Bureau of Meteorology issued a frost warning for Victoria’s north-east and a strong wind warning for the East Gippsland coast.
Continue reading...ACT police say man allegedly graffitied the outside of building and the ground with ‘pro-Palestine slogans’
The Australian War Memorial has been allegedly defaced with pro-Palestine graffiti, ACT police have said.
The police said a man allegedly graffitied three areas on the outside of the Canberra building and on the ground in a publicly accessible area about 1am on Friday morning. Police would not say what the graffiti said, only that it was “pro-Palestine slogans”.
Continue reading...Spokesperson says ‘the encampment has taken over this shared space to the exclusion of others’
The University of Sydney has ordered students protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza to leave a controversial encampment that has been on the campus since April.
A university spokesperson said on Friday that it had told the encampment’s leadership “we require them to vacate the encampment to allow other students to use the space”.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
The education minister, Jason Clare, has said stricter regulations on social media for teenagers had bipartisan support.
Speaking to Channel 7’s Sunrise, Clare called social media a “cesspit”, and added that Labor’s age verification trial would be the first step to protecting young people.
I think we all agree that social media’s a cesspit. We all agree we don’t want our kids on it. It’s about how do you do it?
This should be something where the Labor party and the Liberal party can work together.
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