Category Archives: Australia news

Officer ‘didn’t have time’ to turn on body-worn camera before shooting Sydney man having psychotic episode, inquest hears

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Steve Pampalian fatally shot in 2023 after moving towards police while holding kitchen knives, coronial inquest told

A police officer has told a coronial inquest he didn’t have enough time to turn on his body-worn camera before he fatally shot a Sydney man who ran at him with two kitchen knives, amid conflicting statements on what unfolded in the critical moments before the man was killed.

Steve Pampalian, 41, was shot three times by a police officer in the driveway of his home on a quiet suburban street in Sydney’s North Willoughby on 25 May 2023 after he had a psychotic episode.

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Wild-born birds recruited to teach critically endangered regent honeyeaters their lost songs

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Researchers hope restoring the original song will improve breeding prospects for birds released into the wild

Scientists have rescued the lost song of the critically endangered regent honeyeater – one of Australia’s rarest birds.

Regent honeyeaters were once seen in vast flocks across south-eastern Australia, with a distribution that ranged from Queensland to Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

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Victorian government faces backlash from small businesses over right to work-from-home laws

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Small employers won’t be exempt from proposed legislation designed to allow offsite working two days a week

Business groups have criticised a decision to rule out exemptions for small businesses in the Victorian government’s plan to legislate the right to work from home two days a week, saying some companies could move interstate or overseas.

Cabinet met on Monday to greenlight the work from home plan – a key pillar of Labor’s re-election campaign – with further announcements expected during the parliamentary sitting week.

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International students accuse Australia of treating them like ATMs after fees for one visa double without warning

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Union says students blindsided after non-refundable visa fee rose from $2,300 to $4,600

International students say they feel like “ATMs” after the federal government quietly doubled application fees for temporary graduate visas, making Australia’s costs the most expensive in the world for graduates hoping to stay onshore after completing their studies.

The non-refundable visa fee rose from $2,300 to $4,600 without prior warning on Sunday, placing Australia well in excess of competitors including New Zealand (A$1,406), Canada (A$262), the UK (A$1,665) and the US (A$661).

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Pauline Hanson censured over Muslim comments but only two Coalition senators back motion

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It is Hanson’s second censure within four months, this time over comments questioning whether there were ‘good’ Muslims

Pauline Hanson has been censured again by the federal Senate, with two Liberal senators crossing the floor to support a motion calling out the One Nation leader’s “inflammatory and divisive” recent comments about Australian Muslims.

Hanson dismissed the motion – her second censure within four months, after her stunt of wearing a hijab in the parliament last year – as a “joke”, theatrically slapping herself on the wrist before storming out of the chamber prior to the final vote. The Greens and much of the crossbench backed Labor’s censure motion, while the Coalition resolved to oppose it, saying censures should be reserved for the most serious conduct.

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Angus Taylor snaps at journalist as Liberals ramp up rhetoric against Australian children in Syrian camp

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Opposition leader suggests 23 children and 11 women attempting to leave al-Roj are Islamic State ‘sympathisers’

Angus Taylor has suggested the Australian children remaining in a Syrian detention camp are “Isis sympathisers” as the Liberal party ramps up its rhetoric against the families of dead or jailed Islamic State fighters.

The opposition leader also chided a member of the press for attempting to force his response on why the group of 23 children and 11 women should be another country’s responsibility.

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Desperate first home buyers are fuelling price ‘up-crash’ at lower end of market, experts say

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Biggest house price increases in February come in smaller capital cities as buyers undeterred by interest rate hikes

Hot competition for cheaper Australian homes has powered a relentless “up-crash” in prices despite rising interest rates, economists warn.

Desperate first home buyers have bid up the price of affordable properties as they face off against investors, who have borrowed big despite government warnings they could lose tax discounts and deductions.

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Flights from Australia to Middle East cancelled – as it happened

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The foreign minister, Penny Wong, says Australia was not told in advance about the bombing of Iran but won’t say whether intelligence facilities here were used.

“We weren’t told advance. You wouldn’t expect us to be but you would see there’s obviously been a lot of discussion,” she said.

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Australia’s broken aged care home support system is ensuring that loved ones live and die without dignity

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Alan Nicolle was already approved for urgent aged care supports, but delays and confusion under a ‘Kafkaesque’ system made his final days exhausting and painful

Dying Australians approved for government-funded aged care home support are struggling to access it, with carers describing a system plagued by delays and lack of control around how funding is spent.

The accounts of carers and aged care assessors spoken to by Guardian Australia show that beyond the controversial, algorithm-driven assessment process for home care funding, many are left without adequate and timely support even after funding has been approved.

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‘People have lost all sense of shame’: three threats against federal politicians reported to police every day

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At least 21 charges have been laid against individuals since October, Australian federal police say, following 951 reports to June

Nearly three violent or menacing threats against federal politicians are being reported to police daily, according to Australian federal police data, with rates almost doubling in two years.

The soaring danger for elected officials and their staff reached new heights this week when Anthony Albanese was evacuated from The Lodge in Canberra over a bomb threat.

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Albanese says Australia supports US action against Iran and stands with the Iranian people’s ‘struggle against oppression’

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Department of foreign affairs warns travellers of risk of reprisal attacks, further escalation and flight cancellations in Middle East

Australia has declared its support for US action against Iran to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and “to prevent Iran continuing to threaten international peace and security”.

But Australia’s department of foreign affairs (Dfat) has warned of the risk of “reprisal attacks and further escalation” across the Middle East after the attack.

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Premier pleads for end to ‘language of division’ in politics after WA police foil alleged mass terror attack

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Roger Cook condemned ‘dog whistling under the guise of immigration policy’ after police lay charges against alleged member of white supremacist group

The West Australian premier, Roger Cook, has urged the community to condemn the emergence of “dog whistling” and the “language of division” in mainstream politics after a 20-year-old man was charged with preparing a terrorist attack.

Jayson Joseph Michaels, from Bindoon, appeared at the Perth magistrates court on Friday, charged with acting in preparation for a terrorist act, possessing a prohibited weapon, two firearms offences and using a carriage service to menace or harass.

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Colander-wearing Pastafarian strains the rules with Queensland driver’s licence photo

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Syaban Shadikillah told to get new driver’s licence after being issued one using photo of him with colander on his head

A “Pastafarian” in rural Queensland has vowed to fight to keep his driver’s licence featuring a photo of him wearing a colander on his head, arguing it’s a matter of freedom of religion.

But the state government has told him he must hand it in and get a new one, as it was issued “in error”.

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Last of the summer rain puts southern states on flood watch and Sydney on alert for bull sharks

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SA premier Peter Malinauskas warns residents to prepare for heavy falls and possible flash floods

Late summer rain is causing havoc across Australia, with South Australia on flood watch, Victoria cleaning up after a downpour, and Sydney issuing a shark warning after heavy falls.

Almost all of South Australia, much of western Victoria and parts of western NSW were on flood watch as a slow-moving pressure system from central Australia moved east. Queensland had also seen severe rainfall.

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Polls, preferences, potential defections: can Victoria’s Liberal party ward off the rising threat of One Nation?

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Opposition leader Jess Wilson is under pressure to reveal her position on a deal with Pauline Hanson’s party as the state election approaches

While internal divisions have long been the Victorian Liberal party’s main obstacle to winning government, a new threat is emerging on its right flank: One Nation.

Just four years ago, One Nation received just 8,077 lower house first-preference votes out of more than 3.6m cast in Victoria – equivalent to 0.22% of the total – and won a single seat in the upper house.

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Six planets due to parade across night sky in rare celestial spectacle

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Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, Neptune and Uranus will all be visible at same time in curved line across sky

Six planets will parade across the sky this weekend in a rare celestial spectacle, experts have said.

For the next few days, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, Neptune and Uranus will all be visible at the same time in the night sky – although binoculars or a telescope will be needed to spot the latter two planets.

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Manifesto planning ‘mass casualties’ allegedly found at home of WA man charged with preparing terror attack

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Prime minister says reports 20-year-old was allegedly going to target mosques, WA police and parliament are ‘distressing’

Police in Western Australia have charged a 20-year-old man with preparing a terrorist attack, with Anthony Albanese describing the allegation as “deeply shocking”.

The man was charged with acting in preparation for a terrorist act, possessing a prohibited weapon, two firearms offences and using a carriage service to menace or harass.

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Manifesto planning ‘mass casualties’ allegedly found at home of WA man charged with terror plot

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Police allege that 20-year-old Jayson Joseph Michaels was going to target mosques, WA police and parliament

Police in Western Australia have charged a 20-year-old man with preparing a terrorist attack, with Anthony Albanese describing the allegation as “deeply shocking”.

Jayson Joseph Michaels, from Bindoon, appeared at Perth magistrates court on Friday charged with acting in preparation for a terrorist act, possessing a prohibited weapon, two firearms offences and using a carriage service to menace or harass.

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Former NSW MP Rory Amon tells court 13-year-old boy said he was 17 before alleged sexual abuse

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Former state Liberal MP begins his evidence after pleading not guilty to 10 charges for various sexual acts

A former state Liberal MP accused of having sex with a 13-year-old boy in a car park toilet has claimed in court the boy told him he was 17 .

Rory Amon, 36, began his evidence in his New South Wales supreme court trial after pleading not guilty to 10 charges for various sexual acts against the young teen in 2017.

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NSW government denies ‘covering up’ deadly fungal outbreak at major hospital

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Health minister says cluster of infections at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital was not publicised to avoid ‘unnecessarily scaring people’

The New South Wales health minister has denied “covering up” a deadly fungal outbreak at one of Australia’s largest hospitals, saying it was not publicised to avoid “unnecessarily scaring people”.

The cluster of infections caused by aspergillus, a common mould, killed two patients and left four others unwell in the Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) hospital’s transplant unit in late 2025.

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