Category Archives: Australia news

Crumbl Cookies to open in Australia after viral unofficial pop-up at Bondi Beach turned stale

Posted on by

US brand says it was ‘inspired’ by local fans flying in cookies from the US and selling them at the weekend – for $17.50 each

Popular US-based brand Crumbl Cookies has announced it will fast-track plans to open in Australia, after a rogue pop-up stand in Sydney created huge hype for the company’s kilojoule-filled products.

The announcement comes after unaffiliated fans of the American company flew in hundreds of cookies to sell at a temporary store near Sydney’s Bondi Beach, charging $17.50 a biscuit. The cookies usually sell for US$4.49 ($6.67) in the US.

Continue reading...

Man dies after being shot by police amid alleged theft of car belonging to Labor MP’s husband

Posted on by

A 26-year-old man has died after he and another man, 34, were shot by police while allegedly driving a stolen car at officers

A man shot by police in Wentworthville in Sydney last week after an alleged car theft has died, NSW police said.

Two men were shot by police after officers were called to the scene at about 12.10pm on Friday, responding to a report of a stolen car in a Wentworthville car park in Sydney’s west. The officers fired their guns at the vehicle after it was allegedly driven at them.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Rio Tinto to buy US lithium producer Arcadium in $6.7bn deal

Posted on by

Acquisition by Anglo-Australian miner comes despite global headwinds in electric car market

Rio Tinto is to buy the US company Arcadium Lithium for $6.7bn (£5.1bn), in a huge bet on the energy transition despite global headwinds in the electric car market.

The Anglo-Australian metals and mining company said it would pay $5.85 a share for the US-based lithium miner. That represents an almost 90% premium to Arcadium’s closing price of $3.08 a share on 3 October, the day before news of a potential deal emerged.

Continue reading...

Sudden ‘period of leave’ for head of Department of Parliamentary Services

Posted on by

Former anti-corruption commissioner steps in after Rob Stefanic announces decision to take leave

The head of the Department of Parliamentary Services has announced a sudden “period of leave”, leaving a former anti-corruption commissioner in charge of the department.

The secretary, Rob Stefanic, announced to staff in an email on Wednesday morning he had made a decision to “take a period of leave”.

Continue reading...

Crisafulli wedged on abortion as Katter party flags vote to criminalise terminations

Posted on by

Exclusive: Robbie Katter says he will immediately sponsor a bill to amend the current legislation if the LNP is elected this month

The Queensland crossbencher Robbie Katter says he will consider forcing a vote to recriminalise abortion if the Liberal National party wins government at this month’s state election.

Katter says he will table legislation to wind back current laws with one option a “clean repeal” of Labor’s 2018 Termination of Pregnancy Act, a move that would return abortion to the 1899 criminal code.

Continue reading...

Australia’s coalmines and gasfields may be emitting twice as much methane as declared, report warns

Posted on by

Superpower Institute says analysis of Queensland, NSW and Victorian sites shows need for independent reporting of greenhouse gas emissions

Australia’s coalmines and gasfields may be emitting twice as much methane as they currently declare, underscoring the need to introduce independent reporting of the potent greenhouse gas, an energy thinktank has warned.

The Superpower Institute’s Open Methane tool used satellites and ground-based verification to identify 20 “sites of concern” – all involving coal and gas operations – that are releasing “around double” the amount of methane reported.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Ramos-Horta says $74bn Timor Sea gas project could begin within months if Australia signs treaty

Posted on by

Timor-Leste president’s trip comes amid mounting pressure for Labor to finalise an agreement

The $74bn Greater Sunrise gas project, which has been decades in the making, could be under way by the end of the year, the Timor-Leste president, José Ramos-Horta, said.

But he also said the pipeline and accompanying processing work must go to his nation, not Darwin.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australian teens approaching age limit could be spared from social media ban, ACT leader says

Posted on by

Exclusive: Andrew Barr says it ‘doesn’t make sense’ for existing users to be banned for a year or two before regaining access

It “doesn’t make sense” to remove existing teen users of social media from the platforms just a year or two before they regain access, Andrew Barr says.

The ACT chief minister’s comments point to the possibility that existing users could be grandfathered by the proposed social media ban so that they keep their accounts or are temporarily moved on to teen-friendly versions, such as that recently introduced for Instagram by Meta.

Continue reading...

Controversial Sydney airport slot system faces government crackdown

Posted on by

Carriers that cancel flights to block competition could face civil penalties in move against Qantas-Virgin duopoly

Airlines that strategically cancel flights to block competition at Sydney airport could face civil penalties as the Albanese government moves to crack down on the Qantas-Virgin duopoly.

A new bill, to be introduced on Wednesday, will focus on Sydney airport’s controversial slot allocation system, which restricts the airport to 80 takeoffs and landings per hour – known as slots. An overnight curfew to minimise noise further limits flight numbers.

Continue reading...

Many of Australia’s top car sellers are collecting and sharing driver data, Choice investigation finds

Posted on by

Consumer group analysed carmakers’ privacy policies to determine the extent to which modern, more digital vehicles collect data

A Choice analysis of carmaker privacy policies has found some of the biggest car sellers in Australia collect and share a range of driver data, including in some cases video and biometric data, with third parties.

The consumer group analysed the privacy policies of Toyota, Ford, MG, Mazda, Kia, Hyundai, Tesla, Subaru, Isuzu and Mitsubishi to determine the extent that modern vehicles are collecting data on their customers, as vehicles become more and more digital.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

A bizarre game of political chicken? How Queensland lurched to the right on law and order

Posted on by

Labor’s cave-ins on youth justice over the past two years were meant to neutralise the opposition’s attacks – but they appear to have merely emboldened the LNP

Has the Queensland election campaign become a bizarre game of political chicken?

The economic debate has veered sharply to the left. The Liberal National party’s “small target” plan has involved adopting many of Labor’s policies, including cheap public transport fees and other cost-of-living handouts.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Scientists contest environment minister’s claim of ‘blitzing’ Australia’s ocean reserve expansion goal

Posted on by

Tanya Plibersek claims Labor is protecting 52% of its ocean territory, but experts say that is ‘misleading’

Scientists have challenged Tanya Plibersek’s claim that Australia is protecting more than half of its oceans and has “blitzed” a 30% target, arguing industrial longline fishing will still be allowed in some areas the government says it is conserving.

The environment minister told a “global nature positive summit” in Sydney on Tuesday the government had quadrupled the size of the sub-Antarctic Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve, a world heritage area about 4,000km south-west of Perth.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Doubts over legal regime to re-detain those released from Australian immigration detention, FoI documents reveal

Posted on by

Exclusive: Meeting minutes show that without any offending by those released, it’s hard to ‘illustrate that they pose an ongoing risk’

Officials responsible for a regime to re-detain people released from immigration detention have cast doubt on its effectiveness, warning the minimum nine-month timeframe to put cases together could make it harder for the government to win.

“In the absence of any offending, [it is] hard to illustrate that they pose an ongoing risk – so the longer it takes it weakens [the applicants’] case,” officials said, according to minutes of a January meeting discussing the operation of the scheme, passed after the high court’s ruling that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australia politics live: Dutton attacks Albanese for including calls for ceasefire and de-escalation in motion reflecting on 7 October

Posted on by

Follow today’s news live

So what’s that ARC research project on islands actually about, anyway?

A blog watcher has taken the trouble to look up the research project that has Liberal MP James Stevens all hot and bothered, Archipelagic Connections in Australian and Pacific Literature:

Australia is often defined as an isolated island-continent, ‘girt by sea’. This project aims to challenge this protectionist myth by analysing literary and historical connections between different geographical sites that have been represented as enclosed in Australian history.

It expects to offer new interpretations of interconnected narratives of Aboriginal Australian, South Sea Islander and migrant enclosure in Australian literature.

The project also contributes to national strategic initiatives into the ‘truth telling’ on Australia’s past relations to Aboriginal Australians and the study of environmental change in islands and archipelagos.

Continue reading...

‘Fly high beautiful girl’: Thorneside residents pay tribute to eight-year-old girl and babysitter lost in house fire

Posted on by

Investigators are working to determine cause of blaze that claimed lives of Raven Contini and 31-year-old Stephanie Ryan

Floral tributes and messages of condolence are gathering outside a home east of Brisbane after a blaze killed an eight-year-old girl and her babysitter.

Raven Contini and 31-year-old Stephanie Ryan, were found dead in the Thorneside home after a fire ripped through the townhouse on Sunday morning.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

More than half of Australians approve of Albanese government’s response to Israel-Gaza war, poll finds

Posted on by

Of 1,139 people surveyed in the Guardian Essential poll, younger voters more likely to say Australia’s response is too supportive of Israel

About 56% of Australians are satisfied with the federal government’s response to the Israel-Gaza war, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.

As federal politicians paused to mark the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks and the Israeli military response, the poll showed a five-point jump in satisfaction with the Labor government’s stance since the question was last asked in August.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Students moved to rented office building in response to overcrowding at Melbourne public school

Posted on by

Victorian government defends ‘temporary’ campus for University High year 9 pupils amid increase in enrolments

Victoria’s education minister has defended a decision to move hundreds of students from an overcrowded inner-Melbourne high school into a rented CBD office building, describing it as a “temporary” solution.

University High School’s principal, Ciar Foster, wrote to parents on Monday to inform them that due to “a significant enrolment increase in recent years” a temporary campus would be established at 399 Lonsdale Street under a seven-year lease agreement.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Curious koala survives close call at Sydney train station

Posted on by

Marsupial caught on camera at Casula in city’s south-west, where urban development threatens wildlife

A curious koala has been captured wandering perilously close to a Sydney train line before the native animal was corralled to safety into nearby bushland.

The marsupial was caught on video crawling beneath a fence on to a platform at Casula train station, in the city’s south-west, shortly after 4am on Friday.

Continue reading...

Former police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon will lodge plea to murder charges soon, court hears

Posted on by

Lamarre-Condon is charged with the domestic violence-related murders of former TV presenter Jesse Baird and his partner Luke Davies in Sydney

An ex-police officer charged with the alleged domestic violence-related murders of two men in Sydney will soon lodge a plea to the charges levelled against him.

Beaumont Lamarre-Condon, 29, has been accused of fatally shooting the Qantas flight attendant Luke Davies, 29, and former TV presenter Jesse Baird, 26, while he was off-duty.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australian politicians mark 7 October anniversary – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

904 Australians and their immediate family members have now left Lebanon on assisted-departure flights – in addition to those who left on partner and commercial flights.

407 Australians left on 5 October, and 448 on 6 October.

Why so silent, Mark? This, I have been asked a lot. I have thought about it a lot too. I have said little in public about the Hamas-Israel war because I am not the foreign affairs minister. I am Australia’s first law officer. A minister, not a commentator. Just because I’m not talking doesn’t mean I don’t understand.

Continue reading...