Category Archives: Australia news

Bruce Lehrmann claims judge denied him ‘fairness’ in defamation loss as he launches appeal

Posted on by

Former political staffer listed no legal firm as acting for him in his notice of appeal lodged on Friday

Bruce Lehrmann claims that he was denied procedural fairness by the judge who rejected his defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.

Lehrmann’s notice of appeal against the April judgment, which found that on the balance of probabilities he raped Brittany Higgins on a minister’s couch in Parliament House in 2019, was lodged at the federal court on Friday.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Denial of procedural fairness by the trial judge.

The justification finding was contrary to the evidence and the application of the standard of proof required by trial judge.

Construction/misconstruction of the imputations by the trial judge.

Inadequate award of damages where aggravation was made out by the applicant.

Continue reading...

State Library of NSW apologises after guard asked student wearing keffiyeh to leave

Posted on by

Library says it is ‘deeply distressed’ about incident and ‘does not condone discrimination on grounds of cultural dress’

The State Library of NSW has apologised after a student wearing a keffiyeh was asked to leave by security.

Issuing a public apology, the State Library said it was “deeply distressed” the student was asked to leave by a security guard on Sunday for wearing the keffiyeh.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Minimum wage workers in Australia to get a 3.75% pay rise over the next 12 months

Posted on by

Annual increase compares with 4.1% pace of wage price index growth in year to March

Australia’s lowest-paid workers will collect a pay rise of 3.75% in the coming year, a result likely to please the Reserve Bank but dismay unions who sought a 5% rise.

The Fair Work Commission announced the 2024-25 decision for minimum and award wages on Monday. The increase affects about one in four employees from 1 July.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Sydney drenched by month of rain in day; man arrested after woman found dead in Darwin

Posted on by

Follow the day’s news live

The Coalition has questioned why the government is using drones to monitor people released from immigration detention.

Cabinet minister Murray Watt confirmed on Insiders earlier that “drones are being used as part of this operation, but more in the sense of monitoring the accommodation that people are living in, in for example ensuring that it’s not too close to schools or other areas that they’re not supposed to be living close to.”

There’s a couple of issues here. One, either Andrew Giles accidentally and casually disclosed a previously secret drone surveillance program operating domestically in Australia in a Sky News interview with your colleague Kieran Gilbert. Or he made it up and it’s not actually happening at all.

And in a fresh statement provided by the Department of Home Affairs to SBS, I understand yesterday afternoon, they refer to using aerial surveillance to look at people’s locations and other buildings in the area.

Continue reading...

Labor minister denies direction 99 was a mistake and says community safety ‘number one priority’

Posted on by

Federal cabinet minister Murray Watt also claims Labor has deported more criminals in its first year than under Peter Dutton’s reign

A new ministerial direction on deporting foreign-born criminals will prioritise “community safety” over their ties to Australia, federal cabinet minister Murray Watt has said as he denied the government made a mistake with the controversial “direction 99”.

But mystery still surrounds the government’s purported use of drones to monitor people released from immigration detention, with no confirmation of which agency is operating them.

Continue reading...

Dutton is demanding Australia resist ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders – and a Howard-era law could help him

Posted on by

Legal experts say a ‘carve-out’ clause in the law relating to extraditions could let the attorney general decline to enforce arrest warrants issued under international law

In 2002, a little-known backbencher by the name of Peter Dutton rose in parliament to ask the then prime minister, John Howard, about a new mechanism for prosecuting war crimes.

The newly elected member for Dickson’s dixer to Howard was straightforward: “What is the basis of the government’s decision to ratify the statute of the International Criminal Court?”

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Julia Gillard says progress on gender equality is ‘really glacial’

Posted on by

Former Australian prime minister issues warning that young men’s thinking on the issue is going backward

Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has said global progress on gender equality is “really glacial and slow” as she warned that it is going backwards among young people.

Gillard cited recent polling by King’s College London’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, which showed that 51% of respondents believe that men are doing too much to support gender equality, while 46% think that men are now discriminated against.

Continue reading...

The winners and losers of Australia’s proposed electoral redistribution explained

Posted on by

Labor has lost a key seat in Victoria but could replace it by picking up a newly created electorate in Western Australia

The Australian Electoral Commission has announced proposed new boundaries for federal electorates in Victoria and Western Australia to be used at the next election.

A number of seats have been changed dramatically, with one seat abolished – the electorate of Higgins in Victoria – and a new one created.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Gina Rinehart retains top spot on rich list as 200 wealthiest Australians see fortunes grow by 11%

Posted on by

Technology figures including Afterpay founders rise up AFR rich list rankings, reflecting ‘changing nature’ of Australian economy

Australia’s rich have continued to grow their fortunes, with the tech and property sectors creating more of our top earners, according to this year’s Australian Financial Review’s rich list.

Gina Rinehart has kept her top spot for the fifth year in a row on the annual list, which reveals the total wealth of the 200 richest people in Australia increased 11% to $624.9bn, even as the country struggled with high inflation and a cost-of-living crisis.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Decline of the pre-work coffee: why more Australians are skipping their weekday cafe breakfasts

Posted on by

Employees are working from home or packing their own lunches when they go to the office – but they’re still spending on weekend brunches

More Australians are skipping their pre-work takeaway coffee and breakfast roll so they can splurge on a meal on the weekend, as the rise of hybrid work and high living costs upend spending habits.

Transactions data from digital payments platform Square shows the number of purchases at food and drink businesses between 7am and 11am on weekdays has dropped to below pre-pandemic levels, led by falls in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Trial results for new lung cancer drug are ‘off the charts’, say doctors

Posted on by

More than half of patients with advanced forms of disease who took lorlatinib were still alive after five years with no progression

Doctors are hailing “off the chart” trial results that show a new drug stopped lung cancer advancing for longer than any other treatment in medical history.

Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8m deaths every year. Survival rates in those with advanced forms of the disease, where tumours have spread, are particularly poor.

Continue reading...

WA police formally apologise to family of Aboriginal woman who died in custody in 2014

Posted on by

Ms Dhu died two days after being locked up at police station after arrest for unpaid fines of $3,622

Western Australia’s police chief has formally apologised to the family and community of a 22-year-old Aboriginal woman who died in custody a decade ago.

Yamatji woman Ms Dhu, whose first name has not been used for cultural reasons, died two days after being locked up at South Hedland police station on 4 August 2014.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘Largest ever’ NSW coalmine plan will put pressure on state’s net zero target, watchdog says

Posted on by

EPA says proposal to keep Hunter Valley Operations mines going to 2050 would release almost 30m tonnes of CO2

The New South Wales environment watchdog says a plan to extend the life of a Hunter Valley coal-mining complex to 2050 is the “largest coal-mining proposal ever put forward” in the state.

Plans by Yancoal and Glencore to keep its joint-venture Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) mines in the Upper Hunter region going would see almost 30m tonnes of CO2 released, the EPA said in Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Gina Rinehart gifted painting of herself to National Portrait Gallery, Senate estimates told

Posted on by

Visitors have been flocking to the National Gallery of Australia amid the controversy over Vincent Namatjira’s painting of Rinehart, director tells hearing

The mining magnate Gina Rinehart gifted a painting of herself to Australia’s National Portrait Gallery, but there appear to be strings attached.

A Senate estimates hearing on Friday heard that the gallery’s board was processing a deed of gift made by Australia’s richest woman – an approved portrait of herself.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Troy Thompson refuses to resign as Townsville mayor over false military service claims

Posted on by

Townsville’s 10 councillors join Queensland premier in calling for mayor to stand down after revelations he exaggerated his military history

Troy Thompson is under growing pressure to resign as mayor of Townsville after revelations he exaggerated his military service, with all 10 of the city’s councillors joining the Queensland premier in urging him to stand aside.

But the former One Nation candidate has dismissed the calls, writing in a Facebook post on Friday that he had “no intention to step aside as some of the naysayers would like”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Bruce Lehrmann appeals against federal court judgment in defamation trial that found he raped Brittany Higgins

Posted on by

Justice Michael Lee found former Liberal staffer was not defamed by Lisa Wilkinson and Ten during a broadcast interview with Higgins in February 2021

Bruce Lehrmann has lodged a notice of appeal against the federal court judgment in his defamation claim against Network Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson which found that on the balance of probabilities he raped Brittany Higgins on a minister’s couch in Parliament House in 2019.

Lehrmann has always denied the allegation and pleaded not guilty at the criminal trial of the matter, which was aborted due to juror misconduct and Higgins’ mental health was cited as the reason for no retrial.

Continue reading...

Ballarat to be ‘saturated’ with ads in bid to stop violence against women after spate of deaths

Posted on by

Victorian premier Jacinta Allan announces Australia’s first ‘saturation model’ after family violence prevention package unveiled

Ballarat will be “saturated” in messaging to change the attitudes that drive violence against women in the wake of three killings.

Victoria’s premier, Jacinta Allan, announced Australia’s first “saturation model” to prevent the increasing scourge of domestic violence on Friday. It would include a widespread advertising campaign and the use of “influencers”, and was pitched as a four-year model to be tested in the regional city before being scaled up across the state.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Origin Energy offered to sell Eraring power station to NSW government for $544m

Posted on by

Exclusive: Documents reveal offer was made three years before Origin and government reached deal to keep Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station open

Origin Energy offered to sell its Eraring power station to the New South Wales government for more than half a billion dollars before announcing it would close the plant in August 2025, a document now made public reveals.

The energy company, which last week announced a pact with the government to keep the nation’s biggest coal-fired power station open for at least another two years, had offered to sell back the privatised facility for $544m during negotiations in 2021.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Google and Apple keeping Reddit and X in app stores despite pornography due to revenue, eSafety boss says

Posted on by

Commissioner says companies have ‘huge disincentive’ to abide by their own policies on adult content amid discussions of age assurance technology

Australia’s online safety regulator has accused Apple and Google of financial motives in deciding not to remove Reddit and Elon Musk’s X from their app stores for hosting pornography in violation of their own policies.

Research cited in the eSafety commissioner’s online roadmap for age verification technology for adult sites last year reported that 41% of teens aged between 16 and 18 reported seeing pornography on X – more than the 37% who viewed pornography on dedicated adult sites.

Continue reading...

Coalition’s ex-detainee curfew amendments made regime unlawful, high court toldin high court

Posted on by

Exclusive: Lawyers for YBFZ argue default ankle bracelets and curfews are punitive and breach the separation of executive and judiciary

Coalition amendments beefing up the Albanese government’s regime of electronic monitoring and curfews for people released from immigration detention have been cited in the high court as a key reason to strike the laws down.

Lawyers for YBFZ, a stateless man from Eritrea challenging the laws, have argued the curfews are unconstitutional, in part, because the default is that they are imposed on all non-citizens unless the minister is satisfied the condition is not necessary to protect the community.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...