Category Archives: Australia news

Negative drug tests recorded for personnel who packed Jack Fitzgibbon parachute before deadly jump

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Defence says it carries out random drug testing on an ongoing basis and investigations into Fitzgibbon’s death continue

All defence personnel involved in packing and checking Lance Corporal Jack Fitzgibbon’s parachute before his tragic death had tested negative for prohibited substances, the Australian defence force says.

On Sunday the ABC reported six unidentified soldiers serving at the Royal Australian Air Force base in Richmond had “failed comprehensive drug screening in mid-February and early March” and were facing potential expulsion from the ADF.

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Labor rank and file tell Victorian government to ‘get serious’ on long-delayed airport rail

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Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s Vik Sharma says Melbourne’s lack of airport train line is a global embarrassment

Rank and file Victorian Labor members have piled pressure on the state government to “get serious” on building a train line to Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport.

A motion to get the city’s stalled airport rail link project back on track was unanimously passed by party members and unionists at the Victorian Labor state conference on Sunday.

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Pro-Palestine protesters vow to rally as La Trobe joins universities enforcing encampment ban

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La Trobe on Friday followed Deakin in issuing a formal directive for protesters to end their encampment

Pro-Palestine students and staff at La Trobe University have called the university’s directive to end their sit-in an “attack on free speech”, and vowed to rally against the encampment crackdown until management meets their demands.

La Trobe University on Friday followed Deakin University in issuing a formal directive for protesters to end their encampment on the Bundoora campus, amid a wave of student pro-Palestine sit-ins across the nation.

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Police officer allegedly stabbed in the head in Sydney’s CBD

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Paramedics treated an officer for non-life-threatening head injuries and police arrested a 33-year-old man

A police officer is said to be “doing fine” in hospital on Sunday after allegedly being repeatedly stabbed in the head with a 30cm kitchen knife in Sydney’s central business district.

Detective superintendent of the Sydney City Police Area Command, Martin Fileman, told reporters on Sunday afternoon that the male constable was stabbed in the back of the head a “number of times” before he and a female constable gave chase to the alleged attacker.

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Budget replies reveal Coalition ‘all over the shop’, PM says, labelling Dutton’s nuclear policy ‘shocking’ – as it happened

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Crowdfunding campaign launched for Namatjira portraits

Australian presenter and comedian Dan Ilic has launched a crowdfunding campaign to have Vincent Namatjira’s latest exhibition, Australia In Colour, projected on to a billboard in Times Square.

This is an invitation to help get as many people to know about Australia In Colour as possible by putting the highlight of the show on a huge billboard in Times Square the week of the 27th May. We need to raise about $30,000 by Thursday. Any excess money raised will be donated to a charity of the artist’s choice.

Every Victorian deserves to have a roof over their head and that’s why we’re pulling every lever we can to enable 800,000 homes to be built over the next decade.

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Parents overestimate sons’ maths skills more than daughters’, study finds

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Gender stereotypes at home may hamper female students’ ability to progress in the classroom, research suggests

Parents are more likely to overestimate maths ability in sons than daughters, according to research that suggests that gender stereotypes at home may hinder the progress of female students.

The findings, presented in a lecture at University College London this week, found that parents tend to be overconfident about their children’s academic performance in reading and maths regardless of gender. But, in maths, parents overestimated boys’ skills to a significantly greater extent.

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Victorian premier accuses pro-Palestine protesters of bringing ‘violence, homophobia and antisemitism’ to Labor conference

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Six motions calling for end to Israel-Gaza conflict carried after Jacinta Allan says she is ‘disgusted’ by behaviour of protesters at Labor state conference

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has accused pro-Palestinian protesters of bringing “violence, homophobia and antisemitism to the front door of state conference”.

On Saturday morning, ahead of speeches by Allan and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, a group of protesters entered the Moonee Valley Racecourse building and began chanting outside the conference room filled with MPs, unionist and other rank-and-file members.

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Customer-facing workers ‘should not have to work in fear’, Victorian premier says, announcing plans for tougher laws

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Jacinta Allan proposes stronger penalties for people who assault, threaten or intimidate retail, hospitality, and other workers

Jacinta Allan has used her first Labor state conference as Victorian premier to announce plans to change the law to better protect retail, hospitality and other customer-facing workers from abuse and assault amid reports of a surge in violence.

In her speech to party faithful at Moonee Valley Racecourse on Saturday, Allan detailed plans to introduce tougher penalties for people who assault, threaten or intimidate workers.

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Police charge 17-year-old with attempted murder over alleged daylight brawl and stabbing in Brisbane

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Boy charged after an alleged fight ended in a man being stabbed multiple times in Acacia Ridge

A 17-year-old boy has been charged with attempted murder after an alleged fight ended in a stabbing in the Brisbane suburb of Acacia Ridge.

Police allege two men were seen fighting on the footpath outside a Gregory St address at 2.30pm on Friday, before the 17-year-old brought out a knife and stabbed a 19-year-old man multiple times.

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Children’s author charged with online grooming in Sydney

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Man, 41, arrested and charged with online grooming after allegedly sending inappropriate images to someone he thought was 13

New South Wales police have charged a children’s author for the alleged online grooming of children, under Strike Force Trawler.

The state crime command’s sex crimes squad force detectives launched an investigation early this month after receiving an interstate report a children’s author was allegedly communicating inappropriately with a child online.

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Expert says employers can be found liable for sexual assault outside of work hours as PwC fights case

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Accountancy firm argues it is not liable since it had taken ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent such behaviour

Employers can be found vicariously liable for alleged sexual assault that occurred between employees outside working hours but only where it was connected with their employment, according to a leading employment law expert.

PwC is facing legal action claiming the accountancy firm is liable for the alleged rape of a graduate employee following after-work drinks.

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Broncos rally around Payne Haas after father arrested in the Philippines over alleged drug trafficking

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Gregor Johann Haas, 46, was arrested in Cebu City on Wednesday and is facing extradition to Indonesia, where he is accused of drug trafficking

Brisbane coach Kevin Walters says the club are supporting prop Payne Haas “in every way” after the player’s father was arrested in the Philippines and facing extradition to Indonesia, where he is accused of drug trafficking.

Gregor Johann Haas, 46, was arrested in Cebu City on Wednesday, according to local media reports.

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Australian government launches working holiday visa lottery for some applicants

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Ballot aims to make system more equitable for those from China, India and Vietnam while also tightening temporary migration

Backpacker visas for citizens of certain countries will be handed out by lottery in only the second time Australia has used such a system, as the federal government escalates its crackdown on temporary migration.

Hopeful working holidaymakers from China, India and Vietnam will have to pay $25 to enter a randomised ballot for a limited number of visas from July 2024.

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Swimming boss defends athletes lobbying national gallery to take down Gina Rinehart portraits

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Swimming Queensland chief Kevin Hasemann says ‘I’ve never been to a gallery’ and furore has ‘evolved into something I could never have imagined’

The head of Swimming Queensland has defended a campaign that saw Olympic champions lobby the National Gallery of Australia to take down portraits of their patron, Gina Rinehart, because they were deemed “offensive”.

An acrylic colour portrait by Vincent Namatjira of Australia’s richest woman was the target of the campaign along with a second black and white portrait by Namatjira in ink and pencil.

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University of Melbourne and protesters fail to resolve deadlock as pro-Palestine camp ends at Monash

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Encampment at Arts West building continues as tensions simmer at other university campuses

Pro-Palestine protesters and University of Melbourne administrators remain in a deadlock despite a warning that police could be called to enter the campus at any time.

As tensions simmer between university administrations and student activists across the nation, those camped inside the Arts West building have defied the University of Melbourne’s demands and the threat of police intervention.

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Police hunt man who allegedly abducted woman and baby before forcing her to buy laptops in Melbourne

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Woman told to buy MacBooks after being threatened with knife at the Stud Park shopping centre on 10 May, police say

A mother and her baby were allegedly abducted from a Melbourne shopping centre by a knife-wielding man who then forced the woman to drive to electronic stores to buy laptops.

Victoria police are hunting for the man after the incident in Rowville, in Melbourne’s south-east, on 10 May.

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Chalmers says Dutton’s budget reply lacks economic credibility – as it happened

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Shorten and Dutton clash over reduced migration

Earlier this morning the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, clashed over Dutton’s promise to reduce Australia’s migration intake in his budget reply speech last night.

Well, Bill, a couple of points. One is that we say that, in the first year, 40,000 homes will be freed up. That includes the numbers who would be bidding at auctions this weekend against Australian citizens.

If the government had have adopted our policy over a five-year period, you would free up 325,000 homes. So the number of people who are foreign citizens, who are buying houses in our country is low, but nonetheless it contributes to an overall shortage of housing in our country.

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Jim Chalmers labels Peter Dutton’s budget reply an ‘unhinged’ and ‘nasty’ rant

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Opposition leader promised in speech on Thursday to restrict property investment by non-residents

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has criticised the opposition leader Peter Dutton’s budget reply speech as “unhinged” and lacking in economic credibility, as he set out around Australia to explain the government’s own economic plan.

With parliament now in recess for a week, Chalmers headed to Port Augusta in South Australia with the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, and SA state and federal colleagues to promote the government’s renewable energy transition agenda, badged as Future Made in Australia.

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Police arrest three A-League men’s players from Sydney club over alleged betting corruption

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NSW police allege a senior player was arranging ‘for yellow cards to occur during certain games’ in late 2023

Three A-League men’s players have been arrested in Sydney after an international investigation uncovered an alleged betting corruption scandal.

New South Wales police on Friday said they had arrested the three footballers following an investigation by the organised crime squad which began in December and was assisted by the UK gambling commission.

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Labor spending millions more on urgent care clinics without evidence they work, experts say

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Budget includes $227m funding boost but health expert says ‘the value of urgent care clinics is yet to be established’

Doctors and health policy experts have questioned the federal government’s decision to fund an extra 29 urgent care clinics in the absence of strong evidence that they work.

Tuesday’s budget included $227m to fund the clinics, which will bring the total number across Australia to 87. The clinics offer bulk-billed walk-in care, seven days a week over extended hours, with the intention of reducing the burden on emergency departments and easing out-of-pocket health costs.

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