Category Archives: Australia news

Consumer groups criticise energy companies charging solar panel owners for exporting power

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Critics argue change could lead to people installing smaller solar power systems so they aren’t penalised for exporting excess energy during the day

A new tariff that will charge solar panel owners for exporting their energy during the middle of the day could discourage solar uptake, consumer groups say.

Ausgrid, which has about 280,000 customers in New South Wales with rooftop solar panels, has introduced a two-way tariff system to incentivise solar panel owners to export their power into the grid in the evening, when it is most needed.

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Australian workplaces rated as ‘menopause friendly’ on flimsy grounds, inquiry told

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Companies are using training and accreditation services but there is a lack of evidence about which interventions really work, submissions say

Companies are accrediting workplaces as “menopause friendly” without using any strong evidence in their processes, according to leading women’s health organisations and doctors who say women must have input into any changes aimed at helping them.

A Senate inquiry has been established by the Greens senator Larissa Waters to investigate the health and economic impacts of menopause on Australian women, including its effects on workforce participation and productivity.

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Australia politics live: Speaker urges no political fundraising in parliament as Coalition MPs sell tickets to Dutton budget reply events

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Follow all today’s news live

‘We don’t think production tax credits is way to go’: Angus Taylor on Future Made in Australia

Is the Coalition going to vote against the Future Made in Australia policy, which was fleshed out in the budget and includes tax credits (in 2028) for things like critical minerals mining and green hydrogen?

We haven’t seen the act. We don’t think production tax credits is the way to go in order to have a strong manufacturing sector.

It’s about getting those fundamentals right whether it be approvals, whether it be getting rid of red tape or making sure the construction costs are competitive with the rest of the world.

Oh, but it’s also a drop in the ocean, you know. What are we saying? It’s a Band-Aid on a bullet wound compared to the pain that mum and dads in Australia are actually feeling.

I can tell you, they’ve paid a lot more than $300 under Mr. Albanese for their electricity. For the life of me, though, what it does show is Mr Albanese, [and the government] they’ve got their priorities all wrong.

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Coalition senator accuses Labor’s Fatima Payman of ‘supporting terrorists’ before withdrawing claim

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Comments come just hours after Senate passes motion urging senators to ‘engage in debate and commentary respectfully’

A Coalition senator accused the Labor backbencher Fatima Payman of “supporting terrorists” and then withdrew the claim, just hours after the Senate passed a motion opposing “inflammatory and divisive comments”.

The NSW Liberal senator Hollie Hughes denied she had directly referred to Payman as a “terrorist”, which is what was alleged by some senators who were sitting in the chamber at the time and did not wish to be named.

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Just 2% of male-only Melbourne Savage Club members surveyed support allowing women to join

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Exclusive: Report says members are strongly against admitting women on an equal basis, but are open to having more ‘lady guests’

Just four members of the exclusive male-only Melbourne Savage Club say they support women being admitted as members, according to a “members’ satisfaction survey”.

But more “lady guests” could visit for “mixed dining”, breaking a 130-year tradition, if suggestions included in the survey were taken up.

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NSW premier sacks parliamentary secretary over criticism of police response to pro-Palestine protesters

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Chris Minns said Labor MP Anthony D’Adam’s comments in a speech to parliament were ‘absolutely reprehensible’

A Labor politician who criticised the actions of New South Wales police officers towards pro-Palestinian protesters has been sacked from his role as parliamentary secretary by the premier, Chris Minns.

Minns took aim at the comments made by the upper house MP Anthony D’Adam, saying that D’Adam had never raised his concerns about the police commissioner, Karen Webb, and officers before making his speech in parliament on Wednesday night.

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‘Crossed a line’: students threatened with police action over pro-Palestine sit-in at University of Melbourne

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University of Melbourne cancels classes as activists at Deakin defy directives on encampments

Students occupying a University of Melbourne building have been threatened with “disciplinary action and police action”, as at least three other universities seek to crack down on pro-Palestine encampments.

In a video released more than 24 hours after activists “crossed a line” by starting a sit-in at the Arts West building, the University of Melbourne’s deputy vice-chancellor, Prof Michael Wesley, said management’s patience was “now at an end”.

Wesley said some protesters could be disciplined under the university’s codes of conduct and may face police action.

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Charlise Mutten’s alleged killer bought drugs and had sex with her mother after fatal shooting, murder trial told

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Police allege that after murdering nine-year-old, Justin Stein drove to buy methamphetamine with her mother

The mother of Charlise Mutten and the schoolgirl’s alleged murderer drove to Sydney to buy drugs after the nine-year-old was fatally shot in the face and back, a court has been told.

Justin Laurens Stein, 33, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the girl on or around 12 January 2022, at Mount Wilson, in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

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Dutton readies budget reply as Chalmers links migration cut to inflation fight

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Treasurer says migration ‘important’ but needs to be ‘well managed’

Jim Chalmers has said the projected halving of net migration will contribute to Australia’s inflation fight, ahead of Peter Dutton’s budget reply which is expected to attack Labor over the spike in arrivals.

As Guardian Australia revealed in April, the Coalition will make home ownership a “core” election issue by linking the net migration intake to housing construction, a policy expected to be announced or at least constitute a major theme of the opposition leader’s reply on Thursday.

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Australia’s budget has ‘gaping hole’ in funds for DV victims, environment and housing, advocates say

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Labor touts cost of living package as ‘substantial’ but advocates say changes are inadequate

The federal government’s decision not to further increase funding for jobseeker, housing and domestic violence is a “gaping hole in the heart of the budget”, advocates have warned, with politicians and civil society dismayed there was not more cost of living support announced on Tuesday.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the budget’s cost of living package was “substantial” and targeted at “middle Australia”, listing the revamped stage-three tax cuts, $300 energy bill rebates, a slight increase to rent assistance and freezing medicine prices as the highlights of its response.

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Centrelink mutual obligations: budget changes tipped to prevent 1m jobseeker suspensions a year

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Announcements are ‘good steps’ to reduce harms caused by employment services system but fall short of the overhaul required, advocates say

The Albanese government will relax some of the requirements imposed job seekers as a condition for their income support, with a suite of changes expected to prevent around 1m welfare payment suspensions every year.

Changes to the mutual obligations scheme, contained in the federal budget, will ease the rules that govern when a person’s payments are suspended, meaning job seekers will have a five-day grace period – rather than 48 hours – to account for missing employment services appointments and other activities before their income support is cut off.

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Snakes, donkey heads, a dead cow: the odd things found in recycling – and how they should be disposed of

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Most Australians don’t know what to do with their dead pets, vapes and lightbulbs, a waste survey has found

While Australia may be a pet-loving nation, a majority seem perplexed at what to do when a beloved animal dies.

Survey results commissioned by the waste management company Veolia show 80% of Australians do not know how to dispose of dead pets, with 38% putting them in the bin and 42% not knowing what to do at all.

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Dfat accused of attempting to censor official history of military operations in Timor-Leste

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Exclusive: Bureaucratic process of ‘clearing’ book has dragged on for almost three years with historians arguing obstruction ‘amounts to censorship’

Australia’s foreign affairs department (Dfat) is refusing to approve the publication of an official history of military operations in Timor-Leste until references are removed that could embarrass officials and diplomats, leading to accusations of “censorship”.

The finished manuscript was presented for vetting 30 months ago and Dfat is the only agency of nine in the declassification process not yet largely or wholly satisfied it does not pose a risk to national security, defence or international relations.

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Sydney council reverses ban on same-sex parenting books after fiery meeting

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Cumberland councillors voted 13-2 to revoke the controversial ban amid angry scenes featuring crowds of rival protesters

A controversial ban on same-sex parenting books at libraries in part of western Sydney has been overturned at a marathon late-night meeting after large crowds of protesters clashed outside the council chambers.

Cumberland city councillors voted 13-2 in front of a crowded public gallery on Wednesday night to revoke the ban, two weeks after it was introduced.

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Budget 2024 live updates: reaction and fallout from the Australia federal budget – latest news

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Treasurer grilled on inflation and migration after National Press Club address. Follow today’s news and 2024 federal budget reaction live

Jim Chalmers said the government didn’t create a new system for the energy payments (so everyone gets it) because it is done through the energy retailers, who don’t have people’s income data.

It’s not a cash payment paid directly to you – instead, it is paid through the energy sector, which takes money off your bill. In this case, $75 a quarter.

I don’t see it in political terms. I think primarily the motivation of this budget is to help people who are doing it tough. More help is on the way for people who are doing it tough via the tax system, via their energy bills and with rent assistance and cheaper medicines and in other ways as well. That’s our primary motivation.

Once you go beyond providing this to people on pensions and payments, you have to design a whole new system in order to create a new distinction. We are providing this energy bill relief to every household. We think that’s a good way to help things make things easier. Some of the other measures are more targeted.

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Charlise Mutten murder trial hears weeping mother’s police call to report schoolgirl missing

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Kallista Mutten called triple zero to report daughter missing four days before nine-year-old’s body was found, NSW supreme court hears

Charlise Mutten’s crying mother said she had not seen her daughter for two days when she called police to report her missing several days before the young girl’s body was found.

Justin Laurens Stein, 33, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the schoolgirl on or around 12 January 2022, at Mount Wilson, in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

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ANU warns of potential breaches if pro-Palestinian encampments aren’t dismantled

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Comes after Deakin University similarly requested that student protesters remove camps

The Australian National University has become the second to request pro-Palestine students disband their on-campus encampments, as the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) backed the protesters.

On Wednesday morning, a small group of students attended a meeting with management at the ANU in Canberra, where they said they were advised to disband their camps by Friday or risk breaching the university’s code of conduct.

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William Crowther: controversial statue toppled in Hobart one night before removal decision due

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Controversial monument of a Tasmanian premier who beheaded the body of an Indigenous man damaged and graffitied

A controversial statue of William Crowther has been toppled in Franklin Square, Hobart, after its legs were cut through the night before a decision on its removal.

It was dumped face-down on the ground beside its podium, which was graffitied in red with the word “decolonize” and “what goes around”.

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Future Made in Australia: what’s in the $23bn package meant to create a ‘renewable energy superpower’

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Jim Chalmers’ budget didn’t answer all the questions about what projects will be funded but there is a lot more clarity now

The federal government has been talking up its Future Made in Australia (FMIA) policy in recent months and more detail was revealed in Tuesday night’s budget.

Here’s what we know so far.

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How it began v how it’s going: 2024 budget shows limits of financial forecasting

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Australia’s financials have generally improved compared with forecasts made a year ago but there are threats to the country’s outlook lurking

Financial forecasting is difficult at the best of times, let alone during a period marked by persistent inflation against a backdrop of global economic unease.

But forecasts still provide a framework for governments to build their policy and spending plans around. Australia’s financials have generally improved compared with forecasts made a year ago but there are more than a few threats to the country’s outlook lurking.

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