Category Archives: Australia news

Digested week: Marsupial brings cheer in dark and dysfunctional days | Emma Brockes

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It was left to a – albeit extinct – tiny relative of the kangaroo to offer some relief from the blizzard of major events

Where to start in a week so fraught with major events you could hardly draw breath for the news flashes? It started with Trump’s alleged contribution to Jeffrey Epstein’s “birthday book,” shared by the Democrats on social media on Monday and leading to the discovery of a name not widely recognised in the US but of intense interest in the UK – Peter Mandelson. The British ambassador to the US had proffered an undiplomatically warm birthday message to the late child sex offender financier, starting a press scramble that ended, on Thursday, with Keir Starmer firing him.

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Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell given community work order for intimidating police officer and wife

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Police officer gave evidence to Melbourne court about feeling ‘highly anxious’ over his and his family’s safety after Sewell’s podcast comments

A neo-Nazi leader has been handed a community work order for intimidating a police officer and his wife.

Thomas Sewell, 32, was on Friday found guilty of three charges of intimidation of a law enforcement officer, and his wife, over targeted threats to expose his personal information.

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Two police officers involved in Melbourne man’s fatal 2024 arrest named as they face court

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Luke Briggs, 35, died in a hospital’s intensive care unit eight days after his arrest in Hoppers Crossing in July 2024

Two police officers have faced court accused of unlawfully killing a man who died in hospital after his arrest inside a car park.

Cons Alexander Papanastassis, 29, and Sgt James Fitzgerald, 49, appeared in the Melbourne magistrates court on Friday morning for a brief hearing.

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Australian War Memorial defers military history prize after judging panel awards it to book on Ben Roberts-Smith

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Exclusive: Governing council ‘retrospectively’ decides the Les Carlyon literary award should go only to first-time authors, ruling out Chris Masters’ book

The Australian War Memorial has effectively overruled a decision by its appointed judges to award a military history literary prize to a book about the alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.

War memorial sources and documents seen by Guardian Australia show that an external judging panel chose Chris Masters’ book Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes as the 2024 winner of the Les Carlyon literary award for military history, after a panel comprising memorial employees had included it in a shortlist of six from 59 entries.

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Victorian Liberal party shapes up for ‘nastiest, most toxic’ state council in years amid leaks and infighting

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State party’s deep divisions on show as sexist messages force resignation of director days before annual meeting

Timing is everything in politics. It’s a principle worth recalling when nine-month-old messages are made public just two days before the Victorian Liberals’ annual state council meeting.

The messages, taken from a WhatsApp group involving a small handful of party headquarters staff, are undeniably sexist and inappropriate. In them, Victorian Liberal party director Stuart Smith mocked the party’s women’s council, saying it could only make decisions at a meeting “after two men told them they had to”, and joked that upper house MP Bev McArthur had dementia.

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Jessica has 77 half-brothers and sisters through the same sperm donor. She wonders how many more there could be

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Queensland woman says its time for clinic to destroy 30-year-old samples as state and federal health ministers meet to push for reform

Queensland woman Jessica Hamilton has 77 half-brothers and sisters. But this week she learned that number could grow even further – swelled by new births.

In 1995, the year she was born, Queensland Fertility Group told Hamilton’s mother that she could expect to have between three and five siblings to other families.

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Tasmanian museum kept and displayed 177 human remains without families’ knowledge, report finds

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University of Tasmania apologises, saying staff have met with families and will consider coroner’s findings

Human specimens were collected, and in some cases publicly displayed, by a museum for decades without the knowledge or consent of families.

The University of Tasmania’s RA Rodda Museum collected remains from coronial autopsies from 1966 to 1991 for teaching and research purposes.

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Brisbane teen faces court on terrorism charges after violent extremist material and chemicals allegedly seized

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Max Belter, 18, had a document linked to ‘proscribed terrorist organisations’ on his electronic devices, police allege

A teenager charged with terrorism offences has wept in court after violent extremist material and chemicals for explosives were allegedly found during a police raid.

Max Belter, 18, appeared in a green prison jumper in Brisbane magistrates court on Thursday after a joint terrorism taskforce searched his property at The Gap in Brisbane’s north.

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Wild weather brings flash floods in Sydney and at least two tornados reported in regional NSW

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Light rail passengers rescued in Randwick on Wednesday night as severe weather warnings remain in place across NSW

Two tornadoes, record-breaking rain and large hail have hit New South Wales in the 24 hours to Thursday morning, as supercell thunderstorms and a band of rain sweep the state.

Heavy downpours triggered a surge in calls for assistance.

Collaroy (Long Reef golf glub): 108mm

Sydney Botanic Gardens: 116mm

Rose Bay (Royal Sydney golf club): 110mm

Randwick (Randwick St): 145.8mm

Marrickville golf club: 81mm

Peakhurst golf club: 113mm

Cronulla South bowling club: 147mm

Campbelltown: 99mm

Camden airport: 77.8mm

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ANU vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell resigns amid crisis of confidence in leadership

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Resignation follows tumultuous period marked by redundancies, proposed course closures and allegations of a toxic work culture

The vice-chancellor of the Australian National University has tendered her resignation after a tumultuous two years at the institution, marked by redundancies, proposed course closures, and allegations of a toxic work culture.

Chancellor Julie Bishop confirmed Prof Genevieve Bell had resigned on Thursday morning. Multiple sources said Bell advised the council of her decision on Wednesday evening, with Provost Rebekah Brown to be interim vice-chancellor until a replacement is found.

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Victorian Liberals director resigns after messages mocking the party’s women’s council revealed

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Stuart Smith resigned on Thursday morning and apologised for WhatsApp messages contained in the Liberal party headquarters staff group chat

The director of the Victorian Liberals, Stuart Smith, has resigned after leaked messages were published in which he ridiculed the party’s women’s council and upper house MP Bev McArthur.

Smith resigned on Thursday morning and apologised for the WhatsApp messages, contained in the Liberal party headquarters staff group chat, which were published by the Australian on Wednesday night.

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Emptying olive oil an ‘act of faith’, accused say, after pleading guilty to damaging Sydney’s Anzac Memorial

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Two born-again Christians admit damaging war memorial but argue their behaviour is a show of faith rather than disrespect

Emptying bottles of olive oil on a war memorial in broad daylight is an act of faith, say two men who have admitted recklessly damaging the sacred site.

Abel Clark and Peter McMaster, both 61, may have permanently stained the granite walls and steps of Sydney’s Anzac Memorial when they “blessed” them with olive oil about midday on 4 September.

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Tornado in central NSW and flood rescues in Sydney as wild weather soaks state

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Heavy rainfall forecast to continue in Sydney on Thursday as low pressure weather system heads for parts of Queensland

Two groups have been rescued from flooding while a tornado warning for central New South Wales has been downgraded as large parts of the state brace for a further battering of rainfall and heavy winds from a low pressure system off the Tasman Sea.

The NSW State Emergency Service said it had responded to more than 90 incidents in the past 24 hours, including flood rescues for a motorist who had driven off a cliff face at Camden Bypass and a group of bushwalkers trapped by flood waters at Wattamolla.

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Victorian Labor targets affluent Melbourne suburbs for rezoning to allow 16-storey apartment towers

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Under the plan, the state government will seize planning controls for the designated areas – near train and tram stops – from local councils

Affluent Melbourne suburbs such as Hampton, Hawthorn and Kew could be rezoned to allow apartment towers of up to 16 storeys, according to new draft maps released by the Victorian government.

The premier, Jacinta Allan, and the planning minister, Sonya Kilkenny, will on Wednesday release the maps showing proposed heights and boundaries for 25 of the government’s 50 activity centres, which were first announced in October 2024.

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Pocock questions Bishop’s ANU leadership as pressure builds for chancellor and vice chancellor to step down

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Independent senator claims there was ‘no faith’ in leadership of Genevieve Bell or Julie Bishop among university staff

David Pocock has called on the federal government to urgently intervene into the leadership crisis at the Australian National University as pressure mounts on the chancellor and vice-chancellor to resign.

It comes after the independent senator told ABC earlier on Tuesday he hoped to see “some change in leadership at the top” of ANU, following a tumultuous year including redundancies, proposed course closures and allegations of a toxic work culture.

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Proposed ‘nation-leading’ NSW childcare reforms to include $500,000 fines

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Greens welcome Minns government’s ‘bare-minimum’ changes but say more work is needed to restore faith in the sector

Large childcare providers found in breach of safety directives will face $500,000 fines – a 900% increase – under new laws to be introduced by New South Wales parliament on Wednesday.

The proposed legislation will grant greater powers to the early childhood regulator to suspend educators and revoke quality ratings in a suite of measures addressing grave concerns about safety in the sector.

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Herald Sun failed to seek response from Victorian MP Sam Groth and wife before article that invaded privacy, court documents claim

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Groth and wife Brittany are suing a News Corp paper for defamation and breach of privacy over incorrect claims of inappropriate relationship

The Herald Sun failed to seek a response from Brittany Groth, the wife of Sam Groth, the Victorian Liberals deputy leader and former tennis star, before wrongly outing her as a victim of child sexual assault who was preyed upon by her now-husband when he was her coach, the couple allege in federal court documents.

The Herald and Weekly Times, along with reporter Stephen Drill, who wrote the articles, and his editor Sam Weir, are being sued in the federal court by Brittany Groth, in the first test of a new statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy, and by Sam Groth for defamation.

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University of Melbourne law professor’s allegedly racist emails were protected ‘political opinion’, court hears

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Lawyer argues university’s move to fire Dr Eric Descheemaeker breached Fair Work Act and freedom of academic expression policy

A law professor at the centre of a leaked email controversy says the University of Melbourne attempted to expel him over his political expression after it unearthed allegedly racist emails which included references to First Nations people.

Dr Eric Descheemaeker launched legal action against Australia’s top-ranked university over his proposed dismissal earlier this year, alleging he was suspended over his political opinion.

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Big tech not stopping online sharing of child abuse images, eSafety commissioner says, amid new online codes

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Measures to protect children from harmful content such as AI chatbots to be implemented at the same time as the under-16s social media ban

Australia’s eSafety commissioner says none of the big technology companies are doing enough to stop images of “the most heinous abuse to children” from being shared online.

The criticism comes as the commission registers six new industry codes designed to better protect children from “lawful but awful” age-inappropriate content, including the “clear and present” danger posed by AI driven companion chatbots.

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Australia news live: Judge says Erin Patterson inflicted ‘untold suffering’ and should receive maximum sentence for mushroom murders

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Justice Christopher Beale says possibility of parole is ‘main dispute’. Follow today’s news live

Victoria’s supreme court will hand down the triple-murderer Erin Patterson’s sentence shortly. The state’s supreme court will allow a television camera inside the courtroom to broadcast the sentencing hearing – with a 10 second delay – for the first time.

Patterson, 50, faces the prospect of spending the rest of her life in prison. Justice Christopher Beale will deliver her sentence from 9.30am in a hearing expected to last about 30 minutes.

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