Category Archives: Australia news

Police operation in which NSW man shot dead during psychotic episode was ‘flawed’, inquest finds

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Todd McKenzie’s death prompts calls from deputy coroner for summit into police responses to mental health incidents

A New South Wales police operation that resulted in a man being shot dead by the force while suffering psychosis was significantly “flawed”, an inquest has found.

Todd McKenzie, 40, was suffering from a psychosis when he shot three times by police in his Taree home in 2019 following a nine-hour siege after police responded to reports he was on the street yelling and holding a knife.

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‘Time to be fearless’: NT attorney general urges Australian leaders to pursue treaty after voice defeat

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Chansey Paech says the Uluru statement is ‘not finished’ despite the result of the voice referendum

The Northern Territory’s attorney general is urging the nation’s leaders to put last year’s voice referendum result behind them and move to forge treaties with Indigenous people because “the time for sorry business is over”.

The attorney general and deputy chief minister, Chansey Paech, is urging the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and state and territory colleagues not to allow the referendum result to stall progress on the other elements of the Uluru statement from the heart.

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Australia’s east coast forecast to avoid gas shortfall despite claims of looming supply crisis

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ACCC report says region is expected to have surplus of six petajoules in third quarter ‘even if all uncontracted gas is exported’

Australia’s east coast is expected to have a small surplus of gas in the third quarter of 2024, with an improvement in forecast supply since the gas market code was introduced.

Those are the results of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s interim update on gas supply, to be released on Friday, which the Albanese government has said shows new enforceable supply commitments are making a difference.

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Government ignored warnings more than 100 companies may be misusing Centrepay scheme, Asic says

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Services Australia’s failure to act ‘inexcusable’ and urgent action needed to help people struggling to get by, senators say

The corporate regulator repeatedly warned Services Australia that it should review and consider removing more than 100 companies from a government-run debit scheme that allows early access to welfare payments.

But it said its attempts to sound the alarm about potential misuse of the scheme have had no impact.

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US shipyards up to three years behind schedule on submarines as concerns grow for Aukus pact

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Greens senator David Shoebridge says review of shipbuilding program ‘adds to the growing list of reasons why Aukus is likely to fall over’

US shipyards are running up to three years late in building new Virginia-class submarines, despite suggestions from a senior US diplomat that the Aukus pact with Australia will help deter Beijing from seizing Taiwan.

Australia is relying on a US promise to sell it at least three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines in the 2030s, prior to Australian-made boats starting to enter into service in the 2040s.

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Australian neo-Nazis must be monitored better, Senate inquiry told

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White supremacists are training members in combat under cover of ‘active clubs’ promoting self-defence, counter-extremist experts say

Australian white supremacists and neo-Nazis who are creating crowdfunding campaigns and “active clubs” to train members in combat must be monitored more closely, a prominent global counter-extremist organisation has told a Senate inquiry.

Some Australian extremists “have become leading voices in the decentralised online neo-Nazi sphere”, according to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a global anti-terror group and non-profit. It has warned a parliamentary inquiry into rightwing extremism that some such groups in Australia may seek to promote combat sports and self-defence clubs as an “evasion tactic” to avoid police attention, as has been seen overseas.

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Robotax: why the ATO’s controversial tax debt clawback scheme deserves media scrutiny

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Tax ombudsman says ATO commissioner has powers designed to modify how a tax law operates – should the media accept the ‘no discretion’ defence, and move on?

Last November, thousands of Australians received letters advising them of unpaid tax debts. Some of these were decades old, dating back to a time of chequebooks and paper records.

There were mixed responses.

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Israeli military likely knew identities of aid workers killed in charity convoy, humanitarian groups say

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Australian Council for International Development head says ‘intense coordination and negotiation’ would have occurred prior to passage of workers

The Israeli military likely had advance notice of the names and nationalities of each of the aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes while travelling in a three-car charity convoy in Gaza this week, according to humanitarian organisations.

As Anthony Albanese toughened his language over the killing of the Australian citizen Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, saying “this is against humanitarian law”, the aid sector stated the seven workers were there “with the full awareness” of the Israeli military.

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Australia news live: PM says it ‘isn’t good enough’ to say Gaza strike on aid workers ‘just a product of war’

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Prime minister reiterates that has ‘demanded full accountability for what has occurred’ from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Follow the day’s news live

After a number of comments about the state of famine in Gaza, which Hyman appears to be disputing – it’s quite difficult to keep up with his comments, though they seem to include allegations that Hamas is stealing aid – he is asked by host Sally Sara if he’s rejecting UN concerns of hunger and starvation in Gaza. I will come back and check his comments shortly but the upshot seems to be that he is, more or less.

I’ll bring you more direct lines from this interview shortly, bear with me.

I mean, obviously, we know that this isn’t something that the IDF would do or the Israeli Air Force would do on purpose.

There’s a war going on. Wars are awful. Nobody wanted this war, we certainly didn’t want this war, but we’re forced to fight it because it’s a war for our very existence.

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Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial live updates: judge to hear fresh evidence from Taylor Auerbach after Channel Ten wins last-minute bid – latest news

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Lehrmann is suing Channel Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson in the federal court of Australia for defamation. Follow the latest news and updates from today

Judge asks for documents relating to Taylor Auerbach’s departure from Seven

Justice Lee has asked Taylor Auerbach’s solicitor to produce as many documents as possible that relate to the producer’s departure from Seven last year by this afternoon.

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Asbestos found in recycled mulch next to playground in Melbourne’s west

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Local council confirms material was found at the Donald McLean Reserve in Spotswood

Asbestos has been discovered in recycled mulch at a park in Melbourne’s west, prompting the closure of a playground and inspections of other public places.

A resident had reported items found in tanbark near a new playground at Donald McLean Reserve in Spotswood to the local council earlier this week.

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Man found dead in Queensland flood water as weather systems collide over eastern Australia

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Man, 71, found near vehicle in Logan as NSW and Qld residents warned to prepare for up to 200mm of rain, thunderstorms and flash flooding

A man has been found dead near his vehicle in Queensland floodwaters as storms bring heavy rain to eastern Australia.

Police found the 71-year-old man at 5.20am on Thursday, after being called to the Logan suburb of Greenbank to conduct a welfare check.

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Mercury pollution at Eraring power plant rose 130% in 12 months

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Environment groups say increased pollution levels means it would be ‘absurd and harmful’ to extend life of Eraring, which is due to close in August 2025

Mercury and particulate pollution from Australia’s largest coal-fired power station soared last year, prompting an environmental group to argue it would be “absurd and harmful” for the New South Wales government to extend its operations.

Origin Energy’s 2,880-megawatt Eraring power station, slated by the company to close in August 2025, reported mercury pollution jumped 130% in 2022-23 compared with the previous year, according to data from the national pollution inventory. The heavy metal permanently damages brains and kidneys, especially those of children.

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Alexis Wright nominated for $60,000 Stella prize for second time

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Judges have described the Waanyi writer’s fourth novel Praiseworthy as ‘a canon-crushing Australian novel for the ages’

Stella prize winner Alexis Wright has been nominated for the $60,000 award a second time, for her 700-page “canon-crushing” novel Praiseworthy.

The Waanyi writer won the Stella prize, intended to reward the work of Australian women and non-binary authors, in 2018 for her biography Tracker.

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Queensland’s first festival pill-testing service finds ‘Canberra ketamine’ sold as MDMA

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Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival, near Warwick, held Australia’s first multi-day festival clinic last weekend

The organisers of Queensland’s first festival pill-testing service say many drugs sold as MDMA turned out to be other substances including one recently dubbed “Canberra ketamine”.

The Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival, near Warwick, held the first multi-day festival clinic in Australia on the weekend, after two patrons died at the same event in 2019.

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Youth curfew ‘not the long-term solution’, MP says – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Anthony Albanese has called a snap press conference in Canberra at 8.30am. We’ll have coverage of this for you soon.

A man has died in Melbourne’s south after being struck by a truck on a major highway near Frankston.

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Melbourne men allegedly sought $2.5m worth of phones to be shipped to Russia and other countries

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Victoria police say four men were charged with nearly 100 fraud and deception offences

Members of a Melbourne organised crime syndicate have been charged over alleged complex frauds totalling almost $4m, including sending phones to Russia.

Financial crime detectives from Victoria police arrested four men on Wednesday and charged them with almost 100 fraud and deception offences after an 18-month investigation.

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Melbourne private school Kilvington grammar charged over death of student after Vietnam excursion

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Worksafe also charged World Travel Expeditions after Lachlan Cook, 16, died in hospital following health complications

A travel company and a Melbourne private school have been charged over the death of a student who became unwell on a school trip.

The Kilvington grammar school student, Lachlan Cook, 16, suffered diabetes complications during a trip to Vietnam in September 2019 and later died in hospital in Melbourne.

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Victoria government blasted for rejecting truth-telling inquiry’s key recommendations

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Yoorook Justice commissioners disappointed ‘crucial’ recommendation to immediately raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 without exceptions was rebuffed

Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly and the head of the state’s Indigenous truth-telling commission have criticised the Allan Labor government for seeking more time to consider overhauling child protection and criminal justice systems.

The government on Wednesday handed down its response to a report by the Yoorrook Justice Commission, which called for it to tackle systemic injustices experienced by First Nations people in the child protection and criminal justice sectors.

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Charges laid after presumed Queensland car-crash victim found to have been shot

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Police announce manslaughter charge after initially believing man, 21, had died as a result of crash at Booie, near Kingaroy

A man’s death on a Queensland property was initially treated as a car crash fatality by police – who have now charged another man with manslaughter after the discovery of a gunshot wound during the postmortem process.

Investigators initially believed a 21-year-old Nanango man died in the 21 March crash after hitting a fence pole on a private property on Kingaroy Barkers Creek Road at Booie, near Kingaroy.

But after allegedly discovering a gunshot wound on his upper body, police have charged a 38-year-old Kingaroy man with one count of manslaughter and insecure storage of weapons.

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