Category Archives: Australia news

How do Australian police taskforces get strange names like Tromperie?

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In NSW, you can blame a computer which generates names at random, while in the Northern Territory ‘generic categories’ deliver operations named after rivers and battleships

New South Wales police last week arrested 15 people as part of Strikeforce Wessex – an investigation into alleged organised criminal networks operating “dial-a-dealer” schemes.

But what does Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Great Britain, have to do with drug dealing and mobile phones across Sydney?

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ATO assured minister robotax scheme followed best practice – months later, it came to grief

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Correspondence shows tax officials defended program, which aimed to claw back ‘on-hold’ debts, as being in line with watchdog advice

The Australian Taxation Office assured the government that its widely criticised “robotax” scheme adhered to best practice principles months before it suspended a major component of the program and it was publicly reprimanded by the ombudsman.

Internal ATO documents released to Guardian Australia show the tax office responded to a query from the office of the assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, about the scheme’s methods by arguing the agency had taken on previously issued advice designed to improve how it communicated with taxpayers.

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Job providers receiving millions of dollars for positions found by jobseekers themselves

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Welfare advocates say there is ‘simply no reason’ for $3.6m in payments over past five years to agencies when jobs were found prior to engaging their service

Job providers are being paid millions of dollars in public money for work that jobseekers are finding themselves, with advocates saying there is “simply no reason” for the payments.

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has paid providers over $3.6m in the past five years for pre-existing employment, where someone on jobseeker found a job prior to starting with a provider, according to data provided to Guardian Australia by the department.

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Woman dead and two others in hospital after suspected drug overdoses on the Gold Coast

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Woman, 43, died after paramedics were called to a Surfers Paradise hotel on Friday night

A woman has died and two others have been hospitalised after suspected drug overdoses on the Gold Coast.

Queensland paramedics were called to a hotel in Surfers Paradise at 10.58pm on Friday night. Emergency responders found seven patients, three of whom were in critical condition, including a 43-year-old woman who was experiencing cardiac arrest at the scene.

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‘One of Melbourne’s big characters’: youth worker Les Twentyman dies aged 76

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Twentyman spent more than four decades campaigning on youth homelessness and social welfare

The prominent Melbourne youth worker and social justice campaigner, Les Twentyman, has died aged 76.

The Les Twentyman Foundation announced his death in a statement on Saturday.

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Fine weather forecast for most of Australia’s capitals across the Easter long weekend

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A weather system moving in from the south-west will bring rain across southern regions from Monday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology

The long weekend has brought fine weather to Australia’s capitals – but most cities will see a soggy return to work on Tuesday.

Despite a foggy start to Saturday morning in Melbourne and rain across Brisbane and Darwin, sunshine is forecast for Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide with similar conditions to continue through Saturday and Sunday.

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Tasmanian man jailed after AI-generated child abuse material found on computer

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Man, 48, to spend at least 10 months behind bars after AFP’s first seizure of such AI content in state’s history

A Tasmanian man has been jailed for at least 10 months after police found hundreds of files depicting child abuse – including content generated using artificial intelligence – on his computer.

The 48-year-old Gravelly Beach man was jailed for two years, with a non-parole period of 10 months, in the supreme court in Tasmania on Tuesday.

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Solar panel waste to reach crisis levels in next two to three years, Australian experts warn

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A 12-year industry roadmap has been unveiled to address the rising amount of solar panel waste headed for the tip

The solar industry is quickly approaching its tipping point, with unprecedented levels of waste headed for the tip.

Solar panel waste levels will reach a crisis point in the next two to three years instead of by 2030, as was previously forecast, according to a white paper released this week.

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Sydney man’s wife and three children to be evacuated from war-torn Gaza

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Mohammed Almassri says after months of seeking urgent help, Dfat has told him the family will be evacuated from Rafah on Saturday or Sunday

The Sydney father whose Australian children are living in a tent in Gaza has been told his family will be evacuated from the war-torn Palestinian enclave over the weekend.

Late on Thursday, after four months of requesting urgent help for his family, Mohammed Almassri, 43, was contacted by a Dfat case worker and told his three children and wife would be evacuated from Rafah on Saturday or Sunday, he said. His mother’s request to leave was not approved, he said.

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South Korea’s ambassador to Australia resigns after four weeks amid corruption probe

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Lee Jong-sup is being investigated over allegations he tried to improperly influence an inquiry into death of marine while he was defence minister

South Korea’s ambassador to Australia resigned on Friday as questions about his appointment while he is under a corruption investigation battered President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ruling party less than two weeks from a closely fought parliamentary election.

Lee Jong-sup, who was appointed ambassador to Australia just four weeks ago, is being investigated over allegations he tried to improperly influence a probe into the death of a marine last year while he was defence minister.

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Jacqui Lambie says Tammy Tyrrell’s decision to split from the party amicable

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Tyrrell worked as Lambie’s office manager for years before being elected to the upper house in 2022

Firebrand senator Jacqui Lambie has wished Tammy Tyrrell well after she announced her decision to quit the Tasmanian’s network and go it alone on the crossbench.

In a statement released on Thursday evening, the senator revealed she had resigned from the Jacqui Lambie Network and would remain in the upper.

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Former AFL player Eddie Betts shares video of racist abuse hurled at children playing in yard

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Victoria police launch investigation after Indigenous star posts CCTV footage on Instagram and states ‘Aboriginal kids deserve to be able to play safely’

Victoria police are investigating after Indigenous AFL great Eddie Betts shared footage of children being racially abused in their own yard while stating “we are not even safe in our own homes”.

Betts shared security camera footage on social media on Thursday night showing a white car driving down a street before slowing down in front of a home. A person then yells out racial slurs.

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Man shot dead in ‘very targeted’ attack in Melbourne’s north, police say

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Victoria police say victim of Glenroy shooting was known to them and had a criminal record

Police are treating the fatal shooting of a man at a strip of shops in Melbourne’s north as a targeted attack.

The man was shot dead in a car park outside shops on Justin Avenue at Glenroy just after 4.30am on Good Friday.

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Warm and sunny weather expected for most Australian capitals over Easter weekend

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Calm outlook for Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney follows extreme bouts of dry and warm weather across south and west of country

A spectacular Easter long weekend is expected for much of Australia, with warm and sunny conditions forecast for most capitals before rain reaches the eastern states at the start of next week.

Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney can all expect warm and sunny weather during the long weekend.

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‘Humility keeps you real’: Scott Morrison tells podcast he was always wary of power

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Former PM, who took on five extra ministries in secret, tells Olympian Sam Fricker that listeners might say ‘Oh, I didn’t think you were that humble’

The former prime minister Scott Morrison has declared himself more into humility than power, detailing in a lengthy post-politics interview how the Aukus submarine deal was sealed and that the Quad regional dialogue was dreamed up over dinner.

Speaking on champion diver Sam Fricker’s Diving Deep podcast – a series of interviews with “high performers” – Morrison reflects on his time in office, the pressures facing prime ministers and how he approached the job.

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AstraZeneca claims Australian rules stopped it defending its vaccine during pandemic

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Company says TGA regulations prevented it from responding to incorrect claims about its vaccine in 2021

AstraZeneca has called for reforms to Australia’s rules around discussion of medicines, saying public confusion over its Covid vaccine was created because the company was restricted in explaining health warnings by the nation’s medicines regulator.

The call is contained in more than 2,000 submissions to the federal government’s inquiry into Australia’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Refugees risk being stripped of protection under ‘draconian’ Labor deportation bill, opponents say

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Greens immigration spokesperson says bill expands ministerial power to reverse protection findings and deport people previously granted asylum

Labor’s “draconian” deportation bill expands ministerial powers to reverse protection findings, meaning refugees could be stripped of their status and deported, the Greens and lawyers have warned.

The controversial provision in the legislation delayed by the Senate this week could see a grandmother who fled Chile under Gen Augusto Pinochet’s bloody dictatorship forced to cooperate with deportation, Human Rights for All director Alison Battisson said.

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Tasmanian senator Tammy Tyrrell quits Jacqui Lambie Network

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The party whip says she plans to stay in the Senate as an independent after Lambie suggested she should ‘go it alone’

The Tasmanian senator Tammy Tyrrell says she is quitting the Jacqui Lambie Network, but plans to stay in the Senate as an independent, saying the party leader had suggested her former party mate “go it alone”.

“Today I have advised the Jacqui Lambie Network that I am resigning from the party. I’ll remain in the Senate as an independent Senator for Tasmania,” the 53-year-old said in a statement on Thursday evening.

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Australian officials scrambled to understand allegations before Unrwa funding suspended, documents show

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Exclusive: Dfat official said there was ‘precious nothing in the public domain’ on claims against aid agency hours before pause announced

Australian officials scrambled to “understand what the allegations are” against Unrwa staff and complained of “precious nothing in the public domain” hours before the government suspended funding to the “vital” aid agency.

New documents obtained by Guardian Australia show how the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade rushed to gather information after Israel alleged 12 Unrwa staffers were involved in the 7 October Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel.

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China scraps tariffs on Australian wine

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Prime minister Anthony Albanese says China’s duties on Australian bottled wine will come to an end from Friday

China has dropped tariffs on Australian wine, a long-awaited decision heralded by the Albanese government as validation of its “calm and consistent approach” with the superpower on a series of controversial trade disputes.

In a statement on Thursday the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, foreign minister, Penny Wong, and trade minister, Don Farrell, said they had been informed that from Friday, China’s duties on Australian bottled wine would come to an end. Australia would, in turn, discontinue its legal proceedings in the World Trade Organization, the government said.

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