Category Archives: Australia news

Why the Guardian is investigating the deep failings in Australia’s school system

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Australia says it is committed to inclusive education. But the reality for the one in four schoolchildren who now have a disability is far from that

Most Australian parents take for granted that their child will attend school and receive an education.

But for parents of children with a disability – whether it’s developmental, intellectual or physical – that is not a given.

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‘Australia must do better’: Albanese calls urgent national cabinet meeting as thousands rally to end men’s violence against women

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Protesters call for concrete action as prime minister agrees more needs to be done

An urgent national cabinet meeting on men’s violence against women will be convened for Wednesday, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, saying all governments nationwide – including his own at the federal level – must make changes and focus more on stopping perpetrators.

Albanese and senior ministers stopped short of announcing new violence prevention policies or funding as they supported a series of rallies nationwide this weekend, but the prime minister said public attitudes toward the scourge of abuse needed to shift. With the federal budget less than a fortnight away, those attending a large rally outside Parliament House urged the government to “walk the walk” and commit to concrete actions.

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Truth-telling ‘critical’ to treaty, Victorian premier says before historic appearance at Indigenous-led inquiry

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Jacinta Allan says failure of voice referendum hardened her resolve to ‘present the facts’ about impacts of colonisation

Ahead of a historic appearance at Victoria’s Indigenous-led truth-telling inquiry, the premier, Jacinta Allan, said Australia’s failed voice referendum had strengthened her resolve to help “present the facts” about the state’s history and inequalities faced by the First Nations people.

Allan on Monday will become Australia’s first state leader to provide evidence at an Indigenous-led truth-telling inquiry, which has the same powers as a royal commission. The Yoorrook Justice Commission is now holding public hearings investigating land injustice.

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Albanese heckled at Canberra rally to end violence against women – as it happened

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Dai Le says funding for domestic violence prevention more important than a royal commission

Asked about social media platform Twitter and Elon Musk’s claims that efforts to ensure a video of a stabbing of an Assyrian priest be taken down globally would constitute a threat to “free speech”, Dai Le says supports the government’s effort but has concerns about potential overreach:

Honestly, how can we not stop images of violence?

What I think government needs to do is to get the funding and target that to communities. Communities are experiencing high domestic violence. Getting it implemented … ,making sure that we don’t alienate one group from another [is important].

It’s just not something people can take. It is very emotional for people and me as a person who escaped Vietnam and being a child who ran from the war, it’s very traumatic for me and very traumatic for people in my community.

I think that everybody, from my understanding, would like a two-state solution.

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Terrorism label puts multicultural communities ‘on edge’, independent MP Dai Le warns

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Police and intelligence agencies should consult with multicultural communities before designating an incident an act of terror, Fowler MP says

Authorities need to consult multicultural communities to ensure labelling violent crimes a terror act does not alienate people, an independent MP says.

Dai Le, who represents the western Sydney electorate of Fowler where a bishop was stabbed during a sermon, called for police to be culturally aware of what declaring a terrorism incident could do to a community.

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Australia pledges $100m in military assistance to Ukraine as Richard Marles visits

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Deputy prime minister says Australia remains committed to Ukraine’s war effort as it struggles to hold back Russian advances

The Australian government has announced a new $100m assistance package for Ukraine, which includes munitions and military equipment, during a visit to the country by the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles.

Australia’s package will include $50m in military assistance, including $30m towards uncrewed aerial systems, and $15m towards other high-priority equipment such as combat helmets, rigid hull inflatable boats, boots, fire masks and generators.

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Payslip wars: Australian jobseekers suffer harassment in ‘a crazy system that doesn’t work for anyone’

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Private job providers can claim public money when jobseekers find work. But they need their payslips to do so, and some resort to extreme methods to get them

A former employee of one of Australia’s biggest job network providers has spoken up about the extreme methods they use to claim public money when jobseekers find employment.

One researcher called the process – supposedly designed to help people enter the workforce or increase their hours – a “crazy system that doesn’t work for anyone”.

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Melbourne arts identity one of two people killed after glider crashes near Mount Beauty airport

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Kate Callingham, 39, died when the light aircraft crashed north of Falls Creek in Victoria

A Melbourne woman has been named as one of two people killed after a powered glider crashed near an airport in Victoria’s alpine region.

Kate Callingham, 39, died when the light aircraft crashed on Saturday afternoon, her family confirmed in a statement.

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Violence against women rallies: thousands attend protests as Mark Dreyfus rules out royal commission

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More rallies to be held across the country on Sunday with attorney general claiming state and federal governments need to cooperate on plan of action

Thousands of people have rallied in Sydney calling for an end to violence against women amid growing anger at the number of those being killed in violent attacks across the country.

No More: National rallies against gender based violence were held in Sydney, Hobart and Adelaide on Saturday, with more due to be held across the country on Sunday, calling for greater action, including calls for a royal commission, to address the epidemic of women killed in violent attacks.

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Sarah Hanson-Young softens demand for inquiry into Murdoch media

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Amid the threat of big tech, Greens senator says News titles are ‘trusted news providers’ and a royal commission should look at the whole industry

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has watered down her demand for a royal commission examining the role of the Murdoch media in Australia, now describing it as a “trusted” news provider compared with unregulated social media platforms.

Hanson-Young says she still wants a royal commission but that she is no longer advocating for it to focus specifically on media outlets owned by News Corp.

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Tenth person charged over Wakeley church riot, say NSW police

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It comes as a sixth teenager was charged with terrorism-related offences after raids across Sydney as investigations continue into church stabbing

A tenth person has been charged in relation to their alleged participation in the Wakeley church riot, according to New South Wales police.

The 27-year-old was arrested at a home in Granville in western Sydney on Saturday after several items alleged to be linked to the incident were seized by the strike force.

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Two dead in separate stabbings in NSW

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Police are investigating after the deaths of a 16-year-old boy in Dubbo and a 28-year-old man in Sydney’s Quakers Hill

Two people have died after separate stabbings in New South Wales overnight.

Police are investigating the death of a man found with stab wounds in Sydney’s north-west, and the stabbing death of a teenager in the state’s west.

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Anglo American rejects £31bn takeover offer from mining rival BHP

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All-share proposal had potential to be one of biggest deals in sector for decade but deemed ‘opportunistic’

The board of Anglo American, the London-listed mining company, has rejected a “highly unattractive” £31bn takeover approach from its Australian rival BHP.

BHP’s all-share proposed offer for Anglo American had the potential to be one of the biggest deals in the global mining sector for a decade but has attracted criticism from Anglo’s shareholders as being too low and “highly opportunistic”.

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Australian Muslim leaders call out ‘questionable law enforcement tactics’ that led to arrest of minors

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Muslim organisations say they were not consulted before counter-terrorism raids that resulted in arrests relating to a church stabbing in Sydney

Representatives of the Australian Muslim community have called out what they called “questionable law enforcement tactics” after seven minors were arrested and six of them charged with counter-terrorism-related offences this week.

Three major bodies, the Australian National Imams Council, the Alliance of Australian Muslims and the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, have also demanded the government revise Australia’scounter-terrorism laws, saying they “target specific communities”.

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Scott Farquhar to resign as joint CEO of Atlassian

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Co-founder leaving ‘to spend more time with his young family, improve the world via philanthropy, and help further the technology industry globally’

Scott Farquhar, the Australian tech billionaire and joint chief executive of software company Atlassian, will step down from his role at the end of August to spend time with his young family and focus on philanthropy, the company says.

Farquhar’s co-CEO, Mike Cannon-Brookes, will lead the Sydney-headquartered company, which has found huge success developing software that allows teams to coordinate resources on complex projects.

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Bruce Lehrmann to pay Peter FitzSimons thousands in legal costs

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Lehrmann will pay the columnist $4,616 to cover cost of producing documents during failed defamation case against Channel Ten and Lisa Wilkinson

Bruce Lehrmann has agreed to pay the columnist and author Peter FitzSimons’ costs for complying with a subpoena during Lehrmann’s failed defamation proceedings against Network Ten and former Project presenter Lisa Wilkinson.

Lehrmann lost his defamation case against Network Ten and Wilkinson in the federal court earlier this month. Justice Michael Lee found on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins on a minister’s couch in Parliament House in 2019. Lehrmann has consistently denied the allegation and pleaded not guilty at the criminal trial into the matter which was aborted due to juror misconduct.

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Urban Rampage banned from using Centrepay to sign up mostly Indigenous customers to credit arrangements

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Asic finds arrangements posed ‘significant risk’ of financial hardship but clothing store says it will appeal ‘racist and paternalistic decision’

The Australian Security and Investments Commission has permanently banned the clothing store Urban Rampage from using the government’s Centrepay system to sign up mostly vulnerable Indigenous customers to “inherently inappropriate” credit arrangements that place them at risk of financial harm.

Coral Coast Distributors – which operates 10 Urban Rampage stores in regional and remote locations across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, selling household items – can no longer sign-up customers into Centrepay credit arrangements.

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Taylor Swift makes Arias history; Tucker Carlson and Clive Palmer to headline ‘Australian freedom conferences’ – as it happened

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As we reported, X has provided an update on its legal challenge against Australia’s eSafety commissioner, stating it had complied with a direction to remove content from the Wakeley church stabbing.

However, underneath the post from the platform’s global government affairs team (which we quoted in our previous post), the video is available to watch in a reply to the post, as of 7.45am AEST.

The eSafety Commissioner required X to remove posts containing a video of the attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, filmed by an innocent bystander. [The bishop] has expressed his desire for the video to remain online.

X believes it has complied with the notice issued by eSafety, and with Australian law, by restricting all the posts at issue in Australia.

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‘No one is above the law’: police data reveals sexual assault among charges laid against 78 Victorian officers

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Sexual assault, intentionally causing injury and unlawful assault among most common charges against police

Dozens of police officers in Victoria are facing criminal charges, including sexual assault and intentionally causing injury.

A total of 78 officers and public transport police, known as Protective Services Officers, were facing charges for criminal or traffic offences as of 16 April.

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Gardener charged with murder after alleged attack on elderly Brisbane couple

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A 26-year-old Beachmere man has been charged with one count of murder and one count of attempted murder

Homicide detectives have charged a man with murder after a man was found dead and a woman suffered serious head injuries at a home north of Brisbane.

Det Insp David Harbison said it was not a domestic violence-related incident and the 26-year-old man was not previously known to the victims.

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