Category Archives: Australia news

Australia news live: dozens paddle out in Sydney and Newcastle in solidarity with Gaza Flotilla; PM commits another $1.8bn to urgent care clinics

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Parents of Australian who was detained by IDF call for stronger government response. Follow updates live

Canavan defends Coalition decision to preference One Nation ahead of independent in Farrer: ‘Socialists and communists always go last’

Matt Canavan said he understood why voters in Farrer, set for a byelection next Saturday, were disillusioned with the federal opposition.

I‘ve been down there for 20 days, 15 nights – and 10 of those I’ve been in a swag – over the past month.

I’m doing everything I can to fight for them. I’d love to fight for that great part of our country again, it’s a wonderful part of our nation where we pioneered the use of irrigation and dams. It still produces 40% of our food, 60% of our fruit.

Under my leadership, [in] my view, socialists and communists always go last.

I think we need to really see how the overseas conflict evolves, how prices evolve for oil. But I think, you know, it is doing what it was intended to do. It’s not a silver bullet, but it is providing material support for people. And as I said, it’s providing support for people who are really doing it tough when they can’t shift away from using petrol.

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Barnaby Joyce blames campaign ‘pressure’ after One Nation Farrer candidate contradicts party on immigration

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David Farley says net overseas migration of 306,000 ‘probably not’ too much despite party policy to cap migrants at 130,000 per year

Barnaby Joyce has blamed “the pressure of a campaign” for One Nation’s Farrer candidate contradicting party policy on immigration and appearing to endorse Labor’s current intake.

The One Nation MP also claimed voters won’t worry about Gina Rinehart’s million-dollar donation of a private plane to Pauline Hanson’s party, claiming journalists were more interested than ordinary people in the lucrative gift from Rinehart’s company.

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Jefferson Lewis charged with murder over death of Kumanjayi Little Baby near Alice Springs

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Warlpiri girl went missing on Saturday 25 April from a town camp and was found dead five days later

  • Warning: This article contains references to Indigenous Australians who have died

Northern Territory police have charged Jefferson Lewis with murder over the death of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby.

The Warlpiri girl went missing on Saturday 25 April from her bed in a town camp near Alice Springs.

Indigenous Australians can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for information and crisis support; or call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Mensline on 1300 789 978

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Liberals claim victory in Nepean byelection ahead of state poll

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Anthony Marsh appears to be in commanding position in significant boost to opposition leader Jess Wilson

The Liberals have claimed victory in a key Victorian byelection seen as a preview of what to expect when the rest of the state hits the polls in November.

As counting continued in the Mornington peninsula seat of Nepean, the Liberal candidate, Anthony Marsh, appeared to be in a commanding position in a significant boost to opposition leader Jess Wilson.

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Record-breaking May warmth soon to blow away as cold front moves towards eastern Australia

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Daytime temperatures on Friday were 10 to 14C above average in four states

Record-breaking warm temperatures for the start of May in many parts of the country will be washed out by a cold front bringing rain, thunderstorms and much cooler weather.

A high-pressure system dragged warm northerly winds across south-east Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said.

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Kumanjayi Little Baby’s relatives share grief at ‘child ripped away’ as NT chief minister foreshadows charges

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Gurindji families mourn ‘a life so precious, gone far too soon’

  • Warning: This article contains images of and references to Indigenous Australians who have died

Kumanjayi Little Baby’s relatives have released a statement saying they felt “helpless” when they heard she was missing, and hope their community can unite in grief.

“A life so precious, so full of innocence, gone far too soon,” the Gurindji families said of the five-year-old Warlpiri girl, who was found dead in Alice Springs on Thursday evening – five days after she had gone missing from her bed in the Old Timers town camp.

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Federal government accused of watering down proposal to protect Australia’s threatened species and ecosystems

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Wilderness Society says changes undermined intent of national standards intended to reverse decline of plants, animals and ecosystems

Green groups have accused the Albanese government of watering down a proposal to protect threatened species and ecosystems.

National environmental standards were the key plank of reforms to Australia’s nature laws, passed by the parliament in November.

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‘Profoundly distressing’: record number of deaths in custody and police operations in NSW

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There were 66 deaths in custody and police operations in 2025 – 18 more than the previous year

  • Warning: This article contains references to Indigenous Australians who have died

There were a record number of New South Wales deaths in custody and police operations last year, with almost a quarter of prisoner deaths recorded as self-harm, a coroner’s court report states.

Of those who killed themselves, most were by hanging, despite millions being invested to remove ligature points.

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Australian hiker missing in Nova Scotia national park not heard from for two weeks

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Denise Ann Williams, 62, was last heard from on 15 April, when she told her family she was travelling to the west coast of Cape Breton Island in Canada’s east

A search is underway in Canada for a 62-year-old Australian woman who was reported missing on Tuesday while hiking in a coastal national park in the country’s south-east.

Denise Ann Williams was last heard from on 15 April, when she told family she was travelling to Chéticamp, a fishing village on the west coast of Cape Breton Island in the province of Nova Scotia.

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The Bondi terror report raises more questions than answers about the massacre – and illuminated its horror

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The 155-page interim report released on Thursday shows how little is known – and can be shared – about the 14 December shooting

If there’s one thing that’s clear from the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion’s 155-page interim report, it’s how much about the Bondi massacre remains unknown – and how little of what is known can be shared with the public.

More than a third of the recommendations from the report – which was released on Thursday – were confidential, although the Albanese government plans to implement all of them.

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Guardian Essential poll: Australians want higher tax on gas exports and extension of petrol excise cut

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The fuel crisis is seeing more voters keen to shift to renewable energy rather than stick with fossil fuels

Most Australians support taxing profits from gas exports and extending the cut to the fuel excise, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, despite Anthony Albanese on Wednesday ruling out a new tax on existing gas export contracts.

The poll also found the fuel crisis is seeing more voters keen to shift to renewable energy rather than stick with fossil fuels. Australians also say they are already cutting back on travel, switching to public transport and reducing their use of aircon and heating amid the global fuel uncertainty.

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Australia’s use of methamphetamine has doubled in a decade, wastewater monitoring reveals

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Consumption is at a record high along with that of cocaine, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission figures show

Methamphetamine use in Australia has almost doubled in the past decade and stimulants are being taken at record highs, new wastewater monitoring reveals.

On Wednesday evening the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (Acic) released its latest annual report after testing wastewater samples from 64 treatment plants across the country between August 2024 and 2025.

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Rebel Wilson rejects ‘absolutely outrageous’ phone-dumping accusation as defamation trial continues

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The Pitch Perfect actor is being sued by Charlotte MacInnes, the lead actor of Wilson’s directorial debut, The Deb

Hollywood star Rebel Wilson has rejected an “absolutely outrageous” accusation that she dumped her phone to avoid handing over key communications in a defamation case.

The Pitch Perfect star is being sued by Charlotte MacInnes, the 27-year-old lead actor of the musical comedy The Deb.

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Beau Lamarre-Condon’s mother charged after allegedly attempting to influence key witness in double murder trial

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Coleen Lamarre, 63, charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to trial over alleged murders of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird

The mother of a former police officer who allegedly murdered Luke Davies and Jesse Baird two years ago has been charged after allegedly attempting to influence a key witness to change their evidence in her son’s trial.

New South Wales police said Coleen Lamarre, 63, was arrested in Balmain and charged with perverting the course of justice, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

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Trump administration labels Australia’s media bargaining laws ‘foreign extortion’

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Albanese defends plan forcing Meta, Google and TikTok to make deals with Australian news publishers through a levy

The Trump administration has described Australia’s moves to make big tech companies pay for news online as “extortion” but Anthony Albanese defended the plan by saying it was about protecting and rewarding media outlets for the work they produce.

Labor’s plan to encourage Meta, Google and TikTok to make deals with Australian news publishers, or face a 2.25% levy, is likely to be supported by the Coalition and Greens in parliament. But a bigger problem may be the ire of Donald Trump, who has strongly opposed extra regulation being imposed on US-based tech companies. A major tech industry lobby group on Wednesday urged the White House to consider retaliatory trade measures.

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Brittany Higgins criticises federal inaction as Victoria moves to protect victim-survivors’ counselling records

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Exclusive: State government commits to strengthening laws as Higgins labels Albanese government’s response to women’s safety issues ‘disheartening’

The Victorian government will strengthen laws regarding the use of victim-survivors’ confidential communications after a push by advocates including Brittany Higgins, who described her experience of having counselling records subpoenaed as a “violation”.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, Higgins was also critical of the federal government’s lack of action following a sweeping review into the justice system’s responses to sexual violence, saying it had “completely fallen off the agenda”.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Guardian Essential poll: more Australians approve of Hanson’s party leadership than Albanese or Taylor’s

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One Nation outperforms the Coalition for the first time, while the rightwing populist party’s leader has a positive rating among all age groups

A majority of surveyed Australians approve of Pauline Hanson’s leadership of One Nation, giving her a higher job approval rating than Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor, as the Guardian Essential poll finds the rightwing populist party is outperforming the Coalition for the first time.

The results come as Australians are becoming more pessimistic about the country and the economy, with the majority of respondents saying they expected things to get worse in coming months.

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‘Culture of misogyny’: teacher surrounded by hundreds of students and pelted with food at elite Brisbane boys’ school, court told

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Teacher at Marist College Ashgrove claims she suffered ‘serious psychiatric injury’ after the schoolyard incident, as school claims matter has been dealt with

A teacher at one of Brisbane’s top private boys’ schools has claimed she was subject to a “culture of misogyny” after being surrounded by hundreds of Catholic school students and pelted with food in an incident that left her with a “serious psychiatric injury”.

A barrister acting for Victoria Sparrow, a teacher at Marist College Ashgrove, told the Brisbane supreme court that the school allowed a culture of misogyny to “develop and exist”.

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Indigenous woman dies weeks after giving birth and being evicted from public housing: ‘She was failed completely’

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Noongar woman Mary Ann Miller died of sepsis while homeless to avoid an allegedly abusive ex-partner

The family of an Aboriginal mother of seven who died just weeks after giving birth say the Western Australian government knew she was experiencing domestic violence and fearing for her safety weeks before her death.

Mary Ann Miller died of sepsis in Fiona Stanley hospital on 28 March, two weeks after giving birth to her son and after she was allegedly assaulted and had her nose broken by her former partner. Guardian Australia is not suggesting the alleged assault contributed to her death.

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Australians will call ‘bullshit’ on green energy without clear benefits, Rudd warns

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Former prime minister says policies will lose support without continued lower prices but sees some hope in US experience under Trump

Kevin Rudd has described Donald Trump’s cuts to support for green industries as “unfortunate”, warning that Australians would conclude the clean transition was “bullshit” if it did not offer tangible benefits to their lives.

But – in some of his first comments since finishing his term as Australia’s ambassador to the US – the former prime minister said climate policies would have staying power if they delivered affordable prices, a reliable energy supply and new job opportunities.

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