Category Archives: Australia news

Labor senator deletes Anzac Day Instagram post after mistakenly including raunchy rap song

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Images in Helen Polley’s post included a marching band, people laying wreaths and ex-serving members giving speeches set to a track by US rapper Chingy

A federal Labor senator has deleted a social media video which mistakenly included audio of an explicit rap song over a carousel of photos of Anzac Day commemorations.

Senator Helen Polley, a former shadow minister and current chair of parliament’s committee on law enforcement, posted a video compilation of images paying respect to Australia’s defence forces.

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Anti-immigration group claims it did not organise Anzac Day booing despite post asking ‘how loud will you be’

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Booing by rightwing groups of Indigenous leaders giving welcome to country speeches marred ceremonies for a second year running

An anti-immigration group has claimed it did not “organise” booing at welcome to country ceremonies at Anzac Day dawn services despite a social media post asking followers “how loud will you be this year”.

Booing by rightwing groups of Indigenous elders giving welcome to country speeches marred Anzac Day ceremonies for a second year running, and sparked another public debate about their role at public events. Uncle Ray Minniecon, who served in the armed forces and was booed while giving an acknowledgment of country at Sydney’s dawn service, said the mocking was “unexpected and unnecessary, but it happens”.

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Australia’s south-east set for drier and hotter winter as BoM forecasts potential El Niño

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Queensland and NSW set for lower than usual rainfall in May, June and July, while temperatures in most of the country likely to be higher than normal

Large parts of south-east Australia look set for drier and hotter conditions over the next three months as a potential El Niño weather phenomenon takes shape in the Pacific Ocean.

Much of Queensland and New South Wales are forecast to have lower than usual rainfall in May, June and July, with almost the entire country likely to experience hotter than average maximum temperatures.

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Gina Rinehart calls for immigrants’ social media to be screened in Anzac memorial speech

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Mining magnate also claims children are being taught to be ashamed of the Australian flag in a speech to 4,000 people on the Sydney Opera House steps

Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, called for immigrants’ social media to be screened and said children are being taught to be ashamed of the Australian flag in untelevised remarks before an Anzac memorial service on the steps of Sydney Opera House on Friday.

Rinehart’s public appearance was attended by about 4,000 people and sponsored by her company, Hancock Prospecting, and RSL New South Wales.

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Men accused of raping cellmates mistakenly allowed to stay in shared cells by Queensland prison staff

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Strict protocols violated by corrections staff who wrongly believed sexual assault cases were ‘closed’, ombudsman finds

Men charged with alleged prison rapes were allowed to stay in shared cells – against strict protocols – by Queensland corrections staff who mistakenly believed their cases were “closed” and that they posed no risk, a report by the state’s ombudsman has found.

The ombudsman’s inspection report of the Brisbane correctional centre raises a number of concerns about the facility, including extensive overcrowding, health facilities that are not fit for purpose and complaints that chicken served to detainees and staff is often undercooked.

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‘This has to be a wake-up call’: NSW attorney general urged to order inquest into death of Sydney’s ‘birdman’

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Alex Greenwich says inquest crucial to understand what failures led to Bikram Lama’s death and avoid similar deaths

The New South Wales attorney-general, Michael Daley, has been urged to order an inquest into the death of Nepali rough sleeper Bikram Lama in Hyde Park.

The death of Lama – who was also known as “the birdman” for his love of the area’s pigeons – has prompted widespread calls for change, after Guardian Australia revealed last week that the young migrant’s body lay unnoticed for up to a week in bushes near a busy thoroughfare into St James station.

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Patient allegedly attacks several nurses, police and member of the public at Sydney hospital

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Calls for more security measures after man, 51, arrested over alleged assaults at Prince of Wales hospital

A hospital attack that left a nurse seriously injured has fuelled calls for improved safety and security after several violent incidents in emergency departments.

Police restrained a 51-year-old patient after he allegedly assaulted several nurses, police and a member of the public in a Saturday night melee at Sydney’s Prince of Wales hospital.

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Australia news live: Canavan says ‘too much talk of diversity’ in address to Canberra anti-immigration rally – as it happened

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The health and NDIS minister, Mark Butler, says Queensland will be “answerable to their community” if they don’t sign on to NDIS reforms, with billions of dollars of hospital funding on the line.

Every state and territory except for the sunshine state has signed a bilateral agreement with the government for the Thriving Kids program, which is designed to take children under nine with developmental delays or low to moderate autism off the NDIS.

Now every state and territory has signed a bilateral agreement with us that details the broad details of the Thriving Kids program … The only state that hasn’t signed yet is Queensland.

I tried to make clear again last week that is part of the deal that sees them get additional hospital funding and, frankly, they are answerable to their community if they don’t put the additional supports.

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Police blocked people connected to anti-immigration group from Perth dawn service after Anzac Day booing in eastern states

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Footage posted online shows police telling people they were being removed due to suspicion they would interrupt ceremony

Western Australian police say they proactively blocked 15 members of “issue motivated groups” from attending Anzac Day commemorations, following disruptions that marred earlier ceremonies in the eastern states.

One man was arrested at the Sydney dawn service at Martin Place, where there was a small but noisy interjection of booing during the Indigenous acknowledgment of country. Booing also marred ceremonies in Melbourne and Perth.

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It costs $230 out-of-pocket to see a dermatologist. Many Australians go without – despite soaring skin cancer rates

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Exclusive: Report shows cost of first appointment rose $20 in one year, with steeper rises in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania

Patients are increasingly going without medically necessary dermatological care, the head of the Consumers Health Forum said, as new report reveals the rising cost of the specialty in Australia.

Dermatology is expensive and getting pricier, with an average first visit now costing an adult patient without concessions $230 out-of-pocket, while follow-up appointments cost almost $190, the report from health directory Cleanbill found.

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‘Racism is a cancer’: Indigenous leaders condemn orchestrated booing at Anzac Day ceremonies

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Uncle Jack Pearson, an army captain, says heckling ‘not in the Anzac spirit’ after welcome to country booed in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth

Indigenous leaders have condemned people who booed welcome to country speeches at Anzac Day dawn services across the country, with an army captain stating “racism is a cancer”.

Elders who spoke at services in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth on Saturday morning were booed following a campaign by Fight for Australia, the group formerly known as March for Australia, which has previously staged major anti-immigration rallies.

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Cory Bernardi repays more than $40,000 for flying on Gina Rinehart’s plane during SA election campaign

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Former Liberal party senator, who was elected to state upper house in March, says flights ‘worth every cent’

One Nation’s South Australian leader has paid back Australia’s richest person for private flights he took while campaigning in the state’s recent election.

Cory Bernardi confirmed on Saturday that he had reimbursed a “substantial” sum of money to Gina Rinehart’s company S Kidman & Co, to comply with new state laws that prohibit political parties and candidates from receiving electoral donations or gifts from individuals, businesses or unions.

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Indigenous speakers booed at Anzac Day services while Ben Roberts-Smith attends separate Gold Coast event

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Roberts-Smith, who has denied five charges of war crime murder, says he was always going to attend: ‘I never thought about not coming’

Booing has marred Anzac Day commemorations in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, while on the Gold Coast, the Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith attended the dawn service at Currumbin beach.

One man was arrested at the Sydney dawn service at Martin Place, where there was a small but noisy interjection of booing during the Indigenous acknowledgment of country.

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Australian women and children leave Syrian detention camp for Damascus – and potentially home

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Repatriation attempt comes after group was turned around when leaving camp in February. Albanese government says it’s not assisting cohort

Four Australian women and nine of their children and grandchildren have left al-Roj camp in north-east Syria, seeking to return to Australia.

The group is reportedly travelling across Syria by road to the capital Damascus, under the control of the Syrian government.

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Rebel Wilson accused of hacking fellow actor’s Snapchat, leading to nude photo leak

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Charlotte MacInnes, who is suing Wilson for defamation, says alleged cyber-attack was ‘completely terrifying and caused me a new kind of anxiety’

Hollywood star Rebel Wilson has been accused of orchestrating a cyber-attack on the social media account of a rising star which led to her nude photo being leaked.

The Pitch Perfect star is being sued by Charlotte MacInnes, the Australian lead actor of her recently released directorial debut, musical comedy The Deb.

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Ben Roberts-Smith to attend first Anzac Day service since war crime charges

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Former soldier says he will ‘pay my respects’ at commemoration in Queensland where he has been living since being released on bail

Ben Roberts-Smith will attend an Anzac Day service in Queensland on Saturday morning, describing the day as “sacred” to him, the first commemoration since he was criminally charged.

Roberts-Smith, the recipient of the Victoria Cross and once one of Australia’s most lionised soldiers, faces five charges of the war crime of murder, allegedly committed during his service with the SAS in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

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After collapse and controversy, Adelaide writers’ week has a new director: ‘I don’t envy anyone in this position’

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Rosemarie Milsom, who formed and runs Newcastle writers festival, will take over from Louise Adler after the literary festival imploded over invitation to Randa Abdel-Fattah

In January, as the implosion of Adelaide writers’ week made headlines around Australia and the world, Rosemarie Milsom was watching closely.

The Adelaide festival board, which oversees AWW, had overridden the literary festival’s director, Louise Adler, and disinvited the Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah over past comments she’d made about Israel and Zionism. This decision resulted not in a quieter, less-controversial festival as the board members may have hoped, but a boycott by 200-odd writers, the resignation of Adler – followed by the whole board – a potential defamation lawsuit against the South Australian premier and the collapse of AWW.

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‘A history of the Earth’: Twelve Apostles revealed to be as old as 14m years

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Tectonic plate movements over millions of years have lifted and tilted the layers, with records of ancient earthquakes in the rocks

Microscopic fossils embedded in limestone have helped reveal the true age of Victoria’s Twelve Apostles as 8.6m to 14m years old.

The conclave of giant golden pillars is visited by 2.8 million tourists each year, a highlight for those travelling along the Great Ocean Road south-west of Melbourne.

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Ben Roberts-Smith planned to leave Australia and researched buying wellness business in Spain, court documents show

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Partner of soldier accused of war crimes says the couple discussed possibility of moving overseas to ‘create some normalcy in our lives’

Ben Roberts-Smith was planning to leave Australia to live overseas and had a business class flight out of the country booked in four days’ time when he was arrested at Sydney airport this month, court documents allege, with investigators telling a court “his willingness to return to Australia to face prosecution cannot be judged”.

Roberts-Smith was ultimately granted bail last week under strict conditions, a move opposed by prosecutors who said there was potential concern he was a flight risk and might try to avoid ever having to face trial for a series of alleged murders he committed in Afghanistan.

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David Malouf, Australian author of Remembering Babylon and Ransom, dies aged 92

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Acclaimed Brisbane-born writer was known for his work exploring his own childhood, great myths and colonial Australia

David Malouf, the acclaimed Australian author of books including Ransom, An Imaginary Life and the Booker prize-nominated Remembering Babylon, has died aged 92.

Malouf died on Wednesday, his publisher, Penguin Random House Australia, said in a statement on Thursday.

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