Category Archives: Australia news

Australia joins international call for local content quotas on streaming TV platforms

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Statement from peak bodies argues independence and viability of global screen industry under threat unless mandatory quotas for non-US content introduced

Australia has joined an international campaign calling on governments to provide better protection for local screen industries in a market dominated by global streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.

Screen Producers Australia (SPA) issued a joint statement with counterparts in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Canada, demanding regulation to force streaming services to make content that is relevant to local markets where they operate.

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Consultants reported more than 520 conflicts of interest during audit of Australian aged care

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Commissioner says high number of real, potential or perceived declarations reflects a ‘robust conflict management processes’ but union says figure is ‘staggering’

Four consultancy firms reported more than 520 real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest while being paid more than $40m to audit the safety and quality of aged care homes over two years.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) last year revealed some of the audits were rejected as they did not meet standards set by the federal government, which needed to launch a specialist unit to support the consultants and improve their work.

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Traditional owners call for special rights to prevent government repossessing land as Victoria prepares for treaty talks

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Indigenous traditional owner groups and advocates submit major land reform proposals to state’s truth-telling commission

Victorian traditional owner groups are calling for special land rights to prevent land they own from ever being repossessed by the government, as the state prepares for nation-first treaty talks to begin this year.

Indigenous traditional owner groups and Aboriginal advocacy organisations have submitted major land reform proposals to the state’s Indigenous truth-telling commission which is this year investigating housing and land inequality facing First Nations Victorians. The inquiry’s recommendations could inform treaty negotiations which are scheduled to begin later this year.

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Centrelink staff claim toilet breaks are being timed by management in ‘intrusive’ crackdown

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Call centre workers say systems are monitoring their performance minute-by-minute in bid to improve wait times

Centrelink call centre staff claim they are being monitored minute-by-minute, including the length of their bathroom breaks, as part of a management-led crackdown to improve average call wait times that have blown out to nearly double in the last year.

Staff spoke to Guardian Australia on the condition of anonymity, for fear of losing their jobs, claiming management systems, which assist team leaders in capturing call time figures and monitoring staff activities, acted more like a surveillance system, describing them as “intrusive and stressful”.

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Victorian Labor at odds with federal party on industrial relations bill

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State treasurer Tim Pallas warns amendments will encourage unions to refuse to bargain as he seeks meeting with Tony Burke

The Victorian government and employer groups have raised the alarm about amendments to Labor’s industrial relations bill, warning they will embolden unions to refuse to bargain with industry.

The Victorian treasurer, Tim Pallas, has written to the federal workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, warning the amendments will guarantee unions “will be no worse off on a clause by clause basis” if they dig in and seek an arbitrated outcome from the industrial umpire, encouraging unions to do so.

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China lodges protests at Australia’s response to Taiwan’s presidential election

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Ambassador says there is ‘no room at all’ for compromise on ‘sensitive’ issue, and offers gloomy assessment on prospects for release of writer Dr Yang Hengjun

China has lodged diplomatic protests with Australia for congratulating the winner of Taiwan’s presidential election, with the Chinese ambassador warning there is “no room at all” for compromise on the “sensitive” issue.

China’s top envoy in Australia, Xiao Qian, also dashed hopes that the Australian writer Dr Yang Hengjun might be released from custody in a similar manner to the Australian journalist Cheng Lei last year.

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Conservative politicians stoking Australia Day debate online with paid ads, analysis finds

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Several Liberal MPs share advertisements on Facebook lobbying against changing the date after Woolworths’ decision to pull national merchandise

Conservative politicians are dominating Facebook advertising about changing the date of Australia Day, analysis shows.

After Woolworths announced last week that it would no longer stock Australia Day merchandise due to declining demand, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, condemned the move as an “outrage” born from the retailer’s “woke agenda”, and said most Australians likely thought the same.

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Australia may ask tech companies to label content generated by AI platforms such as ChatGPT

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New report reveals low public trust of growing technology as government pledges stricter regulation for ‘high risk’ products

Tech companies could be asked to watermark or label content generated by artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT as the federal government grapples with “high risk” AI products evolving faster than legislation.

The industry and science minister, Ed Husic, will on Wednesday release the government’s response to a consultation process on Safe and responsible AI in Australia, which cites McKinsey research to suggest adopting AI and automation could grow Australia’s GDP by up to $600bn a year.

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Australia urged to speed up visas for Afghan women who fear being sent back to Taliban rule

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Many waiting for a ticket to Australia are in Pakistan, where local authorities are undertaking a mass deportation

Afghan women’s rights defenders who have fled the Taliban’s rule say they are at risk of imminent return to Afghanistan by Pakistani authorities, prompting calls for the Australian government to step in and expedite their protection visas.

The federal government has received more than 215,000 humanitarian visa requests from Afghan nationals since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, granting 15,852 visas so far as of December 2023.

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Labor to increase humanitarian funding as Penny Wong warns she is ‘gravely concerned’ by Gaza conditions

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Foreign minister begins Middle East visit by announcing funding for those in Occupied Palestinian Territories affected by conflict and to address refugee crisis

The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, has begun a visit to the Middle East by pledging to nearly double humanitarian funding while saying she is “gravely concerned” by worsening conditions in Gaza.

After talks in Jordan on Tuesday, Wong announced $21.5m in new funding “directed to conflict-affected populations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to address the ongoing regional refugee crisis, with a focus on women and children”.

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ABC Sydney staff threaten to strike over termination of radio host Antoinette Lattouf

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Comes as national broadcaster files its response to wrongful dismissal claim brought by presenter

ABC journalists in the broadcaster’s Sydney offices have threatened a walkout unless management addresses concerns over the handling of the termination of radio host Antoinette Lattouf.

On Tuesday morning, the Sydney Morning Herald reported it had seen a chain of leaked WhatsApp messages showing a letter-writing campaign from pro-Israel lobbyists targeting the ABC managing director, David Anderson, and the chair, Ita Buttrose, in the week starting 18 December over Lattouf’s December fill-in job on ABC radio in Sydney.

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BMA Saraji coalmine incident: worker crushed to death at Queensland mine

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Mining safety regulator launches investigation after 27-year-old man killed at BHP-owned mine in the Bowen Basin

The mining safety regulator has begun an investigation after an employee was crushed to death at a central Queensland coalmine on Monday.

The 27-year-old man was working at southern section of the BMA Saraji coalmine located in the Bowen Basin, near Dysart, south-west of Mackay. The mine is owned by BHP.

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News live: Australia was ‘aware in advance’ of Nauru’s decision to sever ties with Taiwan, Conroy says

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Meanwhile, Penny Wong begins Middle East visit amid mounting fears of escalating violence in the crisis-torn region. Follow the day’s news live

Western Australian police have confirmed that child abuse detectives are currently in Broome as part of an ongoing investigation into historic child sex offences.

The ABC reported that they were searching a property owned by the Catholic Church, where Broome’s former Catholic bishop Christopher Saunders lived up until late last year.

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Electric vehicles: number of charging sites in Australia projected to double by end of 2024

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EV market analyst says Australia’s charging network is now growing at a faster rate than the EV fleet

Electric vehicle charging sites will double in Australia again over the coming year, according to a new report, on top of record-breaking growth over the past 12 months.

The analysis, released by consulting firm Next System, found the number of car-charging sites surged by 90% in Australia during 2023.

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Santos’s $5.8bn Barossa gas pipeline project can go ahead after Tiwi Islanders lose court battle

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Federal court has lifted temporary injunction preventing construction work on part of the pipeline route

Santos’s $5.8bn Barossa offshore gas project has taken another step forward after the federal court dismissed a legal challenge by a group of Tiwi Islanders to the construction of a pipeline.

In a decision on Monday, Justice Natalie Charlesworth dismissed the legal action and lifted a temporary injunction that had prevented Santos from beginning construction work in an area on the pipeline route.

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More than half of those applying for domestic violence payment are rejected, data shows

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The escaping violence payment is not getting to people when they need it, say advocates who want the eligibility criteria broadened

More than half of people trying to access emergency financial support for domestic and family violence are having their claims rejected, new data has revealed.

Between July and September last year 57,041 applications were made for the escaping violence payment (EVP) but only 29,437 were found eligible, according to data released in response to a question on notice during Senate estimates.

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Psychologist treating children in Cairns watch house warns of ‘horrendous’ and ‘inhumane’ conditions

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Exclusive: Government is failing to meet basic needs of youth in Queensland lockup, putting staff at ‘risk of harm’, psychologist alleges

A senior psychologist treating children in the Cairns police watch house sent a “cry for help” letter detailing “horrendous” conditions and alleged human rights abuses in the lockup, including claims young people are not being provided adequate food, medical attention or legal support.

The letter, seen by Guardian Australia, was sent to senior Queensland officials and several others on Monday by Andrea Bates, a psychologist with the Cairns court liaison service.

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Freed immigration detainee sues Australian government for damages for alleged false imprisonment

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Stateless Kurdish man’s compensation case is the first sparked by high court ruling that indefinite detention is unlawful

A stateless Kurdish man released from immigration detention is seeking “aggravated” and “compensatory” damages for alleged false imprisonment – the first such case sparked by the high court’s ruling that indefinite detention is unlawful.

The intellectually impaired man, known as DVU18, has sued the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, through a litigation guardian, in a case that could pave the way for the 149 people released to sue for hundreds of thousands of dollars of compensation each.

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Weather tracker: first red cyclone warning for Réunion since 1989

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Cyclone Belal is expected to remain a strong storm through the coming week

Active weather is expected to affect northern Australia and parts of the Mascarene Islands in the south Indian Ocean this week, with the monsoon trough a triggering factor in both cases.

The monsoon trough is an area of the Intertropical Convergence Zone that interacts with the larger scale monsoon circulation. This trough is marked by an area of relative minima in sea level pressure, as well as a local maximum of vorticity (a measure of the spin of the atmosphere).

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A wild baggy green chase? The mystery of David Warner’s missing caps

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After the cricketer made a nationwide plea for their return, the caps were found in a ‘half-coffin’ cricket bag. But how did they get there?

The mystery surrounding the whereabouts of David Warner’s “missing” baggy greens has been solved – or has it?

The retiring batsman sparked an intensive manhunt, and national discussion, after he appealed for the return of his prized baggy greens on the eve of his last Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

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