Category Archives: Australia news

Prominent Australians urge Albanese government to adopt activist middle power role to head off war between US and China

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Statement signed by former foreign ministers, a Nobel laureate and academics outlines anxieties about possibility of conflict in Indo-Pacific region

Australia must step up diplomatic efforts to “avert the horror of great power conflict” and reduce the risk of being dragged into a war between the US and China, according to 50 prominent Australians.

The group, who include the former foreign ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans, is urging the Albanese government to play an “activist middle power” role to reduce tensions between Australia’s top security ally and its biggest trading partner.

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Millions of Australians at risk of being stung by fire ants each year, experts warn

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Inquiry into invasive pest hears of risks species poses to health, agriculture and environment if it becomes endemic

Fire ants could sting 8.6 million Australians a year if they were to become endemic – but a pathogenic fungus and pesticide-loaded drones might help avert that scenario, according to submissions posed to the federal government’s fire ants inquiry.

Submissions to the Senate inquiry into red imported fire ants (Rifa) in Australia closed on Monday, just days after the latest in a string of fire ant detections beyond south-east Queensland, where an infestation of the invasive pest is ongoing.

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Melbourne weathers its first January without a ‘hot’ day since 1984

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Temperatures have not topped 35C since March last year as summer heatwaves skip Victorian capital

Melbourne is about to mark an unusual milestone. So far this summer the Bureau of Meteorology has not classified any single day as “hot” – that is, above 35C.

While other parts of the country have sweltered through severe heatwaves, the first month of 2024 has recorded no days above 35C, as observed at the BoM’s Melbourne Olympic Park weather station. On 12 January it was 33.4C and on 13 December it was 34C, but the last time the city’s mercury nudged over 35C was 18 March last year.

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Australia maintains corruption ranking as government urged to do more on whistleblowers

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Transparency International index positions nation at 14th, as head of group talks of reducing big money’s influence on politics and whistleblower protections

Australia’s reputation on corruption has remained steady in the latest world rankings but the Albanese government has been urged to do more to protect whistleblowers.

The annual corruption perceptions index, released by Transparency International on Tuesday, has placed Australia at 14th, maintaining its score of 75 out of 100. It uses expert views to rate countries on possible corruption in public services.

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‘Shock and disappointment’ among some Labor MPs over Victorian government’s decision on duck hunting ban

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‘Baffled’ MPs express alarm at ‘captain’s call’ while premier Jacinta Allan says cabinet followed ‘normal process’ in a ‘consensus decision’

Some Victorian Labor MPs were “shocked and disappointed” by the decision to continue to allow duck hunting in the state, despite a recommendation from a government-initiated inquiry.

After a marathon three-hour meeting on Monday, cabinet rejected a recommendation from a Labor-led parliamentary inquiry to ban the divisive practice, which would have brought the state into line with New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland.

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Celeste Manno murderer Luay Sako faked psychosis symptoms, Victorian supreme court hears

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Man who stalked 23-year-old Melbourne woman pretended he was experiencing psychosis when he killed her, psychiatrist tells court

A man who stabbed a young woman to death repeatedly faked symptoms of psychosis while being assessed for a mental impairment defence, a court has heard.

Luay Sako, 39, told three psychiatrists there was a being called “Isha” who encouraged him to kill 23-year-old Celeste Manno in the early hours of 16 November 2020.

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Storms leave some Queensland residents ‘traumatised’ amid warnings of more heavy rain

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Roads are cut off, more than 20 schools closed and a town flooded after heavy rainfall inundated south-east Queensland, sparking multiple rescues

A relentless series of storms is starting to take an emotional toll on people in Queensland’s south-east as the Bureau of Meteorology warns of more heavy rain to come.

Roads are cut off, more than 20 schools are closed and a town is flooded after heavy rainfall inundated the region, sparking multiple rescues.

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Howard-era files on Iraq war went missing due to ‘major breakdown’, inquiry finds

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Inability of staff to inspect cabinet records means they were were not released to the national archives, as was usual

A “forgotten” box of cabinet records and a series of administrative errors are among the reasons why a tranche of Howard-era documents was mistakenly kept from public release earlier this year.

An independent review into why 82 cabinet records from 2003 were not handed to the national archives, released on Tuesday, found there was no political interference or influence at play.

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Mayor issues flood warning – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

We’ve just spoken to St Vincent’s hospital and confirmed that the woman bitten by a shark in Sydney Harbour last night remains in hospital in a stable condition.

The woman, in her late 20s, was bitten on the right leg by a suspected bull shark in Elizabeth Bay last night.

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Australian-linked mining companies helping to prop up Myanmar military junta, report alleges

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Activist group Justice for Myanmar alleges companies have continued operations in war-torn nation since the coup almost three years ago

Australian-linked mining companies are continuing to operate in Myanmar, helping to support the military junta and the junta-dominated mining sector, a new report alleges.

The activist group Justice for Myanmar released a report Tuesday detailing the activities of mining companies either linked to Australia or backed by Australian investors, which it alleges have continued their operations in the war-torn nation since the coup almost three years ago.

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Australian properties for lease fall to record low as rents soar

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PropTrack report finds number of December listings 30.2% below past decade’s monthly average as housing advocates say government policies are failing

Tenants are continuing to feel the pain of rising rents with the number of listings falling to another record low, according to the PropTrack Rental Report.

The report, released on Tuesday, found that total rental listings on realestate.com.au in December were at a record low, sitting 30.2% below the average over the past decade for the month.

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Australia to spend $80m on business case for Sydney-Newcastle high speed rail

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The announcement of a business case budget is the latest development in the Albanese government’s slow moving high speed rail project

The Albanese government will spend $80m developing a business case for the Sydney-to-Newcastle stretch of its east coast high speed rail line, as the decades-long project inches further forward.

The transport minister, Catherine King, said the allocation of $78.8m was part of Labor’s $500m election commitment to the early stages of high speed rail, with the initial Sydney-Newcastle leg representing a “crucial waypoint” on the project.

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Guardian Essential poll: one in two voters back stage-three tax cuts changes

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Labor’s bid to skew package towards low- and middle-income earners given boost, as only 22% say it should go ahead unchanged

Almost half of voters support revising the stage-three tax cuts to help low- and middle-income earners while only about one in five believe the plan should go ahead unchanged in July.

That is the result of the Guardian Essential poll of 1,201 voters, which provides a boost for the Albanese government’s plan to reform the tax package, finding only 22% of respondents agreed the previously legislated cuts should be left untouched.

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Australian air fares halved when three carriers rather than one fly route, data reveals

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Assistant competition minister Andrew Leigh says it is often cheaper to fly from Darwin to Singapore than to Sydney as Labor targets monopolies

Ticket prices are halved when three airlines fly a route compared with a monopoly situation and fares fall further as more rivals are added, according to new findings designed to inform Australia’s competition and merger laws.

The assistant competition minister, Andrew Leigh, will tell a Melbourne audience on Tuesday there are worrying signs that competition intensity has weakened over recent decades, with evidence of increased market concentration and profit markups in several industries.

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Fears back-to-back cyclones may have damaged Great Barrier Reef

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Strong waves and sediment-laden freshwater pushed out from river catchments may have damaged parts of reef system, experts say

Back-to-back cyclones crossing the Great Barrier Reef have experts concerned vast flood plumes and heavy waves may have damaged parts of the world’s biggest coral reef system.

Reef scientists and conservationists went into the summer worried that an El Niño weather pattern would elevate the risk of mass coral bleaching.

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Australia news live: NSW police say neo-Nazis rallying in Sydney ‘may well be recruiting’; PM plays down being booed at tennis

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Paterson calls for ‘swift and decisive action’ against neo-Nazi groups

Over the weekend, NSW premier Chris Minns doubled down on his push to tighten anti-vilification laws after a group of neo-Nazis attempted to hold another rally in a public park.

I’d like to see swift and decisive action taken against these neo-Nazi groups who have no place in Australia.

I never thought we would see [something like this] in such a demonstrable way in a pluralistic country like Australia.

It’s the reason why the federal parliament, before Christmas, went to the extraordinary step of passing laws to ban Nazi symbols being publicly displayed, to ban the Nazi salute. And it’s critically important that those laws are rigorously enforced so that people understand there are consequences for this action.

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War crime accused seeks bail change to fly across Australia

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Oliver Jordan Schulz, who is accused of murder over the shooting of a young Afghan, applied for his bail conditions to be loosened

A former SAS soldier and accused war criminal requires assessment by police checking in on him while on bail because his military training presents a physical danger, a court has heard.

Oliver Jordan Schulz, 42, is expected to be able to fly to Perth to visit his lawyers after a bail variation hearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre local court on Monday.

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Snowtown ‘bodies-in-the-barrels’ accomplice Mark Ray Haydon due for release in May

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SA government seeks legal advice on whether new laws criminalising concealing or interfering with human remains could keep inmate in jail

A man imprisoned for his involvement the Snowtown murders, one of Australia’s most notorious crimes, could be free within months.

Mark Ray Haydon was convicted for his role in the so-called “bodies in the barrels” murders in Snowtown, South Australia, in the 1990s. Eight of the 11 people killed were found in barrels in a disused bank vault in the town, which is 150km north of Adelaide. A 12th death was linked to the killers.

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Victoria’s Robinsons Bookshop apologises after owner’s call for more ‘white kids’ on book covers

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Susanne Horman’s comments have been ‘taken out of context’ and ‘misrepresented’, business says

Victoria’s oldest independent bookshop has apologised after its owner called for more picture books with “just white kids on the cover” and claimed that the chain would stop stocking “woke agenda” content that divided people.

Susanne Horman, the owner of Robinsons Bookshop chain, posted a series of tweets in December where she called for an “substantial shift” in Australian publishing, arguing the focus should be in line with public opinion, requests for books and “for what is good”.

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Working-class communities in Coalition-held seats the biggest winners in Labor’s stage-three tax cuts overhaul

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Nearly 90% of areas in Australia better off under new plan, with taxpayers in remote and regional communities to gain the most, ANU analysis shows

Working-class communities in Coalition-held remote and regional electorates stand to gain the most from Labor’s proposed changes to income tax cuts, while voters in the byelection seat of Dunkley are also big winners.

The average taxpayer in Whitsunday, in the electorate of Dawson, East Pilbara in Durack, and Cairns in Leichhardt stands to gain over $600 more from Labor’s package than the Morrison government’s stage-three tax cuts, according to an analysis by the Australian National University associate professor Ben Phillips.

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