Category Archives: Australia news

US officials monitored pro-Assange protests in Australia for ‘anti-US sentiment’, documents reveal

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Previously classified papers detail how the US embassy in Canberra responded to WikiLeaks’ release of embassy cables in 2010 and ‘sensationalist’ local media

American officials monitored pro-Assange protests in Australia for “anti-US sentiment”, warned of “increasing sympathy, particularly on the left” for the WikiLeaks founder in his home country and derided local media’s “sensationalist” reporting of the explosive 2010 cable leaks, previously classified records show.

Documents released by the US state department via freedom of information laws give new insight into how the US embassy in Canberra and its security team reacted to WikiLeaks’ release of 250,000 embassy cables in late 2010.

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Labor plan would give home affairs minister powers over critical infrastructure during cyber-attacks

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Clare O’Neil releases consultation paper on new cybersecurity legislation, which proposes changes to Security of Critical Infrastructure Act

Australia’s home affairs minister would be able to order critical infrastructure such as energy, transport or communications entities to take or cease action during a significant cybersecurity situation, under changes proposed by the federal government.

In related changes billed as a response to the 2022 Optus and Medibank incidents, the minister could also order companies to replace personal documents compromised in a data breach, or to share customer data with banks in a bid to prevent further fraud.

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Australia news live: Natasha Fyles resigns as Northern Territory chief minister; PM to visit north Queensland flood zones on Thursday

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Follow the latest updates live

Communities urged to exercise caution amid ‘huge volumes of water’

QFES commissioner Steve Smith has also made some comments on the flood situation up in Queensland.

There’s still huge volumes of water moving down through the systems, so at different points on the water, in the water catchments, they’re going to have rises. So we need people to stay informed, and they’ve done a great job in doing that. So we want that to continue with the support from community.

No. So we have commenced a search and rescue investigation into that. Degarra was one of the communities we couldn’t get into yesterday, but we have been speaking to a local man where there were a number of rescues completed yesterday in Degarra. So we have dispatched the water police vessel this morning, which left in the early hours of this morning and is on the way to that location. And in addition to that, we’ve now got rescue helicopters going that way as well.

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Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial: lip-reader tells court CCTV footage showed Brittany Higgins was being ‘plied with alcohol’ on night of alleged rape

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Lehrmann has sued Lisa Wilkinson and Network Ten for defamation in the federal court of Australia over Brittany Higgins interview on The Project. Follow updates

Justice Lee denies request from Brown’s team to clear court of all but accredited media

Justice Michael Lee has denied a request from Fiona Brown’s legal team that the court be cleared of everyone but accredited media.

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Man charged with murder after woman found dead at National zoo in Canberra

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The 29-year-old co-worker was refused bail after a woman was found dead with stab wounds on Monday

A man accused of stabbing his female co-worker to death at a Canberra zoo has been charged.

During a bedside hearing, the 29-year-old zoo worker was charged with one count of murder and refused bail.

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In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

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Daniel Duggan asks to be released from jail and detained at home as he fights extradition to US

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Australian pilot accused of training Chinese military denies he is a flight risk in letter requesting NSW home detention

An Australian pilot accused of accepting cash to illegally train Chinese military personnel has denied he is a flight risk and described himself as a model prisoner in a formal request to be released into home detention.

Daniel Duggan has written to the acting New South Wales corrections commissioner from Lithgow maximum security prison where he is being held in isolated custody while he fights extradition to the US.

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NSW bushfires: more than 60 blazes burning including out-of-control fire in Pilliga

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Duck Creek fire in the Pilliga forest burning out of control 20km south of Narrabri, while more bushfires hit Sydney and Hunter regions

Firefighters are tackling more than 60 blazes across New South Wales, including a giant out-of-control bushfire in the Pilliga forest in the state’s north-west that has been fuelling dangerous fire-generated thunderstorms.

The blaze at Duck Creek in the Pilliga forest was burning about 20km south of the town of Narrabri – home to more than 12,000 people – and a similar distance from Boggabri to the east on Tuesday morning.

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Convicted Melbourne terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika to be released from prison

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Electronic monitoring and rules on who he can associate with will be imposed by Victorian supreme court

Convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika is set to be released from prison within hours and placed on an extended supervision order that will force him to comply with 30 conditions, including electronic monitoring.

The Victorian supreme court heard on Tuesday that Benbrika would be released later on Tuesday – after spending nearly 20 years behind bars – after the order was finalised.

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Gina Rinehart launches joint bid for lithium miner amid demand for electric vehicles

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The $1.7bn offer for Azure Minerals comes during a rush of dealmaking for the metal used in batteries

Gina Rinehart has teamed up with a Chilean miner to take control of a prized lithium asset in the mineral-rich Pilbara, creating a path for Australia’s richest person to become a major producer of the key metal used in electric vehicle batteries.

Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting and Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM) lodged a $1.7bn bid for Azure Minerals, according to a stock exchange announcement on Tuesday.

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Two in five Australians had flight cancelled or delayed over 12 months, survey says

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Choice poll also finds less than half of all flight refunds are received within a month as government considers additional regulation

Less than half of Australians who seek a refund for a cancelled flight receive it within a month while one-fifth of those seeking a refund wait more than six months, a poll has found, as the government considers a compensation scheme and a passenger bill of rights.

The consumer advocate Choice also found, in a survey of about 9,000 Australians, that two in five respondents had a flight cancelled or delayed in the 12 months between October 2022 and this year.

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Extra $25bn needed to make NDIS sustainable by boosting other disability services, actuary says

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Chair of Actuaries Institute committee says money could go towards establishing early intervention programs for those with developmental delays

Governments will need to invest an additional $25bn over the next five years if they are to achieve plans to rein in the NDIS’s growth by lifting disability services outside the scheme to a high enough level, a leading actuary has estimated.

It comes as disability organisations, particularly those advocating for the autism community, raise concerns about who will be able to access the scheme in the future, and whether those who can’t join the NDIS can still be well supported.

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Shock and dismay as Cyclone Jasper defies expectations to inundate far north Queensland

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It was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill category two – but flooded streets and cut-off communities show an intensity that nobody saw coming

A lifelong resident of Machans Beach, just outside Cairns, Euan Williams had seen plenty of cyclones before. Once ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper passed over the community on Wednesday last week as a category-two storm, that confirmed it. It wouldn’t amount to much.

“Being locals, a cat two’s sort of like a run of the mill cyclone,” he said.

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Major gambling firms caught enabling illegal in-play sports bets in Australia

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Acma ruling prompts calls for money to be returned to punters as government continues to consult on tougher regulation

Some of Australia’s biggest gambling companies have been caught facilitating illegal in-play bets on sporting matches, leading to calls for money to be returned to punters.

The ruling by the Australian Media and Communications Agency (Acma) comes as the federal government continues to consult with the online gambling industry and public health experts about tougher regulation.

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Lehrmann proceedings day 18 – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Meakin agreed that The Project was “going further” towards identifying Lehrmann than Samantha Maiden’s article in news.com.au which was published first.

He said The Project was relying on Maiden’s article to promote the program that evening and that the promotion could improve ratings.

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Brittany Higgins told senior colleague she remembered Bruce Lehrmann on top of her, defamation trial hears

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Linda Reynolds’ then chief of staff Fiona Brown was first to interview pair after alleged rape, which Lehrmann has always denied

Former Liberal staffer Fiona Brown was dramatically compelled to give evidence in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial on Monday on the proviso the federal court’s live stream was disabled while she was in the witness box.

Brown was Senator Linda Reynolds’ chief of staff at the time Brittany Higgins claims Lehrmann raped her on the ministerial couch, and was the first person to interview both of them. She took contemporaneous notes.

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2023 the deadliest year on Australia’s roads in more than half a decade, data shows

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Peak motoring body demands end to governments’ data secrecy as road death toll reaches 1,253

This year was the deadliest on Australia’s roads in five and a half years, with the road death toll reaching 1,253 – the highest since 1,270 people were killed in the 12 months to March 2018, according to the nation’s peak motoring body.

Upon releasing the data, the Australian Automobile Association accused governments of kicking road safety “down the road” after federal, state and territory transport ministers met a fortnight ago to discuss their next five-year partnership on road infrastructure projects but failed to make progress on data transparency when it comes to road deaths.

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Tax ombudsman criticises ATO’s robotax for not considering ‘financial vulnerability’ of recipients

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Karen Payne says the debt notices had triggered a significant increase in complaints, and may require the government implementing a legislative fix

Australia’s tax ombudsman says the government should consider putting time limits on debt collection and ensure that people are not put into hardship after an ATO campaign to resurrect thousands of historical debts caused widespread distress and confusion.

Karen Payne, the country’s top tax bureaucrat in charge of the complaints management service, said the ATO campaign to extract the debts from tax refunds had triggered a significant increase in complaints, and may require a legislative fix.

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Do you know more? Email jonathan.barrett@theguardian.com

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Tech giants could be forced to share secret news deals under Australia’s media bargaining code

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New legislation will help ensure sustainability of public interest journalism, Labor says

Tech giants could be forced to hand over sensitive details on how they distribute news on their platforms to Australia’s competition watchdog as part of the federal government’s commitment to levelling the playing field for public interest journalism in the digital age.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will undertake periodic reporting into how platforms subject to the media bargaining code are distributing news content on sites and whether significant bargaining power imbalances between the tech giants and media organisations exist.

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Pro-Palestine rally leaders credit public ‘pressure’ with Labor’s shift on Gaza

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Change of heart on ceasefire shows ‘collective action is working’, Sydney protest speaker says

Speakers at Sydney’s pro-Palestine rally have said public outcry against the war in Gaza has pushed the Albanese government to shift its position and back calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, while criticising Labor for not calling for a permanent end to the conflict.

On Wednesday Australia joined 152 other nations in voting in favour of a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in an emergency session of the United Nations general assembly. The move followed Australia’s decision in late October to abstain from casting a vote on a similar motion.

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Cairns airport closed as Queensland premier declares ‘serious weather emergency’ amid record flood fears

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Floods exceeding 1977 levels expected, Steven Miles says, as heavy rain leaves 10,500 homes without power

Cairns airport has been closed in anticipation of record flooding in the far north Queensland city as the state premier, Steven Miles, declared a “serious weather emergency” in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper.

On Sunday afternoon Miles said flood levels in Cairns were expected to exceed the previous record of 1977 and there were “significant concerns” for many communities in the far north.

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