Fiona was told that the landlord needed to move into the flat, which was then relisted for $300 more a week when Fiona moved out
A Sydney landlord put pressure on a single mother to leave her rental home after just nine months, eventually relisting the property at $300 more a week when the tenant’s lease expired.
Fiona*, who has two children, last year rented a two-bedroom apartment in Arncliffe for $690 a week through agency Century 21.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Review ordered by police commissioner Karen Webb after string of fatalities last year is more than two months overdue
New South Wales police have failed to hand a promised review of the way they respond to mental health crises to the government, as pressure again mounts on the force to enact reforms after the fatal shooting of a mentally unwell man.
Alexander Stuart Pinnock died on Wednesday after being shot at by multiple officers outside a medical clinic in Nowra on the south coast following an almost two-hour standoff that began when the 34-year-old pulled out a gun, police said.
Continue reading...Fire breaks out at RAAF base as firefighters battle four significant blazes in the Wanneroo and Chittering areas
A potentially dangerous fire has broken out at an RAAF base as soaring temperatures and windy conditions cause havoc for firefighters north of Perth.
The blaze broke out on Saturday afternoon near the entrance to RAAF base Gingin, a facility primarily used for pilot training, as large parts of the state faced heatwave warnings.
Continue reading...Police arrest four men and a boy alleged to be connected to the Finks motorcycle gang and a series of arson attacks on tobacco stores
Police have arrested four men and a boy believed to be connected to the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang and a series of arson attacks on tobacco stores in Victoria.
The arrests are the latest example of police responding to the so-called tobacco wars, which have seen criminal gangs fight for control of the “significant source of income” generated by the sale of illicit tobacco.
Continue reading...The accused, 80, has been refused bail and will appear in Parramatta local court
An elderly man will face court accused of sexually assaulting an 87-year-old woman at a Sydney aged care home.
Police were called to the facility in the city’s north-west on Friday after reports a resident had been attacked.
Continue reading...Authorities believe extreme heat and physical activity, rather than a single bad batch, exacerbated drug’s impact at Hardmission
All nine people hospitalised after a mass drug overdose at an electronic music festival in Melbourne last weekend suffered severe hyperthermia, with three people remaining in a critical condition.
Another woman in her 30s was hospitalised on Friday after a suspected drug overdose at a separate music festival in the Melbourne suburb of Flemington. She remains in a critical condition.
Victorian health authorities believe the overdoses at last weekend’s Hardmission festival were not caused by a single bad batch of the drug MDMA as originally feared and that extreme heat and physical activity exacerbated the drug’s impact.
About 100 young athletes learn their contractual responsibilities and how wagering companies operate in session organised by the players association
It was 2020, the world was still coming to terms with the Covid pandemic, and Mitch Robinson was not happy.
“Public announcement!” the then AFL player tweeted. “Not one AFL player gives a flying f*** how we cost you a $100 multi, it’s $5 bet you idiot. If you’re struggling with that amount please don’t punt in the first place.
Continue reading...Christopher Saunders, who has denied accusations he sexually assaulted young Aboriginal men, was responsible for nine charities
The Catholic bishop Christopher Saunders, who is accused of sexually assaulting and grooming young Aboriginal men, has been removed as the person responsible for nine Broome diocese charities, records show.
Saunders, who denies the accusations, which are alleged to have occurred during his almost five-decade career, stood aside as the bishop of Broome in 2020 and Pope Francis accepted his resignation in 2021. He is now described as “emeritus” bishop of Broome.
Continue reading...Farmers and consumers alike are sharing their frustration amid the cost-of-living crisis as a government inquiry into the Australian supermarket giants looms
Australian supermarkets breezed through the pandemic, increasing profits and shareholder returns even as living costs surged, all while avoiding the scrutiny faced by their overseas counterparts.
But a looming parliamentary inquiry, and a revitalised political interest in the discrepancy between prices paid to farmers and those charged by supermarkets, means the sector has been thrust into the spotlight.
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Continue reading...Police allege the men are connected to fires at the Altona business, as well as an arson attack at a Croydon tobacco shop
Three men allegedly linked to a bikie gang have been arrested after a twice-targeted tobacco shop was destroyed by fire and another was set alight on Christmas Day.
The first blaze broke out at the shopfront on Pier Street in Altona just before 4am on Thursday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: timeline for creation of body to end practice of police investigating police in doubt as state government mulls options
A critical recommendation to stop police investigating police is “unlikely” to be fulfilled by the 18-month deadline set out by an inquiry that heard evidence of racism, sexism and misogyny within the Queensland police service.
The commission of inquiry into police responses to domestic violence in 2022 unearthed shocking evidence including that QPS’s “broken” internal complaints system allowed discrimination to go unchecked.
Continue reading...Robert Farquharson’s name has been removed from the headstone of his three children, whom he murdered in 2005
Robert Farquharson has been stripped of his control over the gravestones of the three children he murdered when he drove a car into a dam in 2005, after a Victorian government intervention.
Farquharson is the first convicted person in Victoria to lose the rights over a family member’s gravesite after legislative changes in 2021. It comes almost two decades since he deliberately drove his three children into a dam in south-western Victoria, in an act of revenge against his ex-partner for leaving him.
Continue reading...Former ABC journalist looks forward to crafting ‘engaging interviews, stories, and investigations’ alongside award-winning team
The former ABC journalist Nour Haydar has joined Guardian Australia’s Full Story podcast team.
Haydar will be the co-host of the daily podcast alongside Jane Lee. She is replacing Laura Murphy-Oates, who was chosen for an Atlantic Fellowship for Indigenous Social Equity.
Continue reading...The Australian conductor will also be the first woman to perform the Ring cycle at the annual celebration of Wagner since it began in 1876
Simone Young will become the first woman to conduct Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle in the Bayreuth opera festival’s 147-year history, and the first Australian conductor to perform at Germany’s annual celebration of the composer.
Young, 62, is one of three female conductors who will be taking part in this year’s festival, which has been held in Bavaria since 1876. The Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv became the first woman ever to open the festival in 2021, after 145 years. She will return this year, along with the French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, who was the second female conductor in Bayreuth’s history in 2023.
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Melbourne: two suspected arson attacks could be linked to crime group conflicts, investigators say
Two suspected arson attacks that destroyed a Melbourne tobacco shop destroyed by fire could be linked to ongoing violent conflict between crime groups, investigators say, AAP reports.
In Spain, improved public understanding of the dangers of heatwaves, coupled with a national heatwave plan, has helped save lives. We should consider adopting a framework for alerts and communications here that builds on Seville’s heatwave naming approach.
Heatwaves have killed more people in Australia than any other natural disaster since 1900, and without sustained and ambitious policies to improve our resilience to extreme heat the challenge will get even harder.
Continue reading...Report by Australian chapter of advocacy group says policy is ‘embarrassing’ and at odds with country’s commitment to Refugee Convention
Australia’s reputation on human rights took a hit on the world stage last year, Human Rights Watch’s latest annual report has said, after the Labor government returned asylum seekers to offshore immigration on Nauru less than three months after the last detainees were removed.
Despite labelling Australia as a “vibrant democracy” that “mostly protects the civil and political rights of its citizens”, the Australian chapter of the global human rights advocacy group has levelled heavy criticism at the federal government’s decade-long “inhuman” offshore detention regime, with Australian director Daniela Gavshon describing the policy as “embarrassing” for the country.
Continue reading...‘Heat culture’ of Spain helps communities prepare for hot weather events in the same way they plan for the arrival of cyclones
Australia should follow the Spanish city of Seville and start naming its heatwaves as part of a suite of measures to help communities cope with the rising risks from extreme temperatures, according to a new report.
Naming heatwaves could be part of enabling a “heat culture” where communities prepare for extreme temperature events in the same way they plan for the arrival of named cyclones, the report said.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Unpublished OECD data on students’ motivation and sense of belonging at school calls into question validity of national rankings, experts say
More than three-quarters of Australian students say they didn’t fully try in the latest Pisa tests, unpublished data reveals, calling into question the real source behind a continued decline in rankings.
The Programme for International Student Assessment has measured the academic performance of 15-year-olds every three years since 2000, providing the most comprehensive international rankings in science, reading and mathematics.
Continue reading...EV sales are booming and longtime favourite makes and models are being ignored in favour of Tesla and BYD
Newcomer brands and luxury marques are dominating booming electric car sales as mainstream players struggle to match the pace of a fast-evolving EV market.
The top three selling electric vehicles in Australia in 2023 were from Tesla and BYD, between them accounting for two-thirds of the 87,217 electric cars sold, according to figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Consumer Affairs Victoria investigating Panthera, which was fined $500,000 in 2020 after pursuing debts from people who were not liable
One of Australia’s largest debt collection companies is continuing to operate in Victoria despite being blacklisted in the state over its unlawful pursuit of false debts, undue harassment and misleading conduct.
Panthera Finance and its subsidiaries are major players in the Australian debt collection and acquisition sector, and were paid millions by the former government to help collect welfare debts for Services Australia.
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