Lab tests v the real world: how does the fuel consumption of Australian SUVs compare?

The Australian Automotive Association has found some SUVs use up to 13% more fuel on the road than reported in laboratory tests. Is your vehicle underperforming?

A real-world testing program at the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) has shown that some SUVs have much better fuel consumption than others.

The program, which compares the fuel consumption and emissions of vehicles in Australian driving conditions with each vehicle’s laboratory test result, showed some SUVs used up to 13% more fuel on the road than reported in laboratory tests.

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Sydney Theatre Company ‘deeply sorry’ after pro-Palestinian protest on stage

STC says actors’ demonstration ‘hurt many in our community’ while long-time fundraising board member resigns

The Sydney Theatre Company has issued an apology after the resignation of one of its longstanding foundation board members over an on-stage pro-Palestinian protest by three of its actors.

Judi Hausmann, founder and chair of Sydney public relations company the Haus, announced her resignation from the STC’s fundraising arm, the foundation board, on Tuesday after a 15-year tenure.

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Labor facing internal demands to call for full ceasefire in Gaza

About 40 branches in New South Wales have now passed motions demanding a full ceasefire

The Albanese government is coming under significant and increasing pressure from within to take a stronger line on a full ceasefire in Gaza.

About 40 Labor party branches in New South Wales have now passed motions demanding a full ceasefire.

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Australian expert ‘over the moon’ to have helped rescue 41 men trapped by tunnel collapse in India

Arnold Dix describes having to dig ‘100 millimetres at a time’ to save workers stuck in Silkyara-Barkot tunnel for 17 days

An Australian tunnelling expert has told of his part in the dramatic rescue of 41 Indian workers who had been trapped in a collapsed tunnel for 17 days.

Arnold Dix, a Melbourne specialist in underground transportation and infrastructure, is being hailed after his efforts helped save workers stuck inside a blocked tunnel in the Himalayan mountains.

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Australia politics live: PM delivers national apology to thalidomide survivors; Pocock and Plibersek strike deal on Murray-Darling

Plan will remove a cap on buybacks and extend deadlines for water recovery targets. Follow the day’s news live

For what kinds of crimes would preventive detention be used?

Preventive detention can be used for terrorists or terrorism suspects already (yes, we already do this) so what other crimes will be added to the list? (Not all of the cohort have committed crimes.)

What I can tell you is that we’ll work through the detail of the law over the coming days. We’ve had a high court decision for about 17 hours now.

But the high court decision actually specifically refers to child sexual abuse as one of the grounds on which preventive detention might also be lawful.

We will work through these issues and will do so in a way that is fast but also constitutional. What we have seen on the other side of politics is a pretty torrid history of rushing laws, doing it improperly and writing things that aren’t constitutional, that are later thrown out by the high court and the consequence is that the Australian community is less safe.

We don’t want to make that mistake. We will work through this carefully.

The most important thing to understand from the high court’s ruling is that the high court has said that politicians don’t get to make that decision (indefinite detention).

And so politicians have previously been allowed to hold people in immigration detention for very long periods of time. The high court has told us that that’s not constitutional under these circumstances.

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Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial live: Brittany Higgins tells court of her alleged rape by Lehrmann at Parliament House

A warning for readers: this blog contains graphic details of allegations of sexual assault.
Lehrmann has sued Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson, alleging they have defamed him. Follow the latest news from the federal court today

Bruce Lehrmann has arrived at court this morning:

He is now present in the courtroom as Brittany Higgins gives her evidence – sitting in the front row in the furthest seat from the witness box.

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Australia’s inflation rate eased to 4.9% in October, reducing likelihood of another rate rise as weak consumer spending reduces likelihood of another interest rate rise

Consumer price index rose last month at an annual rate of 4.9%, which is lower than economists had forecast

Australia’s inflation rate has eased sharply in October as weak consumer spending made it less likely the Reserve Bank will inflict another interest rate rise on the economy.

The consumer price index rose at an annual clip of 4.9% last month compared with a 5.6% pace in September alone, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. Economists had expected CPI to come in at 5.2%.

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East coast weather: rain, thunderstorm and flood warnings for NSW, Queensland and Victoria

Flood rescues launched in NSW as Bureau of Meteorology warns of thunderstorm risk for ‘most of the east coast’ on Wednesday

Multiple people have been rescued from flood waters in New South Wales as rain falls across large parts of Australia, with thunderstorms expected along most of the east coast on Wednesday.

The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) conducted two flood rescues on Wednesday morning, rescuing two people from their car at South Nowra and another group from a home at St Georges Basin, near Jervis Bay.

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Native forest logging ban in Tasmania could save state $72m, pro-market thinktank says

Analysis recommends the government stop subsidising its forestry arm and generate carbon credits, a move likely to be opposed by industry and conservationists

Ending native forest logging in Tasmania and valuing the state’s centuries-old trees as carbon storage could save the state at least $72m, according to a report by a pro-market thinktank.

The analysis by the Blueprint Institute, to be launched on Wednesday, recommends the state government immediately stop subsidising its forestry arm, Sustainable Timber Tasmania, and announce logging will end in mid-2025.

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Clare Nowland: charges upgraded to manslaughter for NSW police officer accused of Tasering 95-year-old

Sr Const Kristian White, 33, was previously charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm and common assault

The New South Wales police officer accused of Tasering 95-year-old Clare Nowland who later died has been charged with manslaughter after advice from the state’s director of public prosecutions.

Police announced the upgraded charges for Sr Const Kristian White on Wednesday morning.

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Victorian government strikes deal with Greens to pass vacant homes tax reforms

Legislation to expand taxes on vacant Victorian homes and undeveloped land set to pass parliament

A deal to strengthen taxes on empty homes has been struck between the Victorian government and the Greens.

An upper house vote on changes to Victoria’s vacant residential land tax was put on ice earlier this month when the Greens and the Coalition refused to back the legislation.

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Pat Dodson and other Indigenous politicians back focus on truth-telling after voice referendum failure

Retiring senator says Labor will continue to consult Aboriginal communities as survey finds a majority of Australians would support truth-telling and treaty processes

Leading Indigenous politicians have backed calls for truth-telling to be prioritised after a major new survey found a majority of Australians would back such a process, despite the failure of the voice to parliament referendum.

The outgoing senator Pat Dodson said Labor would continue to consult with Indigenous communities on the future of the Uluru statement – keeping the door open to a Makarrata commission on truth-telling and treaty processes. The Indigenous Australians minister, Linda Burney, said she had heard great support for truth and treaty in her own post-referendum discussions, but these were not the only items on her agenda.

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Brittany Higgins takes stand in Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial as lawyer warns her evidence will be ‘graphic and distressing’

Court also told Seven Network paid Lehrmann’s rent for 12 months to compensate him for two interviews with the Spotlight program

Brittany Higgins has taken the stand in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson at the start of evidence the defence says will be “graphic and distressing”.

Network Ten’s barrister, Matt Collins KC, said Higgins will tell the court about being allegedly sexually assaulted by Lehrmann in senator Linda Reynolds’ office in 2019 after a night when she had consumed at least 12 vodkas and was “more drunk than she had ever been in her life”.

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Lehrmann proceedings day five – as it happened

This blog is now closed.

Bruce Lehrmann has admitted his rent was paid by the Seven Network for his interview on the Spotlight program.

Lehrmann agreed under cross-examination that Seven had paid his rent for 12 months as part of the deal.

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Contaminated saline products recalled over hospital bacterial outbreak linked to Queensland death

Source of Ralstonia outbreak under investigation with 43 suspected cases across Australia

A bacterial outbreak in hospitals around the nation has been linked to more than 40 people, including an elderly patient who died in Queensland.

Australia’s medical watchdog has issued a quarantine notice for saline products which appear to be contaminated with Ralstonia – a form of bacteria normally found in soil and water.

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Stephanie Foster appointed new home affairs secretary – as it happened

This blog is now closed

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) has backed the campaign for a royal commission into immigration detention – including onshore and offshore detention on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

As mentioned earlier in the blog, the campaign will be launched in Canberra today.

Our mandatory, arbitrary immigration detention regime is unnecessarily cruel and degrading. Instead of offering refuge for those who seek the safety of our shores, we imprison people, strip them of their humanity and allow them to be demonised in our media and by our politicians. It is a system that conditions the Australian public to dehumanise others. This cruelty has persisted for decades.

Increased discussion and debate around gender equality, a tight labour market and impending legislative reform have helped drive action on workplace gender equality over the last year.

We see an increase in the proportion of women in management and at the upper pay quartiles, and we also see the proportion of women being promoted and appointed at manager level is higher than the proportion of women managers overall. As this trend continues, we can expect to see the gender pay gap continue to fall.

The management opportunities for part-time employees are negligible; the number of men taking paid primary carer parental leave has barely shifted; and the number of women in CEO roles and on boards has stagnated.

If we want real change, we need employers to take bold action. We need employers to look across the drivers of gender inequality and be imaginative in their solutions.

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Hundreds of prominent Australians sign letter condemning ‘abhorrent’ rise in antisemitism

Signatories include former premiers Daniel Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian, and businessmen Lindsay Fox and Anthony Pratt

Hundreds of prominent Australians, including former state premiers, industry leaders and media personalities, have signed an open letter denouncing antisemitism and calling for all Australians to be treated with respect, inclusivity and dignity.

The open letter was published on Tuesday morning and ran as a prominent double-page advertisement across print newspapers, linking to a website titled “Say No to Antisemitism”.

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Successive Australian generations suffering worse mental health than the one before, study shows

New study which tracks changes in mental health over 20 years finds cohort born in 90s worse off compared to older generations at similar ages

Each successive generation of Australians since the 1950s is suffering worse mental health than the generation which came before them, new research has shown.

A study led by the University of Sydney has found that people born in the 1990s have poorer mental health for their age than any previous generation and are not experiencing better mental health as they age, as earlier generations have.

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Richmond’s Monique Conti wins her first AFLW best and fairest

  • Star midfielder polls 23 votes out of a possible 30
  • All-Australian also plays basketball for Melbourne Boomers

Richmond’s Monique Conti has stormed to her first AFLW best and fairest, winning the league’s highest honour with two rounds to spare.

Last year’s runner-up to Brisbane’s Ally Anderson, Conti polled 20 of a possible 24 votes across the first eight rounds to add the best and fairest to her fifth All-Australian selection.

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Cozzie livs: light-hearted term for cost-of-living crisis named Macquarie dictionary word of the year

Skimpflation and blue-sky flood were also among the editors’ top picks, while Australians voted for generative AI

Cozzie livs has been crowned the Macquarie dictionary’s word of the year, with honourable mentions awarded to algospeak and blue-sky flood, while Australians awarded the people’s choice award to generative AI, ahead of skimpflation and rizz.

The Macquarie dictionary managing editor, Victoria Morgan, said colloquial terms for serious phenomena were over-represented in this year’s winning words – representing the stresses present on the mind of the Australian public.

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