Category Archives: Australia news

Green Day in Sydney for $500 – is dynamic pricing reserving live music for the rich?

Posted on by

Ticketmaster and Ticketek claim demand-driven prices mitigate the problem of scalping, when tickets are bought – often by AI bots – and resold at inflated prices

Dynamic ticket pricing helps combat ticket scalpers, the company behind $500 Green Day tickets claims – but music industry insiders and consumer groups dispute that, with some concerned the controversial practice skews live events to the rich.

Dynamic pricing – when the cost of products rise and fall according to demand – is well established in Australia, from Uber’s surge prices to utilities and airline fares.

Continue reading...

Woman allegedly raped by high-profile Sydney man hoped they would be together, court hears

Posted on by

The man, who cannot be named, has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including six counts of rape

A woman who alleges she was raped by a high-profile Sydney man has denied she is “completely making the incident up”, a court has heard.

Under cross-examination by David Scully SC, the woman was also asked about her feelings for the man, and about her statement to police that she thought she and the man were going to “be together” and that she “had an obsession with him”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Greens MP to tour Sydney Jewish Museum and donate funds after offensive ‘tentacles’ trope

Posted on by

Exclusive: Jenny Leong, who apologised after referencing antisemitic cartoon, was subject of human rights commission complaint

New South Wales Greens MP Jenny Leong will visit the Sydney Jewish Museum and has donated $4,000 after a complaint was lodged with the Australian Human Rights Commission over comments she made about Jewish lobby groups last year.

Leong apologised and said she did not intend to reference an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as an octopus after footage emerged of comments she made at a Palestine Justice Movement forum in Sydney in December 2023.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

ABS warned Albanese government that excluding LGBTQ+ questions risked the success of census

Posted on by

Australian Bureau of Statistics also told MP Andrew Leigh not including questions on sexual orientation and gender would do ‘damage’

The Albanese government was warned that excluding questions on sexual orientation and gender identity from the census could increase feelings of exclusion in the LGBTQ+ community and even risk the success of the data collection exercise, newly released documents reveal.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics raised concerns in ministerial submissions about strong public criticism to scrapping the proposed questions, potential “damage” to relationships with LGBTQ+ expert groups advising on the census and limitations in the quality of data the census collects.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

NSW nurses and midwives announce strike – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

Australia’s ‘sex report card’ released

The latest Australian Study of Health and Relationships was revealed at a conference in Sydney this week held by the International Union Against Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Rent assistance went up by $25 and … average rents have gone up by more than $100. What might look like a big percentage increase is, frankly, fuck all, and that’s one of the reasons that this is so upsetting.

When CRA is indexed, the amount of rent that you have to pay before you get any rent assistance increases. So the proportion of your rent, where you qualify for it, reduces if you aren’t receiving the maximum payment.

Continue reading...

Man fights for life after allegedly being shot twice in rural NSW home invasion

Posted on by

Police say victim, 46, was at home in Hillston, near Griffith, when he was shot in the abdomen by an intruder on Friday morning

A man is fighting for life in hospital after allegedly being shot twice in the abdomen when a group of intruders entered his home in a small town in rural New South Wales.

Police alleged the 46-year-old man was inside a home in Burns Street in Hillston, about 100km north-west of Griffith in the state’s Riverina region, when three people – one armed with a gun – came inside the house about 2.30am Friday.

Continue reading...

Rod Sims says ‘worth considering’ whether realestate.com.au engaged in anti-competitive practices as Greens blast ‘rigged’ system

Posted on by

Greens say the price hikes arising from REA Group’s dominance underscore need for new price-gouging laws

Rod Sims, the former chair of Australia’s competition law enforcer, says he believes the regulator should consider investigating the behaviour of the market’s leading real estate property portal, realestate.com.au, for potential anti-competitive behaviour.

The Greens have also hit out at what they say is an alleged “outrageous abuse of market power”, saying the price hikes arising from REA Group’s dominance underscored the need for new price-gouging laws.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

‘Australia’s next rabbit plague’: calls for feral deer in Victoria to be considered a pest instead of wildlife

Posted on by

Victoria is home to perhaps the largest population and the only mainland state with ‘legislative relic’ of protections

Land holders and managers along with landcare and environment groups want Victoria to remove protections for feral deer, as booming populations wreak havoc on agriculture and the local environment.

Jordan Crook, from the Victorian National Parks Association, said recognising deer as pests – alongside foxes, rabbits and pigs – would bring Victoria in line with the rest of mainland Australia.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

‘Impossible task’: NGV to take largest international exhibition of Indigenous art to US

Posted on by

The show, which will tour for three years across North America beginning in 2025, will feature the gallery’s ‘absolute masterpieces’ – including works by Emily Kam Kngwarray and Albert Namatjira

The largest international exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art will open in 2025 at Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art and tour for three years across North America.

Titled The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art, the show will feature more than 200 works from the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) collection from the 19th century to the present day – including masterpieces by the late Emily Kam Kngwarray, Rover Thomas, Sally Gabori and Albert Namatjira.

Continue reading...

Privacy experts shocked as Hobart council agrees to beam live CCTV footage into police station

Posted on by

Sharing livestream from 330 council-operated cameras with force via ‘portal’ in Hobart police station labelled ‘a massive intrusion on rights’

Police in Hobart have been granted real-time access to footage from hundreds of city council CCTV cameras in a move labelled “so intrusive and oppressive” by the Australian Privacy Foundation.

The CCTV partnership between Tasmania police and the City of Hobart was announced on Thursday but has been operating secretly for weeks.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Judge throws out ‘weak’ case against driver at centre of Daylesford pub crash that left five people dead

Posted on by

Court had heard William Swale had suffered a ‘severe hypoglycaemic attack’ before the November 2023 crash

A diabetic driver who ploughed into a regional Victorian beer garden, leaving three adults and two children dead, has walked free from court after a magistrate threw out the “weak” case against him.

William Swale, 66, had all 14 charges against him struck out on Thursday following a three-day committal hearing this week in Ballarat magistrates court over the November 2023 crash.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Four teenagers arrested amid investigation into alleged homophobic attacks involving dating apps in WA

Posted on by

Detectives charge boys with armed robbery offences after app allegedly used to arrange meetings

Police investigating a series of alleged homophobic assaults have accused four Western Australian teenagers of assaulting two men they separately arranged to meet via an online dating app.

The arrests came after police said they were investigating incidents in which men had agreed to meet someone they connected with on a dating app, and had then allegedly been assaulted by several males while being subjected to homophobic slurs.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australia’s population passes 27 million milestone after post-pandemic migration boost

Posted on by

ABS data shows the jump from 26 to 27 million people by March 2024 took just one-and-three-quarter years, ‘far quicker than the average’

There are now more than 27 million people calling Australia home – a quick jump of 1 million people in less than two years thanks to post-pandemic overseas migration.

The national population grew by 2.3% to 27.1 million in the year ending 31 March, according to new data released by the Australia Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Moira Deeming kept ‘Liberal party mentor’ Peta Credlin in the loop ‘at all times’ amid Nazi stoush, court hears

Posted on by

Trial shown messages between MP and Sky News host discussing defamation action against Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto

Moira Deeming viewed the Sky News host Peta Credlin as a Liberal party “mentor” when the pair liaised after the MP was ousted by the Victorian party last year, the federal court has heard.

Deeming is suing the Victorian Liberal leader, John Pesutto, for allegedly falsely portraying her as a Nazi sympathiser after she helped organise and spoke at the “Let Women Speak” rally on 18 March 2023 which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. She was expelled from the party less than two months later after initially being suspended in the days after the rally.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

NSW police reopen two investigations after landmark gay hate crime inquiry

Posted on by

Police commissioner Karen Webb hopes new technology and fresh eyes lead to breakthrough in two of state’s 854 unsolved murders

New South Wales police have reopened active investigations into two of the state’s 854 unsolved murders as part of their response to a landmark inquiry that found they failed to properly investigate dozens of potential gay hate crimes over 40 years.

The two murders are being investigated while detectives look at a further 213 case files prioritised by a special unit of the state’s police force – Taskforce Atlas - which was launched to oversee the implementation of the gay hate crime inquiry’s recommendations.

Continue reading...

NSW government announces free weekend train travel in bid to avoid industrial action – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

Australia “abstained with great disappointment” on the Palestinian-drafted resolution at the United Nations general assembly in New York early this morning, the Australian ambassador to the UN has said.

The resolution – which sought to act on a recent advisory opinion of the international court of justice – was passed with 124 votes in favour and 14 against. Australia was one of 43 countries to abstain, including the UK, Canada and Germany.

That is why we abstained with great disappointment.

We wanted to vote for a resolution that directly reflected the ICJ Advisory Opinion.

Continue reading...

Australia abstains from UN vote on occupation of Palestine after ‘disappointment’ with resolution’s scope

Posted on by

The Australian ambassador to the UN said Australia supported many of the principles of the resolution that called on Israel to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories

Australia “abstained with great disappointment” on a United Nations general assembly resolution that called on Israel to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories within 12 months, the Australian ambassador said.

Despite casting an abstain vote on Thursday morning, the Australian ambassador to the UN, James Larsen, said Australia “supports many of the principles of this resolution” and was “already doing much of what it calls for”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

NSW police bust alleged criminal network behind $1.8bn of Sydney cocaine sales this year

Posted on by

Police allege the criminal gang, dubbed The Commission, controlled the price of cocaine in Sydney by manipulating supply

A drugs gang dubbed “The Commission” linked to the distribution of more than $1.8bn worth of cocaine across Sydney in four months has been “uprooted” by police.

The New South Wales police operation began in July, when a 21-year-old man from Guildford in the city’s west was charged with with two counts of supplying a prohibited drug in a large commercial quantity.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Fatima Payman singles out Rupert Murdoch as she decries mainstream media’s treatment of Muslim women

Posted on by

Independent senator accuses mogul of causing ‘division, marginalisation and fearmongering’, and says the media too often reduces her to a stereotype

The independent senator Fatima Payman has accused mainstream media of reducing Muslim women to “stereotypes” and singled out Rupert Murdoch, alleging moguls like him cause “division” and “fearmongering”.

“Like many of you, I’ve faced challenges in navigating mainstream media as a Muslim woman in politics,” she said in a keynote speech on Sunday at the 10th anniversary of independent Muslim media outlet Amust in the south-west Sydney seat of Blaxland.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Global heating is making El Niño and La Niña forecasts less reliable, BoM says

Posted on by

Exclusive: Meteorologists say climate change and the amount of heat being added to the oceans make predictions based on the past less reliable

The Bureau of Meteorology is shifting the way it communicates about climate phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña, because global heating is making predictions based on the past less reliable.

This week the bureau kept the country on a “La Niña watch” and said if the climate system in the Pacific does develop, it’s likely to be short-lived and weak.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...