Category Archives: Australia news

Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin faces Senate grilling as Singtel denies it was to blame for outage

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Optus claimed on its parent company’s Singtel Internet Exchange was responsible, but Singtel says its upgrade was not the cause

The Optus chief executive, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, faces a grilling at a Senate hearing on Friday over the telco’s handling of last week’s 14-hour nationwide outage as both Optus and its parent company Singtel dispute who was to blame.

Bayer Rosmarin will be facing the Senate committee, chaired by the Greens communications spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, over two hours on Friday morning in the inquiry launched shortly after the Optus outage last week.

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Girl, 12, charged with murder over fatal stabbing of woman in Melbourne

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Victoria police say 37-year-old was found dead just before 2am on Thursday in an inner Melbourne suburb

A 12-year-old girl has been charged with murder after a fatal stabbing in Melbourne.

Emergency services were called to an apartment in an inner-city suburb after a 37-year-old woman was found dead just before 2am on Thursday.

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Nigel Farage to be dumped in middle of Australian outback for I’m a Celebrity

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Divisive Brexiter will be tasked with helping fellow contestants 2,000 miles away on Gold Coast

Nigel Farage will be stranded in the middle of the Australian outback when I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! gets under way.

He will be one of three unsuspecting stars who will be dropped in the red desert in the scorching heat and tasked with helping his campmates thousands of miles away.

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Albanese government to consider further whistleblower protections amid calls for ‘robust’ dedicated authority

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Federal attorney general releases new consultation paper as the government moves toward releasing a second stage of public interest disclosure reforms

The federal government will consider whether whistleblowers should be protected for gathering evidence before disclosing possible wrongdoing, amid criticisms existing laws are not doing enough.

The need for a standalone whistleblower protection authority, and a financial reward system for those coming forward, are also issues up for consideration shortly before Christmas.

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Labor veteran joins criticism over proposed mandatory sentencing changes after high court decision

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Former senator Kim Carr says Albanese government’s planned bridging visa changes will undermine judicial independence and lead to unjust outcomes

Labor veteran Kim Carr has criticised the government’s “deeply disturbing” decision to sign up to mandatory minimum sentences in a deal to pass bridging visa changes with Coalition support.

The move – announced by the acting prime minister, Richard Marles, on Thursday – contradicts Labor’s national platform, which states that the party “opposes mandatory sentencing” because it “undermines the independence of the judiciary, leads to unjust outcomes and is often discriminatory in practice”.

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Refugees in PNG told they will be evicted next week after Australian-sponsored housing bills not paid

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Australian-funded humanitarian program has not funded housing, food and medical services for over a year, providers say

Refugees and asylum seekers held by Australia in Papua New Guinea for 10 years will be evicted from their accommodation in a week – and have their groceries, medical and security services cut – because the bills for their accommodation, healthcare and food have not been paid for more than a year.

Many of the 64 men have been living without electricity, and some without food, for more than two weeks.

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Flight delay compensation would stop Australian airlines from acting like a ‘mafia of the skies’, MP says

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Exclusive: Independent MP Monique Ryan ramps up calls for proposed scheme after Sydney airport CEO accuses airlines of ‘slot hoarding’

Australian airlines are acting like a “mafia of the sky” in continuing to strategically cancel flights they never intended to operate, an MP has claimed, arguing for the urgent introduction of compensation laws so carriers are deterred by immediate penalties.

Monique Ryan, the independent member for Kooyong in Melbourne, has ramped up her calls for a mandatory compensation scheme for airline passengers, saying allegations levelled by Sydney airport this week showed such laws were needed as a matter of urgency and could not wait until the government’s aviation white paper, which is due by the middle of next year.

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Labor accused of caving to Dutton to pass ‘draconian’ bill restricting people released from immigration detention

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The Albanese government has agreed to a raft of Coalition amendments, including criminal penalties for breaching restrictions

Labor has been accused of caving to Peter Dutton after it agreed to a slate of Coalition amendments to toughen restrictions on people released from detention so as to pass “draconian” emergency legislation on bridging visas.

The bill, introduced on Thursday by the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, adds conditions, including electronic monitoring and curfews, to bridging visas issued to those who are required to be released due to the high court’s ruling on indefinite detention.

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Singtel rejects Optus claims it caused network outage; gillnet fishing banned in Great Barrier Reef – as it happened

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Labor MPs furious over ‘one political party’ pitting Jewish community against another

Labor MPs are still furious over the motion Peter Dutton moved in question time on Wednesday, where he linked anti-semitism with the release of detainees, including some criminals, after the high court decision which deemed indefinite detention to be unconstitutional.

As a leader of the Jewish community and someone who represents a large Jewish community, I’ve always thought it was extremely important to act in the interests of the community.

And that means working across the political aisle. It means working with people like Allegra Spender, who represents the largest Jewish community in Australia, and of course with my friend Julian Leeser, who I will always stand with members regardless of what political persuasion they have, in order to act in the interests of the Jewish community.

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Queensland government to moving to establish peak youth justice body as crime issues dominate

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Exclusive: Palaszczuk government expected to begin process of establishing peak body amid pressure to crack down on youth crime

Queensland is looking to establish a youth justice peak body as the issue threatens to become a major sore point for the Palaszczuk government ahead of next year’s election.

Guardian Australia understands the state government will launch a competitive tender process and seek expressions of interest from multiple organisations across the sector.

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Sydney swim coach Paul Frost jailed for at least 24 years after grooming and sexually abusing 11 students

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A judge found the 48-year-old deliberately created a culture that facilitated his offending at a swimming school between 1996 and 2009

A swim coach who groomed and sexually abused 11 young students over more than a decade will have to spend 24 years in jail before he is eligible for parole.

Paul Douglas Frost was sentenced on Thursday after being found guilty of 43 offences over the abuse of children at a swimming school in Sydney’s southwest between 1996 and 2009.

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In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

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Whistleblower David McBride loses bid to stave off trial over public interest defence

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ACT supreme court says law provides no duty to members of the military to act in the public interest

David McBride has lost a bid to stave off his trial after again failing to convince a court that soldiers have a duty to act in the public interest.

On Wednesday, the ACT supreme court delivered a blow to McBride as he prepared for his jury trial over the alleged leaking of confidential military information to journalists.

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NSW Catholic school sparks four-day week debate with ‘learn from home’ Mondays for senior students

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Opportunity to learn from home will ‘set students up for success’, principal of Chevalier College says

Parents at a regional Catholic college in New South Wales are welcoming a proposed change to the school week that would mean seniors spend Mondays at home.

Chevalier College, based in the southern highlands, has announced a proposal that would see students in years 10 to 12 learn and work from home on Mondays, a move the principal says would “set students up for success”.

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‘Desensitised’: calls for better education after research suggests Victorian boys less likely to stop harassment

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Study of students finds marked drop from Year 7 to Year 9 in proportion of those willing to intervene

Chanel Contos, a sexual consent education advocate, says teenagers may be getting so desensitised to porn that it’s affecting their reaction to sexual harassment, with research suggesting male students become less likely to intervene when a female classmate is targeted as they reach Year 9.

The study of Victorian school students by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (Anrows), released on Wednesday, found that 20.2% of Year 7 boys intended to intervene when sexual harassment was taking place. However, just 12.8% of those in Year 9 shared that attitude.

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Head injuries in Australia rise nearly 7% after Covid dip, new report finds

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The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found head injuries were responsible for 17% of all injury deaths, with falls, transport and assault the leading causes

Every four minutes an Australian is hospitalised with a head injury, with cases rising nearly 7% after dropping during Covid-19 lockdowns and disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable Australians, new data shows.

A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (Aihw) published on Thursday has found in 2020-21, head injuries accounted for more than one in five of all injury emergency department presentations.

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Australia must stop giving ‘leeway’ to Israel’s continued assault on Gaza, UN expert says

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UN special rapporteur on occupied Palestinian territories points out ‘grave risk’ of genocide and Australia’s responsibility to ‘prevent atrocity crimes’

A United Nations expert has met with a senior member of the Australian government and urged it to stop giving “leeway” to Israel, arguing Australia has a responsibility to “prevent atrocity crimes” including genocide.

Francesca Albanese held talks with the assistant minister for foreign affairs, Tim Watts, on Wednesday and expressed her concern “as strongly as she could” about what she saw as Australia’s inadequate response to the escalating bloodshed in Gaza.

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Nearly one in three children on Queensland’s serious repeat offender list under protection order

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Government urged to do more to support young people in residential care to ‘break the cycle of offending’

Nearly one in three children on Queensland’s serious repeat offender index is under a child protection order, new figures show.

As of 30 June, 133 of 452 serious repeat offenders had child protection orders, which are made when the children’s court decides a young person needs to be protected from harm.

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Australia’s overuse of antibiotics found to be driving rate of drug-resistant infections

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Report finds more than one-third of population had at least one antimicrobial prescription subsidised by Australian government in 2022

Australia’s continued overuse of antibiotics is driving common and potentially dangerous infections to become increasingly resistant to drugs, including last resort treatments.

A major government report on antimicrobial use, published on Wednesday, found more than one-third (36.6%) of the population had at least one antimicrobial prescription subsidised by the Australian government in 2022, up from 32.9% in 2021.

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Australia has three months to find host city for Commonwealth Games 2026

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Peak body wants Australia to keep the event but talks are under way with other countries and about changing the Games’ format

Australia has three months to find a 2026 Commonwealth Games host city as three other candidates emerge for the event.

Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) hierarchy said on Wednesday that finding an Australian host for the 2026 edition remains the priority while appealing for government support.

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Politics live: cyber chief takes leave as defence department announces recall over ‘workplace matter’

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Follow the day’s news live

And here is the standard of some of the “debate” among senior parliamentarians.

Meanwhile, Australia’s sense of social cohesion is at its lowest recorded ebb.

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