Researcher shares images of an ultra-rare platypus – possibly the first ever documented - observed in the Northern Tablelands
Researchers hunting for an endangered turtle have discovered something even rarer – a white platypus frolicking in a New South Wales stream.
Photos and footage of the extraordinary creature have been published in a scientific journal after several encounters over the past two years or so.
Continue reading...A 36 year-old man was charged with trafficking, proceeds of crime and firearms offences after raid at Botanic Ridge house in Melbourne
A mountain of Lego found in a suburban drug raid is so large police are going to need a truck to seize it.
The 1,130 boxes worth more than $200,000 were discovered on Tuesday alongside a meth lab and boxes of gemstones at a Botanic Ridge house on Melbourne’s suburban fringe.
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Watts has gone on to confirm that there are still 65 Australians stuck in Gaza that the government is “supporting” and are being provided consular assistance.
Watts says Dfat is working to get those individuals to the Rafah crossing and out of Gaza “as soon as possible”.
We know this is an incredibly distressing time for Australians in Gaza and their families and we are providing all possible support we can, communicating through all available channels the best information and options we have about their safety in a very difficult situation.
The circumstances on the ground are incredibly challenging and they are changing on a day to day basis. This is a conflict zone. It is a very difficult operating environment so we do the best job we can in the circumstances.
Crossings like this are the result of an enormous effort from Australian consular officials and diplomats in the region. So many conversations at the ministerial level, foreign minister Wong spoke with her counterparts in the region and we’re grateful that this initial cohort has made the crossing from Gaza to Egypt.
Continue reading...Australian government to grant federal circuit court and family court judges the same protections as other commonwealth judges under new legislation
The federal government is preparing to introduce reforms granting greater protections to inferior court judges after a landmark case in which a wrongfully imprisoned man successfully sued Salvatore Vasta.
Vasta, a judge in the federal circuit court, was successfully sued this year by a man who he falsely imprisoned during a routine property dispute after a series of “serious and fundamental errors” and “gross and obvious irregularity of procedure”.
Continue reading...Prof Ben Saul cautions that exceeding the limits of international law only breeds extremism and discontent, and is no recipe for peace
As he takes office as the UN’s sole special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism this week, Prof Ben Saul’s purview is dominated by what he views as one serious, though not unprecedented, “mistake”: countering terrorism with military might.
“Unfortunately, when 9/11 came, the same kind of pressure to take the gloves off became manifest pretty quickly,” says the incoming monitor and Challis chair of international law at the University of Sydney, as he reflects upon Israel’s siege of Gaza in response to Hamas’s attacks on 7 October.
Continue reading...Patterson, who has denied any wrongdoing, was arrested on Thursday over the family lunch in the rural Australian town of Leongatha
Erin Patterson, the woman at the centre of the mushroom lunch that left three people dead and a fourth fighting for his life, has been charged with murder.
Patterson was on Thursday charged with murdering Gail and Don Patterson, both 70, and her sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, at lunch in her home in the rural Australian town of Leongatha on 29 July.
Continue reading...Adelaide family who escaped besieged enclave through Rafah as part of multinational deal say crossing border was ‘nerve-wracking’ and took several attempts
An Adelaide family of four who had been trapped in Gaza for three weeks are among 20 Australians who have managed to escape the besieged enclave into Egypt.
Australia has confirmed 20 Australian nationals – and three other people who had registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) – crossed through the Rafah pass into Egypt as part of a multinational deal to allow foreign national civilians to leave Gaza.
Continue reading...Organisers hope gatherings in Sydney and Melbourne will give a voice to ‘values’ not reflected in mainstream discussions
They gathered in coats and scarves in the dwindling light on a little hill in Bondi, a coalition of 100 or so, accompanied by dogs and children.
The decision to gather in public on Wednesday night was a deliberate one to highlight the first Jewish grouping in Australia to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, the release of hostages and freedom and justice for all in Israel and Palestine. A similar gathering in St Kilda, Melbourne echoed the call for peace.
Continue reading...Rural firefighters’ chief says Queensland in ‘survival mode’ amid dry weather, with 53 homes destroyed by fire in the Western Downs
Queensland is in “survival mode” as dozens of bushfires burn across the state and there is no rain on the horizon, the head of the volunteer firefighters association has said.
Firefighters have contained a bushfire at Tara, on the Western Downs four hours west of Brisbane, that destroyed 53 homes and claimed two lives. But fires have flared up to the north and south, with emergency warnings in place on Wednesday for a fire between Warwick and Stanthorpe on the Southern Downs.
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The NSW RFS has confirmed that just after 4am this morning one of its firefighting tanks rolled over 10km south of Jennings in the Tenterfield LGA.
A spokesperson said there were four firefighters on board. They were all taken from the truck, with three being taken to hospital for observation.
They’ve said they’ll be returning to bulk billing, or many of them who are considering a change would stick with bulk billing, for those more than 11 million Australians.
That’s about 60% or more of the throughput of the average general practice. So it’s a huge boost in confidence and funding to a sector that I think is probably in its most powerless status been in the 40 year history of Medicare.
Continue reading...Rose Jackson says the way authorities respond needs to change, acknowledging system ‘has failed’ in some instances
The New South Wales mental health minister, Rose Jackson, has flagged significant reforms to the way police respond to people in acute distress as she conceded there were instances in which the current system “has failed”.
Jackson said the government and police were doing “a big piece of work about what comes next” and that she wanted mental health consumers and advocates to assist with designing the new system next year.
Continue reading...Police have established a crime scene at St Lucy’s School in Wahroonga on the city’s upper north shore
A 10-year-old boy has died at a school for children with disability on Sydney’s upper north shore after becoming trapped under a lift.
New South Wales police said emergency services were called to St Lucy’s School in Wahroonga about 2pm on Wednesday after reports a child was trapped.
Continue reading...Among the 241 annual reports released all at once are 45 children’s deaths, triple-zero success and a fish ‘misadventure’ at the zoo
Every year, the Victorian parliament partakes in a tradition that has come to be known as “dump day”.
Usually towards the end of the sitting year, the government will release a bewildering number of annual reports at once, presumably so that journalists and other interested parties are rendered physically incapable of taking them all in.
Continue reading...Sobering-up facility not completed, emergency workers unclear about their role in new scheme – and it begins on Melbourne Cup Day
It’s been almost six years since Tanya Day hopped on a train to Melbourne but never made it to the city.
The 55-year-old Yorta Yorta woman was arrested for being drunk in public on 5 December 2017 after she fell asleep. She was placed in a police cell to sober up, suffered a head injury and later died.
Continue reading...Economists say limited sales volumes and rising populations have more than made up for the dampening effect of higher interest rates
Australia’s property prices have soared to record levels in several capital cities as limited sales volumes and rising populations more than made up for the dampening effect of higher interest rates, two data groups say.
The new figures show significant growth in Brisbane, Adelaide, and in Perth, where five areas have recorded annual gains of more than 15%, while prices in Sydney are 7.51% higher than a year ago.
Continue reading...Survey finds 47% believe Aukus locks Australia in to supporting the US in an armed conflict, while concern about conflict with China has fallen
A significant minority of Australians think the country should withdraw from the overall Anzus security alliance with the US if Donald Trump returns to the White House, while just under half of the respondents in a new poll believe the Aukus pact locks Australia in to supporting the US in any armed conflict.
The findings, to be released on Wednesday, are part of an opinion survey undertaken annually by the United States Studies Centre. YouGov surveyed 1,019 adults in Australia, 1,055 in the US and 1,015 in Japan about a range of foreign policy and security questions related to the Indo-Pacific.
Continue reading...Democracy activist ‘hasn’t enjoyed any direct sunlight for over four years’ and his children fear their father risks being left to die in a Chinese prison
The children of jailed Australian writer Yang Hengjun, detained for more than four years in China, have pleaded with Anthony Albanese to negotiate his release in Beijing this week, telling the prime minister his situation is critical and their father risks “being left to die”.
The writer and avowed democracy activist was arrested in January 2019 and charged with espionage. Yang has collapsed in prison and been told he has a 10cm cyst growing on his kidney, his sons said in a letter to Albanese, emphasising there was “a narrow window of opportunity” to secure his release.
In a prison, inmates are allowed to go outside to get fresh air and may eat in the canteen. Unlike the detention centre where I eat, drink, defecate and urinate all in a small room.
I haven’t enjoyed any direct sunlight for over four years. At most, some rays of sunlight occasionally come through one or two panes of glass and flicker fitfully.
Don’t forget I have not been convicted yet. According to Chinese law, I am still innocent, yet I have been locked up for more than four years, and I am almost destroyed … I’m talking about physically; mentally, no-one can destroy me.
I just hope I will be able to get out alive.
Continue reading...Exclusive: DP World, part-owned by the Dubai government, may have ‘artificially reduced profits’, a new report claims
DP World, one of Australia’s two largest port operators, has paid no tax in Australia despite generating revenue of more than $4.5bn over eight years.
A new report by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (Cictar) says that DP World’s top Australian subsidiary may have “artificially reduced profits” to achieve the result.
Continue reading...Researcher says consumers can’t make the ‘best choices’ as rating missing on more than half of products
The government’s flagship initiative to improve Australians’ diets is “working great” as a marketing tool for food manufacturers, but is not helping people make healthier choices, new research has found.
The Health Star Rating system was introduced in 2014 as a government-led front-of-pack nutrition label designed to be a simple way to compare the overall nutritional quality of products on the shelf, as recommended by the World Health Organisation.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Former foreign minister says it is ‘sheer dumb luck’ that arms have not been used in the past 78 years and urges leadership on control measures
The Labor luminary Gareth Evans has urged Australia to lobby the US to promise “no first use” of nuclear weapons, warning that global arms control agreements “are now either dead or on life support”.
The former foreign minister says that in the wake of sealing the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine deal, the Albanese government should give “some comfort to ALP members and voters that we are really serious about nuclear arms control”.
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