Category Archives: Australia news

Contraceptive pill accessible over-the-counter in NSW and Queensland for the first time

Posted on by

NSW chief health officer says scheme particularly popular in regional areas, where fewer GPs are often available

Women in Queensland and New South Wales will now have easier access to the oral contraceptive pill as state governments expand trials to ease pressure on GPs.

Under the changes, women in NSW will be able to obtain a prescription for resupply of the pill from their pharmacist without having to see a doctor, unless it is the first time they have taken the medication.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

PwC to restructure board as report into consultancy scandal released

Posted on by

PwC Australia will also commit to publishing audited financial statements

PwC Australia will overhaul its corporate structure, adding three non-executive directors to its governance board and a non-executive chair, as well as committing to publishing audited financial statements.

The announcement comes ahead of the release of an investigation into the firm’s misuse of confidential government information, which triggered a reputation crisis and widespread condemnation.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia’s wealthiest 20% worth 90 times the country’s poorest, new report reveals

Posted on by

Superannuation and property investment fuels growing inequality, with the richest fifth worth an average of $3.2m

Australia’s wealth gap has continued to grow over the past two decades, with superannuation and property investment driving inequality across the country, a new report from the Australian Council of Social Service and the University of New South Wales has revealed.

Over the past two decades the average wealth of the top 20% has grown at four times the rate of the lowest, the report has shown using figures from the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data in 2019.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Locking up young people doesn’t create safer communities, Queensland children’s advocate says

Posted on by

‘Compassion just dissipates’ among public when young victims of abuse become offenders, expert says

Locking up young people makes the community less safe, one of Queensland’s leading children’s advocates said, as police announced another crackdown on youth offenders in Cairns.

Guardian Australia reported on Monday that a significant number of alleged victims uncovered during a police investigation into the exploitation of vulnerable children in Cairns, are also the targets of a government crackdown on youth crime.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Embattled Qantas chair Richard Goyder to appear at Senate inquiry into Qatar Airways decision

Posted on by

Announcement follows statement from Qantas pilots calling for Goyder’s resignation for role in ‘one of the most damaging periods’ in airline’s history

Qantas’s embattled chair, Richard Goyder, will appear before a Senate inquiry into the Albanese government’s decision to reject Qatar Airways’ request to almost double its flights into Australia as he faces widespread calls for his resignation.

Goyder, who will be joined by the new Qantas CEO, Vanessa Hudson, on Wednesday, will be called on to defend the national carrier against a series of criticisms by industry witnesses that the airline has been engaging in anti-competitive behaviour, known as “slot hoarding”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Daniel Andrews remoulded the state of Victoria – but the wheels were beginning to wobble

Posted on by

Time will tell if the premier’s legacy will be his huge infrastructure projects and social reforms or his exercise of power and debt burden

Daniel Andrews has been one of the most transformational leaders in Australia’s history. Victorians will be living with his legacy for decades – encountering it when they drive, catch public transport, raise their children and, for some, even at the point of death.

His main legacy is already clear: the huge infrastructure and public transport projects that will mould life in Australia’s fastest-growing capital for the century ahead. If they work, they will keep Melbourne livable, despite the pressures of a booming population.

Continue reading...

Deputy premier puts hand up for Victoria’s top job – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

Canterbury Road fire: firetrucks wetting down area

Supt Adam Dewberry with Fire and Rescue NSW has just provided us with an update on the factory fire on Canterbury Road in Sydney’s south-west.

Vacancy rates under 1% in most of these suburbs show the immense strain on housing availability. When you’re allocating nearly half your income on rent … the financial stress becomes unbearable.

Our index is more than just numbers; it’s a call to action. Policymakers and stakeholders need to acknowledge this growing crisis.

The relentless climb in rent and plummeting vacancy rates are not just statistics but indicators of a quality of life that is rapidly deteriorating for Australian renters.

Continue reading...

‘No arrangement’ to repatriate Australian women and children in Syrian camps, court hears

Posted on by

Government maintains it has no effective control of the Australians’ detention despite official correspondence citing plans to bring them home

Australia has “no arrangement” to bring Australian women and children home from Syrian detention camps, the government has told the federal court, despite official correspondence citing a “plan to repatriate further groups of women and children”.

Save the Children Australia is acting as guardian for 11 Australian women and their 20 children – currently held in detention camps in north-east Syria.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Gladys Berejiklian argues Icac finding invalid because commissioner’s term had ended

Posted on by

Former NSW premier contends Ruth McColl was not authorised to complete report – and that corruption finding not supported by evidence

The former New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, will contend that the commissioner who found she had engaged in serious corrupt conduct was not authorised to make the decision, and the finding is invalid.

Berejiklian filed a summons for a judicial review in the NSW court of appeal last week in relation to findings of serious corrupt conduct made against her by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) in Operation Keppel.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Daniel Andrews resigns as premier of Victoria

Posted on by

Labor’s longest-serving premier in the state made the announcement at a snap press conference on Tuesday

Daniel Andrews has announced his resignation as the Victorian premier, after nearly nine years in office.

The announcement was made at a snap press conference outside parliament on Tuesday and comes after prolonged media speculation about his future. Andrews’ deputy, Jacinta Allan, later confirmed she would run for leadership of the Victorian Labor party.

Continue reading...

Commonwealth prosecutors received special training on how to run war crimes cases

Posted on by

Documents show 21 prosecutors took part in legal program as CDPP ramped up preparedness in anticipation of referrals

Twenty-one prosecutors received specialised training on how to run war crimes cases in anticipation of referrals from the dedicated office investigating war crimes allegations, documents reveal.

Only one soldier has so far been charged for his alleged conduct in Afghanistan and the case has been slow to move through the courts, with his lawyers complaining of delays in receiving the evidence against their client.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia’s corporate watchdog launches ‘confidential proceedings’ against Deloitte partner

Posted on by

The partner has been referred to a disciplinary panel for investigation, the firm tells a NSW parliamentary inquiry

A Deloitte partner is facing “confidential proceedings” launched by the corporate watchdog after being referred to a disciplinary panel for investigation.

The big four accounting firm told a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry the partner was still employed but would not be performing audit work until the investigation was finalised.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australian women and children in squalid Syrian camp are being detained unlawfully, federal court told

Posted on by

Save the Children, representing 12 women and their 21 children, argues the government has the power, and an obligation, to bring them home

Thirty-three Australian women and children forcibly held for four years in a Syrian detention camp have told the federal government to prove it cannot bring them home, or “bring their bodies to the court” in Australia.

In filings before the federal court, Save the Children Australia – representing 12 Australian women and their 21 children – has argued the Australians are being unlawfully detained, and their government has the power, and an obligation, to remove them and repatriate them to Australia.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Mullumbimby flood victims feel left behind as Chris Minns flies into Lismore to spruik recovery fund

Posted on by

Residents claim the agency in charge of recovery has backtracked after verbally assuring people they would get help

Mullumbimby residents who are still stuck in limbo 18 months after their town was devastated by floods say a change to the state’s recovery program means few of them will qualify for support to retrofit or raise their homes.

As the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, prepares to fly into Lismore on Tuesday to talk up his Labor government’s $100m investment into flood recovery, a sense of “hopelessness” has set in for residents in the neighbouring Byron shire.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Domestic violence assaults up 13.5% in New South Wales over five years

Posted on by

An AI model used to analyse more than half a million domestic violence reports found 57% included coercive control

Domestic violence assaults have risen 13.5% over the past five years, according to the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar), which also found coercive control behaviours were present in more than half of police domestic violence reports.

Using an artificial intelligence model to analyse more than half a million domestic violence police reports made from Janurary 2009 until March 2020, Bocsar researchers found 57% of domestic violence events included at least one coercive control behaviour.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Female doctors vulnerable to sexual assault due to hospital work environments, expert says

Posted on by

Dr Louise Stone says victims have spoken of ‘enforced closeness’ of long sessions in operating rooms and the ‘boys’ club culture’ of industry

Female doctors who have experienced sexual assault have spoken of work conditions they felt made them more vulnerable to harm from senior colleagues, an Australian researcher says.

“[They described] the enforced closeness that can occur in long sessions in operating theatres,” said Dr Louise Stone, an associate professor at the Australian National University.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Greens’ McKim says Pezzullo should be ‘working on his resignation letter’ after texts leaked

Posted on by

Senator and home affairs spokesperson calls Pezzullo’s position ‘completely untenable’. Follow the day’s news live

Residents rescued from suspicious apartment block blaze in Melbourne

Residents trapped inside a burning Melbourne care facility have been safely rescued, with the blaze regarded as suspicious, AAP reports.

Continue reading...

Fire at Melbourne care home being treated as suspicious after residents rescued

Posted on by

Emergency services say 14 people were rescued at the facility on Mangan Street, Balwyn, on Sunday night

Firefighters have rescued residents who were trapped inside a burning care facility in Melbourne’s east, with the blaze being treated as suspicious.

Many residents made phone calls to triple-0 just before 10pm on Sunday as smoke filled the two-storey building in Mangan Street, Balwyn.

Continue reading...

Home affairs department head Michael Pezzullo referred to public service commissioner over leaked texts

Posted on by

The home affairs minister Clare O’Neil said she was ‘aware’ of reporting by Nine of the texts, which include comments about political figures

The head of the home affairs department, Michael Pezzullo, has been referred to the public service commissioner after a series of leaked texts called into question whether he made partisan interventions under the Coalition governments.

The Age and 60 Minutes first revealed the series of texts between Pezzullo and Liberal powerbroker, Scott Briggs, in which the home affairs secretary disparaged senior Coalition ministers and advocated for a right winger to be minister responsible for his department.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Bird of the year 2023: six underbirds that deserve your vote

Posted on by

Some of Australia’s most recognised feathered denizens have been flying under the popularity radar for far too long

Is there anything more thrilling than seeing an underbird soar? Keep that in mind when casting your vote in this year’s Guardian/Birdlife Australia bird of the year poll.

Previous polls have revealed a shocking bias. Support for some of Australia’s most recognised birds has been consistently weak. Let’s ruffle some feathers and give these underbirds a chance.

Continue reading...