Melbourne shooting: man gunned down near South Yarra in apparent targeted attack

Man, 53, died in hospital after being shot multiple times while walking down Almeida Crescent, off Chapel Street

A man who police say had organised crime associations was fatally shot on Friday night in what appears to be a targeted attack near a nightlife hotspot in Melbourne’s south.

Emergency services were alerted on Friday night at about 11.40pm that multiple shots had been fired at a man walking down Almeida Crescent, a side street off South Yarra’s Chapel Street.

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Australia may face a summer of heatwaves, even without El Niño

Bureau of Meterology says most of the country is likely to be warmer than average, but El Niño pattern is hard to predict with certainty

Australians should prepare for a summer of heatwaves even if an El Niño does not take hold this year, a senior climate scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology has said.

Dr Karl Braganza, the bureau’s national manager for climate services, said this year “could be significant in terms of heatwaves and fires”, but was unlikely to repeat the horrors of the 2019-20 black summer bushfires.

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PM accuses Coalition of ‘creating noise and confusion’ over voice – as it happened

Australia has ‘nothing to fear and everything to gain’ from a yes vote, Anthony Albanese says. This blog is now closed

Albanese says he won’t announce date of voice vote at Garma

Albanese will not announce at Garma what date the voice to parliament referendum will be held on:

I’ve made it clear a year ago what the timetable would look like, that it would be in the last quarter of this year. Obviously when we get into December, you are into the rainy season, so that gets knocked out. September, it could be held then except we have the footy finals.

We’ll make an announcement soon. We’ll talk through with the Australian Electoral Commission and make sure it’s an appropriate date, one that doesn’t clash with other events.

What is occurring with this referendum is it’s a clear proposition … the words are clear that have been put forward, they’ve been passed by the parliament, overwhelmingly by the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Indeed, across the parliament, both sides say they support constitutional recognition. Both sides say that you need to legislate the voice. The only difference is that Peter Dutton is saying that if you actually … enshrine it in the constitution, that that is something that they oppose.

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Australia’s defence department clamps down on private consultants

Exclusive: federal government has moved to stop the re-engagement of consultants within Defence after more than $1.3bn spent in the last financial year

The Australian government is moving to curb the revolving door between the Department of Defence and private consultants amid increasing scrutiny of the practice.

Guardian Australia understands Defence has introduced a new moratorium on entering into contracts with personnel who have left within the past 12 months.

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Anthony Albanese vows ‘no delaying or deferring’ of Indigenous voice vote

In Garma speech, PM says there is ‘nothing to fear and everything to gain’ and no vote in referendum would only lead to ‘more of the same’

There is “nothing to fear and everything to gain” from an Indigenous voice to parliament, Anthony Albanese has said at the Garma festival in Arnhem Land on Saturday, in his strongest pitch yet for Australians to vote yes in the upcoming referendum.

The prime minister promised to stay the course on the vote, due between September and December this year.

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Heston Russell defamation case: 2GB pursued ‘culture war’ when criticising ABC stories, court told

ABC executive Jo Puccini tells court rival radio station derided ‘all’ of public broadcaster’s alleged war crimes coverage

Radio broadcaster 2GB engaged in a culture war when repeatedly criticising the ABC’s war crimes reporting, the public broadcaster’s head of investigations has told the federal court.

The ABC executive Jo Puccini was the final witness in a six-day defamation trial brought by former commando Heston Russell, who is suing the ABC and investigative journalists Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson.

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‘An opportunity to be lifted up’: Anthony Albanese hails local clan council as model of Indigenous voice at Garma festival

The event began with a solemn and loving tribute to beloved late Gumatj leader Yunupingu

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has reaffirmed his commitment to implementing the Uluru statement in full, saying “no one will be hurt by a yes vote in this referendum, but we have an opportunity to be lifted up”.

Asked by reporters if he still was committed to the Uluru statement in full, Albanese simply answered: “yes”.

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Head of inquiry into Lehrmann prosecution gave report to selected journalists before ACT chief minister

ACT says it remains ‘extremely disappointed’ Walter Sofronoff released report to media outlets

The final Sofronoff inquiry report was handed to journalists prior to the ACT’s chief minister, the government has said.

The fallout from the explosive findings and premature publication of Walter Sofronoff KC’s report continued on Friday, following revelations that the inquiry head had provided embargoed copies of the final report to selected media outlets before police, the director of public prosecutions and other key players.

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Dutton wasn’t told details of Bhojani bribery investigation as it was not ‘custom and practice’, AFP tells estimates

Federal police say they did not tell then home affairs minister name of man who was subject of Nauru investigation or that department had contracts with him

Australian federal police investigating an Australian citizen for allegedly bribing politicians on Nauru have told a Senate estimates hearing they did not tell the then home affairs minister his department was paying the man’s company multimillion-dollar accommodation contracts at the same time, because it was not “custom and practice”.

The AFP says it knew a company linked to Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani had multiple ongoing contracts with the home affairs department when it briefed the then home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, on its Nauru foreign bribery investigation on 12 July 2018.

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Australia news live: ‘nonsense’ to suggest Qantas has an outsized influence over Albanese government, Alan Joyce says

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Queensland to give free meningococcal B vaccine to infants, children and adolescents

The meningococcal B vaccine will be made free for infants, children and adolescents in Queensland.

After hearing the stories of heartbroken Queensland families, I had to act.

We know the meningococcal B strain can be lethal and – if a young person is lucky enough to survive the disease – it’s likely they will develop permanent and sometimes devastating complications.

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Victoria’s first dedicated sobering up centre to open in inner-Melbourne suburb

Andrews government unveils plan for 20-bed Collingwood facility as public drunkenness is decriminalised

Victoria’s first permanent sobering up centre will be set up in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Collingwood ahead of the decriminalisation of public drunkenness in the state.

The 20-bed facility has been announced as the Andrews government shifts away from treating public drunkenness as a crime and towards making it a health issue.

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Competition watchdog blocks ANZ $4.9bn takeover of Suncorp over ‘oligopoly’ fears

ACCC says second-tier banks such as Suncorp are important competitors against major banks which dominate market

The competition regulator has declined to give ANZ permission to acquire Suncorp’s banking arm in a $4.9bn transaction that would have shaken up the banking industry.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said on Friday the proposed acquisition would “further entrench an oligopoly” in a sector already dominated by the four major banks.

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Tim Crakanthorp’s chief of staff reported his boss’s failure to disclose property holdings

Guardian Australia understands the Newcastle MP’s chief of staff, Elliot Stein, raised concerns with the premier, Chris Minns

Former New South Wales Labor minister Tim Crakanthorp’s own chief of staff reported that his boss had failed to disclose “substantial” holdings in his family’s Newcastle property empire, leading to Crakanthorp’s sacking from the cabinet and referral to the corruption watchdog this week.

Guardian Australia understands the Newcastle MP’s chief of staff, Elliot Stein, raised concerns with the premier, Chris Minns, after telling Crakanthorp he needed to disclose additional properties owned by his father-in-law and wife. There is no suggestion of wrongoing by them.

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Queensland police declare crime scene after body found in burnt-out camper trailer

Emergency services were called to the fire at a Teviotville property in the Scenic Rim region during the early hours of Friday morning

A body has been discovered after a camper trailer was destroyed in a blaze in south-east Queensland.

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Traditional owners win pause in woodland clearing at cultural site in Darwin

Defence plan to build housing at Lee Point/Binybara put on hold after calls for habitat of Gouldian finches and black-footed tree rat to be protected

Clearing of savanna woodlands for a defence housing development at Lee Point/Binybara in Darwin will be paused until the end of March in a win for traditional owners and members of the Darwin community.

Defence Housing Australia said in a statement it had voluntarily decided to stop work at the site until 31 March 2024 while it worked with government agencies and responded to an application regarding Aboriginal cultural heritage at the site.

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Robodebt: 16 bureaucrats named in royal commission report face investigation by public service agency

Independent reviewer to decide if the former and current staff have breached the public service code of conduct

The government’s central public service agency has revealed it will investigate 16 referrals relating to former and current bureaucrats named in the robodebt royal commission report.

In an update on Thursday afternoon, the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) – which has established a taskforce to deal with code of conduct referrals – said it had written to the individuals to notify them.

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Head of inquiry into Lehrmann prosecution released report to media without authorisation

Walter Sofronoff KC provided copies under embargo to ABC and the Australian, but ACT spokesperson said release ‘affected the inquiry process’

The head of an independent inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann provided embargoed copies of his final report to the media without the knowledge of the ACT government.


In an explosive statement on Thursday afternoon, an ACT government spokesperson said the government was “disappointed that the Sofronoff Board of Inquiry Report has been released to select media outlets”.

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Multibillion-dollar Newcastle redevelopment under review after NSW minister sacked

Cabinet office to review projects in region after premier told parliament he had concerns Tim Crakanthorp may have acted for ‘private interests’

A multibillion-dollar redevelopment of a Newcastle suburb will form part of an urgent review being undertaken by the New South Wales government after the premier raised concerns the sacked cabinet minister Tim Crakanthorp may have acted for “private interests”.

The Newcastle MP was stripped of his ministries and referred to the state’s corruption watchdog after Chris Minns was told about multiple previously undisclosed properties owned by Crakanthorp’s wife and family across the Hunter.

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Victorian council’s use of online meetings to avoid conspiracists ‘conflicts’ with democracy, court hears

Yarra Ranges council employee tells supreme court of ‘chaotic’ scenes after a January meeting

A Victorian council’s bid to stop conspiracists disrupting its work has been challenged in the state’s supreme court, which heard a “chaotic” meeting led to a planning official being accused of trying to “lock people up”.

Yarra Ranges council, in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs, announced in April it would close its public gallery for council meetings citing verbal abuse and intimidation from some of those attending them, including members of the conspiracist group My Place. It reopened its meetings to the public last month.

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Albanese lashes Dutton over Garma festival no-show as leaders trade barbs over Indigenous voice

PM and opposition leader spar over referendum, apology to the stolen generations and the prospect of treaty in heated parliamentary debate

Anthony Albanese has accused Peter Dutton of “undermining the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people” by opposing the Indigenous voice, launching a strident defence of the referendum and criticising the opposition leader for declining to attend the Garma festival this weekend.

As the Coalition again pursued the government in question time over the treaty element of the Uluru statement from the heart, asking how long it would take and what it would cost, Albanese sought to re-focus attention on the referendum. The prime minister questioned why the Liberal party opposed a constitutionally enshrined voice despite backing a legislated model, claiming the opposition was seeking to divide the nation.

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