Category Archives: Australia news

Question time chaos – as it happened

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Tasmanian hospitals experiencing significant demand, public asked to reconsider attending

Tasmanians are being urged to stay away from the state’s two main hospitals unless it’s an emergency as they face “significant demand”.

The hospitals are closely managing elective surgery activity to maintain access for emergency demand. This includes working with private hospitals to access contracted bed capacity and elective surgery.”

I think the Qantas board has to seriously consider some of the decisions that they have been making. I mean, not for nothing, you’re in front of the competition watchdog for what is alleged to be quite egregious behaviour.

You have also sought to, as I said, keep on your balance sheet half a billion dollars of your customers’ money rather than giving it back in the middle of a cost of living crisis. (The flight credits)

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Facility accused of exorcisms and gay conversion practices applied for funding a month after Morrison announced it

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Freedom of information documents show officials scrambling for information after then PM announced $4m for Esther Foundation

The Esther Foundation – a rehabilitation facility accused of performing exorcisms and gay conversions – applied for “promised funding” a month after the funding had been announced.

Freedom of information documents show the health department rushing to get information after the then prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced $4m for the group in the lead-up to the 2019 election.

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Labor’s refusal to tie public hospital funding to full reproductive care condemned as ‘outrageous’

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Women forced to ‘shop around’ for abortion care due to Catholic public hospitals’ refusal to provide terminations

Despite harrowing stories from women about having to “shop around” for abortion care even when their pregnancies are unviable, the federal government will not make providing abortion services a condition tied to millions of dollars in funding it allocates to major public hospitals.

An investigation by Guardian Australia detailed the still widespread practice of Catholic hospitals across Australia using the cover of religion to opt out of providing reproductive care, with devastating consequences.

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Australia urged to expand flights to Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in blueprint to boost trade

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Anthony Albanese will launch strategy amid intense debate over decision to block Qatar Airways’ request for further flights to Australia

Australia should expand flights to key south-east Asian markets such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a sweeping economic blueprint to boost trade.

The strategy, to be released by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Wednesday, also calls on the government to cut foreign investment barriers, fast track visas and urgently improve Australia’s “south-east Asia literacy”.

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The RBA’s interest rate-rising looks done – and a soft landing for the economy could be on

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Australia’s economy might be just where Philip Lowe wants it – barring any nasty surprise – as he hands over to Michele Bullock

As two of Australia’s more contentious figures Philip Lowe and Alan Joyce head towards their gilded departure lounges, the economy seems set in a holding pattern with improving prospects of a desired soft landing.

To be sure, a happy outcome of a jobless rate remaining within cooee of 4%, wages finally catching if not outpacing inflation, and even the federal budget staying in the black a bit longer is far from assured.

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Liberals accused of ‘dirty tactics’ over Indigenous voice pamphlet leading voters to site that harvests information

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Party pointing voters to same website labelled ‘potentially misleading’ by AEC during 2022 election

The Liberal party has been accused of “dirty tactics” by offering nonexistent postal vote registration for the referendum, directing would-be voters to a party website to harvest their personal information.

A “vote no” pamphlet delivered to mail boxes includes a QR code that leads to the same website the party used in last year’s election as part of a move the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) labelled “potentially misleading”.

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Family of Uber Eats rider who died after being hit by truck urges MPs to pass Labor’s gig worker changes

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Union helps Burak Dogan’s family lodge workers’ compensation claim after company denied them $400,000 death benefit

Yavuz Cikar still seethes at the injustice that followed his nephew Burak Dogan’s death.

Dogan, an Uber Eats rider and 30-year-old Turkish student, was riding an electric bike in Sydney’s inner west in April 2020. About 26 minutes after he cancelled an Uber Eats delivery, he was hit by a truck.

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Australia politics live: RBA interest rates decision today; question time under way

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The corporate regulator is suing Westpac after it allegedly failed to appropriately respond to hundreds of financial hardship requests from bank customers.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) said in a statement on Tuesday it had started civil proceedings in the federal court seeking financial penalties to be imposed on the major bank.

All of these customers told Westpac they were experiencing financial hardship.

Many of these customers also told Westpac about their difficult circumstances and vulnerabilities, including their inability to work, the impacts of serious medical conditions or their carer responsibilities.

This error meant we didn’t provide some of our customers with the help they needed. For this, we are deeply sorry.

The broader picture here is the we’re seeing big corporations at the moment making record profits off the back of everyday people, these big corporations line up to public handouts when the going gets tough and then when they get back into a more healthy situation, they just pocket the profits and they pass the costs on to everyday people and we think it’s time to say enough is enough and it’s time for these big corporations [to be] made to act in the public interest and that’s government’s job.

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‘Should never have happened’: Queensland apologises for neglect and abuse of brothers with autism

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Disability royal commission finds state should have done more to protect pair, who were found malnourished in house with dead father

The Queensland government has apologised to two boys with autism who were found severely malnourished, naked and locked in a squalid room after their father died.

The child safety minister, Craig Crawford, said he was “disgusted” to learn about the abuse and neglect experienced by the teenage brothers over two decades, as revealed by the disability royal commission.

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Child allegedly assaulted by William Tyrrell’s former foster parents heard sobbing on audio played in court

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Former foster mother, 58, pleaded guilty to assaulting the child on two occasions in 2021

A child allegedly assaulted and intimidated by William Tyrrell’s former foster parents can be heard sobbing and begging with them in audio played to a court.

The 58-year-old woman pleaded guilty on Monday to assaulting the child, who is not William, on two occasions in January and October 2021.

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New Zealand judge dismisses charges against White Island volcano owners

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Individual charges against Andrew, James and Peter Buttle dropped, though their company still faces charges over deadly eruption

The three brothers who owned Whakaari/White Island at the time of its deadly eruption had the individual charges against them thrown out by a New Zealand judge on Tuesday, two months into their trial.

The sudden eruption in December 2019 came as tour groups were visiting the island volcano. The explosion killed 22 people, 17 of them Australians, and seriously injured 25 others.

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Editorial in the Australian that targeted ABC’s Louise Milligan was inaccurate and unfair, press council finds

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The Murdoch broadsheet breached three standards in the article, which caused unnecessary distress and was not in the public interest, body says

An editorial in the Australian newspaper which targeted the ABC journalist Louise Milligan was inaccurate, unfair, lacked balance, caused unnecessary distress and was not in the public interest, the Australian Press Council has found.

The Murdoch broadsheet breached three of the general principles of the regulator when it accused Milligan, a former employee of the newspaper, of “bad, lazy, deceitful journalism” in the 2021 article Greatest enemy of truth is those who conspire to lie.

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Activists want NT to make spit hoods illegal after report found they were used on children 27 times

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Campaigners says case of child who may have lost consciousness while restrained in spit hood highlights need to legislate ban

The sibling of an Aboriginal man who died after being placed in a spit hood while detained in South Australia has criticised the Northern Territory government for refusing to legislate a ban as recommended by the territory’s ombudsman.

Northern Territory police have used spit hoods on children at least 27 times since 2016, in a move labelled “extraordinary” by the NT ombudsman last week.

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NSW to enter talks to extend life of Eraring, Australia’s largest coal-fired power station

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Opponents call on Minns government to use the funds it would pay Origin to instead hasten rollout of rooftop solar and batteries

The Minns government will “engage” with the owner of Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station for a “temporary” extension of its operating life, prioritising short-term energy security over emissions reductions.

A final cost and length of extending operations of the 2,880-megawatt Eraring power plant near Newcastle would hinge on negotiations with owner Origin Energy, the government said on Tuesday.

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Australia has highest per capita CO2 emissions from coal in G20, analysis finds

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Australia used twice as much electricity as China on a per capita basis and 48% of it came from coal plants, thinktank says

Australia still emits more greenhouse gas from burning coal on a per capita basis than other G20 countries despite a significant rise in solar and wind energy.

While Australia and South Korea have cut per person emissions from coal-fired electricity since 2015 – by 26% and 10% respectively – they continue to release more CO2 than other major economies, according to an analysis by the energy thinktank Ember.

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Australia to roll out new south-east Asia trade strategy to hedge against China

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Anthony Albanese is expected to announce the new economic blueprint during his trip to the Indonesian capital Jakarta

Anthony Albanese will fly to Jakarta this week to launch a major new strategy to deepen Australia’s trade and investment ties with south-east Asia and hedge against top trading partner China.

Despite China recently reopening the door to key Australian exports that it shunned at the height of diplomatic tensions in 2020, the Albanese government wants to diversify economic ties to reduce exposure to further political tumult.

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Australia remains free of lumpy skin disease despite Indonesia blocking cattle imports, officials say

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Indonesia imposes strict testing conditions on cattle from three major export ports after claiming infectious disease detected in eight cattle

The Australian government has denied suggestions that a highly infectious livestock disease has been detected in the country, after the Indonesian government moved to block live exports of cattle from northern Australia.

On Sunday, Indonesian officials notified their Australian counterparts they had detected eight cases of lumpy skin disease in cattle imported from Australia.

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Speaker investigates after rowdy pharmacists disrupt question time in Canberra

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Independent MP Zali Steggall claims opposition members encouraged protesters and calls for ‘disorderly conduct’ to be addressed

A rowdy group of pharmacists has disrupted question time and allegedly verbally abused parliamentary staff, prompting an investigation by the Speaker into who signed them into the building.

The Community and Pharmacy Support group (Caps) protested against the Albanese government’s 60-day medicine dispensing changes at Parliament House on Monday, calling on the health minister, Mark Butler, to resign.

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Qantas board urged to withhold bonuses of Alan Joyce and senior executives

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Shareholders’ Association chief says an immediate response is needed if the airline is serious about restoring public trust

Alan Joyce and senior Qantas executives should have millions of dollars in bonuses withheld, its board has been urged after the airline conceded its reputation has been flamed and as momentum builds to investigate the airline’s special relationship with government.

The Australian Shareholders’ Association chief executive, Rachel Waterhouse, said that if the company is serious about restoring public trust after the surprise launch last week of legal action by the consumer watchdog there needed to be a more immediate response from the airline’s board.

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NSW premier open to ‘pattern-book’ housing across Sydney as solution for crisis

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Unlikely alliance pushes for more medium-density housing of the sort typically found in inner-city suburbs

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, says he is open to a proposal to pre-approve “pattern-book” housing designs that can be rolled out in Sydney suburbs – an idea being championed by an unlikely alliance of unions, big business and universities.

The Housing Now group, launched on Monday, argues that 30 suburbs need to be, in effect, transformed into inner-city Surry Hills by adding higher density houses and medium-rise apartment buildings.

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