Category Archives: Australia news

Ken Elliott: kidnapped Australian surgeon says he had scurvy and was close to death during seven years in Africa

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The missionary, who was taken by an al-Qaida-linked group in Burkina Faso in 2016, tells how God and meditating on scripture sustained him

An Australian surgeon who was held captive by militants in Africa for more than seven years has spoken publicly about the toll of the ordeal, saying he became so malnourished he got scurvy and was close to death.

Ken Elliott and his wife, Jocelyn, were in their 80s when they were kidnapped by an al-Qaida-linked group in Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in the Sahel region that is experiencing increasing unrest.

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Past and present public servants to be investigated – as it happened

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Home prices to keep rising despite higher rates: REA

National property prices are expected to increase by up to five per cent in 2023, having already lifted more than two per cent since the start of the year, AAP reports.

We saw price increases despite rising interest rates and reduced borrowing capacities and anticipate moderate price increases to continue over the coming months.

Don’t wait for a flare to rise from Canberra, until you get started.

The campaign has truly begun. Get out there, talk to your family, talk to your friends.

This is your moment.

I urge you to campaign for a future you want to see.

We will win this referendum, conversation by conversation. Silence doesn’t make history, people make history.

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Finance department hires consultant to advise on hiring consultants in move compared to ABC’s Utopia

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Exclusive: Department’s $32,000 contract, which comes after PwC tax leak scandal, slammed as ‘laughable scenario’

The finance department has entered into a $32,000 contract with an external consultant to provide advice on how it should engage other external consultants who also provide advice to government, in a move that has been slammed as a “laughable scenario”.

The contract has been compared to an episode of the ABC satire Utopia and as an example of the public service’s reliance on external expertise, even as the federal government tries to save money and do more work in-house.

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Timing of $2bn housing and sports package uncertain after Victorian Commonwealth Games pullout

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Regional mayors say they expect the state government to provide details on infrastructure projects in coming months

The Victorian government has yet to commit to deadlines for new and upgraded sports facilities and $1bn in social and affordable housing promised to regional centres that were set to host the Commonwealth Games.

Weeks after Daniel Andrews announced the 2026 event in Victoria would be cancelled, regional mayors expect it could be at least two months before the government outlines its timeline to deliver promised facilities and housing. It comes after Victoria’s upper house on Wednesday voted to establish a select committee to investigate the cancellation of the major sporting event. This is separate to the Senate inquiry in federal parliament that will also examine the axing of the Games.

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Greens decry property tax breaks costing 78 times what Labor proposes to spend on social housing

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Max Chandler-Mather says magnitude of the tax concessions ‘morally reprehensible’ as stoush continues over housing crisis

The value of tax breaks given to property investors is 78 times the promised minimum spend on social housing under the Albanese government’s flagship fund, new data released by the Greens shows.

Max Chandler-Mather, the Greens’ housing spokesperson, described the magnitude of the tax concessions as “morally reprehensible” as the minor party digs in on opposing the housing Australia future fund (Haff) in its current form.

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Climate crisis: Australia must ready for ‘devastating’ regional disruption, MPs told

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Failed states, a rise in authoritarian politics and heightened risks of conflict among potential threats outlined in thinktank’s assessment

Australia must prepare for “devastating” climate-fueled disruption in the Asia-Pacific, including failed states, forced migration and regional conflicts over water shortages, a stark briefing for federal politicians warns.

The Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration thinktank has summarised the potential threats and impacts of the climate crisis in a note targeted at MPs.

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Dutton was briefed five times on US-Australia talks over impact of war crimes allegations on alliance

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Exclusive: Documents show officials raised concerns SAS might be mentioned in US state department’s human rights report

Peter Dutton was briefed five times about sensitive discussions between the United States and Australia over whether war crimes allegations jeopardised military cooperation, Guardian Australia can reveal.

Australian officials also privately raised concerns with the then defence minister that the issue might be mentioned in the US state department’s annual reports on human rights around the world.

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Megan Davis dismisses Coalition concerns over Indigenous treaty, saying ‘none of this is secret’

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Exclusive: Uluru statement from the heart architect says information on Labor’s approach to treaty has been ‘on the public record for over half a decade’

Uluru statement from the heart architect Prof Megan Davis says information about the voice and treaty has been “in plain sight” since 2017, downplaying the Coalition’s concerns about treaties and noting such agreements are already in train across multiple states.

Labor has committed to the 2017 Uluru statement in full, including treaty, the second element of the statement, with Anthony Albanese making the pledge on multiple occasions, including his election victory speech.

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Australia news live: NSW to review ‘red flags’ systems after child abuse charges; premier calls for urgent meeting of state agencies

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Chris Minns calls meeting of state government agencies after Queensland childcare worker was charged with 1,623 child abuse offences. Follow live news updates today

In a back and forth between Patricia Karvelas and prime minister Anthony Albanese on whether he supports a federal treaty, he says the no voice to parliament campaign is trying to muddy the waters:

What the no campaign want to do is to focus on everything that’s not happening.

What is happening is a vote in the last quarter of this year for a voice to parliament. And what that is about is recognising First Nations people in our constitution and then listening to Indigenous Australians so as to get better results. That’s what the focus is on. And what I find, I think, very enlightening, is … the no campaign want to talk about everything except for the question.

Well, where does it say that? It doesn’t even say that in the Uluru statement. It doesn’t say that, it doesn’t speak about the commonwealth negotiating treaties. It doesn’t say that Patricia. So don’t get sucked into it.

Today, the Greens need to vote for this legislation. You can’t say that you’re supporting housing, supply, public housing and then vote against it.

I’m not prepared to negotiate on Radio National, Patricia. People talk all the time across the parliament all the time.

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Australian teenager Yusuf Zahab ‘alive’ in Syrian prison months after reports he was killed in IS strike

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Family ‘overwhelmed with joy’ after video emerges of teenager, believed to be Zahab, looking healthy and speaking into a camera

An Australian teenager believed killed in an Islamic State airstrike in Syria more than a year ago is believed to have been found alive. His family say they are “overwhelmed with joy”.

Yusuf Zahab was just 11 when he was taken into Syria by his family nearly a decade ago: his older brothers were IS fighters and recruiters.

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Victorian electricity transmission charges could more than double if Australia’s longest power line proceeds

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Proposed 800km VNI West will be costlier than alternatives and won’t solve grid bottlenecks holding back new solar and wind, thinktank says

Victorians face a more than doubling of transmission charges on electricity bills if the state government proceeds with plans for what is likely to be the most costly and longest single power line in Australia’s history, a thinktank says in a new report.

The report by the Victoria Energy Policy Centre (VEPC) argues the proposed 500 kilovolt VNI West transmission line linking Melbourne’s outskirts with Wagga Wagga on an 800km path will be far costlier than alternatives and faces extensive landholder opposition. It also will not solve grid bottlenecks holding back new solar and windfarms in the state.

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Billionaire investor threatens to pull out of UK amid global outcry at new oil rush

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Australian mining entrepreneur Andrew Forrest criticises ‘clickbait’ fossil fuel plans as others say Britain has lost credibility

The billionaire Australian mining tycoon and investor Andrew Forrest has led international condemnation of the UK’s new oil rush, saying he would pull his major investment from the country if the prime minister pursued “clickbait” fossil fuel policies.

The iron ore magnate, who also runs the Minderoo Foundation philanthropic organisation, threatened to move his investments out of the UK over Rishi Sunak’s swivel towards new oil and gas drilling.

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NSW drivers using medicinal cannabis would be shielded from DUI charges under MP’s proposed reforms

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Legalise Cannabis party’s Jeremy Buckingham says risk of losing driver’s licence under current drug-driving laws acts as disincentive for patients

New South Wales drivers who use medicinal cannabis and return a positive result at a roadside drug test would be spared prosecution under new laws being put forward by the upper house MP Jeremy Buckingham.

It is illegal in NSW to drive with any amount of THC, a psychoactive component of cannabis, in your body even if you have a prescription. THC can show up in roadside drug tests days after the initial period of impairment has worn off.

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Cancelling Antarctic climate research will damage Australia’s reputation, experts say

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Exclusive: Lawyers and environmentalists warn international community is watching carefully amid ‘science, logistics and influence race’

Australia’s international reputation and diplomatic influence will be damaged unless the federal government intervenes to ensure crucial climate change research in Antarctica is not cancelled, international lawyers and environmentalists have warned.

The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, is also facing political pressure from the Greens and the Coalition, which have both raised concerns about plans to cancel or heavily restrict studies of record-low sea ice, ice shelves and declining penguin populations due to a budget crunch.

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Climate activists target Woodside CEO’s home in protest, company claims

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Meg O’Neill says protesters trespassed at her Perth home on Tuesday amid climate backlash over Burrup Hub expansion

Climate activists have targeted the family home of Woodside Energy’s boss in what the company claimed was the escalation of protests over its gas business.

The firm’s chief executive, Meg O’Neill, said “extremist” protesters accompanied by camera crews trespassed on Tuesday morning at her Perth home in the affluent suburb of City Beach.

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Expert says overdiagnosis means Australian cancer screening tests must be ‘handled very carefully’

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UK surgeon told the Public Health Association of Australia’s Cancer Screening Symposium screening is a ‘double-edged sword’

The UK surgeon whose work led to the introduction of bowel cancer screening tests has warned the practice has potential to be a “dangerous tool”.

In his keynote address to the Public Health Association of Australia’s Cancer Screening Symposium, Prof Robert Steele called for greater public awareness that screening is a “double-edged sword”.

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How a picture of bedsheets from dark web led police to Brisbane childcare centre and man’s arrest

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Tiny traces from videos and images drew detectives to a childcare worker accused of being Australia’s worst serial paedophile

In 2014, detectives from a specialist Queensland police unit came across a small number of videos and images posted online, depicting the abuse of two girls but containing few clues as to where in the world they had been made.

After the discovery by taskforce Argos, the Australia federal police (AFP) and other agencies began an international search for the victims. This included uploading the material to a database that could be searched by other law enforcement agencies.

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TikTok ban on Australian government devices should also cover WeChat, parliamentary committee recommends

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Senate committee examining foreign interference on social media says it is ‘concerned’ with ‘unique national security risks’ the companies pose

The ban on TikTok from government devices in Australia should be extended to the devices of government contractors, and should also cover WeChat, a parliamentary committee has recommended.

The Senate committee examining foreign interference on social media said in its report tabled on Tuesday that it had been “particularly concerned” with the “unique national security risks” posed by companies like TikTok and WeChat “whose parent companies ByteDance and Tencent respectively, are irrefutably headquartered in and run from authoritarian countries like China”.

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Scott Morrison a ‘bottomless well of self-pity’ with no ‘mercy’ for robodebt’s real victims, Bill Shorten says

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Minister for government services says ‘real victims are all those Australians who lost trust in government’ due to scheme

Bill Shorten has accused Scott Morrison of being “a bottomless well of self-pity” with “not a drop of mercy for all of the real victims of robodebt”.

That outburst in question time followed the former prime minister’s defence of his involvement of the scheme in parliament on Monday, claiming Labor was pursuing a campaign of “political lynching” against him.

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Labor to meet Greens over housing bill – as it happened

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RFS predicts severe bushfire season to come

Firefighters are scrambling to catch up on bushfire preparations as NSW braces for a hot summer, AAP reports.

The No 1 factor for that not going ahead was the weather conditions, the rain, the flooding, that’s meant the crews weren’t able to get out and do that important work in communities.

There is plenty more to be done and this boost in mitigation personnel will enable even more vital work to be undertaken.

This is a tragedy. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the Australian Defence Force personnel on board. All were from the 6th Aviation Regiment based at Holsworthy army barracks in Sydney and valuable members of our community.

Our thoughts are also with those who served alongside these four young men – their friends and colleagues in uniform – and the broader defence community.

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