Category Archives: Australia news

Properties worth more than $25bn were bought with cash in Australia’s three biggest states in early 2023

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Many cash purchases were made in regional areas of NSW, Victoria and Queensland as buyers downsized to less expensive housing

More than one in four transactions for dwellings or land is settled with cash in Australia’s three most-populous states, with buyers largely unaffected by higher interest rates, data group Pexa said.

Many of the cash purchases (those paid for in full without a loan) were made in regional parts of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, often by retirees or others downsizing to less expensive properties. Cash purchases for foreign students or recent migrants also make up a sizeable share of sales in inner-city areas.

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Home affairs may have misled Senate over Nauru contracts linked to man convicted over bribery

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Exclusive: Department claimed accommodation contracts with companies linked to Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani could not be cancelled – despite containing termination clauses

The department of home affairs appears to have misled the Senate over controversial contracts it signed with a company linked to a man under investigation for foreign bribery.

In a written response this month, the department told the Senate it had no power to cancel Nauru accommodation contracts with Radiance International Inc – linked to Mozammil (Mozu) Gulamabbas Bhojani, ultimately convicted of bribing politicians on the Pacific island state – but the department’s contracts explicitly allowed it to tear up the contracts for any reason.

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Marles says aircrew ‘yet to be found’ after military helicopter crash – as it happened

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Four feared dead after Australian army helicopter crashes into waters off Hamilton Island. This blog is now closed

Tasmania police use cadaver dog in search for missing Belgian tourist

AAP reports Tasmania police hope an interstate cadaver dog can reveal where a missing Belgian tourist ended up after weeks of fruitless searches.

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Australian military helicopter crash: four feared dead as search and rescue teams discover aircraft debris

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Four people were on board the Australian army helicopter when it went down at about 10.30pm on Friday in Whitsundays

Four pilots are feared dead after an Australian army helicopter crashed into water off Hamilton Island in Queensland on Friday night, with search and rescue teams discovering aircraft debris.

As the search continues, the Australian Defence Force has announced a temporary pause on the use of MRH90 helicopters as a precaution.

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NSW police Tasered ‘extremely unwell’ Indigenous man a week before incident with Clare Nowland

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Exclusive: Man experiencing mental health issues sought help from police but was later Tasered in hospital by officers who mistakenly thought he was armed with scissors

Police Tasered a young Indigenous man hospitalised with mental health issues twice on the mistaken belief that he was armed with a pair of scissors, the Guardian can reveal.

Just one week before a Cooma police officer Tasered Clare Nowland in May, a young Indigenous man sought medical assistance from officers further north in Batemans Bay, on New South Wales’ south coast.

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Greens insist they won’t back down on housing bill despite Albanese’s double dissolution threat

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Minor party plans to door-knock Labor electorates in a ‘national day of action’ as it continues to call on the prime minister to include rent relief in package

The Greens remain defiant in the face of Anthony Albanese’s double-dissolution threat over his housing bill, insisting the minor party will continue to push for rent relief to be part of the package.

Queensland Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather said the party remained willing to negotiate but would not be pushed into supporting Labor’s $5bn housing Australia future fund (Haff).

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Federal government under fire for hiring KPMG on health and climate while firm advises fossil fuels

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Doctors and independent MPs say despite Labor’s reassurances, work should have been conducted by public servants and a clear conflict of interest exists

Doctors, health researchers and crossbench MPs have criticised the federal government for paying consultancy giant KPMG to help shape its national health and climate strategy, raising concerns about the firm’s work with the fossil fuel industry.

The new strategy, which will be delivered by the end of the year, will outline ways to ensure the health system is prepared for the impacts of climate change and suggest measures to reduce emissions.

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Bondi could face summer without shark nets as Sydney councils push for alternatives

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State government yet to make a decision as it seeks consultation, while Waverley mayor calls for ‘better options’

The debate over shark nets at Sydney’s beaches has resurfaced as several councils, including the one responsible for Bondi beach, push for a more modern way to protect swimmers this summer.

The nets are due to be in place at 51 beaches between Newcastle and Wollongong in less than five weeks. But the state government says it will not make a decision on whether the nets will be rolled out until it hears from eight coastal councils.

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WeChat user numbers plummet nearly 30% in Australia amid concerns of Chinese interference

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Owner gives parliamentary inquiry no reason for fall over three years but says China’s government could not conduct surveillance on app

WeChat has said its user numbers in Australia have declined almost 30% in the past three years, amid questions being raised about foreign interference on the app.

Tencent-owned WeChat told a parliamentary committee examining foreign interference on social media that as of July 2023, the communications app favoured by Australia’s Chinese diaspora community had fewer than 500,000 daily active users in Australia. The company told the committee in 2020 that its user base was 690,000.

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Heston Russell: former commando tells court he altered invoice he gave to ABC journalist as proof he paid charity

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Admission made in defamation trial against national broadcaster over allegations about the execution of an Afghan prisoner

Heston Russell has admitted to altering an invoice before giving it to an ABC journalist who asked for proof the former commando had paid a veterans’ charity the money he said he had raised for it.

Russell is suing the ABC over two online news articles, a television news item and a radio broadcast that relate to the alleged actions in Afghanistan in 2012 of the November platoon, which Russell commanded.

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Birmingham says opposition doesn’t ‘fear’ early election – as it happened

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Housing bill squabble to bring back possibility of double dissolution election

Parliament resumes next week after a five-week hiatus over winter, which means all the squabbles and fights we left in June are starting to whirl up again – chief among them housing. As Daniel Hurst reported this morning, Labor is going to bring back its housing bill to the house in October, where it will pass. Once it hits the Senate, things get a little more dicey. If it’s rejected by the Greens, who so far aren’t seeing what they want from the government, then the government has a double dissolution trigger.

The early indications are that there was a 50m exclusion zone around the deceased.

All efforts had been made to cover the body but at certain stages of the forensic examination, that body did need to be uncovered so the forensic police could do their work for the coroner and unfortunately, those children did walk past.

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NSW police reject suggestion ‘racism is rife’ in force and say ‘lessons learned’ after Bowraville murders

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Police act ‘with respect’ to victims and people in custody, federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and children hears

A senior NSW police officer has rejected suggestions “racism is rife” within its ranks and has told a federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and children that lessons have been learned after the Bowraville murders.

The parliamentary inquiry has held hearings around the country, hearing from experts, government and police agencies, and families of those murdered and disappeared.

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Queensland woman who laced husband’s soup with pills pleads guilty to manslaughter

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Court hears Judith Ann Venn was caring for her husband and was at the ‘end of the road’ when she killed him

Judith Ann Venn had reached the “end of the road” when she gave her husband of more than 40 years an overdose by lacing his favourite soup with pills and killed him, a court has been told.

The now 69-year-old was caring for Lance Hilton Venn, whose bipolar disorder had worsened significantly over the previous 18 months.

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Australia’s Antarctic program faces $25m cut as Greens warn savings couldn’t come ‘at a worse time’

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Operations leader Emma Campbell says cut is due to ending of a temporary budget supplement and an internal efficiency dividend

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) must find $25m in savings this year as the government flags possible cuts to crucial scientific research and a dramatic reduction in outsourcing to expensive consultants to meet the target.

The new savings target – which represents about 16% of the division’s operating budget – is largely due to an overspend by the division. The federal greens have warned the cuts “couldn’t possibly come at a worse time” given Antarctic sea ice reached the lowest level on record earlier this year.

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Australians lodge almost 100,000 banking and finance complaints in year

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Record number of complaints caused by rising financial stress combined with relentless battle against scammers

Australians lodged a record 96,987 complaints against financial institutions over the past year, as rising financial stress combined with a relentless battle against scammers to trigger a steep rise.

The increase was partly fuelled by a 27% rise in banking and finance-related disputes in 2022-23, including a significant number of complaints from those experiencing financial difficulty.

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Australian cinema chain co-owned by Mel Gibson to screen US conservative hit Sound of Freedom

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Dendy cinemas says they will screen movie promoted by American right wing ‘due to overwhelming demand’, despite questions as to actual popularity

An Australian cinema chain co-owned by actor Mel Gibson will screen the QAnon adjacent Sound of Freedom film in August, after the film became a hit among the far right and conservatives in the United States.

Sound of Freedom is based on the true story of Tim Ballard, a former homeland security department agent who tried to rescue children from sex traffickers in Colombia. Ballard is played by Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus Christ in Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

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‘Out of control’: Sydney police battle escalating gang war with five people shot in five days

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Commissioner Karen Webb says targeted hits are ‘sad indictment’ on city as investigators work to bring situation under control

Sydney detectives are struggling to contain the city’s escalating gang war and are facing a “wall of silence” despite two people dying in separate shootings over the past five days.

The recent spate of shootings started a month ago when the prominent underworld figure Alen Moradian was shot dead in broad daylight at Bondi Junction.

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Body of tech entrepreneur Andrew Findlay found off Sydney coast a week after fatal boat crash

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Police confirm body found among debris off Watsons Bay a week after accident that also killed art dealer Tim Klingender

The body of missing tech entrepreneur Andrew Findlay has been recovered from water off Sydney’s east coast a week after a boating accident that also killed his friend, prominent art dealer Tim Klingender.

New South Wales police confirmed on Thursday that Findlay’s body had been retrieved not far from where that of Klingender, 59, was found floating among debris off Watsons Bay.

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Man charged after allegedly riding lawn mower through Queensland town while drunk

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Police allege the man was driving through Ingham with almost four times the legal blood-alcohol limit

A Queensland man has been charged with high-range drink-driving after he was caught allegedly riding a lawn mower through the town of Ingham while drunk.

The man, 51, was stopped by police who had seen him driving the ride-on mower in the wrong direction down Herbert Street last Sunday.

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NSW police taskforce to investigate spate of shootings – as it happened

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Wholesale power prices down from a year ago but still at elevated levels

Emissions from Australia’s main electricity grid dropped more than 6% in the June quarter from a year ago to a record-low for the period, and wholesale prices stabilised, the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) said.

I think some of the people who are raising issues in the US Congress about this are saying ‘look the US has its own issues about its industrial base, its capacity to up its submarine production.’

But you know, what Aukus is about is actually augmenting the capacity to supply submarines in the region. And we Australia will be injecting money into the US industrial base.

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