Category Archives: Australia news

Australia’s gig economy workers set to benefit from minimum pay and protection against ‘unfair deactivation’

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Labor bill gives Fair Work Commission power to set minimum standards for hundreds of thousands of ‘employee-like workers’ on digital platforms

Gig economy workers in Australia including ride-share drivers and food delivery riders could soon benefit from minimum pay and protection against “unfair deactivation”.

Under a bill to be introduced by the Albanese government next week, the Fair Work Commission will be given the power to set minimum standards for hundreds of thousands of “employee-like workers” on digital platforms from 1 July 2024.

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‘Whole housing system in crisis’: report finds Australia’s emergency accommodation is often unsafe

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Study finds lack of available social housing and unaffordable private rentals mean people entering crisis accommodation have no pathways out

Emergency accommodation is often unsafe, inappropriate, of poor quality and compounds the trauma of people experiencing housing crisis, a new report has found.

The lack of available social and affordable housing coupled with inaccessible and unaffordable private rentals meant that most people who entered crisis accommodation had no meaningful pathways out.

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Foreign ownership of Australia’s water rights on the rise

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Report reveals that foreign interests hold 11.3% of Australia’s water entitlements – about half of which are in the food and fibre producing Murray-Darling Basin

Foreign interests hold almost 12% of all water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin and the level of foreign ownership in water is increasing, a new report shows.

Foreigners own or have a significant share in 4,503GL of Australian water entitlements, which is 11.3% of all the entitlements across the country, the Australian Taxation Office’s report says.

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Australia news live: ‘no downside, only upside’, PM says, confirming Indigenous voice to parliament referendum date as 14 October

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The formal announcement of a voice referendum date triggers a campaign from both the yes and no camps, before Australians eventually head to the polls. Follow today’s live news updates

Report points to Snowy 2.0 project costs blowing out to $12bn

Nine’s Sydney Morning Herald and the Age are this morning reporting that the cost of Snowy Hydro’s 2.0 giant pumped hydro project has doubled in six months to $12bn.

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Australia’s inflation rate eased to 4.9% in July, down from 5.4% in June

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Larger than expected fall reduces likelihood Reserve Bank of Australia will raise interest rates again

Australia’s inflation rate eased last month to its lowest level in 17 months, led by falling prices for fresh produce and automotive fuel, reducing the likelihood the Reserve Bank will need to raise interest rates again.

The consumer price index for July came in at an annual rate of 4.9%, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Wednesday. That rate was slower than the 5.4% pace in June and compared with economists’ forecast for CPI to drop to 5.2%.

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Deloitte joins RBA in tipping 4.5% Australian jobless rate thanks to slow consumer spending

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Slowdown in household spending is finally flowing through to Australia’s jobs market, according to the latest forecasts from Deloitte Access Economics

Australia’s dream run with near record low unemployment is tipped to end due to weaker household consumption, with the jobless rate expected to increase from 3.7% to 4.5% by mid next year.

That is the conclusion of the latest Deloitte Access Economics employment forecasts, which attribute economic slowdown in part to the delayed effect of faster-than-expected rate rises by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

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Chinese migrants believe Australian media fuels hostility towards them, study shows

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Reports about China’s ‘influence’ made public more suspicious of Chinese-Australian communities, according to 70% of respondents to UTS survey

First-generation migrants from China believe Australian media reporting has fuelled unfriendly or suspicious attitudes towards them, new research shows.

The report, published by the University of Technology Sydney, explores the hopes and fears of members of Chinese Australian communities, including a parent whose child came home from school asking: “Mum, is China going to invade us?”

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Meta closes nearly 9,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to Chinese ‘Spamouflage’ foreign influence campaign

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Company says users targeted in Australia, UK, US and elsewhere by political spam network across more than 50 platforms

Meta shut down close to 9,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts, groups and pages associated with a Chinese political spam network that had targeted users in Australia and other parts of the world, the company has revealed.

Meta began investigating in 2019 and its research aligned with several research groups, including the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (Aspi), who coined the term Spamouflage.

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Two-thirds of Australia’s aged care safety inspections outsourced to consultants

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Exclusive: Watchdog contracted third-party providers to conduct audits despite a review warning it was a ‘significant risk’

More than two-thirds of safety and quality inspections at aged care homes have been outsourced to consultancy firms, despite warnings this presented a “significant risk” and that some contractors underestimated the standards of work required.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSA) audits residential facilities to ensure they are meeting mandated standards. Since 2021, four firms have been paid more than $40m for this work, which includes conducting interviews and searches.

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‘Two future Australias’: PM to address community rally in Adelaide ahead of voice poll announcement

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South Australia and Tasmania expected to decide future of voice to parliament as Anthony Albanese confirms date at Adelaide rally

The Indigenous voice referendum date will be announced at a large community rally in Adelaide’s outer suburbs on Wednesday, kickstarting a campaign to change Australia’s constitution for the first time in nearly half a century.

Albanese will join South Australia’s premier, Peter Malinauskas, in Elizabeth in Adelaide’s north, to confirm the referendum date. If held on 14 October, as widely anticipated, it would kickstart a 45-day campaign.

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Qantas flight credits: Albanese says customers should get another flight or their money back

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PM weighs in on expiring credits but government defends blocking Qatar airways from increasing its flights to Australia

The Australian government has defended its decision to block Qatar airways from almost doubling its flights to Australia, but has distanced itself from Qantas by insisting the national airline should compensate customers for pandemic flight credits.

On Tuesday Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to consumer anger about $470m of unclaimed Qantas and Jetstar flight credits, and the assistant minister for competition, Andrew Leigh, called for the introduction of more low-cost carriers to bring prices down.

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Queensland childcare worker allegedly abused seven girls in a month, court documents reveal

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Charge sheets show the man allegedly assaulted children over 15 years at centres all across Brisbane

The Queensland childcare worker accused of being one of Australia’s worst paedophiles is alleged to have sexually abused seven different girls in a single month, court documents show.

Charge sheets released on Tuesday reveal new details about allegations against the man, who is accused of abusing 91 children in Australia and overseas over a 15-year period.

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In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

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Climate crisis to create ‘acute’ challenges for Australia’s economy, incoming RBA governor says

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Michele Bullock uses speech to detail how central bank is preparing for increased risk of extreme weather events

Global heating will present the Reserve Bank with “acute” challenges, including heightened uncertainty around how the climate will change and the resulting impacts on the economy and financial system, the incoming governor, Michele Bullock, has said.

Bullock, now deputy RBA governor before her elevation to the top post on 18 September, used her Sir Leslie Melville lecture at the Australian National University on Tuesday – after a brief disruption from protesters – to detail how the central bank was preparing for a warming world and the increased risk of extreme weather events.

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Disney+ production Nautilus scrapped after wrapping on the Gold Coast

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The UK series, which employed hundreds of Australian cast and crew, is the latest victim of cost-cutting measures at Disney and beyond

A big budget series filmed in Queensland which employed hundreds of Australian cast and crew has become the latest victim of cuts at Disney, being dropped by the studio after filming – and before it even had a chance to be released.

Nautilus, a UK series that had been set to stream on Disney+, is a prequel story to Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Shazad Latif stars as Captain Nemo, an Indian prince who became a prisoner of the East India Company and sets off on a mission of revenge on submarine Nautilus.

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Facebook suspends RMIT FactLab after voice no campaigners criticise factchecker

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Meta spokesperson says suspension was decided after voice opponents raised criticism and apparent lapse in accreditation

Facebook has suspended a key factchecker which monitors and debunks online claims after repeated criticisms from Indigenous voice no campaign leaders and some conservative media outlets about the factchecker’s work.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has temporarily suspended RMIT FactLab as one of the partner organisations for its factchecking program, which can slap warning or information labels on dubious content.

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Protesters interrupt ANU event – as it happened

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Victoria bans Nazi salute, symbols and gestures in public

The Victorian government will today introduce legislation to parliament to ban the Nazi salute.

Victorians have zero tolerance for the glorification of hateful ideology. We’re making sure people who use these symbols and gestures to harass, intimidate and incite hate are held accountable for their cowardly behaviour. While we wish making these laws wasn’t necessary, we will always tackle antisemitism, hatred and racism head-on – because all Victorians deserve to feel accepted, safe and included.

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AFP received 28 misconduct allegations involving MPs, staff or ‘official establishments’ in 12 months

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Federal police declines to provide more details about the reports, which were made in the year after Brittany Higgins went public

Federal police received 28 allegations of misconduct by parliamentarians, their staff or “official establishments” in the year after Brittany Higgins’ allegations first became public knowledge.

But the Australian federal police has declined to outline any further details, including which state or territory police force it passed the reports to for further investigation.

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Home of endangered marsupial hit by state-sanctioned logging in NSW, environmentalists say

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Conservationists say Forestry Corporation of NSW logging operation is ‘knocking to pieces’ a forest home to the greater glider

Conservation groups have accused a New South Wales agency of logging one of the last known remaining strongholds of the greater glider, an endangered marsupial species, and urged the state government to intervene.

Bob Debus, a former Labor environment minister and now chair of the group Wilderness Australia, said there was overwhelming evidence that a Forestry Corporation of NSW logging operation was “smashing into the middle” of forest that was home to a large population of greater gliders.

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Australia’s federal whistleblowing laws have not protected anyone since inception, analysis shows

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Human Rights Law Centre says there has ‘not been a single successful case … brought by a whistleblower” under federal laws designed to protect those who speak out

Australia’s federal whistleblowing laws have not successfully protected a single person since their inception, an analysis of available court records suggests.

The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) released a report on Tuesday examining 78 court rulings in 70 separate cases in which whistleblowers sought protection under federal and state whistleblowing regimes.

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Veronica Nelson’s family urges Victorian government to hear ‘cries for help’ and go further with bail reforms

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Exclusive: MPs urged to implement Poccum’s law, named in honour of First Nations woman who died in a cell while on remand

The family of First Nations woman Veronica Nelson has urged the Victorian government to “listen to [her] cries for help” and go further with its proposed changes to bail laws, which will be debated in parliament this week.

Nelson died alone in a Melbourne prison cell while on remand in January 2020 after her calls for help went unanswered. The 37-year-old Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman had been arrested for shoplifting and refused bail before her death.

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