Category Archives: Australia news

Injuries and arrests in Melbourne as anti-war protesters and police clash in fiery scenes

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Police accuse some protesters of throwing acid and other objects amid criticism of officers’ tactics outside Land Forces weapons expo

Dozens of police and protesters have been injured and 39 people arrested amid a series of confrontations at an anti-war protest in the Melbourne CBD in which pepper spray was deployed and horse faeces was thrown at officers.

Fires broke out while police responded to a rally outside the Land Forces exposition – an international military conference – at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday.

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Man charged after Olympic medals allegedly stolen from ‘Oarsome Foursome’ rower’s car in Melbourne

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Victoria police arrest 47-year-old after alleged theft of Drew Ginn’s medals in Docklands last week

A man has been charged after four Olympic medals – including three gold – belonging to one of the members of Australia’s popular “Oarsome Foursome” rowing team were allegedly stolen from a car in Melbourne.

Victoria police said Drew Ginn’s medals from four consecutive Olympics were in the back of a Land Rover that was parked on Cumberland Street in Docklands when they were allegedly stolen last week.

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Kelly Wilkinson’s murderer takes the stand in trial of workmate accused of aiding in plan to kill

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Brian Earl Johnston, who stabbed and set wife on fire, tells Brisbane court Bradley Bell did not know of murder plot

The man who murdered Kelly Wilkinson has told a jury a workmate accused of aiding him in the crime did not know of his plan to kill.

Convicted murderer Brian Earl Johnston, 37, on Wednesday was called as a witness during the Brisbane supreme court trial of Bradley Bell, who has pleaded not guilty to murder.

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Jacinta Price alleges ‘opportunists’ claiming Indigenous heritage to block resources projects

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Shadow minister for Indigenous Australians says Albanese government ‘turning a blind eye’ to alleged ‘weaponisation’ of identity

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has claimed “opportunists” are making “false claims” to membership of Indigenous groups to scuttle resource projects seeking environmental approval.

The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians made the claim on Wednesday while defending a Coalition plan to designate which Indigenous groups would need to be consulted by project proponents, as revealed by the shadow resources minister, Susan McDonald, at a Minerals Week event.

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Australia politics live: Labor’s hate speech bill will not not criminalise vilification; man who ‘flipped the bird’ in parliament was not signed in by politician

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Dan Tehan outraged over tattered flag after devastating winds

Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan is continuing to moonlight as Australia’s flag hall monitor.

While values are still rising at the national level, albeit at a slowing pace, beneath the headline figure, we’re starting to see some weakness, particularly in Victoria.

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Marsupial of the year heats up as koala and glider take on animal that mates itself to death

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The Project hopes competition will raise big money for underfunded organisations working to protect beloved species

Tense competition is brewing between the greater glider and the koala in Australia’s marsupial of the year vote but there are hopes a silky-tailed species that “mates themselves to death” could win over voters and maybe even save it from heading towards extinction.

Network Ten’s The Project launched the competition in collaboration with organisations and charities that work with or help preserve the habitat of marsupials, many of them endangered, in a bid to raise funds for them.

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Universities say they are being treated like ‘political footballs’ in scathing critique of Labor’s student cap

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Decision to cap international enrolments the most ‘extraordinary intervention’ since 2021 Coalition vetoing of research grants, Universities Australia chair to say

The chair of Universities Australia will accuse both sides of parliament of using the tertiary education sector as a “political plaything” in a scathing critique of Labor’s proposed international student cap.

Speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Prof David Lloyd will call the decision to cap international student enrolments at a maximum of 270,000 the most “extraordinary intervention” by a government into universities since the Morrison government vetoed six Australian Research Council (ARC) grants in 2021.

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NSW town Bungendore to ‘heal’ after it finally gets a high school eight years after John Barilaro promised it

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The then deputy premier announced $71m Bungendore project in 2019 but it was found to breach crown land law. Now Labor is proceeding with its own

The regional New South Wales town of Bungendore will finally get a high school after four years of legal headaches after the announcement of the $71m project by the then state deputy premier and member for Monaro, John Barilaro.

The new high school was a 2019 election commitment and due to be built by January 2023 in the middle of Bungendore’s heritage precinct, requiring the demolition of its pool, community centre and council offices. It caused immediate division and outrage among residents.

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Ex-Manus Island detainees stranded in PNG threatened with eviction over unpaid rent

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Exclusive: About 70 people who sought asylum in Australia remain in Port Moresby, having been previously held in immigration detention

Asylum seekers stranded in Papua New Guinea have been threatened with eviction if an alleged $110,000 rental arrears debt is not paid, leading to urgent calls for the Australian government to intervene to prevent them becoming “homeless”.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) wrote to the home affairs department revealing that refugee families with 10 children at Latitude apartments in Port Moresby face eviction on Friday unless the bill is paid by Thursday.

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Australia to ban life insurance companies from discriminating based on genetic testing results

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Albanese government says people have been reluctant to get life-saving early testing because of the risk of being refused insurance

Life insurance companies will be banned from discriminating against people based on genetic testing under federal government moves designed to encourage greater use of predictive technology in preventative health.

The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, will announce on Wednesday that life insurers will be banned from using the results of predictive genetic testing in their underwriting assessments.

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Father of youngest Hunter Valley bus crash victim grieves loss of son who had rare second chance at life

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Newcastle district court hears emotional victim impact statement during sentence hearing for bus driver Brett Button

The grieving father of the youngest victim of the Hunter Valley wedding bus crash which claimed 10 lives and injured 25 has told how his loss has caused “an irreparable void that will never be filled”.

Steven Symons, reading from his victim impact statement on Tuesday in Newcastle district court during the sentence hearing for the bus driver, Brett Button, said the impact of his son Kane’s death had been far-reaching and devastating.

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Australia politics live: Littleproud heckled at Canberra farmers protest; Greens senator urges Chalmers to override RBA and cut interest rates

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Peter Dutton and David Littleproud addressed the crowd of hundreds from as far as Western Australia. Follow today’s news live

PM speaks on social media ban for kids

Anthony Albanese is doing the media rounds this morning, speaking on the government’s announcement it will ban children from social media platforms. This came after the South Australian announcement yesterday it would be moving to ban children under 14.

Well, we want to work with the states and territories. What we didn’t want to develop is eight different systems. We know this is a national issue and it’s pretty simple. We want to get kids off their devices and on to the footy fields, on to the netball courts, into the swimming pools.

We want them to have real experiences with real people, and we know that social media is causing social harm, which is why we put funding in the budget to have a trial to make sure that we get it right.

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NSW nurses and midwives strike: hospital wait times up and surgery delays expected

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Premier says agreeing to 15% pay rise this year would lead other workers to ‘knock on my door’ demanding the same

A New South Wales nurses’ strike has prompted warnings to keep ambulances and emergency departments clear of minor cases as Labor feels the heat from public sector unions.

Nurses and midwives are walking off the job across NSW for 12 hours on Tuesday after demands for a 15% pay rise this year were rebuffed.

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Australia backs UK decision to curb arms sales to Israel

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Exclusive: Foreign minister Penny Wong says she ‘welcomes’ the British move and Palestinian civilians ‘cannot pay the price’ of defeating Hamas

Australia is coordinating with the UK and other allies to “pressure” Israel to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and to stop the erosion of longstanding norms protecting aid workers.

The Australian government has also explicitly backed the UK’s decision to curb arms exports to Israel, putting it at odds with the US, which is reported to have privately warned Britain against the move.

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Guardian Essential poll: more voters blaming Albanese government for interest rate rises

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However poll shows majority back Labor’s plan to cap international students enrolments in tertiary education

More voters are blaming the Albanese government for interest rate rises but Labor appears to have hit the electoral sweet spot with its proposed cap on international student enrolments.

Those are the conclusions of the latest Guardian Essential poll of 1,132 voters conducted after a week of debate about whether the Reserve Bank should begin cutting interest rates due to extremely soft growth.

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‘It’s okay to poo at work’: Australian health department praised for tackling taboo with humorous campaign

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Queensland Health lauded for social media campaign raising awareness of the dangers of ‘holding it in’

An Australian health department has been praised for breaking a taboo with a novel health campaign telling people: “It’s okay to poo at work.”

Health and marketing experts are hailing as “world-leading” the social media campaign released this month by the Queensland health department for normalising a healthy human behaviour.

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Social media age limits to go before parliament ahead of next election, Albanese says

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Draft bill requires social media platforms to stop children in the restricted age range from accessing their services

The Albanese government plans to impose a minimum age for teenagers accessing social media and gaming platforms, with legislation to be introduced into parliament before the next election.

The prime minister will announce the nationwide move on Tuesday but will stop short of specifying the age, arguing the government wants to wait for the conclusion of an age-verification trial which begins its final phase this week.

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‘Don’t run away’: Labor urged to collaborate with Greens and crossbenchers on environmental reforms

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Support for government’s environmental legislation offered in exchange for protections that deliver ‘immediate, tangible impacts’

Greens and crossbench senators have told the government not to “hide behind” Peter Dutton and Gina Rinehart and instead work with them on a better deal for the environment.

The Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, and independent senators David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe offered to support legislation to establish a new environment protection authority (EPA) and a separate new agency to manage environmental information, if the government agreed to a series of proposals to strengthen environmental protections.

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Commissioner condemns ‘failure of leadership’ in Australian defence force, urges greater focus on wellbeing of personnel

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After three years and more than 5,000 submissions, royal commission into veteran suicide hands down its full report. Here are its key points

Australian defence force personnel and veterans have suffered “a catastrophic failure of leadership at all levels” to prioritise their health and wellbeing, according to the head of a long-running royal commission into veteran suicide.

Nick Kaldas, the former New South Wales police deputy commissioner, made the comment on Monday shortly before the royal commission he chaired provided its final report to the federal government.

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Bridget McKenzie forced to deny her oped on aviation divestiture signals support for breaking up Qantas

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Just hours after opinion appears in AFR, shadow minister clarifies divestiture as ‘one of the various tools the treasurer needs to look at’ but not Coalition policy

The shadow transport minister, Bridget McKenzie, was forced to clarify the Coalition does not support breaking up Qantas just hours after floating the possibility of forced divestiture powers in the aviation sector.

McKenzie warned the competition watchdog’s review of the aviation sector “will be a failure if it does not address the role of divestiture” in an opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review on Monday.

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