Category Archives: Australia news

NSW cashless gambling trial to focus on data security after hack of smaller pilot program

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A major Newcastle venue had to be shut down after it was targeted by a ransomware attack

Cybersecurity will be a key focus for the yet-to-be-appointed independent panel to oversee the New South Wales government’s cashless gambling trial, after a smaller pilot program was hit by hackers.

The state’s gaming minister, David Harris, made the assurances after a trial at a major Newcastle venue had to be shut down after it was targeted by a ransomware attack.

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Forced property sales on the rise in outer Sydney as interest rate hikes start to bite

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Domain data shows distressed listings as a share of the national market remain low but there’s been an uptick in outer suburban pockets

Sydney’s outer suburbs are showing signs of rising numbers of distressed property sales with higher interest rates the likely cause, a trend that can be expected to spread to other capitals, according to property data group Domain.

Distressed listings as a share of the national market remain low, at about 2.8% across the capital cities, compared with a record 5.1% in late 2018.

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Barnaby Joyce apologised to Peter Dutton for breaking ranks over the Biloela family

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A letter written at the time reveals that Joyce told Dutton he could not justify deporting the Murugappan family, whose two children were born in Australia

Barnaby Joyce appears to have blindsided Peter Dutton with his support for the Murugappan family to stay in Australia, linking his position to his pro-life stance, a newly-released letter reveals.

Joyce’s letter to Dutton in September 2019 includes both an apology to the then home affairs minister for not giving him more notice and an explanation he believes the family’s children should be able to stay because “a child has rights before they are born and after”.

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‘Avalanche’ of demand for Nazi artefacts ahead of Australian ban on sale of hate symbols

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Jewish groups decry ‘vomit-inducing’ frenzy of auctions before impending law change that will also prohibit public display of items

Australian militaria shops say there is an “avalanche” of demand for Nazi artefacts in anticipation of an impending ban on the sale of Nazi symbols.

A bill introduced to federal parliament in mid-June will ban the public display and sale of Nazi symbols, making it an offence to seek to profit from such material in stores or online. It will not ban private ownership or transfers of artefacts that are not for profit.

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Turn your phone off every night for five minutes, Australian PM tells residents

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Experts back Anthony Albanese’s cybersecurity advice, saying forcibly closing apps could stop criminals from monitoring users or collecting data

Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has told residents they should turn their smartphones off and on again once a day as a cybersecurity measure – and tech experts agree.

Albanese said the country needed to be proactive to thwart cyber risks, as he announced the appointment of Australia’s inaugural national cybersecurity coordinator.

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Australia news live: NSW premier refutes cover-up allegations over police Tasering of 95-year-old woman

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PwC should not be banned from government work but should face ‘significant sanction’, Dutton says

Following the damning interim Senate report into PwC, Dutton says he does not believe the consultancy firm should be cut from all government work, but says a penalty needs to be incurred for the breach of trust:

I think where people have breached a contract, they’ve breached trust, there’s a penalty and the price that should be paid. I don’t know whether that’s the company or whether there’s a solution that the government can provide to it but there’s there’s a significant sanction that’s that’s required – no doubt the government will be looking into that right now.

All of the pollsters at the moment, and credible commentators, believe that it’s either going to fail in October or, best case scenario for the yes case, that gets up 51-49. And in that scenario, our nation is split down the middle.

I think there’s an opportunity to unite our country here instead of divide, and that is that we should proceed with constitutional recognition.

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Albanese calls on voters to ‘rise to the occasion’ on Indigenous voice and ridicules opposition claims

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Peter Dutton warns referendum will leave Australians ‘split down the middle’ and repeats call for symbolic recognition

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has urged Australians to “rise to the occasion” of the referendum, saying he wants to discuss with the opposition how the Indigenous voice could work in the event of a successful vote.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, claims the referendum will leave Australia “split down the middle”, again calling for the government to scrap the voice and instead pursue symbolic constitutional recognition of Indigenous people.

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Sydney public high schools to go co-ed in Labor shake-up as parents face tough choices

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Inner west and south-west suburbs are first priority under state plans but change will come too late for some

Families in some parts of Sydney where all the local high schools are single-sex will have the option of a co-educational school from 2025, the state government has announced, while others will have to wait until 2027.

Parents have been lobbying for change for years, and in the lead-up to this year’s state election, Chris Minns pledged parents would have guaranteed access to co-educational public schools within Labor’s first term of government.

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Russia to launch high court challenge to keep embassy site near Australian parliament

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Australia is confident cancellation of lease on national security grounds will withstand legal challenge

The Russian government will launch a high court challenge to laws designed to stop it from building a new embassy close to Parliament House in Canberra.

The federal government last week passed legislation to cancel the Russian government’s lease on the Yarralumla site, citing national security concerns over its proximity to parliament.

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‘Very effective use of force’: Queensland police chief defends officer filmed punching crash driver

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Footage appears to show driver being repeatedly punched through a car window before he was Tasered

Queensland’s police commissioner has defended an officer’s actions after “confronting footage” emerged of him repeatedly punching a man involved in a head-on crash in Brisbane’s north.

The footage, first published by Nine, appears to show the officer repeatedly punching and hitting the driver through a car window before Tasering the man, on Thursday.

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Ten Network drops bid to secure Melbourne Cup rights over Tabcorp deal

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Network concerned that Victoria Racing Club partnership with gambling company is at odds with ‘preferences of its viewers and advertisers’

The Ten network has pulled out of bidding for the Melbourne Cup, citing the new focus on gambling by rights-holder Tabcorp as a reason.

Ten has been the Melbourne Cup Carnival broadcaster since 2019 after signing a five-year deal reportedly worth $100m which saw the cup move from Seven, where it had been broadcast since 2002.

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Cecília Haddad’s ex-partner sentenced to 27 years’ jail in Brazil after confessing to 2018 murder in Sydney

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Mário Marcelo Santoro confessed to killing his former girlfriend in Australia only after extensive evidence was produced against him, judge says

A Brazillian federal court has sentenced engineer Mário Marcelo Santoro to 27 years in prison, after he confessed to the 2018 murder of former girlfriend Cecília Haddad in Australia.

Santoro, today in his mid-40s, was convicted of aggravated homicide, asphyxiation, femicide and concealment of a corpse.

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Anthony Albanese says voice will help ensure taxpayer dollars are ‘spent better and more efficiently’

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The PM says a yes vote should lead to more cost-effective health, education and housing programs for Indigenous people

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says a yes vote for the Indigenous voice to parliament will save money by helping to design more cost-effective programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Indigenous leaders from the Northern Territory came to Canberra on Thursday to urge Australians to listen to their “heart” to support the referendum, saying the voice would help address health, education and housing issues in their communities.

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Australian politicians bought Nazi artefacts, auction house director claims

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Gold Coast auction house sold huge collection including photo album of concentration camps and signed pictures of Hitler ahead of federal ban on display and sale of Nazi symbols

An Australian auction house that sold an extensive collection of Nazi artefacts online has defended the sale by stating politicians were among the buyers.

Jewish groups are outraged at the sale of the “blood-stained items” that included signed pictures of Hitler, Himmler and Rommel, a striped concentration camp cap, a “Jewish winter overcoat” with yellow star attached, picture albums of dead soldiers and PoWs and personal photo albums of SS officers.

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Labor under fire from crossbench over $1.5bn stake in Middle Arm industrial precinct

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Zali Steggall and David Pocock take aim at government over support of development on Darwin habour which will benefit gas industry

The Albanese government has come under pressure from the crossbench over its $1.5bn stake in a “sustainable” development precinct on Darwin harbour after documents revealed the project would benefit the gas industry.

In question time on Thursday, the independent MP for Warringah, Zali Steggall, asked the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, why his government had “backflipped” and blocked a Senate inquiry into the Middle Arm industrial precinct.

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Labor under pressure to freeze rents as Greens and Coalition back inquiry into housing crisis

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Greens urged to back government’s fund as advocates say housing is needed now and politicians need to ‘start taking action’

The Senate has set up an inquiry into the rental crisis, a process designed by the Greens to pressure the Albanese government to agree to freeze or cap rising rents.

On Monday the Greens voted with the Coalition to delay consideration of Labor’s $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund (Haff) until 16 October, despite pressure from housing groups to pass the bill after the government pledged $2bn of direct funding for social and affordable housing.

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Australian Ballet dancers to take first industrial action in more than four decades

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Dancers will ‘hold the curtain’ at a Melbourne performance on Friday after negotiations to ensure appropriate pay rises failed

Dancers of the Australian Ballet will take industrial action for the first time in more than four decades, after negotiations with management over a new workplace agreement reached an impasse on Monday.

Dancers will “hold the curtain” at this Friday’s performance in Melbourne, meaning the show Identity, a program of two original works, will be delayed by 15 minutes.

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Greens and Coalition unite to refer bill to its own inquiry

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This blog is now closed.

Albanese takes swipes at the Greens

The Midwinter Ball was held overnight. It seems to have been a fairly staid affair but I am still ferreting out info.

Consulting firm PwC engaged in a “calculated” breach of trust by using confidential information to help its clients avoid tax and engaged in a “deliberate cover-up” over many years, a Senate committee has found.

PwC should be “open and honest” by promptly publishing the names and details of its partners and staff involved, the finance and public administration committee has recommended.

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Australia’s eSafety umpire issues legal warning to Twitter amid rise in online hate

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Julie Inman Grant says platform has ‘dropped the ball’ on tackling ‘peddlers of outrage’

Australia’s eSafety commissioner says Twitter has “dropped the ball” on tackling online hate and has issued a legal notice to the social media giant demanding an explanation about what it is doing about the scourge.

The commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said there have been more complaints about online hate on Twitter in the past year than any other platform, and complaints have spiked since Elon Musk’s takeover of the company in October.

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Indigenous advocates and families say tallying Australian deaths in custody does not address fundamental causes

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‘I want to see the day when deaths in custody stop,’ says nephew of David Dungay Jr, who died in police custody in 2015

Indigenous deaths in custody must stop rather than just be counted, families and advocates say as the government announced a real-time database to collect all custodial deaths as they happen.

The federal government revealed the new deaths in custody reporting system on Wednesday, with states and territories agreeing to provide more up-to-date figures on people dying in state and territory watch-houses, police stations, prisons and detention centres.

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