Category Archives: Australia news

School bus driver and two camels killed in central Queensland crash

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The man was on his way to work when he crashed into the escaped animals in Livingstone, police say

A school bus driver has been killed after he crashed into two escaped camels in central Queensland.

Both camels were also killed in the crash on Emu Park Road in Livingstone, east of Rockhampton, shortly after 5am on Monday, police said.

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Kathleen Folbigg pardoned and released after 20 years in jail over deaths of her four children

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Release comes after inquiry heard that Folbigg and her two daughters had rare genetic variation and her son may have died from an underlying neurogenetic disorder

Kathleen Folbigg has been pardoned and released after two decades in prison over the deaths of her four children, following a decision of the New South Wales attorney general, Michael Daley.

Folbigg, who has always maintained her innocence, had served 20 years of a 25-year sentence since being convicted in 2003 of murdering three of her children, and the manslaughter of one child.

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Bruce Lehrmann says ABC acted maliciously by showing Brittany Higgins speech, court documents show

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Former political staffer suing national broadcaster over a February 2022 joint address by Higgins and Grace Tame at the National Press Club

Bruce Lehrmann has accused the Australian Broadcasting Corporation of acting maliciously by broadcasting Brittany Higgins’ National Press Club address, saying in court documents it was “wilfully blind” to the risk of her defaming him or making prejudicial comments close to his trial.

Lehrmann is suing the ABC over a joint address by Higgins and Grace Tame to the National Press Club in February 2022, which was broadcast live and later uploaded in full to the ABC’s YouTube channel.

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‘Simply didn’t happen’: Bruce Lehrmann insists he did not rape Brittany Higgins

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In first TV interview since accusations, former political staffer says he’s ‘not ruling out’ defamation action against former colleague

Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann has insisted he did not rape fellow staffer Brittany Higgins and says he has not ruled out suing her.

Speaking to the Seven Network’s Spotlight program in his first TV interview since the accusation came to light, Lehrmann offered his version of events, saying the assault “simply didn’t happen”.

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Jail terms for exploiting migrant workers to be introduced in Australian government crackdown

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New laws to include making it a criminal offence to coerce someone into breaching their visa condition and bans on hiring other visa holders

Australian employers who exploit migrant workers will be banned from hiring other visa holders and will face new criminal penalties, as part of a government crackdown.

On Monday the federal government will announce legal changes to tackle what it calls “a crisis of exploitation with up to one in six recent migrants paid less than the minimum wage”.

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‘Last resort’: government faces legal action to force repatriation of Australians from Syrian refugee camps

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Seventeen women and nine children will take the government to court, arguing that Australia has ‘effective control’ of their detention and the power to set them free

Australian mothers and children held in a Syrian detention camp will take the Australian government to court in an attempt to compel the government to bring them home.

Seventeen Australian women and nine children – the wives, widows, and children of slain or jailed Islamic State fighters – held in the Roj camp in north-east Syria, will file a writ of habeas corpus in the federal court on Monday morning, arguing that Australia has “effective control” of their detention and the power to set them free.

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Qantas and Virgin given little incentive to cheapen air fares, watchdog warns

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ACCC warns airline industry is at ‘critical juncture’ with a developing duopoly stunting competition

Australian aviation is at a “critical juncture”, with policy shortcomings allowing for a duopoly marked by higher air fares and poorer service, the consumer watchdog warns, as it loses extra resources to scrutinise the sector.

Qantas Group – including budget carrier Jetstar – and Virgin Australia have carried 90% of domestic passengers over the past two decades, and as many as 94% in April this year, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s quarterly domestic aviation monitoring report released on Monday, the final edition of the three-year task.

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Australian government considers compensation for Afghanistan war crime victims

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Human rights and legal groups have stepped up their calls for a compensation plan in the wake of the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation ruling

The Australian government is looking for “a way forward” to compensate families of victims of alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, the defence minister has told legal advocates.

But officials continue to warn about the complexity of the compensation issue, one of the key outstanding recommendations from the landmark Brereton inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces soldiers.

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Can your suburb help fix Australia’s housing crisis? It all comes down to density

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Despite adding millions of people and dwellings over the past decade, our cities are well behind globally in terms of population density

Skyrocketing rents and a projected home shortage have sparked fierce debate on the most effective ways to address Australia’s housing crisis.

Experts say one of the most effective fixes is to increase the supply of housing, specifically infilling urban areas to increase the density of areas where people actually want to live.

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Anthony LaPaglia ‘scared and excited’ to make Australian stage debut in Death of a Salesman

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Golden Globe and Tony-winning actor will star as Willy Loman in a Melbourne production directed by Neil Armfield

It has been more than a decade since the Golden Globe-winning Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia appeared on stage – and almost quarter of a century since he triumphed on Broadway, winning a Tony award as Eddie Carbone in A View From the Bridge.

Next month the Los Angeles-based Without a Trace actor will return to Australia to begin rehearsals on another Arthur Miller classic: the 20th-century masterpiece Death of a Salesman, directed by Neil Armfield.

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Richard Marles meets Gen Li Shangfu, as Chinese defence minister refuses formal meeting with US counterpart

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Defence minister is also believed to have raised concerns about the ongoing detention of Australian citizens and human rights issues

Australian defence minister Richard Marles has met his Chinese counterpart and called for “safe and professional interactions” between military planes and ships in the Indo-Pacific region.

Marles is also believed to have raised concerns about the ongoing detention of Australian citizens and human rights issues during talks with China’s defence minister, Gen Li Shangfu, at a regional security summit in Singapore.

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Australia news live: China in focus for PM’s Vietnam meeting; plastics treaty draft under way

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Anthony Albanese will meet with Vietnamese prime minister Pham Minh Chinh, as well as the Communist Party general secretary, the president and the chairman of the national assembly. Follow the day’s news, live

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will meet Vietnam’s top leaders in Hanoi today as part of an official state visit.

He’ll begin his day visiting the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam’s communist revolutionary leader and first president, before meeting with Vietnamese prime minister Pham Minh Chinh, as well as the Communist Party general secretary, the president and the chairman of the national assembly.

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Greens offer compromise on Labor’s stalled housing bill, scaling back demands

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Party says they are willing to negotiate to pass housing bill through Senate ‘but Labor has to shift’ on rent freezes and direct action

The Greens have scaled back their demands on housing, offering to pass Labor’s future fund bill in return for $2.5bn a year of direct spending and action on soaring rents.

The Greens and Albanese government are still locked in negotiations over the $10bn housing Australia future fund, with the latest offer from the minor party designed to allow the Senate to pass the bill in the June sitting.

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Humpback whale freed after gruelling eight-hour rescue mission in Australia

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Deteriorating conditions and other whales in area south of Sydney hampered attempts, say rescuers

A humpback whale trapped in waters south of Sydney has finally been freed after a gruelling eight-hour rescue mission.

Rescue efforts began on Saturday morning after reports of a whale in distress off Five Islands near Port Kembla. Volunteer crews from Marine Rescue NSW and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service were called to assist at about 8.30am.

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Palaszczuk pledges $500m for renewables as Labor sharpens pitch for 2024 state election

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Premier suffered lowest approval rating on record in recent poll but message at Queensland Labor state conference was about unity

The first day of the Queensland Labor state conference was as rehearsed as the government probably hoped, with little infighting or division on display.

In the sugar town of Mackay, where Labor has held the state seat for more than a century, MPs were keen to portray the government as a united front ahead of next October’s election and to keep the focus on three key pressure points: cost of living, health and youth crime.

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Mother dies as father and two children hospitalised after house fire tragedy in Orange

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Firefighters were able to rescue the two young boys but the woman was unable to be revived at the scene

The regional city of Orange will “wrap its arms” around a family after a house fire that took the life of a mother and led to the hospitalisation of a father and two young boys, the local mayor says.

Early Saturday morning, emergency services were called to the home in Orange, in the central tablelands region, and found it engulfed in flames.

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Crossbench welcomes Labor review of student loan ‘quirk’ that added hundreds to debts

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Education minister stands by three-decade high indexation rate of 7.1% but acknowledges need for minor reforms amid backlash

Critics of soaring indexation on student debts have welcomed the education minister’s commitment to look into an accounting quirk in the way loans are indexed which could save graduates hundreds of dollars in repayments.

Hecs debts rise annually with inflation on 1 June, but loan repayments aren’t processed until tax returns are lodged, which can be months later. This means indexation is applied to portions of debts already paid – often by thousands of dollars.

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‘Partial privatisation’: Waterloo South public housing tenants say NSW Labor misled residents

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Having promised to end sell-offs before the election, Chris Minns’ government forced to defend development plans

After the Minns government won the New South Wales election, Norrie May-Welby finally invested in a mod con to her home that would seem humdrum to most: she bought new fly screens.

This, she thought, was the end of seven years spent waiting for the day she would be relocated from her home at Waterloo South public housing estate.

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Labor urged to bring forward single parenting payment changes or ‘have kids going hungry’

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Greens senator says it is ‘heartless’ not to make an interim provision for 8,140 families until eligibility extends in September

The Australian government is under pressure to bring forward the start date for one of its key welfare budget measures to prevent more than 8,000 single parents falling into further poverty during the waiting period.

Expanding the eligibility for the single parenting payment was one of Labor’s flagship announcements in this year’s budget. The payment currently expires when the youngest child of a single parent turns eight, with the parent moving on to jobseeker, which is worth $204 less per fortnight than the parenting payment.

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Marion Barter disappearance: former lover challenged over assertion missing woman is still alive

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Final day of inquest concludes as key witness Ric Blum tells counsel he ‘can’t remember’ details of important conversation with Barter

The former lover of missing woman Marion Barter has been challenged over his assertion to the inquest into her disappearance that he believed she was still alive.

Ric Blum on Thursday told the long-running inquest he had come to that conclusion because Barter had told him “she wanted to separate from her family. She didn’t want anything to do with any member of her family”.

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