Category Archives: Australia news

Icac found Gladys Berejiklian engaged in corrupt conduct. So why won’t she be prosecuted?

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Her former boyfriend Daryl Maguire may face charges, but proving criminal activity by the former premier would be difficult

On Thursday, the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption dealt a blow to the legacy of former premier Gladys Berejiklian in ruling she engaged in serious corrupt conduct while in office.

Icac’s Operation Keppel also found her ex-boyfriend and former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire, as well as two other individuals, engaged in corrupt conduct and is seeking advice on whether any prosecution should be commenced against the three.

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Children locked in cells for up to 23 hours at South Australia’s youth detention centre

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Child protection watchdog says distress at Kurlana Tapa caused by prolonged detention is leading to self-harm

Children are being locked in their cells for up to 23 consecutive hours partly due to staffing shortages at South Australia’s youth detention centre, with the system in crisis amid a spate of “shocking” self-harm incidents, the state’s guardian for young people says.

Shona Reid, the guardian and youth detention inspector, said children were becoming so distressed due to prolonged detention that they were harming themselves at the Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre.

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Gladys Berejiklian Icac report live updates: Chris Minns says findings took ‘way too long’ as Matt Kean criticises ‘ridiculous display’ – latest news

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Icac finds former premier and Daryl Maguire engaged in ‘serious corrupt conduct’, but says it does not want the DPP to consider prosecuting Berejiklian. Follow live updates

We are waiting on the publication of the Icac report. But it appears the Icac website has crashed under the load.

Stay with us. We will bring you the findings as soon as we possibly can.

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Australia news live: Tanya Plibersek announces audit of 1,000 environmental offset sites to check if they are delivering on promises

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers wants to maintain strong budget position while rolling out existing policies; federal government cancels satellite program. Follow the day’s news live

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, denies Australia’s first budget surplus in more than a decade comes at the expense of under-pressure households as the cost of living rises, AAP reports.

Chalmers has confirmed there will be a larger surplus for the 2022/23 financial year than predicted in last month’s federal budget.

By getting the budget in much better nick by finding savings ... it actually makes it possible from that much stronger foundation to provide the $15bn of cost-of-living relief that we had in the budget.

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Lockdown or loneliness? Covid brought on a ‘kind of stressful’ baby boom in Australia

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New data shows the birthrate went up in 2021, after a record low in 2020 and years of decline

A pandemic might not seem like the ideal time to have a baby, but new data backs up the idea that Covid precipitated a baby boom.

According to an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report – Australia’s mothers and babies – a record 315,705 babies were born in 2021, while the birthrate itself was up to 61 per 1,000 women of reproductive age from 56 per 1,000 the year before.

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Icac finds former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and Daryl Maguire engaged in serious corrupt conduct

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Berejiklian stood down in 2021 after it was revealed she was in a ‘close personal relationship’ with Maguire, who was also found to be corrupt by Icac’s Operation Keppel

Former New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has been found to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct by the state’s corruption watchdog.

However the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) has not recommended charges be pursued against Berejiklian.

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Taylor Swift: extra tickets added with two more shows in Sydney and Melbourne announced

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After an estimated 4 million people queued online for tickets on Wednesday the US pop star has announced two more Australian concert dates

Taylor Swift has announced two more shows in her Australian tour next February after record-setting ticket sales on Wednesday.

Presale tickets to three Sydney concerts and two in Melbourne sold out in hours after more than 4 million users joined the online queue for under half a million tickets – though some of the numbers may have been fans opening multiple browsers to maximise their chances.

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Victorians rush to buy EVs in last days before state government dumps rebate scheme

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Victoria accused of undermining Australia’s ability to reach 2030 emissions reduction target by ending the rebate

A last-minute rush has seen more than 1,300 Victorians claim rebates on their electric vehicle purchases days before the state government ends the scheme, almost a year earlier than planned.

Government figures show Victorians have been claiming the $3,000 electric car subsidies at a rate of more than 60 a day since the change was announced early in June as part of the state’s 2024 budget.

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Sydney barman’s 1989 death near Bondi beach now believed to be result of gay hate attack, inquiry told

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John Russell was found to have died in an accidental fall, but his case is one of three being re-examined this week in a NSW special inquiry

More than 30 years after police concluded John Russell accidentally fell to his death near Bondi beach, it’s now believed the 31-year-old was a victim of a fatal gay hate attack.

His death is one of three being examined this week by a New South Wales special inquiry into LGBTQ+ hate crimes.

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Bill Shorten has ‘no problem’ with public servants displaying support for Indigenous voice at work

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Comments come after poster on voice was removed from an NDIS commission office over concerns it compromised impartiality

The federal minister for government services, Bill Shorten, has backed public servants displaying their support for the Indigenous voice referendum at work, after a stoush between unions and the NDIS commission over an information flier posted in an office.

Guardian Australia understands a Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) poster featuring referendum information, bearing a “unions for yes” emblem, was removed from a Melbourne NDIS commission office last week, upsetting the union.

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Banks stick to rate hike predictions – as it happened

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Historical societies say banning hate symbols could impact history preservation

Historical societies are also concerned about the proposal to ban Nazi and Islamic State symbols, AAP reports. They worry it will limit education and the preservation of history, and impact memorabilia value.

Modellers need to be able to purchase these items (and) symbols, let alone the basic right of Australian citizens to partake in the legitimate hobby of collecting modelling military items.

The words inscribed on the Islamic flag are sacred words and written by Muslims on a daily basis.

These words are taken directly from our scripture, the Holy Quran, and therefore cannot be subject to a ban.

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Belgian woman missing in Tasmanian wilderness for 11 days an ‘inexperienced hiker’, police say

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Tourist who vanished on walk to Philosopher Falls hasn’t been seen since 17 June and her phone last sent a signal a week ago

A search is continuing for a Belgian tourist missing in a remote area of Tasmania after her white SUV was found at a bushwalking track car park in the state’s north-west.

Celine Cremer, 31, was last seen in Waratah, near Cradle Mountain, on 17 June and was reported missing on Monday afternoon.

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Taylor Swift Sydney and Melbourne presale tickets sold out after record 4m users join Ticketek queue

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Australian fans faced hours-long virtual queues and tried a range of strategies as second tranche of Eras tour presale tickets went on sale

Taylor Swift has broken a national record with more than 4 million users vying to gain access on Wednesday to highly coveted presale tickets to her Sydney and Melbourne shows.

The second round of tickets went live for Swift’s three Sydney shows at 10am, amid unprecedented demand. By 1.43pm, all general Frontier presale tickets for Sydney had sold out, Ticketek Australia said in a tweet.

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Inflation retreated in May to 5.6%, easing fears RBA will again raise interest rates

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Consumer price index fell in May from 6.5% in April showing further signs that the worst of inflation may be over

Australia’s monthly inflation rate retreated in May, easing fears the Reserve Bank will hoist its key interest rate again at next Tuesday’s board meeting.

The headline consumer price index increase last month was 5.6%, the lowest since April 2022, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. Economists had expected the measure to drop from April’s 6.8% level to 6.1%.

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More Australian homeowners offloading properties at a loss as interest rate rises take a toll, new data shows

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Unit owners particularly vulnerable as profitable national housing sales sank to 92.3% in the three months to March 2023, according to CoreLogic data

Properties sold at a loss increased in the March quarter with almost one in six units offloaded for less than the owner paid, data group CoreLogic said.

As owners eyed the rising cost of servicing their debts, the national proportion of resales with a nominal profit sank to 92.3% in the January-March period, down from 93.2% in the preceding three months and marking the third quarter in a row of declines.

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Could rent controls ease Australia’s housing crisis?

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Advocates say caps or freezes may help reduce pressure on renters but experts warn they are not a simple fix

Renters are bearing the brunt of Australia’s housing crisis, with stories of extortionate rent increases for poor quality homes making headlines all too often.

One solution being flagged by advocates is to control rents, either through freezes or caps on how much landlords can increase the amount.

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PwC walks back report used to claim Australia’s nature repair market could be worth $137bn

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Report cited by environment minister in support of offset bill was criticised for inflated figures and lack of clarity on outcomes

PwC has walked back a report used to claim the nature repair market could be worth $137bn, accepting it measures “indirect spending towards biodiversity” but the amount spent on “threatened species conservation, with clear outcomes, is likely much less”.

The consultancy firm made that submission to a Senate inquiry examining the Albanese government’s nature repair market bill in response to a critique of the report from progressive thinktank the Australia Institute.

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Police launch murder investigation into death of Adelaide toddler

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The 17-month-old boy identified as Ronan died of head injuries from a suspected assault earlier this month

A toddler has died of head injuries from a suspected assault in Adelaide earlier this month, with police launching a murder investigation.

No one has been charged over the death of the 17-month-old boy identified as Ronan.

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Calls for Victorian government to scrap Covid fines as data shows minority groups more likely to be penalised

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Some community leaders say report is evidence of officers targeting people based on their ethnicity, which Victoria police rejects

African, Middle Eastern and Indigenous community leaders are calling for the Andrews government and Victoria police to review Covid fines after a report revealed ethnic minorities and First Nations people were more likely to receive infringements for breaching lockdown rules.

Released on Tuesday, the report revealed people of African and Middle Eastern appearance were four times more likely to receive fines for breaching the state’s lockdown rules in 2020, accounting for share of the population. Victoria police have rejected the allegation by the report’s lead researcher that officers targeted certain racial groups.

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PM launches byelection campaign – as it happened

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Birmingham tells RN he is ‘conflicted’ over voice to parliament

Shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, avoids disclosing what he will vote in the voice referendum, dodging ABC RN’s Patricia Karvelas’ questions.

Do you support the voice?

I’ve been clear that I don’t intend to actively campaign in the referendum.

Why aren’t you taking a position? I mean, you’re making it clear that you want it to be private. If it’s private, that means you are actually sitting on the fence.

Patricia, I think you can hear from my answer there, that I am, in some ways conflicted and think this is a very difficult situation the country has been put in, that we have got a question before a proposed change.

We’re getting a situation where the government is not really directly responding to Ukraine’s requests for the Hawkei vehicles, or the Abrams tanks, nor the D mining equipment they’ve asked for.

[The Albanese government’s] contribution in terms of humanitarian assistance is simply $10m compared with the $65m that had been provided previously. So this is a concern …

Status as the leading non-Nato contributor to Ukraine has slipped away and the type of support being offered now doesn’t seem to be either meeting Ukraine’s requests, providing the modern equipment that they want or need, nor the type of scale that would seem to keep Australia commensurate support of our other parts.

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