Category Archives: Australia news

First Mpox case in NSW for six months sparks health warning

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Men who have sex with other men urged to be aware of symptoms after infected person not found to have been overseas

Health officials are urging men who have sex with other men to be aware of symptoms for Mpox, also known as monkeypox, with the first New South Wales case in six months detected in Sydney.

Vicky Sheppeard, director of the South Eastern Sydney Public Health Unit, says while the state’s vaccination program against the infectious disease has been very successful, the virus will continue to show up in Australia while it circulates overseas.

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Victorian Liberals plunge into chaos as John Pesutto faces second coming of Moira Deeming

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Internal warfare has spiralled into threats of legal action and accusations of ‘terrorists’ holding the state opposition party ‘hostage’

Returning from a break, this week’s sitting of parliament was meant to signal a fresh start for the Victorian Liberal leader, John Pesutto.

The dust from his aborted plan to expel controversial MP Moira Deeming from the parliamentary party six weeks earlier – exposing his vulnerability in the top job – seemed like it was starting to clear.

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Labor warns NSW facing a ‘momentous task’ in transition to renewables

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Energy minister Penny Sharpe says state will need to decarbonise its electricity sector at a faster rate

New South Wales faces a “momentous task” to decarbonise its electricity sector and will need to accelerate the state’s transition to renewables, the new energy minister, Penny Sharpe, has said.

The electricity infrastructure roadmap, inherited from the previous Coalition government, aims to drive 12 gigawatts of new renewable generation and 2GW of long-duration storage into the grid by 2030. The plan’s first tender secured 1.4GW of new capacity at record low minimum prices, the government said earlier this week.

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Warning social media being ‘weaponised’ over referendum – as it happened

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Senators Jacqui Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell have agreed to back the government’s housing affordability legislation.

The housing minister, Julie Collins, has told ABC Radio the deal was struck after the government agreed to build 1,200 social housing homes in every state and territory:

We’ve agreed to make sure that every state and territory gets a fair share of housing from the housing future funding from other federal government programs.

What we want to do is make sure that every state and territory gets their fair share of funding.

Many of these deaths occurred in the home. There is opportunity for others present to avert death and reverse the effects of an opioid overdose if they administer a medicine called naloxone.

The Australian Government has funded the availability of naloxone for free, without a prescription, for anyone who may be at risk of witnessing or experiencing an overdose.

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Commonwealth Indigenous leaders demand apology from the king for effects of colonisation

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Exclusive: Aboriginal Olympian Nova Peris says ‘change begins with listening’ as campaigners from 12 countries ask for ‘process of reparatory justice to commence’

Australians have joined Indigenous leaders and politicians across the Commonwealth to demand King Charles III make a formal apology for the effects of British colonisation, make reparations by redistributing the wealth of the British crown, and return artefacts and human remains.

Days out from Charles’s coronation in London, campaigners for republic and reparations movements in 12 countries have written a letter asking the new monarch to start a process towards “a formal apology and for a process of reparatory justice to commence”.

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Short-term rental properties in NSW surge by 13,000 since December 2021

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Exclusive: 45,209 rentals now registered as minister prepares to review proposed annual limits

The number of properties listed as short-term rentals across New South Wales has surged by 42% since 2021 to exceed 45,000, with the state’s planning minister to review proposed annual caps later this year.

Paul Scully said his department would interrogate the calls for 60-day caps, amid pressure from mayors to allow councils to set their own limits to deal with the rise in listings that they say is adding to the statewide housing crisis.

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Australia warned of ‘over-mining’ risk in race to secure minerals needed for clean energy

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Research says mining boom to support renewable energy risks ‘significant social and environmental damage’

In the high-stakes quest to break China’s grip over minerals crucial to clean energy technology, Australia risks over-mining while ignoring alternatives such as improved battery recycling, according to a new report.

The release of the Jubilee Australia research, which questions mineral demand assumptions and warns against causing unnecessary environmental harm, comes as the federal government prepares a strategy to address China’s dominance of minerals seen as critical to a nation.

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What coronation? Many Australians don’t know when it’s on and few seem inclined to recite the oath

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Guardian Australia encounters a mix of apathy, indignation and enthusiasm on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney

King Charles III is just days away from his coronation but you wouldn’t know it from the mood on Australia’s streets.

Many people Guardian Australia spoke to in the lead-up to Saturday’s coronation didn’t know it was coming up – and certainly had no intention of pledging allegiance to the king from their couch, as the public will be invited to do.

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Greens under pressure to support $10bn social housing bill after Labor strikes minor party deal

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Agreement heralded as ‘massive victory’ by Jacqui Lambie Network but Greens senators want government to do more

Labor’s $10bn housing affordability future fund is one step closer to passing the Senate after a deal with the Jacqui Lambie Network to support the bill.

The deal, which guarantees a minimum of 1,200 social and affordable houses in each territory and state over five years, adds pressure on the Greens, whose 11 Senate votes would now be sufficient to pass the bill.

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Nato planning to open Japan office to deepen Asia-Pacific ties – report

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Liaison office plans likely to attract criticism from China which has warned against the western alliance extending into Asia

Nato is reportedly planning to open a liaison office in Japan to coordinate with close partners across the Indo-Pacific region including Australia, South Korea and New Zealand.

The plans are likely to attract criticism from the Chinese government, which has previously warned the western alliance against extending “its tentacles to the Asia-Pacific”.

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NSW man charged over siege believed feminism and ‘cultural Marxism’ threaten white race, court hears

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Simon Fleming has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including using a fake bomb to create a false sense of danger

A man who allegedly took two men hostage inside a Wollongong dive shop was motivated by fears feminism and cultural Marxism threatened the white race, prosecutors allege.

In the years before the incident, Simon Fleming, 41, was overtaken by the belief that political correctness, western feminism and cultural Marxism would lead to a “white genocide” that threatened the culture and existence of Anglo-Saxon men, the prosecutor, James Renwick, told a New South Wales supreme court jury on Wednesday.

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Welfare advocates welcome Centrelink rule change to help domestic violence victims

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Officers will have to consider whether domestic violence is a factor when determining if welfare recipient is part of a couple

Australian welfare rights advocates have welcomed changes aimed at preventing family violence victim-survivors from being punished under Centrelink rules.

Under social security rules, people must declare to Centrelink whether they are single or in a relationship. Those deemed to be in a “couple” receive a lower rate of income support than singles.

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Australia’s coronation gift to King Charles is $10,000 donation for WA endangered parrot

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PM says he is pleased to contribute to Friends of the Western Ground Parrot as the king ‘has long championed conservation’

Australia is gifting King Charles III a donation to Friends of the Western Ground Parrot to mark his coronation.

The government has pledged $10,000 to help conserve the critically endangered “shy and rarely seen” species in honour of the monarch, on behalf of the people of Australia.

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Man shot dead by police in Brisbane’s CBD did not take schizophrenia medication that day, inquest hears

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Queensland police tells coroner it found officers acted appropriately in 2020 incident that left Mohamad Ikraam Bahram dead

A man shot dead by police in Brisbane’s CBD in 2020 had not taken his schizophrenia medication when he stabbed a tourist before charging at an officer with a knife, an inquest has heard.

Coroner Terry Ryan, who is examining the death of 24-year-old Mohamad Ikraam Bahram, on Wednesday heard that his family were alarmed by their son’s abrupt departure from their home on 23 February 2020, which they believed was “out of character”.

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Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

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Mehreen Faruqi to sue Pauline Hanson over offensive tweet

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Greens senator says she is ‘drawing a line in the sand’ after One Nation leader told her to ‘piss off back to Pakistan’

Mehreen Faruqi will launch federal court action against Pauline Hanson under the Racial Discrimination Act, after the One Nation founder told the Greens senator to “piss off back to Pakistan” in an ugly social media clash following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Faruqi wants Hanson to make a $150,000 donation to charity and to publish a new tweet saying she had used offensive language. The New South Wales senator said she chose to escalate legal action over the September 2022 tweet after a complaint through the Human Rights Commission was terminated.

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First major bank passes on rate hike – as it happened

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Asked whether he would swear allegiance, Albanese replied he “will do what is entirely appropriate as the representative of Australia” promising to “engage in that spirit” by swearing the oath – as he has done 10 times when sworn in to parliament and as a minister.

Albanese noted that Australians had voted at the 1999 referendum to remain a monarchy, but acknowledged that Australians have a “wide range of views” on whether to become a republic.

I think that Australia should have an Australian as our head of state, I don’t shy away from that. I haven’t changed my views.

But my priority is constitutional recognition – I can’t imagine going forward, for example, going forward as was suggested by some legitimately that we should be having another referendum on the republic before that occurs.

All Australians wish King Charles well regardless of the different views of people will have about our constitutional arrangements.

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Human remains found in euthanised crocodile believed to be missing Queensland fisher

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Kevin Darmody, 65, went missing while fishing on the Kennedy River on Saturday

The search for missing fisher Kevin Darmody has ended after human remains were discovered inside a crocodile found upstream from where he disappeared.

Crews had been trying to find the 65-year-old Laura man since Saturday after he disappeared while fishing along the Kennedy River at Rinyirru (Lakefield) national park on Saturday.

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Australia fails to adequately monitor effect of agricultural chemicals in humans, report finds

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Study confirms government lacks basic data on pesticides and other chemicals in the environment

The federal government has no suitable data source for monitoring the effect of agricultural and veterinary chemicals on humans, a new report commissioned by the Department of Agriculture has found.

The report also found data on pesticides in the environment was very local and generally just a “snapshot in time”.

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Coalition’s $50 jobseeker rise more generous than Labor’s proposal, Pocock says

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Albanese government risks being unfavourably compared to the Morrison government if it does not raise the payment for all, the key independent says

The Morrison government’s post-Covid decision to lift jobseeker payments by $50 a fortnight helped more people than the Albanese government’s mooted 55-plus budget proposal, the key crossbench senator David Pocock says.

With less than a week to go until the budget is handed down, advocates and MPs are becoming increasingly concerned the Albanese government’s second budget will not do enough to help those living below the poverty line, or help women re-enter the workforce.

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Can Vanessa Hudson win back the flying public when she takes the Qantas controls from Alan Joyce?

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The incoming CEO hints her focus will be to regain passenger trust and renew the airline’s ageing fleet

Just hours after being unveiled as the next chief executive, Vanessa Hudson was already facing questions about how she plans to repair Qantas’s reputation with the Australian public.

At Qantas’s Sydney headquarters on Tuesday morning, Hudson – who is currently the chief financial officer and has spent 28 years working across the aviation group – sat with the outgoing chief executive, Alan Joyce, as she told reporters how she would solve the issues that arose during his leadership when she takes the controls in November.

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