Category Archives: Australia news

Seven psychoactive drugs detected in Australian wastewater for the first time

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Drugs have previously been detected in other research but wastewater results suggest increasing consumption

Seven psychoactive drugs have been detected in Australian wastewater for the first time, a three-year surveillance program has found.

Wastewater testing has revealed the presence of synthetic drugs including mephedrone (commonly referred to as meow meow), ethylone and eutylone, which have stimulant effects akin to MDMA.

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Giant blaze destroys 60 vehicles at Pickles auction yard in Perth

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Western Australian police, fire and emergency services have been on the scene investigating cause of fire

A giant plume of black smoke billowed over the Perth suburb of Bibra Lake on Friday night as a blaze engulfed cars at a Pickles auction yard.

The fire destroyed 60 salvage vehicles and associated racking, in addition to residual damage to vehicles immediately surrounding the blaze.

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Australian man arrested in Indonesia says he felt ‘almost possessed’ during naked rampage

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Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones faces up to five years in jail after he allegedly assaulted a fisherman who required 50 stitches for his injuries

Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones says he was not himself and felt “almost possessed” during an alleged drunken naked rampage that led to his arrest on an Indonesian island.

The 23-year-old Australian faces up to five years in jail if convicted over the alleged incident on Thursday on Simeulue, within the conservative Aceh province off the coast of Sumatra.

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Heavy falls and possible thunderstorms could bring up to 120mm of rain for parts of coastal NSW

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Scattered showers and storms over the weekend expected to raise rainfall totals with potential for strong winds around Illawarra to Eden coasts

Parts of coastal New South Wales could receive up to 120mm of rain over the weekend with heavy falls expected from late Saturday.

The rainfall comes 10 days after Sydney broke a century-old temperature record, with 184 days of temperatures exceeding 20C.

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Perth kidnappers demanded money from family to release businessman, police say

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Three men have been charged with the kidnapping of a 68-year-old man who arrived in Perth from China

A man was repeatedly assaulted in a Perth home by alleged kidnappers who then demanded money from his family, police say.

Three men have been charged with kidnapping and threats over the alleged incident in the city’s north-east suburbs.

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Aboriginal legal services frozen or at risk of shutting in 17 communities across NSW and Queensland

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Advocates call for federal government to provide urgent funding for culturally safe legal services to prevent worsening Indigenous incarceration crisis

Four communities in Queensland have had their Aboriginal legal services frozen and more than a dozen communities in New South Wales are at risk of losing theirs, prompting calls for urgent funding from the commonwealth government to help First Nations clients.

Karly Warner, the chair of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services national peak body NATSILS, said communities were now at risk of not being able to access culturally safe legal services and lead to a worsening crisis of Indigenous incarceration.

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As Liddell bites the dust, can NSW supply enough power for a looming El Niño summer peak?

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As coal-fired plants continuing their demise, the largest source of new power every year for the past five has been rooftop solar

AGL Energy’s Liddell coal-fired power station in New South Wales closed on Friday, Australia’s first big power plant closure since Hazelwood’s demise in Victoria in 2017.

Liddell had been operating at less than half its original 2,000-megawatt capacity for some time. Still, its exit sharpens the focus on the challenges facing not only NSW but also the rest of the national electricity market (Nem).

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Mayors in NSW holiday hotspots consider short-term rental caps after 60-day limit proposed

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Blue Mountains among the regions examining advice from state’s Independent Planning Commission

Mayors across New South Wales will look to adopt strict limits on short-term holiday rentals to address housing shortages if the state government accepts recommendations to allow the Byron shire council to impose a 60-day annual cap.

Amid warnings from Airbnb that such a cap would cause a hit to Byron Bay’s economy, the Blue Mountains mayor, Mark Greenhill, said he would jump at the chance to impose a similar cap in the region, which is facing comparable pressures.

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Australian government expected to crack down on illegal vaping amid rising uptake by teens

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Changes to include introduction of plain packaging and ban on certain flavours, in line with suggestions from product watchdog review

The Australian government is expected to announce a crackdown on illegal vaping as early as next week, as concerns rise over the increasing uptake among teenagers.

The health minister, Mark Butler, will announce long-mooted changes to vaping regulation, including introducing plain packaging and a ban on certain flavours, ahead of the federal budget on 9 May.

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Dysfunctional treatment of Indigenous Australians will continue unless voice exists, Ken Wyatt says

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Ex-Liberal minister tells referendum committee First Nations people despair for their future because they are never listened to

Australian governments still have a “missionary zeal” of wanting to “deal with Aboriginal people” that hasn’t changed, and unless there is an Indigenous voice advising governments the present dysfunction will continue, the former minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt has told a parliamentary committee hearing in Perth.

Wyatt, a Yamatji man, said the dysfunction has led to what he called “a futility syndrome” among Indigenous young people, who feel despair that they have no future in the nation because they are never listened to.

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The PM, a nightclub mogul and a former convict walk into a wedding. Kyle Sandilands’ invitation was too good to refuse

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The shock jock’s unrivalled ratings and platform have given him the power to pull Anthony Albanese and a premier to his nuptials

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and shock jock Kyle Sandilands may have an easy banter on air and a shared love of music, but no one would have suspected they were good friends, if indeed they are.

Albanese and his partner, Jodie Haydon, will be guests at Sandilands’ Darling Point marriage to marketing executive Tegan Kynaston in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Saturday.

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Indigenous mother of baby murdered by abusive partner says police failed her in ‘every way’, inquiry hears

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Tamica Mullaley told committee into missing or murdered Aboriginal women and children her child would still be alive if officers ‘did their job right’

An Indigenous mother whose son was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by her former partner says her baby could still be alive if police had done their job properly and believes officers failed her family in “every way”.

In testimony on Thursday, Tamica Mullaley says she described how she was left bleeding after being attacked by her abusive partner Mervyn Bell in Broome in 2013 – but when police arrived after being called to assist her, they arrested her, claiming she was abusive to officers.

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Australia news live: Daniel Duggan’s family protest outside US embassy; watchdog finds 81% of influencer posts misleading

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ACCC says social media companies not doing enough to prevent users falling victim to scams on the sites. Follow live

‘Gamble responsibly’ to be replaced with ‘You win some you lose more’

Rishworth is also flagging further gambling reform to sports betting ads and other areas to come.

In addition to this credit card ban, to implementing a number of new measures, the government is very much looking forward to the House of Representatives inquiry into online wagering.

It is looking at a whole range of areas, including advertising. We look forward to those recommendations and certainly there is an appetite for a discussion about what comes next with my state and territory colleagues.

By using a credit card, you’re going into debt and if you are using that for online wagering, you can get yourself into trouble.

When it comes to things like casinos, pokies, you are not able to use a credit card for that, so we are wanting to bring in line online wagering and ban the use of credit cards.

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‘Great shame’: Daniel Andrews highlights injustice over Indigenous children in care and justice system

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Overrepresentation of First Peoples ‘is a source of great shame’ for the Victorian government, premier tells Yoorrook chair

Daniel Andrews has expressed his government’s “great shame” regarding the overrepresentation of First Nations children in Victoria’s child protection and criminal justice systems, saying racism and injustice need to be “confronted and addressed”.

In a statement representing the strongest language the premier has used about the removal of Indigenous children from Victorian families, Andrews acknowledged that discrimination against First Nations people persisted today.

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Australian government resists blanket WeChat ban despite restrictions by multiple departments

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Several federal departments already banning Chinese communications app after decision on TikTok in early April

The Australian government is resisting issuing a ban on WeChat on government devices despite many government departments instituting their own bans after the TikTok edict earlier this month.

TikTok was banned from government devices in early April over data collection and security concerns connected to the Chinese government.

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Sam Kerr to lead party of prominent Australians as flag bearer at King Charles’s coronation

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Matildas captain will join delegation including Anthony Albanese, Nick Cave and Adam Hills at London ceremony next week

Footballer Sam Kerr will lead a contingent of prominent Australians at King Charles’s coronation next week after being named as the official flag bearer for the ceremony in London.

The Matildas captain will lead a delegation that includes the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, the governor general, state governors and a number of other representatives at the event at Westminster Abbey.

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‘Gentle soul’: family pays tribute to Australian Warwick Tollemach who disappeared from cruise

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US Coast Guard called off aerial and marine search on Friday after Tollemache fell from ship south of Hawaiian islands on Wednesday night

The devastated family of a Queensland man lost at sea after going overboard while on a Hawaii-bound cruise has posted loving tributes after search efforts were suspended.

Brisbane man Warwick Tollemache, 35, disappeared from the Quantum of the Seas cruise ship hundreds of kilometres south of the Hawaiian islands on Wednesday night, Australian time.

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Major $2.2bn Medicare overhaul welcomed but medical association warns budget will be ‘real test’

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National cabinet also plans to work on strengthening renters’ rights, boosting housing supply and affordability, and improving NDIS

Medical groups have praised the $2.2bn Medicare overhaul announced by national cabinet but warned there is more to do to fix the nation’s ailing general practice and hospital systems.

National cabinet committed nearly $1.5bn in new funding to overhaul Medicare, as part of a $2.2bn health plan to boost the number of nurses, increase after-hours care and expand the roles of pharmacists and paramedics.

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Company emails at odds with evidence used to jail Australian engineer Robert Pether in Iraq

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Revealed: documents prompt fresh calls for Pether’s release, amid separate claims that a biased translator was used in court case

A cache of documents has undermined key evidence that was relied upon by Iraqi authorities to jail the Australian engineer Robert Pether, prompting renewed calls for his release.

Pether, a father of three, has meanwhile made allegations that a “confession” statement used against him was mistranslated by a biased employee of Iraq’s central bank before being handed to court.

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Death in custody: questions raised over checks on Queensland detainee deemed suicide risk

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Exclusive: Guardian Australia understands 30-year-old was held close to main counter of police watch house

A man who died in a Queensland police watch house last week was considered a serious suicide risk but was not checked on for more than an hour after he died, Guardian Australian understands.

Police are conducting an internal investigation into the death of the 30-year-old by suicide inside the Beenleigh police holding cells on Saturday.

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In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 988 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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