Category Archives: Australia news

Celebrity chef Peter Russell-Clarke dies aged 89

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The host of the 1980s cooking show, Come and Get It, died peacefully on Friday with his wife and children at his side

TV chef, artist and “talented rogue”, Peter Russell-Clarke, has died at the age of 89.

The host of the 1980s cooking show, Come and Get It, died peacefully on Friday with his wife of 65 years, Jan, and his two children, Peter and Wendy and their families, by his side.

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Woman suffers ‘significant’ injury to arm after being mauled by animal at Queensland zoo

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Woman in her 50s was reportedly watching keepers at work in an enclosure at Darling Downs zoo, south of Toowoomba, when attacked

A woman has suffered significant injuries after being bitten by an animal at a Queensland zoo.

The woman, in her 50s, was attacked at Darling Downs zoo, in Pilton, about 50km south of Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, at about 8.32am on Sunday.

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PM condemns ‘shocking acts’ after suspicious fire at Melbourne synagogue with 20 people inside

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Police allege a man entered the grounds at about 8pm on Friday and poured a flammable liquid on the front door

Anthony Albanese has pledged federal support for Victorian authorities after police reported a suspicious fire was lit at a synagogue in East Melbourne on Friday night.

Victoria police alleged an unknown man entered the grounds of the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation on Albert Street at about 8pm on Friday and poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire.

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Creative Australia chief executive facing mounting pressure to resign after Khaled Sabsabi controversy

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Senior arts figure says board and CEO ‘didn’t seem to understand or at least trust the power and complexity of the visual arts’

Creative Australia chief executive Adrian Collette is facing mounting pressure to resign after the body’s decision to reinstate Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s 2026 Venice Biennale representative.

Senior arts figures have also criticised the Creative Australia board, as a former chair of the selection panel for the biennale said the board and Collette did not “understand or at least trust the power and complexity of the visual arts”.

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Bodies of two men in dilapidated Sydney house could have been undiscovered by housemate for weeks

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Landlord made welfare concern call about one tenant – but when police arrived they found two bodies

The decomposing bodies of two men found inside a dilapidated terrace on a busy inner Sydney street could have gone undiscovered by their roommate for several weeks, police have said.

On Thursday afternoon, Eleanor Barker, 63, made a welfare concern call to police about one of her tenants. She has owned and lived at the Cleveland Street property in Surry Hills since the 1980s, and rented it out to the two men for at least a decade.

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Australia news live: man shot dead by police in siege in Victorian town; boy dies after e-bike crash in Sydney

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Victoria police say they attempted to engage with armed man before ‘siege of several hours’. Follow the latest updates live

Smoke coming from Sydney tram causes to be suspended on Randwick line

Light rail services on the Randwick line have stopped due to smoke coming from the roof of a tram.

The man managed to get back into his car and drive a short distance before being overcome by his injuries.

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Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly to be made permanent and granted decision-making powers under treaty bill

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Body will be able to advise ministers on issues directly affecting Aboriginal people in the state

Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly will manage the rollout of community infrastructure grants and have a direct line to ministers and the power to make appointments to government boards under legislation to be introduced to parliament this year.

As first reported by Guardian Australia this week, the Victorian government and the First Peoples’ Assembly have confirmed that the statewide treaty bill will establish the assembly as a representative body to provide advice to government.

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‘A plea for connection’: Gaza musicians perform at Sydney Opera House as cultural institutions destroyed at home

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Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is ‘destroying heritage and history and culture’, says curator Ayşe Göknur Shanal. Her show is ‘trying to protect and preserve’

As long as you can hear a beat or someone singing, you can dabke.

“The official definition, if there is one for dabke, is when a group of people dance together, usually in a synchronised way,” Derek Halawa says.

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Royal Prince Alfred hospital management pauses cuts across women and babies unit after protests

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Exclusive: One midwife said staff were ‘so relieved that the cuts had been paused’ and that they hoped a fair roster could be negotiated

Management at Royal Prince Alfred hospital (RPA) in Sydney will pause its cuts to staffing levels across its women and babies unit, just days after staff protested against the changes.

Dozens of midwives and other clinical staff held a snap rally on Tuesday outside RPA, one of the city’s major tertiary hospitals, claiming that management’s decision to reduce the number of midwives rostered on to the birthing unit risked the lives of mothers and babies.

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News live: Wong says Trump ‘keen’ for meeting with Albanese; Creative Australia apologises to Venice Biennale artists

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Follow the latest updates live

Power continues to be restored in NSW

About 5,800 customers remained without power at 7am Thursday, according to network operators Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy.

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Flood threat ongoing for parts of NSW and Victoria as east coast weather system subsides

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Heavy conditions expected to continue along parts of the east coast on Thursday

Authorities remain on alert to flood risk across New South Wales and eastern Victoria after a complex low-pressure system swept the nation’s east coast this week, drenchingcatchments.

Severe weather warnings for damaging winds and hazardous surf also remained in place on Thursday morning, with the system still “lurking over the Tasman Sea”, said Helen Reid, meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology.

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NSW weather: storm brings 13-metre high waves and wild winds as BoM warns of ‘second surge’

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Vigorous coastal low forecast to keep sending severe weather across eastern New South Wales for much of Wednesday, before gradually easing on Thursday

Thousands remain without power across New South Wales after severe winds and heavy rain battered the state, with wind gusts up to 130km/h, 13-metre high waves, and several places receiving more than 200mm rain.

The Bureau of Meteorology expected a “second surge” on Wednesday night would bring a further burst of rain and wind to the south coast of NSW and eastern parts of Victoria, with peak gusts of around 90km/h possible along exposed parts of the coast.

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Australia’s big four banks not making it easy for customers to get bonus interest despite watchdog’s calls

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Guardian analysis found no major bank has adopted ACCC recommendations in full – but NAB, CommBank, Westpac and ANZ say they offer in-app alerts

Australia’s big banks have not implemented several recommendations designed to help customers qualify for bonus interest rates on savings products, more than 18 months after the regulatory advice was issued.

Two in three customers of bonus accounts miss out on the headline interest rate and instead receive a far smaller base rate, an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry found in late 2023.

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Green zone: Australian city of Shepparton to grow a huge pear

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The three-storey fibreglass fruit is estimated to cost at least $1.3m but historian says regional city in the running to be the ‘capital of big things in Australia’

Not content with building the world’s largest Murray cod, the city of Shepparton is now planning the construction of the biggest pear on Earth.

The proposal for a three-storey fruit in the heart of the Goulburn Valley has generated headlines in recent weeks after the return of a business case that estimated construction of the fibreglass fruit alone at just over $1.3m.

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Kanye West barred from entering Australia over Hitler song, Tony Burke says

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Home affairs minister says decision to revoke rapper’s visa came after widely condemned track released in May

The US rapper and artist Kanye West has been barred from travelling to Australia after the release of his widely condemned song Heil Hitler, which has been banned on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube.

The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, disclosed on Wednesday that the government had revoked the rapper’s visa after his song referencing the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was released independently in May.

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Man in critical condition with lyssavirus after bat bite – as it happened

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NSW wild weather: ‘Conditions can become dangerous quickly’

Wild weather has brought down trees, damaged properties and flooded roads on the NSW coast, NSW SES says.

These incidents are a timely reminder that roads are slippery, and conditions can become dangerous quickly.

Please, never drive, walk or play in flood waters. If you do come across a flooded road, turn around and find an alternative route.

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Judge orders Queensland council to pause planned demolition of homeless camps

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Moreton Bay council agrees to supreme court injunction against evicting residents who had previously been evicted from another park

Moreton Bay city council has been ordered not to clear a homeless encampment after a hearing in the Queensland supreme court on Wednesday.

Numerous homeless residents of Eddie Hyland Park in Lawnton were evicted by council rangers in April, with their tents cleared by heavy machinery. Just two were granted public housing. Most have set up a new camp in a different park in Kallangur.

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Australia’s life expectancy gap narrows but men in disadvantaged areas dying almost seven years earlier

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Major causes of death contributing to inequality are lung cancer, respiratory illness and heart disease, ANU researchers say

Australia has made progress in reducing socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy but men living in disadvantaged areas are still dying almost seven years earlier, a new report from the Australian National University has found.

The study’s lead author and ANU demographer, Sergey Timonin, said the gaps in life expectancy between the most advantaged and disadvantaged areas stopped widening just before the Covid pandemic began and did not significantly worsen during the lockdown years.

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Tracking sea ice is ‘early warning system’ for global heating – but US halt to data sharing will make it harder, scientists warn

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News comes as research finds record lows of Antarctic sea ice had seen more icebergs splintering off ice shelves

Scientists analysing the cascading impacts of record low levels of Antarctic sea ice fear a loss of critical US government satellite data will make it harder to track the rapid changes taking place at both poles.

Researchers around the globe were told last week the US Department of Defence will stop processing and providing the data, used in studies on the state of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, at the end of this month.

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Coroner may call for prison unit where WA teenager Cleveland Dodd died to be closed

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Philip Urquhart tells the inquest into the 16-year-old’s fatal self-harming that the state justice department failed in its duty of care

Everything must be done to ensure no more children die in youth detention, a coroner has told an inquest into the death of an Indigenous teenager, including closing down the controversial prison unit where he fatally self-harmed.

Cleveland Dodd was found unresponsive inside a cell in Unit 18, a youth wing of the high-security adult facility Casuarina prison in Perth, in the early hours of 12 October 2023.

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